Rams Try to Beat Beat-Up Cardinals
One local football team stopped counting its bruises and started on its blessings this week after swapping injury reports with the Phoenix Cardinals, whose recent medical printouts stack up nicely next to the Congressional Record.
The Rams sincerely apologize for this week’s meager offering:
--Quarterback Jim Everett. His back is sore, but he will start. This week, Everett had chiropractors cracking (the same guy who works on Vice President Dan Quayle’s back), trainers training and whirlpools whirling. Note: Everett completed 18 consecutive passes with the same back last week. Suggestion: Take two safeties deep and call us in the morning.
The Phoenix report, and stand back, please:
--Quarterbacks. Had one once. Name was Neil Lomax, and last year he diced up the Rams for 517 total yards in a 41-27 victory. Lomax and his arthritic hip haven’t been seen since early training camp. That was 18 serious injuries to Cardinal starters ago. Today, Phoenix Coach Gene Stallings mulls over retread quarterback Gary Hogeboom and last week’s savior, Tom Tupa, although the coach’s heart isn’t in it. This isn’t exactly Montana vs. Young.
“It doesn’t make that much difference,” is how Stallings put it.
Question: Will the Cardinals field a team against the Rams today?
Answer: Yes, if that well-placed classified advertisement works out.
Actually, the Cardinals made it through last week’s 24-20 win over Dallas without calling once for the stretcher, no small victory. Two weeks ago, the Cardinals lost eight players in a home loss to the New York Giants.
The list of injured Cardinals starts with C for defensive tackle Bob Clasby (knee surgery) and extends to Y for safety Lonnie Young (shoulder--missed weeks 2 through 7).
Phoenix has played at times this year without any of the skill players projected to be starters in training camp: quarterback Lomax and/or Hogeboom (week 6, elbow), running backs Earl Ferrell (week 2, ankle) and Stump Mitchell (season-ending knee surgery) and receivers J.T. Smith (week 10, ankle) and Roy Green (weeks 6 through 9, collarbone).
“It’s just not the same offense at all as what we had,” Stallings said. “And every defensive linemen we’ve got has been hurt, every one of them.”
Stallings has never seen anything like it. He has searched long and hard for answers but found none that satisfy him.
“We’ve lost 19 players for four weeks or more,” he said. “That’s a lot of guys. Several of them had broken bones--you can’t do anything about that. I’d say the majority have been knees. I’ve tried to research it, talk about it. We’ve discussed it. It seems like they’ve just been sort of freakish things.”
How does a Cardinal fly with clipped wings? Amazingly, it can. Phoenix wobbles into Anaheim Stadium at 5-5, only one game worse off than the Rams.
“I think they are a good football team that has had a lot of injury problems that have staggered them,” Ram Coach John Robinson said. “But they’re 5-5, and you have to admire them for that. I don’t know that they’ve beaten anybody great or anything, but they managed to get to 5-5. It sounds like the guy is taking some heat, but he’s a good coach.”
Stallings is drawing fire from management, despite garnering overwhelming fan support in recent public opinion polls.
Stallings will make the decision more difficult should he win coach-of-the-year honors, and he will get some votes. A tough Texan who played for Bear Bryant and for years coached side by side with Tom Landry, Stallings draws from his football roots to pull him through the latest crisis.
“My whole football background has been with good people,” Stallings said. “When I was in high school, I played for Coach Berry, Raymond Berry’s daddy. When I was at Texas A&M;, I was playing for Coach Bryant, then I was on his staff, and then with Coach Landry at Dallas.
“I’ve been around people where quitting, or giving up, was never an option. That was never an option for me when I was playing. I’ve got a lot of faith. But it’s been a tough year, no question about that.”
Ram Notes
Cornerback LeRoy Irvin’s bruised foot is considerably better, but he’s talking as if the Rams are phasing him out in favor of Clifford Hicks. Irvin said the coaches offered no clues as to how much playing time, if any, he will get today. “When I first came into the league I was a wild stallion,” the 10-year veteran said. “I wouldn’t let no one ride me. I’d buck everybody. Now they got me tied to the post.”
For what it’s worth, Phoenix hasn’t beaten a team with a winning record, having defeated Dallas twice, Detroit, Seattle and Atlanta. . . . Another offering from Coach John Robinson’s reporter’s notebook: The Rams have played the three top teams in the NFC this year--San Francisco, Minnesota and the New York Giants--and allowed only one touchdown in 12 quarters.
