RAM NOTES : Rookie Dunbar Adds the Right Spice to Saints’ Running Game

Vaughn Dunbar has painfully learned the reality of life as an NFL running back.

He was the first-round draft choice. The highly touted rookie. The savior of the New Orleans Saints’ running game.

People talked and Dunbar listened. Then the season began.

“I definitely thought I was going to come in and make an impact,” Dunbar said. “I’ll admit it. I rushed things too much. I heard all the talk and it messed my game up.”

Of course, it was nothing a little seasoning couldn’t cure. Dunbar is cooking now, collecting yards, not accolades.

The Rams spent much of Sunday looking for Mr. Dunbar. He cut and slashed his way to 91 yards, and looked remarkably like the guy everyone was talking about before the season.

“You have to take your lumps,” Dunbar said. “But once you get another chance, you have to prove that you are worthy of being back out there.”

Dunbar took his lumps, now he’s giving them.

He started Sunday’s game No. 3 on the Saints’ depth chart. But when starter Fred McAfee separated a shoulder, Dunbar was suddenly elevated.

“We had planned to use Vaughn some today,” New Orleans Coach Jim Mora said. “When Freddie got hurt, it became a necessity.”

Dunbar had key runs on two scoring drives. He also bulled one yard for a touchdown in the third quarter.

“That was the best he’s looked,” Mora said. “I knew he was capable of doing these things.”

Everyone did.

Dunbar was projected to be a starter. He had the resume for the job, having gained 1,805 yards as a senior at Indiana.

The Saints were in the market for just such a runner. After all, McAfee was the team’s leading rusher in 1991 with only 494 yards.

But Dunbar found the job description a little different in the NFL.

“I had uncertainties,” he said. “I didn’t hit the hole as hard as I wanted because I wasn’t sure I was making the right reads. I had to learn.”

He did so by the seat of his pants, while sitting.

Dunbar’s days as a starter came to an end Oct. 11 against the Rams. He had gained 68 yards during the game, but also fumbled in a key situation.

Dalton Hilliard started in his place the next week.

Dunbar came into Sunday’s game as the Saints’ leading rusher with 440 yards. But he was averaging 3.5 yards per carry.

His playing time had decreased to a point where he hardly got off the bench the past four games.

“That was kind of embarrassing,” Dunbar said. “I felt like I was being punished.”

But the time off helped. Dunbar watched, listened and learned, then waited.

“I wasn’t in school anymore, but I hit the books,” Dunbar said. “I used the time to get the offense down. I’m ready to roll now.”

As the Rams found out Sunday. Dunbar had five runs of 10 or more yards, including an 18-yard gain that set up the Saints’ final touchdown.

“That hole was so big, I thought I was going to faint,” he said. “The line did an incredible job. The holes were definitely there.”

And so was Dunbar, to fill them--just as everyone predicted.

Only, this time, he’s not listening.

“I learned I’m a rookie,” Dunbar said. “I’m not going to come out and be a Barry Sanders-type in my first season. But I can almost guarantee I’m going to put up the numbers for a while.”

Wide receiver/punt returner Emile Harry, a graduate of Fountain Valley High School, had a 12-yard reception Sunday, his first as a Ram.

Harry, a former Kansas City Chief, was signed three weeks ago to replace return specialist Vernon Turner, who was released. Harry was activated last week, but was used only to field punts.

Jim Everett had the longest run of his career Sunday, when he scrambled 22 yards in the third quarter. His previous best was a 19-yard run against San Diego in 1988.

Everett, who is more of a loper than a runner, finished with 41 yards in four carries against the Saints. Still, he’ll never be confused with the 49ers’ Steve Young or the Eagles’ Randall Cunningham. Sunday’s total gave Everett a meager 124 yards rushing this season.

Everett paid the price on one carry. He ran for nine yards in the third quarter, but was knocked flat by Saint linebacker Vaughan Johnson.

Linebacker Pat Swilling, one of the NFL’s most exciting outside pass rushers, says he’s been getting a kick out of watching the Saints’ offense roll up and down the field recently.

“Just seeing those guys picking up the points, knocking guys off the ball, it’s great,” he said. “Our offense doesn’t get much credit, but they’ve been doing a good job of ball possession all year and now they’re really scoring points.

“We’re on fire offensively and that will spell trouble for a lot of teams down the road, because we know we can keep them out of our end zone.”

Tailback Cleveland Gary’s 58 rushing yards leaves him 19 yards short of becoming the first Ram runner since 1989 to rush for 1,000 yards in a season. Greg Bell gained 1,137 yards in ’89 after rushing for 1,212 the previous season.

In one fell swoop, with Sunday’s loss to the Saints, the Rams mathematically eliminated themselves from the NFC playoff race and clinched their third consecutive losing season.

But receiver Jeff Chadwick, who played for Chuck Knox with the Seattle Seahawks, said the hopelessness of this season should have no effect on the effort of the team heading into the season’s final two games.

“No difference at all,” Chadwick said. “We’ve all got responsibilities, ours is to play the game as hard as we can.”

Knox, meanwhile, stressed that you cannot judge the progress the Rams have made by one lopsided game.

“I think you’ve got to judge the season on the whole season,” Knox said. “I think that’s what you have to do--look at where we started and where we are.

“This is a football game today that got away from us, and you’ve got to give the Saints credit.”

Everett had several flare-ups with various Saint defensive players, most noticeably when he and defensive lineman Joel Smeenge got in a pushing match after Smeenge bumped him on a play that was blown dead.

“I guess I don’t understand the rules, but when the play is blown dead, it’s dead,” Everett said. “I believe there’s a referee behind me that has a whistle. . . . If the offensive line can hear the whistle, everybody else should be able to hear the whistle, also.

“That certainly had to be called from there.”

Everett said the rest of his tussling matches were part of trying to deal with the blowout.

“I’m sure some of the game got out of hand a little bit,” Everett said. “But I’m sure some of it was frustration on my part.”

In Anaheim Stadium during the game, the wind was blowing at steady speeds of 15 to 20 m.p.h., with gusts up to 40 m.p.h. Several times the wind seemed to freeze the ball in flight and disrupt the play.

On a Don Bracken punt in the first quarter, heading north, the ball seemed to halt in midflight, causing return man Patrick Newman to lunge forward while reaching for it, straight into his blocker Cedrick Mack. The ball bounced off of Newman as he crashed into Mack, and was recovered by Ram coverage man Steve Israel.

Everett said the wind also affected some of his throws--especially the deep ones.

“On that second interception”--a deep pass toward the South end zone picked off by Keith Taylor--”it blew it back quite a bit different than the way I thought it was going to go,” Everett said.

“But it didn’t seem to bother (Saint quarterback Bobby) Hebert much.”

The Rams had no sacks on the day, their fourth sackless game of 1992.

Times staff writers John Weyler and Tim Kawakami contributed to this story.