Everett: What a Difference a Play Makes : Rams: Quarterback has his best passing game of the season, but is left disappointed by one he didn’t get to throw.

For a while, Jim Everett was playing flashback football, showing the confidence and consistency that made him one of the top quarterbacks in the NFL in the late 1980s.

Then along came Kansas City linebacker Derrick Thomas, who quickly brought Everett and the Rams back to the reality--and frustrations--of 1991.

Everett had his best game of the season Sunday, 26-of-37 passing, including 16 consecutive completions, for 329 yards and three touchdowns.

But he will long remember the 27-20 loss to the Chiefs for the pass he didn’t get to throw.

Trailing by a touchdown, Everett drove the Rams from their 35-yard line to the Chiefs’ 26. Forty-six seconds remained when he dropped back to pass.

“I was looking back across for Aaron (Cox),” Everett said. “It would have been a drill-shot, but it might have been there.”

Instead, the ball ended up in the hands of a blitzing Thomas, who had knocked it loose and recovered it at the Ram 36. The Chiefs ran out the clock. Everett ran to the locker room disappointed--again.

“It seems like you’re on top of the world one minute and in the gutter the next,” Everett said. “And we’re getting pretty tired of the gutter.”

Everett, who threw for 4,310 yards and 29 touchdowns in 1989, has been criticized this season for his inconsistency. He didn’t throw a touchdown pass until the sixth game of the season.

He entered Sunday’s game with five touchdown passes and 11 passes intercepted. The Rams (3-7) are on a four-game losing streak.

Everett seemed uncomfortable in the pocket, forcing passes under pressure. He frantically shuffled his feet while throwing, usually to players wearing jerseys of another color.

It was more of the same early in Sunday’s game. Everett’s third pass was intercepted by Deron Cherry, setting up Kansas City’s first touchdown--a six-yard pass from Steve DeBerg to Jonathan Hayes.

It was Everett’s last incompletion for two quarters. He completed his last 12 passes of the first half, including touchdown passes to Henry Ellard and Damone Johnson, as the Rams tied it, 14-14, at halftime.

Everett completed four passes for 44 yards in the third quarter before breaking the streak by overthrowing Ellard with 14:55 left.

The offensive line, with help from running backs Buford McGee and Robert Delpino, staved off Thomas and gave Everett time to look at his secondary receivers.

“I think the offensive line played excellent today,” Everett said. “Gerald Perry played well on Thomas, and the whole line did an All-Pro type job.

“I had enough time to get the ball off today. We would like to be able to do that every Sunday.”

Everett began finding some of his favorite targets.

Ellard (eight catches for 160 yards and a touchdown) was open in the flat all afternoon.

Tight ends Johnson (five catches for 37 yards and two touchdowns) and Jim Price (four receptions for 39 yards) were open over the middle. Delpino, who caught four passes for 38 yards, was open on short routes.

“You could see Jim was really settled in there,” said Johnson, whose 17-yard touchdown catch tied the score at 20-20 with 7:06 left. “He had one of his best games today.”

Price, Everett’s roommate, said the quarterback has his confidence back.

“Except for the Atlanta game, you could see his confidence and timing with the receivers coming back in the last four or five weeks,” Price said. “He was finding us on deep crossing patterns, and he got into a rhythm with Henry and Flipper (Anderson), and that will definitely continue.”