Rams : NFL Schedule Seems to Favor 49ers
Once again, Sunday’s season-ending game between the Rams and San Francisco 49ers at Candlestick Park turns out to be high-stakes drama with maybe the NFC West title on the line.
So why isn’t one coach smiling?
Monday, John Robinson chose not to praise National Football League schedule-makers but to bury them.
“That’s something that we have to get stopped,” Robinson said Monday. “It’s one of those league things that is inequitable.”
What’s Robinson’s beef?
Since 1984, the Rams have played the second game of their series doubleheader with the 49ers on the road. Three times, it has been the last game of the season, and this is the third time that the game could determine the divisional title.
Robinson said he has asked the league office why the Rams never seem to get that last game at home.
“They told us to check the computer,” he said. “And we don’t have the computer code, so every time we check we get ‘invalid’ . . . It is unfair and we are complaining. Hopefully, we will find the code to the computer.”
League schedules are put together by Val Pinchbeck Jr., the league’s director of broadcasting, and Joe Rhein, director of administration. The schedules are then sent to Commissioner Pete Rozelle for approval.
When contacted Monday, Pinchbeck said there are no ulterior motives in the Ram-49er scheduling.
“Of course it’s not by design,” Pinchbeck said. “This year, if we would have had the chance, we would have liked to play the last game in L.A. We were unable to do it.”
Pinchbeck said that three variables often come into play in scheduling: television, baseball and weather.
Because of their arrangement with the Angels and Anaheim Stadium, Pinchbeck said, the Rams had to be out of town in Weeks 1, 3, 4 and 6. The league wanted the Rams and 49ers to play Week 7 as part of its national doubleheader game and couldn’t schedule it at Candlestick because of possible World Series conflicts with the National League host city, which might have been the Giants.
He said it’s not as easy as just flip-flopping the series each year.
“That’s oversimplification,” he said.
Pinchbeck said another big factor is television, and a big Ram-49er season ender has a better chance to sell out in San Francisco.
“You’d certainly want a prime-time game in L.A. to sell out,” Pinchbeck said. “That’s another element.”
Pinchbeck, though, said complaints by the Rams about the scheduling have been taken under advisement.
“Next year, we’ll make an effort to do it the other way,” Pinchbeck said. “When the schedule went out, they reminded us that it’s gone the other way for a few years.”
And how have the Rams fared in Candlestick Park since 1984? They have lost 3 of the 4 games, winning in 1985, 27-20, and clinching the divisional title a week later against St. Louis.
In 1986, with the NFC West title on the line, the 49ers won, 24-14.
Last season, San Francisco humiliated the Rams, 48-0, the most lopsided loss in Ram history.
Playoff formula update bulletin: According to the NFL’s interpretation of the wild-card formula, the Rams will not make the playoffs if they end up in a 3-way tie at 10-6 with Minnesota and Philadelphia.
The first wild-card spot would go to the Vikings, based on the fifth tiebreaker, best net points in conference games. Then, the system reverts to a 2-way tiebreaker between the Eagles and Rams. Philadelphia would go because it defeated the Rams, 30-24.
In other words, next Monday night’s game between the Chicago Bears and Vikings has no bearing on the Rams’ playoff hopes.
The Rams still have three ways to make the playoffs, assuming they defeat the 49ers. If New Orleans loses to Atlanta, the Rams will win the NFC West title. The Rams will go as a wild-card team if Dallas defeats Philadelphia or the New York Jets beat the Giants.
Regrets, he has a few: Now that the Rams need some help to make the playoffs, Robinson can’t help but think back and wonder about the ones that got away.
“Probably the worst thing about our season is that we let 4 in a row get away,” he said. “If we could have broken that 4 in a row up some way, gotten just 1 win in there. . . That was damaging to us.”
The biggest loss? Easy. His team’s 38-24 defeat by the San Diego Chargers on Nov. 20.
“I was embarrassed at the San Diego game,” he said.
Ram Notes
One more playoff note: If the Rams and Vikings end up as the wild-card teams with 10-6 records, the game will be played in Anaheim, based on the Rams’ better record against common opponents. . . . Fullback Robert Delpino emerged from Sunday’s game with turf toe and Flipper Anderson strained a hamstring. Both are listed as questionable.
As if enough records weren’t broken Sunday, tight end Pete Holohan caught a career-high 8 passes against the Falcons and has 56 receptions for the season, which equals his career high set in 1984. . . . The 49ers are 10-0 in their last 2 games in the past 5 seasons. . . . The win over the Falcons left the Rams with a 4-4 home record this season. . . . With 10 sacks for the season, Gary Jeter is 1 shy of tying his career high of 11, set in 1985.
