School of Hard Knox : Rams: Team will rely on improved defense and a coach who has seen tough times before.

Before you contemplate leaping from the tallest building in Orange County, or switching allegiances and becoming a World Cup soccer fan, a word of hope about the 1993 Rams.

“Chuck Knox,” said George Dyer, Ram defensive coordinator. “I’ve seen him do it before. He has taken a team from ashes and made it into a pretty dang good football team.

“Let me tell you this: He knows how to motivate. He’s the best, the best I’ve ever been around.”

This time, however, the miracle man might be overmatched.

The Rams concluded recent dress rehearsals without a victory for the first time since moving to Los Angeles in 1946.

Quarterback Jim Everett, who is supposed to be their best offensive weapon, didn’t play as well in the exhibition games as T.J. Rubley, a ninth-round pick from Tulsa a year ago.

After five weeks of training camp and an increasing possibility that some guy named Richard Buchanan was going to have to be a starter, the Rams put out a casting call for wide receivers.

They have a bunch of running backs, but whom do they start? Rookie Jerome Bettis, who carried eight times for 29 yards before injuring an ankle? Cleveland Gary, the fumbler?

The offensive line appears to have only one weakness so far: It can’t keep the opposition from belting the quarterback.

The defense is new, improved and soon to have a better appreciation for what hard-luck pitchers have experienced: Be prepared to throw a shutout or accept another hard-luck defeat.

“I’m concerned about being able to put the pieces together,” Knox said. “I’m being realistic. It’s not being pessimistic, but then I look at who might not be in that lineup. The whole thing has changed.”

When the Rams gathered for the opening of training camp, Knox startled reporters by talking playoffs. At the time, running back David Lang was sound, the shortcomings at wide receiver did not appear so imposing and the offensive line was intact.

“If you were to tell me at that time that we were to line up with certain people not in the lineup, well then, that greatly diminishes the chances of making that (playoff appearance) happen,” Knox said. “I think people have to be realistic.

“We made marked improvement last year, and that was a start. I have high expectations for this year, but no question we’re in a tough spot now.”

Making things rough for Knox, of course, is nothing new. Knox has become the sixth-winningest coach in NFL history, despite inheriting teams that had no business winning.

“If people know what coaching is all about, Chuck Knox is a shoo-in for the Hall of Fame,” Dyer said. “He has had three different teams and has won three different titles and none of the programs were tremendous programs when he started.

“When it all comes down to evaluating coaches, looking at his career, where he has been, what he’s had to work with, the man is something else. He knows how to put the pieces of the puzzle together when it looks like it can’t be done.”

Go ahead, make his day. Make it tough.

“We’re in Seattle, we’ve beaten Cleveland, 33-0, on opening day and we’re in the locker room and it’s like we’ve lost, 33-0,” said assistant coach Joe Vitt. “Running back Curt Warner has gone down with a season-ending knee injury and he’s the franchise.

“Everybody’s looking to Chuck for reassurance, and I’ll never forget what he did. He comes out, gets the team together and says, ‘Now we’re going to find out who the believers are.’

“He says, ‘Nobody is going to believe in this talent. There are teams around the league right now saying the Seahawks are finished. There are coaches and players right here who don’t believe we’re going to win. Now we’re going to find out who the believers are.’

“Then he went out to practice and he was right in the huddle, running the plays and he wouldn’t let anyone feel sorry for themselves. I remember him challenging the defense. He had stepped up to another level, intensity-wise, and everybody out there realized he was in this thing to win. They joined him.”

The Seahawks went on to finish 12-4 in 1984, despite the loss of Warner, and it was all vintage Chuck Knox.

“The team was either going to pull itself together or going to have one hellaciously bad year,” said Ram center Blair Bush, who was on that Seahawk team. “Everybody on the outside was saying it was over. But then Chuck went out and signed Franco Harris. Franco didn’t gain any yards or do much to help us, but right away Chuck and the organization were telling us they were not about to hang it up. That message came across loud and clear.”

Fast-forward to 1993 and the woebegone Rams. The Rams remained flat at wide receiver after five weeks of training camp, and so Knox traded with the Raiders for Sam Graddy, traded with the Phoenix Cardinals for Ernie Jones and claimed Tony Hargain off waivers from the Kansas City Chiefs. Graddy has since been cut, but at least Knox was doing what he could to shore up a trouble spot.

“It’s faith in the man himself,” Vitt said. “He’ll find a way to get it done. You can see it in his preparation, his work habits. That’s what gets you through the hard times, his leadership.”

The miracle man, however, is working with a team that won only nine games during the last two seasons. It has enjoyed success in both the 1992 and 1993 drafts, but youth takes time to develop.

“We had a similar situation in Seattle and people stepped up and got it done,” Bush said. “When Warner went down, Kenny Easley had a great year, Steve Largent had a big year, Dave Krieg emerged and a whole bunch of bit players came on.

“That’s what this team needs to do. I think we’re a much better team, talent-wise, than last year, but we need people to emerge. We need someone to run down the field and knock the hell out of somebody on special teams. We need a Curt Warner or a Kenny Easley to jump out and make themselves known.”

Chuck Knox football: effective special-teams play, an efficient offense and an opportunistic defense.

Early indications suggest the Rams won’t get that kind of play from their special teams or their offense. But the defense might save the day.

“For years around here, they have had to put 21, 24, 27 points on the board,” Vitt said. “Now we’re going to have to win some football games, 10-7, 14-7, 7-6. That’s Chuck Knox football, playing tough, hard-nosed ball with a disciplined defense.”

The Rams used free agency this season to bolster a defense that ranked No. 27 in the league last season. The team bought the services of middle linebacker Shane Conlan, outside linebacker Henry Rolling and defensive end Fred Stokes.

“I think our defense will be fine if we don’t get people hurt,” Knox said. “But I don’t think we can rely on it and have no offense at all. Opportunism is what the offense has to have. We will get the turnovers on defense and the offense has to convert them into touchdowns.

“I don’t know whether we can pull some magic or not. Until our offense gets in gear, we will have to rely on our defense and we will have to have a sewn-up kicking game. No mistakes there.”

Faith in the man himself, that’s what the players and coaches talk about as they leave behind an 0-4 exhibition season and begin one of the league’s tougher regular-season slates.

“I think you have to have more than that,” Knox said. “You’ve got to have talent. Some people think you can be a magician, but hey, you can’t do it with smoke and mirrors. You got to have some players.”

But if the talent falls short of expectations, there’s still the miracle man. “He’s exactly what this team needs,” said John Becker, Ram director of player personnel. “I was astonished when I got to Seattle and saw how little talent there was, but the thing about a Chuck Knox team is, you know his players will be fundamentally sound and play their butts off.”

Twenty years ago, Knox stepped before a roomful of aspiring coaches after becoming coach of the Rams for the first time and delivered a 23-page speech on, “How to get the most out of your players.”

He ended that address by saying, “If there is anybody in here that aspires to be a pro coach, the technical knowledge, that phase of it will come. That’s not important. The important thing is that you have the ability to motivate and get the maximum amount of effort, potential out of every player that you have on your football team.

“There’s an old Scotch poem that kind of sums up how I feel about football:

“ ‘Fight on my men, Sir Andrew says,

“ ‘A little I may hurt, but yet not slain,

“ ‘I’ll but lie down and bleed awhile

“ ‘And then I’ll rise and fight again.’ ”

Asked recently if he could recall that 20-year-old speech, Knox immediately recited the poem.

“That’s my battle cry,” he said. And the Rams’ plan of attack for 1993.

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