Falcons Have Sound but the Rams Generate Fury in 31-21 Victory

ATLANTA —  Deion Sanders looked skyward for his first professional punt return--and dropped the ball.

Freon Sanders? You wish. Before he was finished, he had supercharged Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium with one stunning 68-yard flash dance for a touchdown, leaving trinkets and tacklers (James Washington, Anthony Newman and Robert Delpino) in his wake.

Sanders shook his fists, the rafters, the crowd of 38,708. Deion shook the football world. Just ask him. He also seemed to shake up the Rams, who were going through the motions before Sanders zapped them back to reality with his first-quarter punt-return.

So inspired, the Rams rallied with some flash of their own and gained a 31-21 season-opening victory over the Atlanta Falcons.

Say what you want about Sanders, the first-round pick who ended his holdout Thursday, left the New York Yankees in mid-game and headed south for Atlanta. Everyone else does.

“Deion hasn’t done nothing,” Ram defensive end Shawn Miller said. “He returned a punt. The final thing’s up on the scoreboard. He can jump up and down all he wants.”

Guard Tom Newberry: “I think Brian Bosworth started this whole thing. It made him so much money. I think all the agents out there say, ‘Hey, if you get a draft pick pretty high, you can do this and that and then write a book.’ I just look at it as a production. I don’t give a . . . what he does.”

Yes, Sanders inspired those around him--on both sides. He moved tailback Greg Bell to 128 grueling yards and then afterward, words. Bell hadn’t spoken to the press since ending his summer holdout less than two weeks ago. But you can’t sit there and let someone from the losing team steal all your thunder.

As it was, Bell’s performance spoke volumes, considering he has been in pads only days and was supposed to share tailback duties with Gaston Green. Instead, Bell re-established his place in the backfield.

“He was an outstanding back today,” Coach John Robinson said of Bell. “That was as good a performance under the circumstances that I’ve seen.”

Bell carried 26 times in the heat and humidity, scoring on touchdown runs of two and eight yards.

Was he surprised?

“You’re surprised,” Bell told reporters. “I’m not. You’ve seen me this summer. I’ve prepared to do one thing, and that’s to carry the ball.”

Bell’s off-season conditioning program was excruciating, proving again the relative insignificance of training camp.

“I prepared for training camp in May and June,” Bell said. “The only thing I missed was the soreness I have now.”

The game changed after Sanders’ run, which struck like lightning with 9:29 remaining in the first quarter. It gave the Falcons, who hadn’t scored an offensive touchdown against the Rams since the strike game in 1987, a reason to play on. It gave the Rams a reason to take notice.

Their sloppiness was never more apparent than on Sanders’ run, which would have never happened had the Rams not commited a penalty on the first punt, forcing a re-kick.

On his second chance, Sanders fumbled the ball at his own 32, picked it up, avoided Washington, circled back to the right, avoided Newman, outran Delpino and high-kicked his way down the middle of the field, taunting Buford McGee on his way to the end zone.

“When I got in the open it was prime time,” Sanders said. “I said to myself, boy, what have you done? I thought it would be nice to break one. I felt like a deer with a hundred hunters around.”

Sanders, who had whipped the crowd into a frenzy by waving his his arms in the air before each return, put the Falcons ahead, 7-0.

Meanwhile, the Rams were shaking off cobwebs. Quarterback Jim Everett was nervous in the beginning and threw accordingly.

“I was uptight,” he said. “Maybe it was the expectations of the regular season.”

He settled down in the second quarter, after Darryl Henley returned a punt 16 yards to the Atlanta 46.

That was for you, Deion.

“I can’t let that happen,” Henley said of Sander’s performance. “He’s running the show out here. Our punt return team came over to me and said we’re going to break one.”

The Rams drove in and scored on Bell’s two-yard run to give them a 10-7 lead early in the second quarter.

As the half drew to a close, however, Falcon quarterback Chris Miller burned Henley on a deep pass to Floyd Dixon, who scored on the 47-yard play.

That was for you, Darryl.

The Rams took the ball back with 42 seconds left and drove quickly on an eight-yard run by Bell and an 11-yard pass from Everett to Bell.

Time was running short, however. So with nine seconds left, Everett heaved a desperation pass toward the end zone, where Ram receivers Henry Ellard, Flipper Anderson and Aaron Cox converged.

Ellard, who high jumped 6 feet 10 inches in college, leaped above the crowd of receivers and defenders and hauled the ball in for a touchdown as time expired.

Ellard didn’t know who was around him.

“I didn’t see jerseys, I just saw hands,” he said.

The Rams had stolen the lead, and the Falcons would not recover. Everett made sure of it.

He took the Rams down field in the third quarter, risking life, limb, and possibly the season. On third and five at the Falcon 28, Everett left the pocket and did a hook-slide for seven yards. He was clubbed in the helmet on the tackle and dazed.

Three plays later from the 13, Everett scrambled again, only this time he bowled head-first over safety Robert Moore for the touchdown, giving the Rams a 24-14 lead with 9:01 left in the quarter.

Everett said he actually was using his head when he used his head. When did he have the urge to dive?

“When I saw it was a number 30 and no number higher than that,” he said.

Robinson watched the play in horror.

“He gives us a little more depth at tailback,” he joked afterward. “I think quarterbacks should play that way.”

You wanted to believe him.

The Rams left no doubt about the game when they scored again early in the fourth quarter on Bell’s eight-yard run around left end, capping a 74-yard drive.

Miller took advantage of another inexperienced Ram corner, Cliff Hicks, on his 33-yard scoring pass to Michael Haynes with 9:24 remaining.

But it was too late. Not even Sanders, who was also used at free safety, could save the Falcons.

And except for the two costly errors by the corners, the Rams’ Eagle defense dominated, holding Atlanta to 46 net yards rushing.

Miller threw for a career-high 229 yards, but was sacked five times, three times by linebacker Kevin Greene.

“I needed a good day today,” Greene said. “I needed to come out firing bullets. And I was lucky.”

Shawn Miller, the defensive end, batted down three Miller passes.

The Rams, Neon or no Neon, once again proved too much. Sanders, however, did leave an impression.

“If he’s on your team, he’s great,” Henley said. “If he’s not, you want to kill him.”

Ram Notes

Gaston Green carried four times for seven yards. Greg Bell wouldn’t let him in the game. “The guy had such a dominant game it was hard to take him out,” Coach John Robinson said. . . . Jim Everett completed 14 of 25 passes for 206 yards with one touchdown and no interceptions. . . . Deion Sanders returned only two punts on the day for a total of 83 yards. The Rams kicked away from him in the second half.