RAMS : In Tight Spots, Everett Looks For Tight End in the Comfort Zone

It’s a familiar, and usually comforting, scene for Ram fans. Pete Holohan plods along a seam in the defense, turns to face quarterback Jim Everett, makes the two-handed catch away from his body, is immediately drilled to the ground and then gets up to jump for joy and pump his fist in the air.

Sometimes, you have to wonder if Holohan is genuinely excited about a seven-yard reception. (He is, by the way). But most of the time, the Rams throw to Holohan in crucial situations, so the cause for celebration is clear.

He has only 27 catches for 304 yards. His longest reception of the season is 28 yards. But 12 times, the Rams have thrown to him on third down and picked up a first down.

He has scored only one touchdown, but that’s probably because Everett is more likely to be looking for his trustworthy tight end when the Rams are up against their own end zone, an area where mistakes can be disastrous.

Sunday against the San Francisco 49ers, for instance, Holohan had three catches for 33 yards. The first was an 18-yard reception on a third-and-10 play from the Ram 14-yard line. And the second came early in the game-winning, fourth-quarter drive. It was a 15-yard catch on second and 13 from the Ram seven-yard line.

“Holohan made a couple of really important catches for us that got us going,” Coach John Robinson said. “By nature, of course, he’s enthusiastic. You can grab Pete and say, ‘We’re gonna go get ‘em.’ And he’ll run out the door screaming, ‘Yeah. Yeah. We’re gonna go get ‘em. We’re gonna go get ‘em.’ ”

Sunday’s victory was a brief high in a long, low season for the Rams, however. Despite the fact that Holohan is close to the pace he set in 1989 (51 catches for 510 yards) when the Rams made it to the NFC championship game, he says he’s not having a good year.

“It’s been very disappointing,” Holohan said. “There’s no personal things that you can point to and say they’ve gone right if your team loses. I can say that I feel like we should have won some of the games we lost. And we wish we could have some games back. But we can’t, so from this point on, instead of dwelling on what hasn’t happened, maybe we can take this win and build down the stretch.”

Robinson says he never saw any quit in the Rams this year. Of course, he didn’t even have to look at Holohan. After all, this is a guy who’s favorite pastime is standing 10 feet in front of a ball machine, catching speeding spirals fired at his face.

“I think this season has been very frustrating simply because not one guy on this team has given up,” Holohan said. “We, myself included, may have played badly, but we have never given up. These guys have a lot of integrity and nobody’s given up.”

It’s amazing what a victory over the 49ers can do for the Rams’ disposition. Last week, a number of players--the usually affable Everett included--refused to talk to the media.

Even the always accommodating Robinson was more curt than ever.

But during his weekly luncheon Monday, Robinson was flinging the one-liners left and right:

--On how the Rams operated with receivers Henry Ellard and Aaron Cox out of action:

“It got to the point where Jim (Everett) was telling some of those young guys to go down to the street lamp and turn in.”

--On Cleveland Gary’s drop and then recovery of the ball on his way to scoring the Rams’ final touchdown Sunday:

“He has some phenomenal hand-eye skills. I mean, he can spin the ball and put it between his legs and then he dribbles the ball into the end zone on that play.”

--In response to a question about there being “more Robinson” in the game plan against the 49ers:

“When we were (messing) up, there were a lot of people who thought there was a lot of Robinson in those, too.”

--On whether the team rallied together because of rumors his job was in jeopardy:

“Yeah, I think the vote was 28-26 to try and play better, something like that.”

The Rams’ “big nickel” defense, which employs four safeties and is designed to stop the pass while still offering some protection against the run, was successful Sunday. But it probably won’t start a defensive revolution in the NFL.

“If you’re good at something, you don’t scrap it,” Robinson said. “We were on the edge of desperation. I think sometimes you scrap what you do and come up with something new and you lose about 62-0. It’s always a risk.”