Eatman Says He’s Up to Task : Rams: Tackle praises Lawrence Taylor but doesn’t intend to add to reputation of the Giants’ linebacker.

Ram tackle Irv Eatman did not appear emotionally shaken or particularly scared Thursday, a most peculiar reaction from a man who will be matched against Lawrence Taylor on Sunday.

Talk about mayhem in the big city. Picture the New York Post headlines Monday morning: “L.T. Boots Wimps Back To Quicheland.”

The Giants are 2-0 and Taylor is as big, bad and brutal as ever. The Rams are 1-1 and Irv Eatman isn’t Gerald Perry.

“We’re not mismatched if that’s what you’re worried about,” said Jim Erkenbeck, Ram offensive line coach. “We’re not at all mismatched.

“If we’re going to (compare) him with Gerald Perry, by this time last year Gerald Perry had given up two sacks. Irv has given up none.”

The prevailing opinion, however, since Perry joined the Raiders and Eatman left the Jets to sign with the Rams, has been that the Raiders came away with the best left tackle.

“I don’t think Perry’s a much better tackle,” Erkenbeck said. “If you go back and look at what Gerald did in the run game compared to what Irv’s done in the run game, you’d find Irv is a vastly superior player.

“From a protection standpoint Gerald’s about on par with Irv . . . From an assignment standpoint we are very well off.”

But just this week a columnist in The Los Angeles Times noted that now that Washington’s Jim Lachey is hurt, Gerald Perry just might be the best left tackle in the game.

“I’m not here to outplay Gerald Perry,” said Eatman, who will be making his first visit to New York after playing for the Jets the past two years. “If he was on defense I’d be thinking about Gerald Perry.

“Sure, I’ve read this stuff in different places, but some of these people are the same people who were writing that Tony Mandarich was stopping in the NFL on his way to Canton and the Hall of Fame. So much for experts.”

Perry, however, kept Taylor off quarterback Jim Everett’s back a year ago, and the Rams went on to smack the Giants, 38-17.

Now Eatman gets the assignment to protect Everett’s blindside.

“L.T. has done it all and has nothing else to prove,” Eatman said. “But anytime you play against him you do have something to prove.

“It’s an opportunity to play against one of the greatest players in the history of NFL. It’s a great challenge for me, and obviously I’m going to have to be on top of my game.”

Eatman (6-7, 300), who is one of the most personable players in the Ram locker room, distinguished himself as a right tackle with the Jets and Chiefs.

He agreed to make the switch to the left side to fill the hole left by Perry’s defection, and now is responsible for taking on the game’s best pass rushers on a weekly basis.

“Irv is going to block Lawrence Taylor on almost every protection we got,” Erkenbeck said. “Taylor is a special guy, and we have spent time looking at this guy on what he is doing good and what he is doing badly. There has been a lot of research done.

“I’ve got my book, and Irv has his book and we know what to look for. You’re going to see him rush, and when he gets blocked, he’s gonna spin. He’ll try to speed rush you versus moving on a stunt. His chances of coming to the inside are not nearly as good as they used to be. But he’s still a problem and you have to block him.”

Taylor, the NFL’s all-time sack leader with 128, has 1 1/2 this season. He ruptured an Achilles’ tendon in the ninth game last season, and while he announced his retirement before being injured, he agreed to return when Dan Reeves replaced Ray Handley as head coach.

“I go against him with the ultimate amount of respect, but not the least bit of awe or intimidation,” Eatman said. “I think these individual battles tend to get blown out of proportion anyway. Whether we win or lose the game, yes, it will have something to do with how well I play against L.T., but I don’t think that will be the decisive factor.”

A good day by Taylor, though, will undoubtedly energize the Giants and the 76,000 fans who are expected to be in attendance.

“That probably is more frightening to me than if he gets a sack,” Erkenbeck said. “It’s what he does with the general aura of the game; he makes a play and then everybody gets jacked up. Our job is to take him out of the that.”

That is Irv Eatman’s job, and if you can make it in New York against the likes of Lawrence Taylor you can play against anybody.

“It’s not a matter of getting up for L.T., it’s a matter of turning it up for L.T.,” Eatman said. “He’s the Michael Jordan of football and it’s going to take a little more to play against this kind of guy.

“You can read about him on the back page of every newspaper in New York. He’s the man, all right, but that doesn’t mean I have to enhance his reputation.”