Hatcher Under Pressure as Rams Audition Punters
As Dale Hatcher looked on, no doubt in horror, the Rams paraded the first of three prospective punters into camp on Wednesday, auditioning Greg Horn, formerly of the Phoenix Cardinals and Washington Redskins.
Steve Cox and Rick Tuten, also former Redskins, will get tryouts today as the search continues for the man with the golden foot.
The Rams say they won’t make a roster move this week, allowing Hatcher one more game to get his kicks and his life straightened out. Hatcher remains the National Football Conference’s lowest-ranked punter with a 30.7-yard net average, so time is of the essence.
“We’re not trying to put any kind of nails in Dale’s coffin,” Coach John Robinson said. “But we are to the point that he has to shake his slump.”
In five seasons with the Rams, Hatcher has faced only light brushes with competition, so the Rams are interested in seeing how Hatcher reacts to the prospect of unemployment.
Special teams coach Artie Gigantino informed Hatcher on Wednesday morning that the team was bringing in three punters this week.
“As a competitor, you hope he would rise to the occasion and kick well this week,” Gigantino said.
Hatcher again spent extra time on his kicking after practice, but didn’t want to face reporters afterward. Instead, he issued a statement.
“I’ve been working hard after practice, working on my technique,” the statement read. “I’m going to be more focused now, and put everything else behind me. Hopefully I’ll have a good game this weekend and from here on out. It’s just like a hitter in baseball, the only way to get out of it is to keep doing repetitions. You don’t try to change things, because then you really get messed up. I have to concentrate on keeping my leg straight and dropping the ball properly.”
The latest news on Fred Strickland’s sprained left ankle is guarded, at best. The second-year linebacker from Purdue is out again this week, but the Rams fear he may have damaged the interosseous membrane in the lower shin, the same injury that forced linebacker Mel Owens out of nine games in 1988.
“And he wasn’t better until March,” Robinson said of Owens.
Trainer Jim Anderson said he won’t know if the interosseous membrane has been damaged until Strickland attempts to put pressure on the foot in light running drills, probably beginning next Monday.
The latest injury to Strickland--he only recently returned from arthroscopic knee surgery--has forced the Rams to change their defensive thinking, perhaps for the remainder of the season.
The Rams counted so heavily on Strickland’s talents in the five-linebacker Eagle defense that they attempted to run it with an assortment of replacements until his return, much to the delight of recent Ram opponents.
Realizing he was pounding square pegs into round holes, Robinson has decided to condense his defense into smaller, more edible bites.
“Paring down, getting it down to some sort of package,” Robinson said. “We probably should have done it three or four weeks ago. It’s just recognizing our linebacking problems. It’s forcing us to move into another direction.”
On a brighter note, linebacker Larry Kelm returned to practice for the first time since injuring his foot in the Phoenix exhibition game on Aug. 21.
He remains on the six-week injured reserve list, though, making him ineligible to return until Nov. 12 against the New York Giants.
The Rams had big plans for starters Kelm, Strickland and the Eagle defense, but those plans have been shelved until, well, no one’s really sure.
“Are Strickland and Kelm coming back?” Robinson asked. “Tell me when? I think that’s the problem. We’ve been hanging onto that.”
Chicago Bear Coach Mike Ditka didn’t come out and say it Wednesday, but it appears he’s leaning toward starting Jim Harbaugh over Mike Tomczak at quarterback against the Rams this Sunday at Soldier Field.
In so many words, Ditka questioned Tomczak’s toughness in recent weeks.
“It’s imperative that sometimes the quarterback is going to have to move out of the pocket and run the football,” Ditka told local reporters via a conference-call hookup. “It’s just imperative. We have to have that happen. We haven’t had that happen the last three weeks and we did have it happen the first four weeks. I don’t know what the change has been in him mentally. I’ve asked him personally and he’s said, ‘Nothing’, and yet I don’t know. Football is a big-time business. You’ve got guys making a lot of money, especially the quarterbacks. The only thing I can say is the game has to be played with a lack of regard for your health. If you get hurt, that’s life.”
Ditka said he’d make a decision on Tomczak and Harbaugh later this week.
Ram Notes
Cornerback Darryl Henley’s hamstring injury update has been revised again. He was believed to be lost for at least three weeks, but now the Rams are saying he could return Nov. 5 against the Minnesota Vikings. . . . Safety Anthony Newman’s foot injury isn’t serious and he’s expected to play against the Bears. . . . Quarterback Jim Everett took the day off Wednesday to rest his bruised hip. . . . Remember when the Rams, Bears and Dallas Cowboys were renowned for their defenses? Entering Sunday’s games, the Rams are 25th overall, the Bears 26th and the Cowboys 28th. . . . Running back Greg Bell is averaging only 3.3 yards per carry in his past four games. . . . Bears’ Coach Mike Ditka said safety Shaun Gayle probably won’t play this weekend. The team lists him as doubtful. All-Pro defensive end Richard Dent remains questionable with a leg injury, although Ditka insists Dent won’t play unless he practices this week. “There will be no great healing coming Saturday night,” Ditka said. “If you don’t practice, you don’t play. That’s all there is to it.”
