Rams Switch Gears Sending Packers in Reverse, Win 34-7

The game of football isn’t as easy as the Rams made it look in Sunday’s 34-7 victory over the Green Bay Packers. Honest.

Balls just don’t drop into your lap the way they did at Lambeau Field. You don’t get quarterback Randy Wright every week. And some National Football League kick returners will actually hold onto the ball for more than 20 yards at a time without fumbling. It’s going to happen.

Remember it when the 49ers and the Saints come to town. Say it over and over: Some teams use their arms to tackle and their hands to catch. Some teams block. Sooner or later, you’re going to sweat.

But was this football heaven or what? Every team should be lucky enough to get the Packers in an opener--a team you can hit but won’t hit back. It was therapy more than football.

“Green Bay had to have every bad break you could possibly imagine,” Coach John Robinson said. “We had all the breaks.”

The problem is, the Rams won’t know what to make of the game film. It’ll be like breaking down the Battle of Bull Run.

We can’t possibly be this good, can we?

Probably not. For example: When the Rams came up with this new pressure defense idea a few months ago, they hoped it would raise a few eyebrows around the league.

They surely didn’t expect to cross-weave the quarterback into the fescue the first time out.

So how did Randy Wright become so well-rooted in Sunday’s soil? The Rams sacked the Packer quarterback 6 times for minus 37 yards before he was virtually booed out of the game at the end of the third quarter trailing, 31-0. His last completed pass went to cornerback Jerry Gray, who returned it 47 yards for the final Ram touchdown.

“The defensive front four were coming all day,” Gray said. “I think he just threw the ball off his back foot without even looking at me.”

It was sort of Wright’s style.

Don Majkowski replaced Wright in the fourth quarter. The Rams even sacked him once for 11 yards. These were the Rams, remember, the NFL’s 21st-ranked defensive team last year.

When the Rams weren’t sacking Wright they were usually just a step away with bags open.

Outside linebacker Kevin Greene continues to roam free in opposing backfields and is quickly becoming every quarterback’s worst nightmare.

Greene had two more sacks and a deflected pass Sunday though he missed some of the game with an ankle sprain.

“He’s just an outstanding player,” Robinson said. “He’s one of the top players at his position in the game today.”

And all because of a Ram change of heart this winter, when the team decided to come out of its cozy zone defense and start blitzing quarterbacks like almost every other successful team in the 1980s.

“It’s fun when you start believing you can rush the passer,” safety Vince Newsome said.

Of course, what’s fun against the Packers and San Diego Chargers of the world may not be so fun against the contenders.

It’s a chance you take.

Remember, blitzing more linebackers means leaving 30-year-old cornerbacks such as LeRoy Irvin covering the other team’s world-class sprinters, one-on-one.

The Packers tried to burn Irvin repeatedly on Sunday, but he held his ground nicely, intercepting his first pass of the season in the first half and generally making his presence known.

“It was like I woke up one morning and got no respect,” Irvin said. “Everyone’s going to come after me. And that’s the way I like it. . . . It gives me a chance to be on the camera more.”

But even Irvin knows that one game does not a season make.

“Green Bay has had problems even picking up four-man rushes before,” he said. “We knew we’d get pressure on them today. We’ll really know when we get a team that has a good offensive line and is able to, uh, block.”

The Packers did lend a hand or two, if you consider six fumbles (four lost) and two interceptions helping out.

That, plus the pass rush, made it a fairly easy day for the Ram offense, which pretty much spent the day playing a game of cashing Packer mistakes into points.

Which brings us to poor Norman Jefferson, the Green Bay kick/punt returner who couldn’t hold onto a ball Sunday to save his career.

He opened the game by fumbling the kickoff after a nifty 47-yard return. The Rams couldn’t take advantage of that one, but made up for it a little later in the quarter when Anthony Newman recovered Jefferson’s fumbled punt at the Packer 5-yard line.

Three plays later, tailback Greg Bell leaped over from the one, making it 7-0.

Jefferson fumbled the ensuing kickoff but recovered this one himself.

Excuses?

“I did lose one of the balls when the wind took it away from me,” Jefferson said. “I can admit that I messed up. It was my mistake, it had nothing to do with nerves.”

Mostly, it was a matter of the Ram offense retreating to the sideline and waiting for the Green Bay mistakes. The next one came late in the first quarter when cornerback Mickey Sutton knocked the ball free of receiver Perry Kemp’s hands, Mel Owens recovering at the Packers’ 44. Ten plays later, the Rams made it 14-0 on a 3-yard pass from quarterback Jim Everett to Bell.

A few minutes later it was Sutton again making the big play, returning a punt 46 yards to the Packer 11. Sutton obviously had a little better luck with gusting winds than Jefferson.

“It was a tough day,” said Sutton, who handled six punts without a bobble. “I did not want to put my team in a hole.”

What Sutton did with his long return was pretty much clinch the game.

From the 11, Everett hit wide receiver Henry Ellard with a quick pass for a touchdown with 4:06 left in the half to make it 21-0.

A 33-yard Mike Lansford field goal made it 24-0 in the third quarter before Gray made it 31-0 with his interception return for a touchdown on the last play of the third quarter.

The Packers’ only score came on a 17-yard pass from Majkowski to Ed West with 7:59 left.

It was a tough day all around for Coach Lindy Infante, making his coaching debut for Green Bay. And really, Packer fans do want to believe. Outside of Lambeau Field, he was greeted by one banner that read: “In-Fante We Trust.”

“I hope the team you saw today was not indicative of the way the rest of this season goes,” Infante said.

It could be a speech recited a thousand times over the years by Packer coaches who have followed in the shadow of you-know-who.

In the meantime, the Rams sit back and wonder what exactly their win means. Do they really have a crazy defense on their hands or are the Packers a lousy case study?

One thing seems clear: The Rams aren’t sitting on their defensive hands anymore. The players say they’re willing to get beat to beat someone. You can’t start a fire with a spark.

“We’ve been vanilla for so long,” defensive end Gary Jeter said. “We’ve got that down.”

And what about the risks?

“The risk is sitting there waiting, as we found out last year against San Francisco,” Jeter said of the team’s humiliating, 48-0, season-ending loss. “We sat there, we waited. And we got drilled. I’d rather go out there and meet the enemy than wait for the enemy to come to my house and kill me. I’d rather go get them.”

Ram Notes

Gaston Green, the Rams’ first-round choice, made his first appearance with 11:13 left in the game with his team leading, 31-0. Green finished with 5 carries for 14 yards and had 1 reception for 14 yards. . . . Quarterback Jim Everett had a rather quiet, but effective game. He completed 19 of 28 passes for 184 yards with 2 touchdowns. . . . Tailback Charles White was bothered with bruised ribs and gained only 44 yards in 16 carries.