COMMENTARY : Sick Rams Get Well in Land of the Giants

John Robinson called this shot, kind of, a week ago, barely minutes after he had watched his football team vaporize against the Phoenix Cardinals.

All you had to do was read between the lines.

“We will not fumble the football,” Robinson promised.

(We will not start Cleveland Gary.)

“We will not throw interceptions.”

(We will not put the ball in the air.)

“We will not make turnovers.”

(We will not let Vernon Turner return punts.)

“We are going to be a good football team.”

(We are going to the Meadowlands.)

Phil Simms at quarterback, Jeff Hostetler at quarterback, the Giants coming off a Super Bowl season, the Rams coming off a train wreck of a season--it doesn’t matter. The Swamps is the place and swamp is what generally happens to the Giants whenever they play host to the Rams, regardless of the current state of affairs on either coast.

The Giants are 2-6 against the Rams at Giants Stadium. New York is 0-3 since 1987. The last two meetings--in the 1989 NFC playoffs and again on Sunday--have finished in precisely the same fashion:

Rams 19, Giants 13.

The only difference was the method of execution. In the playoff game, it was Jim Everett passing to Flipper Anderson in overtime and Flipper Anderson running up the ramp and through the tunnel, all the way to San Francisco.

Sunday, it was Robert Delpino left, Robert Delpino right and Robert Delpino smack-dab into a pile of Giants in front of the goal line, his body stopped short but his outstretched arm willing and able to put the ball in the end zone.

Robert Delpino carried 13 times last season. Sunday, he carried 27 times. As a team, the Rams ran 38 times. They only had to pass 16 times.

John Robinson football is back.

Ram football might not be far behind.

Robinson swore he saw it coming, despite the seven-turnover disaster that opened the season against Phoenix, a game that seemed more a bloopers film from 1990 than a new beginning. Afterward, Robinson looked crushed, flattened, depressed, deflated--so down that it seemed he would break down and cry at any second.

Robinson, however, claims he was closer to breaking down a door.

“I was angry,” Robinson said. “I wasn’t down as much as almost out of control with anger.

“I knew everything that was going to happen in that game--and it didn’t. I know what this team is going to do this year. But if I say it, I’m full of . . . .”

Except for the turnovers, Robinson said, “we played some of the game last week the same way we played today. We just killed ourselves. Those who are uneducated, they probably thought we were lousy all the way around, but we really weren’t.”

Robinson didn’t have many takers then and realizes he is still preaching to the unconverted, some of them wearing blue and gold uniforms Sunday. You can’t win until you believe, and Robinson is still attending to Step One, which is why he called Delpino’s number on fourth and goal at the New York one-yard line.

Last year, Robinson would have settled for the safe field goal, because the alternative--a Cleveland Gary fumble, a 99-yard Lawrence Taylor return--was unthinkable.

This year, Robinson went for six points--a short-term gesture designed for the long-term benefit.

“We’ve got to get a belief system going for these guys,” Robinson said. “You want something good to happen, to give them some faith. . . .

“We’re counting on a lot from this football team by building some spirit. We’re a long ways away from being one of those elite, sophisticated teams. That’s just us right now. So, we have to play up the emotional part.”

The play worked, as did the ploy.

“Great call by Coach Robinson,” Jim Everett said. “He showed great confidence in our running game and our offensive line. ‘It’s fourth and six inches--and those six inches are ours.’ ”

Cornerback Jerry Gray said, “I was telling Coach Robinson, ‘Go! Go! Go!’ Believe me, even if it doesn’t work, (the Giants) are still 99 yards from a touchdown.

“You go for the touchdown there, you go for the win. It was the way we had to go.”

Confidence restoration can be delicate work, however. It is a thin line between quick fix and course correction. “I’ve got to get Cleveland going again. I’ve got to get him back,” Robinson said, so he worked Gary into the game in the second half and allowed him five carries. “Everybody wanted to run Vernon Turner out of town last week,” Robinson said, “but he’s a great return man, and this is a football team that’s got to use all 47 guys.” So Robinson let Turner catch a kickoff and run it back 36 yards, simply to get the feeling again.