Pro Football / Bob Oates : It’s Possible Rams Could Make Passing Grade

All things considered, it was probably good for the NFL that the Raiders dropped out of the playoffs last Sunday.

After all, the Rams are still alive, and a Ram-Raider rematch in New Orleans Jan. 26 could have been the first Super Bowl game ever played without a completed pass.

Next question: Can the Rams complete a few against the Bears?

They can if they change their personality Sunday and come out throwing.

That’s the view of some who have studied the Bears for the last 17 weeks, when they lost only once--to a Miami team that attacked their pass defense with three wide receivers, quick passes, and quarterback rollouts.

The Rams could do the same with either Bobby Duckworth or Tony Hunter as the key third receiver. In physical size and ability, Hunter is closer to San Diego’s Kellen Winslow than any other tight end. If, just once, the Rams could get him to play to his potential, they could mess up the Bears’ favorite defense, the 46, which is a run defense with an eight-man line.

The one thing Dieter Brock can do is throw the ball. The Rams, though, will have to change personality to roll him out and challenge the Bears on first downs with quick passes. And not since 1966 has any playoff team had the gumption to change up.

The winner that year was Green Bay’s Vince Lombardi, who converted a running team into a passing team for one day only to outpoint Dallas’ passing team in the NFL title game, 34-27.

It is often asked how the Rams could have gotten this far with a pass offense that has been far less creative--throughout the John Robinson years--than their running offense.

Eric Dickerson made an illuminating comment the other day. “John has a way of instilling in a running back that we are invincible, (that) nobody can stop us,” he said.

That and other evidence suggests that Robinson leads the league in motivation.

Never, however, has he faced a challenge as big as this week’s:

Can Robinson convince his players that Chicago in January is like Anaheim in June?

Dickerson’s return to full good health gives the Rams a chance. But unless Brock spreads out the Bears, Dickerson will be hitting into the NFL’s toughest eight-man line. Much depends on whether, in a close game against those eight roughnecks, Ram linemen can keep putting out when an ice cold wind is blowing in their face masks and up their helmets.

The only question about the New York Giants in Chicago Sunday was whether they could avoid a shutout. In the end, they couldn’t.

The Giants are best described this year as a team on the rise. They could be a factor in the 1986 race. In 1985, their youngsters weren’t consistent enough in the big games.

After one bad break, the Giants folded in Dallas last month, and, in windy Soldier Field, Chicago quarterback Jim McMahon ended their season with some unremarkable passes.

McMahon doesn’t throw the ball as straight as Brock deals it. What McMahon has is a blend of unique leadership qualities. He is a combination tough guy-wild man--a throwback to Bobby Layne.

Quarterbacks are sometimes wimps. Other offensive and defensive players seldom are. The belligerent Bears respond to McMahon because he is one of theirs.

NFL executive Don Weiss, whose hobby is observing wild-card teams, says they show a curious symmetry, reaching the championship round every five years.

They’re 1-1 there.

In Super Bowl X, the wild-card Cowboys lost to Pittsburgh.

In Super Bowl XV, the wild-card Raiders knocked out Philadelphia.

In Super Bowl XX, the wild-card New England Patriots could make some more history if they upset the Miami Dolphins Sunday.

The Patriots will attack Miami with a much better offense than the Browns showed last Saturday, when Miami’s defensive players never did stop the Cleveland offense.

The Browns beat themselves on three straight series in the fourth quarter--first with a holding penalty, then with a backfield mix-up involving Curtis Dickey and quarterback Bernie Kosar, and finally with a mismanaged two-minute drill.

In the pressure of a big playoff game, the inexperienced Cleveland coaches didn’t have the presence of mind at the end to get word to Kosar to stop the clock by throwing the ball out of bounds.

Although the inexperienced Patriots could well make some such mistake in front of the noisy Miami crowd, they’re a better team than either the Browns or Dolphins. And this year they have some mystique on their side. This is the year for another wild card in the Super Bowl.

The NFL team that played the best football this fall with the least to show is the Denver Broncos, who finished 11-5 record under Coach Dan Reeves.

Denver missed the playoffs, even though only three clubs won more often--Chicago (15-1), Miami (12-4) and the Raiders (12-4).

The mathematics of the NFL’s playoff system has cost Reeves’ team twice in his five seasons in the Rockies. The first time, during his rookie year as a coach, the Broncos and Chargers each finished at 10-6, but the Chargers advanced with a better divisional record.

Otherwise, the Broncos have been in the playoffs twice, failing only in strike-shortened 1982.

Still, Reeves is only bitter about one thing.

“The draft is what’s really unfair,” he said. “Three playoff teams are going to be drafting ahead of us this year--the Browns, Cowboys and Giants. I’d say if those teams are good enough to make the playoffs, they should draft after we do.”

Reeves thinks it’s time to change the rules.

“The 10 playoff teams are presumably the best in the league,” he said. “They had the fun and made the money. In my opinion, the playoff teams should be the last 10 to draft every year.”

He has a point.