Browns Will Try to Dim Afterglow : Rams: L.A.’s problem might be taking the Browns seriously after an upset victory over the 49ers.

The Rams chop the un from the undefeated, untouchable, unbelievable San Francisco 49ers last Sunday, and what do they get for their troubles?

A December trip to this Rust Belt city--where temperatures are expected to be in the 40s by game time today--and a chance to play the Browns (2-9).

You can see why Coach John Robinson has been working extra hard to make sure his team hasn’t sleepwalked through practice.

“If we’re any kind of a football team at all,” Robinson said, “we will go on from here and play well. If we fall apart again, we will have just wasted our year.”

The Rams (4-7) are seeking the first two-game winning streak of their 1990 season against the Browns, who know a thing or six about streaks--the losing variety.

While the 49ers move on to their super summit Monday night against the New York Giants, the Rams trudge into December in Cleveland grasping for motivational straws.

“I try and look at a different perspective,” Ram center Doug Smith said. “I always keep the 4-7 record right in the forefront of my mind right now.

“Four-and-seven can be impressive if you get to 9-7. If 4-7 gets to 4-12, that’s a disaster. I’m just trying to keep it in the front of my mind and trying to get to 5-7 this week.

“Sometimes it’s hard to keep that short term, sometimes you want to say OK, we’ve got five games, let’s do it all at one time, and you can’t do that. I think the best way for me to look at it is to forget last week and go for one in a row this week.”

Said Robinson: “I think there isn’t the natural adrenaline flow that was there last week. So we’ve got to provide the focus and concentration ourselves, just get ourselves ready.”

After the Browns lost their sixth consecutive game last week, a slump that earlier claimed the job of Coach Bud Carson, quarterback Bernie Kosar publicly chastised his teammates for not committing themselves to winning.

The last time the Browns won was Oct. 8 against the Denver Broncos.

But after last Sunday’s game, new Coach Jim Shofner proclaimed that the team had turned a corner and predicted that it might not lose for the rest of the season.

“There’s no question there was a problem with everything we were doing early in the year,” Shofner said. “We weren’t playing well. But the last month, they’ve really accepted the challenge. The offensive line has played better the last two ballgames than they’ve played all year, and that’s why we’re playing a little better offense.”

The Browns are still ranked only 24th overall in offense--next to last in rushing offense--but Kosar recently has looked more like the skilled passer he used to be.

Part of that might be because Shofner is trying to get running back Eric Metcalf into the offense more, splitting him out as a receiver or handing him the ball. Metcalf is averaging only 2.2 yards in 48 carries, but he has caught a team-leading 43 passes for 353 yards.

Clearly, the Browns’ biggest weakness early in the season was their offensive line, behind which the immobile Kosar was sacked 25 times in the first eight games. In the past three games, the line has solidified, and Brown quarterbacks have been sacked only five times.

The biggest disappointment for the Browns has been the week-in, week-out ineffectiveness of their defense, which has given up an average of 27 points in the past seven weeks.

A defense that last year led the team into a championship game was laid low by injuries and holdouts involving some of its best players.

Defensive tackle Michael Dean Perry leads the team with eight sacks, but the defense has only nine other sacks for a league-low total.

“I think Cleveland has had some tough breaks; they’re a team I think that is better than their record--I know their defense is,” Ram quarterback Jim Everett said. “I mean, they were in the (AFC) championship game last year for a reason.”

So were the Rams, in the NFC championship game, and now both are scrambling to end the season a high note.

Do the Rams see any similarities, in the Browns’ fall to their own?

“Probably in record alone,” Everett said. “And maybe including some of the breaks that have gone against us. I would say the ball probably has bounced to the other team more for both of us.”

Might not the Rams still be basking in the glory of the 49er game?

“I think there’s a little bit of a lull,” Everett said, “but that’s to be expected. I think the guys are really eager to play these last five games, to take it to Cleveland and see what we’ve got, see if we are for real.

“We want to end the season respectable, with pride, all those types of things. Two in a row would be great, five in a row would be better.”

Ram Notes

Ram receiver Henry Ellard, who was sidelined last Sunday because of a sore hamstring, is expected to play. Receiver Aaron Cox and tight end Damone Johnson, both of whom have hamstring problems, are questionable, but Ram Coach John Robinson indicated that Johnson probably would be ready to play.

Remember the Rams’ last game in Cleveland? It was Eric Dickerson’s final game with the Rams, when he pulled himself out of the game because of tight hamstrings after a 27-yard touchdown run in the Browns’ 30-17 victory. “I remember there were a lot of things going on that week,” quarterback Jim Everett said. “I also remember one other thing--the dog bones. They put us down there in front of the (Cleveland Stadium) Dawg Pound during warm-ups, and it’s like ‘dink, dink, dink.’ ” Everett pointed to his helmet, indicating where the bones landed.