Rams Get Well Quickly With Buccaneers’ Help : Pro football: Everett’s four touchdown passes, Humphery’s interception return are keys in 35-14 victory over Tampa Bay.

Once again, we are given loud and clear proof that there is nothing so wrong with a team that a quick dose of baffling Buccaneer football cannot cure.

Timing is everything. Play Tampa Bay at the right time in the season, and, no matter your current state of affairs, things turn out OK. Everything clicks. The passing game cannot be halted. The defense stands firm.

And, in this case, with the help of Jim Everett’s four touchdown passes, the score turns out 35-14 in favor of the Rams, and it could have been more.

All becomes well again.

“It’s a win that I don’t know if we had to have, but it sure is good having it,” Coach John Robinson said, suggesting that an 0-2 start would have been risky business. “I think we got back to being the kind of football team that I think we are.

“We’ve gone through a very tough period. It’s the toughest I’ve ever been through as a coach in terms of injury and missing players and all. And it’s just great to get a sense of going back in the right direction.”

Play the Buccaneers when they’re determined to throw the game away, and those worries accumulated during and since last week’s loss to Green Bay can vanish as quickly as Ram cornerback Bobby Humphery can pick off a pass from Vinny Testaverde and run 44 yards into the end zone.

And that, it was proved Sunday, takes about eight seconds. Eight excruciating Tampa seconds that Buccaneer Coach Ray Perkins and Testaverde may never live down. Eight seconds that might have re-made the Ram season, now 1-1.

Eight seconds that gave the Rams a 28-7 lead going into halftime instead of 21-7.

Stationed at the Ram 34 with those eight seconds left in the second quarter, blessed with a modicum of momentum after scoring a touchdown and then blocking a Ram field goal, Testaverde and crew found themselves in a pure “Hail Mary” setup.

Heave it deep, hope for luck, then get out down only 14 and start thinking about the third quarter, right? Wrong.

For reasons not logically explainable, Testaverde instead took one step back, reared back and tossed a looping sideline pass to receiver Mark Carrier only about 10 yards downfield. Call it an alley oops .

Perkins said he wanted to set up a quick field-goal attempt--which, given the short pass, could have been no closer than 63 yards. That is the NFL record by Tom Dempsey, and Tampa kicker Steve Christie has given no evidence of long-range (or, for that matter, short-range) potential.

Later, Humphery, who earlier had been beaten on a 48-yard touchdown pass to Bruce Hill, and the rest of the Ram team could only smile. Humphery probably smiled from the moment Testaverde chose to lob it up.

“I was just looking at him. I saw him throw it to the flat, and I got a good break on it and caught the ball,” Humphery said.

“I was just going to run. I wasn’t going to let anybody catch me. I saw the lane and just took off. I knew I had to make it to the end zone because it was the last play of the half. And I knew if I did make it, it’d give us a big lift going in.”

He did make it, of course, edging past Testaverde near the goal line. And suddenly, the Rams were walking off the field with a 21-point halftime lead against a team without the firepower to challenge.

Was that play the straw that broke the Buccaneers’ back?

“We were ahead of Green Bay 38-7 (at the half last year), and there were straws laying all over the field and they almost beat us,” Robinson said. “So it’s hard for me to think in terms of that.”

It was all over but the crowd’s shouting for Testaverde’s backup, Chris Chandler. By the end of the third quarter, the fans got him.

After that one play, the rest of the game was one big Ram sigh of relief and one long torture for Testaverde.

“It was huge,” Everett said of the Humphery touchdown. “Huge. Right at the half, they had just scored. We didn’t move the ball right before it, and then that just happens. Huge.”

“That was incredible,” said linebacker Mike Wilcher. “Man, that was something. It gave us a huge boost going in at halftime, and in the locker room at halftime, it was just pure excitement. We knew we were back.”

For this game, at least. They were back throwing the ball precisely, back confusing the opponent offenses with shifty zone defenses, back looking like, maybe, a team that can make it back here for Super Bowl XXV.

And if sighs of relief are audible, then that is what was you heard in the Rams’ locker room after the recovery was completed for the day.

“We were embarrassed over what happened last week,” said Everett, who completed 18 of 25 passes for 269 yards and had no interceptions. “Not that Green Bay’s not a good team, but we were flat out embarrassed by losing that game.

“So really, it’s just too bad in a way that Tampa Bay had to be out there because we knew we were going to click. And we did.”

Click they did from the outset, driving for touchdowns--both on short Everett passes--on their first two possessions.

The Bucs, deciding to try to take Flipper Anderson and Henry Ellard from the offense and double-cover the deep outside routes, basically conceded short passes to his backs and tight ends. And Everett took them for 11 of his 18 successful passes. Two of Everett’s touchdown passes were to running back Robert Delpino, one to fullback Buford McGee and one to Ellard breaking loose from double-coverage.

“Jim was really on,” Delpino said. “All we had to do was catch the ball. It was right there all day.”

And afterwards, nobody said anything about being out of sync.

The Rams marched the entire half behind Everett’s 14-of-19 passing. The Rams did not punt until 8:45 remained in the third quarter.

“Our offense got off good. I think we moved the football the way we wanted to,” Robinson said. “I thought we ran the ball at them. We didn’t get anything to pop, but we ran the ball effectively enough that that allowed our passing to be successful.”

The Ram backs, led by Curt Warner’s 49 yards on 16 carries, gained 136 yards on 35 rushes, enough to keep the Bucs at bay and Everett free from pass rush nuisances.

And when that happens, the Rams usually do a pretty good job of looking like a Super Bowl contender. When it doesn’t, they look like they looked against Green Bay. This year’s Super Bowl will be played in Tampa. And yes, at least one Ram was struck by the feeling that Tampa is one place the Rams should begin to look Super Bowl-ready.

“When I came out on the field today, I looked around and I thought about it would like to be here in January,” Everett said. “This is where it’s at. But I brought myself back to earth pretty quick, realizing we had a task at hand. But I’d love to be back here.”

Ram Notes

The Rams suffered more injuries Sunday. The first and probably most critical is the Achilles’ tendon problem suffered by kicker Mike Lansford after the opening kickoff. He kicked off only once more after that but missed two field-goal attempts.

“I thought he severed his Achilles’, but he’s just got a bruise or something on it,” John Robinson said. Then the joke: “His (field-goal) range went down from 11 yards to four.” . . . The only other Ram mentioned in the postgame injury list was tight end Pete Holohan, who suffered a deep bruise on his right thigh. . . . Both right tackle Jackie Slater (dislocated big toe) and outside linebacker Mike Wilcher (sprained knee) were listed as questionable going into the game but both started and played the whole game. . . . The Rams’ were offensive lineman Joe Milinichik and tight end Richard Ashe were deactivated.