Loneker Will Try to Protect Rubley : Rams: Rookie free agent from Kansas benefits from team’s injury situation.

He came to the Rams last summer with no hair and a Kansas Jayhawk tattooed on his leg. He held his breath when the Rams announced roster cuts during training camp. He didn’t suit up until the ninth game of the season and has played in only two.

But guard Keith Loneker is not only still with the Rams, he will make his first NFL start today against the Phoenix Cardinals at Sun Devil Stadium.

A rookie free agent from Kansas, Loneker starts as a patchwork replacement on a team struggling because of injuries and trying to recover from last week’s 35-10 loss to San Francisco. He replaces left guard Tom Newberry, who re-injured his knee during practice Thursday.

Injuries have turned the Rams (3-8) into a team of opportunity in the last few weeks. Cornerback Dexter Davis and offensive tackle Kevin Robbins have come off the street and earned roster spots. And Loneker, 6 feet 3 and 330 pounds, has gone from scrub to starter.

So what if the Rams have lost six of their last seven games? So what if 49er quarterback Steve Young tore apart their secondary for 462 yards? For Loneker, it’s a new season starting today.

“It’s a big opportunity for me,” he said. “I remember coming into training camp just wanting to make the team. And here it is now, I’m getting a chance to start. It’s more than I had ever asked for. Now I have to show up on Sunday and do what I’m supposed to.”

And that would be to protect quarterback T.J. Rubley, making his third pro start and first against a team other than San Francisco. Rubley has completed 45 of 77 passes (58.4%) for 588 yards and five touchdowns this season, but faces a Phoenix defense that has given up only nine touchdown passes, tied for the fifth-lowest total in the league with Kansas City and Buffalo.

The Cardinals (3-8) are coming off an emotional 19-17 loss to the New York Giants. The loss cost them any shot at the winning season demanded by owner Bill Bidwill in a preseason ultimatum to Coach Joe Bugel. Bidwill has since given Bugel a vote of confidence.

Cardinal quarterback Steve Beuerlein missed two weeks because of a knee injury before returning last week against the Giants. But three of the Cardinals’ top five draft picks are still out because of knee injuries, including tailback Garrison Hearst, who is out for the season.

The Cardinals’ offense has struggled, failing to score more than two touchdowns in a game the last five weeks. Phoenix is 15th in the league in yards gained (303 a game) and is averaging 18 points a game.

“They’re capable of putting a lot of points on the board,” said Joe Vitt, Ram assistant head coach. “They have skilled receivers, and the guy who’s the slowest of them had nine catches for 126 yards against us last year.”

The slowest, Ricky Proehl, will roam through a Ram secondary that last week sorely missed starting cornerbacks Todd Lyght (knee injury), Darryl Henley (drug investigation and subsequent indictment) and No. 1 nickel back Robert Bailey (knee injury). The result was a career-high 462 yards passing and four touchdowns for Young.

“It was a horrible day, an embarrassing day, against San Francisco,” Vitt said. “Now we have to go out and play our type of football this week and stop the Cardinals.”

Said free safety Anthony Newman: “The 49ers took it to us last week, but that’s over with. That’s the past. We control the future.

“We know we have a good secondary. We know we have a good defense. Now we have to go prove it to ourselves. Not to anybody else. We’re playing for ourselves now. There ain’t no believers out there but ourselves.”

Vitt said he believes the secondary “needs to get back to doing the things we do well.”

“We were defending the long ball well,” he said, “we were tackling well in the secondary and we were playing with a high-level of discipline and high level of confidence. That’s what we need to get back to.

“When you’re coming off a game like we had, you can’t worry so much about what they do, but what we do. We have to get back to playing with confidence and poise and making plays.”