Rams Turn Back Calendar and Bears : Month-Long Slide Ends With 23-3 Win
It was a 4-game losing streak that stretched on like 4 years for the Rams, who in a month’s time had gone from an elite team to a cowering inferno.
But Monday night, the Rams turned back the pages to October, the month of their last victory, and stung the Chicago Bears, 23-3, at Anaheim Stadium.
The Bears will demand asterisks. Their offense was guided by a third-string quarterback, Jim Harbaugh, who played the part well, and a defensive line without Richard Dent (broken leg), an All-Pro sacker with few peers.
But, as down as the Rams were, who had time to count bodies?
“It was like in the movie ‘An Officer and a Gentleman,’ ” cornerback LeRoy Irvin said. “You know, where he’s saying, ‘Are you going to quit now?’ And the guy says, ‘No, I’ve got no place to go.’ We had no place to go.”
Besides, the Rams did things to the Bears that aren’t usually done, Harbaugh or no, such as holding Chicago without a touchdown for the first time this season and scoring a rushing touchdown against the Bear defense, which hadn’t given one up in 9 weeks.
The Rams also put together their most impressive offensive stretch of the season, a 17-minute barrage that began at the end of the third quarter, when Jim Everett hit Henry Ellard for a 31-yard touchdown pass, breaking up a most dreadful 6-3 game.
It left the Rams in control of the fourth quarter, a position they have rarely enjoyed this season.
Early in the quarter, the Rams actually bullied the rugged Bear defense and put the game away with two big plays on one important drive. First, there was a 46-yard pass from Everett to Ellard to the Chicago 33. Then there was Greg Bell’s 32-yard run on the next play, setting up his 1-yard touchdown run 2 plays later.
It put the Rams ahead, 20-3, with 11:51 left.
Even more impressive was the Rams’ next possession, when they dived headfirst into the heart of the Bear defense, grinding out a 62-yard, 14-play drive that consumed 8:35 and ended with a 22-yard field goal by Mike Lansford.
Bell didn’t gain 100 yards on the National Football League’s No. 1 rush defense, but he came close, carrying 28 times for 98 yards.
Ellard, who had 132 receiving yards on 6 catches, took over the NFL lead in yardage with 1,248.
Everett completed 17 of 31 passes for 251 yards, raising his season total to 3,460 yards and breaking Vince Ferragamo’s team record of 3,276 yards, set in 1983.
Jim Harbaugh? He completed 11 of 30 passes for 108 yards.
The Ram defense held the Bears to 114 yards rushing and generally controlled the game. Was this the same defense that gave up 500 yards to the Phoenix Cardinals?
Same faces, different result.
“I believe we took them out of their running game by getting off the ball quickly,” Gary Jeter said. “This was a great game tonight. The Bears are a tough team. I hope it’s possible we meet them down the road in the playoffs.”
However, the climb through the NFC West standings must still be made on a greasy vine, as the Rams scratch out their favorite wild-card playoff formulas. There are, by the way, about a million of them.
But Coach John Robinson is thankful enough to still be part of the league’s mathematical equation. A 7-7 record was Monday night’s other option.
“You know, we’ve been through some tough times,” Robinson said. “When the going gets tough, you find out something about your team. This football team has stuck together and played very, very well.”
The first three quarters weren’t exactly professional football at its finest. Everett had 3 passes intercepted in the first 35 minutes of play.
The highlights? Well, Bell went over the 1,000-yard mark for the season on a 2-yard run with 1:56 left in the third quarter. It was a watershed mark for Bell, who had been left for dead last year by most NFL observers, including a few head coaches.
The Rams, begging for big plays on defense all season, got two in the first half but could turn them only into field goals.
Late in the first quarter, Neal Anderson fumbled in the backfield when tackled by Ram defensive end Doug Reed, and Carl Ekern recovered. It appeared that the ground caused the fumble, but the play was upheld after an instant-replay review.
The Rams drove the ball from the Bears’ 43 to the 7, where the drive died, and the Rams had to settle for Lansford’s 25-yard field goal. It gave them a 3-0 lead with 51 seconds left in the quarter.
The defense handed the Rams another opportunity minutes later when rookie safety Anthony Newman made a brilliant one-handed interception of a pass by Harbaugh and returned it 27 yards to the Chicago 24.
The Rams got as far as the 9 after a 12-yard pass from Everett to Pete Holohan, but this drive ended when Everett’s third-down pass sailed through Ellard’s hands in the end zone.
In stepped Lansford, who put the Rams ahead, 6-0, with 9:57 left in the half after a 27-yard field goal.
Exciting stuff. You wondered when the Bears would let the Rams have it for blowing two golden chances.
Chicago tried late in the half after taking over on a punt at its 46-yard line. An 8-yard pass by Harbaugh to tight end Jim Thornton ultimately put the Bears on the Rams’ 16.
But Harbaugh killed this drive on his own when he was called for intentional grounding on first down, resulting in a 10-yard penalty and loss of down. That was pretty much it for those touchdown hopes. Kevin Butler connected on a 39-yard field goal with 24 seconds left in the half to cut the lead to 6-3.
Neither team cracked 100 total yards in the half. It was that kind of half. Until the fourth quarter, it was that kind of game.
