Different Rams Sing the Same Old Song : Pro football: A 27-20 loss to Chiefs includes off-key chorus from Delpino, Zendejas and Perry.

The Rams’ penchant for finding unique and wrenching ways to fumble away football games might have reached its quintessence Sunday.

What made their 27-20 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs before an Anaheim Stadium crowd of 52,511 a capstone to this season wasn’t the familiar pattern of crucial late-game errors, but the characters involved.

It took two fumbles by the team’s most dependable ball carrier, a missed extra point by a kicker who had not missed all season and, ultimately, a sack from a linebacker who hadn’t been heard from all day.

Three of the Rams’ four consecutive losses have come as a direct result of last-period foul-ups.

After it was over, Robert Delpino and Tony Zendejas, until this day blameless in the team’s seasonlong fatal attraction to fourth-quarter folds, could only blame themselves for the 3-7 Rams’ latest heartbreaker.

And left tackle Gerald Perry, who for the second consecutive week surrendered a game-turning sack after three-plus quarters of steady play, could only throw his arms up and say the obvious:

“It’s like Halloween all over again. It’s unbelievable.

“It’s like a double-edged sword. It can either build character on our team or make everyone fold. I’m hoping it’ll have a positive effect, but the way we’re losing can really crush you.”

Last week, Perry couldn’t stop New Orleans Saint linebacker Pat Swilling from knocking the ball out of quarterback Jim Everett’s hands as the Rams were about to tie the score in the fourth quarter.

Sunday, after the Rams had moved to the Kansas City 26-yard line with 40 seconds left, all-pro linebacker Derrick Thomas pushed past Perry and swiped the ball from Everett.

Thomas recovered, and the game, an eerie echo of the previous Sunday, was over.

“It’s almost laughable,” said Ram Coach John Robinson, “if it weren’t so tragic.”

That play was merely the most recent on what is becoming a very long Ram list of 1991 nightmares. It wiped out a 26-for-37, 329-yard passing day by Everett; an acrobatic eight-catch, 160-yard receiving day by Henry Ellard and a big second-half Ram defensive stand.

The negatives began, as usual, after a Ram positive, when Everett threw his second touchdown pass of the game to tight end Damone Johnson, a 17-yarder in the middle of the final period.

The touchdown tied the score, 20-20. The extra point from Zendejas, who had converted all 29 of his field-goal or extra-point tries, would have put the Rams ahead, but Zendejas sent the kick at the right upright.

“I just missed it,” Zendejas said. “Seems like we’re doing things right, but somehow each week--on offense or defense or on a kick like today--we’re messing up.”

The Ram defense, which looked overmatched early but held the Chiefs to a single score in the second half, stopped Kansas City on its next possession.

But three plays into the Rams’ next drive, Delpino, who fumbled earlier in the game, took the ball and headed for the right sideline to stop the clock. Delpino lowered a shoulder into safety Deron Cherry, and the ball popped loose.

Thomas recovered the fumble, tiptoed away from the sideline and ran 23 yards untouched into the end zone to put the Chiefs ahead for good.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Everett said of the play. “I couldn’t believe it.”

Before Sunday, Delpino had handled the ball 173 times from scrimmage and not fumbled. Despite Robinson’s warm words for him afterward, Delpino had no excuses.

“Today, I cost the ballgame,” Delpino said. “I wish I had gotten out of bounds, but you don’t win games by wishing. You win them by being a professional, and I wasn’t a professional today.”

The Ram offense still had 2:21 left to try to tie the score after the kickoff, and Everett converted two fourth-and-longs as he methodically moved the team.

The Rams got to the Kansas City 21 before a motion penalty sent them back to the 26. That’s when Thomas, who had only three tackles and hadn’t come close to Everett, whipped around Perry and got the ball.

“I obviously don’t have any explanation as to why these things seem to be happening to us,” Robinson said. “It’s just like a lightning bolt out of the sky. . . . I believe we’re going to get through this. It’s a hell of a test for us.

“Maybe there’s something psychological going on with us right now that we just have to fight our way through.”

In a surprising first half, the teams scored on four consecutive long drives.

The Chiefs opened the scoring late in the first quarter after Cherry intercepted an overthrown Everett pass. Seven plays later, Steve DeBerg floated a pass over strong safety Michael Stewart’s head to tight end Jonathan Hayes from six yards out.

The Rams tied the score on their next possession, putting together 11 plays for 83 yards, Everett passing one yard to Johnson for the touchdown. At one point from the second quarter through most of the fourth, Everett completed 16 consecutive passes, resulting in his second 300-yard passing day in a row.

Kansas City then went ahead, 14-7, on an 80-yard drive, with Barry Word lunging in from the one. That was answered with a 93-yard drive, the touchdown coming from 14 yards on an Everett pass to Ellard for the 14-14 halftime tie.

“They were playing back today, giving us the underneath, and Henry is fantastic wide receiver,” Everett said.

The other key moment came in the third quarter, when it appeared the Ram defense forced turnovers on back-to-back plays, only to have see both nullified.

First, 260-pound Chief tailback Christian Okoye seemed to fumble as he rolled inside the Ram 10-yard line. Linebacker Fred Strickland fell on the ball. But the officials, who made no call initially, huddled and decided Okoye hit the ground before he lost the ball--no fumble. The replay official found no conclusive evidence to the contrary.

On the next play, Ram cornerback Jerry Gray sliced in front of receiver Robb Thomas for an interception, but defensive lineman Robert Young was flagged for hitting DeBerg in the head, and the interception was wiped out.

Linebacker Kevin Greene stared at the locker room ceiling for answers, without luck.

“Are we ever going to get a break? . . . I don’t know.”

* MARK RYPIEN: Washington quarterback throws for 442 yards, six touchdowns as Redskins improve record to 10-0. C6