By Jim Thomas
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
11/19/2007



SAN FRANCISCO • In eight games against the rest of the NFL this season, San Francisco has a measly total of eight sacks. But in two games against St. Louis, the ***** have 12.

For the second time this season against San Francisco, Rams quarterback Marc Bulger was sacked six times. When it happened in September, Bulger could barely get dressed after the game, he was in so much pain. As it turned out, he had two broken ribs.

Bulger had a purple calf muscle as he dressed Sunday in the visitors’ locker room at Monster Park. But he still came out of this game in much better shape than he did the Sept. 16 contest.

“I don’t feel probably as good as you are standing there,” Bulger teased a reporter. “As far as the ribs, last time that was a pretty painful injury. But there’s nothing major (Sunday). I’ll be fine this week.”

Bulger completed 21 of 32 passes in Sunday’s 13-9 victory over the *****, but for only 155 yards. He was dropped six times for 150 yards, including 2˝ sacks by ageless wonder Bryant Young. As a result, the Rams’ net yardage total in the passing game was a mere 105 yards.

So why did the offense bog down, particularly in the second half?

“I don’t want to say we were playing conservative,” Bulger said. “We certainly had plays that were (downfield) shots. There were a couple protection breakdowns. We hit a key third down on a pass to Torry (Holt), and we had holding.”

A 21-yard completion to Holt in the second quarter was wiped out by a holding penalty against left tackle Alex Barron. An illegal-formation penalty against Barron later in the quarter and a false start against right guard Nick Leckey in the third quarter also helped stall drives.

“We were just doing stuff that was hurting us — that we were doing before when we were losing,” Bulger said. “But it became pretty evident late in the third quarter that (the *****) were going to struggle scoring, and we were going to put it on our defense.

“It was just up to us not to (mess) it up. Not to turn it over. And not to give them big plays.”

For the second game in a row, the St. Louis offensive committed no turnovers.

Right-tackle rotation

The Rams went with their unusual right-tackle rotation on the offensive line for the second straight game. Brandon Gorin started but split time with Rob Petitti. For those keeping score, 10 of the Rams' 13 points Sunday came with Gorin at right tackle.

Romberg sits

Center-guard Brett Romberg missed his third consecutive game because of a high ankle sprain. In Romberg's absence, Andy McCollum started at center and Leckey started for the second week in a row at right guard.

Light injury report



Fullback-running back Brian Leonard's was limited in the second half because of a sore groin muscle, but it's not thought to be serious. Coach Scott Linehan reported no other injuries.

Ram-blings

With seven catches for 55 yards Sunday, Holt moved into 18th place in receiving yards (with 11,430) and 19th place in career catches (773) on the NFL's career charts.

DE Eric Moore, signed to the active roster last week, made his season debut for the Rams in their defensive line rotation.

DT Atiyyah Ellison, a University of Missouri and Parkway South product, was among the *****' pregame inactives.