Everett Questions the Rams’ Preparation : Pro football: Zampese says he should have allowed quarterback to change plays at line of scrimmage.

Quarterback Jim Everett indicated Monday that the Rams were not properly prepared to take on the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday and were using an offensive philosophy that left them on uneven footing.

Everett also challenged the decision and play sent in from the sideline shortly before the half that resulted in a sack, fumble and 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 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. 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 plays at the line of scrimmage and switch to passes when it appeared the Falcons were concentrating on stopping 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.”

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,” Everett said.

“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.”

Everett indicated that his hands were tied at times against the Falcons because of what he was 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 (short passes). . . . All we can do as players is believe that what we’re doing is correct.”

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 given 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.”