ANALYSIS : Not Even Knox Can Put Out All the Fires

Three thousand Orange County firefighters, courageous men and women who risked life and limb during the recent blazes that swept through the Southland, were guests of the Rams at Anaheim Stadium, granted free admission to Sunday afternoon’s game against the Atlanta Falcons.

So this is the thanks they get.

The Rams, continuing an incredible four-year plummet into a pit that apparently has no bottom, not only lost the game they couldn’t lose but lost it in a way that throws the very essence of Chuck Knox’s second tenure as Ram head coach into question.

Chuck Knox teams don’t lose five games in a row.

But this one has, for the first time in Knox’s 21-year NFL head coaching career.

Chuck Knox teams don’t make brick-headed mistakes on special teams.

But this one has, all season long, and outdid itself Sunday by turning two field-goal attempts into “Saturday Night Live” skits that featured a) two holding penalties; b) one illegal motion penalty; c) only 10 players on the field before Leo Goeas woke up and got his rear in there; d) one nullified 47-yard field goal by Tony Zendejas and e) two partially blocked kicks.

Chuck Knox teams don’t lose at home to a 2-6 opponent with the lowest-ranked defense in the league.

But this one did, and did so resoundingly--failing to score a point against a Falcon defense that gave up 31 of them to Tampa Bay, plus 45 to Pittsburgh, plus 37 to San Francisco, plus 34 to New Orleans, plus 30 to Detroit, for a pre-kickoff average of 27.8 points per game.

The Rams came in 27.8 points under that, losing, 13-0, in their first shutout at Anaheim Stadium since October, 1984, a span of 71 home games.

Chuck Knox teams also get better over time.

Don’t they?

Didn’t they?

Well, this Chuck Knox team is 2-7 after finishing 6-10 last year, in the throes of five-game losing streak that is already halfway as long as the gruesome 10-game skid that cost the last Ram coach, John Robinson, his job in 1991.

And this Ram team still has seven games to play.

Knox’s latest rebuilding program has exploded in front of his eyes and one has to wonder if Knox, at 61, has either lost the touch or the desire or the fire required to turn around the most deadly of all the deadbeats he has attempted to resurrect.

It worked the first time around with the Rams. In 12 months, Knox took a 6-7-1 straggler to 12-2.

It worked in Buffalo. In three seasons, Knox dragged the Bills from 5-11 to 7-9 to 11-5.

And it worked in Seattle, where Knox came in, punched a few buttons and dialed up a 9-7 record and a wild-card playoff berth in his first season.

But it isn’t working now, and questions confronting Knox, 25 games in, continue to overwhelm the answers.

Why are the special teams so dreadful?

What happened to the great draft of ‘93?

Why can’t Henry Ellard and Flipper Anderson get open?

Why does Jim Everett digress with each passing Sunday?

Why didn’t T.J. Rubley get a second start--or at least a second chance Sunday when Everett was driving the Rams to all of seven first downs through the first three quarters and fumbling on the Falcons’ 23-yard line with the Rams angling for a field goal just before halftime?

On that last one, Knox attempted a response.

“I felt that we were within two plays of going ahead,” Knox reasoned, “and a lot of the things that happened out there were not Jim Everett’s fault. So we left him in there.”

In a season-and-a-half, Knox has put together a defense. That is the good news. Sunday, the Rams held the Falcons’ trigger-happy “Red Gun” attack to one touchdown, 15 first downs and 182 passing yards.

But it isn’t enough when your No. 1 draft pick of ‘93, tailback Jerome Bettis, is netting 27 yards in 11 carries . . . and your No. 2 pick, tight end Troy Drayton, is catching one ball for five yards . . . and your No. 3 pick, running back Russell White, is on the inactive list . . . and your No. 4 pick, wide receiver Sean LaChapelle, doesn’t get his hands on the ball.

“I’m puzzled,” Knox said. “I’m frustrated that we can’t do better offensively. (The Falcons) started out in an eight-man front. We should be able to throw the ball against an eight-man front. But for some reason, we’re not getting the job done.”

Anthony Newman, the Rams’ veteran safety, offered Knox some sympathy.

“I feel for Chuck,” Newman said. “He’s frustrated. He has nothing to say to us. What is there to say? He’s been in the league a lot of years, had some very good teams and some teams that struggled, but this has to be hard for him.”

At 2-7, there’s much to correct, maybe too much. The Rams are in a hole and Knox is the man with the shovel.

After 25 games, Knox shouldn’t be deeper than he was when the excavation began.