RAM NOTEBOOK : Defensive Unit’s Inexperience Is Starting to Show--and Hurt

The Atlanta Falcons exploited some of the more obvious weaknesses in the Ram defense Sunday. The Rams blitzed everyone but the coaches on some downs, but the Falcons read them and reacted, running for 121 yards and passing for 278.

There are only five teams in the NFL with defenses ranked below the Rams’, but that really shouldn’t come as a huge surprise. Lost in the team’s early-season offensive malaise was the fact that the Rams have a very inexperienced defensive unit that is undergoing changes almost daily.

Inexperienced? Look at the defensive line that started against the Falcons:

--Right end Gerald Robinson is a sixth-year player the Rams acquired from San Diego via the Plan B route. He spent almost all of the 1988 and ’89 seasons on injured reserve and started one game for the Chargers in 1990.

--Left end Karl Wilson is another Plan B signee. In his fifth year, he has already played for Miami, Phoenix and San Diego.

--Right tackle Robert Young is a rookie from Mississippi State. He was the Rams’ fifth-round choice this year.

--Left tackle Alvin Wright is a six-year veteran who had started 50 consecutive games for the Rams before injuring his shoulder this year.

In transition?

Well, at one point Sunday the Rams had linebacker Fred Strickland at right end, Wright in the middle and Bill Hawkins at the other defensive end spot. Also on the field were linebackers Larry Kelm, Glenell Sanders (Plan B), rookie Roman Phifer and Paul Butcher, formerly a special-teams specialist.

Kevin Greene, once the anchor of the Rams’ defense, is seeing somewhat limited action these days and the team is considering starting rookie Todd Lyght in place of longtime Pro Bowl selection Jerry Gray.

So Sunday’s pratfall, chock-full of blown assignments, might have been inevitable.

“It was indeed a poor performance for us,” Coach John Robinson said. “We had some breakdowns in the secondary, in terms of some assignment things, that cost us. We seemed to play without any kind of energy. We just didn’t bring the kind of focus or concentration or emotion or whatever to win.”

Robinson refused to look for “hidden meanings” in what he called a lousy game, but admitted that flagging confidence and inconsistency are sometimes symptoms of a young team.

“Maybe there is a lack of confidence and some guys are not sure about winning,” he said. “We had the Raider game in our grasp and let it get away. There’s some of that, I guess. And I think it’s the young player who has the more up-and-down performances.

“It was quite a lesson for a lot of our young people. You have to play hard every week in this league. You have to find a way to be prepared.”

Glass Is Half Empty: The Rams are 3-5 and the second half of the season is beginning to look downright scary.

The Rams play host to New Orleans (7-1) Sunday and Kansas City (6-3) Nov. 10. Then it’s off to the Silverdome to face the Detroit Lions (6-2) on their own (Astro)Turf.

The Rams then get the surging San Francisco 49ers (4-4), the Washington Redskins (8-0), and Atlanta (4-4) in Anaheim Stadium before completing their 1991 U.S. dome tour at Minnesota (4-5) and Seattle (5-4).

That’s a combined opponent record of 45-23. The three teams the Rams have beaten this season have seven victories among them.

How does Robinson assess his team’s first half?

“Well, I suppose in order to answer that accurately, you have to distance yourself a little from the game Sunday,” he said. “Three and five is not what we had hoped for, certainly, but we have, I feel, made a lot of progress.

“We were coming back from three weeks on the road (in the first month) and coming back from the injuries, and I think we’ve made a lot of progress as a football team from that point to now.

“The game Sunday set us back a little bit, but I think we’re at a place where we certainly can have a much better second half in terms of our performance. There are a lot of good opponents, but in terms of our performance, we expect for it to be a good eight games.”

Where’s the Rush?: For all their linebacker and safety blitzes, the Rams have had little success getting to the quarterback. There have been some spectacular exceptions--Michael Stewart’s ball-dislodging hit on Raider Jay Schroeder and Paul Butcher’s body slam of Chris Miller Sunday--but consistent pressure on the passer is only a dream so far in ’91.

Robinson calls the lack of a pass rush his biggest disappointment this season.

“We have a lot of times where you say, ‘Oh boy, we’re almost there,’ but we haven’t been able to really put any steady pressure on the quarterback,” Robinson said. “I think we are improving, though. We’re getting Mike Piel back (from a shoulder injury) and Al Wright is back (from a shoulder injury) and he played a good game Sunday.

“There has been some problems injury-wise, but we also have been disappointed that we haven’t gotten the job done in that area.”