December No Longer Is Quitting Time : Rams: The team’s 28-point comeback, its biggest rally ever for a victory, reverses a trend that had marred the previous two seasons.

They might have severe shortages of talent at key positions, they often do strange and dangerous things at crucial times, and they probably aren’t going to the playoffs any time in the near future.

But Monday, in the afterglow of the single biggest comeback victory in the history of the franchise, the 5-8 Rams could lay claim to a description that has escaped them for at least two seasons:

They are not quitters.

For a Ram team that hasn’t walked among the elite lately, that is a description they can live with.

Last year, with John Robinson’s tenure sliding out of control, the Rams collapsed and quit down the stretch, losing their last 10 games with increasing levels of diffidence and lack of desire.

Two years ago, the Rams went winless in December after the playoffs became an impossibility.

And Sunday night, starting off another December, the Rams looked as if they were ready for another swan dive, behind by 27-3 at halftime against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

All it took was the third-biggest come-from-behind victory in the history of the NFL--28 consecutive points for a 31-27 victory, turning the dive into what rookie Sean Gilbert called “a natural high.”

“I think it shows really that we have some real character on our football team,” Coach Chuck Knox said Monday.

“When you’re down 27-3 at the half, no one quit. They battled back.

“It shows that it can be done.”

Ram offensive coordinator Ernie Zampese, the only holdover coach from the Robinson era, knows that it shows a lot more than that.

“I think it’s pretty easy,” Zampese said, “when you get to the end, you have four games left, to say, ‘Hey, we’re down 24 points, what the hell’s the use, you know? Why go out and get hurt when there’s no way to win the game?’

“But they sure didn’t approach it that way. They went out and played, and it was their job and they played hard.

“This game was real, real important for a couple of reasons. First of all, it showed the guys that if they keep playing, they’ve got a chance to win. And whether you’re going to win or not from 24 points down, I mean, the percentages are so far against you.

“But that didn’t bother them, whether they thought they could or couldn’t (win) didn’t make any difference, they went out and played like they could.

“And then they proved to everybody that they’re going to go out and play every football game. Whether it’s getting to the playoffs or not getting into the playoffs, it doesn’t make any difference. They went out and they played it.”

Why the change in attitude?

“I think Chuck’s done a great job in that regard,” Zampese said. “He’s a real even-keel guy, and he’s maintained that from the very beginning.

“So there’s no real highs when you win. . . . You don’t see him real high or real low when he’s losing.

“It’s a steady, even thing. You’re paid to do a job, go out and do you’re job.”

The Ram players spoke all last week about making December a mini-season.

“We’re looking at it as a four-game season,” cornerback Todd Lyght said. “We’re 1-0, we’re just trying to have carryover.”

Said wide receiver Flipper Anderson: “We had a few comebacks like this in ‘89, but this is probably one of the biggest wins I’ve been associated with, even though it was the Buccaneers.”

Some of the veteran Rams were thinking mainly of the rookie and second-year players on the team, players who never experienced the heights of 1989 and weren’t big parts of the past two seasons.

This season, quarterback Jim Everett said, will be a perfect steppingstone for players new to the NFL.

“We’ve got a bunch of young guys who need a lot of experience,” Everett said.

“I guarantee you, they got a lot of experience in this game.”