PRO FOOTBALL / DAILY REPORT : RAMS : Team Still Undecided at Running Back

Their exhibition schedule is completed and the regular-season opener is eight days away, but the Rams still aren’t sure who their starting tailback will be, or even if he is currently on the roster.

Any one of three Ram backs could find himself in the starting role Sept. 6 in Buffalo. Or it could be somebody the Rams acquire over the weekend. Or it could be somebody they pick up on waivers after Monday’s final cut-down.

The Rams were hoping that Thursday night’s game against the San Diego Chargers would settle the biggest question of the summer, but quiet performances by all of the top candidates in the 30-19 defeat left the situation unresolved.

“We’re really not in a position to make any decisions right now,” Coach Chuck Knox said Friday. “We’re going to wait a day or two and re-evaluate.

“We would like it to have been clarified, obviously, but it doesn’t make any difference--it’s been this long--whether we clarify it today or tomorrow or Sunday. . . . “

Knox said the tailback decision might not be made until Wednesday.

If the Rams decide that neither Cleveland Gary, Marcus Dupree nor Robert Delpino should be the team’s featured back, Knox has implied that the team could either make a trade over the weekend or pick up a back on Tuesday, the day after teams must get down to the 47-man roster limit.

Rookie defensive tackle Marc Boutte and defensive end Gerald Robinson both underwent magnetic resonance imaging tests Friday after suffering injuries Thursday night. Boutte hurt his Achilles’ tendon, Robinson his knee. No results were available Friday . . . . Knox said that he hoped starting defensive ends Bill Hawkins, who has a calf injury, and Robert Young, who has a sore shoulder, will be available for the season opener. Both missed Thursday’s game. He also said kicker Tony Zendejas, who sat out the final two exhibition games with a upper leg injury, will be ready.