RAM NOTES : Salisbury’s First NFL Start Is Satisfying

ANAHEIM —  Minnesota Vikings’ quarterback Sean Salisbury blew kisses to the crowd Sunday moments after kissing off the Rams.

In the stands were about 50 friends and family. They had just watched him perform well in the 31-17 victory, the first start of his NFL career.

It was the perfect finish to a perfect week.

“I enjoyed all of it,” Salisbury said. “I enjoyed getting off the plane. I enjoyed the pregame warm-ups. I enjoyed the game. I’m enjoying the locker room after the game. When you’ve waited as long as I have, you better enjoy it.”

Salisbury grew up in Southern California, but has kicked around football since coming out of USC in 1985. He had stints in Seattle and Indianapolis before serving a two-year hitch in Canada.

There, he led the Winnipeg Blue Bombers to the Grey Cup championship in 1988 and then led the Eastern Conference of the CFL in passing the next season.

Salisbury spent the past two seasons sitting on the Vikings’ bench.

“You have to be in the right place at the right time,” Salisbury said. “You’ve got to be reliable and, when that time comes, you have to jump on it.”

For Viking Coach Dennis Green, it was a leap of faith.

He was handing over his offense to a guy who had played well in three relief appearances, but had thrown only 12 NFL passes entering the season.

Not exactly the resume one looks for in a Super Bowl quarterback. But desperate times call for desperate measures.

The Viking offense had scored only one touchdown in their past two games. Their defense had managed to score two in that span.

So in stepped Salisbury to replace Rich Gannon.

“I never felt more calm in my life,” Salisbury said. “I felt I deserved it.”

Salisbury was not brilliant in his starting debut. He did not throw a touchdown pass and the best you can say was he was competent.

But competent was all right.

Salisbury completed 23 of 34 passes for 238 yards. More importantly, he got the Vikings in the end zone four times.

“If you go out there thinking you have to make all the plays, you don’t make any plays,” Salisbury said. “I didn’t want to be the guy who had to throw for 500 yards. All I wanted to do was drive the car.”

Salisbury steered the Vikings in the right direction from the start.

He completed three of four passes for 58 yards on their first possession. Two were third-down plays, a 27-yard completion to Steve Jordan and a 28-yard screen pass to Terry Allen.

On the next play, Allen scored on a one-yard run.

“The way we’ve played on offense the last couple weeks, that was monumental,” Salisbury said.

Said Allen: “When the quarterback has confidence, it spreads through the whole offense.”

Salisbury exuded it throughout.

The Rams pulled to within 14-10 with 1 minute 45 seconds left in the half. Salisbury proceeded to take the Vikings on a whirlwind drive to field-goal range.

He hit six of seven passes to get them to the Ram 38 with 12 seconds left in the half. Salisbury then rolled right and hit Anthony Carter for a 18-yard gain.

Fuad Reviez kicked the 38-yard field goal for a 17-10 lead.

Salisbury put up two more touchdowns in the third quarter.

“Sean played very solid,” Green said. “He did a good job of directing the offense and not making any mistakes.”

But will he continue to direct the offense?

“We’ll take our time and look at it this week,” Green said.

That decision has already been made in Salisbury’s mind.

“Darn right I expect to start,” Salisbury said.

As he always has.

“I’ve anticipated having the opportunity,” Salisbury said. “But to come back home and win a game in front of friends and family, well if I sat down and thought about it, it would bring tears to my eyes.”

Banged up: Cris Carter, the Vikings’ most productive receiver, broke his right collarbone while diving for a high pass in the second quarter Sunday and will probably miss the rest of the regular season. Carter said he hopes to be back in time for the playoffs.

The Rams activated running back Robert Delpino off injured reserve and waived defensive end Jim Skow to make room. Delpino had been out since the Oct. 4 game in San Francisco because of a knee injury.

The Rams’ No. 1 pick, Sean Gilbert, sprained his right ankle in the second quarter, did not return, and is scheduled to be examined today. Gilbert missed the first two exhibition games this year after spraining his left ankle. Robert Young saw most of the action in Gilbert’s spot after the injury.

Starting middle linebacker Larry Kelm and backup cornerback Sammy Lilly suffered sprained knees and also will be examined today.

Stabilizing influence: Jack Del Rio, who played at USC, had a good day for the Vikings.

Del Rio, who was signed as a Plan B free agent out of Dallas, has stabilized the Vikings’ defense.

He had seven tackles Sunday. In the third quarter, he came untouched into the face of Ram quarterback Jim Everett for a sack to help kill a drive.

“We can build on this win here today to take us into the big games we have ahead,” Del Rio said.

The Vikings play Philadelphia, San Francisco and Pittsburgh in the next three weeks.

Opportunistic: The Vikings had three interceptions Sunday, giving them 24 for the season. They also recovered a fumble, giving them 34 takeaways on the year.

“If we keep getting turnovers, we’ll keep on winning,” Del Rio said.

Limping bull: Ram tailback Cleveland Gary, who two weeks ago was on pace for a huge season with a 1,300-yard rushing year well within range, was limited for the second consecutive week by a sore right ankle.

But Gary said he was encouraged by the progress he has made since last week’s loss to the San Francisco 49ers and says he should be ready for Sunday’s game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Gary rushed eight times for 13 yards Sunday and sat out the entire fourth quarter when Knox gave Anthony Thompson his first extended shot in the Ram backfield.

“Last week, the moment I took the field against San Francisco, it hurt me, it hurt bad,” Gary said. “This week, I was able to go out and make cuts and runs I haven’t made since Dallas (last Nov. 15), but I just didn’t have the push off it. . . . The soreness is still in that area.

“Last week it was sore and swollen, this week it was just sore. It’s just a matter of, I couldn’t make the cuts. . . . I knew I couldn’t adjust and make certain cuts--that’s my forte.

“But I anticipate this week a full recovery. I can’t make any definite predictions, but I anticipate a great game against Tampa.”

And his two-week fight against injury certainly hasn’t dampened Gary’s confidence.

“I will come back like a raging bull,” he said. “I anticipate a very strong finish. I refuse to go out this way.”

Target practice: After the game, the Rams’ offense was particularly upset with some blown pass-blocking assignments early on, where blitzing linebackers got a clean shot on Everett.

In the second quarter, linebacker Carlos Jenkins blitzed from the left side, was let go by tight end Pat Carter who blocked down on the left defensive end, and sacked Everett with a solid shot to the chest.

Later in the quarter, Everett barely got rid of a pass before defensive end Chris Doleman hit him in the neck then buried him in the turf. Del Rio also got a couple clean hits on Everett in the game, including an eight-yard sack.

“It was just a matter of blown assignments in our blitz pickup,” said right tackle Jackie Slater. “Guys are just not executing.”

Off the bench: Tailback Anthony Thompson, claimed off waivers Sept. 16 when the Phoenix Cardinals released him, got his first major action of the season Sunday, carrying eight times for a team-leading 51 yards.

Entering the game, Thompson had carried only once for the Rams.

“We just wanted to get him in there,” Knox said. “He’s been working hard in practice, and he’s a guy we think has some running ability. That’s the reason we claimed him on waivers from Phoenix.

“We thought here’s a chance to put him in there, see what he can do. He ran very well.”

Predictable, unstoppable: The Rams said they knew the Vikings were going to use tailback Terry Allen as a pass-catching threat out of the backfield, but just couldn’t do anything about it. Allen caught 10 passes for 110 yards and a touchdown Sunday.

“Minnesota is a very predictable team, especially on offense,” Ram safety Anthony Newman said. “We know what they’re going to do. We just had to stop it.”

Said Knox: “We knew they were a good screen team, we just didn’t play it very well. They executed it well, we didn’t play it very well.”

Allen’s 36-yard touchdown reception came on a halfback option pass from Keith Henderson, who faked out the Ram defender assigned to cover Allen, then floated it to Allen for the score.

“‘We were in man-to-man coverage, so the linebacker’s got coverage on a back coming out of the backfield,” Knox said. “(The Vikings) ran a play-action fake, and the linebacker bit on the fake, and (Allen) came open.”

Surprised Slater: Slater, who has remained upbeat throughout all of the Rams’ tough losses this season, wasn’t nearly as chirpy after this 14-point defeat.

“It certainly does surprise me,” Slater said. “I felt like after looking at these guys on film, we knew the kind of personnel they had, we knew what they were capable of doing with their personnel and we felt like we matched up real well against them.

“We felt we had a good chance to beat them.

“What happened, these guys came and they brought an emotional level to this game that we did not have throughout the football game--and it showed up.”

Times staff writer Tim Kawakami contributed to this story.