By Jim Thomas
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
10/11/2006
Just his luck. Two plays into the 2006 season, defensive tackle Jimmy Kennedy suffered a broken right hand.
He quickly got the hand casted up during the game and returned to finish out the season-opening upset of Denver -- all of which earned plaudits from the Rams' coaching staff.
"Here's a guy that broke his hand, and he came right back on the field," defensive coordinator
Jim Haslett said at the time. "He wanted to play. ... So I give credit to Jimmy for coming back out with the broken hand, and being in pain, and going out and playing pretty well."
The next day, Kennedy had a couple of pins inserted to stabilize the fracture. He would be in a cast for the next four to six weeks. Kennedy kept playing, but the results were something short of spectacular.
"I forgot who I was," Kennedy said Sunday in Green Bay. "I forgot what got me here, to tell you the truth. And it's not in a cocky way that I'm saying this. Once I broke my hand, I started going backwards for a second. Playing with pain, you start making excuses. I wasn't trying to make excuses, but I wasn't really focused. I was focused on my hand when I was out there."
But against Green Bay, he forgot about the hand and just worried about playing football. The result was Kennedy's best game of the
season. He recorded six tackles, matching his career high for a regular-season contest. He forced a first-quarter fumble by Packers running back Vernand Morency that set up the Rams' first touchdown.
If teammate
Leonard Little hadn't swiped the ball away from Brett Favre in the closing seconds of the game to save a 23-20 Rams victory, it looked like Kennedy would have at least sacked Favre.
"I think Jimmy played very well," coach Scott Linehan said. "I saw him in the backfield a couple times. He and I talked earlier in the week. He's got himself at such a high standard on how he wants to play. He won't let it be an excuse, but I know the hand has limited him in using his hands. So he decided just to use his power and his ability to get up the field. I saw a new spark in him, I thought, in this game."
Even though they were gouged for 106 yards rushing by the unheralded Noah Herron, the Rams need that kind of spark on a weekly basis from Kennedy for the defense to flourish.
After letting former starters Ryan Pickett and Damione Lewis sign elsewhere as free agents during the offseason, the Rams were counting on Kennedy to man one of the defensive tackle spots this season. There were no alternatives. And they were counting on him to handle the nose tackle spot, which isn't his natural position.
"We're talking about a guy who has played nose (five) games in his life and a couple games in preseason," Haslett said. "He was a '3-technique' here (previously), and in college."
The "3-technique" is more of a playmaking position, calling on the tackle to shoot gaps and penetrate into the backfield. But after signing six-time Pro Bowler La'Roi Glover in free agency to play that position, the Rams needed Kennedy's size and bulk (6-4, 325) at the nose.
"It's totally different," Haslett said. "You've got to be a power player at nose. You've got to be an anchor, and be a guy who can stop the run from tackle to tackle."
The Rams hadn't seen much of that from Kennedy.
"Jimmy can do better," Haslett said after the Detroit game. "Jimmy's playing like they were throwing the ball every snap. He was running around blocks on every snap. He's really athletic. He's too athletic for his own good."
But Kennedy took a step in the right direction against Green Bay.
"He played his best game of the year," Haslett said. "He was very active. Did a lot of good things. Rushed the quarterback well. ... He's starting to come along and understand exactly what we want. I think he has a chance to be a pretty good nose in the league."
By his own admission, Kennedy had a terrible week of practice leading up to the Packers game. His talk with Linehan helped sort things out.
"On film, I haven't used my right hand at all," Kennedy said. "He noticed it, and my D-line coach (Brian Baker) noticed it."
So he basically forgot about the hand. He took the cast off last Thursday in practice and played with just a padded lineman's glove. Against the Packers, he just used the glove, without extra padding.
"I didn't wrap it at all," Kennedy said. "When I'm out there, and I have the cast on, I'm thinking about my hand. I'm thinking about not hitting it, and it's an unconscious thing. Mentally, it was killing me. I just went out there (against Green Bay), and put the glove on, and just played."
No cast; no problem.
Mitchell visits
Street free agent Qasim Mitchell, an offensive lineman who played in 23 games with 16 starts for Chicago from 2003 to 2005, worked out Tuesday for the Rams. No signing is imminent.
GO RAMS 
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