Rams Get Mad, Then Much Better Than Even : Pro football: They fall behind, then rally in the third quarter for 31-27 victory over Tampa Bay.

The greatest comeback in Ram history began amid disaster Sunday night and ended with Chuck Knox practically dancing into the arms of Jim Everett, the quarterback he benched a week ago.

It was a game that threatened to gobble up any sense of pride the Rams had built, and it ended with the Rams (5-8) roaring out from a 24-point halftime hole to claim a 31-27 victory--and the third-biggest comeback in NFL history--before a stunned Tampa Stadium crowd of 38,387.

It was a game that came on the heels of last week’s 14-point loss to the Minnesota Vikings, and ended with Everett--removed from that game in the third quarter--wondering out loud about the dazzling turns of fate.

It was a game of high drama and low comedy, with a 21-point Ram third quarter, three second-half takeaways by the revived Ram defense, blunders by both sides and all the thunder and lightning two bottom-rung teams could possibly produce for a national television audience.

“I think it says something about the character,” Knox said of his own team. “They stayed in there and made some plays. There wasn’t any quit in them.”

Afterward, Everett, who passed for 342 yards and completed three second-half touchdown passes, dealt with his buffeting emotions with wryness and merry mystification.

“Maybe,” Everett said with a giant grin, “it’ll change Chuck’s mind about taking me out too early (last week).

“Week in, week out, it’s crazy. It’s like a roller-coaster, whatever. . . . Like someone said, ‘today, you’ve just got to keep the fire burning.’ ”

The Rams’ fire was all but extinguished in a horrendous second quarter, when the Buccaneers (4-9) took only 13 seconds to turn two Ram errors--one bizarre tackling miscue and one kickoff fumble return--into two touchdowns, transforming a nice little 6-0 lead into a 20-0 stomping.

By the end of the half, after another Buc touchdown and a Ram field goal, it was 27-3, and the vultures were circling the Rams’ 1992 season. Tampa Bay was, after all, the team that lost its final 10 games of last year and hadn’t won a December game since 1989.

“I can’t say we would’ve given up last year, but I don’t think we would’ve had the same enthusiasm,” said tight end Jim Price. “We didn’t believe in ourselves last year.”

But the Rams went into halftime angry, not anguished, then took the second-half kickoff and Everett sent a 40-yard touchdown pass to Flipper Anderson before two minutes had elapsed.

Everett, who acknowledges he was bothered by his benching long after last Sunday’s game was over, said the comeback--and his comeback--started with a feeling of overall frustration.

Said Price, one of 10 Rams receivers who caught passes Sunday night: “You know, I felt at halftime, even though we were down 27-3, the way they were playing defense--just kind of playing back, didn’t want to get beat deep. . . . I was telling guys at halftime, I knew we could get some things going. We could score some touchdowns. All we needed was an interception or something.”

After the Anderson score, the Rams got their break two plays into the next Bucs’ possession. Fullback Anthony McDowell lost the ball after a Larry Kelm hit, and Kevin Greene recovered for the Rams at the Tampa Bay 41.

Suddenly, a Ram defense that had been in shock and been beaten by two first-half Vinny Testaverde touchdown passes and 124 Buc rushing yards, was awake, too.

They said they saw it as a test of character.

“Definitely. It was to see what’s there,” said rookie defensive tackle Sean Gilbert, who had two more sacks, both in the second half. “It was the pride.”

Three plays after the fumble, Everett connected with Jeff Chadwick, who fell into the left corner of the end zone, for a 27-yard touchdown to make the score 27-17.

Another three plays later, linebacker Roman Phifer dropped just deep enough to tip up a Testaverde pass over the middle. Cornerback Todd Lyght took the interception down the right sideline for 39 yards all the way to the Tampa 12.

“Nobody quit,” Lyght said. “It was up to us on defense to make something happen and show we’ve got some pride in ourselves, show everybody watching on TV that we’ve got character.”

Sixty-four seconds later, running back David Lang shaved the Tampa lead to three points with a one-yard touchdown run--meaning the Rams had scored 21 points in 7:41.

It was their biggest single-quarter scoring output since Dec. 17, 1989, a span of 45 games.

“It was a quick strike, and that’s what we talked about. We needed to come down, get quick strike, get this thing back, try to get a touchdown on the board, prove that we could compete,” Everett said.

“As far as how quick we put 21 points on the board, I don’t think I’ve ever been associated (with a team that did it) that quickly.

“All of a sudden, we started to challenge them.”

“It felt like two different games,” said Buc receiver Mark Carrier. “When the second half came around, they made a couple of plays early and we couldn’t retaliate.”

The Rams took the lead in the fourth quarter, with the defense continuing to stop an increasingly flustered Testaverde and tailback Reggie Cobb, who rushed for 100 yards, but only 26 in the second half.

Everett hit tight end Pat Carter wide open over the middle from eight yards out with 5:40 to play to give them their 31-27 lead.

It was Everett’s first 300-yard-plus passing day of the 1992 season.

“What can you say? Jim just didn’t have any flaws out there,” Anderson said. “He was making all the right reads, three or four touchdowns, 350 yards, no interceptions. . . . What more can you ask? What more can you say?”

The game was sealed when cornerback Darryl Henley cut in front of a Testaverde desperation pass on fourth and eight with just under two minutes to play. One more big Everett pass, a 38-yard gain to tight end Travis McNeal on third and eight with 1:30 left, was icing on the cake.

“We’ve been playing hard all year,” Price said. “This is kind of our reward. You don’t get rewarded every game, and we haven’t. But we’ve been playing hard, and this is what you get in return.”

Before the Rams comeback came 13 seconds of flash, crash and a fumble return dash. When the Tampa Stadium cannon was quiet, the Rams had turned a 6-0 game into a 20-0 nightmare.

It happened in two plays, two Buccaneer touchdowns, with just the kind of blunders that came to symbolize the Rams in 1991. After those two plays, everything else was cable-TV filler.

Less than a minute into the quarter, taking over at the Buccaneer 19, Testaverde dropped back and fired a strike to tight end T.J. Armstrong about 20 yards downfield, in stride. Armstrong absorbed simultaneous hits from safeties Pat Terrell and Anthony Newman, then rumbled 55 more yards for an 81-yard score.

Then, on the next kickoff, Ram return man David Lang lost the ball to Roger Jones, who had a 26-yard clear path to the end zone.