COMMENTARY : This Time, You Can’t Put the Blame on Him

PITTSBURGH — Fritz Shurmur was a handy guy to have around, back in simpler times, when the Rams were 2-4 and everybody and his brother and sister knew the reason why.

Jim Everett was still worth 300 yards every Sunday, wasn’t he?

Cleveland Gary had put Curt Warner in his place, on the bench, hadn’t he?

Flipper Anderson and Henry Ellard were still the long and short of pass receiving par excellence, weren’t they?

If only Shurmur and his defense could get their act together.

Well, Monday night at Pittsburgh, in front of Al Michaels, Dan Dierdorf and the rest of the football-respecting world, the Rams lost to the Steelers, 41-10, and Shurmur’s defense was about the best thing the Rams had going for themselves.

Shurmur didn’t call for a pass on third and one on the Ram 37 and hit Pittsburgh cornerback David Johnson in the numbers and run the ball back to the Ram 17, from which the Steelers quickly broke a 7-7 tie.

Shurmur didn’t shank two field-goal attempts in the first half, when two field goals still could have made a difference.

Shurmur didn’t freeze during punt formation and forget to kick the ball and wind up buried on his own six-yard line.

And Shurmur had absolutely nothing to do with Cleveland Gary’s tryout as Laker point guard and those three dribble drives on the Three Rivers Stadium turf.

Either bad defense is as contagious as flu or the Rams’ problems run deeper than John Robinson could ever have fathomed.

Monday night, Ram scapecoats multiplied by about 47.

“It’s a team game,” Robinson said, “and tonight we were horrible as a team.”

The Rams did exactly one thing right all night--the opening kickoff. Gaston Green fielded it, cut inside with it at the Ram 10 and ran the next 90 untouched. After sixteen seconds the Rams were ahead, 7-0.

They never recovered.

For the first time in two years, the Rams failed to score an offensive touchdown. They had their chances--three of their first six possessions ended inside the Pittsburgh 32--but Everett either overthrew them away, underthrew them away or handed the ball to Gary, who fumbled three times and somehow managed to lose only one.

Gary fumbled the ball to himself, fumbled the ball to his offensive linemen, fumbled the ball once every five times he touched it.

After 15 carries, Robinson wouldn’t let him touch it anymore.

“That was fairly typical of what went wrong with our team,” Robinson said. “I think several of our people played at that level. Cleveland fell into the same place where a lot of us were.”

Robinson began the game laughing--Green’s kickoff return was a leg slapper--and spent the next 59 minutes shaking his head. “We were embarrassed,” he said. “I can’t ever remember a team making so many mistakes.

“We did it all. There was not any phase of error we didn’t delve into.”

Consider the Rams’ explorations during the first half. Of their six offensive possessions, two ended in missed field goals by Mike Lansford (from 45 and 42 yards), another ended with an Everett interception and a fourth ended with a Gary fumble at the Ram 27.

Yet, they entered halftime behind by only 17-10.

And it was still only 20-10 when Ram punter Keith English reached new levels in panic. Pittsburgh’s Richard Bell broke through English’s protective wall a little too quickly and English decided to abort the mission.

Rather than kick, English tried to run.

And he ran right into Steeler Dwight Stone, who jumped him for an 11-yard loss.

Three plays later, Merril Hoge was in the end zone and the rout was under way.

Robinson couldn’t believe his eyes.

“We didn’t punt it,” he said. “Our man could have punted it. I thought he could have punted. He just got overly worried.”

And now, English has company.

Robinson has a preseason Super Bowl contender with a 2-5 record. He has Warren Moon and the Houston Oilers next on the schedule, followed by the undefeated New York Giants and, a week after that, on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, the San Francisco 49ers.

“We are self-destructing at all phases of the game,” Robinson said, “and I don’t have any explanation for it. I can’t give you one.”

These weren’t the Terry Bradshaw Steelers, remember. These were the Bubby Brister Steelers. This wasn’t the Steel Curtain defense of dynasties past. Before Monday, this defense had carried Pittsburgh all the way to a 3-4 record.

Bubby Brister. Jim Harbaugh. Anthony Dilweg.

The Quarterbacks-Who-Won’t-Go-To-Canton-But-Can-Beat-The-Rams Club continues to grow.

And the Rams have more than one man, many more, to blame for it.