RamView, September 29, 2002 From Row HH
By Rams Nation's Mike Franke
Position by position:
* QB: Kurt Warner’s lost season took a disastrous turn
early in the game. While being taken down after throwing a ridiculously stupid
screen pass for an interception, his right hand hit the turf and the little
finger he broke in 2000 broke again. MRI on Monday, surgery is expected, and
Kurt is out 4-6 weeks. Kurt finished 1-2-17; his 8th INT of the year led to
Dallas’ only TD. Thrust into the spotlight, Jamie Martin responded quite
well, 24-37, 261 yards, 1 TD. Jamie’s timing was good. His passing was
very accurate. He had the offense moving with good tempo in a quicker-passing
scheme. He looked more comfortable in the pocket than Warner has so far this
year. Martin finished a 63-yard TD drive late in the 1st half with a nice TD
pass to Isaac Bruce, and led the offense on a 15-play, 65-yard, 8 ½ minute
odyssey for a 3rd-quarter FG. Jamie missed a big opportunity at the end of that
drive, throwing a tough pass for Torry Holt in the back of the end zone with
Isaac Bruce and Marshall Faulk wide open elsewhere. Jamie also blew a TD opportunity
in the 2nd when a pass for a wide-open Bruce was gobbled up by the Dallas secondary
instead for his only INT. Jamie’s passes don’t exactly have a lot
of zing; in fact, his passes toward the sideline, like the INT, tended to have
hang time. He made a worse-than-rookie mistake in the 2nd, spiking the ball
with 2:00 left instead of waiting for the 2:00 warning. That didn’t cost
the Rams, but the missed TD opportunities cost dearly today. But still a capable
game from the backup-turned-starter, for the next few weeks. If Jamie becomes
a better finisher, the Show may yet go on, if in a scaled-down version.
* RB: Marshall Faulk seems to be holding up his end of the
bargain. 140 total yards today – 73 rushing, 67 receiving. But you know
the Rams are snake bitten when a reliable ball carrier like Marshall fumbles
after a 15-yard gain on the Rams’ first play from scrimmage, thanks to
a big hit from three different Cowboys. He also dropped a pass in the 2nd, part
of a Rams 3-and-out. The offense ran through him to the tune of 27 touches.
He set up the Rams’ TD with 2 catches for 26. He had 7 plays of 8 yards
or more with a long of 17. That should be enough for an offense to get more
than 10 points, but not today. And although Marshall has put up serviceable
numbers, he has yet to have a truly dominating game this season. He’s
only around 4.0 per rush, opposed to his 5.5 or so during the Rams’ reign
of terror. Marshall’s play is hardly a flaw. But the Rams need more spectacular
play from Marshall, and they need it more than ever before.
* Receivers: “Receivers” should almost be singular
here. Another big day for Torry Holt, 9 catches for 106. He regularly found
the seams in the Dallas zone, although they limited his YAC well. Isaac Bruce
was only 3 for 52. Yes, he had a TD and probably could have had two more, but
numbers are numbers. Ike needs to spend less time jawing with DBs downfield
and spend more time getting open. Rickey Proehl caught 2 balls, one to convert
a 3rd-and-7 on the Rams’ FG drive. But the Rams have no true #3 receiver.
Slo!, I mean Yo!, Murphy has been on the field more this year than Terrence
Wilkins and Troy Edwards com-bined, including today, when Wilkins wasn’t
thrown to and Edwards never made the field. Ernie Conwell got more involved
today; according to the NFL game log, they threw his way 5 times. He had a 25-yard
catch in the 2nd but dropped a pass later that quarter. Ernie also didn’t
impress on his reverse right before the crucial Martin sack with 1:40 left.
With any speed at all, he does better than just 2 yards there.
* Offensive line: Embattled tackles John St. Clair and Grant
Williams both got help today from Mike Martz, in the form of a quicker passing
game. With Martin usually throwing out of a short drop, the line was able to
keep the heat away from him. The Cowboys applied a lot of heat by blitzing possibly
¾ of the time. But the tackles weren’t getting whipped like Monday
night, although Williams still showed trouble with speed rushes. Run blocking
looked a lot stronger. For the first time this year, Faulk had some gaping holes
to run through. Adam Timmerman and Tom Nutten did especially good jobs there,
and La’Roi Glover wasn’t much of a factor against a team he usually
eats up. The line didn’t even allow a sack until the biggest play of the
game, the 3rd-and-3 from the Dallas 25 with 1:40 left. Somehow the TE, Brandon
Manumaleuna, ends up as the guy who’s supposed to block DE Greg Ellis,
but Ellis blew in completely untouched and sacked Martin for the game’s
biggest defensive play.
* Defensive line/LB: It’s true; the front seven misses
London Fletcher. Yes, the statistics defensively are about the same. But nobody
on this front seven is coming up with the clutch play. That’s the element
that London brought that Lovie Smith better figure out how to replace, and quickly.
Nobody made a play during Dallas’ game-winning FG drive, especially the
play where Michael Wiley was left all alone for a 15-yard catch with 0:13 left
to put the Cowboys in range. Where were the linebackers? And while Leonard Little
and Grant Wistrom each had a sack, and Little especially got some good heat
on Quincy Carter, it was still nowhere near enough, as a career 50% passer got
comfortable in the pocket to the tune of a 72% completion rate and 204 yards.
This was against an offensive line that was completely re-shuffled * on Thursday
*. And why would Lovie ever have Wistrom and Little out of the game together?
At one point, the line from left to right was Young, Zgonina, Pickett and Lewis,
4 DTs. And guess what? No push. And overall run defense was poor. They allowed
over 120 yards and about 5 yards per rush. Pickett did deflect 2 passes. Don
Davis forced a fumble right after Faulk’s 1st quarter fumble. He and Jamie
Duncan had 7 tackles apiece. The defense did give up just 13 points. But they
let Dallas move downfield pretty easily for their tying FG, and instead of making
the big play with the game on the line, they made the big mistake to set up
the winning TD. Four times this year, they’ve done just enough to * not
* win.
* Secondary: Despite losing Dexter McCleon last week and Aeneas
Williams during the first half, the defensive backs did close to a bang-up job.
Dre Bly may be the NFL’s worst tackler, but he ran Joey Galloway’s
route for him and hauled in a big interception on the last play of the 3rd quarter.
Rookie Travis Fisher got a lot of play, and looked good. As he did in preseason,
he played very strong against the run and made good open-field tackles. James
Whitley, the last DB on the roster, was pressed into action and accounted for
himself well. The worst DB play I can recall is Aeneas getting burned early
by Antonio Bryant for 35 in the 1st, although I suspect the crucial 12th man
on the field who extended Dallas’ TD drive had to be a DB. Don’t
know yet how long the leader of the secondary will be out with an ankle sprain.
* Special teams: Jeff Wilkins gets paid a heck of a lot of
money to miss a 49-yard FG indoors with a game, and probably a season, on the
line. Good snap, good hold, but the barefoot wonder can’t even get the
ball there. Choke city. Thanks a lot, Jeff. The Cowboys routinely pull guys
off the street who kick well for them. The Giants are getting a fantastic season
out of a pawnbroker, for crying out loud. If I’m in charge, Wilkins is
Cap Victim #1 after this season. Mitch Berger’s punts were effective,
if ugly, and the Rams got good punt and kick coverage. Punt return penalties
hurt the team’s field position a couple of times. Despite Berger’s
Pro Bowl-quality punting, there’s as much room to improve on special teams
as ever.
* Coaching/discipline: The two biggest plays of this game
were coaching disasters. The Cowboys converted a 4th-and-short on their TD drive
thanks to the Rams having 12 men on the field. The epitome of poor org-anization.
Under just as big a magnifying glass is Mike Martz’s decision to pass
on 3rd-and-3 from the Dallas 25 with 1:40 left. Yeah, let’s force the
backup QB to make a big play instead of putting the ball in the hands of the
most valuable player in the league. The epitome of Martz’s unconventional
play calls biting him in the derriere. Another poor performance in the clutch
by the head coach. It’s a shame, because up until then, Martz had really
been doing everything you could ask of him. Faulk got 27 touches. Martz called
good running plays for him. Martz bowed to the realities of his offensive line
situation and was very effect-tive with a quicker passing game. More short drops,
more quick passes worked out well. The playbook looked wide open again. There
was a Proehl WR option that nearly worked, and the Cowboys didn’t expect
the Bruce reverse on 3rd-and-1 of the failed final drive at all. The Rams had
a chance to win this game despite losing Pro Bowler Orlando Pace earlier this
week and losing two Pro Bowlers, Warner and Williams, during the game. Martz
makes a better call on 3rd-and-3, the Rams win this game and have something
to rally around. Instead, we’re all in need of about a crate of Zoloft.
After the unforgivable 12-men penalty, Lovie Smith’s defense got woefully
fooled on the WR screen to Darnay Scott. You just got schooled by – DAVE
CAMPO?!?!? What’s next, Kasparov loses the world chess title to Anna Nicole?
If the defense’s fundamentals were better – less missed tackles,
fewer blown assignments – maybe that big play they never seem to make
would have come. That’s a coaching fundamental.
* Upon further review: Adequate officiating at best from the
Larry Nemmers crew. If the radio crew was right, and Joey Galloway was actually
down on his early fumble, that was their biggest blown call. Snow and Savard
also thought the tripping call against Timmerman on the last drive was terrible.
The refs missed Emmitt taking his helmet off on the field. Bly may also have
gotten away with that. They had too much difficulty spotting the ball and getting
a clean ball in on time, and slowed the game down with several conferences that
seemed unnecessary. I don’t think the Rams can blame the zebras today,
though.
* Cheers: Nothing but boos today. The defense got booed for
its sloppy early play. Faulk got booed after dropping a pass. There’s
grateful fans for ya. Martin got booed for wasting a timeout. Martz, then Wilkins,
got booed for their horrible performances at the end of the game. The fans here
justifiably were not pre-pared for a shockingly rapid descent from Super Bowl
to toilet bowl… There were a lot of loud Cowboy fans in the crowd. Unlike
the Big Dead days, these folks clearly aren’t bandwagon fans, because
Dallas just isn’t very good. But I have to tip my hat to those fans for
their willing spirit… Facts I hate to mention: The freaking Big Dead are
TWO games ahead of the Rams now after figuring out the Giant team the Rams couldn’t
handle in Week 2. And the Dallas team the Rams couldn’t beat today lost
in Week 1 to a team that had NEVER PLAYED A GAME, the Houston Texans…
Things have gotten deeply, deeply ugly here.
* Who’s next?: It gets worse, Ram fans. The Rams’
6-game winning streak over the 49ers is all but certain to end as the Rams head
to San Francisco next week. The 49er fan who made up the league schedule gave
them a week off before this meeting, so it’ll be a well-rested and fired-up
home team, firing on most of its cylinders versus a haggard, banged-up, sputtering
bunch of visitors misfiring on most of its. Before this weekend, there were
maybe reasons for hope. Jeff Garcia has been terrible, largely because defenses
are double- and triple-teaming Terrell Owens and the Niners have no viable alternative
receivers. But can a defensive backfield of Bly, Fisher, Butler and Whitley
pull that off? The 49ers made up for their passing game last week with 200+
yards rushing. The Ram front seven has played the run pretty well, but given
their complete underachievement as pass rushers, does it matter if they do force
the 49ers to pass? The Ram offense has become so wretched that not even the
great Marshall Faulk has been able to carry it to a victory this year. Marshall
usually has big days against San Francisco, and may again. But will it be enough?
Will Isaac Bruce step forward? Will Jamie Martin get enough time to throw against
a 49er rush that really hasn’t been that good so far? Will Martz find
somebody, ANYBODY, to show up as the third WR? Heck, the 49ers specifically
drafted Mike Rumph this year to try to neutralize the Rams’ third WR –
is Martz trying to play some kind of complex joke on them? The Rams are capable
of winning this game if enough things go right (for a change), but as much as
I hate to think this way against our most hated rival, we really have to rely
on the “any given Sunday” theory now if we are not to see the Rams
at 0-5. Cross your fingers.
-- Mike