When Reality Turns to Fantasy, Dickerson Gallops Into Sunset

On a clear and hot October Sunday afternoon in Anaheim, Rams’ Coach John Robinson confronted the reality and the fantasy aspects of the Rams, and the fantasy prevailed.

The reality is that the Rams are in that awkward in-between stage, in between quarterbacks--in between Bob Waterfield and Jim Everett.

The reality is that the Rams have been winning, but not reminding people of Lombardi’s Pack or Noll’s Steelers.

Describing the Rams’ offense Sunday, Robinson used words like “disappointed,” “stagnant” and “meander.”

That’s the reality.

The fantasy is Eric Dickerson.

On his first carry of the afternoon, Eric Dickerson busted through the middle for 14 yards.

On his last carry of the afternoon, in overtime, Eric Dickerson busted off left tackle 42 yards for a touchdown.

That gave the Rams a 26-20 win.

Dickerson wound up carrying 30 times for a total of 207 yards, a 6.9 average. He had a d touchdown run of 36 yards called back on a ticky-tack call, a Rams’ lineman lining up slightly off the line.

In the first quarter, Dickerson made a beautiful touchdown run of 40 yards. Ivory Sully, the former Ram defensive back, had a shot at Dickerson but Dickerson stiff-armed Sully halfway to Laguna Beach and trotted into the end zone.

On the Eric Dickerson Thrill-o-Meter, this game ranked somewhere up near the top of the dial. This was classic stuff. Forget about the dropped pass and key fumble and the two quarters when he disappeared in traffic. Dickerson did his damage, and he did it with the stunning Dickerson grace, speed and power.

The man dominated.

“Give it to The Franchise!” Gary Jeter shouted as the happy Rams floated into their locker room after the win.

OK, OK, Dickerson did his fantasy bit against Tampa Bay. But the Buccaneers are approaching some kind of underdog respectability, and they are still listed as an NFL team.

The Rams are 4-1, and ask yourself this: Where would they be without Dickerson?

He is averaging 131.4 yards a game. That projects to 2,102 yards, three yards shy of his all-time record.

Last year he slumped to 1,234 yards. Reality crept in.

Now fantasy is back, and Sunday, Dickerson was pretty.

“He is running like I have never seen a human being run in all the years I’ve watched football,” Tampa Bay quarterback Steve Young said.

Last season, Dickerson spent a lot of time in traffic. Reality. This season he is seeing daylight. Fantasy.

“Last year we were trying to run, run, run, run, run,” Dickerson said. “We had two or three pass plays (in the game plan) and if they didn’t work, it was like ‘What do we do now?’ You can almost count the times I got into the open field last year.

“This year we’re trying to mix it up just a little bit. We have a lot of formations. I can’t be elusive in a crowd of people like this (gesturing to the crowd of media people around his locker).”

Robinson said Dickerson last season, out of necessity, was more a fullback-type runner, a crunch-the-line bruiser.

“Now we’ve given him more opportunities and I think he’s making people miss better than he ever has,” Robinson said.

“I’ve always been elusive,” Dickerson said with a shrug. “In the open field, I can cause a defensive back some real problems, but I sure wasn’t getting to use it last season. I had to use two yards and a cloud of turf.”

Now the Rams have become offensively imaginative. Imagine if they also had a legitimate passing attack, instead of just a lot of new passing formations. Imagine if the Rams’ offense, but for Dickerson, wasn’t stagnant and meandering.

But you can’t have everything, not even in a fantasy.

Sunday at least the Rams had the run.

“We haven’t really run the ball at people since St. Louis (the opening game), which we do very well,” Dickerson said. “We tried to get very finesse-full, like San Francisco.”

On Sunday, when the game was on the line, finessefullness went out the window. Everyone on the field was tired, everyone except Dickerson. It was an ugly game. Then it got pretty.

The play sent in was “46 Gap.” Quarterback Steve Dils looked over the defense and audibled Dickerson to run to the left side of the line.

No way Dils was going to audible to another play.

“There are plays you might audible out of, you think they may not work,” Dils said. “But with this guy (Dickerson), you get used to seeing him do the phenomenal or the near impossible, you tend to go with the play.”

He did. Forty-six gap.

“I was trying to stay behind my blockers, (Dennis) Harrah and (Jackie) Slater, and let them make the blocks and follow the blocks,” Dickerson said.

“The hole didn’t open up like ‘Ooomph!’ You had to feel your way through. Once I got into the open field, yeah, I thought I’d score. I’ve still got pretty good speed. . . . I made a pretty good run out of it.”

Dils had a nice view of the action.

“Normally, I’d have my back turned, carrying out the fake,” Dils said.

But Dils cheated. He handed off, then turned to watch Dickerson disappearing into the sunset, toward the goal line.

For the Rams, reality could wait until another day. It was fantasy time.