The Indianapolis Star from Indianapolis, Indiana • Page 17

Spo The Indianapolis Star MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1986 RTS PAGE 17 Mams wave bye-bye to Colts L4. sacks Indy QBs seven times "3 247 By JOHN BANSCH STAR STAFF WRITER The wave in the National Football League is no longer restricted to the seating area. Opponents of the Indianapolis Colts are now in on the act. Instead of standing and raising their arms, however, they come in seemingly endless waves of humanity to pounce upon helpless Colt quarterbacks and running backs. Sunday, the Los Angeles Rams enjoyed the latest craze en route to a methodical 24-7 victory over the Colts before 59,102 unhappy paying customers in the Hoosier Dome.

It was the third triumph of the season for the unbeaten NFC See related stories, pictures, Page 18 West leaders and the third humbling defeat for the only winless team in the AFC East. The Los Angeles defense had seven quarterback sacks for a negative 63 yards in the onesided affair. That raises the Colts' sack total to 20 for a negative 171 yards this season. For all of 1985, Indianapolis quarterbacks were only sacked 35 times for 244 yards. It seems the only people making contact with the blitzing defenders are the quarterbacks.

With the next two games against the New York Jets and San Francisco, the Colts may surpass their 1985 totals less than one-third of the way through the 1 986 season. While the enemy is feasting on the Colt passers, the Indianapolis defense has no sacks in the last two games and only one for the season for a one-yard loss. The Rams also limited the Colts to 55 yards rushing. The ground game which averaged 5.0 yards per carry in 1985 is now averaging just 3.1 yards per thrust this season. In three starts, Indianapolis has scored 20 points and given up 87.

One of those sacks sent rookie quarterback Jack Trudeau limping off the field with what was said to be a sprained left knee 50 seconds from the conclusion of the third period. That Is the same knee which was scoped last January and is protected by a large brace. He was replaced by Blair Kiel, who took his first NFL snap, threw his first NFL pass and was crushed by his first NFL blitz. The injury to Trudeau was the second suffered by a Colt quarterback in the last two weeks with Gary Hogeboom going down in Miami with a separated shoulder. When Hogeboom went down.

Coach Rod Dowhower brought back Kiel, who was cut on Labor Day. Dowhower may now have go to quarterback shopping again. If he does, the two possibilities are former Indiana product Babe Laufenberg and John Witkowski. See COLTS Page 18 1 1 1 i i i Him ill ill, ii i i STAR STAFF PHOTOGREG GRIFFO Jack Trudeau holds his knee after being sacked in third quarter as George Wonsley leans over. Later, Trudeau holds his head in pain.

Colts' quarterbacks were Ram-sacked Sports Viwo Over Lightly By BOB COLLINS The Colts now are down to one and one-half. Next in line Is punter Rohn Stark. Stark currently Is only two things to the Colts the offense and the defense. If they so much as waste him on one offensive play which they won't the only move left would be unconditional surrender. The Colts jumped into a 7-0 lead, but the Rams were under cruise control most of the way.

Eric Dickerson ran for 121 yards. He averaged 4.8 a trip. The man who wrecked the Colts, though, was a 33-year-old retread named Steve Bart-kowski. Bartkowski is as mobile as a fire plug. He wrecked his knees years ago caddying for Jan Stephenson.

Yet he completed 18 of 26 passes for 162 yards and a touchdown. And the Colts got to him Just as many times as pigeons miss a statue in the park. None. sacked three times; the third one did him in. That brought us to Blair Kiel.

A week ago Kiel's NFL career was history. He was hunting moose and money In Canada. The former Notre Dame quarterback spent a season on the bench watching Tampa Bay face firing squads. He sat out last year, then signed with the Colts. They dropped him, but tracked him down after Hogeboom was injured.

Kiel wasted no time completing the first pass of his career, anil -yarder to Mark Boyer. He also connected for 50 yards to Billy Brooks. But the surf came in. Kiel completed four passes for 90 yards. But he also hit that artificial surface four times for a net loss of 33.

Henry Stram, the Beau Brum-mel of football, who now earns his llvipg as a television commentator, maintains that a professional football team must; have three quarterbacks. 'JHE ROOF of the Hoosier Dome is made of a material, the name of which has disappeared into the caverns of. my imprecise memory. I do recall, however, that it's held i4P by hot air which makes the joint safe for political conventons. But have you really paid that much attention to the roof? I mean, think of the times you roll your eyes after a fumble or interception.

You might as well focus on.the roof. After all, we only pass this way one time. We should reach out and grab all the knowledge we can. Like. what color is it? Is it concave or convex.

Is it shaped like an orange or a pear? Does it mqve? ff the answer is, "I don't know," or even, "None of the above," you should contact Jack Trudeau or Blair Kiel. They had time to examine the roof in detail Sunday. They were sacked seven times. Sacked in football Is not like what happens to your groceries. It's football terminology.

And it could be described as having your groceries flung against a wall with your body wrapped around them. These dastardly deeds were performed by the Los Angeles Rams. The Rams are members of a professional football team who stopped here Sunday and unhinged the Colts. 24-7. en route to their fourth game of the season.

Protection is what quarterbacks are supposed to get. At this juncture, with the Colts 0-3, owner Robert Irsay should consider consulting the Mafia. The protection could be better, and it certainly would be cheaper. If the Royal Air Force had defended Britain as badly, we'd all be speaking German today. Through no fault of his blockers, Gary Hogeboom, the original starter, suffered a shoulder separation at Miami last week.

He may be out for the season. And that could be a blessing, since nobody will stay healthy under the battering Colts' quarterbacks take. Sunday it was rookie Tru-deau's turn in the barrel. Before the season Trudeau held out for and received a princely price. Let's hope his agent was bright enough to include a representative of Blue Cross in the negotiations.

Jack lasted until the fourth quarter, then limped out with a sprained left knee. He was Rain postpones Race for Life 200 starting it because we're supposed to race in the rain. But not when it like that. "I was In front and still couldn't see anything. Usually you can at least see where the puddles are.

Even on that last time around the track when I was only when the cars were lined up in the starting grid shortly before 1 p.m. Before the engines were started at approximately 1:15. light but steady rain again began falling. Most of the cars already were equipped with treaded rain tires when the field pulled away on the parade lap. Those that didn't were allowed to change from slicks to wets at the end of the parade lap and then catch up with the field in their original qualifying spot.

On the pace lap more problems set in when the track observer communication system went out. CART Director of Competition and Chief Steward Wally Dallenbach ordered the yellow flag and the race actually started with the pace car still leading the field. The communications system was quickly repaired and. with rain falling ever harder, the green flag was thrown at the start of the second lap with Rahal Jumping out in front. Rahal had barely cleared the first turn when the heavens opened on the track already saturated by frequent rains the last two weeks.

With rain and fog limiting visibility and water standing throughout the course, cars danced around the track. Roberto Guerrero did a 360-degree spin in Turn 1 and continued on his way. Dominic Dobson came into the pits with two flat tires and wing damage after contact with a guardrail. "I'm glad they postponed the race." Rahal said. "They did the right thing by By BOB WALTERS STAR STAFF WRITER Elkhart Lake.

Wis. After two waterlogged laps and a nasty crash in Turn 1 1 heavy rain and flooding Sunday afternoon forced postponement of the Race for Life 200 at Road America. The race instead will be run Saturday. Oct. 4, at noon with a practice session that morning.

That means pole-sitter Bobby Rahal's bid for his third straight CARTPPG Indy Car victory will have to wait until next weekend at the Pepsi-Cola 250 at Michigan International Speedway. And it also means 1986 title contender Al Unser Jr. and Raul Boesel will have time to fix their badly damaged cars after they tangled in what several drivers called the worst conditions they'd ever attempted to race in. the second lap Unser spun in a pool Of water that had collected in Turn 11. Unser hit the guardrail and slid back onto the track.

Boesel. right behind Unser. plowed into the side of Unser's Domino's Pizza Lola causing extensive damage to both cars. Unser was sent to St. Nicholas Hospital in nearby Sheboygan with a possible shoulder injury and a bruise on the right side of his face.

He was kept overnight for observation. Boesel was checked and released from the track infirmary. t-. Rain early Sunday subsided by late morning and the track was merely damp going 40 miles an hour I couldn't see anything. I can't imagine what it was like behind me in rooster tails thrown up by the cars.

I could barely keep my car on the track. When the field came by the starting line at the end of the second lap, the yellow flag was out along with the red-crossed white emergency vehicle flag. Halfway through Lap 3 the red flag came out to stop the race and the cars tip-toed back into the pits. Heavy rain persisted for nearly two hours, stopping minutes before Road America president Lee Hall first announced the postponement at 3:20. At mid-statement.

Hall was interrupted by course General Manager Tom Watson, Indicating CART was considering a restart. At that point Dallenbach went out on the course to see if perhaps the race could be continued. But when he came back, the postponement was made firm. "There is no reason to restart the race." Dallenbach said. "There Is local flooding in Turns 5 and 1 1 and there is no place to pump, hide or push the water.

"We want to give fans a real race and not Just run a few laps to get it in." CART would have to run 26 of the scheduled 50 laps to consider the race official. ASSOCIATED PRESS Clemens shines Boston Red Sox Roger Clemens fires a pitch on his way to collecting his 24th win of the year against Toronto. See story on Page 20..