Should the Rams, and their fans, be concerned about left tackle Orlando Pace?

On Tuesday, just 2 1/2 weeks before the regular-season opener, the seven-time Pro Bowler again was unable to practice. Coach Scott Linehan said Monday that Pace was experiencing “general soreness” after playing the entire first half Saturday night vs. San Diego. Linehan acknowledged Tuesday that Pace’s sore areas include his surgically repaired left shoulder.

“He used his arms and shoulders really well in this last game,” Linehan said. “There’s no recurrence of an injury; he’s just sore.”

Pace got 39 snaps against the Chargers, the most live action he’d experienced in nearly two years. So maybe the soreness is as innocent as Linehan indicated. Plus, Linehan said Pace is actually further along at this point that had been anticipated.

“I was kind of thinking we’d just be starting to do some things now,” Linehan said. “Really, we’re just backing off because we started at the beginning of camp and really pushed him. It’s just a matter of giving him time off to get feeling a little bit better.”

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Notes & quotes:

>>WR Torry Holt says, don’t free over the offense, which is struggling to nail down new coordinator Al Saunders’ system. “We’re coming along . . . definitely improving,” Holt said. “We’ll catch on. It’s a rhythm-and-timing thing, and we’ll continue to develop that as we go through practice. Hopefully we’ll can put together something here real soon.”

>>Asked in what areas he needed to improve, T Alex Barron replied, “I need to get better from head to toe.”

>>After an aborted attempt to return to the field last week, S Oshiomogho Atogwe remains sidelined with a hamstring injury that is more than three weeks old. “It seems to be still grabbing, still tight, and he can’t open up,” Linehan said. “He feels like he could re-aggravate it, so we’re just being patient with it.”

>>To clarify a note from yesterday . . . CB Jonathan Wade is the nickel back for now. But when Fakhir Brown (shoulder) returns, Ron Bartell is expected to take over there, as he did last year. Bartell has been filling in at CB for Brown.

All for now . . .