COMMENTARY : They Deck the Cards, but It’s No Big Deal

ANAHEIM — Neil Lomax hasn’t played all season and he may never play again, but he still sets the tone for the Phoenix Cardinals.

He limps.

Watching Lomax hobble down the press box staircase Sunday, laboring to make his way from the Cardinal coaches’ booth to the halftime food spread, was almost as painful as watching his teammates try to carry on without him.

The last time Phoenix visited Anaheim Stadium, Lomax strapped a brace around his aching left knee and dragged his arthritic left hip through four quarters against the Rams and passed for 342 yards. That amounted to only a chunk of the 517 yards in total offense the Cardinals amassed en route to a 41-27 triumph, the Rams’ first loss of 1988.

But now, the arthritis has gained on Lomax and hip replacement surgery looks to be a more likely prospect than another NFL start.

So the Cardinals, still groping blindly for a Lomax replacement, go through three quarterbacks in their return engagement with the Rams and stumble around long enough to lose in a big way, 37-14.

According to the Ram company line, this was a tremendous victory, a great leap forward in the NFC West race, a return to the 5-0 form of September and early October.

Blah, blah, blah.

If we can get real for a second, the Rams’ seventh victory of the season amounts to nothing more than a fixed fight. Phoenix has a disabled list that might contend for a wild-card berth, but the Cardinals currently left standing comprise the world’s largest taxi squad.

Nineteen Phoenix starters--Lomax included--have missed at least one week because of injury this year. Eleven were missing Sunday. That’s half a team, which is precisely what the Cardinals resembled as they flailed haplessly away at the Rams.

Even Ram Coach John Robinson was moved to empathy.

“If you ask me who’s the NFC coach of the year,” Robinson said, “my vote goes to Gene Stallings. He’s done a magnificent job, just in terms of handling all the circumstances over there. . . .

“They’re keeping things together when it would be pretty easy just to go into the tank.”

If 24-0 at halftime isn’t going into the tank.

How bad was this blowout?

Ron Brown caught a pass.

Gaston Green received a handoff.

Timm Rosenbach, the Cardinals’ well-preserved quarterback for the ‘90s, made his NFL debut and played nearly an entire quarter, much to the delight of the Phoenix press corps.

Ten weeks of Gary Hogeboom and Touchdown Tom Tupa can be tough on a writer’s objectivity.

Sunday, Hogeboom started for the Cardinals and, by the start of the second quarter, went Hogebust. His second pass of the game was intercepted by Michael Stewart and returned 41 yards for a touchdown. His 10th pass was also intercepted, by Jerry Gray, and by the time he returned to the sideline, Hogeboom was informed by Stallings that he wouldn’t be attempting an 11th.

“What did I do?” Hogeboom wanted to know.

Tupa, the former Ohio State punting champion, replaced Hogeboom and lasted two quarters. His 114 passing yards were deceiving--77 of them came on one completion to Don Holmes--but his three sacks and one interception weren’t.

Rosenbach went next, taking over with 9:40 remaining, and acquitted himself fairly well against the Rams’ second defense. The rookie from Washington State completed seven of 14 passes for 81 yards and drove the Cardinals to their second touchdown, which made the final score a bit more palatable for Phoenix.

But a mismatch is a mismatch is a mismatch, and any Ram attempt at rationalization rang coldly hollow. Beating the Cardinals, the team in the Red Cross colors, should be construed as no big deal.

The big deal comes next Sunday.

Then, the Rams take their wild-card credentials to wild New Orleans for this season’s second meeting with the Saints. The first was a blue and gold disaster, a 40-21 trouncing that marked the midpoint in the Rams’ four-game losing streak.

Now, the Rams have won two in a row and have climbed back to 7-4, tying them with Philadelphia atop the NFC wild-card standings. But just a notch back, at 6-5, is New Orleans.

And we know what the Rams historically tend to do in New Orleans.

“A crucial, crucial game,” Robinson said. “At this time of year, coming to the end of the season, everyone’s looking over their shoulder. I think the Saints are very strong contenders for the wild card.

“They kicked the heck out of us last time. We played our poorest game of the year against them. I’m looking forward to playing them again.”

Or, as wide receiver Henry Ellard says it, “We’d like to go down there and return the favor.”

And, two weeks after that, the Rams get San Francisco at home on a Monday night . . . and, hey, the 49ers lost Sunday . . . and now the Rams are back to within two games . . . and if they can just close the gap to one game by Dec. 10 . . .

There, there. Can we get a grip, please?

Phoenix today does not translate into NFC West title tomorrow. It’s easy to get carried away if one forgets that the Cardinals’ best players were carried off the field long before the Rams got to them.

Before considering the Super Bowl ramifications, the Rams should first consider the competition. Beat a whole team, then pop off.