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Sloppiness is still the Rams' trademark
By Jeff Gordon
STLTODAY.COM SPORTS COLUMNIST
09/14/2009
Sloppiness crept into Rams Park during the Mike Martz Era, during those exciting “Shoot, we’ll fix it” days.
Those teams routinely wasted timeouts, drew untimely penalties and coughed up the football. Those teams had the firepower to score more points than they gave away, so life was still pretty good.
But when the Rams lost some of that firepower, things turned ugly fast. Martz’s latter-day Rams were an undisciplined mess.
His successor, Scott Linehan, never got things under control. Hiring him as head coach of the Rams was like sending a 12-year-old crossing guard to work Times Square. It was a total mismatch.
Every week the hapless Linehan talked about the accountability in his program. And every week there was absolutely no accountability in his program. The same players made the same mistakes game after game after game.
Colorful interim coach Jim Haslett got the team’s attention for a couple of weeks last season, before the team reverted to its unruly ways.
Despite Steve Spagnuolo’s best efforts, we just saw more of the same in Week 1 of this season.
The Rams have a new team president, a newly empowered general manager, a new coach and a mostly new coaching staff. Nearly half of the players are new this season, too.
Yet the sloppiness remains in this organization, like a pesky virus or a mutant strain of cockroaches immune to bug spray. The Rams blundered their way to a 28-0 loss Sunday, continuing their futility against the NFC West in general and the Seahawks in particular.
Sure, the Rams played with passion. Steven Jackson was as demonstrative as we’ve seen him and even Marc Bulger was feisty.
Of course, when the other team pounds your face into the turf you ought to get mad. Rookie Seahawks linebacker Aaron Curry crushed Jackson and the Seattle defense did a tag-team number on Bulger, giving him another thorough physical beating.
Jackson and Bulger pushed back, which is good for them.
As for the overall game, though, it offered just more of the same:
The Rams got the ball first, but Donnie Avery immediately fumbled it back to the Seahawks on the opening kickoff return. He did not protect the ball when he cut into traffic.
On their first snap from scrimmage, Richie Incognito was flagged for a five-yard false start penalty. This gave Bulger a first-and-15 situation to start with, on his own 15. The Rams gained six yards on three plays and punted.
On the Rams’ second possession, Jackson ground out a first down. But on a second-and-nine play, Incognito took a trademark 15-yard personal foul penalty. This gave Bulger a second-and-22 situation to deal with . . . and soon the Rams punted again.
After the Rams defense created another turnover, the offense got the ball on the Seattle 38. Avery quickly negated Jackson’s 8-yard run with a holding penalty. On third-and-7 from the 35, center Jason Brown missed Bulger with his shotgun snap. Bulger did well to recover the ball and throw an incomplete pass, but the Rams had to punt again.
After the Rams defense created another turnover, Jacob Bell earned a false start penalty to turn a second-and-4 situation into a second-and-9 scenario.
The Rams overcame that, but a false start penalty on Randy McMichael, followed immediately by a delay-of-game penalty, knocked them out of the red zone. Then Josh Brown missed the 37-yard field goal attempt, which should be a chip shot for him.
On and on it went. The Rams blocked a field goal and ran it back for the game-tying TD . . . only to lose the momentum-shifting play to a video review.
It turns out they had 12 men on the field. How do you have 12 men on the field? Doesn’t somebody count how many players go out there? Aren’t these jobs assigned?
The Rams should have led at the half. At worst, they should have been tied with the Seahawks. Instead they trailed 14-0.
They came out with some fight in the third quarter, earning a defensive stop to start the half. But then another 15-yard penalty on Incognito ruined the first Rams possession of the second half.
The Seahawks countered with a touchdown and that was that. The Rams played hard Sunday, but undermined their effort with mistake after mistake after mistake.
It was astonishing, really, that so much could change with this franchise -– and yet nothing changed at all.
So Spagnuolo must continue the clean-up. He must continue running off knuckleheads and pounding discipline into those who remain.
He must finally succeed where his predecessors failed so horribly.
By Jeff Gordon
STLTODAY.COM SPORTS COLUMNIST
09/14/2009
Sloppiness crept into Rams Park during the Mike Martz Era, during those exciting “Shoot, we’ll fix it” days.
Those teams routinely wasted timeouts, drew untimely penalties and coughed up the football. Those teams had the firepower to score more points than they gave away, so life was still pretty good.
But when the Rams lost some of that firepower, things turned ugly fast. Martz’s latter-day Rams were an undisciplined mess.
His successor, Scott Linehan, never got things under control. Hiring him as head coach of the Rams was like sending a 12-year-old crossing guard to work Times Square. It was a total mismatch.
Every week the hapless Linehan talked about the accountability in his program. And every week there was absolutely no accountability in his program. The same players made the same mistakes game after game after game.
Colorful interim coach Jim Haslett got the team’s attention for a couple of weeks last season, before the team reverted to its unruly ways.
Despite Steve Spagnuolo’s best efforts, we just saw more of the same in Week 1 of this season.
The Rams have a new team president, a newly empowered general manager, a new coach and a mostly new coaching staff. Nearly half of the players are new this season, too.
Yet the sloppiness remains in this organization, like a pesky virus or a mutant strain of cockroaches immune to bug spray. The Rams blundered their way to a 28-0 loss Sunday, continuing their futility against the NFC West in general and the Seahawks in particular.
Sure, the Rams played with passion. Steven Jackson was as demonstrative as we’ve seen him and even Marc Bulger was feisty.
Of course, when the other team pounds your face into the turf you ought to get mad. Rookie Seahawks linebacker Aaron Curry crushed Jackson and the Seattle defense did a tag-team number on Bulger, giving him another thorough physical beating.
Jackson and Bulger pushed back, which is good for them.
As for the overall game, though, it offered just more of the same:
The Rams got the ball first, but Donnie Avery immediately fumbled it back to the Seahawks on the opening kickoff return. He did not protect the ball when he cut into traffic.
On their first snap from scrimmage, Richie Incognito was flagged for a five-yard false start penalty. This gave Bulger a first-and-15 situation to start with, on his own 15. The Rams gained six yards on three plays and punted.
On the Rams’ second possession, Jackson ground out a first down. But on a second-and-nine play, Incognito took a trademark 15-yard personal foul penalty. This gave Bulger a second-and-22 situation to deal with . . . and soon the Rams punted again.
After the Rams defense created another turnover, the offense got the ball on the Seattle 38. Avery quickly negated Jackson’s 8-yard run with a holding penalty. On third-and-7 from the 35, center Jason Brown missed Bulger with his shotgun snap. Bulger did well to recover the ball and throw an incomplete pass, but the Rams had to punt again.
After the Rams defense created another turnover, Jacob Bell earned a false start penalty to turn a second-and-4 situation into a second-and-9 scenario.
The Rams overcame that, but a false start penalty on Randy McMichael, followed immediately by a delay-of-game penalty, knocked them out of the red zone. Then Josh Brown missed the 37-yard field goal attempt, which should be a chip shot for him.
On and on it went. The Rams blocked a field goal and ran it back for the game-tying TD . . . only to lose the momentum-shifting play to a video review.
It turns out they had 12 men on the field. How do you have 12 men on the field? Doesn’t somebody count how many players go out there? Aren’t these jobs assigned?
The Rams should have led at the half. At worst, they should have been tied with the Seahawks. Instead they trailed 14-0.
They came out with some fight in the third quarter, earning a defensive stop to start the half. But then another 15-yard penalty on Incognito ruined the first Rams possession of the second half.
The Seahawks countered with a touchdown and that was that. The Rams played hard Sunday, but undermined their effort with mistake after mistake after mistake.
It was astonishing, really, that so much could change with this franchise -– and yet nothing changed at all.
So Spagnuolo must continue the clean-up. He must continue running off knuckleheads and pounding discipline into those who remain.
He must finally succeed where his predecessors failed so horribly.
