Robinson Seems to Be Ready to Go : Rams: Coach’s comments sound as if he expects this to be his last season in Anaheim.
It sounded like the prelude to farewell.
Striking a plaintive tone but appearing comfortable with his fate, and warning that the structure of the franchise must change for it to rebound from two years of failure, Ram Coach John Robinson Monday left little doubt that he assumes this will be his last season at the team’s helm.
“I think this organization needs change,” Robinson said at his weekly media luncheon, one day after his team had lost its eighth consecutive game and 22nd of its last 30.
“Whether that change is me or whether it’s a restructuring of the football part of the organization, I do think we’re looking at a group that shouldn’t continue to operate the way it does.”
Two weeks ago, Robinson said he thought if the team showed improvement in its last month of play, he was sure the Rams’ front office, led by Executive Vice President John Shaw, would retain the coaching staff.
Monday, after a 31-14 defeat at the hands of the Atlanta Falcons, and with two road games to finish the season, Robinson conceded that any signs of a Ram revival are gone and implied that many players appear to have lost their will to compete.
He emphasized that his future was up to others and that he was not giving up, but his general mood was of gentle resignation.
“We’re not turning it around, that’s clear,” Robinson said. “I’ve been 16 straight years in Southern California (coaching first at USC and the Rams for the last nine). And maybe it’s just the pressure, but I feel some tiredness.
“Those have been great years. (In) 13 out of those 16 we had winning years, national championship, NFC playoff games, as much as any coach active. All those things, you say, ‘Gee, that’s good.’
“Now we’ve gone through two losing seasons and a change in environment might (be appropriate). . . . Al Davis has the (theory that) you can’t stay in this league more than 10 years as a coach, particularly in the same spot.
“All those things run through your mind certainly, I’m not trying to deny that. I’m not sure if I am not here, what I would do. There’s part of me that would want to take the year and just sit, sniff the roses.
“I feel some of those things. It’s been a trying season.”
Could Robinson, who will be owed a guaranteed $550,000 by the Rams after 1991 should he be fired, decide that he doesn’t want to wait to be fired and simply resign?
“I think we would sit down and arrive at a mutual decision,” Robinson said. “I would not walk away.”
Robinson, who said his players seem to be numbed by the experience, pointedly suggested he will handle the final two weeks with grace, even if others do not.
“We’re at a difficult time and it’s obviously a time when (there is) a lot of finger-pointing,” Robinson said. “I’m going to try to avoid that. . . .
“I am not going to try to analyze, nor am I unaware that a number of people have to assume responsibility . . . with the major disappointment that exists on our team.
“But I see no point in publicly airing those things out. We want to make sure we behave with some dignity in this time.”
Does that mean Robinson wants to keep on playing borderline players in order to give the Ram front office a chance to assess them?
“I mean, I would rather be the guy deciding it myself, but I’m not stupid,” Robinson said. “Reality is reality.”
Although Robinson specifically cast no blame, he was ready to point out the Rams’ alleged football decision-making void as the cause of the downfall.
Robinson, who earlier this year enthusiastically praised the way he and the front office worked together this off-season, in contrast to the chilly relationships of years past, Monday said there must be a more sweeping change--if he is head coach or not.
Under owner Georgia Frontiere, the Rams’ working hierarchy is topped by Shaw, who does not have a football background, and other than the coach, the club is lacking football expertise in a position of power.
Robinson suggested that the Rams’ fatal flaw--echoed every week of this season on the field of play--is its lack of football expertise in the front office, and not Frontiere’s perceived unwillingness to pay top salaries.
“As you look over my eight (complete) years . . . you say, ‘Well, the Rams went through an up-cycle in those eight years, six playoffs, two championship games, no Super Bowl. . . . ‘ But now they’re in a decline. Now how do you get back up and what is the method that gets teams back up?
“You can’t point to an organization in terms of money and just say, ‘Boy, spend all the money you can, that’s the way you win.’ Because everybody has financial constraints. Financial constraints are not necessarily in conflict with winning.
“But the plan to win . . . I think there’s a long-range acquisition of players and development of players that I think is very important.”
Said Shaw: “I haven’t had that discussion with the coach about the items he’s alluded to, so I don’t have anything to say.”
Ram Numbers Highlight
MICHAEL HAYNES
It might have taken six weeks as a starter, but Todd Lyght, the Rams’ No. 1 draft choice, now knows what it means to be a defensive back in the National Football League. Lyght, the Notre Dame product, was “undressed” Sunday by Michael Haynes. Lyght, forced most of the time to defend Haynes in single coverage, saw the Falcon wide receiver catch six of quarterback Chris Miller’s passes for 112 yards and one touchdown. The tone was set early as Miller hit Haynes with consecutive passes minutes into the game, the first on a deep pattern for a 51-yard gain, then for a nine-yard gain. Haynes, in 14 games, has caught 41 passes for 914 yards--a 22.3 average--and eight touchdowns.
SEASON TO DATE Fourteen-Game Totals (Record: 3-11) First Downs RAMS: 238 OPP: 253 Rushing Yards RAMS: 1,126 OPP: 1,440 Passing Yards RAMS: 3,025 OPP: 3,248 Punts/Average RAMS: 68/37.7 OPP: 59/41.7 Rushing RAMS: ATT: 341 AVG: 3.3 TDs: 10 OPP: ATT: 404 AVG: 3.6 TDs: 16 Passing RAMS: ATT: 437 CP: 247 TDs: 12 OPP: ATT: 387 CP: 233 TDs: 24 Penalties/Yards RAMS: 94/681 OPP: 75/683 Fumbles/Lost RAMS: 30/18 OPP: 15/7 Interceptions RAMS: 9/115 OPP: 14/119 Possession Time RAMS: 29:01 OPP: 30:59 Scoring by Quarters
1 2 3 4 OT TOTAL RAMS 19 97 48 47 0 211 OPP 95 97 57 98 0 347