Ram Notebook : Cardinals’ Anderson, Upset by 3rd-Quarter Benching, Demands Trade

Cardinal running back Ottis Anderson, obviously frustrated by his team’s failure to come from behind and defeat the Rams, demanded to be traded after Sunday’s game.

“Get me outta here,” said Anderson, who pulled a hamstring in the fourth quarter while scoring the Cardinals’ only touchdown on a 4-yard run.

“Trade me. The man put me on the bench.”

The man, of course, is rookie Coach Gene Stallings and the benching Anderson was referring to was his lack of action in the third quarter. Anderson carried the ball 10 times for 31 yards, more than twice as many times as his backup, Stump Mitchell, who carried four times for 19 yards.

“He says he wants to be traded and I respect that,” Stallings said, “but I have two good backs at that spot and I’m going to try and keep a fresh one in there.

“I have no problems with O. J. or the way he’s been running the ball, and maybe he’s right about the third quarter. Maybe we should have had him in there a little more.”

Former Washington quarterback Joe Theismann, now an analyst for CBS, was defending Steve Bartkowski’s lackluster first-half performance during a halftime discussion with former Ram defensive end Jack Youngblood, who now works in the Rams’ front office.

Bartkowski completed just 3 of 10 first-half passes in the drizzle at Busch Stadium.

“They wipe off the ball after each play,” Theismann said, “but when they put it down on the ground, the side where you grip it with your thumb gets wet.

“It looks to me like he’s trying so hard to grip the ball, he’s sort of guiding his passes instead of just letting ‘em go.”

Youngblood listened intently and then said: “Joe, I’m glad you’re here to explain the fine points of the game to me.”

Safety Dennis Thurman, who was picked up by the Cardinals last week after being released by the Cowboys, says he’s having less trouble adjusting to the St. Louis system than to his new uniform.

That shouldn’t be too surprising, considering that his new head coach, Stallings, was the Cowboys’ defensive backfield coach for 14 years.

“You have to deal with it like a pickup basketball game,” Thurman said. “You play against your friends but that doesn’t stop you from wanting to win.”

Thurman said he never doubted that he was still capable of playing in the National Football League.

“Coach (Tom) Landry thinks that you have to be a certain size to play safety and have a certain speed to be a cornerback,” he said. “Well, I wasn’t computer perfect. So I can’t do it for Dallas anymore. That chapter of my life is closed.

“But I can still help the Cardinals win. I can still get the job done.”

He won’t get any arguments from Ram running back Eric Dickerson. Thurman forced Dickerson to fumble twice Sunday.

Thankless Job Dept: Doug Smith, whose two bad snaps of center cost the Rams a possible extra point and field goal, was wondering why he gets interviewed only in times of despair.

“Seen any good car wrecks lately,” he jokingly said to a group of reporters who swarmed around his locker.

Dickerson’s OK: Running back Eric Dickerson, who injured his ribs on the hit by Dennis Thurman that caused him to fumble in the final minutes, had X-rays taken after the game.

“I can’t take a deep breath,” he said. “But I’ll be ready for next Sunday.”

Next Sunday, the Rams host the San Francisco 49ers at Anaheim Stadium.

Note: The Rams had 199 yards rushing Sunday, 193 coming from Dickerson.

Add Dickerson: With 38 carries, he broke the Rams’ single-game rushing-attempts record held by Charles White, who had 36 against the Philadelphia Eagles in 1985. Dickerson said he once carried 39 times in a game while playing at Sealy High School.

File this for reference, Eric: Rams Coach John Robinson, while coaching at USC, once ran tailback Ricky Bell 51 times in a game.

More Robinson: If nothing else, the Rams proved that you don’t just have to score touchdowns to have fun.

“We make snaps from center exciting,” he said.

Injury update: Cardinal guard Doug Dawson will undergo surgery today to repair a torn left Achilles’ tendon incurred against the Rams.

Last add Dickerson: His 193 yards rushing did not break the record for most yards allowed in one game by a Cardinal team. That record is held by Eric Dickerson, who had 208 yards in 1984.

Big Win: Sunday’s victory was No. 100 in the head coaching career of John Robinson, 67 coming at USC and 33 with the Rams.