Miller Tries to Soften His Latest Critique : Rams: Quarterback, who met with a small group of teammates, including Hester, says he was misquoted.

Quarterback Chris Miller tried to clear the air with Ram players Wednesday after his critical comments about wide receiver Jessie Hester angered some teammates.

In an interview Monday, Miller targeted Hester for dropping two passes and running the wrong route in Sunday’s 31-17 loss to the San Diego Chargers.

Miller, who was intercepted four times Sunday, was asked Wednesday about the team’s reaction to his comments, and he pointed a finger at the reporters.

“I’ll just leave it alone,” he said. “I should probably be a little more careful what I say to y’all.”

Hester, who accepted responsibility for the mistakes, said he and a small group of players met with Miller about the comments on Wednesday. Hester said Miller told them he was misquoted.

“I didn’t take it that hard, personally,” Hester said. “I came out in the second half and ran a couple routes too deep and made a couple wrong turns. I made some mistakes, and I can step up to that.

“Chris just wanted me to know. We don’t want any finger-pointing here, we want a tight-knit family.”

Ram Coach Chuck Knox refused to comment on Miller’s remarks, but defensive end Robert Young called the finger-pointing “immature.”

“It’s sad that, as teammates, we’re pointing fingers at each other in the paper,” Young said. “We don’t need that. Everything else is going against us, why should we go against each other?”

Miller has criticized teammates before, blaming center Bern Brostek’s wet pants for his errant passes and saying rookie offensive tackle Wayne Gandy “wasn’t ready yet” before his first start.

But with the Rams 4-8 after losing three consecutive games, tensions are running high among the players. On Wednesday, Miller backpedaled on his comments about Hester after at least three Southland newspapers published his comments from tape-recorded interviews.

Was Miller saying he was misquoted by every reporter?

“You can take what you want from the person who wrote that stuff,” Miller said. “I’ll just leave it at that. I’m just concentrating on getting ready for New Orleans, and the team understands who we’re dealing with (in the media).”

Young referred to the team’s record, losing streak and uncertainty about where the franchise will be playing next season as reasons for the players’ frustration.

“Right now we’re losing and there’s talk about the team moving, and it’s easy for people to point fingers,” he said.

“We play together as a team, and we shouldn’t worry about what other people think about us. We should stick together. You just can’t sit there and say this person or that person is the reason we lost the game. You can’t do that. It’s an effort by the whole team.”