Falcons Make a Meal of Rams : NFC: “They handed us our lunch,� St. Louis Coach Brooks says of 31-6 defeat in Atlanta.

ATLANTA â€”  America’s Funniest Home Football Team skipped away with another victory Sunday, and this is getting serious.

The Atlanta Falcons overpowered the St. Louis Rams, 31-6, and moved into first place in the NFC West after enduring a week in which:

--Star safety Kevin Ross didn’t show up for work for two days to protest what he perceives as preferential treatment of quarterback Jeff George.

--Running backs coach Ollie Wilson was arrested for soliciting an undercover police officer.

--Defensive tackle Jumpy Geathers said there was a “cancer� in the locker room.

--A thief entered the Georgia Dome locker room before the game and stole football shoes out of five lockers, including one belonging to receiver Eric Metcalf.

--Chaos enveloped the huddle during the game after two starting wide receivers were injured, forcing somebody to explain formations and routes after many calls.

“We’re 7-4, I must be doing something right,� said Falcon Coach June Jones afterward, wiping crumbs from his mouth.

He thus became the first NFL coach this season to conduct a postgame news conference while eating cookies.

This after his team, one of the league’s oldest with 18 players over 30, celebrated by hauling their children out of the stands and carrying them around the field.

The Falcons are homespun, high-strung, harebrained.

And proud of it.

“Actually, I think all the bull that happens around here unites this team,� tackle Dave Richards said. “We’ve all been around a while. We know how all of this works. We aren’t afraid to take things on.�

Then there is Ram Coach Rich Brooks, who hasn’t been around very long, and who suddenly looks as if he has taken on too much.

Remember earlier this year, when the Rams won five of their first six games with a variety of trick plays that inspired people to call Brooks a genius? Remember how Brooks warned that when those plays stopped working, perceptions of him would change?

Well, guess who just got dumb fast?

The Rams attempted a fake punt Sunday that led to a Falcon field goal when Todd Kinchen gained one of the necessary two yards.

And a reverse in Falcon territory led to a fumble recovered by the Falcons.

And a two-point conversion failed, killing the Rams’ momentum after their only touchdown.

“Against a team like that, you can’t really count on those trick plays working,� running back Leonard Russell said. “You’ve got to go in there and beat up on them like they did on us today.�

Doing most of the slugging was George, who threw for four touchdowns and 352 yards, and Terance Mathis, who became the top target because of injuries and responded with 184 yards worth of catches and three touchdowns.

Absorbing most of the blows were Ram quarterback Chris Miller and receiver Isaac Bruce.

Thoughts that this twosome would dominate the league’s 29th-ranked pass defense evaporated when it became obvious the Ram offensive line is still, well, the Ram offensive line.

Large, chiseled . . . statues.

After spending most of the day throwing on the run against relentless four-man pressure, Miller ended it with the ball stuffed down his shirt by Atlanta’s Chris Doleman on a fourth-down sack at the Falcon 16-yard line early in the fourth quarter.

The Rams trailed, 24-6, at the time. They were at the five-yard line, at the end of a 69-yard drive. But tackle Wayne Gandy was frozen by Doleman.

Bruce was hit just as often by a Falcon zone defense that rattled him enough to prevent any completion longer than 21 yards while holding him to 91 total yards. That ends his 100-yard streak at six games, one short of a league record.

“They handed us our lunch,� Brooks said.

Which the Rams can now put in the substantial cooler holding the other lunches they have been handed in recent weeks.

Since beginning the season 5-1, they are 1-4 and have been outscored, 131-63.

In their two first-place showdowns, here and against the San Francisco 49ers a month ago, they have been outscored, 76-16, while committing seven turnovers and causing none.

“Hopefully, this is the slap in the face we need,� receiver Jessie Hester said.

When that bruised mug looks at the schedule, however, it will see remaining games against, among others, the 49ers, Buffalo Bills and Miami Dolphins. With a 6-5 record, the playoffs suddenly seem out of reach.

The Falcons, however, have rarely felt closer to the playoffs, which they have reached only four times in the franchise’s 29 seasons.

And of all that dissension?

Ross was benched for the first half for disciplinary reasons, then entered the game and helped hold the Rams to 159 total yards in the second half.

Wilson watched upstairs from the relative peace of the coaching booth while his pet Craig Heyward gained more than 100 yards (117) for only the third time this season.

Geathers, who was born in June and thus perhaps was referring to the “cancer� in astrological terms as himself, had one tackle.

Metcalf found shoes good enough to help him make a 41-yard touchdown catch.

And while George still got preferential treatment--he actually talked Jones out of trying a field goal late in the first half, costing the Falcons three points--what the heck. He deserves it, right?

“I didn’t get this far by just being an average guy,� said the quarterback for an equally un-average team.