It’s Watters Over Dam for Rams : Football: Tailback frustrates L.A. defense all day, then Rice delivers final blow in fourth quarter of 49ers’ 27-10 victory.
They were frustrated by frequent mistakes, puzzled by an offense that had been at full power all season but struggled in low gear most of the day and were ready for some serious soul-searching when the ordeal was over.
Beat L.A.? Well, yes, the San Francisco 49ers, as is their custom, did that Sunday, marching away from the Rams in the fourth quarter for a 27-10 victory in front of 65,858 at Anaheim Stadium.
But the 49ers like to leave soaring. They have done it plenty of times and have too many Super Bowl trophies back home to remain unconcerned when winning comes relatively ugly.
“I guess,” 49er quarterback Steve Young said, “we might be the only team in the league that would be kicking themselves after a 27-10 win.”
Or after second-year tailback Ricky Watters skidded and bounced his way through the Rams for 163 yards rushing in 26 carries. Or after Jerry Rice did it again to the Rams--busting out for a 42-yard touchdown pass to break the game open in the fourth quarter. Or after winning their sixth consecutive game at Anaheim Stadium and sentencing the Rams to their 14th consecutive NFC West defeat.
The Rams (4-7) seemed to realize San Francisco (9-2) was not Super Bowl-sharp Sunday and felt the ache of another lost opportunity.
The 49ers, who committed eight penalties, lost a fumble that led to a Ram touchdown and seemed out of kilter on their quarterback-to-receiver communication. They were ahead by only three points, 13-10, in the fourth quarter, despite keeping the Ram offense relatively silent.
The Rams lost, 27-24, to the 49ers on Oct. 4 in Candlestick Park, but never were able to charge up their offense in Sunday’s quieter rematch.
Tailback Cleveland Gary, who has been the heart of the Rams’ offense in their recent six-game offensive surge, was limited by a sore right ankle and carried the ball only 11 times for 35 yards--and rushed only three for 11 yards in the second half.
“I think it’s obvious today, if you watched the game, that it wasn’t like it was the last six or seven games,” Gary said. “That’s all a part of it.
“There comes a time when you’re giving so much . . . (but) it just doesn’t click right then. The key is perseverance. I think that’s the mark of a champion, to continue through.”
Whether a result of Gary’s injury or not, the Rams converted only two of 11 third-down tries in the game--one in each half.
With the Rams unable to move the chains and keep the misfiring San Francisco offense off the field, it was only a matter of time before the 49ers finally shook off their troubles for a game-breaking play as the fourth quarter unfolded.
This time, it was a deep sideline toss from Young to Rice, who adroitly grabbed the ball as it bounced off the helmet of Ram safety Anthony Newman, then jogged into the end zone for the remaining five or six yards. Rice now has caught eight touchdown passes of 40 yards or more against the Rams in his eight-year career.
That gave the 49ers a 20-10 lead with 6 minutes 36 seconds left. They pushed across one more touchdown, and ate up most of the remaining time on a 10-play, 61-yard drive culminating in Watters’ three-yard touchdown run, his second of the day and cementing his career-high total.
“I’m just happy to see him do so well,” said Ram cornerback Todd Lyght of Watters, his college roommate at Notre Dame. “I just hope we could have as much success as the San Francisco 49ers.
“But there’s a couple things missing. Until we figure out what it is, we’re going to have tough times.”
On Oct. 4, Ram quarterback Jim Everett completed 20 of 24 passes, including 12 in a row at one point, against a 49er defense that gave him a lot of passes up the middle to his tight ends and in the flats to his backs.
Sunday, in the face of a 49er defense determined to take away the intermediate passes, Everett, who had completed 72% of his passes the last six weeks dating to the last 49er game, completed only 13 of 29 for 158 yards.
“I think (the 49ers) were doing a lot of things similar, it’s just the fact that we weren’t converting the ball,” Everett said. “I don’t think we were playing up to the level that we expect to have a chance to beat these guys.
“We were still in that ballgame until the very end. But we needed to make some things happen earlier in that game to take a little bit more control. We never really put the pressure on them, making the plays that we had to.”
The 49ers scored first Sunday, putting together a 10-play, 62-yard, first-quarter drive, centered on and finishing with Watters, who scored from three yards and had 46 rushing and receiving yards on the possession.
But the 49ers, who went into Sunday with the league’s No. 1 offense, averaging 406.3 yards per game, bogged down despite Watters.
The 49ers, while shutting out the Rams in the half, could manage only a Mike Cofer field goal in the final seconds of the half for a 10-0 lead.
Young, on the day, completed only 14 of 26 passes for 167 yards, and said the 49ers’ offense committed too many crucial errors to be satisfied with its effort.
“Today we tried to change gears about 10 times out there to get something going,” Young said. “But you can’t change holding calls or offsides or quarterbacks throwing the ball downfield when guys are covered. Those are the kinds of things we’re going to have to eliminate next week.”
Eventually, the 49ers saw that the Rams were dropping their linebackers quickly to stop Rice and John Taylor from getting receiving angles, and settled on giving the ball to Watters.
“I’m getting tired of seeing these defenses that put eight guys back there, but we’re going to have to be patient,” Young said. “If they’re going to give Ricky 10 yards a crack, we’re going to have to take it.
“If they’re going to bring four guys and play a catch-zone, and the linebackers are going to take the blocks more than five yards downfield, we’ve got to take advantage of that.”
The Rams pounced on a fumble after a Young-Watters exchange on the second play of the second half, and quickly converted it into their first points when Everett found Henry Ellard open at the goal line from 31 yards.
An exchange of field goals made the score 13-10 in the early minutes of the fourth quarter, and that’s when Young-to-Rice shut the door for good.
“The 49ers--they’re the kind of offense you’re not going to shut them down,” Lyght said. “You’ve just got to try and contain them. To beat the 49ers, you have to have a lot of ball control on offense and we were unable to do that.”
* PLAYING WITH THE BIG BOYS
Perseverance in the face of adversity is a lesson Ricky Watters learned long ago. C7
* HIS GREAT EXPECTATIONS
Despite heroics, Jerry Rice is having one of the least productive years of his career. C7
ADDITIONAL PHOTOS: C6
