Ram Offense Is a Vanishing Act : Pro football: Breakdowns all over keeping team out of end zone.

The Rams’ offense, which a long time ago used to be familiar with big games and scoreboard magic, is lost and nobody can find it.

Not Jim Everett, whose quarterback rating has taken a no-longer rare dip into mediocrity and who hasn’t had a three-touchdown game since Nov. 10 of last year.

Not the receivers, who have one touchdown in the first three games.

Not Coach Chuck Knox, who sees miscue after miscue haunt the Rams’ struggle toward competitiveness.

How far gone is it? After Sunday’s 26-10 defeat by the Miami Dolphins, the Rams (1-2) have gone nine consecutive games without scoring 20 or more points and are averaging barely more than 10 in those.

In the nine games dating to Nov. 17 of last season, the Rams have scored 94 points and 10 touchdowns. The Buffalo Bills have scored 112 points and 14 touchdowns in the first three games of 1992.

The offensive malaise is not the only problem. The defense is yielding 5.0 yards a carry to opponents’ running backs. Neither of those factors puts the best possible light on the Rams’ schedule, which after this Sunday’s home date with the 0-3 New York Jets, includes a wave of difficult matchups.

This is not the way things used to be. The Rams scored 20 or more points in half of their 1990 regular-season games and scored in the 20s or higher in 14 of their 16 regular-season games of 1989, including one in the 40s, and six in the 30s.

At their current pace, the Rams will score a little more than 160 points this season. In 1989, they scored 426.

So far in 1992, they have completed only one scoring drive longer than 40 yards, have converted only 29.4% of their third-down attempts and have scored only 31 points.

What’s wrong? Everything, says Knox.

“Can you pinpoint the offensive problems? Well, it’s a combination of things,” Knox said Monday. “We need to get it untracked. It’s the blocking, the passing, the receiving and the running ability.

“(Against Miami on Sunday) . . . we had fourth and six inches, and we didn’t make that (on Cleveland Gary’s carry). We had a malfunction at the point of attack, (involving) some people that were on the perimeter. Those are things we need to clean up.”

There’s more, of course.

“For example, Everett got hit in the back,” Knox said, referring to the blindside sack of his quarterback and the resulting fumble when linebacker Bryan Cox was left unblocked. Knox suggested that the error was by left tackle Gerald Perry.

“We had a missed assignment as far as blocking was concerned,” he said. “We have a player assigned to that linebacker, but the player didn’t attempt to block him.

“So he had a free shot. That’s when the ball came out. It wasn’t the back. It was the line. We were going to slide the line that way, didn’t make the slide. Doesn’t make any difference who it is, it’s what happened.”

When Knox took over the Rams, he made it clear to everyone that he considered Everett the most talented quarterback he had coached in 20 years in the NFL.

Everett, who struggled to a dismal 11-touchdown, 20-interception season last year in John Robinson’s last season and finished with a 68.9 quarterback rating, has continued the pace with six interceptions this year and a rating of 47.9.

“He hasn’t been a disappointment,” Knox said. “I think that Jim Everett played pretty well yesterday. We had some things happen to us there.

“We had a dropped pass here, dropped pass there, they were in critical situations. But I think as the rest of the offense improves, he’ll get better, too.”

Both Everett and the rest of the offense began to show some signs of life in Sunday’s second half, but not enough to put more than a touchdown and a field goal on the scoreboard.

The starting wide receivers, Flipper Anderson and Henry Ellard, got back into the picture Sunday after a slow start, with Anderson catching the pair’s first touchdown pass and Ellard getting a season-high four receptions.

“It’s not that we’re not trying to get the ball to Henry Ellard,” Knox said. “You saw, we had an interception yesterday, we were trying to hit him on a seam pattern yesterday.

“We’ve thrown some balls, thrown some interceptions.”

Both of Everett’s interceptions Sunday were passes intended for wide receivers.

But overall, Knox said he had no plans to rejuvenate the offense other than to be patient.

“I don’t know what (changes) we can make,” he said. “We want to improve the individual play of the players that we have and if there’s an opportunity at any time we think we can upgrade our football team through the acquisition of talent, we’re going to do it.”