Rams Beat the Clock--Twice

Six ticks. That was all the Dallas Cowboys had left. Six ticks. Translated into real football terms, it was time enough for one more dropback by Troy Aikman, one more fling into the end zone by Troy Aikman and 47 or so silent prayers by the what-are-we-doing-leading-by-four-points-at-Texas-Stadium Rams.

Aikman took the snap at the Ram 14-yard line and began to backpedal.

The clock was running.

Aikman planted quickly and fired toward the left corner of the end zone, toward Dallas wide receiver Alvin Harper.

The clock was running.

Ram safety Anthony Newman interceded, nearly intercepted and began to celebrate as soon as he was sure the ball was dead and rolling harmlessly on the painted plastic grass.

But the clock had stopped.

Three yellow numbers continued to glow on the scoreboard.

0:01

The Rams demanded a recount.

“It should’ve been over,” cornerback Steve Israel said. “Time ran out, but they stopped the clock too soon. Part of the game, I guess. This is their home. Things like that happen in the NFL.”

“Home field advantage,” nodded cornerback Darryl Henley in agreement. “They should’ve let the clock expire on that play.”

Henley flashed a telltale smile.

“The league should investigate.”

Henley could smile because the Rams had lived to withstand another play. It was nervous breakdown time, to be sure, but if any of the Rams’ young defenders were nervous, none of them, for once, broke down.

Aikman took the timekeeper’s assist and did what he could with it, aiming this time for the right side of the end zone, for Kelvin Martin.

But Ram defensive end Robert Young rushed Aikman hard and forced a hurried throw. The ball hopped once, hopped twice in front of Martin.

Then the Rams started hopping, too--just as soon as each of them double-checked the clock, just to make sure there were zeros all across.

Young’s clenched fist shot into the air and stayed there as he circled Aikman and went careening into a swarm of blue-and-gold bearhugs. Yes, it was finally official: Rams 27, Cowboys 23.

The Rams had won on the road, something that hadn’t happened in 12 games.

The Cowboys had lost at home, something that hadn’t happened in 11.

But most startling of all, these were the 3-6 Rams, last place in the NFC West, defeating the 8-1 Cowboys, the winningest team in the NFL, on their home turf, in front of their home fans and in spite of bedsheet banners that read, “Book Me A Room In Pasadena,” the presumed destination for America’s and CBS’s Team.

CBS figured it was tapping into the national mood when it rescheduled Sunday’s game from noon to 3 p.m. (CST), so more of the country could witness the Cowboys’ latest step on their inexorable march to the Super Bowl. The Rams were 13-point underdogs. This was merely going to be rung No. 9 in the ladder. The Rams said they noticed the spread.

“We heard the Cowboys were going to play a lot of their second-team guys,” Henley said. “We heard they were going to give a lot of playing time to the running back who backs up Emmitt Smith. We heard all that.”

Quarterback Jim Everett heard it, too, and had only one comment:

“The guy who’s making the (betting) lines must be smoking dope.”

The Rams proceeded to alter some minds, including their own, by breaking some long-standing perceptions in Texas.

The Rams can’t win a coin toss. Tails, tails, tails, tails. Jackie Slater, a heads man from way back, couldn’t be wrong forever. Could he? Finally, Slater broke through on Sunday, reassuring his teammates that the league actually does use a two-sided coin.

The Rams can’t figure out the first quarter. Outscored, 65-7, during the first quarters of their first nine games, the Rams outscored the Cowboys in this one, 7-3. Win a coin toss, the possibilities are endless.

The Rams couldn’t stop Emmitt Smith if they had 12 men on the field, or 13, or at least one with a well-trained stun-gun. Last in the league in rushing defense, the Rams held Smith to 80 yards and one touchdown in 19 carries. “We hit Emmitt today,” Henley said, bubbling over at the thought. “He’s the best back in the league, but we hit him today.”

The Rams also got 110 yards (and no fumbles) out of Cleveland Gary, and two touchdown passes (and no interceptions) out of Everett, and took a four-point lead with 1:54 remaining when Tony Zendejas converted his second field goal of the day, this from 44 yards.

From there it was up to the Ram defense, so accustomed to the painful end of the two-minute drill.

“We were in the huddle,” Henley said, “and I’m saying, ‘We are not leaving here disappointed. We are not getting on that plane mad. We’ve been in this situation too many times before and we’re tired of playing hard and being close and losing.’

“After every play, everybody kept repeating that in the huddle.”

Those huddles, however, kept assembling closer and closer to the Rams’ goal line. The last time the Rams looked up, their backs were to the goal posts and Dallas was a 14-yard completion from victory.

Six seconds were left when Aikman lined up to throw the pass that Newman nearly intercepted. Once the play was stifled, Newman launched into giddy back-of-the-end-zone gyrations before secondary mate Robert Bailey reminded him to look again at the clock.

“In my mind, the game was over,” Newman said. “That must have been the slowest-moving clock ever. Aikman was back there, holding the ball forever.”

And when he realized that he would have to huddle again and defend again?

“Bring it on,” Newman said. “We knew what they had to do--they had to go for the touchdown. We’d had too many close games like this get away from us. No way was it going to happen again.”

Israel, a rookie, assumed this is how it is done in the big league.

“I saw one more second on the clock and said, ‘Oh well, let’s go again,’ ” Israel said. “This is the NFL. You can’t be scared in a situation like that.”

So Israel and Newman and nine other Rams lined up once more and held fast once more.

“Considering the high we were on,” Israel said, “they could have given them three more plays and we were confident we’d come to the same conclusion.”

One more play was more than enough, though.

As the veteran Henley, a four-year man, put it, “Now they’ll say, ‘You finally won a coin toss--that’s why you won the game.’ But, you know, it’s not that simple.”