What They Do Have in Opinions, They Lack in Solutions

Something’s the matter with the Rams, but what?

Don’t worry, John Robinson advises. “We’re a long way from being a club that is going down the toilet.”

We knew this football team was headed for some kind of postseason bowl.

Something has transformed the Rams from a Super Bowl express, the Orange County Special, into a train that has left the track. Only halfway through the season, this suddenly has become a team with a record one game better than that of (gulp) the Raiders. Something definitely is wrong here.

But--we repeat--what?

Paul Tagliabue had less difficulty getting a consensus in the vote for National Football League commissioner than anybody who was looking for a majority opinion in the Ram dressing room Sunday after a 20-10 loss to the Chicago Bears. What’s wrong with the Rams? Don’t ask the Rams, man. They either don’t know or won’t tell. They just shrug their shoulder pads and promise to keep doing their best, even if their best doesn’t happen to be quite as good as we thought it would be.

Now that they have been sacked three weeks in a row, and outscored, 83-51, in the process, the Rams have gone from a happy 5-0 to an unhappy 5-3. They are moving backward faster than a rookie cornerback. And, with Herschel Walker and the Minnesota Vikings awaiting them next Sunday in a dome away from home, there is much to do, much to do.

The Rams have no solutions to make public at this time. They do, however, have opinions.

Jim Everett thinks they must adjust to the new defensive schemes opponents have been using. Greg Bell believes the team must somehow “generate excitement.” LeRoy Irvin isn’t exactly sure what’s the matter, but he does know that he has seen this sort of midseason crisis from the Rams before.

“I’ve been playing for 10 years, and I guess every day of it shows on my face,” Irvin said. “I’m just wondering what this face is going to look like tomorrow. I look at this team and I’ve got to wonder--what’s happening? What’s going on?”

Maybe the Rams just get tired this time of year. At least that’s what Henry Ellard thinks.

“I guess we’re going through that fatigueness right now,” Ellard said.

Yes, the NFL season is a long one, full of booby-traps and uphill climbs, and you just never know where and when you might have to go through that old fatigueness.

In 1985, the Rams started out with a record of 7-0. In 1986, they were 3-0. In 1988, they were 4-0. Maybe the Rams should stop starting so quickly. Somebody might take a few minutes to remind the Rams of the story of the tortoise and the hare.

Study the Rams’ 5-0 start and you can’t help but wonder if it was a mirage. The teams they defeated included Atlanta, Indianapolis, Green Bay and then Atlanta again. Now the Rams have hit the midway point, and the bad news is that they are all out of Atlantas.

Oh, there’s an upcoming Dallas trip one week and a visit by the New York Jets a couple of weeks later, but generally the Rams’ dance card is filled from this point on with mainly slam-dancers. They will have to do more than just do their best. They will have to do better.

Remember, the Rams just barely got by San Francisco, and nearly blew the Green Bay game. They could be 3-5 just as easily as 5-3.

“We’re playing OK football,” Irvin said. “But if you want to be champions, you’ve got to play great football.”

They were nothing more than OK in Sunday’s skirmish at Soldier Field. Everett’s passing statistics were sort of ghastly. He was passing from his heels again, an old bad habit. He also had Ellard one-on-one against a Chicago rookie all day long, but didn’t burn Donnell Woolford anywhere near as much as he would have liked.

Woolford, who stands a mere 5 feet 9 inches, was a thorn in Ram sides, as was his fellow Clemson alumni, that ever-popular oversized load William (Refrigerator) Perry, who poked free the Bell fumble that might have cost Los Angeles the game. The Bears got big help from these two, Fat Man and Little Boy.

Putting a far greater hurt on the Rams, however, were Chicago defensive linemen Richard Dent and Steve McMichael, two of the NFL’s truly under-publicized players. Their continued pressure on Everett was greatly responsible for his 13-of-35 passing disaster, and these were not the first opponents to have concluded that the way to beat the Rams was to tee off on Everett.

It is a problem that, to use Everett’s description, is “correctable.”

But, there remains another problem, that of keeping Ram morale intact.

“We’re definitely frustrated at this point,” Everett said. “We seem to be beating ourselves. This is the low point of the season for us. We’ve got to find some way to get back on track.”

A second half just like the first half would give the Rams a season record of 10-6, which sounds fine. It just takes some getting used to, that’s all, after a start of 5-0.