Peete Bounces Back From Being Benched : Pro football: Detroit quarterback is injury-free for a change and expects to hold the starting job through the season. Lions face Rams on Sunday.

It wasn’t a sprained knee that drove Detroit quarterback Rodney Peete to the bench this season, as had been the case four years ago when the Lions played the Rams in an exhibition game.

Nor was it the torn Achilles’ tendon that had forced him out of 10 games in 1991. Nor was it any of the 10 or so other significant injuries that have plagued Peete during his five-year NFL career.

It was Detroit Coach Wayne Fontes who benched Peete. Or was that Lion owner William Clay Ford?

But Peete, USC’s all-time passing leader, returns to Southern California on Sunday, having settled Detroit’s great quarterback debate.

At least for now.

Peete, who won the job back from Andre Ware, will be the the Lions’ starter against the Rams.

Peete completed 14 of 26 passes for 157 yards and two touchdowns Sunday in a 30-10 victory over Seattle. But will Peete be looking over his shoulder if he doesn’t play well against the Rams?

“I think I’m beyond that,” he said. “We had some problems at Seattle, but I didn’t feel at one time I was going to come out of the game.

“I think Wayne has been adamant about me being the guy for the rest of the year, barring something drastic happening. I feel confident that he is going to allow me to play through my mistakes.”

Fontes benched Peete after the Lions failed to move the ball in a 14-3 loss to New Orleans in the third game of the season. At that point, Peete had gone 11 quarters without leading the Lions to a touchdown.

The Lions then went 1-1 with Ware as the starter, beating Phoenix, 26-20, and losing to Tampa Bay, 27-10.

“It was tough in that stretch,” Peete said. “It was difficult to deal with because I felt I shouldn’t have been out. When something like that happens, it’s easy to go in the tank. I had to fight myself from doing that because I was upset.

“The thing I had to do was keep myself mentally positive and ready. There have been times where this has happened before, with the controversy and getting pulled out of games. . . . I knew that anything could happen.”

Said Fontes of the decision to try Ware: “We weren’t very consistent, so at that time I decided to see if one of the other two guys (Ware and Erik Kramer) could get the job done.

“I took a tremendous amount of criticism for it, but we won one and lost one. And we’re back to Rodney now. He’s the quarterback I’ll start. That was something I had to find out in my own mind and for the team’s sake.”

But just who made the change?

Before Fontes even announced Ware as the starter, Ford had left a congratulatory message on Ware’s answering machine.

Or thought he had. Instead, though, Ford had dialed Kramer’s number by mistake, leaving the message for Ware on Kramer’s machine. Word spread of the change before Fontes announced it at practice.

“The only thing I know is what Coach tells us, that he makes all the decisions,” Peete said. “There were a lot of rumors that it came from upstairs, that Mr. Ford got involved. But I don’t know if that’s true. The only thing I can go on is what Coach says.”

In Detroit, everybody had an opinion. Kramer was the overwhelming favorite in a fan poll by the Detroit Free Press last summer. Peete finished third, behind Ware.

“Everybody in town says this guy is as good as that guy or this guy is as good as that one,” Fontes said. “The media all picks their guy. But as a coach, you have to decide what you want to do and can’t let outside people influence you.

“If I had my druthers, I would have one guy who is head and shoulders above everybody.”

Peete said that getting benched didn’t hurt his confidence.

“I feel like all the distractions and the controversies are behind us now,” he said. “All we’re focusing on now is just winning. I know I have the confidence of the coaching staff and the head coach that I can be stable here.

“I can relax and go out and play. As a quarterback, that’s what you need to feel, that you can go out and make mistakes and not have to look over your shoulder.”

Mistakes and a failure to move the offense were what got Peete in trouble in the first place. He had completed 12 of 17 passes for only 99 yards against New Orleans when Ware replaced him in the fourth quarter.

“We had problems scoring, but look at the teams we played,” Peete said. “I got pulled after the New Orleans game, and New Orleans has a great defense that gives a lot of people problems.”

Peete also claims he’s a victim of circumstance. Detroit has ditched its run-and-shoot offense for a ground attack that features tailback Barry Sanders and sometimes uses multiple tight ends.

In the victories over Atlanta and New England, the Lions failed four times to score from inside the opponents’ five-yard line.

Still, Ram quarterback coach Ted Tollner, who coached Peete for three years at USC, thinks Detroit’s new offense suits its quarterback just fine.

“It’s a good system for Rodney because it doesn’t put all the emphasis on the quarterback,” Tollner said. “They have a good running game, and they physically pound you.

“It allows you to move when you want to. Rodney doesn’t have great foot speed, but he can scramble, and he’s smart and knows how to get the ball up on time and can make good decisions. He doesn’t have a shotgun arm, but he has good anticipation, so it’s strong enough to be successful.

“What Rodney has to prove is that he can make the decisions and throw accurately enough, and consistently enough, to be a winner in this league. It looks to me like he’s getting better.”

Walking Wounded

Before this season, Detroit quarterback Rodney Peete had sat out nearly as many games with injuries, 29, as he had started, 33. He was benched for two games this season in favor of Andre Ware. Peete year-by-year:

Year Att. Comp. Yds TD Int. Games missed (Injury) 1989 195 103 1,479 5 9 8 (sprained knee) 1990 271 142 1,974 13 8 5 (hamstring pull) 1991 194 116 1,339 5 9 10 (torn Achilles’ tendon) 1992 213 123 1,702 9 9 6 (concussion, knee-ankle injuries) 1993 88 53 609 3 4 2 (benched)