Up Doesn’t Look Nearly as Far Now : Rams: Sunday’s victory over the 49ers doesn’t salvage the season, but it certainly will make it more fun to play.
The last time anybody checked, beating the Greatest Team in the History of the NFL still only counts as one victory--unless you are the Rams, who have to cling to whatever successes they can.
Then, every victory is worth a celebration, especially one that ends the two-time defending Super Bowl champion San Francisco 49ers’ 18-game winning streak.
Sunday, in the feel-good performance of the year, the Rams beat the 49ers on the soggy Candlestick Park grass, 28-17, and improved to only 4-7 but their spirits rose from the depths of season-long depression.
“No, I don’t think this makes our season, because I don’t think any one game can make a season,” quarterback Jim Everett said. “But I’ll tell you, it’s a game that we will cherish very much. There’s no question about that. It’s a game that means a lot to us.”
With their goals for 1990 demolished by their 3-7 start, the Rams spent Monday savoring Sunday’s brief return to glory after losing to the Dallas Cowboys only a week earlier.
The playoffs are still almost certainly out of their picture but, after their defense dominated Joe Montana and their offense dismantled the 49er defense in the fourth quarter, so is the sense that the Rams might pack it in for the rest of 1990.
“I think the key feeling is that it was fun and that it meant a lot to each of us personally to do it,” John Robinson said Monday at his weekly media luncheon. “Just to play good and to get some sense of self-worth about your team.
“Now we get a chance to play again in seven days (Sunday at Cleveland against the 2-8 Browns.) Let’s see if we can do it again. I think we’re all down to very short-range goals at this point.
“Let’s play next Sunday, see what happens, see if we can perform anywhere near the same level. Then let’s play again, and let’s play again, and see what happens.”
Robinson said he was never really worried about talk that his job might be in jeopardy. He said he simply wanted his team to play harder, better and more successfully and took the necessary steps toward that end last week.
“I think I started (the talk) here when somebody asked me a question about it last Monday,” Robinson said. “I think it’s just natural that when you lose in the NFL there are people who think they should eliminate anybody that loses.
“I don’t think it was a big issue because the fact that somebody was saying it doesn’t change whether it is or isn’t. I think I have some sense of the direction that we’re going as an organization. I don’t know everything about it, but I honestly felt that the most important thing was that we weren’t doing our jobs well, we just weren’t playing.
“Me being secure or insecure I don’t think is going to make me coach better.”
Robinson, who usually tries to highlight the positive to his team, held an unusual practice-field meeting last Wednesday to slam home his points.
“Just on the themes of toughness and self-worth,” Robinson said. “The physical aspect of the game. Attacking instead of standing around and watching somebody hit you in the mouth. And then it degenerated into obscenities. Just trying to turn on a light that says, ‘Oh, . . . ‘ “
If there had been a failure to communicate among the Rams, Robinson made sure that was corrected. And his team responded by making the plays against the 49ers it hadn’t made all year--forcing a season-high six turnovers, keeping Jerry Rice and fellow receiver John Taylor relatively quiet, and driving the ball for more than 10 minutes in the key possession of the game.
The key to the big defensive performance was the decision to use a six-defensive back, “big nickel” alignment much more than usual, daring the 49ers to try to run and using four safeties to bump the San Francisco receivers all across the field. The 49ers still couldn’t run--they gained 66 yards in 19 carries--and Montana had no receivers streaking free.
For one three-hour period, the Rams’ defense played the way it did at the end of 1989.
“Our defense did a great job of that,” Robinson said. “We constantly changed, constantly kept different kinds of people in the game playing different schemes. It turned out good for us.
“Whether we could get away with that against them the next time we play them, who knows? At least we made them off(-rhythm). I think Joe, as great as he is, did the things that quarterbacks do when things don’t go right: throw interceptions, fumble the football, miss some targets . . .
“I think he’s the greatest player ever to play the game, yet it’s what happens when things don’t happen right. Everybody is vulnerable to those things.”
But Robinson, who said that the Rams probably will play a lot more of that kind of four-safety nickel defense on first and second downs in the near future, also said he doesn’t think the strategy alone was what mystified Montana.
“Let’s don’t get too caught up on the strategy,” Robinson said. “The guys played good. Strategy maybe gives you an additional weapon, but they played good. Balls were tipped in the air, and Pat Terrell makes a great play on the ball (for an interception). And Mike Wilcher, a ball’s knocked out of there, makes the catch (for a fumble recovery). We were just doing those kinds of things.”
Said linebacker Kevin Greene, who recovered two 49er fumbles: “I think in the back of our minds we were thinking, were the 49ers going to, like, set records on us? We hadn’t been playing very well on defense, but we came up with the big plays this time.”
Ram Numbers FLIPPER ANDERSON Being the deep threat that he is and the fact that both Henry Ellard and Aaron Cox were sidelined with the same malady, a strained hamstring, Flipper Anderson was a receiver marked for special attention by the 49er secondary Sunday. The third-year pro out of UCLA responded with an eight-catch, 149-yard performance. In the second quarter, he came up with a sparkling 19-yard reception that set up the Rams’ third touchdown. It was in the fourth quarter, however, that Flipper was at his absolute best. First, he peeled back to make a diving, 15-yard catch on a Jim Everett pass for a first down. Two plays later, he caught a 12-yarder in traffic, holding on despite a punishing hit from Bill Romanowski, His third catch of the drive was good for eight yards and a first down to the 49er 19. Six running plays later, the Rams put the game out of reach.
Ram Numbers SEASON TO DATE Eleven-game totals (Record: 4-7) First Downs RAMS: 209 OPP: 209 Rushing Yards RAMS: 1,129 OPP: 1,126 Passing Yards RAMS: 2,689 OPP: 2,945 Punts/Average RAMS: 49/41.2 OPP: 43/40.7 Rushing RAMS ATT.: 292 AVG.: 3.9 TDs: 15 OPP: ATT.: 289 AVG.: 3.9 TDs: 11 Passing ATT.: 372 CP: 205 TDs: 15 OPP: ATT: 359 AVG: 221 TDs: 25 Penalties/Yards RAMS: 64/484 OPP: 66/622 Fumbles/Lost RAMS: 17/8 OPP: 21/129 Interceptions/Yds RAMS: 10/91 OPP: 11/95 Possession Time RAMS: 29:13 OPP: 30:47 Scoring by Quarters
1 2 3 4 OT TOTAL RAMS 59 79 65 44 0 247 OPP 75 90 50 81 3 299