Rams Swing, Miss, but Miller Misses Few Against Them : Defense: By the time the pass rush gets to the Atlanta quarterback, he has the ball in the end zone.

The Rams did their best to knock Chris Miller out of the game Sunday, but by the time they did, the Atlanta Falcon quarterback had all but knocked them out of the playoff picture.

Before leaving the game because of a bruised knee midway through the third quarter, Miller, who pulls the trigger on Atlanta’s Red Gun offense, had blown the Rams’ playoff hopes to smithereens.

He completed 14 of 19 passes for 237 yards and three touchdowns, and the Falcons’ 31-14 victory dropped the Rams to 3-5 halfway through the season.

The Rams employed what Atlanta guard Bill Fralic described as “a lot of goofy defenses,” most of which included a host of blitzing linebackers and safeties.

The idea was to sack, or at least rattle, Miller.

The result was a lot of long completions to the four speedy wide receivers in Atlanta’s version of the run-and-shoot.

“They were stunting a lot,” Fralic said, “bringing a whole lot of people, and they were getting some pretty big hits on the quarterback at times. But they left themselves open for some big plays, and Chris took advantage of that.”

It wasn’t as if Miller hadn’t seen similar defensive schemes. He practices against one every day.

“I really think that helped,” Miller said. “It was like playing against our defense in practice. They put some pressure on me, but that left some very good receivers open in some man-to-man situations. When you’ve got guys like (Andre) Rison, (Michael) Haynes, (Mike) Pritchard and (Floyd) Dixon, they’re going to make the big plays.”

Both Haynes and Pritchard said this was Miller’s best performance of the year when it came to finding the open receiver and getting him the ball.

“He was just on the whole game--making the right reads, the right decisions and putting the ball right on the money,” Haynes said.

Pritchard: “He was taking what the defense was giving him, and when we got open, he found us. Chris knows he’s a good quarterback, but this game has to be good for his confidence.”

It was certainly a turnaround from last week for Miller, who lost his confidence, lost his poise and pretty much lost the game for Atlanta. After passing for 199 yards in the first half, he completed only two of 15 second-half passes for 21 yards in a 16-10 defeat in Phoenix. He also threw three interceptions in the second half.

“With me right now, it’s fighting this confidence thing,” Miller said. “I felt really good today. I concentrated more on just executing my position.

“Last week, I got myself in trouble on a couple of plays when there just wasn’t anything there, and I tried to make something happen. A couple of times, I should have just taken the sack and let our guys come in and punt instead of trying to force the ball 30 yards down field on third down with a guy hanging on my leg.”

In the first half Sunday, Miller didn’t have to worry about making that choice. The Falcons punted only twice and had three touchdown drives--of 70, 84 and 56 yards--and a comfortable 21-0 lead.

On the Falcons’ first possession, Miller completed four consecutive passes, the fourth a 19-yard touchdown pass to Dixon on which Miller eluded the Ram pass rush, surveyed the field for a second or two and found Dixon all alone in the back of the end zone.

Miller completed three of four passes on Atlanta’s next scoring drive, including a 43-yarder to Haynes, and was nine of 11 for 126 yards midway through the second quarter.

He said he would have thrown another touchdown bomb a couple of minutes later if Ram linebacker Paul Butcher, blitzing from the blind side, had not leveled him as he released the ball. Butcher slammed his helmet into Miller’s ribs, and Miller gave way to Billy Joe Tolliver for the rest of the series.

“I got bumped into a couple of times on blitzes, and that’s going to happen, but overall the offensive line did a good job of protecting me,” Miller said.

“That time, (Butcher) got his helmet right in my rib cage. Dixon was open deep, but he hit me just before I could get the ball away.”

Miller said it hurt like hell, but “it’s OK now.”

“I just lost my wind,” he said. “It was good for me to come back after getting popped like that and still play good.”

Miller lost his wind, but he didn’t lose his touch. He returned in time to orchestrate a six-play, 56-yard drive that ended with a soft-touch 20-yard touchdown pass to Rison with less than a minute left in the first half.

Then, early in the third quarter, Miller caught Ram cornerback Jerry Gray “squatting on the out pattern” and threw a 55-yard bomb to Haynes for the Falcons’ fourth touchdown. On the next series, Miller was scrambling away from a blitz and had gained nine yards when Larry Kelm caught him from behind and fell on his left knee.

“I hurt it a little against Phoenix, but it’s no big deal,” Miller said. “I could’ve gone back in, but they wanted to get Billy some plays.”

And why not? Backup quarterbacks can always use a confidence boost, too, and the Rams seemed willing to help on this afternoon.

Tolliver was five for five for 45 yards.