RAMS : New Cast Puts ‘Special’ Back in Special Teams

The last straw in the Rams’ dismal 1990 special teams’ season was their last effort against New Orleans, the final testimony illustrating exactly how far they had fallen.

Given one more chance to pin the Saints deep in their own territory after tying the game with a few minutes left, the Rams’ kickoff coverage team failed resoundingly in that game last December.

Mike Lansford’s kick was supposed to be high and angled, but instead sailed down the middle of the field, barely past the Saints’ 20. Gene Atkins flew through the Ram coverage, taking the ball to the Saints’ 44, setting up the drive for the winning field goal.

On the night, the Saints had a 181 total yards in nine returns.

“Oh God, we were terrible,” says Paul Butcher, a member of those teams and now the emotional leader of the Rams’ recharged coverage teams.

“We were pathetic,” says Gil Haskell, again the special teams coach this year after four seasons as the team’s running backs coach.

They were pathetic enough that Coach John Robinson moved Haskell back to replace Jairo Penaranda as the special teams leader this off-season to make sure 1991 would not be a repeat of their 1990 collapse.

Under Haskell from 1983-86, the Rams consistently had one of the top 10 special teams in the league.

This off-season, the Rams left Lansford, whose kickoffs had been getting shorter and less accurate, unprotected in Plan B and signed Oiler veteran Tony Zendejas.

They brought back former Ram Dale Hatcher to replace punter Keith English, whose low line drives ruined coverage schemes and whose net average of 31.9 yards per punt was the worst in the league.

And the Rams shook up the roster, bringing in hungry young Plan B players such as Glenell Sanders and Sammy Lilly and free agents such as returners Vernon Turner and former Raider Ron Brown. They also made sure they held on to Butcher, a free-agent signee in 1989.

Hatcher and Brown had career years under Haskell during previous stays with the Rams in the mid-1980s.

The Rams this season, after signing Brown two games ago, have a new kicker, new punter, new punt returner (Turner) and new kickoff returner. Were there any worries that so much upheaval could prove destabilizing?

“Not at all, because I knew the other group was not the group to win with,” Haskell said. “We were all there last year, sitting on the sidelines watching what was going on, and everybody tried to do better. It wasn’t for a lack of trying, it just didn’t happen.”

This year, so far, it is happening. The fiery Rams special team players have the best overall coverage teams in the league: the No. 1-ranked punt coverage team and the No. 2-ranked kickoff coverage squad. For every punt or kickoff they make, the Rams are averaging an improvement of five yards from last year. Robinson estimates the Rams are holding opponents to about 60 or 70 fewer yards per game because of their improved special teams play.

Turner and Brown haven’t yet broken a long one, but both show signs that they are far more deadly than last year’s group of returners.

Besides making his first eight field-goal attempts this season, Zendejas has been a revelation as a kickoff man, able to place the ball where the coverage squad wants it, deep and high.

“It’s been catalytic,” Robinson said of Zendejas’ kicks. “They know the ball’s long enough for them to get down there and that kind of adds to it. Now we’ve got guys fighting to get down there as opposed to hoping.”

Butcher said the change has come because players are learning to enjoy the special teams instead of dreading every moment of service on them.

“The big difference is we’ve got a lot of young guys this year,” Butcher said. “Last year, we had mostly veterans out there. And the veteran guys who are playing special teams this year wanted to get some enthusiasm on the special teams.

“For me, that’s how I built my career. My career is all special teams. And these young guys have got to understand, hey, if you want to play for a long time in this league, and you’re not a star, you’re going to have to contribute on special teams.

“The only way to do that and to be good at it is to have some enthusiasm towards it. If you go toward it the other way, you’re not going to be good at it.

“Last year, we had a lot of guys who didn’t want to be doing it.”

Not only are the Rams’ special teams playing consistently, but they have had some game-turning plays out of their coverage teams, plays that were nowhere to be found last season.

Crucial to the Rams’ six-point victory over the Giants in September were the three soft Hatcher punts downed inside the five-yard line by Lilly. Hatcher’s average of 36.5 is one of the lowest in the league, but he has put 10 punts inside the 20 and has consistently punted high enough for his coverage team to prevent big returns.

A key to the Rams’ two-point victory over the Green Bay Packers was Butcher’s cement-stack hit on kickoff returner Vai Sikahema, forcing a fumble that was turned into a touchdown by Anthony Newman.

A big moment in the Rams’ six-point victory over the Chargers last week was a crazy-hopping kickoff by Zendejas that eluded the Charger return team and was almost recovered by the Rams. Instead, the Chargers recovered at their one-yard line, which resulted in a safety.