Rams Finally Have Everyone Together
Well-rested and physically fit at last, the Rams are moseying into today’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals with a confident swagger. The limp and the lumps are gone.
Today is the first day of the rest of their season. Or if you listen to them, today is the first day of their real season, the first performance of their real team.
The Bengals, currently fang-deep in the controversy over the right of women sportswriters to venture into the locker room, may be too distracted right now to notice, but the players lining up against them today at Anaheim Stadium are the Rams originally considered capable of making it to the Super Bowl.
“Just about all the names that you would’ve put down at the start of the year are there,” Coach John Robinson said. “Cleveland Gary basically is playing his first game, Jerry Gray is playing his first game.
“This is us.” A pause. “I hope it’s good.”
Those Rams that went 1-2? That wasn’t us , Robinson said.
Gary is the bruising tailback the Rams have been waiting anxiously to give the ball to, as often as possible, and he will get his first start today. With Curt Warner as the starter in the first three games, the Rams ranked 22nd in the NFL in rushing.
Gray is the four-time Pro Bowl cornerback who missed the first three games with a knee injury, and the glue to a so-far inconsistent pass defense. Without Gray, the Rams ranked 22nd in pass defense.
With Gary and Gray in action, Robinson looks for a sense of balance to return to the team.
The Rams have had 13 days since their dispiriting 27-21 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles to work these key players into the mix--13 days to rest and take account of where they are going this season.
No more excuses for this team, because if it falls to 1-3, all the days off in the world probably could not reel in the front-running San Francisco 49ers.
“It’s a question of where you go from here,” Robinson said. “I think it’s about time now, certainly time for us to put together a really fine game, and I’m excited about that.”
Capping off this cheery Ram mood, Cincinnati (3-1) comes into this game with about as clear a competitive disadvantage as is possible.
The Bengals are an obvious Super Bowl contender, but they are licking their wounds from Monday night’s 31-16 loss to the until-then-winless Seahawks, and worrying how much the furor over Coach Sam Wyche’s decision to bar women sportswriters from the locker room will leave them discombobulated for the game.
Which doesn’t even count the fact that they were forced to stay in Seattle and practice for a short work week, while the Rams lounged around for two full preparation weeks because of the NFC West bye last Sunday.
To some preseason forecasters, this was to be a possible Super Bowl XXV preview, a matchup of two high-octane offenses going blow-for-blow. But now that the day is here, it boils down to two teams struggling to keep it together.
“They’ve got the edge this week because we’ve got a short week (and) we’re living in Seattle away from mama,” Wyche said. “We are banged up. . . . So it’s an edge. We’ll see Sunday if it’s enough to win the game.
“But our guys are kind of looking forward to it. It’s been sort of a challenge for them.”
Wyche, considered one of the most innovative offensive coaches in football, pushing his Boomer Esiason-led offense to the cutting edge, has had precious little time to sit down and map out strategy for the Rams.
He has slept rarely and given countless interviews, and Esiason, for one, is concerned that the weeklong controversy, caused by Wyche’s refusal to admit a woman reporter from USA Today to the Bengal locker room at the Kingdome, is taking its toll.
“It’s been a distraction for me,” said Wyche, who was fined one-seventeenth of his year’s salary Friday by Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, “but only on off hours. I was up early; I haven’t been able to get much sleep to get ready for the Rams. But it has not been a distraction for our players. Our players are fighting mad about what we looked like last week, and they’re getting ready for the Los Angeles Rams.”
Last week’s debacle and ensuing tempest, Esiason said, is something the team wants to put behind it. The Bengals desperately want to concentrate on something before what promises to be another intriguing postgame locker room scene. Wyche proposed opening the locker room immediately after the game for 20 minutes with all his players still in uniform, then closing it for them to shower, then reopening it when they are dressed. However, Tagliabue rejected that plan Friday while announcing Wyche’s fine, which was estimated to be about $30,000.
“We’re a football team out here on the West Coast, who just got its head knocked off by the Seattle Seahawks, and now we have to deal with all this other stuff going on around us,” Esiason said. “To say the least, it’s been a very difficult week (for) all of us.
“I think everybody on this football team, probably with the exception of Mitchell Price, our punt returner, felt like they played their worst game of the year. We know that we have the talent to play with anybody, to beat anybody. We haven’t lost an ounce of confidence.”
The Rams, certainly, are expecting the Bengals to come out flinging--or at least thought so until they heard that Cincinnati’s best deep threat, Eddie Brown, would almost certainly miss the game because of an injured knee.
When Brown got hurt Monday night, the Bengals moved away from their passing game and stayed on the ground. Robinson said he expects that concept to remain the same without Brown this week.
But the Rams know that with Esiason leading the Bengals’ offense, which can operate without a huddle for long periods at a time and boasts both a powerful running attack and a deadly passing game, they still have to contend with Pro Bowl tight end Rodney Holman, speedy Tim McGee and skittery tailback James Brooks.
“Good teams don’t often have bad games back to back,” Ram defensive coordinator Fritz Shurmur said. “So we fully expect them to come in here and play a darn good game.”
Ram Notes
This is the Bengals’ first appearance at Anaheim Stadium. They are the last of the current 28 teams to play there. . . . This is the second of five consecutive road games for the Bengals, a schedule resulting from the Reds’ use of Riverfront Stadium for the National League championship series and possibly the World Series.