Gary’s Performance Is Worth Watching : Rams: After fumbling three times against Phoenix, he was positive L.A. would win.

It was a victory Cleveland Gary had predicted, but that doesn’t mean it was one he could bear to watch.

He had accomplished all he could--gaining 110 yards in 29 carries, catching seven passes for 44 yards and scoring two touchdowns--but while his teammates stood shoulder-to-shoulder along the sideline to watch Dallas’ attempt to rally in the final two minutes, Gary sat on the bench, unable to do anything more than take an occasional peak at the field.

“Jim (Everett) came over and it was like, ‘Get off me, man, this is nerve-racking enough.’ I was just hoping and praying the defense would do it. And they did.”

When Dallas quarterback Troy Aikman threw an incomplete pass into the end zone as time expired, the Rams--and especially their up-and-down tailback--were able to celebrate for a change.

Last week, Gary fumbled three times, two of them leading to Phoenix touchdowns during a 20-14 Cardinal victory. Gary eluded the media after that game and then apologized on Monday. By Wednesday, he was predicting a Ram victory, saying he thought the 3-6 Rams matched up well against the 8-1 Cowboys. Few took him seriously.

Not long after Sunday’s kickoff, however, Gary was making believers of the Cowboys. He had 90 yards rushing during the first half and two touchdowns as the Rams took a 21-13 halftime lead.

“It was the first and only game I’ve ever predicted that we would win,” Gary said. “I just knew that we were prepared for this game and that we’re not the football team our record shows. We’re really not. We’ve lost a lot of close games, and today we just kicked in that extra gear.

“It was just a game I had a good feeling about. I felt I had to redeem myself, so it was a lot of fun to go out, not to prove anybody wrong, just to go out and play hard and not think about anything else.”

“I looked at it like this,” said Gary, who has surpassed his 1990 career-high of 808 yards with 928. “I made some mistakes last week. The time I’ve played, I’ve learned and matured. I had to face it, deal with it, and I’ve grown. But I did the best I could do (last week), and so I could still hold my head up high.”

That was easy to do, Gary said, because of the overwhelming support he received from his teammates and from Coach Chuck Knox, who doesn’t waste time dwelling on negatives. Knox put no special emphasis last week on Gary’s inability to hold onto the football. He had fumbled five times in nine games, but there was no pattern that Knox felt needed to be addressed.

Gary also was responding to a few choice words of encouragement from his coach.

“I had made up my mind, as I worked through the week, that I wouldn’t even think about last week’s mistakes,” Gary said. “Coach Knox just mentioned to me to forget it and to keep hitting people for extra yards. When you’re around so much that’s positive, you think positive. And I can truly say it never once entered my mind after I stepped on the field.”

Gary went up the middle for six yards on his first carry. He accounted for 54 yards and scored on a one-yard run as the Rams drove 81 yards for a touchdown and a 7-0 lead on their first possession.

“Cleveland was just terrific,” Everett said. “He was there whenever we needed him. Every time we opened up a hole for him, he made the most of it. He was always in the right place.”

Everett wasn’t exactly where Gary wanted him to be, however, when the Cowboys took over the ball for a last-gasp shot at running their home winning streak to 12.

“I was over there with him and a lot of things go through your head at a time like that,” Everett said.

“I mentioned to him that it was nice to be ahead in that situation for a change, then I went back over to watch it.”

Gary had seen enough for one day. And the Cowboys had seen enough of him.