Rams Like The Shape They’re In
Remember the good ol’ days when the Rams were good for at least a quarterback controversy or two? Or better yet, whatever happened to some old-fashioned team dissension? Doesn’t anybody despise anymore?
Afraid not. These are peaceful, content times for the Rams. A 9-4 record does that.
Worries? Hmmm. Ram Coach John Robinson has to think about that one for a while. No new injuries to overcome. Tight end Tony Hunter is gone until the last game of the regular season. Running back Mike Guman won’t make another appearance in uniform until training camp--but we knew all this. Nose tackle Greg Meisner has an ankle injury, “but I think he’ll be OK to play,” Robinson said. Newcomer Tim Tyrrell is nursing an injured shoulder, though no one expects him to miss a game. Nah, nothing too exciting on the injury front.
How about rookie quarterback Jim Everett? Now there’s a topic. Four interceptions in two games, two each in the first period . . . a tendency to force a pass now and then. Why, that must just make Robinson do a slow burn, eh?
Well, as a matter of fact, no.
“He’s going to do some things that’ll drive you crazy,” Robinson said. “I think he thinks he can throw the ball in there on anybody. And he might be able to.”
That’s telling ‘em. Robinson would go on to deliver more scathing reviews. For instance, he was slightly disappointed with the Ram pass rush and run defense against the New York Jets this past Sunday. “They blocked us better than we would have liked,” he said. And this: “It was not a great game for us from a defensive standpoint. It was a good game . . . in terms of the way we played, the tenacity.”
There you have it: Ram problems.
Robinson, who could find something nice to say about a lime leisure suit, finds himself with a team that does as it’s told. Go to East Rutherford and beat the Jets, Robinson says. And the Rams do it, holding the Jets to just three points while scoring 17. Make the Jets earn every yard, he says. Fine, say the Rams, who force the Jets to start their drives at the New York 22, 34, 2, 12, 28, 39, 27, 20, 9, 33 and 25. Position yourself to win the division, he says. And there they are, playing tag for the NFC West with the San Francisco 49ers.
As it is, the Rams are ensured of a wild-card berth if they defeat the Dallas Cowboys Sunday in Anaheim Stadium and the Minnesota Vikings lose to the Green Bay Packers. Robinson wants more, of course, but that will do for starters.
“I think our team is growing in confidence and I think it’s growing in strength,” he said. “I think we’re a stronger football team than we were a month ago.”
A month ago, Everett was on the sidelines and the Rams were on their way to losing, 6-0, to the New Orleans Saints. Wide receiver Kevin House, acquired Oct. 21 after the Tampa Bay Buccaneers released him, was still learning names, to say nothing of plays. And up in the Bay Area, Joe Montana was again the 49er starter.
Now Robinson rests easy. Everett is his starter and several games richer in experience. The four interceptions, while annoying, have come early and then ceased. Of course, Robinson might not be so understanding had they been thrown in the fourth quarter. Looking back at Sunday’s game, Robinson said that Everett’s first interception was unnecessary. “He should have just thrown the thing away,” he said. The second one (a bomb attempt) wasn’t as bothersome: the Jets intercepted Everett’s pass deep in their own territory.
Said Robinson: “I’m not going to worry about it. I’m not going to nurse him.”
One other Everett number to remember:
He hasn’t been sacked since his first play.
“He seems to be developing a good ability not to be sacked,” Robinson said. “He has an ability to slip away from rushes, to avoid them.”
Then there is House, who has been slipping away from defenders lately. He has three catches, one touchdown and a 32-yard average. Will he find himself in the starting lineup (ahead of Ron Brown) against the Cowboys Sunday?
“There’s room for three guys on the ship,” Robinson said, referring to House, Brown and Henry Ellard. “One guy doesn’t have to drown.
“We’ll see more of Kevin as we go along.”
Ram Notes
It will never happen, of course, but Ram Coach John Robinson wouldn’t apologize to anyone if guard Tom Newberry was named NFC Rookie of the Year. “There’s no way a guard could be rookie of the year,” Robinson said, adding that if the award didn’t go almost exclusively to scorers “he certainly would be a finalist.” . . . Perhaps weary of others describing the Ram zone pass defenses as elementary and basic, Robinson had this to say Monday: “Usually when you talk to opponents who are not particularly intelligent, they say it’s a simple zone, that it’s this and that. That it’s just a zone defense. I think it’s a very sophisticated zone defense. It’s not sophisticated in the way they line up, but the execution of it is clearly at a high level.
“I remember (Cowboy quarterback) Danny White laughing at us when we went down there to play them (in a 1983 playoff game), laughing at how simple our defense was. And we’re still playing the same defense.”