Rams Wake Up and Show Buddy How to Play Ball : Pro football: Lyght’s 74-yard fumble return keys defense, 14-12 victory, before smallest Anaheim crowd.
That’s correct, for those looking ahead, Super Bowl XXIX will be played on Jan. 29 at Joe Robbie Stadium, and a Ram spokesman said the team’s present season-ticket holders will have first crack at seeing the game in Miami.
All things are possible: The Rams are 1-0, alone in first place in the NFC West Division after a 14-12 victory over Arizona, and Cardinal Coach Buddy Ryan can take his ball and go home.
A crowd of 32,969, the smallest for a Ram game at Anaheim Stadium, watched Los Angeles score its first victory in a season opener since 1989--and first in an opener at home since 1985.
“I’ll tell you what, that’s what you call a booster shot,” Ram wide receiver Jessie Hester said. “No one counted on us winning this ballgame, and now hopefully people will underestimate our capabilities 15 more times.”
After playing possum in four consecutive losses during the exhibition season, the Rams bullied Ryan’s team and then refused to falter when fatigue threatened to swipe their glory.
“Hell, if we play Buddy 16 times a year we could be undefeated,” said Joe Vitt, Ram assistant head coach. “Buddy Ryan doesn’t put a chill in any of us. He doesn’t play; he stands on the sideline with his arms crossed.”
Ryan, Houston’s defensive coordinator a year ago and the architect of Buddy Ball, had irritated the Rams by making disparaging remarks about the team after the Oilers’ 28-13 loss to Jim Everett & Co. last season. Vitt didn’t forget, and issued a challenge to the Rams’ defensive unit this week: Make Buddy eat his words.
“I wish he had played,” Vitt said. “It would be like playing against 10.
“I have deep-seated feelings against anybody who criticizes another man’s football team. I have deep-seated feelings about a man who has nothing to do with winning and losing. Football players win football games, and the guys in that locker room deserve the credit.”
Vitt’s feud appeared to fuel a Ram defense that was forced to stay on the field for 76 plays.
“It looked to me like they were dying, and we wouldn’t kill them,” Ryan said. “It wasn’t like we were playing the Dallas Cowboys out there today.”
The Cowboys and Rams, however, are presently even on the season, and was there ever a doubt?
“A lot of people put a lot of stock in the preseason, yeah, that’s great,” Ram cornerback Todd Lyght said. “But they don’t count, and if you noticed, we made a statement today. A lot of people had counted us out, but we answered the challenge.”
Lyght, who had been victimized repeatedly during the exhibition season, caught a Joe Kelly-forced fumble in the air and ran 74 yards to give the Rams a 7-0 lead in the first quarter. Lyght’s fumble return was the longest in Ram history, topping Jack Dwyer’s 54-yard return on Nov. 22, 1952, against the San Francisco 49ers.
“Joe just blew that guy (Larry Centers) up,” Lyght said. “And I was gone.”
The Cardinals, while afforded a variety of opportunities to take control of the game, could not contend with the Rams’ ever-changing defense.
Ram defensive coordinator George Dyer, who opened the game with a series of blitzes after Jerome Bettis’ fumble on the first offensive play had given Arizona prime field position, remained one step ahead of scrambling quarterback Steve Beuerlein. Dyer used one less defensive lineman and one more linebacker, then he used an additional cornerback, and the Cardinals were going nowhere.
Arizona settled for a 37-yard Greg Davis field goal in the second quarter, and then went to Davis again for a 34-yard kick, but at halftime, the Rams remained ahead, 7-6.
“We had defended 51 snaps by halftime,” Vitt said. “We made no adjustments at the half. Every coach on the staff was hydrating their players, giving them fluids and making sure they weren’t cramping.
“To play the way they did in the second half then was unbelievable. George Dyer just called a great game. We kept them off balance. . . . It was like a line change in hockey. We had players coming in and out, and one time had to take a timeout just to see who was healthy and who wasn’t.”
An interception by newcomer Marquez Pope gave the offense possession early in the third quarter, and a 39-yard pass interference penalty on Cardinal cornerback Aeneas Williams put the Rams in position to score.
“The first half we were flat ugly on offense--I was ugly,” said quarterback Chris Miller, who completed six of 16 passes for 131 yards in his Ram debut. “We kept fighting, and in the second half we hit some big plays.”
On second and 17 at the Arizona 23-yard line after Pope’s interception, Miller beat the Cardinal blitz and found Hester for a 22-yard gain. Bettis went the final yard--with a favorable ruling from the sideline official--for the touchdown, and the Rams had a 14-6 lead.
The Cardinals kept punching, and in their only sustained drive of the day, they went 81 yards in a dozen plays, with Beuerlein completing a three-yard touchdown pass to Centers.
Everyone in the stands, including the Melonheads, knew the Cardinals were going to try the new two-point conversion, but Arizona struggled to get a play in, reacted in haste, and Beuerlein’s pass missed tight end Terry Samuels.
The Cardinals took possession three more times in the fourth quarter. Their first try ended with rookie Keith Lyle’s interception, and their second with a punt following Ricky Proehl’s drop of a sure 58-yard touchdown pass.
A third attempt to score also ended with a punt, coming with less than three minutes to play, and giving the Cardinals their last chance to steal victory. The ball hit Ram returner Johnny Bailey in the facemask, and if these were the Rams of a year ago, the opposition would have recovered at the Rams’ 44-yard line.
Robert Bailey, however, recovered for the Rams and the Cardinals never got their hands on the ball again.
“Say what you want,” Coach Chuck Knox said, “but the fact is we won the football game.
“We will all enjoy this win, but to be honest, our defense won that game for us. They were out there a long time and they never gave up.
“I’m just tickled to death that these players and these coaches got the satisfaction of winning the football game. We’re not saying we’re a great football team, but it will make things a lot easier as we prepare for Atlanta.”
The last time the Rams opened the season 2-0 was in 1989, when they went on to finish one game shy of making it to the Super Bowl.