Three Close Losses Have Been Gnawing Away at Rams’ Morale

The Rams have lost four of their last six games by a combined 16 points, and free safety Anthony Newman is taking the frustration of the close losses home with him after games.

Newman, a defensive captain, turned his back to the field when the offense was playing last year because because he couldn’t bear to watch.

But Sunday night, Newman couldn’t even watch the game highlights on TV after the Rams’ 20-17 loss to the Raiders at Anaheim Stadium.

Not with highlights--or lowlights--like this:

--Tailback Jerome Bettis getting buried by the Raider defensive line, gaining a career-low 13 yards in 10 carries.

--Starting quarterback Chris Chandler spraining his left ankle in the second quarter when Raider defensive tackle Chester McGlockton busted through the Rams’ revolving-door offensive line and sacked him.

“I have to turn it off and watch some cartoon or something,” Newman said. “I watched ‘Fantasia’ last night.

“I have to get my mind off it because when you start thinking, ‘Oh, we lost by three points,’ you will drive yourself . . . It’s different if you’re getting beat by 30 or 40 points. But we’ve lost three games where it could have gone either way.”

The three-point losses to the Raiders, New Orleans (37-34) and Atlanta (8-5) leave the Rams 4-6 and with fading playoff hopes entering Sunday’s showdown with NFC West rival San Francisco at Candlestick Park.

Will Bettis be able to run on the 49ers after getting shut down by the Raiders? Will Chandler even be able to play with the sprained left ankle? Will the struggling offensive line--playing without injured starters Jackie Slater, Bern Brostek and Leo Goeas--be able to protect Chandler or his backup, Chris Miller?

Bettis, who set a goal of 2,000 rushing yards this season, failed to gain 100 yards for the fifth-consecutive game and is quickly losing ground in the NFL rushing race. He’s sixth in the league in rushing with 827 yards in 243 carries (3.4-yard average) and trails league-leader Barry Sanders of Detroit by 492 yards.

“It’s rough,” Bettis said. “There’s not a whole lot of positives. We got beat up front, and that’s the bottom line. We couldn’t find anywhere to run, so we had to abort the running game.

“It’s frustrating, considering that our game plan is built around running and then we can’t run the ball in a critical game.”

The Raiders were set on stuffing Bettis, but Chandler exposed the soft underbelly of the strategy by throwing deep to Flipper Anderson in the first quarter, including a 22-yard touchdown pass.

“When they sell out and bring everyone up to stop Jerome, you’ll get some sizable yardage throwing downfield,” Chandler said. “They wanted to stop the run, but shoot, we’ll throw for 100 yards a quarter.

“Maybe we need to throw more to open it up for Jerome.”

Chandler was doing just that--completing 10 of 11 passes for 171 yards and a touchdown--until getting hurt on McGlockton’s sack in the second quarter. Once Chandler was out, Bettis wasn’t a factor and Miller was forced to pass on 21 consecutive plays at one point.

Ram Coach Chuck Knox said he couldn’t remember a team shutting down one of his team’s running attacks as well as the Raiders did.

“We just weren’t able to get some things tied together like we needed to, and there wasn’t a whole lot of places to run,” Knox said. “I saw that early, and that’s why we decided our best chance to win was to throw the ball.

“The lack of a running game allowed them (Raiders) to tee off and put a lot of pressure on Miller.”

The problems running the football can be traced to a beat-up offensive line that has resorted to inexperienced players--rookie tackle Wayne Gandy and second-year guard Chuck Belin, as well as third-year tackle Darryl Ashmore, who has moved to right guard to replace an injured Goeas the past two weeks.

“The lack of the ability to run the football is the fact that we have four new starters in there,” Knox said. “We’re on our third starter at left guard--Tom Newberry, Keith Loneker and now Belin.”

The running game also has suffered from the absence of tight end Pat Carter and fullback Tim Lester.

The Rams didn’t re-sign Carter in the off-season, and Lester, who has only one carry for minus-one yard for the season, was bumped from the starting lineup by Howard Griffith.

“We made a change there because Griffith is a better pass receiver,” Knox said. “Lester was active for (Sunday’s) game and will play.”

Last year, Bettis averaged 8.8 yards per carry on sweep plays because of key blocking from Lester and Carter. This year, he’s averaging 3.4 yards per carry behind the blocking of Griffith and tight end Troy Drayton.

Bettis took a politically correct stance Monday on the benching of Lester.

“It was a coaching decision,” he said. “I could bitch and moan, but I don’t think it’s going to change a lot as far as the decision-making process. It will only make some players disgruntled. You just have to take it with a grain of salt and encourage Timmy.”

Does Bettis miss Carter’s blocking?

“When you lose a blocker like him, you’re definitely going to suffer,” he said. “But Troy is coming on strong and he’s filling the void.”

* COMMITMENT TO BRAWLS

Violence is typical wherever Raiders play, authorities said in wake of Sunday’s arrests.