Head Coach Scott Linehan
October 1, 2007
(Opening Remarks)
We do not have the MRI results on Isaac Bruce. He had a left hamstring strain in the second half. We don’t have the results of that yet. Most of the tests were done this afternoon.
“Corey Chavous had an MRI on his left pectoral that was performed this afternoon.
“Adam Goldberg had this morning. He has a left knee (injury) – a grade 2 or grade 3 MCL sprain which will be at least four weeks. He will be out this game for sure. The next month he will not be available.
“James Hall had a pectoral which he strained last week, which he also had an MRI.
“Steven Jackson will be out again for this game with his injury. He is improving.
“We had an MRI on
Leonard Little’s right knee and do not have the results of that right now.
“Dane Looker was kept in Dallas for a contusion on his leg. He will be down there as early as tomorrow night, maybe Wednesday. It’s such a bad thigh bruise that there is no where for that blood to go. They don’t want to get him in the air. He’ll stay down there until tomorrow night or at the latest, Wednesday morning before he’s released. He’ll be out this game.
“Raonall Smith had an MRI on his right knee this afternoon. We do not have the results as of yet.”
“There is an old saying, ‘it is what it is.’ I guess that’s where we’re at right now. There’s not a whole lot to say other than relive and rehash the last four weeks as to how we got here. There are a lot of things that got away from us, especially in the second half of games. We have to get that changed if we expect to win.”
(On the logic to sitting QB
Marc Bulger until his ribs heal)
“There’s logic to a lot of things. We could probably sit out Drew (Bennett) with his thigh again. We could probably sit out
Richie Incognito another week so he can get his foot a little bit more healed. The decision was made based on whether he was capable of doing his job. Last year he played with a very similar injury and played his best football. He’s our quarterback. If he’s not in the game we feel we’re not giving ourselves the best chance to win. Certainly hindsight says if he was 100 percent, maybe he plays better and Gus (Frerotte) may play better healthy. He was feeling better and had a much better week at practice last week. Logic isn’t always the answer for a number of reasons. I go back on past experience with the player and he played extremely well. We have to get him playing good again. That’s a big part of what we have to do. He’s getting healthier.”
(On if Bulger will start against Arizona)
“Yes, no doubt. We have to pick up the pieces. He’s won a lot of games for us. He played extremely well for us last year and we haven’t got him off and running yet this year. I take responsibility for that.”
(On if the lack of scoring has become a mental battle)
“That’s the sport. There is a big mental side of this game. There is a physical side and executing, but that’s a mental hump we better get over or we’re not going to change the course of this season. We better get over it.”
(On Bulger’s red zone interception)
“He probably forced that one. He probably tried to make something that isn’t there happen. That’s what we can’t do. Sometimes you don’t see the picture clearly whether you’re blocked by the rush or whatever. There are a lot of reasons you can go back to. In that case he was just trying to make a play.”
(On holding Bennett and Incognito out this week)
“No. I hope they’re both going. Drew will be about the same. Incognito, we’re very optimistic about. We’ll see. Wednesday will be a big day for Richie.”
(On CB Fakhir Brown)
“He’ll be reinstated. I don’t know if it’s officially today. I just talked to Jay (Zygmunt); I think we have some time before he officially has to be on the team and we have to release another player, but as of Wednesday he’ll be back on the active roster.”
(On if he expects Brown to be active against Arizona)
“No question. He’s been training here and he’s been in town and working very hard during his suspension, which is a change from years past where suspended players had to leave the premises. He’s been able to train here. I’ve even seen him in the evenings working out – working pretty hard in the indoor and outside. We put him through a couple organized workouts with the strength coaches that weren’t with the team obviously, at the end of last week, so I think his conditioning should be in pretty good shape, too.”
(On if he expects Brown to start against Arizona)
“I expect him to start, yes.”
(On limited use of the shotgun formation against Dallas)
“We use shotgun. I think that’s always going to be a big part of what we do in our third downs and two minute. Some of that has a lot more to do with how they were attacking our protections, how they attacked Chicago the week before and moving guys around and having to have our center put his head between his legs and having them send their linebackers which caused confusion sometimes to the protection, which was obvious; it’s the reason why Chicago struggled on third down the week before, so some of that was more of a changeup game plan wise.”
(On who will step in as the starter at right tackle)
“You have to figure in Richie hopefully being back, so if Richie’s back (Brandon) Gorin is definitely going to be an option, as well as Milford (Brown), at that right tackle spot for now.”
(On brining in players for tryouts this week)
“Yeah, we’ll probably have (tryouts)…if there is anyone. There’s been a shortage of offensive line candidates to even work out. I haven’t gotten the workout list for tomorrow or the potential workout list or any lineman as of yet.”
(On C Andy McCollum’s versatility)
“I think we’ll start working Andy a little bit at some guard. Tackle is probably not what he’s suited for, but I think he has to be an option for us playing some guard – probably left. I think he’s played some there.”
(On challenging a potential reception by WR Dante Hall against Dallas)
“I made the call. It was the most bizarre thing I’ve ever seen. First of all, they challenged the play and then the officials waived off the call in the interim; we were in commercial break, I think. Next thing I know I’m standing there and they’re putting the ball back where we originally were; they weren’t standing over the ball. I was just so surprised that they actually had reversed their call on the field after the opposing team had actually thrown their red flag and they called a challenge and called a timeout and went to commercial. Now I suppose you can throw your flag out there and ask officials to commiserate and get the call right or try to get it right. It was such an important play for us to stay on the field. I knew the odds were probably going to down…I thought he caught it, but you have to come down with the ball on the sideline.”
(On if he saw a replay before throwing the challenge flag)
“They had seen a replay in the booth, but they had not seen the ball come out. They saw him go down, then the next replay showed the ball coming out. You can mark that one on me.”
(On K Jeff Wilkins and what you can say to him)
“You have to coach him and encourage him. You can’t assume 14-year veterans or guys that have been to the Pro Bowl or made a trillion field goals are not human. He goes along with some of those other areas we’ve been talking about since I’ve been standing here as far as part of our struggle. The first quarter of our season has been a struggle in a number of things and the one I never thought we would have been struggling at would be at that position, but it just goes to show he’s human. You just have to coach him and encourage him and get him back to what I know he’ll be able to do for us. You have to just stick by your convictions with players, just like every position.”
(On if there was something that the defense could have done differently on the shotgun snap that went over QB Tony Romo’s head)
“Yeah, we could have got him down. (James) Hall actually knocked Leonard (Little) off. I think the angles could have been different. No different than containing a punt returner. You go down, you have two guys bearing down on one, and you keep him between you. I think that would have been the best play in that situation, just get him to the ground. Even if he tries to throw it away, there’s a good chance that he’s not going to be able to do it without grounding because there’s no one to ground to, everybody is 50 yards away for him. But you have to get the ball carrier under control. Whether he is going for the ball or not, I haven’t asked James (Hall) to relive that one. But that was critical and then we end up knocking our other player off, Leonard (Little) gets knocked off, and then he is able to run all the way back and convert the third down which was a heck of a play by the kid (Tony Romo). I really believe we could have prevented it certainly by making a better play.”
(On if he’s ever seen a play like Romo’s third down conversion)
“Not like that one. I saw (Daunte) Culpepper do some pretty good things when he played for me, that kind of stuff. In that situation right there, the game is pretty much in balance, you can change the course of a game by making plays like that.”
(On if they will keep T Adam Goldberg on the active roster)
“For right now. It kind of depends. It’s a four week injury but that’s not a guarantee, we will talk to the doctors a little bit more in the next 24 hours and if there is any consideration not to, I’ll let you know.”
(On if he is still happy with Offensive Coordinator Greg Olson’s play calling)
“Well I can tell you this, I’m happy with how hard Greg and our offensive staff are working. Our results are not there, it’s pretty obvious I think to everybody. We have to continue to find the right button and we have not done that. We fell way, way, way short of our expectations. The one thing that I will tell you about Greg is he is a very accountable person who is really, really disappointed in how things have gone as far as how we’ve moved the ball on offense, as I am. We talk about it hourly, daily. We’ve got to make some adjustments and we’ve been working on adjustments, but we’ve got to make some adjustments I think as far as how we get our guys ready to go. Especially, I think we start with a great intensity, we just aren’t able to maintain anything. We get to the second half and we are a non-factor.”
(On if the Rams players are physically conditioned)
“I think we are in very good condition, I think for some reason we haven’t been able to stay healthy. We were pretty shorthanded in the second half yesterday so I don’t know that we were able to play in a hot weather game the way you’d like if you were a hundred percent healthy. The injuries are all different. If we were having a bunch of soft tissue injuries and leg injuries and calves I’d be pretty concerned about it but we’ve had the most bizarre difference in injuries that I’ve seen. I go back, and this one counts to me, to (Todd) Stuessie planting wrong in the fourth preseason game on the turf. Basically the next week, same part of the field, Orlando (Pace) who’s played, I don’t know how many plays in his career and played a lot in the preseason just punching with his inside hand like he’s probably done 10,000 times and completely destroys his shoulder.
Tye Hill out here in practice, last play in practice running into OJ (Atogwe) diving for a ball. I don’t think it has anything to do with conditioning. So you can sit around and try to figure it out, I think we just have to dodge that injury bullet and play better. The injuries are part of the game too and we have to make the right adjustments and whoever plays has to get the job done.”
(On the drastic change in the return game)
“Well the funny thing about that is that there really wasn’t a whole lot of change, we just didn’t have the one guy turning the one guy loose which makes it looks like everyone else is coming unblocked. There was just a much better job of staying on their blocks, especially in the front line. Pretty much going back to the basics. Our basic theme going into the week, all three phases, was that but I think our special teams really stepped up to the challenge and had a good day.”
(On the status of
Tye Hill)
“He is basically questionable this week. We will see how he feels Wednesday. I think it is a little bit optimistic to think he is going to be cleared for this game. Again it’s not one of those injuries where you put a certain amount of time. He did a lot better at the end of last week. So if for some reason he is a whole lot better from where he was Friday or Saturday he’d be a consideration from this game.”
(On how he can get QB
Marc Bulger to play better)
“Well we coach better and he responds to it and plays better. We’ve had opportunities down in the red area to put points on the board. We’ve had opportunities on plays we’ve called to score and we put the ball on the carpet somewhere else. It hasn’t always been Marc. Quarterbacks certainly get the brunt of a lot of it. It comes with the territory and they all know that. Last year he threw 21 touchdown passes in the red zone without an interception and this year we’ve already got a couple of turnovers down there where we’ve come away with non scores. They always kill you. We’ve got to get back to that. We have not changed play types. We have not changed our protection. We have not changed anything. We just have to change our execution. It all comes down to that.”
(On if he scratches his head over CB Lenny Walls going for the ball on WR Patrick Crayton’s first touchdown)
“Yeah well there are a lot of things you could scratch your head about. In that situation you are in a man blitz. They’ve executed the throw and the catch. The job of the last man standing is to get the guy down. You go for the ball when the time is right. When you’ve got a gang tackle situation, or a guy’s stood up, or if you’ve got the guy pretty much down. In that case you just have to get the ball carrier down.
(On if he sees the light at the end of the tunnel)
“We’ve got the first day of October today, right? It’s a new month; it’s a new quarter of our season. We do have game five of our season coming up. Things change drastically in this league by just putting it all together. Once you do that, you get rid of that bad taste at least for the time being, you kind of restart. It’s got to be how you approach it. There is no other way.”
(On what he can point to in not scoring a touchdown in 31 straight drives)
“Turnovers.”
Maybe not now, but soon.
GO RAMS 
Linear Mode
