PRO FOOTBALL : Rams’ Major Problem May Be Ineffective Running Game

The other day, when Coach Buddy Ryan of the Philadelphia Eagles was talking about the 1988 Washington Redskins, he could have meant the 1989 Rams.

“(The Redskins) didn’t have a running game last year, and that really hurt their defensive team,” Ryan said.

“You can’t control the ball without a running game. When you can’t make first downs, you’ve got to punt it, and that keeps piling more pressure on your defense.”

For the Rams Sunday, that’s what went wrong in the New Orleans game.

In the aftermath of their two-game losing streak, the focus this week has been on the Rams’ pass-defense deficiencies.

But it’s more likely that the real problem is their ineffective running attack.

The Saints largely ignored running back Greg Bell and went after quarterback Jim Everett vigorously, knocking him around and jarring the Ram pass offense off stride.

The same things had happened in the Monday night game at Buffalo, where Bell didn’t run far, either.

That stopped the Ram offense, putting the ball in the hands of the Bills, who wore down the Ram defense.

With the kind of blockers they have, this has been another season in which the Rams have been productive running Bell against mediocre defenses but not against top defenses.

And the irony, of course, is that their coach, John Robinson, is a running-play expert.

In recent years, Robinson has also come to realize that you can’t run your way to the Super Bowl, and so, now, he is stressing the pass.

Which may not leave time enough to polish the student body right in the old way.

Thus, the Rams’ crying need is for a running back who can burst through for important yardage on fake-pass plays when the defense overloads against Everett.

Getting Gaston Green in the Eric Dickerson trade didn’t do it.

On a typical day of NFL football, 12 of last Sunday’s 13 winners were the teams that outgained the other side on the ground.

The only good running team that lost to a passer was Seattle. And Denver won that one when, on a Seahawk field-goal try, the snapper snapped the ball into the holder’s head when the holder wasn’t looking.

Quarterback Steve DeBerg, who passed for 237 yards as Kansas City defeated Dallas, 36-28, said the difference in his game was running back Christian Okoye.

“Dallas looked at him on every down, and that opened up the passing game,” DeBerg said.

After winning, most NFL quarterbacks say as much, or think as much.

All five of the league’s leading ground-gainers Sunday played on winning teams.

Only three of the top five passers won.

Running problems this year are bringing down, among others, the AFC champion Cincinnati Bengals. The Bengals (4-3) still have passer Boomer Esiason, but they lost their running game when they lost Ickey Woods to injury.

In the NFC, Minnesota just gave up half the farm for a running back, Herschel Walker.

“You win with the pass--but if you can’t run, you can’t pass,” said George Young, general manager of the New York Giants.

That’s the NFL today.

The Washington Redskins are coming into the Coliseum Sunday with one of the NFL’s best running teams, having outgained Tampa Bay on the ground last week, 179 yards to 1.

But this time, the Raiders will have a shot against an Eastern contender, because Washington has lost its most valuable defensive player, cornerback Darrell Green, who was injured in the second half of the Buccaneer game.

Even with Green this year, the Redskins were having defensive troubles. Without him, they gave up three touchdown passes to Tampa Bay in the fourth quarter as Buccaneer quarterback Vinny Testaverde came close at the end, 32-28.

“I think (Green’s injury) helped us out,” Testaverde said. “He’s a great player.”

From Philadelphia, here’s Ryan on the Redskins:

“What they do is, they go out and get the best people money can buy. Wilber Marshall is the best outside right linebacker in the league.

“The Redskins go out and they got one of the best offensive tackles in the league last year, Jim Lachey.

“This year, they go out and get two experienced, excellent running backs, Earnest Byner and Gerald Riggs.

“They get proven, quality players who know how to play the pro game, so that makes them tough.”

Testaverde’s improvement in his third pro season is one of the stories of the year.

It was Testaverde who earlier this month put the Chicago Bears into their three-game slide, and, otherwise, his interceptions are down and his touchdown passes up for a club that was surprisingly batting .500 last week going into Washington.

“I feel like I’m more of a quarterback now than the thrower I was last year,” Testaverde said.

“I throw the ball low or away when I have to, rather than force it.

“When I’m sacked, I (usually) hold the ball. Last year, I threw it and it got intercepted.”

With some experience, that’s what they all say.

“When Vinny matures a little more, we’ll have a great quarterback,” Tampa Bay owner Hugh Culverhouse said.

The Minnesota Vikings, not long ago, were two games behind the Bears. Today, contemplating the Giants in one of the big Monday night games of the year next week, the 5-2 Vikings are one up on the Bears in their division, and only one behind the flying Giants in the NFC.

And their coach, Jerry Burns, has one explanation.

“We’ve got two winning quarterbacks,” he said, identifying starter Wade Wilson and backup Tommy Kramer. “That’s what it takes.”

Wilson is expected to be on the sidelines in the Meadowlands with two screws in the broken knuckle of his left ring finger, and without him, the Vikings are less menacing.

Against a team like the Giants, most NFC coaches and scouts, based on their preseason views, would start Wilson instead of Kramer.

But Minnesota’s outspoken players, who will take sides on anything, seem happy enough with Kramer, who is 2-0 this month after Wilson’s 3-2 start.

“We know we can count on Tommy,” Pro Bowl receiver Anthony Carter told Minneapolis reporters. “He gets it going in the huddle. Not taking anything away from (Wilson), but the guys seem to react a little better to Tommy.”

That is an opinion that coincides, more or less, with Kramer’s.

“I don’t think we lose a thing when I come in,” Kramer said. “It’s a luxury to have two quarterbacks.”

The San Francisco 49ers also win with two quarterbacks.

Steve Young replaced injured starter Joe Montana at halftime last week and completed 11 of 12 passes for 188 yards--more than Montana got--as the 49ers turned back New England, 37-20.

Said Patriot Coach Raymond Berry: “That’s the tremendous strength of their team, a one-two punch at quarterback.”

The Raiders have also used two quarterbacks, with limited success. Jay Schroeder and Steve Beuerlein are one-two, or two-one.

The Beuerlein-Willie Gault touchdown in Philadelphia Sunday, on a 24-yard pass into the end zone, was the only really professional play of an unspectacular, windswept game.

More than ever these days, the Eagles’ highly predictable offense is holding back quarterback Randall Cunningham, who accomplished hardly anything in the victory over the Raiders.

“We’ve got to change our philosophy a little bit,” Cunningham told reporters this week. “We’re at a point right now where people know what we’re doing. I think we’re always coming out to establish the running game.”

That’s the way it looks, and that’s the way Ryan, a conservative, wants it, perhaps.

But one rule of thumb in football coaching is that the strategy should be adapted to the personnel. And this year, the Eagles are hardly doing that.

Their offensive coordinator, Ted Plumb, weighs in each week with particularly uninspired game plans.

They have three assets in Philadelphia--a superior coach in Ryan and two great players in Cunningham and defensive end Reggie White--but a plodding offense can nullify the best of talent.

Contemplating the score of the Raider game, 10-7, Ryan said: “It doesn’t seem like we played that good.”

He was right again.