RAM NOTEBOOK / TIM KAWAKAMI : Gary Says It’s Time He Starts Holding On Just a Little Bit Tighter

His stock has dropped each time the football has dropped from his hands, and that has been nine times over the Rams’ first 12 games.

So Cleveland Gary, who has lost fumbles in each of the past three games and was held out of most of last week’s game at Cleveland after fumbling early, says it is time to halt the humbling fumble tumble.

Time to hold onto the ball and his job as the team’s primary running option--beginning with Sunday’s game against the New Orleans Saints.

“I’m not going to be a fumbler,” Gary said. “I just can’t see myself . . . whatever I have to do, it just won’t happen.”

Gary, after missing parts or all of the season’s first three games because of a back injury, has gained a team-leading 651 yards in 169 carries and has run for 13 touchdowns.

But he realizes that if the fumbles keep coming, his carries will vanish, no matter how many tackles he slips. Coach John Robinson has said that Gary’s fumble late against the Dallas Cowboys last month cost the Rams that game.

“At times, I was probably lackadaisical in holding the football, concentrating on other things and not the little things,” Gary said. “And that’s what I have to do. I think I’ve been fairly productive this year, playing through my injury.”

Gary agrees with Robinson that most of his problem is that holding the football comes too easily for him--it’s something he just takes for granted as he plows into defenders. He’s thinking about breaking tackles, not grasping the ball tightly, when it pops loose.

“I grip it so well, but it’s just that when I get into the traffic area sometimes, I’m not really thinking,” Gary said. “It’s more or less, ‘Make that play,’ and they go for the ball.

“In the future, I think I can turn a negative into a positive because if they start going for the ball--with my size, strength and speed--they’re just going to give me a lot more yards. When they go for the ball, it’s already hard for them to tackle me anyway one-on-one, (so) it’ll just give me that extra room to slip a tackle.”

Quarterback Jim Everett, who has never been shy about expressing his respect for Gary’s ability, says he isn’t about to begin doubting him now.

“I like what Cleveland brings to this offense; I’ve said that, it’s on the record,” Everett said. “I did not mean to take anything away from Gaston Green or Marcus Dupree or anybody, Curt Warner, who was here at that time. I think this offense can obviously work with a lot of different types.

“But I think when you get to the tight, tight holes, when there’s a lot of banging going on up front, there’s no doubt I think Cleveland Gary’s the guy to carry the ball.”

Steve Walsh, Gary’s quarterback at the University of Miami and currently the Saints’ starter, said Gary fumbled only when he pushed too hard.

“From what I remember at Miami, a lot of those fumbles that he had, which really weren’t many, were where he was just trying to do too much with the run,” Walsh said.

“They had him stopped, and he was trying to bounce around, and maybe got a little careless with the football and it would swing out in a vulnerable position, and he’d lose it. I’ve seen a couple of his games where he’s had some troubles fumbling the ball, (but) he’s not a big fumbler. I think once somebody gets a knock on him that he does put the ball on the ground, I think more teams go for it.”

You get the feeling Flipper Anderson doesn’t mind talking about or reviewing the films of the last time the Rams played the Saints, which was only the game of his--or any other receiver’s--lifetime.

“It was just one of those days, Henry (Ellard) was down, Aaron (Cox) and myself had a lot of pressure on us to make a few plays,” Anderson said. “And our running game really wasn’t working well that day, and we kept throwing the ball a lot and got a little rhythm. And everything that was going up there, I was coming down with.”

All Anderson did was catch 15 passes for an NFL single-game record 336 yards in the Rams’ 20-17 overtime victory in the Superdome on Nov. 26, 1989.

“I knew I was going to him,” Everett said. “It was one of those things where you could start drawing it up on the sand, saying, ‘Maybe do a little this and a little that, and I’ll put it over here.’ He was just so on .”

And how does Anderson feel about the record now that he has had over a year to think about it?

“I hope it stands forever,” he said. “But you can never tell, as much as they throw nowadays, a lot of guys are getting chances to have a better day than that. But I hope not.”

Does he think he could possibly duplicate that feat Sunday, against the same defense?

“I do hope so, but it’s probably unlikely that I will,” he said. “It would be nice if I could get anywhere within 200 yards of it.”

Ram Notes

Because the Rams still had 7,205 tickets left unsold by 1 p.m. Thursday, the game against the Saints will not be televised locally. . . . Coach John Robinson said he expects receiver Aaron Cox (hamstring) and cornerback Bobby Humphery (calf) to be ready to play Sunday, but starting tight end Damone Johnson (hamstring) did not practice Thursday and is listed as questionable. . . . The Saints’ leading rusher is fullback Craig (Ironhead) Heyward, listed at 260 pounds but generally assumed to be closer to 280. “We started giving him the ball more a few weeks ago, and he’s responded,” Saints Coach Jim Mora said. “(He has) run the ball well, and we’ve just been giving it to him more.” But Mora refused to say how much Heyward currently weighs. “He’s OK. Craig’s going to fight that problem the rest of his life, in football, out of football. It’s just something he has to monitor, not let get out of hand. He’s a big man.”