Ellard’s Broken Record Plays Same Old Songs

Over and over, Henry Ellard fielded the same question about his 35-yard touchdown catch Sunday in the third quarter of the Rams’ 44-24 victory over the Atlanta Falcons.

Hey Henry, what about the record?

Ellard sounded like a broken one.

Everyone wanted to know about the wide receiver becoming the Rams’ career receiving yardage leader. He caught six passes for 109 yards Sunday, giving him 6,312 yards in eight seasons.

And when the questions came about the record, Ellard was armed with all the cliches:

--”I definitely wanted us to win the game more than getting the record. It’s something I’ll appreciate once I retire.”

--”It was good to get the record but I don’t have much time to think about it. You have to focus on winning.”

--”Winning the game was what I wanted. Getting the record was like icing on the cake.”

--”It was nice to look up and see it (the record) on the scoreboard and have it announced.”

Elroy Hirsch probably didn’t have to put up with as many questions in 1957. Ellard broke Hirsch’s record of 6,289 yards set from 1949 to 1957.

It was appropriate that Ellard broke it against the Falcons, who entered the game ranked 26th in the NFL in pass defense.

Last week, San Francisco’s Jerry Rice burned the Falcons for five touchdowns, which had Ellard and his fellow Ram receivers licking their chops. “We knew they (the Falcons) weren’t going to use the same coverage they had against San Francisco when they played us,” Ellard said. “They did a good job of taking our passing game away from us for a while.”

You can’t fault the Falcons for not trying to stop Ellard. They had their best defensive back, Deion Sanders, covering Ellard on the record-breaking touchdown catch.

Running a routine route, Ellard cut to the left sideline near the 10-yard line, then went inside, leaving Sanders standing at the five.

“Deion made some great plays against us,” Ellard said. “We just slipped one in on him with the touchdown.

“Deion was in more man-to-man coverage than anyone else. They moved their free safety (Scott Case) over to help out most of the time.”

Ellard is closing in on two more team records. His touchdown catch was his 43rd, putting him sixth on the Rams’ all-time list. Eric Dickerson holds the record with 58.

Ellard also has caught a pass in 60 consecutive games, eight shy of the team record set by Jim Phillips (1958-63).

But Ellard was enjoying his record Sunday and, of course, the victory that ended the Rams’ three-game losing streak.

Among the first to congratulate Ellard was Coach John Robinson.

“Just the name Elroy Hirsch is big-time,” Robinson said. “Just for (Ellard) to be standing there and thought of in the same breath as Hirsch. . . .”

But Ellard said he never heard of Hirsch, who ended his playing career four years before Ellard was born.

“But I had never heard of the Rams when I was young, either,” he said. “I was a Cowboys fan.”