Rams Will Battle Patriots, Weather

The weather outside is frightful. So is the New England Patriots’ season and that could take the sting out of the cold for the visiting Rams.

All the way home they should be very warm.

The Rams (10-5) probably will have a wild-card playoff berth locked up when they board the airplane for their return to the West Coast after today’s regular-season finale with the Patriots (5-10).

They might even clinch the spot before they take the field. That would happen if Washington were to lose at Seattle Saturday afternoon. If Washington wins, the Rams still can get in if they beat the Patriots or if either Green Bay, Minnesota or Philadelphia loses.

The Rams may need a victory, though, to gain the home-field edge for the NFC wild-card game. That could be critical, considering the alternative site would be a cold-weather city.

Today, game-time temperatures may not get out of the low 20s. The Patriots are more accustomed to that than the Rams.

“We will, I think, have to adjust to it,” Ram Coach John Robinson said. “We’ve played in cold weather, played well, before. . . . You can still throw pretty good in the cold if the wind isn’t too bad.”

“It’s cold for everybody,” Patriot Coach Raymond Berry said. “The big edge is the trip, the travel. There is a fatigue factor in those long cross-country trips.”

It would be more tolerable if the Rams could pack along a victory for the return journey.

“Either way it’s a long trip,” quarterback Jim Everett said. “One might seem quicker than the other.”

The Rams already have covered more than two miles through the air. Everett’s 4,129 passing yards are a club record and lead the NFL. He also has a league-high 28 touchdown passes and is the NFL’s third-rated passer.

His big-play receivers are Henry Ellard, with 66 catches, and Flipper Anderson, the NFL leader with 27.1 yards per reception. He also can give the ball to Greg Bell, who is 73 yards short of 1,000 rushing yards and leads the league with 14 rushing touchdowns.

Although the Patriots are coming off losses of 31-10 to Miami and 28-10 to Pittsburgh, and Los Angeles has won five of its last six games, Everett expressed concern about their defense.

“The big factor I see is going against guys like (cornerback) Raymond Clayborn and their defensive squad,” he said. “They’re a good ballclub that has not had that many breaks this season.”

Clayborn and his secondary partners should be very busy against Los Angeles’ receivers.

“They all can run but they also have the moves,” Clayborn said. “Ellard is one of the three or four best wide receivers in the league.”

The cold combined with the fact that the Patriots have no playoff berth to fight for could limit the crowd to a record low for a non-strike game at Sullivan Stadium, where New England moved in 1971. The current record is 22,383.

But the Patriots do have other reasons to play hard.

“We’d like to be spoilers,” running back Mosi Tatupu said. “They have something to go for. We have nothing except for winning the game and going home.”

There’s more involved for the Rams.

“You can get to this kind of game and . . . be tense,” Robinson said. “The Patriots might be really loose and play real well. I just don’t know.”