Rams Have Only Themselves to Blame : Players Agree That They Lost Because They Made Too Many Mistakes

By EARL GUSTKEY

Dec. 29, 1986 12 AM PT

<i> Times Staff Writer </i>

WASHINGTON — Is it possible an entire football team can agree on why it lost?

The Rams seemed to, in their RFK Stadium locker room Sunday. Conversations with nearly a dozen of them after the Redskins’ 19-7 playoff victory produced only slight variations of the same themes:

“We had six turnovers, they had none . . . We never got any breaks . . . We beat ourselves with penalties and turnovers . . . No, they didn’t surprise us with anything . . . No, the crowd wasn’t a factor . . . We got behind early and you can’t do that against good teams . . . No, the weather wasn’t a factor.”

Who said that? Go ahead and fill in: Dennis Harrah, Jim Everett, Johnnie Johnson, Irv Pankey, Nolan Cromwell, LeRoy Irvin, Gary Jeter, Carl Ekern, John Robinson or Eric Dickerson. The form varied, the substance didn’t. They all said it.

Some said more. Jeter, 30 minutes after his 10th NFL season had ended, was left wondering if maybe he’s destined never to play in a Super Bowl.

“This was my 10th year,” he said. “The sand has almost run through my hourglass. I want to play in a Super Bowl more than anything, but time is slipping away . . . that’s why this one really hurts. Every year, I wind up watching the Super Bowl on television.

“It just wasn’t our day. On their third field goal today, I tipped the ball with my hand and it still went through. Can you believe that?”

Some just wanted to go away, and to forget. For defensive back Irvin, whose interference and unsportsmanlike conduct penalites on the same play helped Washington achieve a first-quarter touchdown and a 10-0 lead, a Baja California beach beckons.

“I’m going to find a beach in La Paz and drink some cerveza ( beer),” he said.

Most in the stadium believed Irvin had cursed the line judge after the interference call to draw the unsportsmanlike call. Irvin said afterward he didn’t say a word, but referee Gordon McCarter said afterward “a gesture was involved.”

Linebacker Ekern wants to forget, too.

“One of my hobbies is drinking as many cold malted liquids as I can,” he said.

“This one hurt, yeah. I want to forget it. We got behind early, and that’s not where you want to be . . . they made big plays and we couldn’t come up with any (Washington) turnovers.”

Pigs. That’s offensive tackle Pankey’s next opponent. The Rams are basically a huntin’ and fishin’ football team, and Pankey says there’s a wild pig with his name on it in a hunting preserve near Salinas.

“I’m going on three wild pig hunts in Central and Northern California in the off-season, and an elk hunt in Colorado,” he said. “Also, I’m getting married in the off-season.

“Washington played good football today and deserved to win. We gave the ball up too many times and had too many penalties.”

Harrah was asked if the Rams’ late-season schedule, which had them playing--and losing to--Miami and San Francisco in the regular season’s last six days was a factor in Sunday’s turnovers and 78 yards in penalties.

“I can’t blame the schedule or make any other excuses,” he said. “Our job today was to play football as efficiently as possible, and we didn’t get it done.”

Dickerson looked to the future and saw a team no one will call one-dimensional.

“A lot of people maybe look at us now as a one-dimensional team (meaning Dickerson), but Jim (Everett) will change all that next year,” he said. “We’ll be much better next year, and Jim will make us better.

“Remember those great Redskins Super Bowl teams, with (John) Riggins running the ball and (Joe) Theismann throwing it? Jim can make us be that kind of team.

“What hurts today is that without the turnovers we played well enough to win. If I’d held on to the ball, we might’ve at least played ‘em to a one-point game.”

Nolan Cromwell, who also completed an NFL decade Sunday, said he felt as if he were in a hole all day.

“It was like we’d dug ourselves a deep hole with the early turnovers and penalties, and could never quite reach to the edge to get out,” he said.

Some wondered afterward if maybe the Rams don’t ask Everett to pass to their tight end, David Hill, often enough. Hill caught three passes, all in the same second-quarter series, and didn’t have his number called again for the rest of the game.

“Everett was halfway decent today, and we should’ve thrown to him (Hill) more, that’s for sure,” said quarterback coach Dick Coury.

“The Redskins defensed us well today, but to win in a big game like this . . . we just made too many mistakes, too many turnovers.”