Robinson’s Chronicles, Abridged Version : Coach Reaches Deep to Try to Stir Struggling Rams Against Bears
After months of professional football as usual in Anaheim, John Robinson went tearing through old college scripts this week in search of ancient pep rallies.
In these desperate times for desperate Rams, Robinson needs to fan a student-body bonfire from a team of smoldering embers. Four straight losses will send most coaches running for Bartlett’s.
“All the good stuff I’ve got to say I’m going to say it,” Robinson said.
Six years removed from the college scene, he’s still the last USC coach to have beaten Notre Dame. Let’s see, how did that pregame speech go again?
Tonight, the sales pitch has been arranged for the team north of South Bend, Ind., just across the border into Chicago, where the Bears roam in the NFC’s Central Division.
Welcome to the game of Us against the World.
College rah-rah tactics are difficult at best in the National Football League, where player attentions have long turned from pep-rallies to investment management.
Still, being a John Robinson vocal chord this week was ragged work, especially during Friday’s practice, at which Robinson coached and cursed with fervor not seen since his back was pinned to a stadium wall last season at Washington.
On that day, with his team still flailing after the loss of Eric Dickerson, Robinson pulled off a major Monday night upset over the Redskins, a team that would go on to better things, such as Super Bowl rings.
Robinson is looking for a similar emotional rescue tonight. It’s not the kind of plea that goes over big when the Chargers are coming to town. Or the Atlanta Falcons.
But the Bears are the Bears, and this is the Rams’ only Monday night shot of the season. Imagine the ratings crash should the Rams bring their San Diego game-faces.
Robinson also knows that these are wounded Bears, perhaps primed to be taken on prime time. Darn the bad luck. Richard Dent, Chicago’s All-Pro right defensive end, fractured an ankle during last week’s 16-0 victory over Green Bay.
The Rams will gladly roll out the carpet for Dent’s backup, Sean Smith.
And making his NFL starting debut at quarterback against the Rams is Jim Harbaugh, who’s taking over for Mike Tomczak (separated shoulder), who was taking over for starter Jim McMahon (knee).
How many times in life do you get an opponent’s third-stringer?
McMahon is eligible to return off injured reserve this week but the operative words here are fat and chance. Is Harbaugh any good? Who knows. But no one can accuse him of being soft. Frustrated at his lack of playing time this season, he volunteered to run down on the kickoff team.
And get this--when Harbaugh asked Coach Mike Ditka for permission, Ditka said yes.
“It was a lot of fun, a real rush running down there,” Harbaugh said. “I made a couple of tackles.”
Of course, Ditka has never been your typical level-headed football coach.
“He was like when you have a youngster that’s kind of hyperactive,” Ditka said of Harbaugh. “He can’t sit still. He felt he wasn’t really contributing, so we put him on special teams. A couple of guys knocked him around pretty good. There’s a maturing process in it.”
Translation: Watch out for Harbaugh after an interception.
Ditka said the move might cost him coach-of-the-year honors.
“You don’t question his toughness,” he said. “You just don’t know how smart it is to put a No. 1 draft choice quarterback on special teams. That’s sometimes my mentality, that’s where I’m not as smart as some other people.”
Others wonder how different the Bears are with Harbaugh or Tomczak or Flutie or Fuller or . . . McMahon?
“It isn’t like Denver losing John Elway,” Robinson said.
Ditka has been saying it to his quarterbacks for years--just don’t lose, baby. And when could the Bears ever count on McMahon for a 2-month stretch?
“People aren’t willing to look back at 1985 when we had Steve Fuller in the lineup and we won four games the year we went to Super Bowl,” Ditka said. “Of course, we won the games in the playoffs with Jim playing. But we won 4 games and beat Dallas, 44-0, with Steve in the game. We have won in the past (without McMahon.)”
It’s enough to make a quarterback choke on a taco. What about all that live or die with McMahon stuff?
“I think those are things that are more made up by the media,” Ditka said. “That we can only perform with one guy. If our system is sound, and we protect the quarterback, we feel we have capable people.”
If Ditka is right and Harbaugh is good enough and the loss of Dent doesn’t put too big a dent in the Bears’ defense, the Rams might want to put another log on the bonfire.
Ram Notes
The game is a sellout and will be televised in Los Angeles. . . . If Jim Harbaugh goes down, the Bears will turn to a quarterback from another league--Ben Bennett, signed this week in case of emergency. Bennett was the Arena Football League’s MVP with the Chicago Bruisers. “He did have a good year with Arena Football,” Coach Mike Ditka said. “I don’t know what that means, I really don’t. I watched him play on film some. I liked what I saw. . . . I think he’ll be able to hut-one, hut-two, anyways.” . . . This could be one giant leap night for Bears’ tailback Neal Anderson and Greg Bell of the Rams, both with a real shot at gaining more than 1,000 yards rushing for the season. Bell, who leads the NFC with 15 touchdowns, needs 40 yards for 1,000 and Anderson, with 11 touchdowns, is 87 yards shy. . . . Ram linebacker Mark Jerue’s knee has been ailing all week and he’ll likely end up inactive for the second straight week. . . . The Bears have not allowed a rushing touchdown in 9 weeks and have given up only two all season. . . . Chicago also leads the league in fewest points allowed--152. . . . Hey, Ditka can’t understand what has happened to the Rams, either. “I really believed that at the 9-game mark in the season, there wasn’t a team better than the L.A. Rams,” Ditka said. “Something’s happened in the last several weeks that’s hurt them a bit. I really don’t see that it’s indicative of the football team they have.” . . . Bell is 5 touchdowns from tying Eric Dickerson’s single-season Ram record of 20.
