Gary: Fumbles Relapse Will Last Only One Game

This time, Cleveland Gary promised himself and anybody else who would listen Monday, he will not allow his breakthrough season to be ruined by a spree of dropped footballs.

On Sunday, in a reminder of his 12-fumble season two years ago, the Rams’ tailback lost two fumbles to the Phoenix Cardinals, setting up their two winning touchdown drives.

After the game, Gary bolted out of the locker room before anybody could stop him for a public explanation.

But Monday, with his coach and his teammates voicing their support, Gary faced the media, apologized for his postgame duck and said he was too strong to let these most recent fumbles destroy what had been shaping into a Pro Bowl season.

“I want to be a perfectionist when it comes to not fumbling,” Gary said Monday. “Yesterday was a relapse, and I think in order to succeed at anything, I can’t do from a mental standpoint what I did before. . . . I start(ed) thinking about it, and that won’t happen.

“I had one (bad) day. I’m proud of myself, and I’ve learned how to reward myself. I’ve carried the ball a hundred-something times without dropping the football, so what I have to do is put that one day behind me.”

Coach Chuck Knox downplayed Gary’s fumbles on Monday and said he is the team’s tailback, period. Knox said he thought the fumbles were a result of Gary’s trying to make second- and third-effort yards, the kind of running the coach has always admired.

“All I’m going on is what I’ve seen since we’ve been here, and he’s sitting up there (as) about the third-leading rusher in the NFC,” Knox said. “He’s done a good job for us.”

Before Sunday, Gary had fumbled twice--losing one--in 150 carries, and he had come a long way in erasing the memory of his two lost seasons. Last year, Gary fumbled on his second carry of the season, also against the Cardinals, and never got back into former coach John Robinson’s main running rotation.

This year Gary has gained 718 yards in 167 carries and scored eight touchdowns.

Gary’s fumbles Sunday were varied. The first occurred early in the third quarter, when Gary said he was trying to make a big play happen after being held to seven yards on seven attempts during the first half.

He crashed into the line, was slowed, then spun through the pile for extra yardage. But he swung his arm away from his body and exposed the ball for linebacker Eric Hill, who knocked it loose.

“I could’ve very well taken a four- or five-yard gain,” Gary said. “But instead, I spun off, and I put my body in a position maybe I shouldn’t have put it in. I spun off and tried to make something happen.”

His second fumble, which tumbled out of bounds, was similar.

The third, and most costly, occurred when Ken Harvey burst past a block and met Gary moments after he had taken the handoff. “What I have to do (is) go back to the basic fundamentals, get the ball over the pressure points and keep it in,” Gary said. “And what I can’t do, I can’t do.”