Rams Still Have Shot at Playoffs

Attention Ram Coach John Robinson: Please don’t read this. Also, turn off your television, lock yourself in the basement, yank the plug on your radio and stick a finger in each ear. You said you didn’t want to know whether your team was in or out of the playoff picture this morning. No news is good news, right?

“I prefer stupidity,” you said. “I don’t even know what the hell the deal is,” you said.

You want your team ready for the Dallas Cowboys tonight no matter what happened Sunday.

“I don’t want to say, oh geez, we’re out of the playoffs, why bother now,” you said.

So, if you’re lining a bird cage or something at this moment, turn the page. Because at this writing, on this morning, yes, you are still in the hunt for the last wild-card playoff spot, provided the Rams get their sixth straight victory tonight at Anaheim Stadium.

It wasn’t easy. The Minnesota Vikings beat the Detroit Lions, 17-14, Sunday, which means the Rams needed the St. Louis Cardinals to beat the Buccaneers in Tampa Bay or be mathematically eliminated.

And though Robinson wasn’t watching, of course, the Cardinals did win, rallying from a 7-0 first-quarter deficit to win, 31-14.

So, inhale please, if the Rams win tonight and next week at San Francisco and the Cardinals beat Dallas and the Vikings lose to Washington, guess which team (hint: Goat horns on helmets) gets in?

How Robinson is going to keep the news from players all day today is another story. Then again, who thought he could win five straight games with Charles White in the backfield?

Also important to the Rams was Seattle’s victory over Chicago on Sunday because it gives the NFC East champion Redskins a little extra incentive to beat Minnesota next Saturday in order to earn the home-field advantage.

It means nothing, of course, if the Rams lose again. Fortunately, they get a Dallas team tonight that is quickly running out of America’s Steam. The Cowboys, with next year on their minds, will give Steve Pelluer the start at quarterback.

This is a team in transition.

“We’re an old team and we’re a young team,” Cowboy running back Herschel Walker said. “There’s no in-between. Our young guys already (have) been thrown to the lions and have been educated early. I think in a year that Dallas is going to pick it back up.”

Dallas has been rebuilding on the run, almost completely revamping its offensive line during the course of the season. It seems now they even regret the midseason retirement of offensive tackle, Phil Pozderac, a favorite target of tomato throwers when he played.

The Cowboys, though, have more offensive weapons than you might think. Unfortunately, all are named Herschel Walker.

There’s Walker the tailback, who leads the team with 646 yards rushing in 161 carries. There’s also Walker the wide receiver, the team’s reception leader with 51 for 611 yards.

Walker also lines up at tight end, fullback, in the slot. If the Cowboys had 11 Walkers, they might go to the Super Bowl.

But they don’t, so they wring Walker’s many talents like a wet sponge.

“It seems like everyone was so surprised to see me catch the ball or line up at wide receiver or tight end,” Walker said. “People are just amazed at that. It’s not a surprise to me because I’ve got the will to compete. That’s what life is about.”

It’s not the most wonderful life, though.

Walker would rather play tailback, his natural position, in an offense, say, like the one the Rams have. Walker would rather run the ball 30 times a game, not 14, like last week.

But with Dallas’ offensive line so different and new, some might even say bad, the Cowboys perhaps aren’t prepared to run Walker in a pure power game.

So they move him around the backfield like a chess piece, hoping opponents lose track of him for a split second, which is about all Walker needs with his speed.

“I love to run the ball,” Walker said. “It’s what I learned as a kid, it’s all I know. But I’m also a guy that can do a lot of different things and I think they want to take advantage of it because we’ve got so many injuries. We had to change our game plan since training camp.”

And who’s to say the Cowboys are wrong in doing the Walker shuffle?

In the NFC, Walker trails only White of the Rams in total yards from scrimmage with 1,257.

But as one Heisman Trophy winner to another, Walker can’t help but admire White and the Rams’ run offense.

Is it just about perfect?

“Yes,” Walker said. “The Rams’ bread and butter is running the ball. For a tailback, that’s the place you want to be at.”

Ram Notes

A Charles White Christmas: The Ram tailback is looking for his sixth consecutive 100-yard game and his eighth of the season. White needs 165 yards tonight to reach 1,378 for the season, which would equal his rushing total during his first six seasons in the NFL. . . . More on Herschel Walker: Coach John Robinson said that while he was coaching at USC, there was one week he thought for sure the Trojans were going to get both Walker and quarterback John Elway. Walker flipped a coin and chose Georgia. Elway, of course, ended up at Stanford. And Robinson wondered what might have been. “Marcus Allen was a freshman,” he said. . . . As you know, Cowboy Coach Tom Landry has been taking some heat from owner Bum Bright lately. Landry thinks he knows why: “We’re having a tough time in Texas,” Landry said. “We’re in a mild depression, really, and people like our owner, Bum Bright, there’s no telling how many millions of dollars he’s lost with real estate and oil. I guess the Cowboys were the one thing he felt pretty comfortable with, and when they didn’t go good, he didn’t like it very well. Hey, a guy has to express himself. It doesn’t help us, but we have to overcome it if we’re going to win.” . . . Cowboy reserve defensive back Victor Scott was in an automobile accident Saturday night in Dallas and required six stitches in the head. The club says he will play.