Playoffs next stop for Rams
By Jim Thomas
Of the Post-Dispatch
Sunday, Jan. 02 2005
The Rams were up, they were down, and just about every place in between. They
were staring at elimination when Doug Brien lined up for a 53-yard field goal
in overtime.
They were minus-3 in giveaway-takeaway differential. Statistics show you're a
loser 90 percent of the time when that happens.
Throw in the fact that the Rams allowed a kickoff return for a touchdown, plus
an interception return for a TD, and normally, the chances for success dwindle
even further.
But this hasn't been a normal season. This has been a season in which the Rams
have done it the hard way. Or not done it at all.
So perhaps everything that happened Sunday was fitting. Right down to the fact
that it took the longest game of the NFL season for the Rams to outlast the New
York Jets and earn their fifth playoff berth in six seasons.
Jeff Wilkins' eighth winning field goal as a Ram - a 31-yarder, 11 minutes 58
seconds into overtime - gave the Rams a 32-29 victory over the Jets.
"I think it's only appropriate," a grinning Stan Kroenke, the team's vice
chairman and part owner, said in the locker room Sunday. "We hung on by the
skin of our teeth, and finally fought our way into it."
As such, the Rams are only the seventh 8-8 team in NFL history to make the
playoffs. They qualified for a wild card thanks to Minnesota's 21-18 loss to
Washington. (Seattle's 28-26 victory over Atlanta gave the Seahawks a 9-7
record and the NFC West title.)
"What can I tell you?" coach Mike Martz said. "This is the team that I've
always felt that we could be. Along the way, there were so many things that
have happened to us. ... Who knows where we're going? But it's good to be in it
still."
Actually, they're going to Seattle - for the first round of the NFC playoffs
Saturday. Kickoff is 3:30 p.m., Central time. The Rams swept the season series
against the Seahawks, but it took one of the greatest late-game comebacks in
NFL history to beat Seattle on Oct. 10, in a 33-27 overtime road victory.
"It'll be fun," safety Adam Archuleta said. "We had the edge against them this
year. But we need to win one more."
It took some gritty work by the St. Louis defense, plus a 450-yard passing
effort by
Marc Bulger, to get the Rams into the postseason. The Rams defense
gave up 153 rushing yards to NFL rushing champion Curtis Martin but allowed
only one touchdown. Bulger's passing total was just 14 yards off the league
high for the season - Donovan McNabb's 464-yard effort vs. Green Bay on Dec. 5.
"Marc has morphed into - in my opinion - just a terrific, outstanding
quarterback," Martz said. "One of the upper-echelon quarterbacks in this
league."
Bulger threw a 27-yard touchdown pass to Isaac Bruce in the second quarter and
had scoring strikes of 44 and 19 yards to
Torry Holt. The second TD pass to
Holt, with just 5:06 to play in regulation, gave the Rams a 29-26 lead.
By this time, the Vikings already had lost to Washington, meaning the Rams were
in with a win. Not that Martz was aware of this - he was not engaged in any
scoreboard-peeking.
"Are you kidding?" Martz teased a reporter. "Did you watch the game? When was I
going to look at the score? I was trying to figure out how to get a first
down."
Martz, in fact, ordered officials at the Edward Jones Dome to quit showing the
Vikings-Redskins score midway through the first half. The out-of-town
scoreboard may have been blank, but Rams players were getting updates from fans
seated right behind them - fans who were getting scores from the radio or via
cellphone.
It was only after the Vikings-Redskins game was over that the score was posted
once again in the stadium.
But as Archuleta said, "We had a lot more things to worry about" than
scoreboard watching.
Yeah, like winning the game. Because no matter what Minnesota or Seattle did,
the Rams couldn't get in without a win. Things got problematic after the Rams'
11-point lead disappeared in a hurry in the third quarter.
On a day in which the Rams gained only 47 yards on the ground,
Steven Jackson
gained 20 of them on a TD run around right end that gave the Rams a 21-10 lead
with 13:30 to go in the third. But Jerricho Cotchery took the ensuing kickoff
94 yards for a TD, and the Rams' lead was suddenly just four.
A Brien field goal, followed by linebacker Jonathan Vilma's 38-yard
interception return of a tipped Bulger pass for a TD, put the Jets ahead 26-21
late in the third. (The Jets went for two points after Vilma's score but failed
to convert.)
"There were many times this football team could have become discouraged,
whether it was after the kickoff return, or the deflected pass return for a
touchdown," Martz said.
And especially after Brien's 27-yard field goal with 3 seconds left in the
fourth quarter sent the game into overtime tied 29-29.
Nearly 10 minutes into overtime, Brien had a chance to close out the Rams for
the winter. But his 53-yarder was wide right.
"My hand was less than a foot away from the ball," said Rams defensive tackle
Jimmy Kennedy, who nearly blocked the kick. "I was the first one running off
the field because I knew it was no good."
The Rams took over on their 43 after the Brien miss. Bulger passed to Holt for
14 yards and Jackson for 22, putting St. Louis in field goal range. The play to
Jackson came on a "hot read" - an adjustment to a Jets blitz - with the pass
feathered beautifully over a defender.
With the Jackson catch and run advancing the ball to the 13, Martz didn't wait
any longer. Out trotted Wilkins for the kick.
"Everyone knows Wilkie's money," Kennedy said. "I knew he was going to make it.
No sweat."
Well, some were less calm than others on the Rams sideline.
"My heart was in my throat," Martz said. "But I knew he was going to make it."
Wilkins' kick was straight and true, booting the Rams into the postseason.
Eight-and-eight record, the Rams are in.
"There's a lot of other teams that would love to be where we are right now,"
Bruce said. "We've got to take advantage of it."
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