Rams Hope To Gain Some Pride

[RamWraith]

By Jim Thomas
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
11/12/2008

For only the second time all season, the Rams face a team with a losing record, traveling to San Francisco for Sunday's game with the ***** (2-7). But given the current state of the Rams, will it matter?

The Rams followed up what coach Jim Haslett referred to as the worst 4 1/2 minutes of football he'd ever been part of against Arizona, at the end of the first half, with the worst half of football just about anyone has seen last Sunday against the New York Jets.

Since Marc Bulger's 80-yard touchdown pass to Derek Stanley against Arizona, the Rams have been outscored 81-9. Barring the return of running back Steven Jackson from his thigh injury, what reason is there to think a drastic improvement will take place at Candlestick Park?

During the Meltdown in the Meadowlands, veteran tight end Anthony Becht could be seen on the sidelines, imploring his teammates to pick up their play.

"We're all accountable," Becht said. "We're all adults here. We're all professionals. We shouldn't need any of that."

In the locker room at halftime, veteran Corey Chavous took a similar approach in an impassioned plea to the players. But by that time, the score already was 40-0. The Rams were more competitive in the second half; then again, the Jets may have been in cruise control at that point.

"I was telling guys (at halftime), we've got to have some pride about ourselves," wide receiver Dane Looker said. "Come out here and at least compete … show the team across the field that you're here to compete."

Save for the Washington, Dallas, and New England games, the Rams haven't been competitive. Shockingly so, in some games.

"We've got players on this team," Looker insisted. "We've shown that. We've shown that in our two wins this year — we've played very well. I just think each one of us has to take it upon ourselves to prepare better, play harder, and expect to win.

"Things went south pretty early in that (Jets) game, and it was hard to recover. So we've just got to come out here and start better, and realize that you're playing for this organization, you're playing for your fans, you're playing for the name on your back."

As the players return to work today for the first practice in preparation for San Francisco, the emphasis is on accountability and looking inward.

"The only thing I can do is control my part, and I have to play better," Becht said. "Everybody's got to individually do that. That's really all we can do right now."

Maybe so. But if things don't get better, it's going to be a long and ugly seven weeks.

"Looking back these past two weeks, we gave some things away," defensive tackle Clifton Ryan said. "We've got to look in the mirror and decide where we want to go, as a team and from an individual standpoint.

"We're all in this together, so you've got to ask yourself, 'Are you going to be accountable for your job?' No matter how many plays you're out there — if it's one play or 100 plays. That's all it boils down to. Because we're not a bad team. We're not a bad group of guys.

"When we play our best game and we're accountable to each other, we can compete with any team in the league, and we showed that the first three games when Jim took over."

But since then?

"I don't know what happened," Ryan said. "We've got to get that mind-set back from when we played Dallas and we played New England and we played Washington."

HILL WILL REMAIN SIDELINED

After visiting a specialist Monday for a further examination of his right knee, cornerback Tye Hill will sit out another game, Haslett said. Hill still has fluid on the knee and a partial bone bruise, but it's nothing that will require further surgery. Hill had arthroscopic surgery on the knee Sept. 30 and hasn't played since.

RAMB-LINGS

Running backs Najeh Davenport and Dwayne Wright visited Rams Park on Tuesday for workouts and a physical, but neither player was signed. … The team released running back Darius Walker from the practice squad and added safety David Roach.

[laram0]

Looker, Becht and Chavous are saying the right things. What about our team leader Marc Bulger? and Steven Jackson? Where's Torry Holt and his thoughts about this recent fiasco? How about Leonard Little?

I guess if I'm Jim Haslett (and I'm not) I'm sitting down with each and every guy on our roster. All one on one conversations, letting each player know where I stand as the Interim Headcoach and what each individual player needs to do if they want a job next season.

We've been waiting to long for this team to start showing improvement on a consistent basis.

All these lopsided losses are totally unacceptable!!!!!

[eldfan]

Looker, Becht and Chavous are saying the right things. What about our team leader Marc Bulger? and Steven Jackson? Where's Torry Holt and his thoughts about this recent fiasco? How about Leonard Little?

I guess if I'm Jim Haslett (and I'm not) I'm sitting down with each and every guy on our roster. All one on one conversations, letting each player know where I stand as the Interim Headcoach and what each individual player needs to do if they want a job next season.

We've been waiting to long for this team to start showing improvement on a consistent basis.

All these lopsided losses are totally unacceptable!!!!!

I don't get it they don't seem to give a rat A$#.

[Mooselini]

So Looker, Becht and Chavous are the captains and leaders of this team?

Jackson should be running his mouth since he isn't running on the field. He should motivate this team off the field because he cannot get them rolling on the field.

Holt, Little and Pace should be saying things also being they are the ones who have been with the team the longest.

Green and Bulger need to step it up also. I know Bulger is the starter. He needs to yell at players.

The Haz also needs to do something about it.

Another argument about Bulger. Look at what Drew Brees does before every game. He motivates his squad because he is their field general.

Where the hell is our general?

Its not Holt, its not Jackson, it's not Bulger.

WHO THE HELL IS IT!??!?!?!?

[rams#1]

F*** Torry holt!!