Philadelphia Nightmare: Rams Handed First Loss

It was as though the Rams had made a wrong turn on a highway and suddenly found themselves on a field somewhere in the outer limits.

Veterans Stadium on Sunday served not as a house for football but rather as backdrop for the macabre.

Something was terribly wrong here. Simple motor skills, such as grasping hand to ball, had strangely left the Rams. Linebackers and quarterbacks were dropping as fast as receivers dropped passes. Right was suddenly wrong and good turned to bad.

Such was a day spent in Buddy Ryan’s Inferno.

When the Rams took a final body count, they had lost a game, 34-20, a quarterback, Steve Bartkowski, and a linebacker, Steve Busick.

They lost some other things too, like face and poise.

No one had seen anything like this since, well, the last time the Rams faced a Buddy Ryan defense. That was at Chicago in January. At least the Rams scored this time.

Ryan, of course, is the head coach of the Eagles now, as if you had to remind the losing team.

The Rams weren’t beaten as much as they were ambushed.

“It was like being a kid and stepping in the wrong guy’s back yard,” guard Dennis Harrah said.

The previously winless Eagles had a 27-0 lead before the Rams knew who (and how many) had hit them. The Eagles went ahead 34-0 before Ryan called off the dogs. Enough was enough.

The Rams scored three meaningless touchdowns, two against what Ryan called “his second bunch.”

No one could fully explain what had gone so right for the Eagles and so wrong for the Rams.

“They said there would be days like these,” Ram Coach John Robinson said. “By God, they were right.”

The indignity of the loss was only compounded by injury.

Bartkowski, dazed and confused, left the game with 1:13 left in the first half, his brittle right knee once again injured.

It seemed fitting that Bartkowski would be lost on a play that didn’t count. He was over his line of scrimmage and running forward when he heaved a pass toward receiver Mike Young.

Eagle safety Andre Waters made a rolling tackle and took Bartkowski’s knee with him.

If not for the brace he wears to protect the right knee, which already has been operated on five times, Bartkowski’s career would likely be over. As it is, he will be lost for at least a week, according to Dr. Clarence Shields, the Rams’ orthopedic surgeon.

It was lucky, in a strange way, that Bartkowski has no ligament or cartilage left in his knee to damage.

“There isn’t any more he can do in there,” Shields said.

With only bone on bone to contend with, Bartkowski received a severe bruise. If the swelling isn’t too bad, Shields said he might be back in a week or two.

“I’ve had the sensation before and it’s not good,” Bartkowski said of his injury. “I’ve had it slip around before.”

The news was worse for Busick, who was starting in place of the injured Carl Ekern. Busick will undergo surgery this morning to repair torn cartilage in his right knee. He’ll be lost for at least six weeks.

As for the game, the Rams fell quickly behind, 10-0, which took running back Eric Dickerson out of the game plan, much to his annoyance.

Dickerson finished with just 58 yards in 17 carries. In last year’s championship game against Ryan’s Bears, Dickerson was held to 46 yards in 17 carries.

“I don’t think he likes playing against my teams,” Ryan said.

The Eagles, though, entered the game as the NFL’s worst against the rush.

“We just played sloppy,” Dickerson said. “Everything went wrong.”

The Rams will look back at film of their first eight possessions Sunday and understand what Dickerson meant.

It was eight that weren’t so great.

First Possession--On third and 14 at the Rams’ 24, Bartkowski’s pass was deflected by Terry Hoage and intercepted by Andre Waters, who returned it 15 yards, setting up Paul McFadden’s 22-yard field goal.

Second possession--On first and 10 at the Rams’ 39, Bartkowski passed 15 yards to Dickerson who fumbled, Wes Hopkins recovering at the Eagle 40. This one led to Ron Jaworski’s 15-yard touchdown pass to John Spagnola with 10:57 left in the first quarter and put Philadelphia ahead, 10-0.

Third possession--On second and four from the Ram 38, Bartkowski swung a pass to Brown in the left flat. Brown dropped it and the Rams punted.

Fourth possession--On second and seven at the Ram 31, center Doug Smith was called for illegal use of hands, pushing the Rams back to their own 17. They ended up punting.

Fifth possession--On second and four at the Eagle 39, Bartkowski’s pass was intercepted by Roynell Young in the Philadelphia end zone.

Sixth possession--On second and six at the Ram 34, Harrah was called for holding. The Rams were sent back to the 16-yard line and ended up punting again.

Seventh possession--On third and six at the Ram 41, Dickerson dropped a screen pass and again the Rams had to punt.

Eighth possession--On second and eight at the Rams’ 33, Smith again was called for holding. The Rams needed 18 yards for a first down, Bartkowski faded to pass but within seconds found himself on the ground in pain.

“I didn’t know where I was,” Bartkowski said of the play. “I just saw Mike (Young) waving. It was sheer frustration, I was just trying to get a score on the board, even if I had to cheat to do it.”

Bartkowski left the game for good.

The Rams’ ninth possession of the half was flawless.

They got the ball back with 13 seconds left in the half, completed a one-yard pass and let the clock expire.

For the Eagles, it was largely a day of fun and games. Ryan’s famed 46 defense finally came to life and frustrated the Rams all day. The Eagles made it 17-0 with eight minutes left in the half on a 55-yard option pass for a touchdown from running back Keith Byars to Mike Quick.

Another McFadden field goal made it 20-0, and the Eagles went ahead, 27-0, before the half on a 27-yard touchdown pass, Jaworski to Kenny Jackson.

Trailing 34-0 in the third quarter, the Rams finally scored on a 15-yard pass from Steve Dils to Brown. Not surprisingly, considering what had happened before, the Rams missed the extra point.

While no one was watching, Dils had a pretty good second half, throwing three touchdown passes in relief while completing 15 of 26 passes for 164 yards.

It’s a good thing, too, because he’s now the starting quarterback.

With Bartkowski gone and Dieter Brock still on injured reserve with a back injury (and not coming off soon), the Rams are likely to activate their newest, brightest and greenest quarterback, Jim Everett.

Everett, the former Purdue star who has practiced with the Rams for two days, was at the game Sunday. “Quarterbacks get hit a lot more here,” he noticed. “I have to get ready to squint and duck.”

He didn’t recall too many days like this at Purdue.

Ram Notes

During the broadcast of Sunday’s game, CBS Analyst Hank Stram said negotiations between the Rams and holdout wide receiver Henry Ellard have stalled because of Ellard’s desire to relinquish his duties as a punt returner. On Sunday night, Ellard’s agent, Mike Blatt, refuted Stram’s statement. “I don’t know where he got that,” Blatt said. “I never heard it.” Ellard, the Rams’ leading receiver last year, was also the NFC’s leading punt returner, averaging 13.5 yards per return.