Rams Find Forgotten Feeling: Victory : Pro football: It’s only an exhibition game, but beating Seattle, 21-7, brings back memories.
Even in an exhibition game, even as he was surrounded by a new team, the old rule about the old coach still held Thursday night: Make serious errors against a Chuck Knox football team in the Kingdome, and you lose.
Same old story.
He looked his same, serious self during the Rams’ 21-7 victory in their exhibition opener Thursday, wearing the same outfit--blue baseball cap, white shirt, dark pants and lock-jaw grin--he wore for nine seasons as the Seahawks’ head coach.
However, the two teams playing before a Kingdome crowd of 52,360 looked vastly different.
A few months ago, these same teams played here to end their dreary seasons, with Knox at the helm of the Seahawks and John Robinson about finished saying goodby as coach of the Rams. Seattle won, 23-9. Knox resigned, was replaced by Tom Flores and took over the Rams.
The first look at both teams after the change came Thursday. With a month of countless possibilities for disaster before the games start to count, the Rams won.
“We were talking about it on the sidelines. Just when was the last time we were up by two touchdowns?” said tight end Jim Price, who sat out the rest of the game after a concussion during a sprawling first-quarter touchdown catch.
“It was nice, letting the other team make the mistakes for a change and just executing what we do.”
The Rams were in control throughout. They moved the ball comfortably for 304 yards and capitalized on the Seahawks’ errors, of which there were many.
The Rams did not turn the ball over until the fourth quarter, got plenty of good defense even without Sean Gilbert, their injured top draft pick, and starting cornerback Todd Lyght. They generally did not embarrass anyone, a big step from last season.
The Seahawks were the team in trouble all game long, surrendering four sacks, three turnovers and consistently finding themselves in third-and-long situations.
For the Rams, who had not won a game of any kind since last Oct. 13, this meant a little more than the usual exhibition platitudes.
“They worked hard, and I’m glad they had the chance to get the feeling of winning,” Knox said. “Get some satisfaction out of that.”
Said Price: “It’s nice just to get the taste of winning in people’s mouths again, especially after we went 10 games without winning last year.
“It’s like a new start, like a refreshing feeling.”
If in his postgame analysis Knox wouldn’t say he felt an extra emotional push from beating the team that let him go--and he wouldn’t--others were willing to say it for him.
“Absolutely,” said receiver Jeff Chadwick, who followed Knox to Anaheim from Seattle. “I have a sweet feeling because of it. I’m sure Chuck does too.”
The Rams controlled the game early with defense. Defensive end Bill Hawkins sacked Kelly Stouffer cleanly from the blind side to force a fumble, which was recovered by rookie defensive tackle Marc Boutte. That set up the Rams’ first touchdown, Jim Everett’s 11-yard pass to Price.
“You have a pretty good feeling when the guy has no idea you’re there,” Hawkins said. “That’s the best, when that happens.”
Hawkins set up the second touchdown with his second sack. It led to another short scoring drive, ending with a 25-yard pass play from Everett to Flipper Anderson.
Everett completed nine of his 15 passes for 95 yards and the two touchdowns in his one half of play.
The Rams increased their lead to 21-7 on a third-quarter drive keyed by former Seahawks Derek Loville and Chadwick. Chadwick caught two passes on the drive for 27 yards, and Loville converted a key third-and-four run to put the Rams in scoring position.
Backup quarterback Mike Pagel ended the drive and the scoring by floating a pass down the middle to tight end Darian McKinney for a 13-yard touchdown.
Chadwick celebrated his return to Seattle by catching five passes for 74 yards.
After talking about his own success, his thoughts came back to Knox, as did everyone else’s.
“He hasn’t changed,” Chadwick said with a big smile.
