Rams Leave Atlanta With Rison to Believe : Pro football: Falcon receiver backs up guarantee with two touchdown catches in 31-13 victory.

Wide receiver Andre Rison guaranteed a victory, and as Atlanta Coach June Jones fretted, the Rams had the videotape to prove it.

The Rams were so angry Sunday that they rushed out and scored a season-high two touchdowns on offense, pulling within 18 points of the Falcons by game’s end.

How bad would it have been had the Rams not been fired up?

The Falcons pounded the Rams, 31-13, before 55,378 in the Georgia Dome, providing Jones with his first NFL victory as a head coach.

“The good thing about this game,” Ram safety Anthony Newman said, “is that we get to meet again.”

A guarantee of revenge? Or a death wish?

The Falcons (1-1) cruised to victory with Bobby Hebert mopping up for starting quarterback Jeff George and Rison mugging for the cameras along the sideline.

“The media ran with (the guarantee),” said Rison, who had two 16-yard touchdown receptions. “June didn’t like it a lot, and Chuck Knox showed it to his team to fire them up. I came in with a little added pressure with the guarantee, but I’ve got some teammates that can play.”

George can throw, and for the sixth time in his career he threw three touchdown passes. George, who was playing in his 53rd NFL game, topped the 10,000-yard mark after completing 29 of 38 passes for 287 yards. He has thrown 277 consecutive passes without an interception--the third-best streak in NFL history.

“Jeff George threw the heck out of the ball,” Knox said, “and we tried to cover Rison. We had double coverage on him, but still he beat the coverage.”

Rison had seven catches for 50 yards in the first quarter, including a 16-yard touchdown reception to give Atlanta a 14-0 lead. Rison tortured Ram cornerback Steve Israel with catch after catch, even when Israel thought he had perfect coverage on him.

“All I can do is get better--I can’t do any worse than I did today,” Israel said. “I mean, damn, he had an excellent game.”

Rison had Israel spinning in a circle with a 16-yard scoring reception in the fourth quarter--his 22nd touchdown in his last 21 games--and by game’s end he had a dozen catches for 123 yards to become Atlanta’s all-time leading receiver with 368 receptions.

“It makes him look all the better now,” Ram cornerback Robert Bailey said. “The way it’s supposed to work is if somebody steps in your back yard, you got to fight for your home.

“When he said what he did he kind of stepped across the line. But we didn’t come out fighting. We just didn’t have the fire.”

Any spark the Rams (1-1) might have generated was doused early in the second quarter. The Falcons had a 14-0 lead, but the Rams had the ball at Atlanta’s one-yard line.

Running back Jerome Bettis tried three consecutive times to bull his way forward for the final yard, but each time was stopped for no gain. Fourth and goal from the one, and the Rams desperately needed a touchdown, but Knox sent in the field-goal team.

The snap to quarterback Chris Chandler, the holder for kicker Tony Zendejas, hit him in the hands and bounced away, aborting Zendejas’ try.

“It’s early in the ballgame and if we get three points there, that’s a big three points,” Knox said when asked about his decision. “We tried three times to get it in, and were not able to get it in.

“If we had gone on fourth down and didn’t make it--running the ball or throwing the ball--they would have said we should have kicked the field goal. That’s the business, do whatever you want to do with it.”

Second guessing, Part II: Later, in the same quarter with the Rams still trailing, 14-0, and at the Falcons’ 34 on fourth and 17, Knox went for it. And the Rams scored.

Quarterback Chris Miller, who was booed soundly upon his return to Atlanta, threw a 34-yard touchdown pass to rookie Isaac Bruce, his first NFL reception, to pull within a touchdown of the Falcons.

After the Rams’ kickoff, the Falcons had 1:07 and 66 yards to travel before halftime, but George placed his team in field-goal position, and Norm Johnson was successful from 48 yards on the final play of the half for a 17-7 advantage.

The Falcons squandered an opportunity on their first possession in the third quarter when they asked rookie wide receiver Bert Emanuel to play quarterback on third and goal from the two. After scrambling right and then left, Emanuel threw a pass that was intercepted by linebacker Roman Phifer in the end zone.

The Rams’ next three drives ended in interceptions, including Darnell Walker’s 44-yard return for a touchdown.

The Rams compiled 421 yards in offense, but a week after committing 10 penalties, they had nine against the Falcons.

Wide receiver Flipper Anderson caught five passes for 154 yards, including a 41-yard touchdown pass play from Chandler in the final minutes of the game, but tight end Troy Drayton has gone two games without a reception.

Bettis ran for 102 yards in 24 carries, but losing as badly as they were, the Rams did not give him the ball in the fourth quarter.

“We have to bounce back,” cornerback Todd Lyght said. “We have to play the San Francisco 49ers next week, and supposedly from what I’ve heard, they are one of the best teams in the league.”

Any guarantee on who wins?

“I can’t guarantee anything--I don’t play offense,” Lyght said. “I can’t put any points on the board.”