The Rams Change Quarterbacks : Knox Is Trying to Salvage the Season Now

First Dan Marino, and now Jim Everett. The two longest-running starting quarterbacks in the NFL, masters of their own domain since their rookie seasons, have been waved to the sidelines virtually in tandem, victimized this month by a similar set of circumstances.

The Achilles’ heel got them both.

Marino’s was a torn tendon. Everett’s was a torn psyche--a loss of self-confidence so glaring and so obvious that it was felt everywhere from the man next to him in the huddle to the man in the last row in the View level to, finally, the man who decides each week who will start at quarterback for the Rams, Chuck Knox.

This Sunday, Knox will start T. J. Rubley at quarterback--and the initial reaction is: What took him so long? Everett had it wrong last Sunday when he took Knox to task for benching him in the second half and losing “faith” in him. Faith? With Everett, Knox has exhibited more faith than Abraham and more patience than Job--to the point that if he stuck with Everett much longer, holy Abraham, Knox was going to find himself out of a job.

Knox waited for 23 games. That’s a season and a half. Knox is 61 and beginning his third decade as an NFL head coach. He doesn’t have many more seasons and a half to burn, if the idea is to wear a Super Bowl ring before receiving the gold watch, and that was the plan when Knox arrived here in January of 1992.

On that day, Knox proclaimed Everett to be the most talented quarterback he had ever coached. It was the right thing to say at the time--you were expecting, maybe, Dave Krieg or Joe Ferguson?--and it was wishful thinking. Everett was damaged goods by the time Knox got to him, already doubting himself after back-to-back lousy seasons, and Knox had to do whatever propping up he could.

The most talented quarterback Knox ever coached went 8-15 in those 23 games. He went 1-7 against division rivals and 2-5 this season, a season Knox had predicted would result in a playoff berth.

The Rams haven’t been within sniffing distance of the playoffs since Everett under-lobbed that pass to Flipper Anderson in the 1989 NFC final. They went 5-11 in 1990, 3-13 in 1991, 6-10 in 1992. And now, they are 2-5, bringing their total for the decade to 16-39.

That’s a winning percentage of .291.

That’s Tampa Bay Buccaneer territory, Phoenix Cardinal country. Only three NFL teams have fared worse than the Rams over the same period--Tampa Bay (15-39), Phoenix (15-40) and New England (10-45).

All of them have changed starting quarterbacks.

Several times.

And there are those who will say the Rams are “panicking” by replacing Everett with Rubley now.

When did losing become acceptable in Anaheim?

When did 6-10 become fine and dandy?

The Rams went 6-10 last season and there was rejoicing in the streets. They doubled their victory total from ‘91! Yes, they did--and they still finished eight games out of first place. Who lowered our expectations? Who made third place fashionable? Who made mediocrity tolerable?

Could it have been . . . Jim Everett?

We were blinded by the white flash of his spectacular 1988 and 1989 seasons. That prototype build, that whiplash arm, those 60 touchdown passes in those two years. Everett took the Rams to the porch of the promised land. We bowed and we believed. And if the Rams started to stumble down the road, and Everett assured all that nothing was wrong with No. 11, then it was merely a temporary virus in the system, right?

No quarterback as good as Everett could let this go on forever.

Jim was going to turn this thing around, because he said he would.

Any Sunday now.

Today, the Rams are 2-5 and out of the running in the NFC West largely because of their quarterback. Remember the old alibi: Everett can’t do it alone. Well, right now, Everett ranks among the best-protected quarterbacks in the league. He has a running game; they call him Jerome Bettis. He has been given more targets--Troy Drayton, Ernie Jones. The defense has been rebuilt back to respectable.

The truth is, the Rams are a quarterback away from making the playoffs. Certainly, the quarterback made the difference in the last two losses. If Everett doesn’t throw two miserable second-half interceptions in Atlanta, the Rams beat the Falcons. If Everett doesn’t go belly-up last Sunday--two for nine, 12 yards, one interception--the Rams beat Detroit at home.

Win those two and the Rams are 4-3, heading up to San Francisco for a showdown for second place.

Instead, the Rams arrived at practice Wednesday morning staring at another dead season, until Knox breathed some life into it. All it took were two small letters:

T and J.

This is not Knox throwing in the towel.

This is not the Rams cashing in the rest of the season.

This is Knox and the Rams making the most of bad circumstances and seeing if they can salvage something positive from these last nine games.

Maybe the Rams have an ignition switch in young Rubley. Maybe they have their own Brett Favre, who was an unknown commodity only until he got his feet behind center. Or maybe they don’t.

One way or the other, now is the time to find out.

For the first time this decade, the Rams have a reason to keep suiting up in November and December.

For the first time this decade, we have a reason to keep watching.