RAMS : Robinson Wants to Overcome Losing Mind-Set
Jerry Gray saw the chance to strike back, to deliver the counterpunch that might finally set the Rams’ opponents back on their heels for a change, that one stunning blow that could change the momentum of his team’s staggering fall from grace.
Early in the first quarter Sunday night against the Bears, Gray took his shot. He sprinted in front of Chicago running back Neal Anderson in an attempt to intercept a pass from quarterback Jim Harbaugh. Gray was in position to steal the ball and sprint 60 yards to give his team something they hadn’t had in more than a month . . . an early lead. First blood.
Somehow, the ball got through his outstretched arms, however, and reached Anderson, who carried it 32 yards to the Rams’ 13-yard line. Three plays later, Harbaugh hooked up with Anderson for a touchdown that put the Bears up, 7-0. And a little more than 21 minutes of play later, Chicago led, 31-0.
“We’re just not making any plays on defense,” Gray said. “It wasn’t a big play, just intercept the ball. I thought I had it. I tipped it, but (Anderson) had the concentration to catch the ball.
“I mean, that’s only one little play, but those little things can make a difference. Someone has to make a play on defense. We have a good team, but we’re just not fighting like a good team.”
The Rams, once considered one of the most physical teams in the league, have looked like a punch-drunk club boxer this season. They’ve certainly absorbed a lot more punishment than they’ve been able to dish out.
“We’re the ones getting hit right now,” Coach John Robinson said. “It’s like the fighter who comes out and gets punched in the mouth and you say, ‘Man, that guy’s not very nasty. Except for the cut on his mouth, now that’s nasty.’
“If you got the (crap) kicked out of you by the guy’s left hook, then you come out the next round and the trainer’s yelling, ‘Look out for the left hook.’ But it gets to the point where you have to hit him in the mouth. And that’s what we’re telling our players. Hit him. But they’re still ducking from the left hook.
“It’s really just an attitude. It’s a matter of being more of a naturally aggressive player as opposed to somebody who’s always on the lookout.”
Robinson and his coaching staff spent extra time in the film room trying to find reasons for the Rams’ lack of defensive vigor. They scrutinized every play--and the effort of every player--but weren’t able to find any answers.
“We didn’t make that many mistakes in this game, we just didn’t make anything happen,” he said. “And that’s typical of where we’re at right now. We’re just not making anything at all happen defensively. If we’re there and the other guy’s there and the ball is thrown, the other guy catches it and we make the tackle.
“As you look at the film, you don’t come away saying, ‘This guy was awful,’ or, ‘This guy played terrible,’ or ‘This guy’s not trying.’ You just say, ‘Nothing’s happening.’ And that includes players we all perceive to be very good players. We have to concentrate on playing with intensity. We have to fight our way out of it.”
In an effort to remedy the situation, Robinson says he will pick up the pace on the practice field, encouraging more physical and spirited workouts. But he also intends to work on his team’s shaken psyche in an effort to snap them out of what he calls “the fog that has enveloped us.”
“You want to say, ‘Will this please go away?’ But we’re clearly in a place where we have to do something to make it go away,” he said. “It isn’t a nightmare. There’s a real tendency to say, ‘If I close my eyes and open them again, it’ll be gone.’ But it ain’t that way, man.”
Safety Vince Newsome, in his eighth year with the Rams, says the time for self-analysis is over. He believes the veterans have to take the initiative and adopt that slogan made so popular by a footwear firm.
“Last year, we lost four straight and everybody jumped off the bandwagon,” Newsome said. “Then we just had the Rams. We’re back to that point again and again we have to dig down deep and just do it.