He’s Been Too Much in Clutch : Rams: Quarterback Jim Everett has led his team to some big comeback victories this season.

OK, ‘fess up, how many of those five Ram comebacks did you actually watch to the end? Quarterback Jim Everett swears he heard television sets clicking off across America as he railled his team back from one fourth-quarter, hopeless-looking mess after another this season.

One channel change, officially noted, occurred in West Virginia, where a former Ram admitted he once made the switch too soon.

“Dennis Harrah,” Everett says.

Everett’s message is simple: Don’t touch that dial. This is a new and improved quarterback, even if old impressions die hard. Everett threw 31 touchdown passes in 1988 and spent the off-season reading about all the things he still couldn’t do: Win the big one, and bring his team back in the clutch.

Everett didn’t like the tone he was setting for his career. It was difficult enough competing in the same division as San Francisco quarterback Joe Montana, one of football’s all-time clutch pitchers.

“What people perceive is what you can turn into,” Everett remembers thinking, “and I definitely didn’t want to be perceived in any way as a guy who can’t bring his team back.”

Everett was haunted by two games in 1988--a 30-24 loss in Philadelphia and a 14-10 home defeat by New Orleans. In both games, he threw last-minute interceptions that killed possible game-winning comeback drives. A reputation was born, one he didn’t appreciate.

“Someone has got to take the risk to throw the ball,” he says. “And there is a risk throwing it. And there is a risk that the guys in the wrong jerseys might get it. I can’t predict every time that this one’s going to be perfect. I wish they all were. But I have to take the chance. As a quarterback, I have to weigh risks. So those weren’t right. I made the throws and I live with them.”

So much for reputations. Everett has spent the 1989 season beating an old rap into the ground. Monday night, in fact, he can look Montana in the eye and not flinch if the game is on the line in the fourth quarter.

Everett hasn’t had a drive named after him yet, like Montana’s “The Catch” against Dallas in January 1982 or John Elway’s “The Drive” against Cleveland in January 1987, but he has put together five pretty decent pieces of pavement.

It’s interesting that the 49ers should be in town again. Everett says he came of age as a quarterback in the Rams’ 13-12 win over San Francisco at Candlestick Park on Oct. 1, when he drove his team 72 yards in eight plays to set up Mike Lansford’s game-winning field goal with two seconds left.

That one was for his critics, and the setting--Montana’s own backyard--couldn’t have been more ideal.

“It was huge,” Everett says now of the game. “It was huge for the Rams’ organization, it was huge for Jim Everett, it was huge for our fans. People started believing. We’re that type of team. I’m not saying we can’t win them early, but when we’re in a situation (again) like we were in San Francisco, we can look back and say we’ve been there before.”

Everett has been at it ever since, leading his team to five fourth-quarter comebacks this season, changing almost overnight a tenative image to a tenacious one. Everett insists it’s not just him, that the Rams’ offense has bonded together as one. But he happens to pull the trigger, and he gets equal amounts of credit and blame.

“I don’t think Joe Montana would be a great comeback quarterback if he wasn’t on a great team,” Everett says. “A good sign of a great quarterback is being on a great team.”

Still, there are passers of some repute who lack composure under pressure. Here, Everett is separating himself from a pack of ordinary Joes to the Joes of Montana’s class, although Everett admittedly has some legendary ground to cover.

Everett, like Montana, knows no fear in the huddle. If you’re scared, your teammates are the first to know. Great comeback quarterbacks are headstrong and dominating on the field, even if their personalities belie that trait off the field.

Dallas Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach comes to mind.

“I think you have to be very stubborn,” Everett said, “Maybe not outwardly so. But you have to be strong mentally. It’s an attitude. With Roger, people looked to him, and they believed.”

And so they are believing with Everett, who was telling teammates last Sunday in Dallas that victory was never in doubt, even when it very much was.

Ram Coach John Robinson said he has rarely seen Everett flustered under pressure this season, a quality he has also observed in Montana through the years.

“I think it’s nerve,” Robinson said this week. “I think those kinds of players, when they get up to that level, don’t worry about making mistakes. I’m very curious about those players. They don’t go home at night and die if they miss a shot at the end of a game, particularly if they miss it with 30 seconds to go, where they can get one more chance at it.”

Robinson is also a big believer in an offensive system that allows a player to blossom.

“You don’t see runners excel when there’s no blocking and you don’t see passers excel in non-passing environments,” he said. “(Everett) has the chance to become everything you would want, and we’ve made every effort to create the environment to go with that. Sometimes that kind of gets lost. As Joe Montana began to emerge, the environment was created to let him go as far as he could go.”

How far can Everett go? Well, let’s examine how far he has come, recapping his five greatest moments this season, all on the road:

Oct. 1 at San Francisco

Rams 13, 49ers 12

The Rams trailed by two points when Tom Rathman’s fumble at the Ram 19-yard line with 2:59 left gave Everett his first big comeback chance, against his arch-rivals, no less. Everett didn’t blow this one. The key plays on the 72-yard drive were a 19-yard pass to Flipper Anderson on third and four at the Ram 25 and passes of 31 and 16 yards to tight end Pete Holohan.

Everett: “Flipper made the huge catch. He got us in position where we could keep passing to Pete.”

Oct. 16 at Buffalo

Bills 23, Rams 20

Everett had trouble throwing spirals that night, but his 78-yard scoring pass to Anderson gave the Rams a 20-16 lead with 1:22 remaining. Buffalo rallied to win, 23-20, on Frank Reich’s touchdown pass to Andre Reed.

Everett: “That was one of those nights when it didn’t seem like I was throwing good, then all of a sudden it comes down to the end and we have a chance to get on the field. Flipper, at halftime, said he knew he was going to catch a bomb. I threw the ball right down the middle and said, “Oh God, here comes the free safety, and then Flipper goes ‘whoosh.’ And then the loss.”

Nov. 5 at Minnesota

Vikings 23, Rams 21

The Rams trailed, 18-7, with eight minutes left, when they rallied on Everett’s six-yard scoring pass to Henry Ellard and a one-yard Greg Bell run to take a 21-18 lead with 28 seconds to go. Once again, Everett’s heroics weren’t good enough. The Vikings tied the game with a last-second field goal and won it in overtime on a blocked punt for a safety.

Looking back, Everett was most upset about his team’s three-plays-and-out drive in overtime.

Everett: “I’ve discussed this with (offensive coordinator) Ernie (Zampese). Maybe we should’ve gone back to our two-minute offense, because we were moving the ball so well, and ended up having to punt.”

Nov. 26 at New Orleans

Rams 20, Saints 17

The Rams scored 14 points in the final 2:46 to send the game to overtime, then won on a 31-yard Lansford field goal. Everett threw for 454 yards in the game, despite being sacked six times by a relentless Saint pass rush.

Everett: “That was a rough one. I felt like we were the kid on the block who was getting beat up. Then all of a sudden, we had two hits--boom, boom--at the end to win the fight. It was amazing. It was a huge game. We were in a situation where a lot of people were saying it was do-or-die for the club. The jubilation after that game was unbelievable. Unbelievable.”

Dec. 3 at Dallas

Rams 35, Cowboys 31

The Rams scored 14 points in the final four minutes to beat the Cowboys. Everett threw touchdown passes of 39 yards to Ron Brown and 15 yards to Aaron Cox to avert a major upset.

Everett: “After that game, rather than beating our chests, it was one of those where you sit in your chair and just go, ‘Wooow, we escaped.’ It was totally different from after the New Orleans game. It was more like a deep breath and let me get out of this town.”

Everett says he has been as nervous as anyone else during the comebacks, but only when he’s watching.

“On the sideline I am (nervous),” he said. “I pace a lot and move around. I want to be on the field. Being the quarterback, having the ego and the confidence you have to have at quarterback, I want to be out there. When I’m on the sideline I have no control. I’m nervous when I have no control. When I’m on the field, that’s where it’s at. That’s where I feel at home.”

Your move, Joe.