Rams Show They Aren’t Half as Good as Redskins, 27-6 : Pro football: Leading only 7-6 after two quarters, Washington turns on its offense in the third quarter to win easily.

It wasn’t ugly or particularly painful.

The Rams didn’t do anything astoundingly awful in Sunday’s run-of-the-mill 27-6 loss to the Washington Redskins, and the Redskins chipped in a rather listless tryout for the role of This Year’s Model Powerhouse.

So, get your highlight films ready: As far as Rams losses go in this lost season, this one was a keeper.

Opportunity, in the form of a massive upset that might have saved Coach John Robinson’s job, knocked on the Rams’ door, but as usual, they were otherwise occupied.

For the Redskins (12-1), who capitalized on the usual Ram fumbles, blown coverages and offensive breakdowns for 20 consecutive second-half points, it was a nothing-scintillating, no-surprises day.

It was a ho-hum performance before an Anaheim Stadium crowd of 55,027, justifiably more interested in the sideline appearance of Mike Tyson than their own fallen fighters.

“They’re a ballclub that just does its business over and over again,” Ram cornerback Darryl Henley said of the Redskins. “No talking, none of that. They just line up the players and go make it happen.”

For the Rams (3-10 and losers of seven in a row), it was the same postgame series of rolled eyes and explanations of a deterioration into a bottom-rung team.

Although the rules of logic chimed in weeks ago, the math Sunday afternoon was undeniable: With the loss, the Rams were eliminated from playoff participation and will play their final three games to defend Robinson’s job.

The Redskins are just boring enough to be on the brink of clinching home-field advantage throughout the postseason, just methodical enough to stay steady on the path toward 18-1.

“By no means did they come in here and just totally tear us apart,” linebacker Kevin Greene said. “We did some good things, but we did more bad things than good things.

“They just kept grinding, kept making plays. And we just eventually started falling: a mistake here, a turnover there, whatever.”

It has been a whatever kind of season for the Rams, who weren’t quite successful in hiding their satisfaction over not being blown out by a Redskin team obviously capable of it.

The Rams played Washington tough for the first half--a major departure from last week’s 30-3 first-half collapse against San Francisco--and walked into their locker room trailing only 7-6.

“In the first half, we hung in there. We hung in good,” said Henley, who contributed a second-quarter interception, his team-leading third of the year, of a pass by Washington quarterback Mark Rypien.

“But I don’t even know what happened after that. It seemed like the second half went by so fast.”

How fast? The Redskins, after playing sleepily enough to raise suspicions they were toying with the Rams in the first half, turned Flipper Anderson’s third-quarter fumble into a 30-yard touchdown pass from Rypien (15 of 24 for 269 yards) to Rickey Sanders three plays later. That was 1:25 into the half.

Redskin kicker Chip Lohmiller missed his third consecutive field-goal try on their next possession, but, after a short punt by Dale Hatcher, Washington put the game away a few minutes later with a seven-play, 62-yard drive ending in Rypien’s 24-yard screen pass play to Ricky Ervins for a touchdown and a 21-6 lead.

That’s how fast a good team can bounce a bad team, leaving only memories of what might have been.

“If you play one of those football teams that play the way they do, you give them the opportunity, they make the plays and they take the drives on the short field and put it in the end zone,” Robinson said.

“And obviously a team that’s going through what we’re going through does not make those plays. And therein lies the game.

“We just can’t right now put together a game to play a team like that. We can play for a while, but the game gets away from us.”

This game got away mostly because of the Incredible Shrinking Offense: The Rams have failed to score more than 10 points in any of their last three games and are looking more disjointed as the season goes on.

Everett completed only 19 of his 41 passes for 201 yards, and the Rams’ running game sputtered early and never recovered.

The Redskins rushed for only 84 yards, didn’t look overwhelming throwing the ball and didn’t dominate the Rams defensively, but won rather easily.

The Rams actually took a 3-0 lead on their first possession, when an 11-play, 47-yard drive resulted in Tony Zendejas’ 41-yard field goal.

But soon enough, the Redskins started looking like the Redskins, with Rypien floating one up over the head of linebacker Fred Strickland to a wide open Terry Orr for a 47-yard touchdown.

Strangely, though, that was the only offensive noise Washington would make all half. The Rams defense held the Redskins to two three-and-out possessions, stopped another on Henley’s slick interception in the end zone and watched Washington end the half on Lohmiller’s second miss, this one way short from 59 yards.

In between, the Rams sneaked in another field goal by Zendejas, who has converted on all 14 of his tries this season, after a 13-yard punt return by Vernon Turner gave them the ball in Washington territory.

“We were matching them blow for blow,” Greene said. “Then they turned it up a notch, and we turned it down a notch.”

That’s when reality and the Redskins stirred to life.

By the end of it, the Rams didn’t even bother to call any of their second-half timeouts in a furious rally. There was no furious rally. There was no fight left in this ballclub.

“I think they play the total game well,” Robinson said of the Redskins. “That’s the part that sticks out to me. I didn’t look there and see some awesome, unbelievable speed or something like that. But they’re good in everything.”

Including beating the Rams, which is a talent not rare among the NFL this season.

Ram Notes

The Rams used an odd center-platoon system, with former left guard Tom Newberry playing center most of the time but heading to the sideline in favor of Doug Smith on clear passing downs. “It felt good,” Newberry said of playing center. “Doug makes it very easy for me to adjust.”