Rams Weren’t Hurt All That Much When Greg Bell Was Injured
The runners are stacked so deep on the Rams’ tailback turf that Sunday’s game-ending injury to Greg Bell, the league’s leading rusher at the time, almost warmed a coach’s heart. Bell’s coach!
“I didn’t say, ‘Oh boy, good, you’re hurt,’ ” John Robinson said of Bell’s slight hamstring pull. “But I thought to myself, ‘Geez, I’m going to get to play these other guys.’ ”
Such are the luxuries of 5-0 coaches with bus loads of talent.
After Bell’s injury forced him out of the game in the second quarter, Robinson simply opened the refrigerator and grabbed two first-round draft picks, Cleveland Gary and Gaston Green, and Robert Delpino, a fifth-round choice who plays in a much higher league.
If nothing else, Sunday’s 26-14 victory over the Atlanta Falcons provided a glimpse of the Rams’ future, but until it’s here, the young backs better get used to role-playing.
Delpino gave a stirring demonstration of that. The second-year man from Missouri didn’t waste a breath on the field, rushing four times for 48 yards. He also had a touchdown reception of seven yards, returned a kickoff 22 yards, threw the lead block on Ron Brown’s 74-yard return and tackled Deion Sanders once as part of the kickoff return team.
Robinson said: “Bobby Delpino’s effort in the game was a big thing for me, in terms of ‘There’s a man who understands the role that he has to play,’ and he played it with brilliance.”
Gary and Green might want to take note. As long as Bell is running well, their chances will be few. But you never know when a guy’s hamstrings will tighten. Gary, the rookie from Miami, got seven carries against the Falcons for 25 yards; Green carried nine times for 36 yards. Soak it up while you can.
Robinson said he isn’t worried about having to spread the tailback job around right now because, well, Bell is swell and the others aren’t quite ready to be impact players.
“We don’t have too many good running backs,” Robinson said. “I mean, we have some guys that are doing a good job, but most of those kids are just starting. Cleveland Gary is just a guy, he doesn’t know half our offense, so he’s just getting started. Gaston Green, out of the last eight games, he’s missed four to injury, or not being ready. It’s a nice collection of young backs, but I see them very much as learning people.”
The years ahead could be very different. Robinson is considering a change in offensive formations to accommodate his fleet.
“I think it forces some adjustments on our part in terms of our style of offense,” he said. “We might want to see ourselves going back to a two-back--not back, I’ve never been there--but to a two-back offense, kind of like the (San Francisco) 49ers. Remember (Wendell) Tyler and (Roger) Craig? I think both had a thousand yards one year, or close. That’s just speculation.”
For now, though, it’s take a number, wait your turn, and don’t blow it when it comes.
“I think it would be nice if everybody got some action,” Robinson said. “Is it important? Only if it helps us win.”
When you’re 5-0, everything seems to break your way, even shoulders. Instead of facing quarterback Jim Kelly and the Buffalo Bills next Monday night, the Rams will get Frank Reich, who until Sunday’s mop-up work hadn’t thrown a regular-season pass since 1986.
Kelly, the AFC’s top-rated passer, separated his left shoulder in the Bills’ loss to Indianapolis. Reich put up some good numbers in relief, completing 11 of 19 passes for 177 yards. Reich has thrown 39 passes in four years.
The league’s only unbeaten team is trying to keep its emotions under wraps.
“I don’t think we’re influenced much by the euphoria of what others may say about 5-0,” Robinson said. “Within our own walls of our team, we’re excited as hell about our team for our reasons. I think guys are excited that Bobby Delpino made that catch, and Ron Brown ran back a kickoff. Those things are becoming very exciting to us, but I don’t think we are very interested right now in other people.
“I don’t think we’re interested in, ‘How good are the (New York) Giants? The (Chicago) Bears?’ We got a lot of guys who’ve never been to Chicago, and a whole bunch who’ve never been to Buffalo.”
Ram Notes
Linebacker Fred Strickland took another hit on his right knee Sunday, but a magnetic reasonance imaging test Monday proved negative. Strickland had arthroscopic surgery on the knee in August but the Rams are calling this injury “an irritation to the joint lining.” They’ve listed Strickland as questionable for Monday night’s game.
Greg Bell’s tight hamstring cost him the chance of returning to Buffalo as the National Football League’s leading rusher. Bell started Sunday’s game six yards ahead of Chicago’s Neal Anderson but left the Atlanta game in the second quarter after gaining 62 yards in 10 carries. Anderson gained 86 yards against Tampa Bay and leads the league with 530, 28 more yards than Bell. Bell spent more than three seasons in Buffalo before being dealt to the Rams in 1987 as part of the Eric Dickerson deal.
On defense, the Rams rank third against the run and 27th against the pass. “It is the most deceiving statistic in football,” John Robinson said of his team’s pass defense numbers. “And the least important statistic. It does not equate to winning much.”
