Postseason: 49'ers lead 1-0
RAM-NINER RIVALRY
On a Monday night in 1972 the Rams were losing 16-13 early in the fourth quarter. It's 4th and 4 on the Niner's 7 yard line.
Then the most bizarre play EVER on MNF happened. And only a Tommy Prothro could of thought of this play.
There were five Ram players on the right hashmark and 5 others on the left hashmark. Jim Bertleson took the ball to the one yard line for a first down. The next play the Rams score a TD. Rams win 26-16.
In the 1973 season, the Rams were 2-0 and game 3 was SF in SF. The experts said the Rams haven't played anyone, wait till they play the niners.
For the first time that season the Rams were behind (niners scored first) 7-0. But, that lasted less than 11 seconds because Cullen Bryant ran the Kickoff back for a TD. The Rams destroyed the niners 40-20.
The Monday Herald Examiner (LA folks, don't you miss that paper? ) front page of the sports section in big bold headlines said THE RAMS ARE THE NEW NFL MONSTERS! (I still have it).
On a Monday Night in 1976, the niners whipped us 16-0. Sacking James Harris 9 times. Not our proudest moment.
In 1979, the Rams needed to win to stay even with the Saints for the division title. With the Rams losing 20-19 late in the 4th quarter. Malavasi sends in Bob Lee at QB. Lee hits Ron Smith for a 40 yard winning TD.
You know the worst I have ever felt over a Ram loss wasn't SB 14, those NFC championship games against the Vikings in the 70's (although they are close) but, was that 1989 Monday Night game when the Rams had a 17 point in the 4th quarter only to see the Niners win by 2. I swear I felt like taking my TV and video recorder down to my garage, closing the garage door starting the car and watching the over again. or fast forward the tape to Taylor's 90 yard TD and putting my lips around the exhaust pipe. I didn't sleep or eat for over 3 days.
If that was my nightmare, then the 1990 game was my niner dream. Coming off that NFC championship game where the niners beat us 30-3. To make NFL history of winning 19 straight games all they had to do was beat a struggling Ram team without Ellard.
The line was 17 points and the money-line was 8-1.
Fritz Shurmer used a defensive scheme called the "big nickel". Instead of a linebacker on the Niner's Jones, a db covered him.
The Rams made Montana look like a bad rookie as the Rams stopped history from being made by beating them 28-16.
Thank God I was in Tahoe (8-1).
THE RAMS ARE FOR REAL
The Rams haven't beat the niners in 17 straight games. Then 1999 rolled around. The Niners were confident when they hit us in the mouth we would turn into the SAME OLD RAMS.
The Rams just hit back and whipped the niners 42-20.
HERE IS THREE RAM-NINER GAMES FROM THE PAST.
COACH MALAVASI GOES OUT A WINNER
The 49ers have faced the Rams 105 times over the years and there are a number of encounters that stand out. But one unusual meeting occurred during the strike-shortened 1982 season.
Despite their 3-5 record entering the Jan. 2, 1983, season finale against the Los Angeles Rams at Candlestick Park, the 49ers needed just one victory over their rival to qualify for the playoffs a year after winning their first Super Bowl title.
It was Joe Montana vs. Vince Ferragamo. It was Wendell Tyler against the 49ers' defense. But the game was decided by, of all people, the 49ers' kicker.
The Niners grabbed a 20-7 halftime lead after Montana hit Renaldo Nehemiah for a 29-yard touchdown late in the second quarter.
But Ray Wersching missed the extra point, which seem rather inconsequential at the time. The 49ers were rolling and they were certain they were playoff-bound. But the Rams weren't about to give in.
In a bitterly contested second half, the Rams' defense shut down Montana, who was 20-of-38 for 200 yards with two touchdown passes and an interception. But Montana couldn't work his magic in the second half.
Tyler pulled the Rams within 20-14 on a 1-yard touchdown in the third quarter.
Ferragamo then threw a touchdown pass to George Farmer that put the Rams ahead 21-20 in the fourth quarter.
LISTEN
The 49ers put Wersching in a position atone for his missed extra point, but Ivory Sully slipped through to block the field-goal attempt late in the game, ending the 49ers' dreams of making another Super Bowl run.
And letting Ray Malavasi go out a winner.
1976 BATTLE FOR FIRST
This was for sole possession of first place. In the first meeting, the Niners sacked Harris 9 times. Shutting out the Rams 16-0.
In the first half both defenses took center stage. The Rams were held to 32 yards rushing in the first half, while the Ram d did better, allowing just 27 yards.
Ray Malavasi's defense was sterling. Allowing the leagues number one runner to just 9 yards total.
In the second half, a Haden to Jessie 47 yard TD got it rolling. Turnovers did the Niners in.
First Rod Perry interception, then Jim Youngblood fumble recovery. And to put icing on the cake, Monte Jackson interception for a TD.
The Rams held the Niners to just 7 first downs and under 100 yards total. As the Rams took over first place in the western div. with a 23-3 win.
LISTEN
RAMS STOP THE STREAK
In a game in 1990 betwen the Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers the Niners were going for an NFL record of 19 straight wins.
All they needed to do was beat a Ram team in turmoil, a Ram team the Niners beat 30-3 just 8 months earlier in the 1989 NFC championship game.
To make matters worse, the Rams would be without Henry Ellard. No wonder why Vegas had them a 17 point favorite.
But, Fritz Shurmer put a new scheme for Montana and Company. It was called the Big Nickel.
Playing DB's Stewart and Newman as linebackers (one of them played TE Brent Jones).
This defense bewildered the Niners so bad that they didn't get their first 1st down until late in the second quarter.
Never has Montana looked so bad or so confused. He threw 4 interceptions.
With the score 21-17 Rams and less than 11 minutes to go, the Niners had the Rams pinned on the Rams six yard line.
The Rams offensive line took control by dominating the 49er defense so completely that the Rams went on a 14 play 11 minute drive for a Ram TD.
The Rams stopped the Niners winning streak with a 28-17 win. This Ram win over the Niners would be the last until 1999.
1999 MEETING
The report was filed shortly after 4 p.m. Sunday to the Missing Persons Bureau. By now, the search party will be out in full force . . . looking for the Same Old Rams.
You know, those gridiron sadsacks who lost over and over and over again to the San Francisco 49ers. Seventeen straight times before Sunday's rousing 42-20 Rams victory.
Where are the Same Old Rams?
"They're long gone," said cornerback Todd Lyght, who had been 0 for 16 against San Fran before Sunday.
Repeating: Where are the Same Old Rams?
"You know what? I don't even want to hear that phrase," said defensive end Kevin Carter, who was 0 for 8. "Because after a while, the Same Old Rams are going to be the ones in the playoffs."
One last time: Where are the Same Old Rams?
"It's kind of a flip of the circumstances," said wide receiver Isaac Bruce, who had been 0 for 8. "Because we'd always be losing and get upset and want to fight. And that's kind of what the 49ers did. But most of the guys on that defense, they have a lot of class."
In this upside-down, topsy-turvy NFL season, the Rams finally turned the 49ers' on their heads
So many times in the recent history of this series, the 49ers had the Rams pinned to the mat before most fans were in their seats. This time, it was the Rams who hit the 49ers with the early knockout punch, jumping to a 21-3 lead after one quarter.
This time, it was the Rams making it a mercy killing, with backup quarterback Paul Justin kneeling twice in the shadow of the 49ers' end zone to kill out the clock in the final seconds.
"We've just got a squad right now," safety Keith Lyle said. "There were so many people ready to say: 'I told you so. The Rams aren't going to win.' But we're not about that this year."
What they're about is Kurt Warner, the Warner Bros. receiving corps, an underrated defense and markedly improved special teams.
Warner continued his amazing run, throwing for 323 yards and five touchdowns Sunday. Fast fact: Rams quarterbacks threw 12 TD passes in the entire 1998 season; Warner has 14 in four games.
"You know what he told me walking off the field?" coach Dick Vermeil said. "He said, 'You haven't seen the best of me yet, Coach.' "
And, uh, how exactly does Warner do better than 20 for 23?
"I have no clue. You have to pinch me," Vermeil said.
Bruce, meanwhile, turned the 49ers' defense into the 'Frisco Melt, toasting their secondary with a franchise record-tying four touchdown receptions.
"Isaac Bruce, if he isn't the best receiver in the National Football League, he's right with the group," Vermeil said.
Bruce repeatedly got behind the undersized 49ers corners, particularly St. Louis native Darnell Walker, catching TD passes of 13, 5, 45, and 42 yards.
"Ike's so special," Warner said. "He does such a great job of getting open."
The defense kept the lid on the Steve Young-less San Francisco offense, yielding only a touchdown and two field goals. (One 49ers TD came when 49ers defensive tackle Junior Bryant fell on a Warner fumble in the end zone.)
And just when it looked like the 49ers were going to make a game off it, trailing only 28-20 late in the third quarter, Tony Horne returned a kickoff for a 97-yard Rams TD. Jeff Hodgins and Jeff Zgonina opened up the seam with wedge blocks on the play.
So it's mid October, and the 4-0 Rams are the only remaining unbeaten team in the NFL. They are two games up on the 49ers in the NFC West.
"Maybe we are for real," center Mike Gruttadauria said.
Perhaps. But try as he might, Todd Lyght was having trouble dealing with this new reality. A good half-hour after the game, Lyght had a glazed over look in his eyes. He was jubilant in victory, but a tiny part of him still couldn't believe it.
As a Rams rookie in 1991, Lyght watched in dismay as the crowd in Anaheim Stadium - his home stadium at the time - chanted "Beat LA!" en route to a 33-10 San Francisco drubbing of the Rams on Monday Night football.
That's what Lyght remembers about Rams-49ers. He had personally witnessed 16 games in the Rams' 17-game losing streak to San Francisco.
But now, that long gridiron nightmare is over. For one game at least, the Wicked Witch of the West is dead. Click your Pumas together Todd, and repeat: "There's no place like home. There's no place like home."
"I looked up into the stands and saw all those 65,000 screaming fanatic, St. Louis Rams fans, and they were just loving it," Lyght said. "I think they were enjoying it moreso than I.
"It was a beautiful win today. This is the sweetest victory of my professional career by far. The more we win, the sweeter it's going to get."
He wasn't alone in that feeling.
"This was a big game," Bruce said. "There's going to be a lot of young guys here, the rookies, who now believe that they can beat the 49ers. They're used to be a lot of players here that didn't believe we could beat them. And I have to admit, I was one of them earlier in my career."
So the psychological barrier that was "San Francisco" finally has been broken, crashed, torn asunder.
"You throw the ball, you catch the ball, you tackle, you do all this stuff," defensive tackle D'Marco Farr said. "But all these losses to the 'Niners, it became mental. I got to where I saw anything that resembled 'SF,' I almost wanted to throw up.
"But now, we have an anti-'Niner pill. I'm starting to feel better. It's one win, but it feels great to finally get that off our back."
r Broncos won their first game in the post-John Elway era despite losing Pro Bowl tight end Shannon Sharpe with a broken collarbone.
I CAN'T BELIEVE NOBODY CAN GET IT RIGHT.
THE RAM CHALLENGE
WHY YOU DON'T WANT TO ROB A BANK WITH A NINER FAN, EXCEPT FOR TONY AND GERALD (AND EVEN GERALD IS QUESTIONABLE).
WANT MORE RAM MEMORIES RAM PICTURES TELL A STORY
