Dickerson Is a Witness as Rams Are Mugged, 30-17 : He Sits Out Second Half as Browns Win

It might be remembered as the night a special season and a special running back unraveled all at once, with only a nation serving as witness.

The Rams, who had such a gift in Eric Dickerson and such a lofty goal as the Super Bowl, were left to wonder where each had gone Monday night.

For the Cleveland Browns all but turned the Rams season to mush with a 30-17 win in front of 76,933 at Cleveland Stadium.

This was more than a loss for the Rams, who stumble home wounded and weak with only one measly replacement-team win to show for a season in which the team promised the world.

It was a loss in which the game’s best runner, Dickerson, would be allowed to toil on the sideline with his thoughts while his soiled teammates were losing not only a game but, perhaps, a season.

Dickerson, who has made it clear that he doesn’t want to play another minute with his present franchise, would only tease his team with his talent, running brilliantly for a 27-yard touchdown at the close of the first half.

“They can say I’m greedy, or whatever they want,” Dickerson said. “But they can’t say I can’t play football.”

But there would only be glimpses of Dickerson, who was granted his wish to play sparingly and carried only 7 times for 38 yards.

But at what cost? A season? A reputation? A career? A cover-up?

Afterward, Ram Coach John Robinson would brush the Dickerson question aside, saying the back was hampered by injury.

“Eric played, but had a charley horse-type injury on his thigh and has had it for a while and it has been bothering him,” Robinson said. “He took a couple of hits early and our doctors worked at it at halftime and they felt that he shouldn’t play. They felt that it may get progressively worse if he continues.”

Whether Dickerson could have made the difference can only be speculated. And what of the notion that he deserted the team just when it needed him most? Perhaps it was the plan all along; Dickerson’s surest ticket out of town.

“I don’t care what my teammates think,” Dickerson said. “Are they going to send a check to pay my mortgage? Are they going to send a check for my momma’s mortgage? I’m looking out for Eric Dickerson and my family. I wish they’d make some sort of arrangement and trade me.”

The loss leaves the Rams at 1-5 with the San Francisco 49ers coming to town next Sunday. The real Rams, in fact, have not won a regular-season game since last Dec. 7, a 29-10 win over the Dallas Cowboys at Anaheim Stadium.

Jim Everett, whose strong finish against the Browns could not overcome an awful beginning, is 3-6 since taking over as starting quarterback.

The Rams have been knocked down, perhaps as much by themselves as anyone else.

For while the Browns were taking an early 10-0 lead, it must be said that Dickerson was watching.

And the Rams would never recover.

It was 23-7 at the half. A season could be felt slipping away. On the second play of the second half, Brown quarterback Bernie Kosar inserted the dagger in the form of a 53-yard scoring pass to Brian Brennan.

Rallying behind what pride remained, the Rams tried to make a game of it. They cut the lead to 30-14 in the third quarter on a one-yard run by Dickerson’s backup, Charles White. A Mike Lansford field goal at the end of quarter made it 30-17, which provided the Rams hope.

But the Rams’ game ultimately died on the Browns’ 15-yard line, when White was stopped cold on fourth down and one with 10:56 remaining.

The Rams could only wonder what Dickerson might have done with the play. Well, maybe they do know.

“I would have made that yard,” Dickerson said after the game.

Brown Coach Marty Schottenheimer said of Dickerson afterward: “I didn’t even know how much he played,”

OK.

True, there were others on the field. Everett, who struggled before the strike and after, made an unRam-like 50 passes against Cleveland, completing only 21. He threw three interceptions.

The Browns’ Kosar, who is actually younger than Everett, had another Kosar-cool night, completing 19 of 30 passes for 223 yards and a touchdown.

White, subbing for Dickerson, finished with 54 yards in 13 carries. For the pleasure, he cracked the index finger in his right hand and sprained his left.

“It seems to be a difficult time for us to get anything going,” Robinson said. “We continue to struggle through a series of events that almost seem hard to believe.”

And then there’s the biggest struggle.

If Dickerson was indeed playing Monday night’s entrance for dramatics and leverage, then his message was pointed and well taken.

Dickerson, as he’s said in so many words, is the Rams.

So his grand entrance, with 13:17 left in the first half and his team trailing 10-0, seemed only to confirm his position.

His team needed him more than he needed them. For Dickerson, it was almost perfect.

The Rams seemed lost without him. They drove impressively to the Browns’ goal line in the first quarter but messed up the payoff when James McDonald was called for motion, negating White’s one-yard touchdown dive.

On the next play, an Everett pass bounced off the right shoulder of tight end David Hill and into the hands of safety Felix Wright, who took it 68 yards the other way, setting up a 23-yard field goal by Jeff Jaeger.

Yeah, a killer momentum swing.

The Browns made it 10-0 in the second quarter when Kevin Mack capped a 63-yard drive with a 16-yard touchdown run, bouncing off three Ram defenders along the way.

Then, it was Dickerson time. He strutted into the huddle, though he was to be hammered and held to two yards in two carries.

On third down, Everett, looking more his age with each passing day, thought he had spotted Ellard open near his 40-yard line. What he didn’t know was that Wright was laying back for the pass. Felix, quick as the cat, sprang at the moment of release, stepped in front of Ellard and returned the intercepted pass 40 yards for a touchdown.

That made it 17-0 with 11:53 left in the half.

Dickerson stayed around for the next series, gaining eight yards in all, but it wasn’t enough to keep the Rams from punting.

The Browns, perhaps sensing a kill, used two pass interference calls on the Ram secondary on their next drive to set up Jaeger’s second field goal of the half, this one from 48 yards.

Dickerson sat out the next series but, with his team in desperate need, he returned late in the half just to show the nation a bit of his stuff.

With 1:31 left in the half, Dickerson went left on 47-Gap and cut back right through a gaping hole, running 27 yards for a touchdown, cutting the lead to 20-7.

With that Dickerson, his point made and, his hamstrings tightening, called it a night.

Ram Notes Ram running back Buford McGee tore his right Achilles’ tendon in the fourth quarter and will undergo surgery today. He is expected to miss the rest of the season.