Zampese’s Diagnosis: A Dose of Tough Defense : Rams: Offensive coordinator says opponents’ execution has thrown a blanket over ailing offense.

Although he cannot predict the future, offensive coordinator Ernie Zampese can say that predictability is not the reason the Ram offense has gone into a most unpredictable tailspin.

Quarterback Jim Everett has suggested that, based on the New Orleans Saints’ ability to take away everything the Rams wanted to do in last week’s 24-7 pounding, perhaps the Ram offense has been solved and maybe it’s time for some changes.

Zampese says opponents’ execution and solid defense--not predictability--are the main reasons the Ram offense has scored only three touchdowns in three games.

“Anybody that’s any good or does anything worth a damn is predictable,” Zampese said, “because you do the things you’re good at. If you were not predictable and you had no tendencies, you couldn’t do anything.

“You do the things you’re good at--that’s what you do.”

Defenses this year are playing the Rams’ intricate offense with zones, blanketing the deep routes and daring the Rams to chip away over the middle, five yards at a time, Zampese says.

With Everett and the rest of the offense always hungry for big plays to Flipper Anderson and Henry Ellard (one catch between them the past two weeks), settling for the short passes underneath to fullback Buford McGee or tight end Damone Johnson has been difficult.

No passing touchdowns, the second-worst passing yardage total in the league and a 1-2 record are the results.

Coach John Robinson said this week that because of the team’s injury problems on the offensive line and failures against New Orleans, the Rams will head into Sunday’s game against the San Francisco 49ers with fewer plays in the game plan, not more.

Which generally means fewer pass plays, more runs, fewer chances to hit that big gainer that will get the Ram offense rolling.

“Certainly, there’s frustration,” Zampese said of the team’s inability to throw the ball downfield. “I think when we were going good, we probably did as good a job as anybody of pushing the ball up the field to the receivers. When you have success doing that, it’s hard to finally come down and say, ‘Oh, God, (the defense is laying) back there, I’m going to throw it underneath.’

“Or it’s hard to come back and call a play where maybe the only chance you have is underneath. It’s hard to do those things. We all get greedy. As a play-caller you get greedy, as a quarterback you get greedy. It takes a while to adjust to that.”

Said Everett: “They’ve just been taking (the wideouts) away. I’ve been trying to take what’s out there. The New Orleans game, I was taking Damone Johnson all the time over the middle. That’s what we had.

“There will be an opportunity for the outside, and hopefully I’ll be ready to pounce on it.”

The Rams’ offense, so used to flying up the field almost at will under Zampese’s pass-driven game plans, now has to get familiar with doing it bit by bit. And getting bitten by defenses some of the time.

Zampese said the trend league-wide is for defenses to overload the deep zones and prey on short passes, a la the Giants’ title-winning defense of last year, and that it’s understandable that offenses across the league are struggling some. Scoring is down by more than 10% this season.

“We’re certainly doing our part,” Zampese said with a chuckle.

But defenses have always done their part in denying the big play, and Zampese says his offense eventually will figure out how to do it. He just doesn’t know when.

“Yes, I’m very perplexed,” Zampese said. “Like I told the guys this morning in the meeting, ‘We can’t just sit here feeling sorry for ourselves.’

“We have got to keep working at it. We’ve got the people to do it with . . . so it’s a matter of continuing to work at it, continuing to do it.

“Big plays will start happening if you give them a chance to happen. If we don’t use them any more, you don’t call them any more, then you don’t give them a chance to happen.

“We know we have good enough personnel that we’ll come out of this thing. We better do it pretty damn quick.”

While the Rams are bothered--but surely not overly surprised--by their 1-2 start, in San Francisco, the 1-2 start by the 49ers is cause for widespread panic.

Coach George Seifert admits to feeling some queasiness.

“Sure, it’s difficult to be in this situation. You constantly search for answers, yet you can’t over-analyze either,” said Seifert, who had a career record of 32-5 before this season. “You’ve still got to go out and coach and get the job done.

“I’d be lying to say that every one of us since this has happened at one point or another hasn’t maybe had a flash of panic. But fortunately, I don’t think it’s that lasting with anybody. It’s just a momentary thing.

“We’re in a situation here where we believe we have a good football team, we have good players, we’ve made a mistake or two. We’ve done a lot of positive things. I think we just build on that, work to eliminate the mistakes.

“You don’t make speeches and change your execution necessarily. It’s something you have to work on and work your way through.”

The 49ers have lost two games on the road by a total of five points. Seifert doesn’t deny that the Plan B departures of Ronnie Lott and Roger Craig to the Raiders, plus the loss of Joe Montana for the first portion of the season, is taking some toll in close games.

“I think the thing we are doing also is that we haven’t been overcoming mistakes, and we probably haven’t been taking advantage of opportunities when we’re down in scoring territory,” Seifert said. “Biggest example was last week, three times we’re down there and three times came out without points: interception, fumble, blocked field goal.”

The 49ers haven’t had a running back rush for more than 50 yards this season, but they apparently have cooled in their pursuit of holdout Denver Bronco tailback Bobby Humphrey. Denver recently asked for a No. 1 pick plus defensive lineman Kevin Fagan, a fee Robinson calls “crazy.”

“Well, we were interested in him,” Seifert said. “But we got to a point to where we could not come up with a solution or a negotiating settlement and so right now there is no interaction. At this point, it’s a dead issue.

“It’s just at the point where it’s not going to work. I’d say right now we’ve got a good group of backs, and they’re going to play. You don’t always get what you want.”