Pace injures knee and could be sidelined a month
By Jim Thomas
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
11/17/2008
SAN FRANCISCO — Hard to believe, but the bad luck continues for left tackle Orlando Pace on the injury front. Pace left Sunday's game late in the first quarter with a right knee injury that could sideline him for a month, if not the rest of the season.
With 1 minute, 30 seconds to go in the opening quarter, ***** linebacker Takeo Spikes accidentally leg-whipped Pace's knee while trying to make a tackle on St. Louis running back Kenneth Darby.
"I don't know what happened, but I felt the knee kind of gave in a little bit," Pace said.
After the game, coach Jim Haslett said that Pace had a medial collateral ligament injury in the knee. If the ligament is torn, Pace will be out for about a month.
"Yeah," Pace said. "I had one in '01 and went to the Super Bowl championship game, but I think this is a little bit different than that."
From 1999 through the 2005 season, Pace made seven consecutive Pro Bowls. But including Sunday's game, he has played in only 18 of 42 contests since the start of the 2006 season because of shoulder, triceps, thigh and concussion injuries.
If it weren't for bad luck ...
"I wouldn't have any," Pace said, finishing the thought. "At this point, you've almost got to laugh about it. It's been a frustrating last few years for me."
Adam Goldberg finished the ***** game for Pace, and would replace him in the starting lineup.
RUNNING OUT OF LINEMEN
Pace wasn't the only offensive linemen who left early because of injury. Starting right guard Richie Incognito suffered a shoulder injury late in the first half and was replaced by Brett Romberg.
Haslett described the injury as a strained rotator cuff and said that Incognito, like Pace, would undergo an MRI exam today.
With guard Roy Schuening and guard-tackle John Greco (knee) on the pregame inactive list, the Rams were left with no substitutes on the line once Pace and Incognito went down. Had another blocker gone down, Haslett said he would have used tight end Anthony Becht at tackle, and then shuffled accordingly.
BARTELL OUT, TOO
Cornerback Ron Bartell also left the game in the first quarter with a left knee injury that could be season-ending. Haslett said Bartell suffered what's believed to be a torn meniscus cartilage. If so, he will need surgery.
"I'm not going to jump to any conclusions till I see the MRI," Bartell said. "If it's torn, then I'll deal with it, get surgery, and try to come back as soon as we can. Hopefully, it's a sprain or something."
Bartell said he suffered the injury when a receiver tried to cut-block him. Bartell went low with the receiver and then got his knee trapped under him in the pile.
SITTING IT OUT
Besides Greco and Schuening, running back Steven Jackson (thigh), cornerback Tye Hill (knee), linebacker Chris Draft (foot), defensive end Eric Moore (neck) and running back Samkon Gado were the Rams' pregame inactives.
RAM-BLINGS
Marc Bulger's 295 yards passing Sunday gave him 20,293 for his career. He thus became the fifth-fastest player to reach 20,000 career yards, doing so in 81 games.
With five catches for 60 yards Sunday, Torry Holt has caught at least one pass in 147 consecutive games, the fourth-longest streak among active NFL players.
Re: Pace injures knee and could be sidelined a month
Man. Greco and Schuening need to be starting out there!!! Give them a shot!
Re: Pace injures knee and could be sidelined a month
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Mooselini
Man. Greco and Schuening need to be starting out there!!! Give them a shot!
Might as well. It certainly couldn't get much worse, could it?
Re: Pace injures knee and could be sidelined a month
Whats wrong with Greco's knee?
Re: Pace injures knee and could be sidelined a month
I also agree, get Greco and Scheuning in there, they are big guys that could fill up the line. Also, Tye Hill NEEDS to get back in the game and start playing like a first round draft pick, not an undrafted free agent if Bartell is going to be out. Or maybe we should just put in our back ups to reduce the risk of further injury for next year, which I'm more worried about than this year.
Re: Pace injures knee and could be sidelined a month
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Mooselini
Man. Greco and Schuening need to be starting out there!!! Give them a shot!
I agree Moose, what do we have to loose at this point. It's time to see what the future holds in the way of talent that has been drafted. It still blows my mind that we draft players and when situations come along that we could use them, we don't. What a waste of time and money.
Re: Pace injures knee and could be sidelined a month
Guys, we hate to say this...but it could be Pace's last game as a Ram. If it is bad, who knows. We could never see Pace play again.
But we need to move on. Goldberg is okay at LT so we have that. But Schuening should be playing rather than Romberg honestly. Romberg won't be a future of the Rams. Schuening might. We just don't know because they're always inactive. That needs to change.
If things go bad with the rookies in them, pull them. That simple.
Re: Pace injures knee and could be sidelined a month
Greco is supposedly injured with some knee injury, don't know why Scheuning isn't playing. What a waste of a draft pick if you ask me. I thought when you draft a player, your intention is for him to play and help your team. Either that or he's trying to shift from college football to the NFL and he isn't ready to play yet. But I'm thinking the coaches just forgot about him...
Re: Pace injures knee and could be sidelined a month
I hate to say it, but if it's torn, put him on IR, and trade him for whatever you can get. We need draft picks, and I'm sure there's a team out there who'll be willing to take a chance on him.
Sadly I say the same about Torry, Pisa, and Fakhir Brown.
Re: Pace injures knee and could be sidelined a month
Quote:
Originally Posted by
TekeRam
I hate to say it, but if it's torn, put him on IR, and trade him for whatever you can get. We need draft picks, and I'm sure there's a team out there who'll be willing to take a chance on him.
Sadly I say the same about Torry, Pisa, and Fakhir Brown.
I agree 100% with you, these guys are supposed to be the leaders of this team, so far I haven't seen much leadership out of them. At this point I feel the people you mentioned are more closely related to the problems of this team than the solutions. The best way they could help this team now is by getting draft picks for them.
Re: Pace injures knee and could be sidelined a month
Quote:
Originally Posted by
RamWraith
By Jim Thomas
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
11/17/2008
BARTELL OUT, TOO
Cornerback Ron Bartell also left the game in the first quarter with a left knee injury that could be season-ending. Haslett said Bartell suffered what's believed to be a torn meniscus cartilage. If so, he will need surgery.
"I'm not going to jump to any conclusions till I see the MRI," Bartell said. "If it's torn, then I'll deal with it, get surgery, and try to come back as soon as we can. Hopefully, it's a sprain or something."
Bartell said he suffered the injury when a receiver tried to cut-block him. Bartell went low with the receiver and then got his knee trapped under him in the pile.
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This is perhaps the biggest story for our secondary. Bartell was really coming on, and looked like the closest thing to a cornerstone for a very bad defense.
