Rams Trying to Forget How Bad It Was : Pro football: With Patriots next, Knox says it’s too early to consider Sunday’s 40-7 loss simply another shade of ’91.

If the Rams needed any reminder how far they are from true contention, on Monday they waded through an inglorious game film that gave them an idea.

Miles, and miles, and miles, and miles. . . .

In the wake of Sunday’s 40-7 loss to the Buffalo Bills, the Rams woke up and realized once again that they are lacking many, if not most, of the ingredients for success.

Coach Chuck Knox, however, dismissed any suggestion that his team, after all his work to erase the memory of last year’s 3-13 disaster under John Robinson, would fall into 1991 patterns.

The New England Patriots at Anaheim Stadium are next, Knox said, not imminent collapse.

“This is a new season,” Knox said Monday. “I think they ought to . . . come out ready to play the next week and play better because (the Rams) have a chance to come back and redeem ourselves and win a football game.

“We are a young football team, and we have to learn how to cope with adversity, too. The thing you have to do, is the next time you come out to play, you’ve got to play tougher and smarter.

“You can’t dwell on anything else.”

For the Rams, who ended last season with 10 consecutive losses, keeping those memories away apparently won’t be easy, especially if they keep on losing by 33 points, continue watching Jim Everett throw four interceptions and get sacked three times, and consistently yield 6.1 yards every time an opponent rushes the ball.

This was worse than anything that happened last season, in case the Rams needed to experience it.

“I tried not to do that,” said running back Robert Delpino when asked if he thought of last season during Sunday’s rout. “Even though it’s hard, I tried real hard not to do that.

“I think if we get into that type of mentality, we’re going to get into a rut.”

The Rams, however, should find comfort in the knowledge that the Bills are a premier team, from Thurman Thomas’ four touchdowns Sunday to Bruce Smith’s two sacks and two pass knockdowns to James Lofton’s setting an NFL receiving yardage record.

The Rams, without their two starting defensive ends because of injury, simply did not have the people to cope with Buffalo’s attack. And offensively, there were no answers for Smith and Co.

“They’ve got a whole lot of guys who’ve been to the Pro Bowl,” said Knox, who coached the Bills from 1978-82, “and I’m not talking about 10 years, five or six years ago. I’m talking about in the last two years.

“But they went through some growing pains. I mean, they went 2-14 two years in a row (in 1984 and ‘85). They’re on their third coach, third general manager in a span of about 10 years . . . “

The future for the Rams is with their young players, featuring No. 1 pick Sean Gilbert and No. 3 pick Marc Boutte, two defensive linemen who showed some of their talent despite the Buffalo offensive attack.

Gilbert had four solo tackles and a tipped pass, and Boutte’s deflection of a pass created Anthony Newman’s interception, which set up the Rams’ touchdown.

But Gilbert, Boutte, linebacker Roman Phifer and cornerback Todd Lyght and all the rest are a long way from transforming the Rams into a clone of the Bills.

“I know this, the inexperience, the fact of not seeing plays over and over again and having built-in reactions or having seen a play and made a mistake and being able to come back and profit by it, I think, is a factor,” Knox said.

“Outside of a couple of guys, we don’t have that many veteran players in that eighth, ninth, 10th year. We’ve just got to get better. Get better. There’s no other way.”