The Knox Analysis on 4-8 : Rams: Coach isn’t happy with record, but he says the seeds of progress have been sown.

Almost a year into his fourth, and what he has called his “last go-round” as an NFL coach, Chuck Knox, who has lived through worse, speaks easily about this Ram season.

If, during an increasingly difficult start, Knox has paused to wonder if he really has rerouted the 4-8 Rams toward success, his eyes reflect no doubt.

Speaking confidently this week, the Rams’ 60-year-old coach said he measures success by improvement and maintaining his vision for tomorrow, not by instant gratification and short-lived victories.

“It’s tough for me to take because I’m such a competitor,” Knox said of the team’s struggles. “I love to win. That’s what the enjoyment is in this business.

“But yet, I’ve been coaching long enough--and I’m man enough--that I can look at it in its proper perspective and objectively analyze what did happen.”

And what has happened? The Rams, with personnel not dramatically different from last year’s team, have stayed competitive in most games and pulled off a big upset of the Dallas Cowboys. But only last week against Minnesota, they relapsed into futility.

All of this, Knox says, had to be expected with a team coming off last year’s 3-13 disaster and 1990’s 5-11 record.

“The only way you could turn it around would be to have an infusion of totally new talent, which we were not able to do,” Knox said.

“We’ve made a lot of progress. It may not be apparent in the won-lost record, but I think that the seeds have been sewn for a disciplined program, for a competitive program.

“If we can upgrade the talent level in the next draft or two, and possibly make a trade and have the continued improvement and development of our young football players, we’ll be a good, contending team in a short period of time--similar to what some other teams have done.”

In what probably is the most important achievement of 1992, Knox has let it be known that the buck stops with him.

During John Robinson’s coaching tenure, the Rams were an organizational maze, with responsibility and authority tossed on a sea of confusion and mistrust.

Now, the authority to draft, cut, trade, start, bench or do anything else that has to do with football begins and ends with Knox.

“I think it’s important because I think everybody has to know who is ultimately going to be responsible for a decision that’s made,” he said.

“I think in any organization--sports entity, business or what have you--I think it’s important to know that, ‘Hey, this guy’s going to make the decision, he’s going to be fair, he’s going to work at it and his track record is such that he’s had the experience in doing it and been successful in doing it.’ ”

Executive Vice President John Shaw, whose role as owner Georgia Frontiere’s lieutenant never sat well with Robinson, says he is satisfied with the perception that Knox is the Rams’ final authority on football matters.

“It’s not so much perception as it is reality,” Shaw said. “He does have final say. He’s directly responsible for all football matters.”

Shaw, who has been immersed in league issues the last few years and handed over most of the day-to-day front-office duties to Senior Vice President Jay Zygmunt, calls Knox “a great football coach” and says Frontiere and the rest of the organization wholeheartedly agree with Knox’s long-range approach.

“The organization is very satisfied,” Shaw said. “Obviously, the team is significantly improved over last year, although obviously, we would like to have more wins.

“I do think there is a good line of communication. Chuck does a very good job of letting upper management know what he needs.”

In the beginning, during a hectic off-season, all Knox needed was for the front office to stand back and let him get to work.

“Georgia’s been great,” Knox said. “She’s been very supportive. She understands what we’re trying to do. I think she realized that this was a very, very difficult situation

that we were coming into.”

“I think that will have carry-over value.”

Knox is comfortable enough about his situation to suggest that four victories in 12 games--there are four left--is exactly where the Rams should be.

“We were in some close games where just a play here or just a play there, we could’ve probably won another three games at this point,” Knox said. “And everyone would’ve been talking about we are there. When in fact, we’d have the same people playing.

“Any number of those plays, if we made them, would’ve distorted the record. We could be sitting here at 7-5 and think we’ve got it all done. When in reality we are 4-8 and we’ve still got a lot of work to do.

“We need more talent, there’s no question about that. We need improvement at a lot of areas.”

And when might this team be ready for a real playoff run?

“We were under a similar situation at Buffalo, where they had won three games the year before we got there, two games the year before that,” Knox said. “And the third year (of his tenure), we went 11-5, won the division.”

With that, Knox hopped back to the present.

“I’m looking to see improvement over these last four games,” he said. “I haven’t given up on this season at all. We want to win some of these games.”