Rams Face Challenges at Atlanta

Chuck Knox ticks the reasons off quickly, one by one, until the numbers are piled high and the challenge is clear.

If the Rams can beat the Atlanta Falcons here today, they will have shown that they are a fundamentally changed team from the failures of the last two seasons. If they can’t, then 1991 won’t seem so far away, after all.

Why?

--This is a division game, and the Rams (3-4) have lost their last 12, including their last three to the Falcons (2-5) by a combined 82-41 score.

The last time the Rams won a division game was Nov. 25, 1990, against the San Francisco 49ers in Candlestick Park.

--This is a road game, and the Rams have lost 11 in a row, including four this season.

The last time the Rams won a road game was Sept. 8, 1991, against the New York Giants.

--This game will be played indoors, in Atlanta’s new, loud Georgia Dome, and the Rams haven’t won a dome game since they beat the New Orleans Saints in overtime at the Superdome on Nov. 26, 1989. Since then, the Rams are 0-6 indoors.

The last time the Rams came this close to .500 was last season, when they were 3-4 and preparing to play the Falcons, who were also 3-4. The Falcons beat the Rams in Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, 31-14, beginning a run that resulted in a 10-6 record, a playoff berth and a wild-card victory over the New Orleans Saints.

The Rams went on to eight more defeats, finishing with a 3-13 record and a fired coaching staff.

So a victory here would give the Rams more victories than they had all of last season, would give them their best half-season record since 1989 and would probably put an end to whatever postseason hopes the Falcons have.

“What we need to do is advance to the stage where we can take our professionalism and our football business on the road, and prepare right up to game time and then maximize our effort, find a way to win a football game, on the road, indoors, a divisional game,” is the way Knox puts it. “That’s the challenge.”

The challenge, more specifically, is not to lose at quarterback.

In the teams’ last three meetings, Falcon quarterback Chris Miller has dominated the Rams. Ram quarterback Jim Everett has been baffled and beaten by Falcon Coach Jerry Glanville’s waves of blitzers.

In the three defeats, Everett has completed only 35% of his passes for 381 yards, one touchdown and four interceptions. The whole point of Knox’s offensive philosophy this year is to make sure games are not put in Everett’s hands to win or lose, especially against blitzing teams such as the Falcons.

Miller completed 70% of his passes in his two games against the Rams last season for 508 yards, five touchdowns and an interception. In eight games against the Rams, Miller has thrown for 1,722 yards, 10 touchdowns and only four interceptions.

“We know Atlanta’s a good ballclub, but we know we’re a better team,” said Ram safety Anthony Newman, who is tied for the NFC lead with four interceptions but has had to switch from free safety to strong safety to replace injured Michael Stewart.

“We know we can go in there, beat Atlanta at their place.

“We just can’t let big plays happen. In the past when we played Atlanta, they won off big plays. And we can’t have big plays on us, that’ll kill you every time.”

The Falcons have been struggling, because, as Glanville says, they have relied too much on Miller to do it all offensively and are making too many mistakes playing their risky style of defense.

Atlanta, after losing some close ones early, is coming off of a 56-17 loss to the San Francisco 49ers, and is in danger of watching a season of promise go up in flames.

“We’re backed up,” Glanville said. “We’ve slipped enough times. There’s no room anymore for not getting done what we want to get done, and not playing the way we want to play.

“We’ve had chances to win and didn’t. Everybody said what a great game it was against Miami (a 21-17 defeat), and what a great game it was against the Redskins (a 24-17 defeat) and what a great game it was against the Saints (a 10-7 defeat).

“There’s really nothing great about them, and there’s really nothing to feel good about. They just add up as losses, and we’ve got enough losses now that we can’t afford any more.”

But Knox looks at the Falcons and sees the same four-wide receiver offense that burned the Rams and the rest of the league last year. Since ending a long holdout, Falcon receiver Andre Rison has caught 36 passes--six for touchdowns. And Mike Haynes has converted four of his 13 receptions into scores, one of them from 89 yards out.

“If you look at their games, they really should’ve won all of their games but one,” Knox said. “And if you look at the two games the Rams played against them last year, they dominated them both games.”

Ram Notes

In a matchup of the league’s worst defense against the run and the second-worst run offense, the Rams’ defense is expecting the sputtering Falcon runners to try to control the line of scrimmage. Ram opponents have averaged 5.2 yards per carry this season, but Atlanta runners have gained only 71 yards per game. . . . The Falcons are 2-1 in the Georgia Dome. . . . Falcon quarterback Chris Miller is the NFC’s third-leading passer, with a 90.3 rating, and has thrown 14 touchdown passes, second in the league to Warren Moon’s 16 for the Houston Oilers.