Bettis Can’t Run and Rams Can’t Hide in Chicago : Pro football: Bears hold the running back to seven yards in eight carries in 27-13 victory.

Present woeful results suggest Red Grange has a better chance than Jerome Bettis of gaining the 23 yards Bettis needs to reach 1,000, and, like the Rams, he’s dead.

Against a Chicago defense that surrendered 247 rushing yards to Green Bay a week earlier, Bettis, who set a preseason goal of 2,000 yards, piled up seven yards in eight carries in his poorest NFL performance. The Bears (9-6) not only grounded Bettis, but pulled away from the Rams with 163 rushing yards of their own in a 27-13 victory before 56,276 at Soldier Field.

Bettis, who carried a club-record 39 times against the Bears in a 20-6 victory to close out the 1993 season, has averaged 2.3 yards per carry during the Rams’ six-game losing streak and has 977 yards in 304 carries for the season.

“It’s to the point now,” Bettis said, “that if we were just by ourselves (facing no defense) it would be hard to execute the plays.”

Bettis’ day began with a dropped pass, included a serious finger injury that sidelined him late in the third quarter, and ended with a reporter accidentally popping him in the head with a tape recorder.

“Just kill me, why don’t you?” Bettis said in jest. “Things are rough, all right. As an offense I think it’s to the point where we have lost confidence in running the ball. I didn’t have a good day by any stretch of the imagination, and I think it took its toll on the team.”

The Ram offense has not only gone into full retreat, it has placed the team’s quarterbacks in harm’s way. After Bettis fumbled, and the Rams recovered for no gain at the Bear one-yard line in the first quarter, Chris Chandler called a sneak and scored.

When Bettis went nowhere on second and goal from the four-yard line in the second quarter, Chandler tried another bravo dive, and was blasted by a trio of defenders one yard shy of the goal line. The Rams (4-11) settled for a field goal, but the blow Chandler suffered eventually forced him from the game with a bruised kidney.

Despite Bettis’ sluggish play, the Rams had a 10-3 lead early in the second quarter before collapsing.

“I really have no answers,” said linebacker Shane Conlan, who played in three Super Bowls with the Buffalo Bills. “The way we played on defense, I’m just very embarrassed.”

After the Ram offense shut down in the second quarter, Bear rookie running back Raymont Harris, who scored his first NFL touchdown and ran 23 times for 92 yards, dictated the terms of surrender. The Bears’ 27 points were the most scored by the team’s offense since the third game of the 1993 season when the offense posted 40 points.

Injuries to defensive tackles Sean Gilbert (bruised ribs) and Jimmie Jones (bruised abdomen) contributed to the Bears’ offensive binge. Running back Lewis Tillman, providing relief for Harris, gained 69 yards in 14 carries and an extra one-yard touchdown for security in the fourth quarter.

“It just seems like we’re kind of falling apart,” said Robert Young, Ram defensive end. “Injuries are setting in, and times are just getting harder and harder.”

Poor play on special teams, which plagued the Rams when they were healthy earlier this season, continued to be the team’s nemesis. Chicago defensive lineman Alonzo Spellman, who was left almost unchecked, blocked a 42-yard Tony Zendejas field-goal try on the final play of the first half.

Wide receiver Todd Kinchen, who mishandled three punts in the last three weeks, fumbled a punt return to set up a 30-yard field goal by Kevin Butler in the third quarter to increase the Bears’ lead to 20-10.

“We just didn’t get it done, and it’s been like that all season across the board,” said Ram defensive end Fred Stokes.

“I don’t know if it’s because we have young guys or because guys are hurt or what. We’re not dead, but we probably wish we were dead a long time ago the way things have gone.

“I don’t know, it’s like you have this intense pain and you just wish it would go away. But it’s not going to go away until after next Saturday.”

The Rams’ run for respectability mounted some momentum in the fourth quarter after an erratic Chris Miller had put the team in position to score. Miller, playing in relief of Chandler, completed nine of 22 passes for 69 yards, and appeared to have thrown a four-yard touchdown pass to tight end Troy Drayton to bring the Rams to within a field goal.

While the Rams celebrated, an official standing in the back of the end zone waved his hands in disapproval. The official ruled Drayton juggled the ball, and allowed it to hit the ground before securing it.

“Troy Drayton caught that ball in the end zone,” Coach Chuck Knox said. “That’s a touchdown. There ain’t no ifs, ands or buts about it. The field judge, who was removed totally from the play. . . . according to our people who saw replays, they confirmed it was a catch.”

Drayton said the same thing, but replays appeared inconclusive. They showed Drayton juggling the ball, and losing it down his leg as he fell. The incomplete ruling forced the Rams to settle for a 21-yard Zendejas field goal with 9:10 to play.

The Bears responded with a 26-yard kickoff return and a 10- play, 59-yard drive for Tillman’s decisive one-yard touchdown plunge with 3:36 remaining.

“We started so well and I thought this was going to be our day,” Stokes said. “But then it just fell apart, kind of like our whole season.”