COMMENTARY : Quarterback Only One of Rams’ Questions

The Rams are a mess, but as quarterback Chris Miller suggested Monday, there’s no sense dwelling on it because the team doesn’t know if it’s coming or going.

Talk of a move, the latest excuse being offered by players to explain away a 4-11 season, has increased, but Ram woes go far beyond a potential change in ZIP codes.

They begin with Miller, who regularly ends his news briefings by saying, “Good enough?” Yet he has been anything but this season.

Hired for $9 million to save the day, Miller arrived in training camp and flashed leadership skills and incredible accuracy. Miller’s early showing heightened Coach Chuck Knox’s expectations, just as his regular-season collapse flattened the team’s chances for success.

“A lot of things have happened this season,” Knox said Monday. “I don’t think you can dump it all on Miller. That would be my answer.”

Miller’s future with the team, however, might be short-lived, depending on who is coaching it next season.

“I still think Chris Miller can play,” Knox said, but based on present circumstances, he will play for Knox only if Chris Chandler is too hurt to go.

Chandler left Sunday’s game with the Chicago Bears limping, complaining of a sore back and later learning he had suffered a bruised kidney. If the Rams had practiced Monday, Knox said, Chandler would have been unable to participate. Knox will wait until Wednesday before deciding who will start against the Washington Redskins in the season finale, and that’s a strong indication of what he thinks of Miller.

“That’s supposition,” Knox said. “I don’t think we’ve leaned heavily toward Chandler.”

So why isn’t the $9-million man the team’s starting quarterback?

“No. 1, he has been banged up,” Knox said.

But Miller is uninjured now, Chandler is not, so why isn’t the $9-million man the team’s starting quarterback?

“Because of all the circumstances and factors and because of the presence of Chris Chandler,” Knox said.

OK, so Knox has leaned heavily toward Chandler, but where does that leave the Rams? Chandler is 2-4 as a Ram starter and has been knocked out of more games, four, than the injury-prone Miller, who has been unable to finish three.

Knox won’t play Tommy Maddox at quarterback because, he says, it wouldn’t be fair to Maddox. But in a similar situation, rookie Toby Wright moved into the starting lineup a week ago in place of veteran Anthony Newman.

“He deserved the opportunity,” Knox said.

So why not give Maddox such an opportunity?

“We haven’t had a chance to see Maddox,” Knox said, and it’s all quite confusing.

Don’t look for any answers from Miller.

“All I need to do is prepare myself for this last week. We’re playing the ‘Skins and that’s all I’m concerning myself with now,” said Miller, who has completed 52.7% of his passes this season. “There’s going to be a lot shaking down after this year’s over. There’s going to be a lot transpiring during the off-season as far as coaches, players, team movement and all that.”

But why has Miller’s performance been so shaky this season?

“There are a lot of reasons for it,” Miller said. “I would like to have played better, put up better numbers and helped this team win more football games. But it didn’t work out that way and there are a lot of reasons, but I’ll just leave it at that.”

Blame it on wide receiver Todd Kinchen, who has given away four punts in the last four games, and who continues to be employed as the team’s punt returner. Blame it on an offensive line that has rendered running back Jerome Bettis useless. Blame it on a defensive line that has been anything but fearsome, or on special teams that have not been so special.

The Rams are a mess.

“You get into semantics; what is ugly?” Knox said. “We haven’t had the type of year that we would have liked to have had. . . . We’ve lost six in a row, and that’s a fact, but what can I tell people?

“I’m not going to call it a mess. I’ll just say it’s very, very disappointing. . . . But I still think we have the nucleus of a good football team. We’ve got some good young players and I think it bodes well for the future.”

The future, however, has never looked so cloudy for the Rams.

“We got one game left, so there’s no reason to comment on what’s going to happen next year because, hell, we don’t know if we’re going to be here or in St. Louis,” Miller said. “Good enough? Been a pleasure.”