It’s a Capital Offense: Rams Lose to Redskins : L.A. Fumbles Away Playoff Game, 19-7

The stadium was cold and windswept, but only the visiting players warmed themselves on the sideline.

The temperature would drop below 40 on the field, but weather would not be an excuse for a sunshine team that went east for a playoff game and handled the football like a frozen salami in a packing warehouse.

It was the Rams, all right, still freezing after all these years.

On Sunday at RFK Stadium, the Rams fumbled three times in the first half and, oops, there went the ballgame and the season.

The Washington Redskins beat the team with cold feet and colder hands, 19-7, before a crowd of 54,180 in the NFC wild-card game.

The season ended for the Rams like so many others--with teeth chattering. One Ram researcher figured it was the eighth straight playoff loss in the frigid east since the team moved west from Cleveland in 1946.

The Rams finally warmed up to the Redskins, but it was too late. They never could recover from two first-half Eric Dickerson fumbles, a fumble by tight end David Hill and one freezing, 4-minute 40-second instant replay delay and review in the second quarter.

Washington built a 13-0 halftime lead, which would turn into a 16-0 third-quarter lead, which would turn to a Redskin win and a playoff date with the Bears in Chicago next week.

The Rams, of course, are left to wonder what had become of a season that seemed so bright after a 29-10 win over Dallas on Dec. 7.

Then came three straight losses, a first for a John Robinson-coached team.

The Rams are left to remember that 37-31 overtime loss to Miami on Dec. 14, when a victory would have clinched the NFC West title for them.

“It looks like our season flipped along with that (overtime) coin flip,” Dickerson said.

The Rams tried to give the Redskins a game, even after Washington went ahead, 16-0, with 2:57 left in the third quarter on a 38-yard Jess Atkinson field goal.

On the Rams’ next drive, Dickerson broke free for a 65-yard run up the middle, only to be chased down from behind at the Redskin 15 by football’s fastest man, Washington cornerback Darrell Green.

“If I’d have known he was coming, I’d have cut across the field,” Dickerson said.

The run did set up a 15-yard scoring pass from Ram quarterback Jim Everett to Kevin House, cutting Washington’s lead to 16-7 with 14:51 remaining.

But all Ram hope ended later in the quarter when Redskin safety Alvin Walton intercepted an Everett pass with 5:41 left.

Everett said he and Hill, the intended receiver, got crossed up on the route.

Just one of those rookie things.

But the Rams can hang this loss to one long and ugly first half in Washington, a period in which the Rams fumbled three times and were penalized seven times for 73 yards.

It was a shame, too, because the Rams had brought the right game plan.

Vowing a return to the physical game, the Rams took the opening kickoff and drove to the Redskin 40 before Dickerson fumbled his first ball away to Walton, who returned it 21 yards to the Ram 44. Washington turned that mistake into a 25-yard Atkinson field goal.

It didn’t get any prettier after that.

Later in the quarter, the Redskins faced a third and six at the Ram 44.

Washington quarterback Jay Schroeder threw in the left flat for tight end Clint Didier. The ball fell incomplete, but Ram cornerback LeRoy Irvin was called for pass interference.

Irvin objected to the call so vehemently that he was penalized another 15 yards for unsportsmanlike conduct.

Irvin’s ears burned.

“I lost my temper a bit,” he admitted later. “I lost my poise.”

Referee Gordon McCarter said Irvin made an uncalled for gesture.

The Redskins ended up on the Ram 28 and, five plays later, Schroeder threw 14 yards to Kelvin Bryant for a touchdown.

Now trailing, 10-0, the Rams again charged downfield. Thanks in part to a 45-yard pass from Everett to House, the Rams made their way to the Washington 17, only to watch Dickerson fumble the ball away after being hit by safety Curtis Jordan.

For Dickerson, who finished with 158 yards in 26 carries, the loss did not come easily.

“They’re mental mistakes,” Dickerson said of his three fumbles. “It was my fault. I will take the blame. The loss is kind of on my shoulders. It happened and I’m sorry about it. We did what we wanted to do, but I loused it up. A lot of players depend on me. Today, I let them down. In the long run, though, I’ll win more than I lose.”

But Dickerson wasn’t the only offender.

In fact, the most controversial call of the game would involve a fumble by the Rams’ tight end Hill, which ended yet another Ram drive.

The two-yard pass from Everett to Hill to the Redskin 26 seemed simple enough. Washington linebacker Monte Coleman threw Hill to the dirt. The ball popped free. Linebacker Neal Olkewicz picked up the ball and ran.

The back judge ruled the play dead. The line judge ruled a fumble. The play was kicked upstairs to the press box, where replay official Joe Gardi examined the evidence. He looked at the play again. And again. And one more time.

The Redskin crowd went crazy. The Rams shivered. Robinson was incensed over the delay. His team, he figured, had lost all momentum no matter what way the call went.

Four minutes and 40 seconds later, Gardi ruled that Hill had fumbled, giving the Redskins the ball at their 45.

“To take five minutes to determine that is a damn disgrace,” Robinson said.

The Redskins took over with 9:41 left in the half and used up 8:36 before Atkinson made it 13-0 with a field goal with just 1:05 left in the half.

In the end, the Rams had no one to blame but themselves. They outgained the Redskins in total yardage, 324 to 228, and the defense played well enough to win, though it did allow George Rogers 115 yards rushing.

“Efficiency is what did us in,” Robinson said. “The turnovers. They were decisive, too much to overcome. We could not overcome the first quarter. We made the mistakes that gave them the chance to get a 10-point lead.”

The Redskins had only recovered nine fumbles all season. Sunday, they received four from the Rams.

“We haven’t been getting the ball from people, causing fumbles,” Redskin Coach Joe Gibbs said. “So this was a good day for us.”

So the Rams’ season is over. Last season, they fell a game short of the Super Bowl, losing to the Chicago Bears in the NFC title game, 24-0.

This year, they promised to return, but they will not.

For the Rams, it was another nice little season. Ten wins and lots of laughs.

Is that enough for the Rams?

“It seems that way sometimes,” defensive end Gary Jeter said. “It shouldn’t be. We don’t have those type of players. But we’ve been to the playoffs four years in a row. That’s good, but we’ve got to get over the hump. We have to get the killer instinct.”