Rams Get Slipped a Mickey

Cruelty to Mickey used to be a felony offense inside Anaheim city limits, but that was back in the old days, back when a guy like John Robinson might want to sip a few beers with a guy named Buddy.

Mickey Sutton had no buddies Sunday afternoon. Friendless, and often times defenseless, Mickey was the man the Philadelphia Eagles picked on, and picked on, and picked on, until there was nothing left to pick over.

It was Randall Cunningham over the top to Mike Quick for a quick six, Mickey Sutton defending.

It was Randall Cunningham lobbing deep into the end zone for Calvin Williams, Mickey Sutton defending.

It was Randall Cunningham to Fred Barnett for 33 yards to sustain the game’s final, and crushing drive, Mickey Sutton defending.

Poor Mickey. At 5 feet 8 and 172 pounds, he was the smallest player on the field, giving away five inches and 23 pounds to Roger Ruzek, the Philadelphia kicker. Every time Mickey looked up, he was looking up to an Eagle wide receiver.

Mickey never asked to be here. He was happy in Buffalo, but the Bills cut him. He had nothing to do with Jerry Gray’s knee injury and the Rams’ open house at cornerback and the desperation that would drive a coach first to sign him and then to start him against the most unpredictable and imaginative quarterback in the league.

Mickey expected the worst. “I expect every pass to come my way,” Mickey said. He’s been around. He knows that given an option, NFL quarterbacks will never pick on anyone their own size.

Cunningham saw no need for a charitable contribution. The last time he played the Rams, in a 1989 wild-card playoff game, he lost, 21-7, and had to suffer seven months of Randall Can’t Handle The Pressure headlines. Sunday, Cunningham was looking for any edge he could find and in Sutton, he found a little one.

Cunningham dedicated the Eagles’ first touchdown in a 27-21 victory over the Rams to Mickey, a 15-yard pass to Quick.

“I told the coach that was the play I wanted to do,” Cunningham said. “It’s called a ‘900’ or something. It’s just a streak. I’d watched all week in the films how Mickey Sutton was playing and with the height difference between him and Quick. . . .

“So, I just threw the ball up there.”

Quick outleaped Mickey for the ball, just as Williams outleaped Mickey for Philadelphia’s second touchdown. Buddy Ryan, the Eagles’ nothing-in-moderation head coach, decided to pour it on. Mickey was a marked man and Ryan expressly instructed Cunningham to keep throwing out mousetraps.

It was a 20-14 game when Cunningham one-hopped a pass to Williams near the Ram goal line. A big incompletion--until Sutton was flagged for illegal contact. Cunningham got two more cracks at the end zone and with the second, running back Robert Drummond squirmed off right tackle for a two-yard score. Eagles, 27-14, early in the fourth quarter.

Late in the fourth quarter, the Rams had pulled to within six points again and were hoping for a last chance at the football when Cunningham dropped back from his own 29-yard line on second and eight.

There was Sutton, trying to cover Barnett.

There was Barnett, straddling the sideline and Sutton, for a 33-yard reception that would keep Philadelphia in possession of the football for the remainder of the game.

Barnett was presented a game ball for making that catch.

“I thought he was out of bounds,” Mickey said. “I thought he was a step out of bounds.”

But on this day, words spoke just as loudly as actions.

“They came to my side a lot,” Mickey said. “They made some plays on me. But it’s not like I was always three yards behind the guy or was beaten badly. I had the coverage. They just made the plays.

“Those guys get paid too.”

Fritz Shurmur, Ram defensive coordinator, was quick to coordinate a defense for Sutton.

“That happens,” Shurmur said. “They always used a taller guy against Mickey. He had reasonably good coverage all three times (the passes to Quick, Williams and Barnett), but it simply became a physical thing.

“Mickey didn’t do anything wrong. They were just a little taller and he was just a little shorter.”

He wasn’t the only Ram to come up short, either. The Rams’ incredible shrinking pass rush gave Cunningham enough time to think about burning Sutton again, mull over the philosophical implications, contemplate the unfairness of it all, consider the meaning of life . . . and then say, “What the hell, let’s beat the little runt again.”

On that topic, Mickey was as gracious as he could be.

“You definitely like to get a great pass rush going,” he said, “but sometimes, it’s not there. (The Eagles) were able to mix it up pretty well. We had a lot to think about.

“When they get the run going along with the pass, Randall’s a tough guy to stop.”

It was a tale of mice and men, Sunday’s game was. And as Mickey can tell you, it’s no fun being the mouse.