Chargers Take Right Turn; Rams Seek Directions

Today, the San Diego Chargers are the toast of professional football, 5-0 for the first time since 1961, on the cover of Sports Illustrated for the first time since, when, Jack Kemp-to-Lance Alworth?

Meanwhile, 80 miles up the freeway, the Rams are burnt toast again, 2-4 for the first time since 1993 . . . and before that, 1992 . . . and before that, 1990.

(In 1991, the Rams went wild, threw caution to the wind and opened 3-4. They finished 3-13.)

Starring in their own twisted rendition of “Groundhog Day,” in which every football season is exactly the same as the one before it, the Rams can’t even get on the cover of RamPages anymore. RamPages, the official house organ of the Anaheim Ram franchise, folded in September, killed off by a stampede of backpedaling advertisers who were spooked by the sound of all those Baltimore Ram and St. Louis Ram rumors.

How does this happen?

How do the Chargers and Rams--essentially mirror images of one another, all the way down to the uniform colors--wind up as north and south poles of the NFL world?

What do the Chargers have that the Rams don’t?

Compare and contrast:

Rams: Quarterbacked by Chris Miller, who is paid $3 million a year, can throw deep and had his 1993 season ruined by a bum knee.

Chargers: Quarterbacked by Stan Humphries, who earns $3 million a year, can throw deep and had his 1993 season ruined by a bum shoulder.

Rams: Rely heavily on a second-year running back, Jerome Bettis, who was taken in the first round of the 1993 draft and rushed for 1,429 yards as a rookie.

Chargers: Rely heavily on a second-year running back, Natrone Means, who was taken in the second round of the 1993 draft and rushed for 645 yards as a rookie.

Rams: Top two wide receivers are Flipper Anderson, a seven-year veteran who holds the NFL record for most pass-receiving yards (336) in a single game, and Jesse Hester, a nine-year veteran who has caught at least once pass in 68 consecutive games.

Chargers: Top two wide receivers are Mark Seay, a 1993 practice-squad player who was claimed on waivers from San Francisco, and Shawn Jefferson, a career underachiever bumped up into the starting lineup only after Anthony Miller and Nate Lewis became free agents and left.

Rams: Tight end Troy Drayton, considered one of the best raw talents in the 1993 draft, averages a touchdown every 5.4 catches.

Chargers: Tight end is Alfred Pupunu.

Rams: Patchwork offensive line includes a Pro Bowl candidate at center, Bern Brostek; an aging right tackle, Jackie Slater; an ex-Charger at right guard, Leo Goeas.

Chargers: Patchwork offensive line includes a Pro Bowl candidate at center, Courtney Hall; an aging right tackle, Stan Brock; and an ex-Ram at right guard, Joe Milinichik.

Rams: Defense features a Pro Bowl-caliber pass rusher, Sean Gilbert; an outstanding young linebacker, Roman Phifer; and a bunch of off-season free-agent acquisitions assigned to plug gaping holes.

Chargers: Have the Pro Bowl pass rusher in Leslie O’Neal, have the young All-Pro linebacker in Junior Seau, are plugging elsewhere on defense with free agents Reuben Davis, Dennis Gibson, David Griggs and Dwayne Harper.

Rams: Coached by Chuck Knox, who was hired before the start of the 1992 season, inheriting a 3-13 team but bringing 20 years of NFL head-coaching experience with him.

Chargers: Coach is Bobby Ross, who came to the Chargers before the 1992 season with not a down’s worth of NFL head-coaching experience, taking on a team that finished 4-12 in 1991.

Repeat: One of these teams is 5-0 and the other is 2-4.

On the proverbial paper, it is hard to figure, especially when the next sheet features stats such as these:

--The Chargers are already 4-0 in their division, including road victories at Denver, Seattle and Los Angeles. The Rams are 0-3 in their division, having been outscored in those games, 72-37, and swept by Atlanta.

--The Chargers are 24-13 under Ross. The Rams under Knox are virtually the reverse, 13-25.

--The Chargers beat Seattle in Seattle by 14 points. The Rams are averaging 14 points per game. And they have yet to score more than 19.

--The Chargers rallied in the second half to beat the Broncos and the Raiders. The past two weeks, the Rams have blown second-half leads of five and 14 points in losses to the Falcons and the Packers.

--The Chargers-Chiefs game at Jack Murphy last Sunday drew 62,923. The Rams-Cardinals and Rams-Falcons games at Anaheim Stadium drew 67,568 combined.

In what was supposed to be a must-win year for Knox, Knox isn’t, a predicament compounded tenfold by the excitement to the south.

While Knox winces and repeats, on cue, that he knew coming in that this thing wouldn’t be turned around overnight, Ross continues to provide evidence to the contrary. In less than 2 1/2 seasons, Ross has turned the Chargers around twice--first from 4-12 to 11-5 and now from 8-8 last season to 5-0.

There is a right way and a wrong way to rebuild football teams, and the wrong way is to run the ball up the middle three times from the one-yard line and then botch a field goal, as Knox did in the first Atlanta game . . . or fail to properly prepare your backup quarterback in practice before throwing him to the wolves, as Knox did in the second Atlanta game . . . or climbing into a second-half shell and calling goal-line plays so predictable that the defense is shouting “Pitch! Pitch!” before the ball is pitched, as Knox did in the Green Bay game.

These Rams should be 4-2, would be 4-2 were it not for such muddled pregame and midgame decision-making. Instead, they are 2-4, same old same old, staring up from the bottom of that hole again, back to maybe-with-some-luck-we-can-salvage-the-season time, just like clockwork.

How do you rebuild a football team in shorter time than a presidential term?

Well, you can gamble on fourth down in the fourth quarter against the Raiders, and send your hobbled quarterback in there for one last inspirational stand, and send a dramatic message to your players that the idea is to play to win--rather than not to lose. Or you can plow Jerome Bettis into the line 32 times a game. The choice is yours.

The choice is yours.