He Keeps Passes Simple--Over and Over : Bengals: Esiason leaves the hoopla aside, completes 30 of 44 against the Rams for 471 yards.

The Rams couldn’t make it to .500 Sunday, thanks to Cincinnati quarterback Boomer Esiason--who almost did make it to 500. Esiason completed the short passes, the long passes and the in-between passes to the tune of a club-record 471 yards and, as a result, the Rams fell to 1-3.

The Bengal left-hander put on a clinic on the take-what-they’re-giving approach to offensive football during the 34-31 overtime victory over the Rams at Anaheim Stadium.

Cincinnati’s top big-play receiver, Eddie Brown, was out with a knee injury, so Esiason sprayed the ball around a little. A tight end--Rodney Holman--had 161 receiving yards. A wideout--Tim McGee--had 142. And a running back--James Brooks--had 109 yards and two touchdowns.

Esiason completed 30 of 44 passes (and at least three easily catchable balls were dropped) for three touchdowns. Not a bad afternoon for a man who spent the week fretting over all the distractions surrounding Bengal Coach Sam Wyche’s much-ballyhooed stand on female reporters in the locker room.

The media hoopla may have been a real distraction, but it was clear from the outset that the Rams’ soft zone defense wasn’t going to be. Esiason completed 10 of his first 13 passes for 201 yards, and the Bengals had a 21-0 lead midway through the second quarter.

“It was hard to concentrate with this circus atmosphere all week,” Esiason said. “I mean we were running plays in practice and all the guys were talking about was how many reporters would be in the locker room and how many of them would be women.

“But it really might of made things easier because we went with a simple game plan. We stuck with the basics.”

Basically, the Bengals negated the little pass rush the Rams could muster and then found the holes in their zone. To hear Esiason tell it, he merely hung around in the pocket until somebody came open and then tossed them the ball.

“The Rams like to keep things in front of them, and all week long the coaches were telling me that you have to stay patient and take the short stuff when it’s there,” Esiason said. “And that’s all I did.”

Wyche was a bit more excited about his quarterback’s performance, though. “He made some of the greatest plays today,” Wyche said, shaking his head in awe. “But I don’t want to single anyone out because it was a great team effort.”

Of course, neither Wyche nor Esiason wanted to talk much about a botched option play late in the third quarter. Esiason rolled left and pitched out to James Brooks, who took his eye off the ball to look up at Ram linebacker Mike Wilcher. Wilcher fell on the loose ball at the Bengal 28 and seven plays later, the Rams scored to tie the game, 28-28.

“I haven’t run the veer since high school and I’m not that good at it,” Esiason said. “Anyway, why would you bring up something negative like that after a game like this?”

Actually, it was Wyche who brought up the subject again and the game was still in doubt when he did. The Bengals were facing a third-and-11 situation at the Ram 26-yard line when Wyche called for that same option play.

Esiason groaned so loud you could almost hear him over the roar of the crowd. “I didn’t want to run that again,” he said.

This time, however, he had no intention of letting loose of the ball. He sprinted a couple of steps and then fell down at the line of scrimmage. Moments later, Jim Breech kicked a 44-yard field goal and the Bengals were 4-1 on the season.

“That last call was my call, and it’s what we call a stupid call,” Wyche said. “After the play, Boomer wanted to know why we didn’t run this other play. It immediately registered that, dad-gum it, he had the perfect call.

“So I grabbed him as we came off the field, and I said, ‘You and me, baby, we’ve been together awhile, and we’re going to work together from now on. If I make a call and you don’t like it, you signal back what you want, and we’ll make the best decision.’ ”

Sunday, Wyche made the right calls often enough. And Esiason made all the right moves.