By Bryan Burwell
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Monday, Sep. 24 2007
TAMPA, FLA. — As a furious squall turned Raymond James Stadium into a soggy
quagmire late Sunday afternoon, there was another tempest brewing inside the
visitors' locker room. The Rams were trying to convince a room full of media
inquisitors — and maybe themselves — that their football season had not just
washed away. In every corner of this cramped losers locker room, grim-faced
players kept searching for all the right words to explain the mess and minimize
the disaster.
But really now, how do you find the right words for this?
Tampa Bay 24, St. Louis 3.
"It's like the bad luck truck is in the neighborhood right now," Dante Hall
said.
"We're still a good team," Drew Bennett said. "We just have to prove it."
The Rams are 0-3 this morning, and the only thing they have proved so far is
that they are what their record says they are. They keep looking for words that
can make 0-3 sound palatable, but you can't put a pretty bow on it and convince
a world full of doubters that your winless season is closer to prosperity than
total calamity.
But that didn't stop them from trying. When the grim-faced Scott Linehan
marched into the corridor to face the media, the embattled second-year head
coach began preaching his positive (did someone say delusional?) mantra. "As
far as the game, the score doesn't indicate it, but we were right there,"
Linehan said. "It may not look like it, but I feel very good about how we
planned this football game. We stayed with it, even when it is easy to get away
from it. We just have to be better finishers."
Linehan keeps preaching that his team — particularly his offense — is ever so
close to a harmonic convergence . But it's hard to sell that one to angry Rams
fans who think his offense is underachieving.
This so-called high-powered offense scored three points against the Bucs.
Three points!!!!
The Rams have become the biggest mystery of this early NFL season. Several NFL
personnel types were in that Tampa Bay press box on Sunday and they can't
understand what's happening, either. "Everyone keeps talking about New Orleans
being the biggest surprise (winless team) in the league," one scout said.
"Well, I think it's the Rams, because the Rams are so much more of a complete
team than the Saints. They have a better defense, and they definitely have a
better offense. There are a lot of weapons in that huddle."
So why does an offense that has so much firepower and so many past and present
Pro Bowl players continue to fail whenever it gets within 25 to 30 yards of the
end zone? A big part of the problem with their lack of productivity continues
to be play calling and game planning.
Offensive coordinator Greg Olson approached this game with the same annoying
predictability and passivity that failed him against Carolina and San
Francisco. For a change, Olson did remember that
Steven Jackson was still
gainfully employed by the Rams, but then he forgot about everyone else in the
huddle. He's either pass crazy or run obsessed, but rarely blends the two
effectively. Sunday, part of that may have come from Linehan, who said he
decided to eschew many deep routes or attacking the middle of the field out of
fear that Bulger would get slaughtered by the Bucs' furious pass rush.
But the Bucs don't exactly have a furious rush anymore.
So why did Olson keep calling those unproductive quick outs and useless wide
receiver screens whenever Tampa Bay stacked up eight men in the box? He has to
know they simply won't work. Bubble screens work with shifty, elusive pass
catchers or big, strong game-breakers who toss off defensive backs like lint.
The Rams receivers are excellent route runners with great hands who rarely pick
up any yards after the catch, which probably explains why they averaged an
anemic 7.9 yards per catch against the Bucs.
But the heart of the Rams' offensive woes happen the minute this team moves
within sniffing distance of the red zone, and much of it has to do with
unsophisticated game plans that run out of the same basic formations and
produce far too many predictable outcomes.
There are no style points given in the NFL. There are no "attaboys" and hearty
backslaps given for a good effort. The only thing that matters in this league
is production, and right now, the only thing Linehan's offense is producing is
frustration.
Linear Mode
