RAMS ’90 : Rams Hope a Patchwork Defense Can Hold the Line

Fritz Shurmur, the rubber band man and defensive coordinator for the Rams, faces another crisis as the 1990 season approaches.

A rash of injuries has decimated his troops. Talk of Super Bowls, dominance and, at long last, knocking the 49ers from their perch atop the NFC’s Western Division has given way to medical updates and contingency plans.

Pardon the coach while he stretches.

“If you’re not willing to be flexible, then the other word is panic,” Shurmur said.

OK, Shurmur may be limber, but Nadia Comaneci he isn’t, and the problems he inherits on defense appear overwhelming.

And remember, the other word is panic.

Shurmur thought he’d seen the worst of it in 1989, when he opened the season without his two starting inside linebackers and a starting right cornerback. He finished the year at Candlestick Park in the NFC title game on a field awash with broken dreams and bodies.

It was a considerable feat, really, that the Rams could have advanced so far with so little. His defense finished 21st overall and 28th against the pass, yet Shurmur’s marching elastic band stopped the Eagles and Giants cold before a final and inevitable surrender to San Francisco.

Shurmur refused to give in to excuses in 1989. He sought only solutions.

“That’s why I get so tired with people who get so concerned about statistics,” he said. “That’s B.S. You figure a way to win the next game, and if that means playing in a ‘soft defense’ then that’s the way you play. And that’s the way we ended the year playing. Who (cares) if we’re 28th in pass defense if we’re playing in the NFC championship game? Our only concern is that we didn’t win the NFC championship game.”

A new season would beckon new ideas on defense. The Rams were counting heavily on their young draft picks--all 25 years old or younger--to emerge at once, in particular, defensive linemen Bill Hawkins, Brian Smith, Mike Piel; linebackers Fred Strickland and Frank Stams, and defensive backs Darryl Henley and Anthony Newman.

The Rams, who introduced the five-linebacker Eagle defense to the NFL two years ago, were changing again, this time incorporating elements of the Eagle and their old 3-4 to form a more perfect defensive union.

The 3-4 was great against the run, but leaky against the pass. The Eagle was pretty much the opposite. When opponents spotted the Rams in their 3-4 on first down, they defied conventional thinking and passed the Rams back to the Stone Age.

The idea this year was to combine the two defenses. Defensive ends Hawkins or Smith, both seen more as pass rushers than run defenders, would line up as the weak-side defensive end, the side opposite the offensive’s tight end. They would be flanked by Pro Bowl linebacker Kevin Greene, one of the league’s most menacing pass rushers (when he has a contract).

On the strong side, the side most teams run the ball to, the Rams would keep their 3-4 tandem of end Doug Reed, an excellent run defender, and outside linebacker Mike Wilcher.

The units would flip-flop sides depending on where the tight end was positioned on the line of scrimmage.

“If you look at it carefully, you got one side of our Eagle defense and one side of our Ram defense,” Shurmur said. “It’s a way to be able to still take advantage of our two-gap (run-stopping) skills on that power side and take guys you can cut loose (pass rushers) on the other side of defense. And, you don’t have to substitute to get to it.”

For the Rams, this was a way to get as many players with different talents on the field simultaneously.

Shurmur explained: “Rather than that old NFL thing where you say, ‘Let’s wait till they can do everything,’ you say, ‘If this guy has a skill, how can you best use it?’

“That’s essentially what we did with Kevin. And when we had three guys like Owens, Mike Wilcher and Kevin Greene, we had to get them on the field. So that’s as good a reason to run the Eagle as any.”

The Rams weren’t through there, though. Jerry Gray, a four-time Pro Bowl selection at left corner, was to be moved to free safety, allowing him to roam the field with all the leadership and tenacious qualities of San Francisco’s Ronnie Lott. This move was contingent on Henley, a second-year player, being able to take over at corner.

By late summer, though, the team’s defensive plans began to unravel like cheap rope, beginning with a hip injury to Henley that forced Gray back to cornerback.

The defensive dominoes haven’t stopped falling.

It was determined that defensive end Hawkins, who was recovering slowly from off-season knee surgery, couldn’t rush the passer effectively until he fully recovered. So the team moved him to the strong side, where the Rams were missing Reed to a holdout and were without a healthy Piel, who twice dislocated his left elbow in 1989.

Piel’s injury has forced a move inside to protect his arm.

“Piel is learning to play with a brace on his wrist and arm, and he’s doing a good job at it,” Shurmur said. “We got him in the tackle position as opposed to end because he can be a little more protective of that arm than he would two-gapping all the time.”

Greene, of course, was a summer-long holdout, as was safety Michael Stewart.

But the Rams proceeded without pause or reflection, claiming viable solutions could be unearthed.

“You’ve got to be flexible,” Shurmur proclaimed again. “And thank God there’s a little flexibility in us. You take what you got and kind of play the hand that’s dealt you, and there’s no reason that shouldn’t be good enough to win. That’s what the trick is.”

Shurmur spoke those words before the team’s last exhibition game in Washington, in which he lost three more defensive players, including his two coaches on the field--All-Pro corner Gray and inside linebacker Larry Kelm.

Kelm, who owns a degree in civil engineering, ran the interior defense with a technical expertise that can’t be replaced. And not only was Gray the unit’s best athlete, he also orchestrated the secondary.

Both Kelm and Gray underwent arthroscopic knee surgeries and will be out four to six weeks. Worse yet, Gray injured his knee while colliding with another precious commodity, corner Alfred Jackson, who strained his groin and probably will be out four weeks.

Consider also that at the conclusion of the exhibition season, Shurmur was also missing starting inside linebackers, Fred Strickland (hamstring) and Kelm, and their immediate backups, Stams (groin) and veteran Mel Owens (back).

On the defensive line, Sean Smith, a competent backup at nose tackle, and tackle Bill Goldberg, a promising draft choice, were both lost to injuries.

“The one thing that’s a little bit scary is if you don’t have defensive linemen,” Shurmur said. “Or you don’t have them all well. When people decide they’re going to take control of the line of scrimmage away from you, that concerns you.”

How fast can a team’s plan change? Rookie Latin Berry, the Rams’ third-round choice from Oregon, was no more than an interesting prospect at corner when he signed. Berry played fullback in college. The Rams were going to use him on kickoffs this season. However, they hadn’t planned to unveil him at corner until oh, 1992.

But with Henley, Gray and Jackson out of action, Berry was forced into action against the Redskins, a sobering thought as the regular season loomed.

Still, it was difficult to conceive that the team could start a regular season without making a move for veteran replacements, although you don’t exactly pick quality corners on street corners.

So a summer designed principally for the fine-tuning of a football powerhouse ended, almost literally, on the operating table. Once a favorite to make a serious run at the title in 1990, the Rams can’t even walk for it at the moment.

Is there time to recover? Perhaps. Luckily, the most important stretch of the season comes near the end, when the Rams play divisional opponents five of the last six weekends.

Those in the organization who cursed the schedule makers for this Christmas package should now thank the NFL. The Rams don’t face the 49ers until Nov. 25 in Candlestick Park. The teams meet again three weeks later.

If nothing else, it gives Shurmur more time to flex.