Rams Are Feeling a Northern Chill : Camp Opens Monday Amid Thoughts of 49ers, Brock
The forecasts don’t indicate whether the National Football Conference West pennant that flies over Rams Park these days will survive the next strong wind from the north, where the San Francisco 49ers reside.
It’s not like the somnolent ‘70s, before they moved to Anaheim, when the Rams didn’t even own a pole from which to fly a flag and yawned their way to seven consecutive division titles as the rest of the West slept. Coach John Robinson seems to sense as he opens training camp Monday that he must upgrade his team to stay ahead of the 49ers, who can be expected to rebound from their post-Super Bowl malaise of 1985.
Robinson’s three seasons have shown a progression of 9-7 to 10-6 to 11-5, but he said: “The greatest error is to assume that you start out where you left off last year.”
Heaven forbid. In the ’85 NFC title game the Rams ran into the brick wall that was the Chicago Bears, who left them for dead, 24-0, and swaggered into Super Bowl XX.
Actually, Robinson felt pretty good about his team even after sorting out the debris of Soldier Field. To reach the next Super Bowl, it needed improvement at only one position: quarterback.
One of Robinson’s largest disappointments was Dieter Brock’s failure to come through in a big game, despite the wind and the cold and the Bears. Brock played as badly that day as nearly everybody else, except Robinson, had been saying he had been playing all season.
He also was ineffective a week earlier in a 20-0 victory over the Dallas Cowboys, but his performance largely was camouflaged by Eric Dickerson’s NFL playoff record 248 yards rushing, the Rams’ defense and the Cowboys’ self-destruction.
Robinson went to Chicago hoping that Brock, the NFC’s third most efficient passer, had gotten the bad game out of his system. After the Bear debacle, he had to wonder how many were still left.
Robinson’s doubts about Brock were evident three months later when he signed Steve Bartkowski, a free agent who at 33 had been cast out by the Atlanta Falcons, who are in no position to discard any morsels with meat remaining on the bones.
Robinson now says: “Dieter Brock’s the starting quarterback . . . (but) the situation at quarterback is very competitive.”
He allows for the possibility that improvement at quarterback could come from Brock himself. Brock, 35, spent much of the off-season improving his footwork so that he can drop back more quickly and avoid being sacked 55 times, as he was in ’85.
Brock will never be Fred Astaire but, Robinson said: “I liked what I saw. We want to make sure we do not take sacks.
“The second (problem) was a lack of strike potential. We didn’t make big plays. Once we got concerned we were taking sacks, we tried to get the ball off sooner.”
Bartkowski, whose surgical right knee is suspect, is no more nimble than Brock. Each moves with the speed of light, like a sundial. The third quarterback, Steve Dils, is somewhat more mobile, as is rookie Hugh Millen, a third-round draft choice from Washington.
But the best wheels the Rams had at quarterback now belong to the rival 49ers, and Jeff Kemp is in excellent position to make the Rams regret the trade twice this season. With Joe Montana coming off shoulder surgery last month, Kemp’s prospects brighten and he probably will be stage center when the 49ers come south for a preseason tuneup at Anaheim Stadium on Aug. 18.
San Francisco Coach Bill Walsh apparently liked something in Kemp that Robinson didn’t.
Says Walsh: “The people chasing the quarterback now are so much quicker than they once were (that) a quarterback has to be quicker in his reflexes and his movement to deal with them and avoid them.”
Robinson would settle for someone who can drop back, read the coverage and unload a strike before Richard Dent arrives.
Brock? Bartkowski?
Both have strong arms, but Bartkowski has a more delicate touch, throws few interceptions and has spent 11 years looking at NFL defenses.
Dils? He reads defenses well, his arm is adequate for a medium-range attack and his legs are live and sound.
Finally, it would require enormous courage for Robinson to override the anti-Brock sentiment and assign him the starting spot again, no matter how spectacular he may be in preseason. But he might.
And why shouldn’t the Rams have uncertainty at quarterback? It’s a tradition. They haven’t had the same starter for consecutive full seasons since Roman Gabriel in 1970-71. Robinson has had nine starters in his 10 seasons as coach at USC and Anaheim.
“My No. 1 concern is to make the position successful,” Robinson says.
To that end, he has hired the highly regarded Dick Coury, who will coach the quarterbacks but whose further input into the offense is uncertain. Coury is a passing coach, Robinson a running coach. The Rams passed less than anyone in the NFL last season.
“We will pass more,” Robinson promises.
There are other considerations as training camp starts.
Dickerson missed all of training camp and the first two games in last summer’s 47-day holdout, then struggled for most of his 1,234 yards.
“I could make a wild prediction that he will have his greatest season,” Robinson said of the man who set the NFL’s single-season record with 2,008 yards in ’84. “He’s putting the necessary ingredients together in his mind.”
Robinson will try to relieve the pressure on Dickerson by running more often from a two-back set, perhaps with the recently acquired veteran Rob Carpenter or with Barry Redden.
Also to be determined:
--How to employ former left outside linebacker George Andrews, whose knee injuries the last two years gave Mike Wilcher a chance to become a fixture and lead the Rams with 12 1/2 sacks.
--Whether Pro Bowl center Doug Smith is really over the mysterious nerve ailment that knocked him out late in the season, when unsung Tony Slaton filled in so well.
--When highly talented safety Vince Newsome, a fourth-year veteran, can crack a starting lineup that has veterans Nolan Cromwell and Johnnie Johnson.
--And whether wide receiver Chuck Scott, a second-round draft pick in ‘85, can overcome his disappointing rookie season after losing 15 pounds and take up some slack if Henry Ellard’s contract dispute continues.
The Rams’ strength remains their offensive line, now reinforced by a second young quintet that includes their first two draft choices, Mike Schad and Tom Newberry.
But, most of all, Robinson is looking for the intangible, arrogant attitude that swept the Bears to the title.
“I watched our (‘85) highlight film, ‘One Step Closer,’ ” he said. “We have to find whatever Chicago found coming out of the San Francisco (NFC title) game in ’84 when they got beat 23-zip.
Ram Notes
Rookies and veteran newcomers will practice at Rams Park for a week, then move to Cal State Fullerton July 21. All the veterans are due to report to start workouts July 28. . . . Scrimmages with the Chargers are scheduled July 24 at San Diego and July 31 at Fullerton. The first practice game will be Tuesday night, Aug. 5.