It Gets Worse for Rams : Pro football: When their plane is forced to make precautionary landing, their 41-10 loss is put in new perspective.

By TIM KAWAKAMI

Oct. 31, 1990 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

In a season full of malfunctions, aborted takeoffs and futile, prolonged efforts at repair, it figured: The Rams were felled by breakdowns again.

First, they had to endure a 41-10 destruction by the Pittsburgh Steelers Monday night at Three Rivers Stadium, dropping their record to 2-5 and their playoff hopes to near-extinction.

Then their long, painful night’s journey into day got worse. If there is a night that capsulizes their season-long nightmare, this was it.

Because of a problem with the landing gear detected after takeoff early Tuesday in Pittsburgh, the Rams’ chartered jet was forced to make a “precautionary” landing in Cleveland--without anyone knowing whether the landing gear would work properly.

Suddenly, a 2-5 record and the darkening of the playoff picture were the least of their worries.

“I think we were all happy we were alive,” Coach John Robinson said Tuesday afternoon. “There was some question whether the landing gear was stuck, and obviously there was some concern when we were trying to land.

“When they say we’re jettisoning the fuel, trying to land in Cleveland . . . I think it gave a lot of people at least some sense of perspective in regard to their life.”

The plane landed safely, but all attempts to fix the mechanical breakdown went for naught, and after several hours, the Rams and all their equipment had to be transferred to another plane. When they finally arrived at LAX, it was 9:45 a.m. Tuesday, 5 1/2 hours past their scheduled arrival time.

Then all they had to do was get to sleep and wake up to dreary reality--after Monday night’s debacle, the Rams are looking at a season in which an 8-8 record seems relatively optimistic. Their five losses already match last season’s total.

Their schedule doesn’t get easier. In three of the next four games, they face the Houston Oilers, New York Giants and San Francisco 49ers.

A few players conceded that the playoffs are a longshot for them, and they might be playing the rest of the season for pride.

Robinson, who along with his staff didn’t get to sleep at all Tuesday because they had to start breaking down film, chose not to address that subject head-on while acknowledging that the team has a long, long way to go.

“When things are going at the way they’re going, I think we’re looking for more basic things,” Robinson said. “We just need to get back to playing good football. Making some judgment as to where we stand relative to other teams, that’s not particularly relevant to us right now.”

The loss to Pittsburgh came at a particularly devastating time for the Rams, a week after they thought they had turned the corner by beating the Atlanta Falcons.

One minor benefit of the 5 1/2-hour delay was that it gave the coaches an easy excuse--lack of time--to avoid showing the team the film from Monday night.

Does the Pittsburgh pounding put the Rams back at rock-bottom emotionally? Is the season over?

“I don’t have an assesment of our football team,” Robinson said. “Last I saw them, they were all sleeping on the airplane. And I haven’t slept for 24 hours.

“I think it’s clear, though, that we have to begin to do something. I mean, one good game . . . There’s some fundamental things we’ve got to try to get back in as we go on down the road.

“It’s clear, the ills we have now were not solved by the one game. And I think it’s particularly disturbing to me that two similar teams, Chicago and Pittsburgh, dominated us.”

Two weeks before, the Bears, who play the physical kind of game favored by the Steelers, routed the Rams, 38-9, making the combined score in those two Ram losses 79-19.

In both games, the Rams’ offense seemed to get knocked off stride by aggressive defensive play.

Monday night, it resulted in three fumbles by running back Cleveland Gary, two interceptions thrown by Jim Everett, several key penalties and zero offensive touchdowns for the first time in two seasons. Everett also failed to throw a touchdown pass for the first time since October of 1989.

Robinson said he pulled Gary out of the game after his third fumble because he didn’t want Gary to “disintegrate” and he thought Gary was “out of control” trying to make a big play every time he touched the ball.

“Last night was a bitter disappointment to us,” Robinson said. “We thought we were well prepared to play the game. We felt we had a good week of practice, and we just disintegrated once the game started.

“We are not playing the game very physically--we are getting beat off the ball, getting beat to the punch by the other side. I thought this game was somewhat like Chicago in that we were the hittee instead of the hitter.

“Before we are able to accomplish anything, we are going to have to change that part of our game.”

And how does a team go about fixing this problem? Robinson did not have any specific solutions, but he did say that it could be time to get rookies such as safety Pat Terrell and guard Bern Brostek into the lineup more frequently.

“They’re good football players,” Robinson said, “and we’re having trouble putting anything together. And we need to look at people who are willing to play this game physically.”