Rams Show Their Depth in Monday Night Classic

The difference between the St. Louis Rams and Denver Broncos Monday night--in a football game that was a candidate for best ever played--was that the Rams had a one-sided talent edge, as of course they still have.

Even so, at the end of a shootout, St. Louis was ahead by only five points, 41-36.

On the road before an unfriendly crowd, Bronco Coach Mike Shanahan nearly won it with players who couldn’t make the Rams.

As well-designed and spectacular as Ram Coach Mike Martz’s offense was and is, it’s clearly second to the Broncos’, which opened three leads in the first half on a night when they led again in the fourth quarter, 36-35, before St. Louis quarterback Kurt Warner pulled it out.

He pulled it out, that is, with the best running back on the field, Marshall Faulk, and the best wide receivers in sight: Isaac Bruce, Az-Zahir Hakim, Torry Holt and Ricky Proehl.

That’s not to call Denver’s wide receivers a bunch of stiffs.

There’s a lot to be said for them, for 32-year-old Ed McCaffrey in particular, although Rod Smith had his moments when he wasn’t dropping Denver quarterback Brian Griese’s passes.

Still, neither McCaffrey nor Smith could start for the Rams.

Nor could the Denver running backs, Terrell Davis and Orlandis Gary.

Nor could Griese.

That isn’t because they lack talent--Davis, in fact, was the league’s best running back before he began getting hurt.

But neither Davis nor Gary has Faulk’s grasp of the passing game in a system that, as created by Martz, stresses the pass over the run.

At quarterback, no NFL coach would take Griese over Warner, certainly no St. Louis coach, despite Griese’s steady improvement since last year and steady play Monday night.

Of the three interceptions thrown in this game, Griese threw none.

So as an attention-grabber, the game was close and riveting through all four quarters, suggesting, first to last, that either side could be winning.

But not really.

As football players, the Rams were simply too good.

THEY GO AT IT TOE TO TOE

This was football as it could be played almost everywhere in the pro league, almost every week, if the offensive coaches were all as gifted as Shanahan and Martz.

The rules allow it now.

This is a passing era, a great offensive era if you know how to pass.

Shanahan and Martz, however, have a long lead on most other coaches.

And so, from the first moment in the first quarter, Griese, whom many opponents considered a bust last season, could and did play more like a highly skilled five-year veteran than the NFL sophomore he is.

Warner likewise, though his polished skills belie it, is only in his second year as an NFL starter.

He and Griese have simply joined up with a couple of coaches who know how to capitalize on new talent.

In neither St. Louis nor Denver is it necessary now to wait for new quarterbacks to mature.

Thus, if Monday night’s action and the result established St. Louis as, at the least, an NFC cofavorite again this year, Denver also arose to become an AFC cofavorite, meaning that the Rams and Broncos might next be seen in a Super Bowl replay.

That probably depends, in both franchises, on the extent of defensive improvement in the next several months.

Offensively, the Broncos as well as the Rams need only hang on to what they have and what they showed on opening night, when, on Denver’s first 25 plays, Griese lived Shanahan’s 25-play script the way the man wrote it.

That enabled Denver to earn the game’s first lead on Griese’s first drive, 7-0, and two more leads in the second quarter, 10-7 and 17-7.

Yet Warner caught him each time to lead at the half, 21-17, and again in the third quarter, 35-27, when in 15 minutes the Rams rolled in another 14 points and the Broncos only 10.

Accordingly, as the fourth quarter began, Warner seemed to be stealing away from Griese.

But just then, Warner delivered back-to-back interceptions, thus throwing Denver into the lead once more, 36-35.

And now the question was whether Warner could come back again.

He could.

And on Martz’s plays, and Martz’s calls, he did.

The new Ram coach had until the middle of the fourth quarter to consider Denver’s defensive weaknesses, and that made Warner’s last and winning drive the easiest of his six.

Even when, as the Rams’ last drive began, their quarterback was sacked on a second-down play, you knew Martz would think of something on third and long.

And among those who watched him direct the Ram offense to first in the league last season, it was understood that, for sure, he’d think of No. 4 receiver Proehl, as the club always does in such a predicament.

The Broncos should have known that too; but in quality, their defense doesn’t match their offense.

The upshot: an easy Proehl first down.

And that brought up Faulk again.

Circling out to, as usual, surprise the Broncos, off he flew for 30 yards to a first down at the goal line.

The winning touchdown was an anticlimax.

TOO MUCH NOISE

The Denver players in this game not only had to keep up with football’s fastest offense, they had to overcome some significant NFL irresponsibility.

The league made trouble of a sort that it never should visit on any visiting team.

The problem:

When St. Louis’ 65,000 screaming spectators kept the Broncos from hearing their own signals at a momentous moment in the third quarter, it was the Broncos who were penalized five yards for pointing out that they couldn’t hear.

And on the next play, when the hometown mob again interfered with Griese’s signal count, it was Griese’s team--instead of the mob or the St. Louis team--that was penalized again.

This was another sample of the kind of flagrantly unfair crowd misconduct that had marred several NFL openers the day before.

In a sport whose games are supposed to be decided on performance--the performances of the players--the question is this:

Why does the league let cheating crowds take over?

There are a lot of things that could be done to prevent the misbehavior of the shouting fans.

And in the interest of fair play--in the interest of fairness to both sides--there is plenty that should be done.

For it’s the owners of the teams who write the rules.

And perhaps the fact that it was on Monday night television will arouse the NFL into action.

But in this particular case, on a night of memorable offensive plays, Griese and Shanahan met the challenge with the night’s single most memorable play.

Operating along his own goal line, on third down and a thousand to go, young passer Griese somehow fired accurately out to midfield, hitting a tight end, Byron Chamberlain, for the improbable first down that silenced the cheaters, at least momentarily.

Chamberlain, like most of the others on his side, lacks the ability to make the Ram team.

But the day will come--it isn’t far off--when his quarterback can make any team in football.

All of a sudden there’s a chance that the two Grieses, Bob and Brian, will one day become pro football’s first father-and-son Hall of Famers.