Everett Critical of Brain Trust : NFL: Ram quarterback says team was ill-prepared for Sunday’s game. He also questions parts of offensive plan.

Quarterback Jim Everett said Monday the Rams were not properly prepared to take on the Atlanta Falcons Sunday and were using an offensive philosophy that at times left them on uneven footing with their opponent.

Everett also challenged the decision and play sent in from the sideline shortly before halftime that resulted in a sack, a fumble and a lost field-goal opportunity.

“I always said luck was when preparation met opportunity,” Everett said. “Maybe we need to be a little bit more prepared.”

Offensive coordinator Ernie Zampese, who was apprised of Everett’s remarks, agreed for the most part and accepted responsibility.

“There’s no question we could have been better prepared,” Zampese said. “It certainly showed the way we played; we weren’t prepared very well. That’s a reflection on me and we need to do a better job with it.”

The Rams tried to run against an eight-man defensive front and appeared unable to contend with an eight-man rush in passing situations.

“I didn’t think they would catch us off guard, yet they were always anticipating what we were going to do,” Everett said. “I’m only speaking offensively, but defensively, special teams, they got the best of us on all sides.

“When you match us up on paper they aren’t any better than us on paper. Yet they just executed better than we did. That’s what I’m talking about.”

Zampese said he should have allowed Everett an opportunity to change the play at the line of scrimmage and switch to a pass when it appeared the Falcons were loading up to stop the run.

“It was simply play-calling,” Zampese said. “We could have gotten the ball outside to the receivers when they were playing eight guys up front. He’s probably right, we should have called more.

“We broke down on third-down situations, too, which were strictly my fault. They had not shown that eight-man blitz for quite a while. Normally we would have had a protection package in to block all eight of those guys . . . at halftime we added the protection, but we never got that blitz when we had the protection in during the second half.”

The Rams were shut out at home for the first time since 1984, but in the closing seconds of the first half they were poised to score. On second and 10 at the Falcons’ 14-yard line, Everett purposely overthrew Flipper Anderson to avoid being sacked. He began trotting off the field in anticipation of a field-goal attempt with 14 seconds to play and no timeouts remaining.

Zampese, however, wanted another try for a touchdown.

“I was under the impression after second down that we took our two shots at the end zone and we needed to get points on the board (with a field goal),” Everett said. “We had a play (come in) that kind of surprised me. I tried to run it, but I was going to have to hold onto the ball longer, which was going to put pressure on my offensive linemen and me. What happened is I got sacked.

“It’s ultimately up to me as the player to execute it as best as possible. If no one was there I should have thrown it incomplete, so therefore I take the blame. I’m sure our offensive linemen would have liked to block a little longer, but eventually I get the blame.”

Zampese said he sent in a third-down play that is normally run when the Rams need 10 to 12 yards.

“We needed 14 yards, but two of the patterns run by receivers on this play end up in the end zone,” Zampese said. “I thought if one of those come open, throw it, if not, throw it away. We practice it every week, but the way the play turned out, it was unsuccessful.”

Zampese refused to blame Everett for holding onto the ball too long, but Coach Chuck Knox said Everett had been advised to throw the ball away and avoid a sack if unable to make connections. But Everett was hit, fumbled and the Falcons recovered.

Everett said the Rams haven’t always been placed in the ideal situation on offense, and obliquely suggested that might be the fault of the offensive system.

“Ultimately it comes down to us players to execute properly,” Everett said. “There’s some things that we have and more things that we probably haven’t. But there’s also the odds thing; we have to be put in successful odds situations, which sometimes we have and sometimes we haven’t.”

Everett was asked if his faith in Zampese’s offensive system has been tested lately.

“Not only has the faith of the fans in me (been tested), but I’m sure the faith in Ernie, Chuck and everybody that plays on this football team.

“We’re two and whatever now and I think that’s a big issue. That comes back to the issue of believing you can get things done.”

Zampese said, “I think any system that’s not being successful is under fire and being challenged.”

Everett indicated that his hands were tied at times against the Falcons because of what he was being asked to do.

“I just want to win,” he said. “I try to do what is being asked of me. I tried to do that (Sunday). Sometimes I was asked to run; I tried to do that. I never really had the opportunity to throw a deep ball because of some other things that came up, so I tried to manage with the checkdowns (short passes) . . . All we can do as players is believe that what we’re doing is correct.”

Everett called the Rams’ offense “obsolete” after a 16-13 loss to the Detroit Lions in Anaheim Stadium three weeks ago, and after being called in by Knox, he said later he had been misunderstood. He said “obsolete” had referred to the Rams’ inability to score.

While advised that it was a loaded question that might invite a reprimand from his superiors, Everett was asked if he had a chance to be successful Sunday given the Rams’ play-calling and offensive approach?

“I’ll try to answer that as well as I possibly can with due respect to my teammates,” Everett said. “I think the third-down situation there--the odds were definitely against us. Throughout the game I felt we played the best we possibly could of what was being asked of us.

“We had some dropped balls, holding penalties . . . coaches don’t have anything to do with that. But yeah, I’m sure there are some things that could have put us at better odds, but that’s hindsight.”