RAM NOTES : Zendejas’ Streak Takes Turn for the Worse

ANAHEIM — Tony Zendejas’ first field-goal attempt Sunday afternoon, from 47 yards out, was up and . . . wide right.

It was worth a double-take. Zendejas had made 23 field goals in a row, dating to September, 1990, when he was still a Houston Oiler.

And he had been one kick away--one 47-yarder--from tying Chicago’s Kevin Butler for the NFL record of 24 consecutive field goals.

By the time Zendejas jogged onto the field for his second attempt Sunday, a 39-yarder--his chance at the record was history. Then, stunningly, he missed again--wide right once more--leaving the Rams and Patriots locked in a pitiful scoreless tie in the third quarter.

The Rams were finally leading, 7-0, with about three minutes left in the game when Zendejas trotted out again, this time for a little 25-yarder.

“It was nice to get another chance,” he said. “Then I blow the third one. It was ridiculous.”

And it was wide right, again.

This, from a kicker so consistent that he rarely even has a bad day in practice.

“Not many,” he said.

They all caught up with him Sunday.

“I was consistent today,” he said. “Consistently wide to the right.”

The problem, he believes, was that he probably didn’t follow through well enough.

“I probably wasn’t finishing my kick,” he said.

He’ll press on, with three missed field goals to remind him.

“That’s all you can do,” he said. “I don’t think that’s ever happened to me before. You see things like this happen to other people, but you never think it will happen to you.”

It happened.

In a game between teams with rather inept offenses, it looked as if field goals might prove the difference. After the Rams pulled out a 14-0 victory, Zendejas thanked his lucky stars his misses didn’t matter.

“The positive thing is we won the game,” he said. “I sure didn’t help.”

Well, at least he didn’t blow his two extra-point kicks.

Zendejas couldn’t think of another game in his life when he’d missed three field goals. On the sideline, Ram Coach Chuck Knox let him alone. There was nothing he could say that Zendejas didn’t already know.

“Those things can come back to haunt you,” Knox said later, knowing that this time, they hadn’t.

“I’ve got to come back,” Zendejas said. “Sometimes a quarterback doesn’t complete his passes. I was off today.”

His shot at the record went wide right, along with his three kicks.

“It was a great streak while it lasted,” he said. “But it sure ended in an ugly fashion.”

Zendejas wasn’t alone in ending a successful streak. Henry Ellard, who had caught at least one pass in 81 consecutive games, didn’t have a reception Sunday.

Ellard had considerably less control of the fate of his streak, though. He appears to be far less a focus of the offense than in recent years, and the two passes thrown his way Sunday were both overthrown.

Though Ellard, 31, holds the Rams’ career record for receptions and receiving yardage and has led the Rams in receiving the past eight seasons, he has only two catches for eight yards after two games.

You have to get the ball to do anything with it, and Cleveland Gary beamed after carrying 19 times Sunday and scoring both touchdowns.

“I want it,” he said.

Gary finished with 71 yards rushing, a week after getting a mere 24 on nine carries against Buffalo.

Robert Delpino, the other back in an offense that uses a lot of one-back sets, had eight carries for 50 yards Sunday. Delpino had 30 yards on nine carries in Week 1.

Gary isn’t ready to say the offense is percolating--far from it.

“We should get better, be more diversified,” he said. “I think we need to get better each week, but this is great, we won the football game.”

He is far from satisfied with himself, either.

“I should have bigger games,” he said, then hurried to do a running back’s duty and praise the big guys up front.

“I knew before the game the running game was going to do OK,” he said. “The offensive line was excited about doing their part.”

How low can you go? Sunday’s crowd of 40,402 was the smallest attendance for a home opener since 40,347 showed up to see the Rams and Cardinals play on opening day in 1986.

Wasted trip: Maybe it’s better to lose close to home. At least that’s the way New England Coach Dick MacPherson felt after the loss.

“It’s a terrible thing to come all the way out here and play like that,” he said. “I wasn’t happy that we lost our poise at the end and lost like that. Nothing good came about for us and it was very obvious we just didn’t get the job done.”

Maybe he was thinking more about the long plane ride home than the trip out.

Ram Notes

No. 1 draft pick Sean Gilbert left the game in the second quarter with a sprained left ankle, and did not return. X-rays taken at the stadium showed no serious damage. . . . No. 2 pick Steve Israel, who held out of training camp, saw his first significant action, playing defensive back on pass downs because of lineup adjustments necessitated because free safety Pat Terrell is out with a neck injury. “I’ve still got a lot to learn; it’s a matter of getting the (repetitions),” Israel said. “In practice, everything goes well. It’s a completely different story when you’re out there live.” Israel said his conditioning is not yet where he’d like it to be, and also acknowledged that he made “a few mistakes here and there,” but that the rest of the backfield bailed him out. . . . Punter Don Bracken averaged 48 yards on seven punts, with a long of 59 yards. . . .Former Cal State Fullerton offensive lineman Reggie Redding started at left guard for the Patriots after New England shuffled its line assignments with tackle Pat Harlow out because of a back injury. Redding, picked by Atlanta in the fifth round of the 1990 draft, was traded to the Patriots in January.

Times staff writers John Weyler and Tim Kawakami contributed to this story.