Rams Are Where They Belong : Analysis: Ellard is right when he says his team is the only one with a shot at derailing 49ers.

From Philadelphia to New Jersey to San Francisco, the temptation is to look at the Rams’ presence in the NFC championship game as some kind of cosmic comeuppance.

Heaven knows this franchise was due for a break or two.

Joe Kapp, ’69.

Roger Staubach, ’73.

Tom Mack’s offside penalty in ’74.

Roger Staubach, ’75.

Tom Dempsey’s blocked field goal in ’76.

Roger Staubach, ’78.

Terry Bradshaw to John Stallworth in Super Bowl XIV.

Dieter Brock, ’85.

After 20 years of playoff atrocities, this, then, has become the Rams’ postseason of atonement--a chance to balance the books, even the ledger, right some wrongs and throw a few bones Anaheim’s way, right?

Now try an answer from Column B.

The real reason the Rams are in San Francisco this Sunday has nothing to do with anything more mystical than a wealth of offensive talent, a little defensive ingenuity and two early round matchups against inferior competition.

The Rams are in San Francisco because they should be.

Henry Ellard has the right idea when he says the Rams are the only team out there with a shot at hijacking the 49ers’ Super Bowl trophy shipment. In the regular season, the 49ers lost two games--one to the Rams, the other to a Green Bay team that didn’t qualify for the tournament. And if not for a Jim Everett fumble here or a Ron Brown fumble there on Dec. 11, the Rams would be sitting 2-0 against San Francisco in 1989.

“We have the weapons,” Ellard says. And on offense they do--a 4,000-yard passer in Everett, a 1,000-yard rusher in Greg Bell, two 1,000-yard receivers in Ellard and Flipper Anderson. That type of offensive balance is unprecedented in Ram history and it produced the second-highest point total in the league this season--426 points in 16 games, 16 points behind the 49ers.

The Ram offense throws so many options at a defense, there aren’t many responses left.

Try blitzing Everett, as Philadelphia did in the wild-card round, and the Rams counter with quick passes in the flats and draw plays to Bell.

Try stuffing the run, as New York sought to do Sunday, and there are the deep strikes to Anderson and Ellard.

Double up on Anderson and Ellard, and Everett can slice away at the underbelly with short slants to fullback Buford McGee and tight ends Pete Holohan and Damone Johnson.

Sunday, you got the distinct feeling that the Rams, with a longer attention span, could have spent the entire afternoon throwing underneath the Giants’ zone and completing seven-yard passes all day long. As it was, they wound up playing to a 13-13 regulation tie mainly because of a fumble at the New York six-yard line and an interception by Mark Collins at the Giant goal line.

In both playoff games, against the Eagles and the Giants, the Ram offense netted more than 400 yards.

That’s the norm for this team. The real news with the Rams of late has been the defense, so depleted by injuries that Coach John Robinson has taken to counting heads after every game. Hey, brother, can you spare a nickel defense? During the regular season, this strapped unit placed 21st in team defense--28th against the pass--but in eight-plus quarters during the playoffs, the Rams have yielded just 20 points and two touchdowns--none through the air.

Credit the turnabout to the schemings of defensive coordinator Fritz Shurmur . . . and the scheduling of Philadelphia and New York.

In the Eagles and the Giants, the Rams drew alternately one-dimensional offenses. Philadelphia had Randall Cunningham and no running game. New York had Ottis Anderson and no passing game. Clamp down on the quarterback one week, the running back the next and, suddenly, you’re playing for the Super Bowl.

Shurmur has already become something of a new American folk hero for his no-down-linemen strategy against the Eagles, the good old 0-5-6. Because of Cunningham’s threat as a scrambler and the Rams’ lack of able-bodied linemen to chase him down, Shurmur pulled his linemen on obvious passing downs and rushed five smaller, more mobile linebackers instead.

It was a one-game wonder. The emergency quintet of Kevin Greene, Fred Strickland, George Bethune, Brett Faryniarz and Mike Wilcher kept Cunningham pinned in and forced him to throw into the Rams’ six-man zone. Results: One Philadelphia touchdown in 60 minutes and a probable Phoenix Cardinals head-coaching offer for Shurmur.

Against New York, the Rams could deploy more conventional tactics--at least until the defensive backs began dropping. With Giant quarterback Phil Simms a walking injured-reserve list (bad ankle, bad thumb, recuperating from a torn chest muscle), New York’s game plan was reduced to Ottis Anderson. That’s Ottis with two T’s--and 24 plunges through the line.

Even as the active members of the Ram secondary dwindled--first Vince Newsome went down, then Darryl Henley--the Giants were incapable of capitalizing. With such Ram extras as Alfred Jackson and James Washington logging serious playing time in the defensive backfield, Simms still could connect on only 14 of 29 throws for 180 yards, producing but two first downs in the fourth quarter.

For some reason, a lot of people are calling the Rams’ two playoff victories upsets.

Because they had to play both games on the opposite coast?

Because they have played the last two seasons obscured by the Montana monolith?

Because they’re the Rams?

Truth is, the two best teams in professional football will be on the Candlestick Park field Sunday afternoon. If Minnesota has more talent than the Rams, it has no clue how to harness it. The Eagles have a quarterback and a front four. The Giants are an 8-8 team in disguise. And in the AFC? Do they still play football over there?

Divine providence didn’t get the Rams this far. A little luck, sure, but also a lot of advance planning and Everett-to-Ellard.

Besides, trading in 20 years of bad breaks for two victories in eight days is no kind of deal at all.