NOTEBOOK : Atkins Making His Mark : Pro football: Saints’ safety is busy hitting Rams, returning kickoffs and piling up statistics.

Cleveland Gary might be having problems holding onto the football, but Ram receiver Flipper Anderson was hanging on so tightly Sunday he probably left fingerprints.

On three occasions against the Saints, Anderson survived terrific hits after catching a pass and managed to keep his grasp on the football. In the fourth quarter, Anderson made a catch over the middle and then ran full speed into safety Gene Atkins, who leveled Anderson in his tracks.

“He’s a tough one,” Atkins said. “He just doesn’t want to let it go. But I’ll tell you, he’ll be in the whirlpool for a long while tomorrow.”

Atkins left his mark on a lot of Ram players and on the statistics as well Sunday. He intercepted a pass, defensed two passes, made six tackles and recovered three fumbles, two of which were his own. And he returned four kickoffs for 98 yards.

He also lost a fumble on a kickoff return, was charged with a late hit on quarterback Jim Everett on the sidelines that gave the Rams the opportunity to score their first touchdown instead of settling for a field goal, and then got in the way of Everett, who was trying to spike the ball after his two-yard touchdown run.

“I was just trying to make some things happen,” Atkins said. “After I fumbled, the guys all gathered around me and told me to forget about it and just keep playing. It was a see-saw game. I’m just happy I made more good things happen today than bad things.”

Everett and Atkins were involved in a face-mask-to-face-mask confrontation after Everett’s touchdown and aborted spike attempt, but the New Orleans safety downplayed the incident.

“I mentioned to him to throw one my way and he just smiled,” Atkins said.

Rams Coach John Robinson made sure not to pin the blame of the loss on tailback Cleveland Gary, who lost two fumbles Sunday and has now fumbled 11 times this season. Robinson continued to play Gary after Gary’s first-quarter fumble and seemed to indicate he would keep on playing him even after the second one.

“The problem of Cleveland fumbling the ball again of course is a problem,” Robinson said. “He’s a player that has an excellent future ahead of him, but this is obviously a painful time for him.

Robinson also made it clear that he disputed the call on Gary’s fourth-quarter fumble that gave the Saints the opportunity to pull ahead. Gary appeared to hit the ground as the ball came loose, and the officials ruled that it was a fumble. The replay official said the replays were inconclusive.

“The thing that bothers me is that there wasn’t an official out there that said it was a fumble or wasn’t a fumble,” Robinson said. “They just said we didn’t see it.”

Gary said that he hit the ground, turned over and, believing he was down after hearing the whistle, reached up and put the football over his head to try to get a better mark.

“I put it over my head, and the ball went crazy,” Gary said. “It’s a fumble, they said it was, so I guess it was. Whatever I think about it doesn’t mean anything.”

The Rams, who got swamped by the Saints’ pass rush for 12 sacks in last year’s two meetings, felt they did a decent job on blitzing linebackers Pat Swilling and Rickey Jackson--until crunch-time.

The Saints only sacked Everett three times, and Swilling only got one, but Swilling’s was the key play of the game--a 10-yard loss when he came over tackle Irv Pankey as the Rams were frantically trying to score in the final moments of the game.

“I felt like we pass-blocked. They’re a good pass-rush team,” Robinson said. “I felt like we gave Jim enough time. . . . They did a better job of covering as the game went on, backed off and tried to take things deep away and had some success.”

Said Everett: “I tried to find people, but with the pass rush, I just didn’t have the time you’d like to have. I just had to find somebody fast.”

Jim Mora, Saints coach, thought Sunday’s victory was one for the working class, all those people out there who can relate to New Orleans’ yeoman’s season of struggle and strife.

“We struggled offensively for most of the game, but we just kept plugging away and finally got it done,” he said. “The defense played super, they just kept battling and battling. This team won’t quit.

“Some people have tried to write us off, but we’re still in the hunt. I think we proved today that we’re not quite ready for the hearse.”

Linebacker Kevin Greene sacked Saints’ quarterback Steve Walsh once, but the biggest hit Walsh took Sunday was on a broken play in the second quarter, when he slammed into running back Craig (Ironhead) Heyward.

Heyward, 5-feet-11 and 260 pounds, lost a yard. Walsh, 6-2, 200, might have momentarily lost his senses.

Times staff writer Tim Kawakami contributed to this story.