Rams Didn’t Have a Ghost of a Chance, 24-0 : Spirited Bears Win, Now Head for New Orleans

Attention, Patriots: you don’t know what you’re up against.

After a week spent calling up all their ghosts--galloping and otherwise--the Bears Sunday rode the swirling winds of Soldier Field all the way into Super Bowl XX.

The modern Monsters of the Midway didn’t need any help, of course, but before demolishing the Rams, 24-0, in the NFC championship game, they had been reminded all week of their obligation to Bear tradition.

Red Grange, George Halas and the 18 other Chicago Hall of Famers can rest easy. That tradition is in fine hands.

Take, for instance, the impertinence of the quarterback, Jim McMahon, who defied the Establishment with a homemade “Rozelle” head band, ran for one touchdown, passed for another and then stuck out his tongue at convention--not to mention the television cameras.

Then there was the arrogance of the Bear defense, which did about what it said it would do to the Rams: stuffed Eric Dickerson with 46 yards and made him fumble, held Dieter Brock and the rest of the Rams’ popgun offense to 130 total yards, and overall didn’t give the kids from the Coast an even break in posting a second consecutive shutout for the first time in National Football League playoff history.

The passion of the 63,522 fans was rewarded with a Jan. 26 date against the AFC champion New England Patriots in New Orleans, and the fans would have settled for nothing less.

With 10 minutes remaining and the game in hand at 17-0, a light snow started to fall, a sudden switch from the relatively fair weather that had greeted the Rams. It was 39 degrees at kickoff, with a 23 m.p.h. wind blowing from, it seemed, all directions.

The fans gave the snowflakes a standing ovation for showing the Rams it could have been worse. There would be no alibis for this one. The Bears, 17-1, are where they belong.

Certainly, the Rams are in no position to argue. The NFC West winners (12-6) had blanked Dallas a week earlier, 20-0, and the Bears had disposed of the Giants, 21-0. All that did was spare the Cowboys an inevitable fate.

The Rams took their first wrong turn at the coin toss. They won it and elected to receive the opening kickoff. The Bears, probably chuckling to themselves, chose to defend the north goal, meaning the Rams would be battling into the treacherous gusts.

“I spent the whole pregame warm-up trying to figure out where the wind was coming from, and I never did figure it out,” Ram Coach John Robinson said. “I didn’t want to give the ball away without knowing which way had the advantage.”

By the end of the first quarter it was abundantly clear. The Bears were in front, 10-0, on McMahon’s 16-yard scoring scramble and Kevin Butler’s 34-yard field goal. At that point, McMahon, who came out throwing, was 5 for 6, headed for a 16-for-25 day, while Brock was 1 for 4 on his way to a 10-for-31 performance, with one interception.

The wind bothered Brock, but McMahon seemed to handle it.

“Guts, he’s got guts,” Bear Coach Mike Ditka said of McMahon. “He ran the show. The wind seemed to be bothering Brock. He was trying to overthrow to compensate. Jim had unbelievable touch.”

Said Robinson: “I’m not sure any quarterback isn’t gonna have trouble when he’s behind 10-0 and throwing into the wind.”

Said Dickerson: “McMahon was throwing over the middle. We were throwing ‘outs.’ ”

Said Brock: “It was pretty tough throwing the ball into the wind. It affected a few of them.”

The Rams had hoped that the punting of rookie All-Pro Dale Hatcher would keep them out of trouble and in good field position, regardless of the elements. But Hatcher’s first two kicks were seized by the wind and measured only 33 and 28 yards, allowing the Bears to start their scoring drives at their own 44- and the Rams’ 49-yard line.

When the Rams turned their tails to the wind in the second quarter, their offense worked a little better, but then their luck and then their judgment abandoned them.

First, Henry Ellard, the league’s leading punt returner, bruised his ribs when he fell on a Bear’s knee and was only able to take his turns at wide receiver after that. That left LeRoy Irvin and Johnnie Johnson, who hadn’t practiced catching punts much lately, to battle the winds that played tricks with Maury Buford’s kicks.

Later, Brock threw a deep pass down the right sideline to rookie Michael Young that would have been a 50-yard gain to the Bears’ 16--if Young hadn’t taken several steps out of bounds.

Trouble was, no official noted that cornerback Mike Richardson had shouldered Young out of bounds. It happened along the Chicago sideline, but none of the Bears were about to mention it.

“He (Richardson) was just doing his job and got away with it.” Young said. “I went by him and relaxed and he pushed me . . . caught me off guard.”

The Rams had to punt.

On the Rams’ next series, Richardson was flagged for pass interference against Ellard, but there was no penalty because Bear linebacker Mike Singletary had tipped the ball.

Two plays later, on third and 10, Dickerson ran a draw for 11 yards but was given only nine on a bad spot of the ball. Television replays showed he had gained enough for a first down.

The Rams had to punt again.

Later, the Rams got a break. Their special teams, which have been their most effective units all season, came through when Hatcher’s high punt hit the 20-yard line, took a high bounce, came down on the leg of a supine Bear, Reggie Phillips, and rolled into the hands of the Rams’ Jerry Gray at the 21.

With 1:04 remaining in the half, the Rams called their first timeout. Then, after Dickerson ran right for four yards, they called their second, but then left the clock running after Dickerson ran left for five more, with 31 seconds to play.

By the time Brock broke a long huddle and took the next snap, the clock was down to eight seconds. He looked left toward wide receiver Bobby Duckworth, who was covered, then dumped off over the middle to Dickerson, who fought his way to the five.

As Dickerson hit the ground, there were two seconds showing, and Brock and guard Dennis Harrah were running around trying to call their final timeout. But the clock turned to 0:00, and a consultation among the officials confirmed that time had expired and the Rams wouldn’t get another play or even a shot at a field goal.

Harrah said that before the play, he heard Tunney tell Brock he would be nearby after the play.

“I was screaming ‘timeout’ but couldn’t find an official,” Harrah said.

Said Brock: “I don’t know where any of them were.”

Said Referee Jim Tunney: “After the play was over, two seconds had elapsed when I saw Brock signal for a timeout. The time had expired when I saw the signal.”

Tunney checked with the other officials, he said, “to make sure that no one else downfield had called or signaled to one of our supporting officials.”

Said Robinson: “We thought we’d throw into the end zone on the next play. If I had to do it again, I’d have thrown on second down. It wasn’t our day for luck.”

So, like the Giants a week earlier, the Bears’ foes did themselves in just before halftime, and the second half was all downhill.

Dickerson had fumbled once in the first half, but tight end David Hill recovered that one in the air and lunged for a first down. But on the Rams’ first possession of the second half, when linebacker Otis Wilson knocked the ball out of Dickerson’s grasp, end Richard Dent recovered at the Bears’ 48.

The Rams’ defense checked the threat to fourth and six at the 35, after which McMahon hit Payton for a 13-yard gain. Then McMahon, changing the call at the line of scrimmage, darted to his left as Willie Gault ran an inside-outside route on Irvin and Johnson and caught McMahon’s pass in the end zone to make it 17-0.

“I set up LeRoy on the play real good,” Gault said. “He thought I was going to cut across the field.”

Said Irvin: “If I had known McMahon was dashing left, I would have played outside coverage. It was bad judgment on my part.”

Minutes later, the Ram offense drove across midfield for the only time on Dickerson’s six-yard sweep, but on the next play cornerback Les Frazier stepped in front of Brock’s pass to Duckworth for an interception.

The final collapse came with 2:37 remaining when Dent, the NFL leader in sacks, dropped Brock from behind, forcing him to fumble, and end Wilber Marshall picked up the ball and ran 52 yards through the snowfall for the final touchdown.

Dan Hampton and William Perry also sacked Brock, but not until the Rams were forced into playing catch-up late in the third quarter.

Doug Reed sacked McMahon twice and Reggie Doss got him once.

Overall, the Ram defenders had a good day, except by comparison to the Bears. They held Walter Payton to 32 yards in 18 rushing attempts and the Bears to 232 yards of total offense.

“Our guys did a great job,” defensive coordinator Fritz Shurmur said. “Their running game wasn’t any trouble, their deep routes weren’t any problem and their check-offs weren’t any problem. He (McMahon) is just a great athlete, and his athletic ability came out. He was able to make a play when they needed it.”

Robinson called McMahon “a great quarterback,” but he wasn’t yet looking forward to coaching him.

As NFC runners-up, Robinson and his staff get the consolation prize of handling the NFC All-Stars against Don Shula’s AFC squad in the Pro Bowl at Honolulu on Feb. 2.

There, the weather will be of no concern.