No Excuses on Road to Playoff Oblivion : Rams: A 31-14 drubbing at Atlanta shows their problems, precedes a stretch against five heavyweights.

Nobody could hang this one on injuries or bad luck or the Rams’ subtle search for consistency in a hard, hard NFL world. Nobody tried.

This game was a team-wide journey into football purgatory, and the makeup and mission of the 1991 Rams might never be the same as a result.

The Rams, trying to gear up for a wild-card run in a town more interested in the night activities of its baseball team, collided with cold reality Sunday under a rain of Atlanta passes and blitzes, losing, 31-14, to drag their record to 3-5, 0-3 in the NFC West division.

The wire-to-wire domination by the Falcons reopened the same wounds the Rams have been seeking to heal since the end of 1989, the last time they were either over .500, a real playoffcontender or actually a good football team.

“It was a stinking performance for us, no question,” said Coach John Robinson, whose team is 8-16 since the 1989 season. “I hope that’s the one you play every year where you just can’t do anything right. Just didn’t do anything right at all.

“They came out, and we just died in our own ineptitude.”

Trouble for the Rams is, they have turned in five similarly failed efforts out of eight, with New Orleans, Kansas City, Detroit, San Francisco and Washington ahead.

This was a game that left four-time Pro Bowl cornerback Jerry Gray facing up to the possibility that he might be removed from the starting lineup in favor of rookie Todd Lyght after yielding another long touchdown pass.

The Rams gave up more than 255 passing yards for the fourth game out of their last five, struggling to conjure up a pass rush--which had only one sack Sunday--out of defensive linemen who probably cannot give it to them.

The Ram passing attack fell back into its early season slump, searching desperately for the big-play performance that the Falcons’ defense denied.

This was a game that, at the midpoint of their fits-and-starts season, brings the Rams staring into the eyes of playoff irrelevance, while the NFC playoff picture is beginning to take form.

Last week, the Rams could talk about how well they played in losing to the Raiders by a field goal, saying that breaks stole a big victory from them. The only breaks Sunday came when the Falcons kicked down everything and anything the Rams wanted to do.

“I just think the Rams played lousy in all phases of the game,” Robinson said, “so whatever Atlanta attempted to do, Atlanta was capable of doing.”

The Falcons scored touchdowns on their first, third, fifth and seventh possessions, scored a field goal on their eighth and held the Rams to five first downs in taking a 31-0 third-quarter lead.

“It’s the same old story. We couldn’t move the ball up and down the field,” said quarterback Jim Everett, who completed nine of 27 passes for 92 yards and no touchdowns and left the game with almost eight minutes left.

The Falcons have two of the best man-to-man coverage players in football in Tim McKyer and Deion Sanders, and Everett lofted several balls deep only to see them knocked away.

“Wasn’t like last week,” Everett said, referring to his 294-yard day against the Raiders.

“Any time you play a team like Atlanta, it’s kind of like a do-or-die type deal. They put it on the line with all the blitzes and . . . all the pressure on the corner(back). It’s just a matter of making the big plays, and we didn’t do it.”

The Falcons did not stop making big plays, from their first possession until the last.

Starting quarterback Chris Miller completed 14 of his 19 passes for 237 yards and three touchdowns, and his backup, Billy Joe Tolliver, was five for five for 45 yards.

Two of the Falcons’ touchdown passes came on blown defensive zone reads between the cornerbacks and safeties, but one score was the responsibility of Gray, who acknowledges that he has lost significant speed since his knee injury last season. Another touchdown was set up by a deep pass against Gray.

After Mike Haynes ran by Gray for a 55-yard touchdown reception in the third quarter, Lyght saw significant time at left cornerback. Gray has yielded touchdown passes or passes that set up touchdowns in five of the Rams’ eight games.

In the first quarter, the Falcons moved down to the Rams’ 12-yard line after Haynes got behind Gray for a 43-yard reception. Three plays later, Pat Chaffey ran in from five yards out, making the score 14-0, and the Rams never recovered.

“It’s very hard,” Gray said of the long plays against him. “Believe me, it’s unbelievable. Just to see a guy. . . . It’s like there’s no way. . . .”

Robinson and defensive coordinator Jeff Fisher declined to comment when asked if Lyght could replace Gray this week in the lineup, but the Rams have been considering such a move for weeks, waiting for Lyght to fully recover from an ankle injury.

“If they make a change, if it’s best for the team,” Gray said, “I think they should do it.”

Said Lyght, the team’s No. 1 draft selection this year: “That’s up to (Robinson). (Right cornerback) Darryl Henley and Jerry Gray have already proven themselves as starters. . . . It might be better just to let me play some series.”

The Rams did not score until a 47-yard pass interference call gave them ball at the Falcon nine-yard line early in the fourth quarter. Tailback Robert Delpino, who has seen running room vanish before his eyes since big performances in the season’s first two weeks, went nine yards to make the score 31-7.

Robinson then pulled Everett from the game one series later, letting Mike Pagel finish.

Pagel closed the scoring with an 18-yard touchdown pass to tight end Pat Carter. Carter caught only two passes all day, and totaled 26 yards. The touchdown pass was Pagel’s only completion in two attempts.

“We just had an off-day. We didn’t come out as excited as we wanted, and they came out very excited,” free safety Pat Terrell said.

“They made some big things happen, and they got up quick.”

Ram Notes

Tailback Cleveland Gary sprained his right knee in the first half and did not return. Running back David Lang suffered a bruised right foot, and defensive tackle Alvin Wright strained his right groin. . . . Tailback Marcus Dupree, active for the first time in 1991 after a dislocated toe put him on the injured-reserve list, rushed four times late in the game, including one 24-yard burst through the middle. . . . The Rams deactivated injured wide receiver Flipper Anderson and linebacker Brett Faryniarz. Both are expected to be healthy for next week’s game against the Saints.