Young Falcons Seem to Have What It Takes : Rams: They threw for 389 yards against 49ers--and slumping L.A. ranks 27th in pass defense.

Forget defense, forget that boring little antique people used to call a running attack. When the Rams play the Atlanta Falcons today at Anaheim Stadium, forget it all.

Establishing the running game? Balancing the offense? Winning with defense? Wrong era, wrong division.

These are the Big Play ‘90s, and there’s a new slogan for the times: Throw West, young men.

The NFC West is a gunfighter’s division these days, with the quickest, slickest pistol being a guy named Montana and everyone else lining up their best shooter to try and knock him off.

The Rams, coming into this season, had the hot gun in town, Jim Everett, and what everybody assumed was the best chance at beating Joe Montana and the San Francisco 49ers to the draw. Now, after the Rams’ stumbling 1-4 start, the Falcons and Chris Miller, their young quarterback, are the division’s newest passing fancy.

Miller left last Sunday’s 45-35 loss to the 49ers because of a twisted knee, but has practiced this week and is expected to play today.

Because of a scheduling quirk, this is the Rams’ first divisional game, while the Falcons (2-3) have already played three. It’s also a game that could end the Rams’ playoff hopes and elevate the young, hungry Atlanta team as the division’s next, best hope.

“We’ve handled them pretty well the last couple of years (five consecutive Ram victories), so I’m looking forward to them trying to intimidate us,” Ram receiver Flipper Anderson said. “They know we’re down and they’re going to try to knock us out.”

If that happens, the Falcons will do it with Miller going to their stable of fleet receivers--led by Andre Rison, the league’s leading pass catcher with 38--and a gambling defense that dares opponents to throw.

Last week, Montana caught the Falcons in blitzes time and again, throwing for 476 yards and six touchdowns, five to receiver Jerry Rice.

But the Falcons had 389 passing yards against San Francisco--for a combined total of 865--and today will face a defense that has been devoured by quarterbacks all season.

All four regular Falcon wideouts--Rison, Shawn Collins, Floyd Dixon and Michael Haynes--can get open all over the field, which has not been a rare feat against the Rams this season.

“The problem in the NFC West is that everybody’s got good quarterbacks and good receivers,” said Falcon Coach Jerry Glanville, a man who savors his outlaw image and who has crafted Atlanta’s new four-wideout look.

“All these games are throwing games, unfortunately. I think the NFC West has become so good because the quarterbacks have developed, the Rams guy and the guy here, and they have good receivers, and now the Saints will be probably coming along with their new quarterback (Steve Walsh).”

The Rams have the fourth-ranked pass offense in the league; the Falcons are No. 3. The Rams are 27th in pass defense; the Falcons are last. The Rams have given up more points than anyone else in the conference, an average of 29.8, and the Falcons have scored the most in the league, an average of 27.4.

Mirror images of the same wild brand of football.

“They sound like us,” Ram Coach John Robinson said. “They’re moving the ball and scoring, but the other guy’s scoring, too. They’re not too different from us, I guess.”

Said Anderson: “They’ve got some quality receivers, so we expect them to throw a lot. But we throw the ball good, too. Yeah, this is going to be a good game for the receivers.”

While the Rams try to establish a running attack, the Falcons usually line up in that “Red Gun” four-wide receiver set from the outset. On defense, they send nearly everyone at the quarterback.

“It is certainly a lot like fastbreak basketball,” Robinson said. “It’s got that element to it.

“I think they’re playing the game out on the edge, which makes them exciting. They might be in that (four-wideout look) 50 times a game. So a lot of yards add up--it’s kind of out of whack. They take the game out of its normal perspective.”

For the Ram offense, that means recognizing Glanville’s nature is to blitz and keep on blitzing, as the Falcons did against the 49ers last week. He said his defenders still haven’t fully grasped the system, adding that he is not about to revamp it now.

“I don’t think you stop and change your package,” Glanville said. “I think you set your jaw and say, ‘This is what we’ve got to learn, this is what we’ve got to do.’ ”

Against that kind of attacking defense, running the ball consistently is difficult, and it is almost impossible to resist the pass openings that are created on nearly every down, Everett said.

“I think we’re very well prepared for what Jerry Glanville and the Falcons bring to us,” Everett said. “There’s no doubt that they will blitz, and it’s just a matter of us making big plays.

“There’s no doubt that we want to try to establish the running game, but there’s going to be a point where you can anticipate the blitzes, you know they’re coming, and we’re prepared for them.

“They will be throwing the ball, and they’ll put us in the position for us to take advantage of throwing the ball.”

Ram Notes

The Rams are seeking to avoid a four-game losing streak for a fourth consecutive season. “One of my buddies was telling me that two years ago we lost four in November; last year we lost four in October,” quarterback Jim Everett said. “He says, ‘You guys have been real bad at the start of the season this year, so you’re going to the Super Bowl,’ because we keep doing better in the playoffs. Well, it’s a theory.”

Last year, the Rams swept the Marion Campbell-coached Falcons, 31-21 and 26-14.