PRO FOOTBALL / WEEK 3 : Rams Don’t Get a Breather, After All : Packers Showed Strength in Win Over New Orleans

Time to check those pulses again. A week after Eric Dickerson’s memorable return to Anaheim Stadium, Mickey Sutton and the Killer Plan B’s hit town today after swarming across the plains from Green Bay, Wis.

OK, so maybe that’s a tough sell.

When the Rams’ schedule was released last spring, today’s game against the Packers seemed a deep breath between Dickerson’s coming-home party and Part I of the annual blood feud with the San Francisco 49ers, which opens next Sunday at Candlestick Park.

But that was before the Packers signed Tony Mandarich, raided the league’s free agency market, rallied to defeat the New Orleans Saints, 35-34, and introduced the world to quarterback Don Majkowski (Ma-KOW-skee).

The Packers haven’t had much football luck in recent years, as their 14-34-1 record since 1986 indicates, but brighter days appear ahead under Coach Lindy Infante. This couldn’t be the same Packer team that spotted the Rams a 31-0 lead in last year’s opener at Lambeau Field before rallying to lose, 34-7.

“I’ll be very honest,” Infante said this week. “I haven’t even looked at that film. I don’t want to remember it. I’ve been trying to forget it since we opened up against them.”

That game marked Infante’s National Football League debut as a head coach. Well, give the Packers credit for not giving up.

As the Packers and the Atlanta Falcons might attest, the theory of weaker teams building better teams through the draft isn’t as easy as it looks.

Quick-fix remedies are scarce in the league these days, so that’s why the Packers took the 10-meter dive into Plan B, the NFL’s limited free agency formula that left unprotected 600 fringe players around the league.

In Green Bay these days, some other team’s fringe player may be a Packer starter.

This wasn’t a cheap venture. The Packers paid $797,500 in signing bonuses alone for the 20 Plan B players they signed. Only seven remain on the active roster, including Sutton, the former Ram cornerback who will be returning punts today.

The others are Van Jakes, Michael Haddix, Blair Bush, James Campen, Billy Ard and Carl Bland. Only Jakes and Bush are starters, but Infante insists the money was well spent.

“If you’re a 4-12 team and somebody told you you could go out and buy yourself a few players that might make you a little better squad, I can’t imagine anybody not taking advantage of that,” Infante said. “I think the reasons we did it were very obvious. We’re trying to upgrade this football team as quickly as we possibly can. We ended up with seven players of the 20 that we signed, that are here, that we would not have had otherwise.

“If we didn’t have those seven players on our squad, we’d end up with some college free agents, most likely, or we’d have some guys that were here last year that these guys beat out. And certainly in seven positions, whether they be in backup or starting roles, we’ve gotten better. I think the Plan B thing for the Green Bay Packers was a very positive move.”

There. And wasn’t it Van Jakes, the Plan B cornerback, who sealed the Packers’ victory over the Saints by intercepting former teammate Bobby Hebert’s pass in the final minutes?

He was nearly as big a story as the quarterback, Majkowski, who matched Jim Everett’s great numbers of last week. Majkowski threw for 354 yards and three touchdowns, completing 18 consecutive passes at one point.

Everett threw for 368 yards and three touchdowns in the Rams’ victory over Indianapolis, completing 14 in a row passes during one stretch.

John Robinson’s theme this week has been, “Don’t forget the run.” The Rams moved with such ease through the air against the Indianapolis Colts that he’s afraid his team may lose the will it takes to win tough games.

“I want to establish the run in our minds,” Robinson said.

But he promises not to pull the leash on Everett and offensive coordinator Ernie Zampese. Would you?

“I’ll make a special case to tell Ernie, ‘Don’t start running the ball just because I’m complaining about it,’ ” Robinson said. “My best years have always been when I had my top assistant pushing the pass and me pushing the run.”

Ram Notes

The Packers haven’t beaten the Rams on the West Coast since 1966, when Vince Lombardi’s team pulled out a 27-23 victory at the Coliseum. Green Bay has gone 0-9 here since. . . . First-round pick Tony Mandarich makes his NFL debut today, though Alan Veingrad will start ahead of him at right tackle. Mandarich is expected to play mostly in short-yardage situations.

Mark Messner, the Rams’ sixth-round pick from Michigan, faced Mandarich four times when the All-American tackle was at Michigan State. “He’s a great football player,” said Messner, who was moved this week to the Rams’ developmental squad. “But no one is a superman, like they claim he is. I think he’s probably realizing that, now that he’s practicing and seeing the speed and the ability here, that he’s not going to dominate like he thought he was.” . . . Tony Slaton will start for the third consecutive time ahead of Duval Love at right guard. . . . Larry Kelm (foot) and Cleveland Gary will likely be the team’s two inactive players today. Gary was involved in a minor car accident this week that required 15 stitches in his right knee.