Stardom Not Necessarily Lyght Years Away : Rams: Cornerback has had a rocky two seasons but is beginning to live up to expectations put on him as a rookie.

Two games into the Rams’ season, Todd Lyght emerged from the end of his rookie-year tunnel, twinkling brightly--but, as it turned out, briefly--on a team that has been waiting for him to shine.

After a so-so, holdout-delayed performance in 1991, a season in which he also was injured, Lyght was part of the team from the beginning this year. He finally broke loose at left cornerback in the Rams’ shutout victory over the New England Patriots on Sept. 13.

Lyght intercepted two passes, recorded eight solo tackles and knocked away three Patriot passes, dominating the game as much as a cornerback can.

He was the fifth player selected overall in the 1991 draft and called the best cornerback coming out of college in a decade by many scouts. He had signed a five-year, $5.5-million contract after protracted negotiations. And he had finally arrived.

Even Coach Chuck Knox, a man not given to gushing, called Lyght outstanding after that outing. At 6 feet, two or three inches taller than most cornerbacks, and with a smooth, graceful style, Lyght looked like the Rams’ secondary anchor for years to come.

Then, just as quickly as he flamed, he flickered, the victim of a shoulder separation the next week against the Miami Dolphins.

He went on the injured-reserve list for four games, then returned to the lineup, he concedes now, a shell of his early season self. Just like that, Lyght felt uncomfortable, slow and beatable.

He was matched against Michael Haynes, the Atlanta Falcons’ warp-speed receiver, in his first game after returning to the lineup.

“When I got back, I was kind of slow, hesitant,” Lyght said this week. “Then I went in and got beat for two touchdowns.

“And then the week following, (in) the Phoenix game (when he gave up most of Ricky Proehl’s nine catches for 126 yards), I was playing a little bit hesitant, playing a little soft, I think.”

Lyght suffered through a few more shaky weeks--often playing as far as 10 or 12 yards off his assigned receiver, even on short-yardage situations. Was this the player around whom the Rams were building their secondary?

He says it wasn’t a crisis of confidence, just a matter of feeling awkward and alone at a position where a misstep or an off-balance moment often means a touchdown.

“I don’t think I have any problem with my confidence,” Lyght said. “I think after I was beat for the two touchdowns in Atlanta, my confidence wasn’t down, but I think I was playing a little softer than I needed to.

“Talking to coach (Rod) Perry, going over the things that I do best, I was getting away from a lot of those things. I think one of the things I do best is line up in the guy’s face and just play man (-to-man coverage) from the bump-and-run spot.”

Perry, the team’s secondary coach, said Lyght’s bumpy times after the injury were natural, and that he was never seriously concerned about Lyght’s future.

“We’re confident with the player that we have,” Perry said. “He just needs to be able to play and not miss playing time and be able to go from there.”

Lyght snapped out of the funk on Dec. 6 in the team’s comeback victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, making a key third-quarter interception and return, tipping away two other passes and playing aggressively for the first time since his injury.

“It’s hard to be out for a long time and then jump back (and) think you’re going to be able to just dominate,” Perry said.

Even so, for a player who came into the NFL with expectations as high as they were for Lyght, his fall from grace was hard to accept. For about a month, offenses zeroed in on him, completing passes in front of him.

Said Darryl Henley, the starting right cornerback: “I think once you get beat, you start to question things. It can affect you. He just fought through it. He really did.

“The pressure’s not off of you after your first year. It’s still on you when you’re a high-round draft choice. I just think he’s settling down. He’s not feeling as much pressure. I mean, before, he probably felt a lot of pressure because people expected him to come out and just put out the fire.

“But I think me playing well probably takes the pressure off of him, too. He’s just been able to calm down.”

Asked if he had thought he would be much more established as an NFL cornerback by now, Lyght emphasized that instant superstars are as rare as underpaid first-round draft choices.

“Looking at somebody’s career that I’ve followed, Deion Sanders, it took him awhile to get to the level he is now,” Lyght said. “His first season, Atlanta, they weren’t a very good team. They lost a lot of ballgames, and he didn’t really play as well as he would’ve liked to, I know.

“His second year, it was a learning year for him. He got a little bit better. And his third and his fourth years have been very strong.”