Robinson Doing His Best to Make Believers of His Players

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. They are 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 being the method of execution. In the playoff game, it was Jim Everett up top to Flipper Anderson in overtime and Anderson up the ramp and through the tunnel, all the way to San Francisco. Sunday, it was Robert Delpino left, Delpino right and 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.

Delpino carried the football 13 times last season. Sunday, he carried it 27 times. As a team, the Rams ran the ball 38 times. That meant they only had to pass it 16.

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, that seemed more a bloopers film from 1990 than a new beginning. After that game, 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 B.S.”

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. We’re a club that’s on the come, I think.”

Robinson didn’t have many takers then and realizes he’s 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 1, which is why he called Delpino’s number on fourth and goal on 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--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,” 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.’ ”

Said cornerback Jerry Gray: “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. In one week, for instance, Robinson had to find a way to eliminate seven turnovers--and the quickest route was to take Gary’s fickle fingers out of the starting lineup and pull Turner from the punt return squad. Robinson did and the Rams fielded almost flawlessly against the Giants, botching only a first-quarter center snap between Tom Newberry and Everett.

But it’s 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, but he’s a great return man and this is a football team that’s got to use all 47 guys,” Robinson said, so he let Turner catch a kickoff and run it back 36 yards, just to get the feeling again.

“This is just one game,” Robinson said. “Are we in it for one emotional win, or for a 16-game schedule? We’re in it for 16 games.”

The John Robinson Self-Help Seminar continued long into the afternoon. I’m OK, you’re OK, we’re .500 and isn’t life in the NFL a wondrous thing?

“This is going to be a hell of a football team,” Robinson kept saying. “I don’t know when, but it’s going to happen. I’ll bet my ass on that.”

One Giant step for Ramkind, one small step for the rest of the season.