Rams Keep Things Simple, Beat Giants : Pro football: They hold onto the football, play defense and let Delpino run enough to score a 19-13 victory.

Facing the defending Super Bowl champions, facing the ache of last week’s seven-turnover loss, facing the scorn of those around them, the Rams found life Sunday in a stadium where most visitors find panic, pain and failure.

Giant-killers until the end, the Rams won by following a commandment as old and simple as Coach John Robinson’s philosophy of football: Do unto the New York Giants what the Giants want to do unto you--only do it better.

The Rams (1-1), matched against a Giant team that had turned the ball over only 14 times in its last 17 regular-season games and a quarterback who had not lost in eight starts, forced three Giant turnovers, committed only one, ran for 143 yards, kicked four field goals and scored a 19-13 victory before 76,541 at Giants Stadium.

“We did to the Giants what the Giants do to everybody else,” Robinson said. “Good field position, cover the kicks, run the football, play defense.”

Simple enough, but the Rams seem to be the only ones who can do it consistently against New York, and the Giants (1-1) are, so far, about the only team they can do it against.

Last week, against a Phoenix Cardinal team without its No. 1 quarterback and running back, the Rams had seven turnovers and a 24-14 loss. Before Sunday, the Rams had lost five consecutive regular-season games.

“How long has it been since we’ve won?” asked Ram cornerback Darryl Henley, who had to be reminded. “The Cleveland game last year (Week 12). Man, this team is too good to go that long.”

Said defensive tackle Mike Piel, who had his first sack of the season: “It’s a great start for us after last week. We came in and beat the world champions at their place. It’s sweet, especially after the Giants had that big win against the 49ers last week. It’s really sweet.”

In almost every other game they play, the Giants control the tempo and the ball.

In this game, a quarterback looked flustered by a zone defense and threw flutter balls: Jeff Hostetler, not Jim Everett.

In this game, there were several early turnovers, and quick points were the result of one of them. But the Rams did the scoring, not their opponent. They gave Phoenix a 7-0 lead last week by fumbling a snap and allowing Eric Hill to run 85 yards with the recovery for a touchdown. Sunday, they capitalized on a Henley interception and 22-yard return with a 29-yard Tony Zendejas field goal for a 3-0 lead.

“The Giants are a team that doesn’t turn the football over, and they turned it over three times. And I think that makes a difference,” said Ram defensive coordinator Jeff Fisher, who confused Hostetler into throwing his first interception in 184 passes and into a 17-for-32 day by mixing in much more zone coverage than usual.

“They’re a team that’s used to not turning it over, and maybe there was a confidence thing with them after the early (fumble). That’s what happened last week with us.”

In this game, a team boldly ran on fourth and inches. The Rams were successful, scoring the key touchdown of the game in the second quarter, not the Giants.

In this game, a running back ran 27 times for 116 yards and enabled his team to use a back-to-the-’50s conservative offense. It was Robert Delpino, not Ottis Anderson.

“It’s a sense of pride that we were able to establish a running game against a defense as good as the Giants (have),” tackle Robert Jenkins said. “The Rams are known for 1,000-yard rushers, and we want to get back to that.”

In this game, Robinson--angry after last week’s sloppy loss to Phoenix--was full of bounce and bite, not swallowing tears of frustration.

“We’re going to play 16 (games), and we’ll play them like this,” Robinson said. “And that’s how we’re going to be. That’s our story, and we’re sticking with it.”

The victory was the Rams’ third in a row on the road against the Giants. Since 1988, the Giants are 20-4 against everybody else at home, 0-3 against the Rams.

The first and about only chance the Giants had to knock the Rams off stride came in the first quarter, when Everett fumbled a Tom Newberry snap for the second week in a row, and it was recovered by safety Myron Guyton.

“Instead of letting it get to us, we overcame that play,” Everett said. “We said, ‘To hell with it. Let’s get on with the game.’ ”

The Ram offense set the tone of the game, and took the lead for good, in the middle of the second quarter on a 10-play, 63-yard drive keyed by Delpino, who started in place of the fumble-prone Cleveland Gary and did not disappoint.

On the drive, Delpino pulled off the Rams’ biggest two offensive plays of the game: a career-best 36-yard burst through the Giant defense on third and nine to the Giant three-yard line; and, on fourth and inches, a lunge through two tacklers into the end zone for a 10-3 lead.

“Oh, I think it was a key play, because you know the Giant defense, they feed off stuff like that,” said Delpino, who was barely able to stretch the ball across the goal-line as he lay atop another player. “If they would’ve stopped us there, I don’t know what would’ve happened.”

Robinson delayed the decision to go for it.

“I thought, you know, hell, this team would’ve beaten the hell out of me if we didn’t go for it,” Robinson said. “We’re counting a lot on our football team of building a spirit.”

The Giants were able to move down for a Matt Bahr field goal to make the score 10-6, but they weren’t able to come close to a score again until the game’s final minutes, when they pushed across a desperation touchdown.

“Coming in, (critics were saying) we were 0-4 for sure, and they were writing us off for the season,” defensive end Kevin Greene said. “(But) we aren’t going to be a pushover team like everybody has us made out to be, and we’re not going to be an 0-16 team like everybody wants us to be.”

* SECOND EFFORT: Robert Delpino was stopped, but he stretched for a touchdown. C6

* RIGHT PLACE: The Rams went to a good place for them to get well: Giants Stadium. C7