The Big D Isn’t Dallas--It’s Dickerson, 20-0 : Ram Rushes for 248 Yards, Scores on Runs of 55, 40; Defense Smothers Cowboys

Cute, John Robinson, cute.

You keep promising to open up the Ram offense, and all we keep getting is Dickerson, defense and special teams.

If you keep this up, the way you did against the Dallas Cowboys Saturday, you might wind up in the Super Bowl.

Here’s how the Rams beat Dallas, 20-0:

--Eric Dickerson, with touchdown runs of 55 and 40 yards, rushed 34 times for 248 yards, record yardage for (a) a National Football League playoff game, (b) any Ram game and (c) a Cowboy opponent in any game.

--The Rams’ defense, in dealing Dallas its first shutout in 36 playoff games, sacked Cowboy quarterback Danny White five times and intercepted three of his passes, and they did it by rushing only three men most of the time, dropping eight back in zone coverage. Gary Jeter had three of the sacks and also caused White to fumble away the ball another time.

--The Rams’ very special teams created two fumbles that led to 10 points and won an early exchange of punts to set up the first of Mike Lansford’s two field goals.

With all that, Ram quarterback Dieter Brock completed only 6 of 22 passes for 50 yards, despite good protection and open receivers, although three of his throws were dropped.

So much for the importance of putting it up.

“It seems like the power football teams are the ones that are being successful this year,” Robinson said afterward.

“You win games the old-fashioned way,” Ram cornerback LeRoy Irvin said. “You win up front.”

Two more power teams--the Chicago Bears and New York Giants--will play at Chicago today to determine the Ram opponent in the NFC title game next Sunday. If it’s the Bears, the Rams will be ready with their woollies.

If it’s the Giants, it will be at Anaheim, possibly opposite an AFC title game at the Coliseum matching the Raiders against Miami if the Raiders defeat New England today, although the times--if not the days--would certainly be staggered for national television purposes. The league planned an announcement if the Giants and Raiders win.

The Cowboys, limited to 243 total net yards, never penetrated deeper than the Ram 20-yard line, and that wasn’t close enough even for a field goal after they lost kicker Rafael Septien to a torn right thigh muscle on the second-half kickoff.

Irvin, cornerback Gary Green and rookie Jerry Gray all intercepted passes--Irvin returning his from the goal line at the end of the first half to preserve the Rams’ 3-0 lead.

It didn’t seem like much of an edge, but, Irvin said, “If we were gonna win the game three to nothing, by God, we were.”

Irvin himself also knocked down two potential scoring passes and tackled Timmy Newsome for a loss on a screen pass, among other big plays. Rookie Kevin Greene and linebacker Mike Wilcher joined Jeter in the sack pack.

White completed 24 of 43 passes for 217 yards, including screens to Tony Dorsett and short shots to tight end Doug Cosbie, but the Rams always seemed to have the Cowboy wide receivers surrounded, with no cavalry in sight.

Dickerson had 78 yards at halftime, but he was just getting warmed up.

“If you keep running the ball, running the ball. . . . “ Dickerson said. “John (Robinson) has a way of instilling in a running back that we are invincible, (that) nobody can stop us.”

The Rams broke it open with 10 points in the first 1:28 of the second half.

Septien injured himself on the kickoff, which went out of bounds, and backup Mike Saxon’s ensuing short kickoff was returned by Charles White to the Ram 45-yard line.

On the first play, one the Rams call “45 Power,” Dickerson took the handoff toward right guard, then quickly veered left as center Tony Slaton helped push the pile to the right and left guard Kent Hill walled off the Cowboys’ All-Pro tackle, Randy White, to the left.

“I hit the hole running,” Dickerson said, and when he did he didn’t even see middle linebacker Eugene Lockhart, an old college adversary who had taken himself out of the play by following the flow to the right.

“I don’t know where Lockhart was,” Dickerson said. “It’s been so long since I’ve hit a home run, it was great just to get in the open and turn on the jets.”

On the ensuing kickoff return, Ram tackle Shawn Miller knocked the ball loose from Kenny Duckett and safety Vince Newsome recovered at the Dallas 18. On third down, Brock’s end-zone throw to Bobby Duckworth was completed out of bounds, so Lansford made it 13-0 from 34 yards.

Dickerson clinched it in the first minute of the last quarter after Newsome knocked the ball loose from Gordon Banks on a punt return and tight end Tony Hunter recovered at midfield.

Four plays later, running “49 pitch” around right end, Dickerson sailed 40 yards to make it 20-0. Barry Redden, lining up short in an I-formation, blocked blitzing strong safety Dextor Clinkscale to the outside and Dickerson shook free safety Michael Downs off his back as his broke free again.

“There was no way I was gonna let him tackle me high,” Dickerson said.

Each player received $10,000 for this divisional playoff, and the NFC West champion Rams (12-5) will collect another $18,000 for playing next weekend. And no one among the sellout crowd of 66,351 would begrudge them a cent of it--with the possible exception of the much-maligned Brock.

Robinson anticipated more heat for his quarterback, who hadn’t thrown an interception in 78 attempts until he threw one to NFL leader Everson Walls.

“I know people like to separate and break things down to offense, defense, special teams, et cetera,” Robinson said, “but it seems to me it would be a mistake to try to tear apart in terms of sections what was a team victory.

“Our passing game was not as successful as we liked--we had some drops--but we mixed it up and gave them enough things that we kept them off balance. Our basic premise was to try to physically dominate them on the ground and try to stay out of the ‘nickel’ (passing) environment as much as we could. We haven’t been successful in that area.”

Brock, who continued after tearing a tendon in his left ring finger on a fumbled snap late in the half, had hoped to pick apart the Cowboys’ “4-0” defense with short drops and quick throws.

“The play action passes were there,” he said, “but for whatever reason, we didn’t connect on them. We’ll get back to it.”

Jeter had a lot to do with upsetting the Cowboy offense. Dallas switched left tackles from young Chris Schultz in run situations to Howard Richards on passes, because Schultz couldn’t handle Jeter.

Richards said of Jeter: “He’s a good player. He’s a pro. But he really didn’t turn the game around for them. But he helped.”

The Rams used a “33” defense with three down linemen, three linebackers and five defensive backs.

“It gives us more zone and blitz possibilities,” defensive coordinator Fritz Shurmur said, “a little wrinkle they hadn’t seen.”

Danny White said that Jeter “seemed like a nemesis all day. Very seldom could I just set up and throw. I had a hard time seeing anybody really open, and that’s unusual for a zone.

“That’s the finest 3-2 zone I’ve seen. Their backs break on the ball better than anybody I’ve ever seen.”

The NFC East champions, who finished at 10-7 overall, took home $10,000 each, a few casualties and some broken hearts.

The Rams had no serious injuries.

“As far as playoff games go,” White said, “I don’t think we’ve ever been dominated like we were today.”

The Cowboys experienced one ludicrous moment in the third quarter when they tried to line up in field-goal formation, with backup quarterback Gary Hogeboom holding for reserve linebacker Brian Salonen.

White ran onto the field and called timeout, then threw deep to Banks. Irvin leaped over Banks and reached out to knock the ball down.

Robinson said: “A lot of people think zone is kind of chicken, but it forces people to put the ball into places they don’t want to.”

Irvin said: “I love it when they come at me. I heard a statement (from Raider counterpart Lester Hayes) that we played a ‘soft’ defense. We play a matchup zone with a ‘man’ concept.

“Pressure bursts pipes, and we put a lot of pressure on Danny White. I don’t know if he cracked, but the pressure helped.”

The Rams rushed for 269 yards overall, by far their highest total of the season.

“A lot of people said we wouldn’t run on ‘em,” offensive line coach Hudson Houck said. “Maybe that gave us a little motivation.”

Robinson said Dickerson’s performance was “as great a game as I’ve ever seen.”

The victory put the Rams even with the Cowboys in playoff games at 4-4 and was the first time in three tries that they’d beaten the Cowboys in a playoff game at home.

One man who particularly enjoyed it was the recently retired Jack Youngblood, who played in all those others and was aching to play in this one.

“This pays ‘em back for some of the ones they got me in,” Youngblood said.

And if the Rams have to go to Chicago next week, so be it.

“I think all teams should play one game in the cold,” Irvin said.