Light Going Out on Ram Season : Pro football: Another fourth-quarter lead is lost, as is game, 21-10, to the Lions.
Blandly, blankly, bleakly, the Rams trudge on through 1991, the light at the end of their tunnel all but extinguished.
Sunday afternoon, the decidedly unspectacular--but still 7-4--Detroit Lions beat the Rams, 21-10, by doing what others have done: happily take advantage of their inability to succeed when the chance is given to them.
Sunday evening, the Rams, 3-8 and growing used to losing, huddled in their locker room and kissed their season good-by.
They can do the math: A mistake-prone offense plus a mistake-prone defense plus consistent fourth-quarter paralysis plus five consecutive losses equals disaster.
“I’m sick and tired of summing up the damn season,” quarterback Jim Everett said. “I’m sick and tired of losing. I’m sure all of the guys are. You can say a lot of things about our season, but right now, you can definitely say it’s a failure.”
It didn’t matter that the Ram defense held Detroit to a single touchdown through three quarters and held tailback Barry Sanders to 2.2 yards per carry.
All that meant was more frustration when Detroit won without Sanders. First-year Lion quarterback Erik Kramer passed for two easy touchdowns in the fourth quarter to win it for a Silverdome crowd of 60,873 that had loudly suggested that he be benched.
It didn’t matter that Everett compiled his third 300-yard passing day in a row and fourth in five weeks.
All that meant was more bitterness when his second pass of the final period sailed into the hands of Lion cornerback Ray Crockett for the Rams’ seventh fourth-quarter turnover in their last five games. It set up Detroit’s game-clinching score.
It doesn’t matter that the Rams have been truly manhandled in a game only once in their eight losses. All that means is that they blow games instead of getting blown out.
So this 1991 Ram season doesn’t really matter, anymore, either.
“The last few weeks we’ve been asked, ‘Can you still make it? Can you still make it to the playoffs?’ ” Everett said. “I think we can say all the doors are closed now.”
The last door slammed shut Sunday at the usual time: With the Rams ahead going into the fourth quarter and playing well enough to win.
Before the fourth, they had moved the ball well, completely stopped Sanders and made Kramer look like a jittery Canadian Football League reject.
They led, 10-7, on Everett’s touchdown pass to Henry Ellard and a 27-yard Tony Zendejas field goal.
With the Ram defense zeroed in on him, Sanders gained only 57 yards in 26 carries, well off his 116-yard home-field pace. The Lion offense was at a loss without him.
On Sanders’ first four carries, he lost six yards, and by the time the first half was over, he had two yards on 10 carries.
“We went into the game set out to stop Barry Sanders, and we stopped Barry Sanders,” defensive coordinator Jeff Fisher said.
The Rams weren’t so productive on the ground, either, gaining 13 yards on 13 carries in the first half, with tailback Marcus Dupree getting three carries all day.
At halftime, the Lions led, 7-3, after Kramer passed six yards to Robert Clark for a six-yard touchdown in the final seconds. But the Rams took the second-half kick-off 70 yards on 11 plays, Ellard scoring on a 19-yard pass from Everett for a 10-7 lead.
Then came the fourth quarter. On the first play, Kramer found Clark in the end zone for the go-ahead 11-yard touchdown.
Everett’s complete overthrow of Flipper Anderson straight to Crockett--”just a bad pass,” Everett said--came a minute later, complete with a 42-yard return by Crockett into Ram territory.
Kramer’s third touchdown pass of the game, a 34-yard play to Mel Farr for the 21-10 lead--came three plays after that.
“I don’t even know what happened,” said middle linebacker Larry Kelm, trying to explain what went wrong so quickly. “It’s just . . . well, it’s just the same thing.”
Since their loss to the Atlanta Falcons a month ago, the Rams have been involved in four consecutive games decided in the fourth quarter. In those four fourth quarters, they have thrown four interceptions, fumbled three times and been outscored 41-7.
Sunday, the Rams were shut out in the fourth quarter.
“We did it again,” Coach John Robinson said. “I don’t know if we’ve (received) a turnover since I don’t remember when (their last was two weeks ago, an interception against the Saints). And we continue to give them up. We gave up two (including Buford McGee’s fumble in the second quarter), and it cost us the game.
“There’s really not much else to say. That’s the way things are going for us.”
Rams Notes
Rookie cornerback Robert Bailey had the tip of his left ring finger torn off during a special teams play in the second half and stayed in a Detroit-area hospital last night in preparation for an operation to try to sew it back onto his hand. According to Ram trainer Jim Anderson, Bailey got his finger stuck in a Lion player’s helmet.
Left tackle Gerald Perry had to be taken off the field in the first half after suffering a sprained left knee. He is scheduled to undergo an X-ray today in Los Angeles and is out for the season.
Lions’ right guard Mike Utley suffered a spinal injury in the fourth quarter during the Lions’ go-ahead touchdown, experienced partial paralysis of his lower body, could barely move his hands and was taken to an area hospital for examination.