Forget January ‘80, Forget November, They Could Do It

The Rams of October stood tall and handsome, looking for all the world like a football team Super Bowl-bound, poised and confident and generally goof-proof.

The Rams of November were a ragged little herd, poor little lambs who had lost their way, bad, bad, bad. They were unimpressive and mistake-ridden, with Jim Everett having misplaced the lovely touch he’d had the month before.

The Rams of December were hard and firm and mean, with Everett getting the hang of things again, and Henry Ellard catching every football that was thrown where he could get his sticky fingers on it.

It is still December. The Rams have a playoff date today at Minnesota. The Rams have a chance to do some good.

They can do it.

They can beat anybody.

They have beaten the 49ers. They have beaten the Bears. They have beaten the best the National Football Conference has to offer.

All the Rams have to do is not beat themselves.

It is a pathetic axiom from the Coaches’ Handbook, one that men such as John Robinson spout week after week. Never, alas, have truer words been spoken, at least in this case. From this point on, no one but the Rams can beat the Rams.

See, there is no super team in the Super Bowl race this season. No team the Rams cannot beat. No teams to whom the Rams should be touchdown-underdogs.

This season, if the Rams lose in the playoffs, there is no particular reason to say, “Well, it’s no disgrace to lose to those guys.”

The Rams are as good as anybody left in the chase for the big trophy.

There is nothing about the Buffalo Bills or the Cincinnati Bengals that is so scary that the Rams couldn’t cope come January, should they happen to arrange passage to Miami for Super Bowl XXIII.

Never before have the Rams won a Super Bowl. Only once have they been to one. This time, it is out there, just waiting for them. The time is right, or ripe, or whatever you like your time to be.

The Rams have a good enough quarterback to get there. Everett is as good as anybody left. Scouting their own conference, Minnesota’s quarterbacks are adequate, no more, Chicago’s are broken, Philadelphia’s is excellent but erratic, and San Francisco’s is not what he used to be.

As for the other conference, Jim Kelly and Boomer Esiason and Warren Moon and Dave Krieg are all fine and dandy, but nobody here should leave the Ram defense quaking in its cleats. The Rams can match up. The Rams can score. This isn’t Dieter Brock they are sending out there anymore. An early 10-point disadvantage no longer means the game is over.

The Rams have fine kicking, reliable receivers, a solid offensive line, decent running backs. They also have rid themselves of the I-me-mine attitude that was Eric Dickerson’s, so they go into the game with excellent morale.

Maybe it won’t be enough. Minnesota is no pushover, and there is no underestimating the value of a home field, a home crowd. Noise in a domed stadium can make a smart team stupid.

The Rams will scarcely see one friendly face for every 10,000 faces in the building. Their own fans are staying away in droves, huddled at home for the holidays, understandably reluctant to give up family for football.

If the Rams lose today, therefore, it will not be a shock. It will prove little else than the simple fact that, in the National Football League these days, particularly in a single-elimination format, we should be prepared for anything, expect nothing. The better team won’t necessarily win.

It’s just that we like the Rams’ chances. Don’t ask why. There is something about this team that makes us think it could go the distance. And just might.

We realize that by afternoon we could be sorry we ever uttered these words, but nevertheless, we like the Rams over the Vikings today, like them a lot.

Some of us have been weaned on the popular cynicism that the Rams will always find a way to lose the big game. We instead choose to believe that history means nothing. If history influenced football more, Green Bay would never have a losing season.

The significance of tradition and experience always seems to surface as an explanation for a team’s successes and failures, or as a motivating factor for its future. After the 31-19 loss to Pittsburgh in Super Bowl XIV, Ram players were full of talk about the importance of having been to the ball.

Quarterback Vince Ferragamo said that 1980 day: “The big thing is that we’ve been to a Super Bowl. We’ve had a taste. We know now what it takes to win this thing.”

Lot of good it did them. Previous results mean nothing, absolutely nothing. What Denver learned from appearing in and losing Super Bowl XXI was that it was eminently capable of appearing in and losing Super Bowl XXII. The Bear and Giant “dynasties” of the 1980s were so brief, neither team even had another chance to lose a Super Bowl.

What the Rams have done before will have no bearing on what they do today. They are good enough to win. The rest is up to them.

We’d kind of like to see what sort of team they would be in January.