Rams Hope Offense Can Stay on March Against the Saints : Pro football: Everett and Co. need to carry over momentum from fourth quarter against 49ers.
A week after a confidence-building trip to bountiful, the Rams’ offense must journey into the valley of noise, where so many offenses have been riven asunder.
Moving the ball up and down the field in defeat--as they did last week against the San Francisco 49ers--is one thing, but the New Orleans Saints, tonight in the Superdome, will test the revived Ram offense in a much different fashion.
The Rams do not have fond memories of the ear-ringing Superdome crowd, nor of their last four games to the Saints (3-2), all defeats. And particularly not of New Orleans’ twin quarterback hunters, Pat Swilling and Rickey Jackson, who have haunted Jim Everett for years and have 10 1/2 sacks between them this season.
But the Rams (2-3) are striving to sustain a sense of offense after Sunday’s 17-point fourth-quarter outburst against the 49ers.
If they can keep the pace up against the league’s 10th-ranked defense, one with the second-highest sack total in the league, 19, the Rams say they may be able to be consistent offensively for the rest of the season.
“There’s no question that the confidence level has just soared after the one game,” offensive coordinator Ernie Zampese said. “But one game doesn’t do it. You’ve got to do it over a period of time and be consistent.”
Everett, who had his best game in perhaps two years Sunday, completing 20 of 24 passes and throwing for two touchdowns, will have to handle the Saints’ pass rush more confidently than he has in the past.
A key matchup: Ram left tackle Gerald Perry against Saint right-side blitzer Swilling, who got past Perry for the pivotal sack of Everett that forced a fumble in last year’s game at Anaheim. Perry struggled in the opener against Buffalo’s Bruce Smith, but has settled in and protected Everett’s blind side since. Perry declined comment this week.
Everett said: “I just feel if this team is as intense as we were last week, if it keeps improving, I feel good about this team. We’re going against probably the NFL’s No. 1 defense.
“Someone might argue Philadelphia. But (the Saints) score points with their defense (two touchdowns). It’s going to be a hell of a game for us, even with our confidence getting high.”
In last year’s two defeats, Everett was sacked eight times, fumbled on an important fourth-quarter sack by Swilling at Anaheim Stadium, threw four interceptions and completed fewer than 50% of his passes.
“It’s an important game for him,” Zampese said of Everett. “They’ve got that big pass rush. It’s important for him and his own confidence. He’s high, confidence-wise. To come back and have another fine football game against a really good team would be terrific.”
So far this season, if the Saint defense has been weak in any area, it has been on the ground, yielding 123.6 yards per game, ninth-worst in the league.
At the same time, the Rams are beginning to get their first consistent, fumble-free year out of tailback Cleveland Gary, who gained 110 yards last Sunday and has a chance to become the first Ram since Greg Bell in 1989 to gain 1,000 yards in a season.
For Ram Coach Chuck Knox, keeping the Saint defense from taking the ball away might be the biggest factor in this game--especially with New Orleans’ offense averaging only 12 points per game.
“They’ve won a lot of games by not turning the football over and forcing turnovers,” Knox said. “I look at their game against the Bears (a 28-6 victory in September). They beat the Bears and they scored 28 points, but 14 of those came from their defensive football team.”
That turns things over to the Ram defense, which is still giving up huge amounts of yards on the ground but figures to have an equal match in the sputtering Saints. It’s unusual for a Jim Mora-coached team, but New Orleans is at the bottom of the NFL running statistics, averaging only 3.8 yards per attempt.
Last week the Saints scored their only rushing touchdown of 1992. Last year, they had 15.
“OK, we’ve been struggling offensively. That’s an obvious statement,” Mora said. “But we’re getting better every week, which is encouraging.
“The last couple weeks, we’ve moved the ball pretty well, but we’re still having a hard time scoring.”
The Saints’ defense, in each of their three victories, has held the opponent to single-digit scores.
“We know the offense is going to have a big job on their hands,” said Ram defensive lineman Robert Young. “We feel to compensate what the Saints are doing on defense, we’ve got to have a good defensive game.
“We’re looking forward to getting in there and showing what we can do, because we feel we’ve got a good defense, too.”
Ram Notes
The Rams are winless in their last 13 division games, dating back to their victory at Candlestick Park Nov. 25, 1990. . . . The Rams’ last home NFC West victory was Oct. 21, 1990, when they defeated Atlanta, 44-24. . . . The Rams last won at the Superdome on Nov. 26, 1989, when Flipper Anderson broke the NFL single-game receiving record with 336 yards and the Rams tipped the Saints, 20-17, in overtime. . . . In his seventh season, Jim Mora has coached 100 regular-season games and has a 60-40 record. Chuck Knox, in his 20th season, is 173-117-1, a 59.5% success rate. . . . Knox is 10-4 in his career against the Saints.
