Column: Rams are counting on young left tackle Greg Robinson to serve, and protect, Jared Goff

On his third play from scrimmage as a professional quarterback, Jared Goff dropped back and . . .

BOOM!

He was driven into the ground.

That welcome-to-the-NFL moment Saturday against the Dallas Cowboys produced not only an interception, but also a critical reminder for the Rams.

If they can’t protect Goff, it won’t matter how talented he is.

This brings us to left tackle Greg Robinson, who will attempt to spare the No. 1 overall draft pick the pinata-like beatings that have traumatized and ruined countless other promising quarterbacks in this league.

Goff’s development will be directly linked to Robinson’s.

The second overall selection in the 2014 draft, the 6-foot-5, 330-pound Robinson was underwhelming in his first two seasons. He was the NFL’s most-penalized offensive lineman last year.

“It’s a big year for me and I have to approach it that way,” he said.

Robinson, 23, will be anchoring a young offensive line that also includes second-year guards Cody Wichmann and Jamon Brown. Robinson acknowledged that he feels burdened by the prospect of protecting Goff’s blind side, but thinks he was prepared for this by his hardscrabble background, which included two years in Houston after Hurricane Katrina ravaged his home state of Louisiana.

“It only made me stronger,” Robinson said.

Robinson was 12 when Katrina brushed by Thibodaux, a small town that was once known as the site of the New Orleans Saints’ training camp. In the wake of the storm, Robinson moved to Houston with his mother and six siblings.

“There was nothing we could really do about it,” Robinson said. “A lot of things were going wrong. There were a lot of times we really didn’t have hope. We just had to come together.”

Robinson said he battled homesickness.

“I just couldn’t really keep up with that city, being from a small town,” he said.

He eventually moved back to Louisiana to live with his grandmother.

In high school, he developed into one of the top offensive line prospects in the country. He went to Auburn.

Robinson was about to be dealt another setback. His father, Greg Blackledge, died in 2012.

“He was a diabetic all his life,” Robinson said.

Blackledge was absent for most of Robinson’s childhood. That changed when Robinson was a teenager. He described his father as a major spiritual influence in his life.

“Growing up in a black community, there’s not really much there,” Robinson said. “A lot of people are thankful just to have a father in their lives, even though he came into my life later. I just appreciated him so much because I was a young kid and needed that guidance.”

Robinson now has a tattoo of Blackledge’s face on his right shoulder. He recalled how his father spoke to him about the importance of taking care of his mother and siblings.

“We really didn’t have much and I always wanted to give back and help that out,” he said.

Robinson was in a position to do that shortly after he was drafted by the Rams. While he flourished as a provider to his loved ones, on-field success was slow to come.

“The speed of the game, it’s a lot different,” Robinson said. “There’s so much more complexity to it.”

When he was at Auburn, the Tigers used relatively simple zone-blocking schemes.

Robinson’s relative inexperience lengthened the learning curve. He played only two seasons of college football, declaring for the draft after his redshirt sophomore year. One Rams official pointed out that Robinson would have been a senior last year had he remained in school.

Robinson spent the off-season training with former NFL lineman LeCharles Bentley and said he returned to camp this year no longer feeling like a kid.

“Room for mistakes is out the window,” he said. “It’s time to really put the pads down and grind for real.”

Coach Jeff Fisher praised Robinson for his performance in the exhibition opener last week.

“He played hard, he finished blocks,” Fisher said. “His hands were good, his feet were consistent, his weight was down. This may have been the best preseason game that Greg’s played to date, which would imply that Greg’s getting better and had a great off-season.”

The Rams are hoping he did. Robinson’s future might not be the only one at stake.

dylan.hernandez@latimes.com

Twitter: @dylanohernandez