Rams Are Limping All Along the Line : Pro football: They will try to regroup against the Redskins, who are also struggling because of injuries.

So far this season, the Washington Redskins have made a modest $17,000 donation to a D.C.-area children’s hospital--$1,000 for every sack their injury-plagued defense has produced between trips to the training room.

But after playing the Rams this weekend, the Redskin defense, which ranks 15th in the league in sacks and is next to last in nearly every other category, might be digging deep in its pocket to build an entire wing.

The 2-7 Redskins will limp into Anaheim Stadium on Sunday with four of their top five pass rushers out or slowed by injuries, and face a Ram offensive line struggling with a similar situation.

So what has happened to that Ram offensive line, the one that once protected Jim Everett so well that it allowed only two sacks in the first four games?

Injuries. Penalties. A complete breakdown in the fourth quarter of a 13-0 loss to Atlanta Sunday. Everett sacked 11 times in the last three home games.

Thirteen sacks in the last two games, six against Atlanta, the lowest-ranked defense in the NFL. The Rams were 2-2 during the stretch when the line protected Everett, 0-5 since.

They will try to regroup Sunday against a Redskin defense that’s without tackle Bobby Wilson (knee injury), and slowed by injuries to tackle Tim Johnson (bruised shoulder) and end Charles Mann, who has missed six of the last seven games with a knee injury.

“We’re about as low as you could get right now,” Ram tackle Irv Eatman said. “We’re still our own worst enemy. We need to exorcise the demon within ourselves. If we could ever cut the throat of that demon, then we could get some things done.”

Said tackle Darryl Ashmore: “It all starts with the offensive line. If you are going to point a finger at anyone, it has to be us.”

But Eatman argues that the pass protection problems stretch past the line to include the running backs, receivers and quarterback. Offensive line coach Jim Erkenbeck said the line’s responsibility for sacks is misinterpreted, noting that most of them have come when all the receivers are covered or the quarterback scrambles out of the pocket.

“We’ve only given up four physical sacks, where guys actually got beat, in the past two games,” he said.

But everyone agrees that injuries have played the largest role in the line’s rapid decline. The biggest loss was veteran tackle Jackie Slater, who tore a pectoral muscle against Detroit and has missed the last two games.

Slater’s backup, Robert Jenkins, dislocated his toe and has missed two games, leaving Ashmore, a second-year player, as the starter. Jeff Pahukoa, a third-year player, will start Sunday at left guard in place of Tom Newberry, who’s expected to miss the next two games with a sprained right knee.

“Jackie’s bigger than just a player,” Eatman said. “How do you back up a future Hall of Famer?”

With Jenkins, until he injured his toe on the first series against San Francisco. That hurried the grooming process of Ashmore, who had spent most of last year and the first part of this season on the practice squad.

“Darryl was being groomed to be a starter, make no mistake about it,” Erkenbeck said. “Aside from three mistakes, he has had two good games. I really see him doing very, very well.”

Erkenbeck said Ashmore played better in his first career start Sunday. He got beat for a sack late, but otherwise had a good game.

“This is just like the situation I was in when I was at Northwestern,” Ashmore said. “I played my first year at offensive tackle as a senior, and game-by-game I had to concentrate on doing something better. Rome wasn’t built in a day and an offensive lineman can’t be built in two games.”

Said Eatman: “Darryl was thrown into a tough situation. He just couldn’t ease into it. He has done a good job. And in the long run, his development will be good for the team.”

“You can’t just fall back on Jackie’s injury. I mean, the team has to be bigger than any one guy, whether he’s a Hall of Famer or not, and he certainly is. You have to rise above the injuries, that’s what the good teams do.”

But they couldn’t do it against the Falcons, who had only one sack for a five-yard loss in their first meeting with the Rams this season. When the Falcon coaching staff heard the Rams were switching from Rubley back to Everett before Sunday’s game, they installed a blitzing defense, stacking as many as eight players at the line of scrimmage.

They stopped tailback Jerome Bettis (27 yards in 11 carries) and dared the Rams to beat them with Everett, who completed 20 of 41 passes for 203 yards with two interceptions and was chased all day.

During a film session Monday when the Rams reviewed a disastrous fourth quarter that included 53 yards in offensive penalties, including two holding calls (Ashmore and Goeas) and illegal use of hands (Goeas), Erkenbeck became more and more irked with each mistake.

“After films, we (coaches) got in their face and yelled,” he said. “I think they responded pretty well to it. They knew the objective was to play four quarters against Atlanta.

“The problem was that we were failing so bad at passing and running the ball, we were getting discouraged. I could see it on their faces when they came off the field.”