Pro Football : Defense Makes a Difference, as It Usually Does
The most obvious difference between the Raiders and Rams this season is that the Rams have the personnel to play effective defense.
The Raiders, as a 1989 defensive team, are basically inept, proving it rather conclusively in Kansas City Sunday.
On a good day for quarterback Jay Schroeder, the Raiders lost, 24-19, to the Kansas City Chiefs because they couldn’t defend against three long touchdown drives measuring 71, 88 and 92 yards.
Hours later in Anaheim, on a big day for quarterback Jim Everett and wide receiver Henry Ellard, the Rams won easily, 31-17, by playing a smart defensive game against the Indianapolis Colts--particularly against running back Eric Dickerson and his very young quarterback, Chris Chandler.
The Colts, in a stirring effort to keep the Rams off Dickerson’s back, attacked with pass formations exclusively--with new sets featuring three and four wide receivers. Their objective was to force the Ram defense to double-cover Chandler’s receivers--thus opening some holes for Dickerson.
The Rams simply ignored this strategy. They lined up against Dickerson, anyway. They knew they could beat a young passer by reacting to the ball when he put it up. They weren’t going to let Dickerson win it. On nearly every down they met Dickerson with a gang regardless of whether he had the ball.
Chandler is 23 years old. He is the youngest Colt. He was possibly the youngest player on the field. He is one of the youngest quarterbacks ever called on to lead a National Football League championship contender.
And although he is a fine talent with, no doubt, a fine future--demonstrating it with a touchdown bomb in the second quarter--he is no threat yet. The Indianapolis threat is Dickerson, who gained 100-plus yards against a team that committed seven or eight of its 11 defensive players against him on every down.
That is the way to defense Dickerson. That is the way to defense Indianapolis.
On the Anaheim field, Dickerson, who is 29, appeared to be as fast and dangerous as ever. But the Indianapolis defensive team, by comparison with the Rams, is neither fast nor dangerous.
The Colts seldom got a rush on Everett, who was well served, as usual, by his offensive line, which is probably the best in the conference. And in the secondary, the Colts lacked the quickness to contend with Ellard.
Indianapolis cornerbacks were frequently in step with Ellard under Everett’s passes, but they were outmaneuvered almost every time at the moment of the catch.
There isn’t another receiver in the league with Ellard’s ability to make a defensive back lean one way for the ball just as he goes the other way to grab it.
This game was child’s play for Everett and Ellard. And what it chiefly showed is what all such matchups show: The best teams in the American Conference are no match for the best in the National Conference.
The Colts are a nice little AFC team, but in Anaheim Sunday they found themselves in the big leagues.
This isn’t to say that the Rams are a team without a weakness. On clutch plays, for one thing, they don’t run the ball well with Greg Bell. Although a team coached by John Robinson will always look good in the annual rushing statistics, Bell is no Dickerson.
What the Rams need is Dickerson. With Everett, Ellard and Dickerson, they would be breezing this fall to the Super Bowl. They may be anyway. Not since the Waterfield-Van Brocklin-Hirsch-Fears era 30 years ago have the Rams passed the ball this artistically.
The Raiders are fielding a lively, well-coached offensive club this season, unlike their recent past. With Schroeder, running back Marcus Allen and quality receivers, they have everything, seemingly, but a quality offensive line.
A team that gives up back-to-back sacks in the fourth quarter when it has a chance to win--as the Raiders did in Kansas City--needs considerably more offensive-line depth than this team has.
Where is 1988 center Bill Lewis, the Raiders’ MVP blocker last year?
Why did they pick up a center off the streets instead?
Where is their defense?
The defense, of course, is the real problem. There is almost nothing left of the last great Raider defensive club these days but safety Vann McElroy.
Howie Long is no longer a factor. Matt Millen is with the San Francisco 49ers. Another talent, Sean Jones, was banished for mouthing off during the 1987 strike. Some of his old teammates have aged. Some are too young. Others are perhaps looking forward to a new life in Oakland or Sacramento.
Earlier in the ‘80s when the Raiders came to Los Angeles, they had a Hall of Fame talent, Ted Hendricks, at linebacker. Now they have Jackie Shipp there, and, as they have discovered, any team dropping from Hendricks to Shipp is in trouble.
To be sure, the Raiders under Al Davis remain the most successful American sports team of the last quarter century. They’ve done a lot--and they’ll be back. The question is when.