European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 03, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Wednesday january 3,1990 the stars and stripes Page 23 nil wild card games Steeles upset oilers 26-23 a Peclers kicker Gary Anderson pumps a fist in Triumph after his winning 50-yarder. By Michael a. Lutz Houston a in the Span of a few moments and 50 Yards Pittsburgh s Steeles relived their entire season the Hopes dreams and frustrations. Then Gary Anderson s 50-Yard Field goal with 11 34 to go in overtime gave the Steeles a 26-23 Victory Over hous ton in the acc wild card game on Sun Day in the Astrodome. Rod Woodson prayed. Anderson thought of his seriously ill father. Tim Worley saw the gleam in coach Chu Knoll s eyes. Anderson s kick his fourth of the game continued a late season charge by Pittsburgh which lost its first two game s by a combined 92-10. Now the Steeles have won six of their last seven. Worley believed what Noll told him at the half and he could feel the coach excitement. I could just look in his eyes and Tell he Noll was fired up Worley said. All he said was keep doing what you re doing and Well be in Denver next week " Anderson s kicks of 25, 30, 48 and 50 Yards and touchdown runs of 9 Yards by Worley and i Yard by Merrill hog made Noll s prediction come True. They embarrassed us Early in the sea son Here and then we lost to them i Pittsburgh hog said. The oilers lost their last three games of the season after blowing two chances to win the division. They beat the steel ers in both regular season meetings. But they had an emotional comeback in the Astrodome on sunday night. The first thing that went through m mind was my dad Anderson said. He s sick Back in san Diego and i was very proud because i knew he was  Anderson s father Doug a former professional soccer player and now a min ister is Hospital cd with a lung disease. He s struggling Anderson said try ing to conceal his emotion. I talked with him before the game. He taught me everything i know about  Houston among the preseason favor ites to reach the super bowl faded in it final three games. The oilers were victimized by their own mistakes in the first half and did t catch fire until the fourth Quarter when Warren Moon hit touchdown passes of 18 and 9 Yards to Ernest Civins for their Only Lead of the game. But the a Peclers rallied with an 82 Yard drive spiced by a 22-Yard end around by Dwight Stone and climaxed by hog s touchdown dive with 46 seconds left to Force the overtime. Houston held Pittsburgh to Force a punt starting the overtime. But Lorenzo while fumbled on the oilers Only Offen Sive play in overtime. Woodson recovered it at Houston s 47 and four plays later Anderson kicked that game Winner. We had several Guys going to the Ball safety Thomas Everett said. Rod got his shoulder on it. It was a Good shot right on the  the slow Start is far from the Steeles mind As they prepare to meet the a fewest divison Champion Broncos. Our chances arc just As Good As Den ver Everett said. We play As Good on the Road As anybody and we re on  Pittsburgh s elation was matched by Houston s depression. After improving their record to 9-5, the oilers lost to Cincinnati 61-7 and Cleveland 24-20 in the final 39 seconds. A Victory in either game would have Given them their first division title. How can a team be 9-7 with three Guys in the pro  Houston s Steve Brown said. None of them arc on de sense either. Maybe it s the bad boy image. 1 Don t  the problem in the last two weeks has been the last four or five minutes of the game Moon said. Thai s an area in which we used to Excel. If you Don t control it then you Don t  rams answer Ryan whip eagles by Ralph Bernstein Philadelphia a the los Angeles rams made buddy Ryan a Prophet but not the Way the Phila Delphia eagles coach predicted. Ryan said sunday s pfc wild card playoff game would be decided in the trenches. He meant the eagles defense would Squash the rams. The game was won in the trenches but the rams did the squashing offensively and defensively. Los Angeles defied the cold Rainy weather and the Home Field advantage to beat the eagles 21-7. Coach John Robinson s rams now move on to East Rutherford n.j., on sunday to play the new York giants the pfc East champions. The key to the rams Victory was the ability of the offensive line to keep Phila Delphia s front four away from Quarter Back Jim Everett. Reggie White and company second in the league with 62 sacks got to Everett Only twice. Everett completed 18 of 33 passes for 281 Yards and a pair of first period touchdowns. He threw 39 Yards to Henry Ellard for one score and 4 Yards to dam one Johnson for the other. Everett got running support from Greg Bell who gained 124 Yards on 27 carries. Bell ran Tor 53 Yards in the final period to set up his 7-Yard to run that clinched the game. While the rams offensive line frustrated the eagles defense the los an Geles defense contained eagles Quarter Back Randall Cunningham s passing and held the eagles to 95 Yards Rushing. Philadelphia trailing 14-0, scored its Only touchdown at 4 02 of the fourth Quarter on a 12-play, 80-Yard drive capped by Anthony Toncy s 1-Yard div into the end zone. The rams took a 7-0 Lead 2 25 into the game on a three play 83-Yard drive. Everett threw the final 39 Yards to Al lard. Los Angeles boosted it to 14-0 at 7 20 of the first period on a seven play 46 Yard drive. Everett passed 30 Yards to Ellard setting up the 4-Yard scoring strike to Johnson. The rams had read Ryan s boast that the eagles would win the game in the trenches. Jackie Slater the 14-year los Angeles offensive tackle said the rams were aware of Ryan s claim that the eagles had the Best front four in pro football. It s a big Challenge to come Down to Philadelphia hearing that line play in the trenches was the key said the 284 Pound tackle one of the rams three pro bowl offensive linemen who triggered the Protection of Everett we accepted that  rams offensive guard Tom new Berry agreed with his pro bowl teammate. I was confident before the game that we could beat their line. We have a pretty talented offensive line. We did a Good Job blocking. Everybody worked together new Berry said. Rams Center Doug Smith a 12-year player and the third of the pro bowl Trio also referred to Ryan s comments about his defense chewing up the los Angeles rams and spitting them out. When you be been around a lot of years you realize none of that matters. They May be a Good defensive line but there arc 27 other teams that have Good defensive lines Smith said. Everett too dealt with Ryan. We re a better football team because we had to put up with a lot of pregame abuse Everett said. That comes with playing Philly and buddy  Everett also defended the maligned rams defense which Ryan casually Dis missed because it was last against the pass in the league. There was a lot of talk and these Guys the defense took a lot of things person ally Everett said. I Hope More teams talk about them. They stood up and an swered the questions. Everett added we knew they d try to bring pressure and ruffle our feathers and we went after them. When you Gam ble All the time you pay the  rams linebacker Kevin Greene who had two sacks and recovered a Fumble said the rams proved they could win i cold weather. Los Angeles was 0-9 in its previous nine playoff games in cold con  read things in the paper about the warm weather the Beach boys from . I did t like that he  be proved we can play in cold weather 30 degrees and win. Next week what do we d9? we go into new York new Jersey in cold weather and i m positive Well win. We won t let col weather bother  a disappointed Ryan said he told his players this in t the Way i want to remember the season. We had a great season beat some excellent teams. We deserved to be in the playoffs. We just did t do the Job today. It just was t  we had three first Downs in the first half and you can t win a game that  did t play Well at the beginning. Our pass Rush just did t pressure the Way we should  added i can t be mad at the defense. I thought they did a hell of Ajob. Cunningham completed 24 of 40 for 238 Yards and ran for 39 on six carries