Bartkowski Gives Rams a Passing Attack : 33-Year-Old Quarterback Leads L.A. to 31-17 Victory Over the 49ers

Dieter Brock, dressed in street clothes on the sideline, could only stand alone and helplessly watch as pass after pass zipped by his head.

He was once the starting quarterback for the Rams, but one bum season and one bum knee may have taken care of that.

Not to mention one Steve Bartkowski.

The quarterback many thought to be too old and rickety for this kind of thing, oiled the joints in his knees Monday night and then loosened up the San Francisco 49ers a bit, leading the Rams to a 31-17 victory.

Bartkowski, the 33-year-old veteran, made his first start for the Rams and was nothing short of brilliant, completing 11 of 15 passes for 147 yards and 2 touchdowns.

And there was nothing Dieter Brock could do but stand there and admire, along with a crowd of 49,146 at Anaheim stadium.

For Brock, arthroscopic knee surgery Aug. 12 pretty much killed what was supposed to be a heated controversy between a couple of aging quarterbacks out to prove that the sports world was wrong in predicting their demise.

Brock is out for about three more weeks, but a couple of more outings like this for Bartkowski and Brock’s return day won’t seem so important.

Bartkowski played only a half before giving way to Steve Dils, but it was some half.

On the Rams’ first possession, it took just three Bartkowski passes to reach the end zone.

Mickey Sutton set it all up by returning a punt 20 yards to the 49er 44-yard line.

Then it was zip, zip, zip and a touchdown.

Bartkowski threw 22 yards to Ron Brown on first down. After a holding penalty, it was Bartkowski to David Hill for 10 yards.

Then it was Brown again, who broke free of Derrick Martin and found a Bartkowski pass waiting for him in the right corner of the end zone.

Near the end of the quarter, Bartkowski directed another drive that led to a field goal. On that series, Bartkowski had completions of 21 yards to Brown, 18 to Bobby Duckworth and 12 to Barry Redden.

With 4:52 left in the first half, Bartkowski did it again, this time hitting Duckworth on a 26-yard touchdown pass play to give the Rams a 17-7 lead going into halftime.

The pass to Duckworth was made possible by Ram linebacker Mark Jerue, who set up the touchdown by intercepting a Jeff Kemp pass and returning it five yards to the San Francisco 25.

Still, Bartkowski, who was largely unwanted until signed as a free agent by the Rams in the off-season, made it all look easy.

“I was pleased with the way Bartkowski played,” Ram Coach John Robinson said. “He showed a lot of precision. I felt good that Bart was poised and threw effectively.”

The rest of the team took Bartkowski’s cue in the second half, pounding a team that had shut out the Raiders only a week before, 32-0.

The Rams made it 24-7 early in the second half on a 10-yard touchdown run by Charles White with 9:32 left in the third quarter.

The 49ers, who played the game without starting quarterback Joe Montana, cut the lead to 24-17 on a two-yard touchdown run by reserve quarterback Mike Moroski and a Ray Wersching field goal.

But then it was time again for Mr. Exhibition, Charles White, as he scored his second touchdown of the night and his fourth in two games on a three-yard run with 9:26 remaining.

There is, supposedly, still a quarterback controversy on the Rams, between Bartkowski and Dils.

Although Dils played most of the second half, he completed only 3 of 6 passes for 44 yards and 1 interception.

The only thing missing was the Ram running game.

“I know,” Robinson said, “everyone’s going to say, ‘What happened to the running game?’ They’re going to think Robinson has turned into a passing coach.”

In fact, Eric Dickerson played just the first half, carrying 4 times for 14 yards. His longest gain of the night was 9 yards.

No one wanted to impress a team and a crowd more than quarterback Kemp, who thought the Rams had done him wrong during his five years as a backup in Los Angeles.

Kemp got his big chance because of Montana’s sprained ankle.

So wouldn’t you know that on his first pass of the night, Kemp tripped while dropping back in the pocket, only to recover in time to throw an incomplete pass.

Things would improve after that but not enough to make anyone think the Rams made a terrible mistake when they traded the former Dartmouth star to San Francisco in the off-season.

Still, Kemp finished the first half having completed 15 of 27 passes for 157 yards, with one costly interception.

Kemp sputtered through the first quarter before leading his team on an 80-yard touchdown drive early in the second. He had four straight completions at one point. And he made the play of the drive on fourth down when he scrambled around right end for two yards and a first down on the Ram seven.

After a four-yard run by Tom Rathman and a Kemp incompletion, rookie Tony Cherry scored on a three-yard run to cut the Rams’ lead to 10-7 with 8:37 left in the first half.

It looked as though Kemp had found his touch, but on the first play of the 49ers’ next possession, his pass was intercepted by Jerue, setting up Bartkowski’s touchdown pass to Duckworth.

Kemp could have used some help, though. Twice in the half he drove his team into field-goal range, only to watch Ray Wersching miss on tries of 35 and 42 yards.

Ram Notes The Rams signed linebacker Mel Owens, ending his 23-day holdout. Terms were not disclosed, but it was believed that Owens signed a two-year contract worth $600,000. The Rams have only one unsigned player remaining, wide receiver Henry Ellard. Ellard’s agent, Mike Blatt, said he was told the Rams would make a new contract offer today. The Rams were originally believed to be offering Ellard about $1.2 million for four years. Ellard, the Rams’ leading receiver and the NFC’s leading punt returner last season, made $145,000 in 1985. . . . The Rams also waived the rights to linebacker Howard Carson. Carson, who jumped from the Rams to the United States Football League in 1983, was trying to catch on with his old team. Coach John Robinson reportedly was interested in signing Carson, but Ram management, obviously, was not. . . . The Rams must reduce their roster to 60 by 1 p.m. today. Ram safety Mike Fox, formerly of the Memphis Showboats, has been granted a two-week exemption from any roster cut, an agreement reached to accommodate incoming players from the USFL. . . . Cornerback LeRoy Irvin bruised his neck in the second quarter and did not return to the game. . . . Ram reserve linebacker Duke Schamel pulled a hamstring muscle early in the first quarter and missed the rest of the game.