Rams Meet a Team on the Decline Tonight : Slumping Cowboys Find That the Going Up Wasn’t Worth the Coming Down

Tonight, at Anaheim Stadium, the Rams and the Dallas Cowboys will pass on pro football’s elevator of success.

Going up are the Rams, with their new quarterback, Jim Everett, their 9-4 record, their 1 1/2-game lead over the San Francisco 49ers, their zip-lock zone defense and their Eric Dickerson.

Going down are the Cowboys, who have lost four of their last five games, one starting quarterback, an image, and soon perhaps a star player and a coach.

Join America’s Team in therapy as they stretch out on America’s couch and vent their anxieties.

First, understand that the Cowboys are 7-6 and still might scratch and kick their way into a wild-card playoff spot.

“We’re hanging by a thread,” Dallas Coach-tailor Tom Landry said. “We could make the playoffs, but it would take a miracle finish.”

If you don’t believe in miracles, look out. The Cowboys will close out the season with the Rams, the Philadelphia Eagles and the Chicago Bears. Two more losses for Dallas would mean the first non-winning season in 20 years.

In North American major professional sports, only the New York Yankees, with 39 straight years, and the Montreal Canadiens, with 32, have strung together more winning seasons.

They keep track of those things in Texas, where everything is bigger, including the problems.

There are whispers that Landry, in his 27th Cowboy season, may be ready to hang up his legendary hat.

“I’ve always said that as long as I enjoy working a team and bring in a contender on Sept. 1, I’ll enjoy it,” Landry said this week. “As soon as I lose that urge, I’ll step down. But I feel good right now, even with the slump we’re in.”

And then there’s running back Herschel Walker, who this week told a Dallas Times Herald sportswriter that he might be ready to retire at the ripe old age of 24.

“I have enjoyed this season more than I thought I would, but I just know that I won’t be doing this much longer,” Walker said, in part.

Dallas President Tex Schramm dismissed Walker’s comments publicly, but inside you know he must have wondered why Walker didn’t let him in on this secret in training camp, when Schramm signed the running back to a five-year, $5-million contract.

Yes, an early retirement party for Walker would put a glitch in the future of the Cowboys, who figured they had pulled off the coup of the decade when they got him from the dormant United States Football League for the price of a fifth-round draft choice.

Walker, of course, represents the Cowboys’ future. He’s the team’s second-leading rusher and is among the conference leaders in receptions with 62 for 634 yards.

Walker will start at fullback, which, of course, is not his natural position. But tailback still belongs to Tony Dorsett.

Walker says he’ll do anything to help the team but yeah, after all, he won a Heisman Trophy, too.

“It’s tough on me,” Walker said about playing fullback. “I’ve always been a running back that’s carried the ball, no matter what. At Georgia, I carried 35 to 40 times a game. With the (New Jersey) Generals, it was 25 to 30. It’s tough, but it’s something I’m able to adjust to because of my philosophy toward football.”

Part of that philosophy, of course, may be to get out of the game at 24.

The Cowboys seem to have enough problems without dragging the Rams into all of this.

“I’d think they’d be riding pretty high right now,” Landry said of tonight’s opponents.

Landry would be right. The Rams can clinch the title in the NFC West with a win over the Cowboys, provided the 49ers lose to the New York Jets at Candlestick Park.

The Rams will know where they stand before the game.

And the Rams probably don’t mind playing the Cowboys much, either.

They left their mark on Dallas last January in the form of a 20-0 first-round playoff win over the Cowboys.

Cowboy linebacker Eugene Lockhart didn’t have too many nice things to say about Dickerson before that game.

But Dickerson set a playoff record by rushing for 248 yards against the Cowboys, prompting Lockhart to say little this week.

The Cowboys, however, are not without incentive.

“If I was on defense, I wouldn’t want that to happen again,” Dickerson said.

But can the Cowboys do anything about it? Their once-great defensive front can boast only of being a year older this season. Tackle Randy White, 33; end Ed Jones, 35, and tackle John Dutton, 35, are all children of the 1950s.

Simply, a Ram win could 86 the Cowboys in ’86.

Ram Notes It probably doesn’t mean much, but the Cowboys are 16-2 in games after they’ve played on Thanksgiving Day. Dallas is coming off a 31-14 loss to Seattle. . . . Ram quarterback Jim Everett was sacked on his first passing attempt three weeks ago. He hasn’t been sacked since and has thrown 56 passes in that time. . . . Dallas wide receiver Tony Hill is listed as questionable for tonight’s game because of an inflammation of the intestinal tract. . . . The Cowboys may also be without offensive tackle Jim Cooper, who is doubtful with a knee injury. . . . Herschel Walker, a renowned television junkie, majored in criminal justice at Georgia. His favorite program, naturally, is “People’s Court.” . . . The Rams will play Miami next Sunday at Anaheim Stadium, then will end the regular season Dec. 19 at San Francisco.