Head Coach Scott Linehan
October 8, 2007
(Opening Remarks)
“Jerome Carter will be out and is a candidate for injured reserve. He broke the fifth metatarsal in his right foot which is similar to Todd Steussie’s injury which is about an eight to 10 week recovery. Dante Hall has a left ankle sprain. We will see how well he responds to treatment this week. Todd Johnson has a sprained neck. I think he felt a lot better today. I’m pretty optimistic about him coming back this week and being ready to go. We’ll find out on Wednesday where we are.”
(On if RB
Steven Jackson will play this week)
“Steven will be out again this week.”
(On if QB
Marc Bulger will play this week)
“Bulger will be available to play. We’ll make the decision as to what direction we’re going. I still want him to come back when he’s 100 percent.”
(On the extent of WR Isaac Bruce’s injury)
“It’s his left hamstring and he wasn’t able to play last week. We’ll see on Wednesday where he is.”
(On if S
Corey Chavous will play this week)
“We’re hopeful. I think he’s going to try and give it a go. We’re pretty hopeful about him having a chance.”
(On if the Rams will sign another safety)
“We’re definitely looking into that. We’ll probably have to add a safety and possibly a receiver because of Dante (Hall) being down and the uncertainty of Isaac’s (Bruce) availability.”
(On CB
Ron Bartell moving to the safety position)
“It depends on how Tye’s (Hill) doing. Ron will then probably have three roles, corner, safety, possibly, and then the nickel.”
(On CB
Tye Hill’s Week 6 status)
“I’m optimistic about Tye coming back this week. I think Tye has a good chance based on what I saw on Friday especially.”
(On WR Dante Hall’s Week 6 status)
“I don’t know. It’s a significant sprain. I don’t want to say until I see how he responds the next couple days.”
(On if he saw Hall’s injury on tape)
“I think he got rolled up on the tackle right at the finish. It looked like he kind of got his foot tied down underneath the defender as he tackled him; it looked like he did get rolled up on a little bit.”
(On if Hall’s injury is a high ankle sprain)
“I don’t know. We’ll kind of wait and see how it responds. They’ll look at whether it’s considered a high ankle sprain or just a sprain. Right now we’re still in the diagnosis part of that.”
(On DT
Claude Wroten being reinstated this week)
“We’re under the assumption that he will be. I think it will be officially announced at the end of the week, but we don’t foresee any complications as to whether or not he’ll be reinstated. Then of course you have the exemption through the week of practice as to how you have to open up his spot for the roster. You saw at the end last week that we did release Louis Leonard on Saturday to free up a roster spot that Fakhir (Brown) took and then we kept (Darius) Vinnett up for special teams.”
(On if Wroten will practice on Wednesday)
“Yes.”
(On the team’s start)
“I don’t think anybody expected to be having this discussion after five games here, but I don’t think anybody goes in with those thoughts. Good luck and bad luck are a part of the game, so you have to deal with it.”
(On the second quarter fumble by Cardinals RB Edgerrin James, which was recovered by Cardinals G Reggie Wells for a touchdown)
“It was definitely a fumbled ball before he crossed the line. I probably will never know if that was the original discussion – whether he scored or not. What I saw was a Ram jump on the ball in the end zone and I saw an Arizona offensive player jump on the person that had the ball. To me that’s down by contact on the recovery. It has to be clear that it wasn’t to basically give a touchdown…it was clearly a fumble and clearly a recovery. When it’s all said and done the Arizona player came up with the ball after the confusion. On the one side of it, you have to have that ball in your hands and leave nothing to doubt.”
(On referee Gerald Austin’s statement that CB Jonathan Wade did not have control of the ball following the fumble by James)
“He had control of it until the guy jumped on him. He didn’t come up with the ball ultimately. You have to make your own breaks; you can’t leave anything to chance. In that case you can’t allow the defender to get down there and leave anything for judgment.”
(On the delay of game penalty against the Rams at the end of the first half and Austin’s statement that two Ram players kicked the ball, one being deliberate, but did not know their numbers)
“If he doesn’t know their numbers then he can’t make the call, so if he doesn’t know who kicked it or what kicked it or who had anything to do with kicking it then he can’t make the call. If he can’t give you a number or who it was, then to me the half is over. Clearly, there was a scramble by Arizona to get lined up and get the play off because they ran a play with no timeouts and didn’t get it. Clearly, one side is going to be in a hurry to get lined up; the other side has to be legal and get lined up. The ball’s being set without teams being legally lined up. We’re still not onside, they’re whistling the ball in play, the center loses his grip on the ball, so the ball was rolling around. What we see is one team actually bumps the ball, then by that time the clock is out and the ball is just being kicked all over the place. If you can’t tell me who kicked it and what number it was and what team it was, then clearly the ball should never have been set prior to the clock running out, anyway.”
(On if he could identify anyone kicking the ball after watching the film)
“The ball is bouncing around; it hasn’t even been set. The ball got loose of the center, they kick it, there’s a St. Louis player…the ball is five yards across the line of scrimmage. I don’t know what you’re supposed to do. Are you supposed to stop and hand the ball to the official so they can set the ball? I don’t know what you’re supposed to do…the clock has run out by then.”
(On when the ball is supposed to be set)
“They have to give teams a chance to get unpiled basically. There’s an urgency to the situation there. The fact is there was a running play ran with no timeouts and a lot of players around the ball and the ball is very difficult at that point as an offensive team to get realigned and run another offensive play because of the officials being able to get the ball reset. The ball is set when they decide to reset it, but you can’t reset it when people are not off the ground or in position. Each team has to give a legitimate effort to get realigned. Our guys weren’t purposely not being…we teach them not to be in a hurry in that situation, but we clearly weren’t delaying the situation. To me it was not very clear as to who kicked it, what kicked it or whatever until the half was over; then maybe have a guy that’s kicking the ball, but that’s clearly after the half was over.”
(On what he was saying when the delay of game call was made)
“To me the half was over. It was such a critical play. We’re talking zero or seven. We had the lead at the half. We go into the half with the lead or without it. It was clearly a big play. Judgment calls are a part of the game, but when you’re scrambling to get a win and get your team to where you want your team to be, and have such a big critical play go against you; it’s kind of major to me that you’d have such a critical play go against you on your home field.”
(On if the league calls a team about questionable calls submitted)
“It’s a form. We send it in. They do the courtesy of evaluating whether or not it was a proper or improper play. It’s like an evaluation.”
(On the return of CB Fakhir Brown to the lineup)
“I think Fakhir was a great lift for us. He was our first reinstated player, for various reasons we have lost a lot of players and he was the first one back along with Richie (Incognito). He made his impact felt right away in the first half, first drive, and in the second half after that turnover, turned around and got ball right back for us three plays later. He almost had three. Clearly we have missed him and you could see that he was going to be tested and we felt that he was going to be and felt he was up for the challenge.”
(On how hard it is for a player to be away from the team and return to the lineup)
“I think it is unusual when you come back and have that much success right away just because you might be a little off rhythm or timing wise. But Fakhir (Brown) was here. He wasn’t doing anything as far as team activities as far as practice and those kinds of things. But he was here and maintained very good football shape. He played a lot in preseason. The whole plan all along was to stay around and be ready to go when he came back and he took advantage of it.”
(On the team’s biggest concern and if it is tough to keep them motivated)
“Getting our first win, that’s our biggest concern. The motivated part, these are pro athletes, professional coaches in an organization that knows that 0-5 isn’t where we want to be. Getting our first win is all the motivation we need.”
(On
Richie Incognito’s penalties)
“It’s like anything else, if you don’t comply with the rules, then your ability to stay on the field is in jeopardy. That’s the thing right there that I’ve always said to Richie. I’ve said ‘the only that is going to hold him back from being as good as he wants to be is himself’ and we can’t have that. If we continue to do that then someone else regardless of our injury situation, someone else has got to go in.”
(On Incognito having a reputation for having a short fuse)
“That’s exactly right and once you start that, you are going to be a target. If we continue to bring those kinds of things on ourselves then we will create our own bad luck, which is what we don’t want.”
(On using the no-huddle)
“It’s something I’ve done a lot with Gus (Frerotte). Done a lot in Minnesota, Miami and here, very similar type plans we have had. Just another way to get more plays to increase the tempo of the game. Just a change up, we needed to make adjustments, we needed to make a change. We had very little rhythm offensively the last two weeks for the most part. It was probably more of that than anything.”
(On if the no-huddle added to the urgency of the offense)
“Yeah that was a big part of it. I think it definitely helps. You have to get first downs and you have to execute. We had a couple series where we didn’t convert so that is the downside of no-huddle. If you hurry up, then you hurry out if you don’t get first downs. The whole idea is to execute move the chains and create more tempo and urgency for your offense.”
(On how OL Andy McCollum played at G)
“I thought he played pretty well. It’s a different position than center, I’m sure that Andy would tell you that but for the most part he held up.”
(On if McCollum playing guard played into the signing of Nick Leckey to have as a designated back up C)
“Yeah that and Leckey has played guard. He adds depth more than anything. He is a player that we worked out last week and we feel now that we have two centers basically starting and probably continuing that, we needed a guy that had some on the field back up center background and has also played guard.”
(On C Andy McCollum starting this week)
“That’s probably the plan. We haven’t finalized our starting lineup for this week, but it looks we’re leaning that way.”
(On a timetable for RB
Steven Jackson’s return)
“Each week we evaluate it for the realistic side of things. He’s not close enough to be up this week, so he’s out. We’re hopeful for next week.”
(On how much tougher a win is going to be with the Rams’ remaining schedule)
“It’s hard to win football games in the NFL. We’ve proven that this year. We have to focus on this game. It’s playing on the road in Baltimore. They have a great defense and a lot of things going for them. We just have to find a way. Nothing is easy. Finding a way to get a win has obviously eluded us so far this year. We have to find that magic.”
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