Rams Revive Spirit of ’89 During Drive to Victory

The Rams, those masters of the late collapse, were all set up for yet another pratfall from grace. And waiting on the Candlestick Park sideline to pick up the pieces and perform his patented last-minute magic stood Joe Montana.

Sure, the Rams had the ball and a 21-17 lead with 13:08 left in the game, but who out there among the rain-soaked 62,633 in the stadium and the millions watching on television believed they could win? Who wouldn’t be willing to bet that this one would end up with San Francisco posting victory No. 11 and the Rams face down in the mud?

The Rams swear that they never lost faith, but even tight end Pete Holohan acknowledged that “we were just trying to get out of there and get some field position and, if nothing else, just give our punter the opportunity to get the ball down the field.”

Somehow, they did more than that. Somehow, they accomplished something that almost became part of the game plan last season when the fourth-quarter rally was their forte. Somehow--with a bit of luck, a dash of scheming, and a good portion of pride and execution--they drove 90 yards in 17 time-consuming plays for a touchdown.

And, maybe most important, they took 10:37 and whittled the 49ers’ chances to remain the only unbeaten team in the NFL.

“We needed that,” Coach John Robinson said after the Rams’ 28-17 victory, “but the most gratifying thing was that fourth-quarter drive. We took an awful lot of time off the clock and that pretty much won the football game.”

After a third quarter during which the Ram offense managed a net gain of 15 yards, this drive certainly came out of the blue. And, even after the Rams had gone 89 yards, victory was in doubt. On third-and-goal from the one, Cleveland Gary did an impromptu Magic Johnson imitation, dribbling and bobbling the ball before going into the end zone untouched.

Gary dropped the pitchout from quarterback Jim Everett but the ball bounced back into his hands. He couldn’t get control right away, but kept running toward the hole and finally got control as he crossed the goal line.

Gary, who fumbled near the goal line in the fourth quarter during last week’s 24-21 loss to Dallas, was asked what went through his mind when the ball slipped from his grasp. “Holy Cow!” he said. “I just wanted to continue to go forward. Then nobody touched me and that was the sweet part of it. Yeah, it was a bizarre play in a lot of ways.”

Actually, it was a fitting finale to a drive that began with a pitchout to Gary.

The Rams were penalized five yards for a false start before the drive even started and so Gary’s two-yard gain put them at their seven-yard line.

As he approached the line of scrimmage on second down, Everett called a timeout. “We had a misalignment with some of our young guys,” Everett explained.

He came back from the sidelines and hooked up with Holohan for 15 yards and a first down. “That pass to Pete was a change-up we went to at halftime,” he said.

Then Everett rolled out to the right and passed to Flipper Anderson for another 15-yard gain.

“After we made a couple of plays we started going, ‘Yeah, yeah, let’s get a touchdown and get out of here,’ ” Holohan said.

Gary picked up a yard on the next play and then Anderson made a catch in a crowd that Holohan said was the key play on the drive. Linebacker Bill Romanowski drilled Anderson as he made the catch, slamming his helmet into the Ram receiver’s chest, but Anderson hung on and the Rams had a first down at the 50-yard line.

Gary picked up nine yards on the next two downs before Everett called yet another timeout.

“We didn’t want to run that play against that defense,” Everett said. “It was a critical point. I didn’t care about the clock, what I cared about was that we had the most efficient run or pass against the right defense.”

The Rams went to Gary again and he got the one yard they needed for the fourth first down of the drive. A short pass to Pat Carter, a five-yard face-mask penalty against the 49ers’ Michael Carter and a three-yard run by Buford McGee gave the Rams a first down at the San Francisco 28.

Everett went back to Anderson on the right side for a nine-yard gain. After that, McGee and Gary took turns pounding away at the heart of the 49er defense. McGee had runs of eight and three yards. And Gary had runs of seven, minus-one, one and, of course, the big one.

“I think we rediscovered ourselves out there,” veteran center Doug Smith said. “That’s the way we played all the time last year. We had a lot of close games and when it came down to the end and we needed the drive, we got the drive done. It hadn’t happened this year for us, but that’s us.”

For some of the younger players, Gary said, it was more like a coming of age.

“I think we matured today,” he said. “I think the younger guys matured. I know I did. We had some unfortunate things happen to us early, but we just had to slow it down. We were ahead and I started thinking, ‘Slow it down. Drive the ball. Run the clock out. Play John Robinson football and if we do that, the results will be a foregone conclusion.’ ”

Hardly, especially if you want to stop-action the final play of the drive with the ball on the ground and the 49ers less than a last-minute touchdown from victory. But this was the Rams’ day and the ball finally bounced their way.

“It’s only one drive in one game, but for us this season, that drive against a team like the 49ers means a lot,” Holohan said. “I think it’s something we can build on in a season when we haven’t had much to build on.”

Everett agreed.

“Yeah, it’s been a damned long time.”