PRO FOOTBALL: WASHINGTON REDSKINS 24, RAMS 21 : Rams Sure Look Like a Team That Could Use a New Look : Pro football: St. Louis doesn't seem too bad after mistakes put an exclamation point on 4-12 season.

PRO FOOTBALL: WASHINGTON REDSKINS 24, RAMS 21 : Rams Sure Look Like a Team That Could Use a New Look : Pro football: St. Louis doesn’t seem too bad after mistakes put an exclamation point on 4-12 season.

By MIKE REILLEY

Dec. 25, 1994 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Ram cornerback Todd Lyght pulled off his socks and threw them onto the floor near his locker Saturday, perhaps for the last time at Anaheim Stadium, and wondered if St. Louis wouldn’t be such a bad place to be next fall.

The Rams ended a 4-12 season--and perhaps a 49-season stay in Southern California--with a 24-21 loss to the Washington Redskins before only 25,705, the smallest crowd since the team moved to Anaheim in 1980.

Would a change of scenery make any difference for a team that hasn’t won more than six games since 1989?

“We’re not winning, so something has to change,” Lyght said. “If we move, then that might help us out.

“There’s not a lot to do out in St. Louis, so maybe the focus would be on work and the things that need to be done, instead of what we’re going to do after the game, like in this situation.”

The Rams packed up and left Saturday night after the kind of performance that might be coming soon to a domed stadium on the banks of the Mississippi. A few of the images:

--Tony Zendejas digging his right foot in the turf and missing a potential game-tying, 33-yard field goal wide right with 4 minutes 14 seconds left.

--Rookie tackle Wayne Gandy throwing his helmet at the bench in disgust after being beaten by ex-Ram Tony Woods and then being called for holding penalties on consecutive third-quarter plays.

--Cornerback Robert Bailey dropping a possible interception, right in his hands, on the Washington 28-yard line with 7:22 left in the game.

--Quarterback Chris Miller, unable to find an open receiver, running for a one-yard gain on fourth and 11, the Rams’ final offensive play of the game.

--Washington’s Brian Mitchell sprinting past a diving Blair Bush on his way to a 78-yard punt return for a touchdown in the second quarter, joining Green Bay’s Robert Brooks and San Diego’s Darrien Gordon as players who have returned punts for touchdowns against the Rams this season.

The Rams were 0-3 in those games in a season in which their special teams have been anything but special.

“This game typifies our season,” Lyght said. “We got scored on on special teams, they got a turnover and three points, we missed a field goal, too many men on the field.

“Mistakes . . . we’re killing ourselves. We don’t even give ourselves a chance.”

But will they give St. Louis a chance? Free safety Marquez Pope, one of the last Ram players to leave the field Saturday while “fans” screamed obscenities about St. Louis over the railing, was unperturbed.

“If we gotta move, we gotta move,” he said later. “People in St. Louis have a new team. The L.A. Rams are gone. You keep the Raiders.”

Defensive end Robert Young called Anaheim “a home away from home.”

“If we leave,” he said, “it would be like losing a good friend.”

Wide receiver Flipper Anderson might not be here regardless of the move. Anderson, an unrestricted free agent, plans to test the market but wants to re-sign with the team.

“I think (this game) was very emotional,” he said. “It’s an all-time low knowing this might be the last time in Anaheim.

“I hope I’m back next year. If I am, I think there are going to be a lot of changes.”

One of those changes could be the coaching staff. Ram President John Shaw has said management will discuss the future of Coach Chuck Knox, who has one season remaining on a four-year contract, at the end of the season. San Francisco assistant coach Mike Shanahan has been mentioned as a possible candidate for the job.

The players showed their support for Knox this week by circulating a petition encouraging management to keep the current coaching staff. But some of the players said on Saturday that they had not seen the petition. Others said they doubt management will pay any attention to it.

“That was a symbol of our appreciation for what the coaches have done for us,” said wide receiver Todd Kinchen. “We made sure it got in the right hands. We know it won’t have any impact on what management decides to do, but we wanted to show how we felt about Coach Knox.

“I know he was frustrated with us all year, with how we played. But he never once blamed the players for what went wrong.”

Free safety Anthony Newman said he didn’t put much stock in the petition, and defensive end Fred Stokes said there was no pressure on anyone to sign it.

“It was just lying on a table in the locker room,” Stokes said. “You could walk up at will and sign it.

“It just said that we’re in a hole, and we would like for he (Knox) and his coaching staff to be here when we get out of the hole.”