Rams Take Best Shot at Playoffs : NFC West: They play host to Saints, also 5-7, with the loser probably out of contention for postseason.

It isn’t exactly a heavyweight NFC playoff battle, but there still will be plenty riding on the outcome--or as much as could be riding on a game between 5-7 teams--when the revived Rams and the pesky New Orleans Saints play today at Anaheim Stadium:

--Win and continue on the long-longshot path to the playoffs.

--Lose and 1990 is over, forget about those next three games.

“I think that’s going to make us want to go out and fight a little more,” Ram cornerback Jerry Gray said. “And I know they’re going to want to fight more. You’ve got two teams that can probably go and win four ballgames, either one of us (to finish 9-7 for a possible playoff berth).

“This game right here is probably the biggest game on either one of our schedules.”

Both teams began 1990 fully expecting to be major players in the race for the NFC West title, and both have had 12 weeks to wallow in mediocrity.

And now, both teams face the crossroads--the Rams after pulling themselves up with consecutive victories, the Saints after losing to the Dallas Cowboys last Sunday.

“The only thing we’re thinking,” tailback Gaston Green said, “is winning this game so we can keep hope alive.”

But Ram Coach John Robinson, for his part, hasn’t publicly played up the do-or-die dimension of this game, and some of his players have chosen to focus on the week-by-week battle for pride rather than a playoff spot.

“What do the playoffs mean?” linebacker Kevin Greene said. “I don’t know what the playoffs mean. I do know what a regular-season game against New Orleans in our back yard means. The playoffs don’t mean hell to me right now.”

Said quarterback Jim Everett: “The way I’m looking at it is we’re playing a division foe who’s in our way, and we’re in their way, and we want to play the best game we’ve got. Other than that, I’m not concerned about in and out (of the playoff race). What the hell’s in and out?”

While the Rams have made a general, teamwide venture into disappointment this season, the Saints have a simple explanation for what has gone wrong in 1990: their quarterback situation.

First, three-year starter Bobby Hebert held out, is still unsigned and is almost certain to be traded in the off-season. Then, backup John Fourcade completed 44% of his passes in the five games he started.

That triggered the trade with Dallas for Steve Walsh, who picked up the job in Week 5 and has experienced the same problems any second-year quarterback thrust into an entirely new situation would experience.

Walsh, who was stuck behind Troy Aikman with the Cowboys, has completed nearly 60% of his passes and thrown for nine touchdowns as New Orleans’ starter, but he also has thrown nine interceptions and has a mediocre 76.0 quarterback rating.

Do the Rams expect to try to confuse Walsh, who acknowledges that his ability to call audibles is still vastly limited?

“I’m sure that’s in our game plan,” Ram inside linebacker Frank Stams said. “Disguise our coverages, keep him off-balance and don’t let him in a groove. Quarterbacks can get in a groove and gain confidence. Give him that little bit of confidence, he’s going to start completing passes, and it’s going to be a snowball effect for us. You want to maybe shake him up early.”

As a result of Walsh’s inexperience, the Saints, who have never been a wide-open team anyway, are leaning heavily on their running backs, who are rushing for an average of 122 yards, ninth in the league.

They have 270-pound Craig (Ironhead) Heyward at fullback and Rueben Mayes is their slashing tailback. They also might have Dalton Hilliard, who has been sidelined for six games because of a knee injury and is questionable for this game.

Heyward seems to be the player the Rams are thinking about most. He is averaging 5.1 yards a carry.

“Let him roll, he gets started on you, he’s pretty tough,” Robinson said of Heyward. “He breaks that tackle three, four yards past the line of scrimmage, then he’s into the secondary.

“I think you get him at his side of the line of scrimmage or at the line of scrimmage. Those kinds of backs are trouble when they get going, same with Christian Okoye. He gets those first four or five steps, it’s hard to get him down.”

Said Stams: “He’s probably heavier than most of our offensive line. He’s a load.”

Meanwhile, a Saint defense that prides itself on making big plays has come up severely lacking this season. The Saints have an NFL-low five interceptions and a league-worst minus-16 takeaway ratio.

“We just haven’t made big plays when we’ve had to on defense,” Coach Jim Mora said. “That’s been our problem all year. We’ll hang in there, hang in there, hang in there, but when we just have to make a play, we’ve had a tough time doing that.”

The Rams, however, are a team that the Saints’ defense--particularly weakside linebacker Pat Swilling--always seems to enjoy playing. Last year, the Ram offense yielded only 32 sacks, but 12 were in the two games against the Saints.

Why do the Saints always seem to be able to breathe down Everett’s neck?

“That’s a good question,” Mora said. “I don’t know. we’ve had our times before doing that. I wish I had the answer. I see the Rams blocking the hell out of people protecting Everett. Maybe it’s just luck, I don’t know.”

Ram Notes

Saint Coach Jim Mora said Ram receiver Flipper Anderson’s record 336-yard day wasn’t the result of anything New Orleans did wrong back on Nov. 26, 1989. “I’ve looked at that film this week again in preparing for the Rams, and I think we had guys in pretty good position on a lot of those catches by Anderson and throws by (Jim) Everett, and it was just awesome execution on their part,” Mora said. “I mean, the ball was right there, the timing was perfect. Sometimes we were in zone, sometimes we were in man(-to-man), but he just threw it right on the money. And our guy was just a few inches off.”

The Rams and the Orange County Fire Dept. will be collecting new, unwrapped toys for needy children and the children of U.S. servicemen in the Persian Gulf. The toys will be collected at all Anaheim Stadium gates.