Monday, August 14, 2006
By Nick Wagoner
Senior Writer
The dog days of training camp are officially here and with that come the first real injury scare of the Rams’ preseason.
Perennial Pro Bowl left tackle
Orlando Pace left the practice field early during Monday’s morning practice. But, the thought of Pace being out for a while seems to have passed already as coach Scott Linehan said it didn’t seem like a serious situation.
“Orlando had a minor injury it looks like,” Linehan said. “He had a slight ankle (injury), a slight knee (injury). He kind of got rolled up on in a 9 on 7 drill. It didn’t appear after he walked it off that it was real serious.”
Early reports coming back indicate that indeed the right ankle and knee injures are not serious. Pace is expected to be day to day and could be held back as a precautionary measure at least in the immediate future. Team officials are calling it a slightly sprained ankle and knee. The x-rays came back negative.
Pace has been one of the league’s best and most consistent tackles in his time in the league. In his career, Pace has played in 133 games and started 129. Before this slight setback, Linehan said Pace was having a strong camp. He missed a couple of days earlier in camp because of the birth of his son.
“I think (he has) been very good,” Linehan said. “We’ve asked him to do a lot of things, I’m sure he did it last year. He was in camp for the most part last year, but he’s missed a number of training camps over the last three or four years I think. It’s been very good for him. It (training camp) has shown his ability to run block. We all know he can be a great pass protector, but I think it’s been very good for his overall game. I think he’s stepped it up big time.”
Todd Steussie, who was signed as the third tackle in the offseason, took Pace’s spot during the morning workout and fared well.
“That’s what Steussie does,” Linehan said. “He came in and did well. It was good work for him to get in there and work with the first unit. It’s certainly something we don’t want to have to do very often, but we have 100 percent confidence in him. He’s a guy that’s done that for years and it’s a great luxury to have.”
Pace isn’t the only Ram dealing with injury or illness. Starting cornerback Travis Fisher did very light work in the morning as most of his time was spent on the exercise bike.
“He’s dealing with a tight groin and hamstring that’s bothered him before,” Linehan said. “Nothing serious; he just didn’t feel like coming out here and pushing it today. We kept him out of a lot of things today and just had him work on his conditioning. We’ll bring him back in here as he starts to improve.”
Fullback Madison Hedgecock, guard Claude Terrell and linebacker Raonall Smith joined Fisher on the sidelines. Hedgecock is still working to recover from an ankle injury while Terrell is dealing with a chronic pain left over from wrist surgery in the offseason.
Smith has an infection from turf burn suffered in a practice late last week and was held out of the practice because of it.
TURK SHINES: The competition for the punting job between Matt Turk and Andy Groom has been one to watch during camp. But Turk might have created a little space between he and Groom during the preseason opener against the Colts.
Turk punted twice for an average of 48 yards and dropped both attempts inside the 20, including on that was downed at the 2. Groom struggled a bit, averaging 26 yards on his two tries.
“I don’t know about the distance (between Turk and Grooms for playing time),” Linehan said. “(Turk) made a nice statement for his play. Knocking it down on the 2 on his first punt and keeping them at the 11 with a 5.5 (second) hang time on the second one is a good start.”
THE MARSHALL PLAN: As expected, running back Marshall Faulk will be working for the NFL Network during the 2006 season. Faulk is out for the season because of offseason knee surgery and has been placed on the physically unable to perform list.
Faulk will serve as a weeknight analyst for NFL Total Access.
“Marshall is widely regarded as one of the smartest football players of his generation,” NFL Network Executive Producer Eric Weinberger said. “We expect him to be as versatile on our network as he is on the playing field.”
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