RAM NOTES : Lang Proves That Speed, Indeed, Can Burn

Ram running back David Lang, after Sunday’s 71-yard bolt on a sweep down the left sideline, is now proud possessor of the two longest plays from scrimmage for the Rams this season, and a not-so-proud possessor of one torched-up shoe.

Lang, to the amusement of his teammates, was warming his feet at one of the sideline heaters early in the game when he got one shoe a little too close, and it caught on fire.

After getting a new shoe, he broke his late first-quarter long run to the Packer three-yard line to make his day a little less comedic.

Lang turned a short pass into a 67-yard touchdown Nov. 1 against the Atlanta Falcons, which is now the Rams’ second-longest play from scrimmage this season.

“He’s got that breakaway speed,” quarterback Jim Everett said of Lang. “When someone asks, ‘What’s Dave’s asset?’ You look at it, it’s pretty obvious. He’s got tremendous speed.

“He didn’t have enough speed to get his foot out of the heater when his shoe burned up, but I guess when they gave him that replacement shoe, that helped him. . . .”

Lang conceded he also got some ribbing from teammates for his 71-yard run because he was caught from behind by Packer cornerback Terrell Buckley.

“I didn’t see the man coming until he was right on me,” Lang said. “I heard he’s a fast guy--and he is.

“And I’m going to hear that for a long time. They call me Mr. Fast. But when I got snatched, it’s like uh-oh. They’ve been giving me grief already.

“I was running, but by the time I saw him coming. . . . I tried to switch it to another gear, but he was already there.”

Cracked cornerback Todd Lyght: “That hole in the shoe, that might’ve slowed him down a little bit.”

Add shoes: Many Rams players changed shoes at halftime after they realized that the middle of the field was frozen slick.

“We had a bunch of guys changing shoes at halftime,” said safety Anthony Newman, who could’ve also pointed out that the Rams held the Packers scoreless in the second half.

“Their footing seemed like it was a little better than ours,” Newman said. “Their linemen were wearing AstroTurf shoes and their backs and receivers were wearing cleats. . . . So we knew, ‘Wait a minute, something’s wrong here.’ ”

Tailback Cleveland Gary, who finally broke the 1,000-yard mark for the season but fumbled (he recovered it) for the ninth time this season, said he never felt comfortable on the field.

“The thing I couldn’t do today was cut because of the ice,” Gary said. “The surface was actually ice and you couldn’t plant on it.

“You really couldn’t execute the play the way it was meant to be executed. I tried to do that one time and just fell flat on my face.

“I have never felt a ground so hard before. I never have. It was grass, but you couldn’t pull it. It was ice. It didn’t feel good at all.”

Gary gained 48 yards on 16 carries Sunday, giving him 1,029 rushing yards on the season and making him the Rams’ first 1,000-yard rusher since Greg Bell did it in 1989.

How cold?: Though the forecast late last week was for temperatures in the 20s, it was 8 degrees at kickoff, with a wind-chill factor of 15 degrees below zero.

It was the coldest Ram game since Nov. 11, 1964, when it was six degrees at kickoff in Minnesota and the Rams lost, 34-13, to the Vikings.

It was cold enough for the Packers to remind everyone that the coldest game ever was the famous “Ice Bowl,” Dec. 31, 1967, when the Packers beat the Dallas Cowboys for the NFL championship. The kickoff temperature was 13 below zero, with a wind-chill of minus-46.

Safety blitz: Strong safety Michael Stewart got his fellow defensive backs excited Sunday with his pass rushing, racking up two sacks on blitzes around left tackle.

Asked jokingly if Stewart could be the pass-rushing defensive end the Rams have been searching for, Newman laughed.

“I hope so,” Newman said. “I mean, two sacks ? And he had a guy blocking him. He had (left tackle Ken) Ruettgers blocking him every time, and he just beat him off the corner. We need that kind of stuff.

“See, he knows. He’s a DB. He knows pass rush is everything.”

Everett smiled when he was asked if the intentional-grounding penalty he drew in the fourth quarter was a makeup for several earlier passes whose flight pattern did not match any route run by a Ram on the play. “I can guarantee you there’s two other calls he (the official) should’ve made,” Everett said. “But (the official) sees what he sees.” Everett completed 24 of 44 passes for 222 yards, one touchdown and three interceptions. He has 3,183 passing yards on the season, his fifth consecutive 3,000-yard season.

The 28 points scored by Green Bay in the second quarter were the most scored on the Rams in a single quarter since the San Francisco 49ers also scored 28 points in the fourth quarter on Oct. 23, 1983.

Packer receiver Sterling Sharpe’s eight catches give him 102 on the season, making him the sixth receiver in NFL history to get as many as 100 and put him well within range of Art Monk’s record 106.