Rams Can Either Clinch or Be in a Pinch : They Face Dolphins Today With 1 1/2-Game Lead and Also With a Chance to Lose It All

The Rams, the other professional team that plays home games at Anaheim Stadium, are well aware of the hazards of popping champagne corks before their time.

So it is with some trepidation that they face the Miami Dolphins today in a game that could enable them to clinch their second NFC Western Division title in two years.

A 1 1/2-game lead with two games remaining is ever so comfortable, but so is it frightening.

For there still is a chance, slight as it may be, that the Rams won’t make the playoffs at all. No division title. No wild-card spot.

It could happen if the Rams lose their last two games, San Francisco wins two--including next Friday night’s game with the Rams at Candlestick Park--and the Minnesota Vikings win their remaining two games.

The 49ers would then win the division title and Minnesota would edge the Rams out of a wild-card spot. It’s so scary that the Rams have put all party plans on hold.

“We’re serious,” Ram Coach John Robinson said. “We’re not walking in like a bunch of rubes.”

The Rams have even postponed the announcement of their Ugmo Awards, the fun-filled annual tribute to the homeliest-looking Rams.

That kind of stuff can wait, Robinson said.

The Rams, of course, would dearly love to end all doubt and mathematical playoff possibilities with a win over the Dolphins today.

They’d also like to enter the playoffs with a little momentum.

“If you’re something good, let’s do it,” Robinson said. “It is crunch time, like Chick Hearn says. It’s nervous time from now on.”

The Rams are starting to feel as if they’ve got something special.

Since a last-second loss to New England four weeks ago, they have won three straight, including an impressive 29-10 thumping of the Dallas Cowboys last Sunday night.

In that win, the Ram offense finally achieved parity with its defense. Quarterback Jim Everett passed for 212 yards, and Eric Dickerson ran for 106. On defense, LeRoy Irvin intercepted a pass and returned it 50 yards for a touchdown.

Ram veterans, like 33-year-old guard Dennis Harrah, said there’s a feeling on this Ram team that hasn’t existed before. A thought has been running through Harrah’s head.

“Do not let it slip away,” he said.

But their fear of the Dolphins is real. Miami has become Team Schizophrenia, a unit capable of following a great performance with an equally miserable one.

The Dolphins are a team that views life these days in one dimension, the passing game.

Dan Marino, only 25 but already the National Football League’s top-rated quarterback of all time, has thrown for 4,077 yards and 36 touchdowns this season. Imagine what those numbers might be if he were allowed to throw against his own defense every week?

The Dolphins are the NFL’s 27th-ranked defense. They’re the 26th-best rushing offense.

In other words, if Marino’s not working, nothing else will either.

The Dolphins barely held on last week to beat New Orleans, 31-27, after leading, 31-10, at halftime.

And you could say that Coach Don Shula is at least a little concerned with stopping the Rams’ Dickerson, the NFL’s leading rusher.

Two weeks ago, Gerald Riggs of Atlanta rushed for 172 yards against the Dolphins. Last week, Saint rookie Rueben Mayes rushed for 203 yards and 2 touchdowns.

“We weren’t able to stop Riggs or Mayes,” Shula said. “And these people (the Rams) seem better than anyone we’ve played yet.”

Shula said his team had enough to worry about with the Rams before Jim Everett joined the starting lineup.

“I’m sure the Rams can’t wait to line up against us and start running against us,” Shula said. “And whatever balance they have, we’re going to have to contend with that, too. But first, we have to stop them when they give the ball to Dickerson.”

Dickerson leads the NFL with 1,629 yards.

“He’s certainly the best,” Shula said of Dickerson. “And (fullback Barry) Redden complements him so well, not just as a blocker but as a runner. Those two guys are liable to be the best two in the league right now playing together.”

It appears that the Rams have more talent than Miami this season, but that doesn’t mean the Dolphins are incapable of having a great game.

They, in fact, had one just a few weeks ago when they beat the New York Jets, 45-3, in a nationally televised Monday night game. But that was the exception.

Injuries to linebacker Hugh Green and nose tackle Bob Baumhower have made a suspect Dolphin defense even more porous.

“Defensively, we just really have not been able to put the same players on the field each week,” Shula said. “It’s just a struggle each week to get by.”

Ram Notes

Miami Coach Don Shula said he considers the Rams one of the top teams in the NFL right now, along with the New York Giants. A recent poll conducted by the Professional Football Writers Assn. and the NFL ranks the Rams as the fourth-best team behind the Giants, the Chicago Bears and the Washington Redskins. . . . Eric Dickerson has rushed for more than 100 yards in a game 10 times this season. The Rams are 9-1 in those games. . . . Dan Marino has faced the Rams only once, in 1983, when he completed 25 of 38 passes for 279 yards and 2 touchdowns in a 30-14 win at the Orange Bowl. . . . Marino has been sacked only once in his last five games. . . . Ram quarterback Jim Everett has been sacked only twice in 82 NFL passing attempts.