RAM NOTEBOOK / JOHN WEYLER : On Third and Short, White Standing Tall
On third and one, you’re supposed to run the ball. That’s why linebacker Leon White is on the field.
White, who has been used mostly in short-yardage situations, has made two big plays for the Rams this season, but neither involved stuffing a running back. In fact, White is tied for second on the team in interceptions with two and both were the result of third-and-one plays when opponents chose not to run.
Saint quarterback Bobby Hebert rolled out on third and goal from the Ram one-yard line Oct. 11 in the Superdome. When Kevin Greene slightly deflected his pass, White caught it and returned it 40 yards. Last Sunday, Viking quarterback Sean Salisbury was about to be sacked by Greene when he fired a bullet right at White, who was not more than 10 yards away. White hung on and returned it nine yards.
“It was going to hurt him if he didn’t catch it,” linebacker coach Dick Selcer said, laughing. “Everybody gets lucky once in a while. Actually, both those guys threw it right at him.”
White admitted he was surprised that Salisbury threw the ball, but not so surprised he couldn’t react to catch it.
“It almost stuck in my chest,” he said. “It wasn’t a hard catch. It’s just a matter of being in the right place at the right time, but it’s exciting to be in those situations.”
White, who had 138 tackles and six sacks between 1988-1990 with the Bengals, played six seasons in Cincinnati before holding out this year during a contract stalemate. The Bengals waived him and the Rams picked him up Sept. 22.
“He doesn’t have any real drawbacks,” Selcer said. “It’s just taken a while because he didn’t get to go to training camp and you can’t start over. You can’t tell everybody else to go to sleep while you start from ground zero.
“But he’s got the short-yardage and goal-line defense down great and he’s becoming more comfortable in the regular stuff. He’s efficient, effective and he plays real well on special teams. He’s a functional part of the program. He can help us win.”
Not-so-great realizations: The Rams got off to a 2-2 start under Coach Chuck Knox before a series of tough losses and a rout or two has reduced early-season expectations to a 4-8 reality.
Tampa Bay, which will play host to the Rams Sunday, bolted to a 3-1 record in 1992 under first-year Coach Sam Wyche before crashing back to 4-8.
“You’ve got a new coach, I had done a lot of speaking around town and everyone was excited to see what the new look would be,” Wyche said. “We came out of the blocks quick with two wins. Then we played a real good game up in Minnesota that we had a chance to win, and showed we were for real, for the moment.
“Then we went up to Detroit and broke a 19-game losing streak on the road. That got everybody excited. And with the Colts coming to our place, our fans thought we could go to 4-1.”
Indianapolis won, 24-14, and started the Bucs on a five-game losing streak.
“Early on, we were enthusiastic and had a lot of fire and a couple of opponents hadn’t picked out some of our weaknesses,” Wyche said. “Plus, we’ve had runs of injuries at similar positions. We went four games in the middle of the season when both our starting receivers were out and our starting tight end couldn’t practice. Then we went three weeks where all our defensive linemen seemed to go down.
“But No. 1, we’re a team that has a few things yet to fix before we start winning more games. It hasn’t been an awful year, but our team is just not quite there yet and (the fans) just have to accept that.”
No thanks: Here’s a card you won’t find at Hallmark.
Wyche, who had been mentioned as a possible candidate to replace John Robinson as Ram coach after being fired on Christmas Eve by the Bengals, said he wasn’t even thinking about coaching again until Tampa Bay owner Hugh Culverhouse called to offer him the job.
Not that anyone else wanted him. Did he even talk with the Rams?
“Frankly, I was devastated after being fired,” Wyche said. “I wasn’t even looking to get back into coaching. But there were six or seven jobs open when I was available and, to my credit, not one person called me.
“I sent out a lot of thank you notes in jest, you know, ‘Thanks for the consideration.’ I hoped they laughed when they got them.”
Still trying harder: Mike Pagel became more than just an emergency quarterback last Sunday when Knox used him in relief of Jim Everett, but the veteran backup isn’t planning on winning the starting job.
“Jim’s No. 1 and I’m No. 2, there’s no change,” Pagel said. “It was just a matter of Chuck feeling that he had to make a change to try and get a little spark. Unfortunately, we needed a fire at the time.”
The Vikings had taken a 31-10 lead, but there was still almost two minutes left in the third quarter when Knox summoned Pagel.
“It does make me feel good that the coach feels confident to turn to me in a game where, on the scoreboard, we were down 21, but there was still a lot of time left. For him to turn to me and say, ‘Go in there,’ it makes me feel good about my situation here.”
Two thumbs down? Fred Strickland took over at middle linebacker after Larry Kelm was injured last week and, well, he didn’t exactly wow the film critics.
Asked to evaluate Strickland’s performance, Knox paused and said, “He did all right.”
Strickland wasn’t especially pleased with his performance, either.
“It was kind of shaky at first,” he said. “I was kind of nervous, but once I got in the rhythm of things, I felt fine. I think I did OK.”
Ram notes
Tony Zendejas has made nine consecutive field goals. He has connected on 28 of 32 field goals in two seasons with the Rams. Three of the four misses came in one game when he failed on attempts of 47, 39 and 25 yards against New England Sept. 13. Going back to his days with the Houston Oilers, Zendejas has made 34 of his last 38 field-goal attempts. . . . Vinny Testaverde, who threw two passes for touchdowns but had three intercepted last week during a 19-14 loss to Green Bay, will start this week against the Rams, Coach Sam Wyche said.