Tackleberry: Is LaRussa becoming the Lloyd Carr of the Cards/Cubs rivalry? He obviously owned the Cubs for a long time, but these past couple/few years he can't seem to get his team to where they need to be for these games. I just always feel like the Cubs want it more. Maybe that is because they have a more emotional group of players, but while the Cards are grinders they seem to be missing that "big game/series" grit.

Jeff Gordon: The Cubs are just better, especially at home. They played two terrific games in this series. Lou Piniella is a fabulous manager. Tip your cap to them. But Tony has kept the Cards ahead of the Cubs for most of his tenure here.

Tackleberry: It feels like the Cards line-up could use a re-focus session on what are and are not good pitches to swing at. Pujols has been the essence of the word "pressing" lately and a three-pitch package of breaking ball in the dirt, breaking ball in the dirt, breaking ball in the dirt should probably take care of Ludwick, Ankiel, and most of the other young hitters on this team.

The biggest question I have is what will the Cards do in the off-season to address the obvious deficiency against left-handers? It is almost like they walk into match-ups defeated against even a decent lefty.

Jeff Gordon: Rasmus is another lefty hitter, so he can't change that. This team could use another RH stick, preferably at shortstop. Mather could develop as a good platoon threat against lefties. Also, more RH power at 2B would help. These definitely are things to look at.

Rich: Hey Gordo,

After the debacle in Nashville, do you see the Rams scanning the waiver wire for veteran defenders - particularly LBs?

I realize part of the point of pre-season is getting young players reps in game situations and when you line up multiple rookies there are going to be days like last Saturday.

However, aside from Draft the Rams LB corp is devoid of steady veterans with more than 3 years in the league and the Rams secondary isn't much better in that regard.

Thanks for hosting these chats.

Rich

Jeff Gordon: Chamberlain made a couple of plays, but, no, the LBs did not have a great day. I believe waiver help there or at safety are possibilities unless the defense enjoys a dramatic turnaround during the next two weeks.

virginiatom: When you look at the Rams roster over the past 5 years, it clearly contains good players, but no impact, game changing, pro bowl caliber type players. Even Steven Jackson has really only had one impact year in all his time here, and this year is not starting out well for him. In addition, Jackson loses too many yards down around the goal line to be a true impact running back in the mode that say an Emitt Smith was. First and goal at the 3, and Emitt would score, which is not the same for Jackson. Do you see any sure fire pro-bowlers or game changing impact players emerging for the Rams?

Jeff Gordon: A big piece of that red zone issue is the O-line. The Rams want to build a power-blocking front wall, but we didn't see it last year because of injuries. The team needs Barron to be one of those impact guys you want. And Incognito. And Bell, the FA pick-up (hopefully) at the take-off point of his career.

Hen: Hi Gordo,

Realizing that it was the first preseason game, is there anything that you can take out of this game that was good to build upon?
Looks to me the same offensive (not crisp) and defensive (not stopping the run) "issues" have continued from last year. Do you see that getting fixed?
I keep reading and did last year as well that it wasn't the other team that beat us it was that we weren't in our run fits and gaps. How difficult is that to accomplish? Wow.

Thanks.

Jeff Gordon: Yeah, great point about missed assignments. At some point failure must be attributed to simply not being good enough. At some point, Haslett has to admit his guys got the butts kicked. Saturday night was an example of that. Rams fans should be worried about that, because a lot of that defensive depth is unproven and almost all of it got abused by the Titans.