Pankey Game Plan: Stop Taylor : Playoffs: If the Rams’ offensive tackle does his job well, he won’t get much television time, but he will be pivotal as L.A. takes on the Giants.

Irv Pankey has the kind of dirty but thankless job that generally goes unnoticed.

He wants to keep it that way Sunday.

Pankey, the Rams’ offensive left tackle, knows he will hardly be mentioned if he does a good job in the playoff game against the Giants.

But if he lets New York linebacker Lawrence Taylor get a couple of sacks, Pankey figures to be prominently featured on national television.

“That’s the way it always works at offensive tackle. You let him get a sack and John Madden will be drawing a diagram and they’ll run it back in slow motion,” said Pankey, the man primarily charged with the responsible for keeping Taylor out of Ram quarterback Jim Everett’s face.

The Pankey-Taylor match-up is considered one of the keys in the NFC semifinal playoff game, based on the fact that the usually dominant linebacker wasn’t much of a factor in the last two meetings between the teams.

The Rams beat the Giants 45-31 in September, 1988, at the Meadowlands, then handed them a 31-10 loss last November at Anaheim.

New York’s defense had a total of two sacks in those games, and, in the recent meeting, Pankey helped limit Taylor to just two tackles and no sacks.

However, Pankey, a 6-foot-5, 280-pounder in his 10th NFL season, knows he’ll have a battle on his hands in the rematch.

“You can’t look back at the past because every game is different, even if you’re playing the same guy,” he said.

“I’m sure he (Taylor) will be ready to play. They’re going to be on their home turf, and they’re going to be well-rested.”

Pankey said he will try to take Taylor “out of his rhythm” but added that he’s making no special preparations to play against him.

“You can’t prepare for any particular player; you might not prepare well for a guy that doesn’t have the name of Lawrence Taylor, and that guy might push you around,” Pankey said.

“I prepare myself for every game like I’m going against Lawrence Taylor.

“I think more about what I’m doing; if I can take care of what I’m supposed to, everything will work out.”

Although the Rams and Giants both have been diplomatic to a fault as their playoff contest approaches, with no war of words before this game, Pankey did take issue with one quote attributed to Taylor.

Told that Taylor has said that he, Taylor, has slowed a step, Pankey at first said, “Well, he’s been in the league for nine years and he’s been in on an awful lot of tackles. . . . Heck, I’m slower than I was.”

But Pankey then added, “I don’t think he’s a step slower; maybe the younger guys coming in now are just a little bit faster.”