After ugly loss, Saturday’s home game looms large
MEQUON, Wis. (Camp Day 18/early report)
After stumbling through their preseason opener at Tennessee, the Rams meet the Chargers on Saturday night at the Edward Jones Dome. After seeing his troops pummeled 34-13 by the Titans, coach Scott Linehan is placing considerable importance on the outcome. Enough so that he plans to “play a significant amount with our starting unit.”
“I don’t know what that means; when we’re done, we’re done,” Linehan said. “But we want to play a great game on Saturday.”
Emerging victorious in St. Louis, where ticket sales are lagging, “is very important,” Linehan added. “I don’t discount the importance of any game, preseason or not. There’s not a whole lot of good that comes out of losing a game.”
<><><>
That said, here are a couple of unsolicited suggestions:
>>Since the first-team offense hasn’t produced a touchdown in a preseson game since 2005, keep Marc Bulger & Co. in Saturday until they do. If it takes them until the fourth quarter, against the Chargers’ scrubs, so be it.
>>Since the Rams’ most recent first-round draftees, defensive tackle Adam Carriker (2007) and defensive end Chris Long (2008), had zero tackles between them vs. the Titans (according the unofficial press-box stats), same thing: keep them in the game until they start to make some plays.
All for now . . . more following this afternoon’s practice.
I agree !, keep the 1’s on offense in until they score a touchdown, keep the D in until they at least get back to back 3 and out’s. What good is keeping them healthy if they can’t play well enough to win.
I could not agree more. I am beyond tired of watching the same sloppy, uninspired play. The coach doesn’t sound fired up at all. Who/where are the leaders on this team? There must be a heart in there somewhere. Too bad we can’t see it.
I really can’t understand how we can be this bad!!! Our offensive line is healthy and they still can’t do anything on offense. I thought that if we could keep our line healthy then we could have a pretty decent offense this year. It looks like I was wrong. And how could the run defense look worse than ever? Vince Young looked like Vick running by Rams players.
FIRST TEAMERS, SCORE A TD!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IS IT REALLY THAT HARD?!?!?!?!?!?!?
Great ideas, Bill! Maybe that’s enough motivation to get them in the endzone.
If I hear another person say the Ram’s need to try harder or “want it more” I’ll puke. The fact is our lines got blown up on both sides of the ball. This team has not achieved a level of toughness necessary to compete in the league. Combine that with the inexperience of our young players, no running game without Jackson, and the talent level at some positions, it’s no wonder we looked like last year’s team. You can hang a little of this on coaches, but it’s the players who have to improve their game, and their toughness. I say throw some of the caution to the wind in training camp and get these guys hardened like steel. The players talk about “getting it fixed” with the right positioning and gap discipline. I think they mean it, but that’s an excuse for addressing the mental mistakes. We hear that phrase all last year. GET TOUGH! GET HARD! GET MEAN RAMS! This team has got to overcome the youth, the talent deficit and other gaps by being a physical force. Without that we will be tackling dummies.
Last thing: Bulger is only going to be a good QB with max protection. I don’t doubt his courage, but I think he’s traumatized from the shellacking he’s received the last few years. Get the defense stretched out, minimize the pass rush with a running game/good blocking, and he’ll be OK.
Bill, you took the words right out of my mouth. Starters need to play until they score. Chris and Carriker have to make plays. Pre-season counts! The first half of our schedule is extremely tough, so if we don’t want to go 0-8 again we better be ready to play physical.
Bulger is way overrated all he does is say negative comments. Whens the last time you heard a positive comment from him and whens the last time you didnt see him throw a pick? We need to get rid of him while he still has good value. He still misses kissing Martz’s ass and is being a freakin baby with the situation now. Even if your not a good team you can play hard, make right decisions, and comments to be a a leader for your football team crap like that is contagious and leads to winning more than 3 games.
I am tired of the coaches talking about “blown assignments…not being in the right place…etc.” The fact is that you can’t be in the right place when you are getting your rear-end kicked all over the field by opposing blockers. This defense is just too undersized. A few undersized players who rely more on quickness is one thing, but from one man to the next, the personnel on this defense is just too small. They are getting manhandled on almost every play.
I’m not panicing after one game but a little sense of urgency is needed here. Bulger has to get his mojo back and start playing a little better and Zygmunt may want to eat some crow and open negotiations with Jackson. We will get killed this year if he is not in camp in the next several days and ready to go against Philly.
I was surprised that the veterans didn’t get the youngsters pumped up. No one (including the vets) took this game very seriously. How are the rooks supposed to be “up” for the game when the vets aren’t? Not very good team leadership in my opinion. Hopefully they will come out on fire (mentally, physically and emotionally) this week!