By Bill Coats
10/04/2007 4:17 pm
As if kicker Jeff Wilkins hasn’t experienced enough adversity, with four misses in his last five field-goal attempts. Now he’s lost
Dane Looker, his holder since the start of the 2003 season.
Looker, also a backup wide receiver, will miss Sunday’s game vs. visiting Arizona with a severe thigh bruise. Punter Donnie Jones, who held for Olindo Mare the last two years in Miami, is his replacement.
“It’s not really new, because we’ve been doing it since I got here” in the spring, said Jones, a free-agent pickup. “Dane’s always catching passes and doing offensive drills, so I always warm (Wilkins) up.”
Still, Jones, Wilkins and long-snapper
Chris Massey have been working overtime this week in practice. “Everybody’s feeling confident,” Jones said. He’s also confident that Wilkins will break out of his slump.
“We talk all the time, and we help each other out,” Jones said. “The mental part of the game is huge. I just try to reinforce him: ‘Hey, you’ve done this for 14 years now, you’re one of the most accurate in history . . . everybody’s going to have a bad game or two. You just come out of it.’ . . .
“I’m going to go out and do what I’ve got to do to put the ball just perfect for him, and he’s going to get on a roll here.”
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Although he’s been sharing reps at practice with Brandon Gorin, Milford Brown appears to be the front-runner to start at right tackle against the team that cut him in June.
Brown, who started 12 games for Arizona last year, was let go after he balked at taking a pay cut. Yet he said he facing the Cardinals provided him no extra motivation.
“If you can’t get motivated to play around here right now, the way we’re going . . . ” he said. “Not extra motivation. Just plain motivation.”
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Watching Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo turn the Rams inside out Sunday stirred thoughts of what might have been with Ryan Fitzpatrick, traded Sept. 1 to the Bengals for a conditional seventh-rough draft pick in 2008.
Not to suggest that Fitzpatrick is anywhere near as advanced as Romo right now, but there are viable comparisons. Both QBs have size – Fitzpatrick is 6-2, 225; Romo is 6-2, 224 – plus impressive speed, and agility. Also, both came into the league unheralded, Fitzpatrick from Harvard and Romo from Eastern Illinois.
Fitzpatrick was dealt mainly so that the Rams could free up a spot on the 53-man roster. Makes one wonder whether they over-thought themselves on this one.
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Notes & quotes:
>>DE Victor Adeyanju has been taking extra reps on the right side. The starter there, James Hall, has been limited in practice after injuring a pectoral muscle vs. the Cowboys. “Anyway I can help the team out, that’s my motto,” Adeyanju said. “Whatever helps the team is good.”
>>WR Isaac Bruce (knee) and SS
Corey Chavous (pectoral) haven’t practiced this week, so their availability vs. the Cardinals is highly questionable.
>>With Looker out, Marques Hagans will be on the game-day roster for the first time since the Rams drafted him in the fifth round in 2006.
>>CB Fakhir Brown has impressed in his first two practices since returning from a four-game league suspension. “Fakhir looks great,” coach Scott Linehan said. “He has very fresh legs; that’s one part that’s noticeable. It’s been really good to have him back out here.”
>>Because the game didn’t sell out by noon Thursday, it won’t be televised locally. “If we get this thing rolling and start winning football games, I understand it probably won’t stay that way,” Linehan said. “So that’s our goal.”
All for now . . .
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