COMMENTARY : What’s in a Name Against the Rams?

Down, 17-0 . . . up, 28-23 . . . down, 30-28, and out after 60 minutes of uphill rushes, downhill swooshes and hairpin turnarounds in every corner of the Georgia Dome. Chuck Knox’s head had to have been spinning.

“First of all,” Knox said to those who had gone along for the ride and had done so without the aid of Dramamine, “you’ve got to give the Saints credit.”

Well, yes, you do.

The Saints trailed Tampa Bay in the fourth quarter Sunday but rallied for a 23-21 victory on a 50-yard field goal by Morten Andersen.

One time zone over, Knox’s Rams had lost to the Falcons , to whom you also have to give credit. Knox knew this. Just a slip of the tongue, certainly excusable after this latest slip of the team.

Falcons, Saints--once you’ve lost 13 in a row to NFC West rivals and 12 in a row on the road and seven in row under look-the-same, feel-the-same, sound-the-same domes, the names and the games start to run together.

On paper, this was just another Ram defeat--a brick in the wall, a pebble on the beach. Loss No. 5 for the season, loss No. 29 for the ‘90s.

But on the clean, green, artificial grass of Atlanta, this one was unmistakably different.

Hang a 17-0 second-quarter deficit on last year’s Ram team?

Could it have even dreamed of coming back the way this one did Sunday, scoring four touchdowns on its next four possessions to gain the lead with 5:55 to play in the third quarter?

“No,” wide receiver Vernon Turner quickly decided. “Not at all.

“I’m not saying that to put down that football team, because I was a part of it, too, but that team would not have been capable of coming back. We didn’t believe.”

These Rams believe, insofar as they think they can, they think they can. They stayed with the 49ers in San Francisco. They stayed with the Saints in New Orleans. They obliterated the Giants in Anaheim.

Suddenly, a 17-0 deficit in Atlanta, where the Rams have not won since September of 1989, strikes them as highly surmountable.

And surmount they did, despite events that would have brought down the Georgia Dome roof, double-ringed catwalk and all, on top of them on many previous Sundays.

The Rams kicked off and Tony Smith ran the ball up the sideline 60 yards to the Ram 36.

Seven plays later, Atlanta scored.

Jim Everett was sacked and fumbled at his own 38.

One play later, Atlanta scored.

Turner fielded the second half kickoff and fumbled at his own 23.

Four plays later, Atlanta scored.

That was precisely how the Rams lost in their last two visits to Atlanta, by identical margins of 31-14. A three-peat performance seemed entirely in the offing--and then, as Knox later noted, with just a tinge of astonishment, “we got up off the floor.”

When was the last time the Rams put four drives like this back-to-back-to-back-to-back?

1) 79 yards in five plays. Touchdown pass, Everett to Cleveland Gary, three yards.

2) 81 yards in eight plays. Touchdown pass, Everett to Gary, two yards.

3) 81 yards in four plays. Touchdown pass, Everett to David Lang, 67 yards.

4) 64 yards in six plays. Touchdown pass, Everett to Jim Price, four yards.

From 0-17 to 28-23 in barely 15 minutes.

Too bad for Knox nearly 21 minutes still had to be played.

The Rams’ lead lasted two Atlanta possessions, long enough for Falcon quarterback Chris Miller to tear up a knee, but not much more. Former San Diego Charger Billy Joe Tolliver served as Atlanta Recharger, taking over with 1:47 to play in the third quarter and refusing to leave the field until the Falcons had scored another touchdown.

Miller’s favorite receiver is Andre Rison, but Tolliver prefers Michael Haynes, who got the ball on a slant pattern that began from the Ram 13 and ended with a tumble in the end zone. Falcons, 30-28, with 12:51 to play.

From here, the Rams went nowhere. Their last four possessions were the kind their fans have come to know and loathe.

1) Six downs and a punt.

2) Three downs and a punt.

3) Three downs and a punt.

4) Six downs and out of downs.

And do these third-down results ring a bell?

Third and inches from the Ram 29 with 6:15 to play. Gary is hammered behind the line of scrimmage by Falcon defensive end Oliver Barnett. One-yard loss.

Third and three from the Ram 17 with two minutes to play. Everett throws deep down the left sideline instead of short in the flat. Falcon cornerback Bruce Pickens has Henry Ellard and the pass falls incomplete.

Why go for 30 when only three were required?

“We were trying to catch them in a (cornerback) blitz,” Turner said. “Normally, they blitz their corners in that situation, and we were going to throw a hitch to me. But their corners stayed put and pressed us and Henry had to run a fade pattern.

“If they hadn’t, it would’ve been a little hitch and it would’ve been gone.”

As it turned out, the Falcons blitzed everyone but their cornerbacks.

“If you noticed,” Everett said, “they brought nine guys on that play. Sometimes, you’ve got to win one on the outside.

“We were hoping to get a one-and-one situation there, and we did. Maybe I could’ve put the ball in a better place. But Henry made a hell of an effort on it.”

The Rams watched the ball bounce away and the last two minutes tick away, and then attempted to blot out the pain by calling it “progress.”

“We never believed we were out of it,” Turner said, brightening at the newness of the concept. “All we needed was a field goal. Two more passes and Tony (Zendejas) would have put it through for us.”

At any rate, you’ve got to give the Rams credit.

And the Falcons.

And the Saints, for that matter.

But give them a victory?

Sunday, Knox had the wrong team.