Rams’ Key Positions Nearly Set in Stretch

Following the lead of the San Francisco 49ers and the Kevin Greene contract negotiations, we have also come to handicap the Rams.

A look at who’s winning, placing and showing in three key position scrambles as the Rams enter the bell lap of their 1990 exhibition schedule:

TAILBACK

3) Cleveland Gary

2) Gaston Green

1) Curt Warner

FOURTH WIDE RECEIVER

3) Tim Stallworth

2) Tony Lomack

1) Derrick Faison

PUNTER

3) Kent Elmore

2) Hank Ilesic

1) Rich Camarillo

Too bad the Rams already cut Camarillo. In 1988. Camarillo punted 40 times for the Rams that season, averaged just shy of 40 yards per kick, had no punts blocked and was dropped just as soon as Dale Hatcher returned from the disabled list.

Now Camarillo punts for the Phoenix Cardinals, who shared the Anaheim Stadium turf with the Rams Saturday night. The Cardinals lost, 27-7, but Camarillo proved a long lost point with two kicks of 50 yards and another of 44, two of them placing the football inside the Ram 10-yard line.

Compare that to the disabled state of the Rams’ present punting game. Elmore was booed before he delivered his first attempt Saturday, a premonition on the crowd’s part. Elmore delivered a squib of 34 yards and didn’t kick again. Ilesic was allowed one punt in the second half and produced a spiraling 51-yarder, 16 1/2 yards better than the 34.5 average he took into the game.

One good kick . . . and a race may have been won.

“We’re going to make a decision (Sunday) or the next day,” Coach John Robinson said of his team’s on-going punt-off. “I think it’s best to leave it at that. We’ll have specific plans about our punting early this week.”

It’s hard to like Elmore’s chances today. Or Ilesic’s, if the Rams are able to swing a deal.

The Ram tailback position, from the start, has been Warner’s to lose. With a bad back temporarily ousting Gary from contention, Warner’s lone competition this summer has been the heretofore non-competitive Gaston Green.

This was supposed to be a lock but halfway through the preseason, Green was averaging 5.3 yards a carry to Warner’s 2.3, looking swifter by the step and very much the on-the-field front-runner. Before Saturday, Warner’s best assets had been loads of impressive Seattle game film and the ever-lasting support of his head coach, an important asset to have.

Saturday, there was a lot of wheel-spinning in the Ram offensive backfield. Green ran nine times, Warner eight. Green gained 21 yards, Warner 24. This was primarily a night for passing--Ram quarterbacks Jim Everett and Chuck Long combined to throw for 348 yards--but it was also the first night that Warner displayed a flash or two.

In the second quarter, Warner took a pitch from Everett, accelerated left and got outside, clearing the end for a six-yard sprint into the end zone. It would have been Warner’s first score of the summer but fullback Robert Delpino was flagged for holding and the Rams were pushed back 10 yards, eventually settling for a field goal by Mike Lansford.

Warner ran two more times, for gains of seven and six yards, before retiring to the sidelines with the Rams milking a 20-point lead. Green carried the ball three times in the second half, netted five yards and generally left the appearance of having returned to earth.

The bid for fourth wide receiver, at first glance, doesn’t seem particularly significant. But at second glance, the Rams’ first three wide receivers--Henry Ellard, Flipper Anderson and Aaron Cox--are injured and unavailable for duty, leaving three rookies named Faison, Lomack and Stallworth to compete for some potentially serious playing time.

By night’s end, Lomack and Stallworth were also banged up, leaving Robinson with one more reason to sidle up to Faison, the gangly raw talent who goes by the handle Big Bird around Rams Park.

Faison caught two touchdown passes and Lomack grabbed one, but by the time he concluded his 80-yard dash through the Phoenix secondary, Lomack was also grabbing his right hamstring. Stallworth wound up with one 27-yard reception and one badly bruised right big toe.

“Obviously,” Robinson said with a gleam in his eye, “Faison is capable of big plays. He’s got some stuff.