Rams Won’t Rush In Dupree : Pro football: Robinson says it would be a mistake to use the running back too much too soon.

The surge back to respectability hasn’t arrived yet, but Marcus Dupree has, and Ram Coach John Robinson is trying to figure out how to handle both these developments.

So it goes for a 3-6 team that still believes it should be hobnobbing with the other elite teams and isn’t ready to chuck the season and latch onto the Dupree Comeback Dream.

Robinson, after playing Dupree for the first time at the end of Sunday’s 31-7 loss to the New York Giants, is resisting any calls to see much more of Dupree, saying that the 26-year-old running back just isn’t ready for intense action so soon after ending a five-year layoff.

But Robinson also acknowledges that the time for a real Ram renaissance came and went some time ago. With a remaining schedule that includes two games against both the 9-0 San Francisco 49ers and the improving New Orleans Saints, does the still-muddled NFC wild-card picture mean anything anymore to the Rams?

“I haven’t seen us make any dramatic improvement,” Robinson said at his weekly media luncheon Monday. “I think there are areas that improve, and then areas that seem to slip on us.

“I think we all know we were off to a rocky start, but I think what has happened to us is that there has not been a sudden resurgence of this team.”

He has waited, through an injury- and holdout-riddled preseason, through a horrid first month of the regular season, and all through Sunday’s bashing by the Giants. The defense has come around after a grisly start, but the offense has scored only 33 points in the last three weeks.

Throw out the dismal first five weeks of the season--as the Rams would surely be delighted to do--and they are still just a mediocre team whose most fascinating feature is a running back the coach doesn’t think should play yet.

“The last four weeks we’re a .500 team,” Robinson said. “But there hasn’t been that sudden resurgence in rhythm that comes--it just seems to be not there.”

And all he has gotten is a team that hasn’t yet put together two consecutive victories.

But that, Robinson states emphatically, does not mean he should just toss out his fragile offensive plans and choose to let Dupree iron out his rustiness in the remaining regular-season games. Dupree carried the ball four consecutive times Sunday for 22 yards.

“I think we’re frustrated that we’re not playing the way we think we can, but I don’t see any give-up in anybody,” Robinson said. “I don’t. We’ve just got to do what we can to stay together and keep working at it, figuring that suddenly pieces are going to start falling into place.”

Dupree, who suffered what was then considered a career-ending knee injury five years ago while playing in the USFL, signed with the Rams last month and has looked good enough in his few practices to recall memories of his glory days at the University of Oklahoma.

Back then, Dupree was a giant among collegians, but that doesn’t mean he can instantly be a giant among Giants, Robinson says rather sensibly.

“No, I’m not tempted at all,” Robinson said when asked if he considered just letting Dupree carry 25 times and seeing if he could do it. “I don’t think he’s anywhere near ready to do that.

“This isn’t fantasy. This is a guy who’s trying to learn to become competent. What you’re suggesting is that there is no competency or nothing to learn, you just turn the guy loose. No, there are so many things in a football game that a player has to do. . . . To play him at tailback more than in a slight bit would be a clear error, just a clear error.”

Dupree played only his freshman season at Oklahoma before transferring to Southern Mississippi (where he didn’t play), then jumping to the USFL. He played the end of the 1984 season there, then injured his left knee in the first game of 1985. Until Sunday, Dupree hadn’t suited up since.

“The fact (is) that he’s never done it on any level ,” Robinson said. “Never done it. . . . We’re not talking about a guy just remembering, we’re talking about a guy who has never had any experience.

“We just cannot do it. If we did, it would just be completely the wrong thing for us to do. It’d be wrong for him, it’d be wrong for our team.”

Dupree, for his part, said after the game Sunday that he wished he could play more but understood that Robinson is wiser than he in the ways of pro football.

“Still got Dallas (this week), got Cleveland, the 49ers, there’s a lot more to go,” Dupree said. “I plan to be here for a while. Like I said from the beginning, Coach Robinson knows best. I’ll do what he tells me to. I’m hoping that I’m going to be here for the long haul.”

So what’s Dupree’s Ram role for rest of the season?

“We’ll try to expand it some,” Robinson said. “Do it a little bit. One of these games we’ll get way ahead and play him the whole second half. Give him more opportunities.

“I don’t think the kid has any idea of how complex it is. I think the kid would agree with you, ‘Let me play, give me the ball 25 times, I’m ready to play.’ What about this blitz? ‘Hmmm, what’s a blitz?’

“I’m not trying to say anything negative about the kid at all, the kid’s doing a great job, I just don’t want to put him in a role that he’s not ready for just yet.

“(Sunday was the) first time he’s been tackled since 1947. . . . I think I’ll know when he’s ready to play. I’d like to see him, too. . . . “

Ram Numbers PHIL SIMMS Ram Coach John Robinson marveled at his proficiency, defensive tackle Doug Reed marveled at his toughness, and the 64,632 in Anaheim Stadium marveled at how he dissected the home team’s defense like a surgeon. When the Giants’ 31-7 victory was secure, the statistics revealed just another typical Phil Simms performance: 19 completions in 26 attempts for 213 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions. That, despite being under the best Ram rush of the season which resulted in his being sacked three times. In nine victories, he has thrown 192 passes, completing 66 percent with only two interceptions.

SEASON TO DATE Nine-game totals (Record: 3-6) First Downs RAMS: 172 OPP: 175 Rushing Yards RAMS: 850 OPP: 996 Passing Yards RAMS: 2,299 OPP: 2,407 Punts/Average RAMS: 37/39.6 OPP: 34/40.8 Rushing RAMS ATT.: 224 AVG.: 3.8 TDs: 8 OPP: ATT.: 242 AVG.: 4.1 TDs: 11 Passing ATT.: 318 CP: 174 TDs: 15 OPP: ATT: 289 AVG: 181 TDs: 20 Penalties/Yards RAMS: 49/371 OPP: 52/508 Fumbles/Lost RAMS: 14/7 OPP: 15/9 Interceptions/Yds RAMS: 6/66 OPP: 10/73 Possession Time RAMS: 28:44 OPP: 31:16 Scoring by Quarters

1 2 3 4 OT TOTAL RAMS 38 72 51 37 0 198 OPP 68 69 40 78 3 258