No Ram Emotion in Defeat : Pro football: Robinson says Dupree will get lengthy look in season finale at New Orleans on Monday.

The Rams played zombie football Sunday, a surprise to almost no one but a disappointment to Coach John Robinson.

And in the season finale Monday night against the New Orleans Saints, running back Marcus Dupree may get his long-awaited first NFL start, which also is a surprise to no one but perhaps is Robinson’s last stab at giving Ram fans a dose of fun.

So basically, things are going precisely as you would expect them to go for a 5-10 football team coming off a listless, 20-13 defeat at the hands of the 4-11 Atlanta Falcons.

The Rams assured themselves of the worst mark in Robinson’s head-coaching career and their most losses since 1965, when they went 4-10.

You wanted emotion, you had to watch the Falcons. You wanted to see a team playing out the string, you watched the listless Rams.

“I didn’t think there was any emotion, either,” Robinson said. “You know, some games you’ve got to play . . . you’ve got to play through games.

“Right now, we manage to give games away. You play through that game, you score two out of the three times you’re down there (inside the 10-yard line) and you win the game. One you had to have and got.

“But we don’t do that. We find a way to give the game away. It was a poor performance on our part. We gave the game away with the interception for a touchdown, then a long pass that resulted in a field goal. We just never did come back.

“It was discouraging for us, I think, to play, generally team-wide, a poor game.”

Robinson said he tried to make sure during the previous week of practices that his team would come out ready to play, not just to finish out the season.

It didn’t work, like so many other things Robinson and his coaches and players and the front office attempted this vastly disappointing season.

The Falcons took a 10-0 lead early, then held on with a big pass rush against Ram quarterback Jim Everett and two important goal-line stands.

“We worked hard to try to get good practices,” Robinson said. “It seems to me . . . that we’re a better practice team than we are a game team, you know. We come off the practice field saying, ‘We did that well,’ and then we do the same thing in the game, and we don’t execute it well. . . .

“That happened early on (in 1990) with us.”

And by now there is nothing anybody can do but wait and see what’s left standing when the inevitable wave of change sweeps through the franchise.

Robinson gave the team Monday, today and Wednesday off to rest, celebrate Christmas, and perhaps begin the off-season process of selective amnesia.

Is there anything Robinson can do to try to fire his team up one last time for the game against the Saints?

“I’m not ready to talk about next week yet,” Robinson said with a grin. “After Christmas, we’ll focus. But, yeah, you always play again, you always have a new life, you keep going.”

Right now, the only life the Rams can hope for in 1990 is watching Dupree carry the ball 20 times or so and maybe relive some of the glory lost to him five seasons ago when he blew out his knee.

Dupree has played only during mop-up time for the Rams since signing with them early in the season after a rigorous training program to strengthen his knee.

“We’re definitely going to play Marcus Dupree,” Robinson said, before explaining why Dupree didn’t carry the ball Sunday despite earlier promises from Robinson that he would

“Second half (the Falcons’) plan was to come at us and the (blitz) pickup was important,” Robinson said. “He’s probably the least prepared for that.”

Will Dupree start against the Saints?

“I’m not going to start him,” Robinson said with a sheepish smile. “Well, I’m not going to announce I’m going to start him. . . . He’s going to play a lot.

“You’ve seen me in the past say, ‘Oh, I’m going to play Gaston Green,’ and I play him three plays or something. It’s hard. Or maybe it’s just hard for me.

“But that’s not going to happen this week (with Dupree). He’s going to be a key back in the game.”

Could Dupree be the Rams’ only tailback Monday?

“I’m worried about his conditioning, so I see some rotation,” Robinson said. “Not that he isn’t in shape, it’s just that he hasn’t played.”

RAMS NUMBERS

HIGHLIGHT: MIKE ROZIER

Mention the term “running backs” in the good old days, before the advent of 5-10 seasons, and the names of Lawrence McCutcheon, Wendell Tyler, Eric Dickerson, Charles White and Greg Bell, Rams all, would quickly come to mind. Mention the term this year, and the names of opponents Gill Fenerty, Dexter Carter and Mike Rozier are prominent. It was Rozier’s turn to show up the Rams’ woeful defense Sunday, the former Heisman Trophy winner out of Nebraska rushed for 102 yards in 21 carries in the Falcons’ 20-13 victory. Rozier accounted for one of the Falcons’ touchdowns on an 11-yard sprint in the second quarter. Rozier, 5-10 and 213 pounds, came to Atlanta in September after five seasons with the Houston Oilers. Until Sunday, he had gained 460 yards in 121 carries for a 3.8 average.

SEASON TO DATE

Fifteen-game totals (Record: 5-10)

FIRST DOWNS

RAMS: 295 OPP: 272

RUSHING YARDS

RAMS: 1,508 OPP: 1,555

PASSING YARDS

RAMS: 3,726 OPP: 3,768

PUNTS / AVERAGE

RAMS: 63/38.6 OPP: 60/41.5

RUSHING

ATT AVG TDs RAMS 398 3.8 17 OPP 388 4.0 16

PASSING

ATT CP TDs RAMS 525 288 22 OPP 475 285 29

PENALTIES / YARDS

RAMS: 82/597 OPP: 104/933

FUMBLES / LOST

RAMS: 23/13 OPP: 31/19

INTERCEPTIONS

RAMS: 12/105 OPP: 17/204

SCORING BY QUARTERS

1 2 3 4 OT F RAMS 62 127 85 54 0 328 OPP 91 116 74 108 3 392

POSSESSION TIME

RAMS: 29:58 OPP: 30:02