Giants Say Rams Were on Ropes : Pro football: Despite controversial penalty in overtime, New York players blame only themselves for loss.

They ran the ball almost at will. They held the Rams to 49 yards rushing and sacked Jim Everett twice while fiercely protecting quarterback Phil Simms from similar treatment. Calm and confident in front of their home fans, the Giants were sure they could break the Ram spirit and break open their NFC divisional playoff game before the marching band was summoned to strut its stuff at halftime.

“Our offensive line played the best game they played all year. They gave Phil plenty of time to throw, and, the way we were running, you’d have to think we were going to win the game pretty handily,” Giant running back Maurice Carthon said. “The first few plays, we got some big yards and we just kept going. I think they were about to crack.”

He wasn’t the only Giant who foresaw a Ram collapse. “At one point in time, in the first half, we figured they were going to crack,” linebacker Carl Banks said. “But we let them get off the ropes and gave them another chance.”

Given one more chance than they had a right to expect from NFL’s fifth-ranked defensive team, the Rams seized the opportunity and the game. Protest as they might that they had been wronged when a pass interference call against cornerback Sheldon White gave the Rams good field position for Everett’s game-winning touchdown pass to Flipper Anderson, the Giants knew they had only themselves to blame for the 19-13 overtime loss Sunday that sent the Rams to next Sunday’s NFC title game in San Francisco.

“What it came down to is that we just didn’t put up enough points in the first half,” Carthon said. “We kept moving the ball and moving the ball, and we kept kicking field goals instead of getting the touchdowns we needed. I kept saying on the sidelines, ‘We only have six points.’ We just didn’t score the points we needed.”

The Rams did. Michael Stewart’s interception of a pass Simms had intended for Lionel Manuel lifted them off the ropes with 24 seconds left in the first half, and Everett’s 20-yard touchdown pass to Anderson gave them an improbable lead. “That was the big turning point,” defensive end Leonard Marshall said. “That gave them the momentum.”

Still, it gave them only a 7-6 edge, hardly unassailable. “We knew that play wasn’t going to deter us from playing even harder,” said cornerback Mark Collins, the former Cal State-Fullerton standout. “The mood in the locker room (at halftime) was good.”

The Giants’ mood got even better when Collins intercepted a pass from Everett toward Anderson in the end zone, reaching up and pulling the ball around Anderson to end the Rams’ threat and give the Giants a touchback. “We were in a man-to-man coverage. Everett had a hard time reading whether it was a man or a zone,” Collins said. “Flipper Anderson took a deep route. He had it for a while and I just wrestled it away from him.”

The Giants didn’t capitalize on that play, but they took a 13-6 lead on Ottis Anderson’s two-yard dive late in the third quarter. Although the Rams pulled even on two field goals, the Giants didn’t feel menaced. When Simms passed to Manuel for 24-yard gain on a third and 18 late in the third quarter, they took that an omen of success.

“Lionel hadn’t caught a pass all game and that was a big play,” wide receiver Stephen Baker said. “I thought we were going to get moving after that.”

So did Giant Coach Bill Parcells.

“I thought we could get it from there, after that,” he said. “We had our opportunities . . . I thought we did a lot of the things we needed to do to win. We ran the ball well, we pressured the quarterback. I’m pretty confident. I thought we could move the ball. This is a good team. We had trouble moving the ball against them and they had trouble moving the ball against us. The game comes down to overtime, and that’s the way it should be with two very comparable teams.”

The outcome, however, wasn’t what the Giants thought it should be. Parcells declined to comment on the interference call made by field judge Bernie Kukar, but his players were far less reticent.

“From where I was standing, I don’t think there was enough contact, if any, to warrant a call,” inside linebacker Gary Reasons said. “It hurts to have it end this way.”

“I saw it on the replay and I thought it was an uncatchable ball. Somebody made a mistake,” Collins said. “It’s a shame the referee blew the game. But I’m not blaming them (the officials). It happened. End of story.”

And end of the season for the Giants moments later, when Anderson beat Collins to snare Everett’s pass. The Giants used a bump-and-run defense on that play, the first time they had employed that strategy against the Rams’ receivers. Collins bumped and Anderson ran--all the way into the Rams’ locker room, the football clutched tightly in his hand.

“We had to do something because they were already in field goal range, so we went to an all-out blitz,” Collins said. “As soon as Everett saw it was a bump-and-run, he looked long. It wasn’t like I was beat by five yards or something like that. On a play like that, the receiver usually wins. It was a good play.

“Did I give him a good bump? Oh yeah. Being a corner, you make some big plays and give up some big plays. There’s nothing you can do about it. I’m just sorry it happened in a big game like this. Whenever there’s a good throw like that, there’s not much a defensive back can do.”

Nor was there much the Giants could do, except look forward to next season.

“It came down to an official’s call and it’s just tough to live with,” Marshall said. “The bottom line is no matter what happened, we lost the game. You can’t reverse the call now.”