PRO FOOTBALL / DAILY REPORT : RAMS : Miller Dreads Return to Turf

One of quarterback Chris Miller’s biggest concerns about returning to Atlanta on Sunday will be the Georgia Dome’s artificial turf, on which he twice injured his left knee.

Miller said playing on artificial turf was one reason why he left Atlanta, where he played for seven seasons, and signed with the Rams, who play on grass.

“I don’t want to play on turf,” he said. “It was 10 games, guaranteed, a year in Atlanta, and that’s hard on your body. I couldn’t imagine the last game I went through (five sacks against Arizona) on turf. I’d be laying in there on the trainer’s table with ice packs on me.”

Miller twice underwent surgeries on his knee, which he originally injured when making a cut on the Georgia Dome turf to avoid Ram safety Anthony Newman.

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Miller was low-key about facing his former teammates and Coach June Jones, the offensive coordinator when Miller was there.

There was no love lost between former Falcon Coach Jerry Glanville and Miller, so would the homecoming be any different if Glanville was still the coach?

“I know we would be getting blitzed a lot,” Miller said. “That was his style.”

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To no surprise, Jones with upset with Atlanta wide receiver Andre Rison for guaranteeing a victory over the Rams shortly after the Falcons lost at Detroit.

“We had a talk about that,” Jones said. “We had addressed before training camp that we weren’t going to get into any of that stuff. But he got caught at a weak moment.

“That’s Andre. In his own way, it psyches him up to play but in the meantime, it psyches the other team up too.”

Rison told reporters Sunday, “I’ll guarantee a win. . . . You can print it straight to L.A.”

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Jerome Bettis gained only 52 yards against Arizona’s defense, which placed eight players near the line of scrimmage to shut down the run and sack the quarterback. Atlanta’s new 4-2-5 defensive alignment also places as many as eight players near the line, so how concerned is Knox with the running game?

“It’s not the defense, we just need to block better,” Knox said. *

Ram defensive end Gerald Robinson (ankle) is listed as questionable for Sunday’s game. . . . Atlanta safety Scott Case (shoulder) and left guard Lincoln Kennedy (sprained ankle) are expected to play. . . . The Rams also signed wide receiver Tony Harrison, cut by the Falcons, to the practice squad.