Rams Hold Their Breath on Kelm’s Return : NFL: Linebacker will be activated this week if his injured knee continues to hold up in practice.

Larry Kelm isn’t Superman, and his five-game absence absolutely isn’t the sole reason the Rams’ defense has played like Lois Lane this year.

But Sunday against the Atlanta Falcons, Kelm should be back from the sprained knee that has sidelined him since the season began, and that is a major boost for a defense wobbling dangerously toward a total collapse.

Nowadays, any experienced, healthy body on defense is a Ram super hero.

Kelm, who resumed practicing last week, is expected to be activated off the injured-reserve list in the next few days and probably will start at inside linebacker Sunday.

The Rams have opened up a roster spot by placing Fred Strickland on injured reserve and are just waiting to make sure Kelm doesn’t aggravate the knee problem in practice before officially activating him, Coach John Robinson said.

“I’ve been practicing on it now, and it’s still noticeable, but I don’t think it’s something that’s holding me back,” Kelm said after practice Wednesday. “I really don’t feel pain.

“Basically, I’m way over the hump and just breaking the rust off.”

Said defensive coordinator Fritz Shurmur: “From what I saw today, he looks like he’s OK and ready to go. That’s today. Now tomorrow, we’ll see. Maybe it blows up (swells) . . . that’s been the problem with Larry. So he looked OK, but this is only one day.”

Kelm’s imminent return comes at a particularly critical moment for the 1-4 Rams, because Strickland was lost for the season last Sunday night with a broken leg. Strickland and Kelm were the projected starters on the inside until Kelm was hurt in the last exhibition game, forcing Frank Stams into the lineup.

Now, with Kelm ready to go back in, Strickland is gone.

“Obviously, we needed another guy,” Shurmur said. “Another guy who’s been through it.”

Robinson emphasizes that the defense’s problems permeate far beyond Kelm’s early absence, and after watching from the sideline as opposing offenses have whizzed through his colleagues, Kelm agrees.

“It’s amazing that we’re this far down,” Kelm said. “We’re just going to have to find some way to turn it around. I don’t know what the answer is; just pick it up some way or another.

“I think a lot of the things that have been happening aren’t something I could really do much about.”

But now, with Strickland out, no matter how strongly Kelm comes back, the Rams will play the whole season without seeing their starting inside linebackers in the lineup together. That apparently is beginning to frustrate the staff a bit.

Strickland and Kelm have missed portions of seasons in previous years with other injuries.

“You almost hold your breath with those two guys,” Shurmur said. “We’ve barely ever had them both (playing) at the same time. One always seems to be on the shelf. It’s just hard to figure.”

Said Kelm: “I just think it’s the inside linebacker position, period. You go back to Jimmy Collins, you look at Mark Jerue (both former Ram inside linebackers), you look across the league, and you see inside linebackers going down. It just comes with the position. I just think that you’ve got so many things happening on both sides of you.”

After Sunday night’s debacle in Chicago, the Rams were looking for a harder edge to their practice sessions this week, and Wednesday, at least, they got it.

Safeties crashed into receivers on pass plays, linemen surged hard into each other, and deep grunts sounded across the field. Robinson said the team’s cautious practice approach to avoid injuries earlier this season perhaps has made it play cautiously in games.

“They turned it up a notch today,” Shurmur said. “I think today we looked it, for the first time in a long time.”

Falcon quarterback Chris Miller, who left the field in last week’s loss to the San Francisco 49ers with an injured knee, was listed as questionable for Sunday.

“We expect him to play, and that’s no guarantee that he will,” Coach Jerry Glanville said Wednesday. “He walked better today--yesterday, he couldn’t walk real good.

“Today, I could probably catch him, and I run very slowly. I jog every day, and I’ve never passed anything that was moving. The only thing I’ve passed is either rusted out or growing in the ground, so he’s got to get better than what he is today. But we’re going to try to crank it up.”

Glanville said that before Miller gets the green light to start Sunday, he will have to show the coaching staff that he can move around in the pocket enough to avoid hits.

Miller, the fifth-rated quarterback in the NFC (right behind the Rams’ Jim Everett) is the key to the Falcons’ new pass-oriented offense. If he cannot play, backup Scott Campbell will.

Also listed as questionable on the Falcon injury report is receiver Michael Haynes.

For the Rams, the only injury listed is reserve tackle Robert Cox, who is out with a twisted knee.

Ram Notes

The trade deadline came and went Tuesday without any Ram maneuverings, and Wednesday, Coach John Robinson said there just wasn’t anything on the market that the team wanted. “We had some discussions but nothing that would hit us as an immediate improvement,” Robinson said. . . . Robinson confirmed that at least one team--reportedly New England--had asked the Rams what it would take to acquire rookie safety Pat Terrell and added that the Rams asked for a No. 1 pick in return. . . . The Rams waived tight end Richard Ashe off the injured-reserve list. If he clears waivers, the Rams will re-sign him to their practice squad. . . . As of Wednesday afternoon, 9,500 tickets remained unsold for Sunday’s game. If the game is not a sellout by 1 p.m. today, it will be blacked out locally.