Gary Makes Good on His Prediction : Rams: Running back helps to make believers of the Dallas Cowboys by turning in a fumble-free performance.

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 Sunday--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 peek 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 which led 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. Nobody laughed in his face, but not many took him very seriously.

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

“It was the first and only game I’ve ever predicted that we would win,” Gary said. “I don’t have any psychic powers, and I don’t believe in that stuff. 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, dirty-nosed football and not think about anything else.”

It was egg, not dirt, that Gary had on his face after last Sunday’s momentary relapse into the bad old days of 1990, when he ran hard, but left the ball behind 12 times. Maybe it was poetic justice that on this Sunday--when he proved he wouldn’t wilt under the stress of one bad game and could rebound with a flourish--that he surpassed his 1990 career-high of 808 yards. He has 928 yards and is on a pace to rush for 1,485 yards this season.

“I looked at it like this,” Gary said. “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.

“And it wouldn’t have been right for me to take anything negative from that into this game. It wouldn’t have been fair to Cleveland Gary or the Los Angeles Rams.”

Chick Harris, the Rams’ running backs coach, thought Gary’s meeting with the media on Monday, his apology for skipping out and the catharsis that followed his recollection of that litany of errors were key events leading up to his redemption in Texas.

“You know, he’s a very determined guy who was determined to come back from what happened last week,” Harris said. “I think a big factor was that after the situation at Anaheim last week, that he came back as a man and talked to the press and said he’d be back on track.

“I don’t see any 1990, I see only 1992. Cleveland ran really tough in there today, and when he caught the ball, he was very positive going up the field hard after the catch.”

That posture was easily attained, 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, and there was no pattern that Knox believed needed to be addressed.

“We didn’t make a big issue of that,” Knox said. “We stress ball security in every practice. Cleveland did a heck of a job today. He responded. He came back out there very determined and he ran very hard.”

Gary also was responding to a few choice words of encouragement that came 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.”

Negative thoughts had to be running pell-mell inside Cowboy helmets, though. 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 you can bet the Cowboys had seen enough of him.