The Rock offense has phoned in sick and Tom Schreiber is being summoned to help doctor its recovery. Schreiber, the U.S. national field team star turned NLL stud, will return from his knee injury and appear in the lineup against the Georgia Swarm next Sunday, according to owner-GM Jamie Dawick.

No Rock forward was able to score a goal during an 11-7 home loss to Colorado on Friday and Dawick could not recall seeing anything like it in the franchise’s 21-year history.

“Never,” he said. “I don’t know if it had ever happened before but it was unbelievable. We were tied (6-6) going into the fourth quarter and we didn’t have an offensive goal. I mean, really.”

The Mammoth jumped ahead 8-6 and Rock captain Brodie Merrill stuffed a high shot past Dillon Ward on a breakaway to make it 8-7 with seven minutes and change remaining. A goal by Chris Wardle restored a two-goal Mammoth lead as Rock forwards continued to misfire. A dandy over-the-back bouncer by Jacob Ruest and an empty-netter by Ruest capped the scoring.

Seven Toronto forwards took 50 shots and failed to score a goal. Adam Jones had a team-high 12 shots — eight on net and four off net — and could not put a ball behind Ward. Team scoring leader Rob Hellyer was singled out for intense checking. He got off five shots and couldn’t score.

“We had a few too many guys who were off their game up front,” Rock coach Matt Sawyer said.

“I’ve never been a part of a game like that,” Ward said. “That’s the D I’ve come to expect out of my guys. They were relentless. We stuck to our game plan and it worked out.”

Mammoth D-man Greg Downing defined the game plan.

“Don’t let their quick guys get underneath, and pressure their shooters,” he explained. “Get out in shooting lanes and force them to tuck their stick and take tough shots on the run. Don’t give up good-quality shots without being in the lane. We’ve got a great goalie. Let him soak up the outside shots.”

And it all worked perfectly.

“Well, we’ve got a very good goalie, No. 1,” Downing said. “That’s always a good start. No. 2, our coach [Pat Coyle] is great. He put together a great game plan and we stuck to it. Games where we don’t have success like that we somehow skew from what the game plan was but [Friday] we stuck to it.”

Ward was outstanding but a lot of the 35 shots he stopped were from the periphery as Mammoth checkers smothered the Rock offense. Toronto’s Nick Rose stopped 40 so he could not be blamed for the loss. The blame was entirely on the forwards, which brings us back to Schreiber.

Dawick said the star American forward was close to being activated to dress against the Mammoth and will return to the lineup in a road game against the Georgia Swarm next Sunday. He should make a difference.

“I think so,” Dawick said. “Tom will help us out.”

Schreiber hurt a knee in Toronto’s eighth game back on Feb. 10. He had 49 points including 19 goals when he went down. The Rock are 2-6 without him.

This most recent loss dropped Toronto, 7-7, out of first place in the NLL East and left its home record at a dismal 3-5. There was no way to beat a team as good as Colorado with the offense hanging over a toilet bowl.

“Credit to them,” Dawick said of the Mammoth. “Their team work is as good as it gets. We knew that. To be honest with you, that’s the kind of game I saw coming. I knew it was going to be tight and it wasn’t going to be high scoring. But the way it happened was weird.”

Challen Rogers and Latrell Harris each scored two fast-break goals for the Rock. Brad Kri got one by diving into the crease and emerged with blood dripping from a cut on the bridge of his nose. Billy Hostrawser, who hardly ever scores, scored, too, galloping towards the net and beating Ward with a bounce shot. The back-end effort was exceptional, which made the big 0 from the forwards totally offensive.

“Challen this year, that guy to me is the runaway transition player of the year in the league,” Dawick said. “It’s not even close. He’s been unbelievable. Challen, Latrell, Brodie … the defense gave us a good effort at both ends and they’ve been pretty good all year.”

As the fourth quarter progressed, it was easy for Rock fans among the 10,288 spectators to hope their team’s defensemen would try more fast-break forays for goals instead of turning the ball over to the forwards.

It was a somber dressing room when Dawick addressed the players.

“I just said to them, ‘The next three games — Georgia, Rochester, Buffalo — the only way you guarantee yourself a spot in the playoffs is if you win all three of those.’ That’s where we are.”

Dr. Schreiber, paging Dr. Schreiber.