PRO FOOTBALL / WEEK 12 : Rams Will Try to End Discussion and Tailspin, Against Packers

Coach John Robinson says that although the Rams have lost three of their last four games and half of their lead over the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC West, there’s nothing to worry about.

“I’m confident we’ll come back and play very well and very hard in these last five games,” he said. “We’ve timed our comeback perfectly.”

Eric Dickerson irritated Robinson last week by saying that he’d like to help the Rams out of their slump by catching more passes.

Quarterback Dieter Brock told a Canadian reporter he’d like to throw more passes. “We like to run the ball but we run it almost to the point of being stubborn about it,” he said.

The Rams held a team meeting to talk among themselves before they started talking to themselves.

Talk, talk, talk. That’s what losing to the Atlanta Falcons can do to you. That’s what having the 49ers two games behind and two weeks away can do to you.

The worst thing, Robinson joked, is that “most of the wives have already spent the playoff money.”

That’s why Robinson also says: “We couldn’t afford to lose to anybody at this stage, no matter who they are.”

Today at Anaheim, anybody is the Green Bay Packers, who have gone from 3-6 to 5-6 with victories over Minnesota and New Orleans in the last two weeks while the Rams were sliding from 8-1 to 8-3 in losing to the New York Giants and the Falcons.

“I wouldn’t say we’re on a roll,” Packer Coach Forrest Gregg said.

Quarterback Lynn Dickey was more candid: “We’re not really talking playoffs around here.”

The Rams’ situation is more confusing. They hold a larger lead than any division leader except Chicago, yet are perceived as faltering. A national television commentator referred to “the near-collapse of the Rams.”

Robinson said: “If we lose this week, it won’t be a near collapse.”

The problem is an offense that ranks 24th in the National Football League, ahead of only New Orleans, Buffalo, Detroit and Houston. Only the Rams’ defense and special teams have kept them afloat, and when those units cracked at Atlanta, the result was catastrophic.

The worst thing the defense did was allowing Gerald Riggs to run 41 times for 123 yards and take over the league rushing lead. That’s only three yards a crack, but it meant the Falcons controlled the ball and allowed the Rams to play even less offensively than usual.

Keepaway used to be the Rams’ game.

The Packers have used three quarterbacks this season, but the offense is back in the hands of Dickey, at 36 the 18th-ranked passer in the league. Brock is 14th.

“When he plays really well, they are kind of scary because he’s an excellent passer,” Robinson said. “He doesn’t move around much in the pocket, and then you can get to him, so I think pressure on him early is important.”

Fritz Shurmur, the Rams’ defensive coordinator, expects the Packers to take some heat off the Rams’ rush with screen passes, draw plays and play-action passes.

The Packers have beaten the Rams at Milwaukee the last three seasons, but they haven’t beaten them in California in eight games since 1966 and are 1-4 on the road this season. Robinson said he isn’t counting on trends to pull the Rams out of their tailspin.

“I can’t even remember last year,” he said.

Brock can. He was playing for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, who reached the Canadian Football League’s Grey Cup game before losing to Winnipeg. Hamilton, with young Ken Hobart from Idaho at quarterback, will meet the British Columbia Lions in another Grey Cup at Montreal today.

“It doesn’t surprise me,” Brock said. “Hamilton has played well.”

Brock said he knows nothing about Hobart, except that he set a CFL record for rushing by quarterbacks with 928 yards. That wasn’t Brock’s style, but the Rams and the Packers wanted him for his arm, not his feet.

Gregg said: “We were in the battle, but I think Dieter saw an opportunity where he could go and start immediately. He knew if he came here that he would have to battle Lynn Dickey for the job.”

Brock hasn’t electrified Anaheim, but Robinson said it’s not all Brock’s fault. In fact, Robinson thinks the Rams would have beaten the Giants if Brock hadn’t been knocked out by a kidney stone and that he might have rushed back too early from surgery to play at Atlanta. “It was the first game I thought he didn’t play well,” Robinson said.

Today, Brock and the Rams are reasonably healthy, and they have both the motive and they opportunity to have a good day. At least, they’ve been talking it up all week.