With Rams’ Passing Frozen, Bell Stokes Ground Attack

In Buffalo, they used to called him Tinker Bell, but on Christmas Eve in New England’s Sullivan Stadium, it was Jingle Bell Rock.

Greg Bell, the much-maligned Ram tailback, put his head down and rambled through the Patriot secondary to the tune of 210 yards and scored the winning touchdown as the Rams secured a wild-card spot in the playoffs with a 24-20 victory.

With the windchill factor hovering around minus-20, Bell looked like the same back who ran amok in the frozen climes of Buffalo in the mid-80s.

“I don’t really enjoy this kind of weather,” Bell said, “but when you grow up in it and play in it so much, you start to take the attitude that it’s just another day.”

This was hardly just another day for the Rams, however. They found themselves trailing, 20-17, with 5:48 remaining and were facing the prospect of spending New Year’s Eve at home.

But quarterback Jim Everett and receiver Henry Ellard warmed their fingers enough to hook up on a 53-yard pass play and then it was Bell-ringing time. Bell carried five consecutive times and finally scored from three yards out.

“Greg Bell’s performance was the highlight of this game,” Robinson said. “It wasn’t the weather, but our passing game just wasn’t clicking. But Greg had a lot of big, big runs for us.

“He’s had some difficult times, but he’s gone over 1,000 yards for the second year in a row and I’d say that makes him a pretty elite player in the NFL. The decline in our running game has been well-documented, but I don’t think there’s any way you can pin it on any deficiencies on Greg Bell’s part.”

Eric Dickerson scoffingly referred to Bell as “that little dwarf” after the trade that sent Dickerson to Indianapolis and Bell to the Rams. Dickerson, you will remember, fumbled twice on a frozen Soldier Field in the 1985 NFC championship game against the Chicago Bears.

Bell came into the game needing 73 yards to pass the 1,000-yard mark for the third time in his career. He took the suspense out of that quest in a hurry, reaching it with 1:53 left in the first quarter on a 13-yard run up the middle.

He carried 13 times for 98 yards in the first half.

“I don’t worry that much about personal milestones,” Bell said. “I told the guys coming in that if we did our job, I’d get the 1,000 yards. And this was just a case of the offensive line deciding that they would be a dominant force today. It was a matter of might.

“The most important thing about it is that we continue to show our balance. We have a lot of weapons on this team and, if we continue to use them effectively, maybe we’ll be known as the team of the ‘90s.”

Bell said that he had not become discouraged despite the fact that he had run for 50 yards only once in the last six games.

“I never felt like I was struggling,” he said. “I’d look at the game films on Monday and I was still running hard and making the right cuts, the holes just weren’t there.

“Teams were lining up eight guys on the line of scrimmage and forcing us to throw the ball. I think a lot of teams were thinking that you have to stop a John Robinson team from running and now they’re sorry they did.”

With the Ram passing game on ice in the first half, Robinson decided to go with a three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-frozen-breath philosophy.

Bell, however, wasn’t settling for three.

During a 92-yard scoring drive that put the Rams ahead, 17-3, he broke tackles, reversed his field and amassed 65 of those yards, including runs of nine, 11, 13 and 30 yards.

“I just wanted to make sure I didn’t drop the ball,” said Bell, who fumbled once when he was stripped of the ball while reversing his field. “And I wanted to put my helmet on people and dish out some punishment. Of course, I took some punishment, too.”

Bell, who got some sore ribs out of the deal, said the game was the most gratifying of his career. He set off for the team charter with a smile, one he said that even his detractors couldn’t wipe from his face.

“I don’t listen to the people who call into talk shows,” Bell said. “I’ve been criticized since I came into the league and I’ll probably be criticized for four more years.

“But tomorrow I’ll see my little girl’s smile and that’s all that matters.”