Rams Start Off on Wrong Foot : Pro football: They open Knox’s second regime with 11th consecutive loss. Bills roll, 40-7.
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — It was an opener, all right.
In front of a fervent crowd of 79,001 Sunday afternoon at Rich Stadium, the refurbished Rams got opened at the seams by a stronger, faster, better, happier, brasher Buffalo Bills team that opened its own assault on a third consecutive Super Bowl trip.
In one three-hour scramble, the Rams, during a 40-7 thumping that was not that close, opened the new Chuck Knox era, a host of old wounds and a brand new can of worms.
Though the Rams knew the Bills outmanned them up and down the roster, it was not the way teams that lost 10 consecutive games to finish the last season want to begin the new one. Even last year’s 3-13 team didn’t lose a game this resoundingly.
This was supposed to be a game that set the tone for Knox’s disciplined style of football, designed to keep the talent-thin Rams competitive in games until the bitter end. This was supposed to be a game that showcased the offense’s new pass-dominated, one-back set and the new regained confidence of quarterback Jim Everett.
This was supposed to be a game that shut down fears that the Rams’ defense would be overmatched again and again.
After Sunday’s game, against a Buffalo team that the Rams admitted was superior to their own, all those supposed-to-be’s are wide open to question and criticism.
Will the one-back offense just be a turnover machine? Can the defense, after another sackless Sunday, stop or sack anybody? Will this team go through 1991 all over again?
“A loss is a loss,” running back Robert Delpino said. “But to get beat this bad . . . I don’t care if it’s Buffalo or New England or the Giants, I don’t think any team is that much better than us.
“Thirty-something points? I’d never think that. Some critics might think a lot of teams are 30 points better than us. I don’t believe it.
“But they overwhelmed us.”
In Knox’s first trip back to Buffalo since ending a five-year coaching run there in 1982, he found out exactly how far his team is from the big time.
The Bills took a 21-0 lead before the second quarter was four minutes old, racked up 363 total yards without really concentrating on their passing attack, intercepted four Everett passes and sacked him three times.
They got defensive end Bruce Smith off to a blazing two-sack start, got running back Thurman Thomas four touchdowns and 136 combined yards from scrimmage, and got the Rams thinking about survival instead of success maybe 10 minutes into the game. If that long.
“I thought if we could keep it close, we would have a chance to win it,” Knox said. “We took some chances. We knew what we had to do. We knew, for example, our offense had to score some points.
“We’re a young defensive football team, we’re probably going to make some mistakes. So we came out trying to move the football, throwing it, mixing the run in early. . . .
“I came in thinking if we really executed well and made some things happen, we had a chance to win the football game. Of course, I always feel that way.”
The Rams were penalized 15 yards on an illegal crack-back block called on tight end Jim Price on their first play from scrimmage, and continued backward from there.
The offense was manhandled by Smith and the Bills’ pass rush, and an antsy-looking Everett complemented his four interceptions by completing only 18 of 35 passes for 160 yards.
This was 1991 all over again, with emphasis.
“No one likes to turn the ball over,” Knox said. “There were some reasons for some things that happened out there today. There were some protection problems. It wasn’t as good as it should’ve been. You can’t lay the blame on him for the interceptions.”
The Rams’ defense, missing its top two defensive ends because of injuries, stopped Buffalo’s first drive, then collapsed, allowing Thomas 82 yards in 18 carries in the first half alone. Altogether, Buffalo gained 207 yards in 34 carries, and quarterback Jim Kelly completed 13 of 19 passes for 106 yards.
“They could’ve had their entire starting defense in there and we still would’ve come out smoking,” Thomas said.
Said Ram cornerback Todd Lyght: “They played a great game. They did whatever they wanted. They were getting away with it.
“The defense was creating a lot of turnovers, a lot of pressure on the quarterback. . . . And if you give the ball up that many times, you can’t win any games.
“They were running the ball; we couldn’t stop the run. And they were pretty much throwing wherever they wanted.”
The most embarrassing touchdown, the one most reminiscent of last year’s defensive follies, was the Bills’ fourth--a two-yard pass to tackle-eligible Mitch Frerotte, alone and dancing as the half was about to end.
The Bills, in fact, spent most of the fourth quarter successfully trying to get receiver James Lofton the NFL’s all-time career receiving yardage record. He finally passed Steve Largent’s mark of 13,089 on his sixth catch and the crowd went into a frenzy. The referee presented him the game ball, and the Rams loitered around like humbled party crashers.
All the crisp play and turnover-free football the Rams showed through most of the exhibition season vanished as soon as the game started.
