For Everett, the Answer Is Tougher Than Question

MIAMI —  Dan Marino versus Jim Everett. Once upon a time, those five words would have filled Joe Robbie Stadium to the rim, on the promise of 60-yard spirals over Miami, three hours of heavy air traffic, two-minute drills, goal line-to-goal line thrills and maybe a 45-42 final in overtime.

Not here.

Not now.

In the stands Sunday afternoon, Joe Robbie was 17,000 shy of capacity. On the field, the Miami Dolphins and the Rams were one gunslinger shy of a shootout. So much was missing, with excitement first on the list, followed by anticipation, followed by the Ram offense, followed by sanctuary for Everett from the questions being asked around the losing quarterback’s locker.

--”Three years ago, people were saying that you were going to be the next Dan Marino. What happened?”

--”Did losing the 1989 conference championship game to San Francisco change you as a quarterback?”

--”Do you feel, personally, that your game is out of sync?”

Everett’s ears burned as he heard them all and answered some. The final score was Dolphins 26, Rams 10. That’s 31 points in three games for Everett and the Rams, who used to average that many each week.

Everett had two passes intercepted. He committed two fumbles. The one fumble he lost led directly to a Miami field goal and a 17-0 first-quarter deficit for the Rams. The one fumble the Rams recovered left the ball on Everett’s own one-yard line, setting up an interception two plays later and another Miami field goal four plays after that.

Eventually, the numbers add up. Everett is now 1-12 in his last 13 starts. Do that in baseball and the manager scratches you from the rotation. Do that in the Coliseum--no, all you need to do is go 0-2--and Al Davis replaces you with Todd Marinovich.

Right now, the only thing separating the Rams from a full-scale quarterback controversy is the lack of a worthy, or even semi-worthy, challenger.

But give rookie T.J. Rubley some time.

“No doubt about it,” Everett said, “I would like to be playing better than I am. I’m sure everyone on this team would like to be playing better. I just happen to be the one making the money.

“I know what people are saying and thinking about me. That’s all part of the business. The coach and the quarterback get the blame when things go bad--and this team went so bad last year that they fired the coach. Coach (John) Robinson is gone. Now, it’s just me.”

And if the Rams can fire Robinson. . . .

Everett doesn’t wait for the next domino to hit him on the head.

“Sure, I could be next,” Everett said. “That’s what this whole deal is about. But I’m still confident I can play this game. . . .

“Granted, I might be doing things right only 85% of the time now. But when you’re winning, people don’t pay attention to the other 15%. Now we’re losing. Now the 15% I do wrong, that’s something they can look at and criticize me for.”

Everett refused to respond to the out-of-sync question.

“I’m not going to answer that,” he said.

He refused to talk about his fumbles.

“We’re just going to have to look at some films.”

He also bristled at the reference to the 1989 NFC championship game, now notorious for the Rams’ margin of defeat (30-3) and the dive Everett took in the second half when confronted by a rapidly collapsing pocket.

That duck-and-cover has come to symbolize everything that has happened to Everett and the Rams ever since.

Ever since, Everett and the Rams are 9-26.

“Did it change me?” Everett said, responding to the query of a Miami writer. “I’m sure you can expound on that.

“It was a loss. A tough loss. And it makes you more aware of all the things that can go wrong in this game. I was depressed for a long time after that game. But it still didn’t take a pretty good season away from us.”

Three years ago, the Rams and Everett were that close. And now, the next Marino is still the same Marino. Old No. 13 played the first quarter as if he were in the Canadian Football League--no third down required--and had Everett outdistanced everywhere one wanted to look.

On the scoreboard.

In the pocket.

On the final stat sheet.

“I’m aware people were making comparisons back then,” Everett said. “But I don’t think anything ever stays stagnant. Everything and everyone changes.

“Our team the last couple years went eight-and-something. You know, you try not to let things like that get you down. And I feel just as good in the pocket as I did back then. I feel no differently.

“We’re just not doing it collectively, as a team.”

Everett said he didn’t watch much of Marino this day, just “a couple plays.” He noticed that Marino is “an effective player. I think we were both effective today. Except in my case, I wasn’t effective often enough.”

And that has been the case, too often, for more than two years now. Nothing stays stagnant, Everett says. That is his opinion--and that is his hope.

This, too, will pass, he believes.

If it doesn’t, he knows that Rubley or Mike Pagel or some other quarterback-to-be-named-later will.