On Left Side, Greene Moving in Right Direction : Rams: He still doesn’t have as many sacks as he would like, but he is making an impact again.

Kevin Greene, we know now, can tell both right from left and right from wrong.

He can also tell the difference between having a full training camp to prepare for the season ahead and charging into the year without it.

He has learned this through the first eight weeks of the Rams’ season, but the realization has come with some struggle.

Greene accumulated an NFL-leading 33 sacks over the previous two seasons, when he attended the training camps--and was asked to rush only from the left side of the defensive alignment.

He liked the setup and thrived. Then it all changed, and so did his production.

Locked in a long contract dispute, Greene missed virtually all of training camp last summer, signing and reporting only eight days before the opening game.

When he did arrive, Greene had to adapt to his new role in the Rams’ new defense as a down lineman who switched sides of the line according to how the opposing team’s offense set up. In the new scheme, Greene found himself rushing from the right side more often than not.

And soon enough, the still-rusty Greene discovered that, for him, right was wrong.

In the four games the new system lasted, before the Rams gave up on it, Greene had only two sacks and a total of 12 tackles. He simmered with frustration.

“When I don’t get a sack or two a game, I know I’m not doing my job,” Greene said. “They’re paying me well to play on this team. When I don’t get the sack, I don’t feel I’m doing the job. I feel the pressure and I’ll take the pressure.”

In the four games since he was moved back to his familiar left linebacker position, Greene hasn’t had a huge statistical improvement--two sacks and 14 tackles--but he has been a much more effective and consistent presence in opponents’ backfields.

“Obviously, he’s one of the guys we need to have playing at a high level because he is a dominant player,” defensive coordinator Fritz Shurmur said. “If he’s playing at a high level, I think our team responds accordingly.

“I think he’s 100%, I don’t think there’s any question about that. I think he’s been through a period earlier in the year when he was coming off a situation where he had no training camp and obviously he had to get back into football-playing condition on the run. And that’s not easy.”

Last Sunday in the Rams’ 17-13 victory over the pass-oriented Houston Oilers, Greene sacked Warren Moon, forcing a fumble on the play, and consistently challenged Moon’s ability to stay upright.

But Greene said he still has a distance to go before he regains his 16 1/2-sacks-a-season form.

“I still don’t feel like I’m back,” Greene said. “This is coming up on the (ninth) game of the season; the season’s half over now, we’re 3-5, I still don’t feel like I’m back to the way I was the last couple years.

“But I feel like my movement, my flexibility, my mobility is definitely coming back. It’s just reps, the repetitions that I missed during training camp.”

Coach John Robinson said that although Greene’s statistics are down, the Rams are certain he can return to the elite level of NFL pass-rushers--a process they hope will continue this Sunday against Phil Simms and the New York Giants at Anaheim Stadium.

“You have a tendency to look in terms of sacks, and the sacks are down this year,” Robinson said. “But I thought he played a good game Sunday, and I feel like he’s coming back. I don’t think he got off to a fast start.”

When the Rams made the decision to move Greene and defensive lineman Doug Reed around on the line, they knew it could take time for the two to adjust. And when both Greene and Reed had contract problems, crucial time to pick up the system was lost forever.

After the four-game defensive disaster this season, it became clear that with young defensive linemen Brian Smith and Bill Hawkins failing to rise to the occasion and without Greene feeling comfortable, the defense all too often was a sieve.

“I was hoping to come in and just get right after it,” Greene said. “But I wasn’t able to adjust to it real well. I just couldn’t adjust rushing from the right side. I couldn’t adjust to it. They put me back in my position, and I’m feeling better about it.”

Robinson said the Rams might try to move Greene around next season--when they can give him a full training camp to take it all in.

“I don’t think it was his uncomfortableness with it, it was his lack of time in it,” Robinson said. “I think they’re two different things.”