Detroit’s Peete Finds Comfort Zone : Lions: After beating the Rams, Coach Fontes decides to stick with quarterback as his starter.

ANAHEIM — On the play that straightened the Rams’ horns and curled their ears, the 25-yard pass from Rodney Peete to Rodney Holman that set up Detroit’s game-winning field goal, the first look on the play was to Herman Moore.

Which says a lot about Peete and Moore.

Peete, the beleaguered former starting quarterback a couple of weeks ago, saw Moore was covered and didn’t hesitate to go to option No. 2, Holman.

Seven games into the Lions’ season, Peete, who completed 15 of 25 passes for 249 yards during Detroit’s 16-13 victory at Anaheim Stadium on Sunday, is finally playing the way he and Lion Coach Wayne Fontes envisioned--with confidence and verve.

Moore is beginning to draw crowds like the Phantom of the Opera--but he is much more elusive. Moore, a third-year pro from Virginia, diced the Ram secondary at several crucial junctures, catching six balls for a career-high 120 yards.

Shortly afterward, Fontes had an announcement.

“Rodney Peete is my quarterback,” Fontes said. “He will start again next week.”

On an afternoon of quarterback controversy, the drama, for a change, was not on the Lions’ sideline. Two weeks ago, Fontes reinstalled Peete at the position over Andre Ware. On Sunday, while the Rams seesawed with Jim Everett and T.J. Rubley, Peete simply kept the Lions on course.

And then, in the fourth quarter, he directed a 94-yard touchdown drive that gave the Lions a 13-0 lead with 7:59 to play. And then he led a 43-yard drive that resulted in Jason Hanson’s game-winning, 18-yard field goal with four seconds left.

“With what happened in the first six or seven weeks of the season, shuffling quarterbacks in and out, you need something like this to solidify your position,” Peete said. “Those drives at the end were big drives. Hopefully, we can build on this.”

Peete has hit a comfort zone, both on the field and off.

“And it makes a world of difference,” he said. “When we began the season, I was the starter, but you never knew what was going to happen. Now, I feel like (Fontes) will allow me to play through my mistakes.

“When that happens, you can make things happen.”

But how does he know that he is more secure now than he was last month, when the yo-yo process began?

“(Fontes) has been very adamant in saying he is sticking with me for the rest of the year,” Peete said. “He hasn’t done that before.”

Said Fontes: “Rodney walks down the hill alone now and the other quarterbacks are all there pulling for him, which is a tremendous plus. Erik (Kramer) will say something like, ‘You’re getting a lot of heat, try a different read.’

“It’s like, ‘This is the horse that Wayne’s riding. Let’s ride it.’ For the first time, it’s like, ‘Let’s ride it.’ ”

On the other end of half a dozen Peete passes was Moore, who was the Lions’ No. 1 pick in 1991. Last week, he had eight receptions against Seattle for 98 yards and two touchdowns, so the Lions are hoping that he, too, is hitting his stride.

“Every week I expect Moore to have games like he’s having,” Fontes said. “He’s a premier receiver in this league. Teams are going to double-team Herman, and that will make it easy for Barry (Sanders) and Willie Green.”

The Lions (5-2), in first place in the NFC Central, have divisional games against Minnesota, Tampa Bay, Green Bay, Chicago and Minnesota--as well as a bye--in the next six weeks. So this by-the-seat-of-their-pants victory was badly needed.

“I think,” Moore said, “guys are going to realize, once they get back to Detroit, how big this game really is for us.”