Rams Are Thankful For the Memories

Midway through the plot of a real turkey-- Reversal of Fortune: The Rams in 1990 --John Robinson punched the eject button and dug out an old favorite to pop into the VCR.

Robinson loved the cast: Jim Everett, Flipper Anderson, Mark Collins.

Loved the story line, too: Bomb down the right sideline.

And, best of all, there was the outcome: Touchdown, Anderson. Victory; Rams. That’s the way it was in January on a chilled afternoon at the Meadowlands with a berth in the NFC championship game on the line. And that’s the way the Rams had it set up Sunday at Anaheim Stadium, with the Rams trailing the New York Giants by 10 points with seven minutes left in the third quarter.

It was Everett, again, to Anderson, again, who had a step on Giant cornerback Collins again. The ball was there.

Anderson was there.

Where did the touchdown go?

If you want to know the difference between the near-miss Rams of 1989 and the nearly defunct Rams of 1990, you can sift through libraries of game film--or you can check out this 10-second sound bite.

The pass Flipper grips in New Jersey slips through his hands in Anaheim. The football hits the turf and soon after, so do the Rams, emotionally pummeled, never to recover.

A potential 17-14 thriller returns to 17-7, which eventually becomes 24-7 and, finally, 31-7.

Soon after, the Giants and Rams go their separate ways--the Giants plodding onward to an apparent Dec. 3 battle royal in San Francisco, the Rams retrenching for next week’s tossup against Dallas.

And there, alone in front of his locker stall, was Flipper, wondering where the rewind went wrong.

“It was the same situation,” he said. “The same coverage. The same sideline. Everything.”

Except the outcome.

“I just dropped it,” he told wave after wave of reporters. “That’s my forte--catching the deep ball. If I make that catch, it’s 17-14 and a whole different ballgame.

“I just dropped it.”

And what are the odds on that?

“Willie Anderson catches that pass 19 out of 20 times,” said Robinson.

“Ninety-nine percent of the time, Flipper makes that play,” Everett said. Collins, still nursing January’s scorch marks, couldn’t believe his good fortune. At least in the playoff game, Collins had an excuse: He was running, unknowingly, on a broken foot. This time, there was nothing to blame. It was all in Anderson’s hands.

Collins couldn’t believe the Rams’ misfortune.

“I’m kind of surprised--they’re not the same team they were last year,” Collins said. “They’ve got mostly the same people but they’re sure not playing the same.”

Giant linebacker Lawrence Taylor concurred, though not with much sympathy.

“Got to learn how to catch,” Taylor said, looking down his nose.

Got to learn how to score, too. This never used to be a problem with the Rams. Watching the Rams give up 31 points in a game is like watching the evening news. Turn on the TV and there it is.

But one offensive touchdown this week after two offensive touchdowns last week after no offensive touchdowns the week before that?

A closer look, by the numbers:

--Pittsburgh 41, Rams 10. Gaston Green’s game-opening kickoff return accounts for the Rams’ only touchdown.

--Rams 17, Houston 13. The Rams score no points in the second half.

--New York 31, Rams 7. The Rams score their only points after Kevin Greene recovers Phil Simms’ fumble on the Giant 11-yard line.

Subtract that fumble and the Rams, with Everett and Flipper and Henry Ellard and that Pro Bowl offensive line, own a scoreless streak of six consecutive quarters.

“Our offense is in a slump,” Robinson said. “What it’s not doing is making the scoring-type play. We moved the football for the first three quarters about as well as you can against that team. We just aren’t putting it in the end zone.

“If Willie Anderson catches that pass, that’s a touchdown. If we hold onto a couple more passes, maybe we get into the end zone again.

“But in the end, we’re missing on those plays. When that kind of thing keeps happening, yeah, you have to say we’re in a slump.”

No doubt, the defenses of Pittsburgh, Houston and New York have been accomplices. All rank among the top half-dozen in the league. Before Sunday, the Giants were second overall--third against the run and first against the pass.

But to the members of the Ram offense, still proud if no longer loud, that fact only deepens the latest wound.

“We know what we should be able to do against a good defense,” Anderson said. “You’d think we could score on anybody with our offense. We’ve stopped doing that.”

Added Everett: “That’s what concerns me most about this. We’re not as effective as we used to be, as we should be, against very good defenses.”

At the very least, the Rams have come to expect their man holding onto the football when he is open beyond the secondary of a very good defense.

Then again, maybe this is all pay-back for those mile of miracles the Rams sprung again and again in 1989. The comeback against the Cowboys. The comeback against the Saints. The comeback against the Giants. They didn’t come for free. Maybe now, the bill has arrived in the mail.

If so, the Rams are paying through the nose.

Through the hands, too.