Bell Ran Hot and Cold All Season : Rams: Tailback gained nearly half his 1,137 yards in 3 games, but he seems to be riding another high in playoffs.
Greg Bell, a long-running mystery in Anaheim, has returned to a theater near you, confounding experts, statisticians, coaches and opponents.
The Ram tailback has been two men this season--one invisible, one super.
Bell went 12 consecutive games in 1989 without rushing for more than 73 yards in a game. He averaged three yards a carry during that stretch, fading fast from a scene he had dominated earlier in the season. In September, he gained 417 yards in three games, yet managed only 224 in the five games of October.
Rookie Cleveland Gary’s time was fast approaching, or so it seemed.
Then, Bell struck again in New England on Christmas Eve. He knocked the Patriots on their windchills with a 210-yard rushing masterpiece, helping to save the Rams from playoff extinction.
He followed with a 124-yard rushing performance against Philadelphia last Sunday, helping to clinch a 21-7 wild-card victory with a 54-yard run in the fourth quarter.
“It was clearly Greg Bell’s best game as a Ram,” Coach John Robinson said. “He did things that we simply had to have done.”
Bell’s season-ending numbers don’t begin to explain a strange voyage through a strange season. He finished with 1,137 yards, fourth-best in the NFC. His average of 4.2 yards a carry matched Eric Dickerson’s average in Indianapolis.
Yet, Bell spent most of this season answering critics, some of whom anticipated a Gary-for-Bell tailback switch.
Bell’s season was one of incredible highs and lows. He gained 559 of his yards--nearly half--in three games. He had two 200-yard games, including a career-high 221 yards against Green Bay on Sept. 24.
He also gained 17 yards in 11 carries against New Orleans, and 22 yards in 15 carries against Dallas.
“You can go back and make an analysis of it, but I really haven’t thought about it too much,” Bell said of his slump. “The numbers weren’t there, that’s fine; as long as I felt I was running hard and contributing, that was all I looked for. And that’s what I was doing.”
If it was Robinson’s plan to reduce Bell’s workload during the lean times to keep him fresh for the playoffs, it appears to have succeeded.
The Rams’ running game has become resurgent just in time for Sunday’s NFC divisional game against the New York Giants at the Meadowlands.
As suddenly as Bell disappeared from sight, he returns as a valuable weapon in what may be another cold-weather venue. Often overlooked in discussions concerning Bell is the security he provides as a ball-handler.
As a runner, Bell has lost only five fumbles this season, a ratio of one fumble per 59.8 carries, an average that would make even Dickerson envious.
Remember, Bell stands 5-feet-10 and weighs 200 pounds, considerably smaller than other famous non-fumblers.
“A guy like (John) Riggins, who was so big, with his physical strength, could easily get away with not fumbling,” explained Bell, who did fumble once against the Eagles and almost lost the ball at the end of his 54-yard run. “He ran with the ball in two hands; that’s not the way I run. I can’t keep taking the pounding on my body the way he did. It’s just a knack--before I get hit, I always bring the ball up to my body. It’s something you just learn from falling. I couldn’t teach a kid how to go down and hold the ball, and protect it.”
Bell maintained an even keel through the season’s darker moments, a trait that he says comes from experience and callousness.
“I’ve been written out of this league for the last six years, so things can’t get any worse,” Bell said.
Even as his yardage figures plunged and his carries were reduced, Bell claims he knew his day would come again.
“When you’re a back and you don’t get the ball the 20-plus times that you’re used to, it can be frustrating,” he said. “From a mental standpoint, I blocked a lot of that frustration out. I just hung loose. I guess I was just riding a wave. I took it easy and let happen what happened. I knew that things could only improve, that I’d finally get back and get the kind of numbers I would enjoy, and I’d be productive.”
Robinson raved about Bell’s game against the Eagles well into the week. Bell is a cutback runner by nature, but Robinson asked him to change his style for Philadelphia, a group, he figured, that might otherwise ring Bell’s clock.
Robinson coached Bell during the week to take a head-on approach to his carries.
“He’s a cut-back runner,” Robinson said, “a stop-start runner. He can do some things that are great but he doesn’t just bore it up in the hole. The other extreme of Greg Bell probably is Charlie White, who’s going to bore it up in there. We worked hard with Greg during the week on convincing him that’s what we had to do. And he did a great job of that. The runs he made of three, four and five yards I thought were very significant.”
Bell’s game last Sunday reminded him of his performance against the Giants at the Meadowlands in 1988, when he rushed for 112 yards in 31 carries during a 45-31 win.
He’s hoping to relive some memories this weekend.
One of the best matchups will be Ram left tackle Irv Pankey vs. Giant linebacker Lawrence Taylor. In the Rams’ 31-10 victory over New York in November, Pankey held All-Pro Taylor to two tackles and no sacks.
“I try to take him out of his rhythm,” Pankey said. “I do a lot of different things.”
When asked if Taylor, the nine-year veteran, has slowed down over the years, the 31-year-old Pankey just laughed.
“I’ve slowed down, too,” he said. “I just try to play smarter now. But I don’t think he’s lost a step.”
Pankey is looking forward to another challenge.
“That’s what it’s all about,” he said. “You want to play against the best. But I prepare every week like everyone’s L.T. It makes my job easier.”
Ram Notes
The team signed free-agent linebacker Paul Butcher to play special teams in Sunday’s game. To make room on the roster Thursday, the Rams placed running back Gaston Green on injured reserve with a hamstring injury that the team said he aggravated in Wednesday’s practice. It’s clear, though, that Green was the most expendable Ram, having carried only 26 times for 73 yards this season.
Green, the Rams’ first-round draft choice in 1988, has been listed as inactive or did not play in 10 games this season. “He is the most expendable, and the hamstring is the injury,” Coach John Robinson said of the move. “It’s just a question of depth at the position. It isn’t a comment on him.”
The 26-year-old Butcher appeared in 40 games with Detroit, mainly as a special teams player. He was left unprotected in the last off-season and was claimed by the Philadelphia Eagles, who released him Aug. 30.
