Position by position:

* QB: Never in my life have I gotten mad at Kurt Warner. Until tonight. What in blazes was he doing out there? A raft of stupid mistakes by Warner started on the Rams’ 2nd drive, when he threw a short 3rd-and-3 pass to Isaac Bruce much too softly. If Ronde Barber had caught it, he would have returned it for a TD. Marshall Faulk left the game with a neck injury during the next drive, but Warner did not pick up his game. In fact, he stunk up the place. On the first drive without Faulk, the Rams drove inside the 20, but then, without even looking where he’s throwing, Kurt drops a big INT right into Simeon Rice’s arms, leading to a Tampa TD. Warner had more wounded ducks in the first half then a carnival shooting gallery. His passes looked much better in the 3rd quarter, but he did not. Kurt was awful. The Rams played almost the entire quarter in Tampa’s half of the field. The defense got him the ball 3 times in that quarter and he did nothing but screw up, and the Rams did nothing but punt. When the Rams got the ball for the last time in the 3rd, Warner was nearly intercepted on 1st down. Then he was nearly intercepted on 2nd down. Then he hit Bruce for just 8 to befoul the drive. Warner’s third INT early in the 4th was a killer, a ball right into Brian Kelly’s arms, returned to the 1-yard line and another eventual Buc TD. (He may have been expecting Trung Canidate to turn sooner.) His 4th INT was the coup de grace, another mindless throw to a receiver not even looking for the ball. Derrick Brooks was looking, though, and he returned it for Tampa’s THIRD TD off a Warner pick. Kurt Warner has 1 TD pass and SEVEN INTs this season. He looked like the Warner of old only briefly, on the Rams’ 1st drive and on a late 4th-quarter drive that pulled the Rams within 19-14. He didn’t get great protection tonight, and was sacked four times, but most of his stupid mistakes were made even though he had time. With Faulk out now for the foreseeable future, the St. Louis Rams are going nowhere but down if Kurt Warner doesn’t get his act together. Right now.

* RB: Marshall Faulk was in charge of the Rams’ opening TD drive, with 5 touches in 9 plays. He was left all alone in the middle of the field for a 24-yard catch down to the Tampa 5, and converted the TD the next play on a sweep behind a fine block by Chris Hetherington. On the next drive, though, Faulk landed awk-wardly on his head and neck with a Tampa lineman falling on him. He left the game with what was origin-ally called a neck strain. Faulk returned in uniform to the sidelines but never returned to the game. His future status is unknown, but Mike Martz has already named Lamar Gordon next week’s starter. Gordon played well and provided a spark that Trung Canidate did not when subbing in for Faulk originally. Lamar ran very hard and had a highlight-film run for the Rams’ 2nd TD, taking a pitch on 4th and inches, making a sweet cutback behind a pancake block from Hetherington, and swiveling two Bucs out of their jocks en route to a 20-yard score. Lamar will have to keep up that Faulk-like level of play for the Rams to survive.

* Receivers: Torry Holt always plays well against Tampa. With Faulk injured, he was the only starter to step up his play, and deserves hearty credit for tonight’s 12-catch, 139-yard performance. He was the go-to guy tonight, and was big on the first drive with a 25-yard catch to midfield and a 16-yard catch on 2nd-and-10 to beat a blitz. Isaac Bruce’s disappointing season continues, though. He was a meager 4-43 and proba-bly lost the game by dropping a sure TD bomb on 3rd-and-13 the first time the Rams had the ball in the 2nd half. Talk about a momentum killer. Isaac had just one catch in the first half and has fallen from SB 34 hero to one of the big goats behind the Great Offensive Meltdown of ’02. Terrence Wilkins got the ball only twice, Troy Edwards was never on the field to my knowledge, and the TEs were once again barely used this week. Wilkins looked very Az-like on a quick screen in the 2nd, getting 11 yards with a lot of jitterbugging.

* Offensive line: What was supposed to be a strong area on this team has turned into a glaring weakness. Pass protection started out OK, but run blocking was never very good all night. Anthony MacFarland and Derrick Brooks both penetrated the line easily to get Faulk for 1st-half losses, including the play on which he was injured. The line began totally falling apart in the last minute of the 1st half, as 5 men couldn’t even handle a 3-man Tampa rush. Warren Sapp whipped John St. Clair like a little boy 3 straight times. Orlando Pace, like Isaac Bruce, a Pro Bowler having an amazingly disappointing season, couldn’t handle Simeon Rice then, either, letting Rice get a huge lick on Warner on the last play of the half to force a (harmless) INT. Warner’s quick release was the only reason Tampa didn’t get any sacks in the first half. In the second half, the line continued to fall apart. Tom Nutten got whipped by Sapp to kill the Rams’ first drive. After Aeneas’ INT/strip, the line did nothing but screw up. Hetherington blew a block horribly to let Shelton Quarles get to Warner on a delay blitz. Pace false starts. Then after the Rams get a first down by penalty, Grant Williams gets whipped badly by Rice, despite getting flagged for holding him, allowing a sack and fumble for a loss of 7. Williams played most of the 2nd half for an apparently injured St. Clair, and was awful. The last sack was on the game’s last play and could be called a coverage sack, but with strong Tampa heat blowing in again from the right side of the line. This offensive line is a shambles, not that Warner is helping things by making poor decisions on plays where he has time, but they HAVE to improve.

* Defensive line/LB: Tale of two halves. Tampa drove 60 yards in 5:30 for their opening FG, as Brad Johnson faced a Ram rush that was light at best. The Rams blew a sack and a tackle-for-loss on Michael Pittman during the drive. There was very little rush on Tampa’s 2nd drive that quarter, another 5:00 for another FG. Grant Wistrom was the only Ram to lay a hand on Johnson in the first half, and it was just that, a hand. The defense did not step up at all after Warner’s first INT, as the Bucs marched for an easy 55 yards and a TD. Total lack of pass rush allowed a crucial 20-yard completion to Keyshawn Johnson on 3rd-and-14. Two plays later, a 16-yard run by Pittman where two Rams blow tackles and he drags two more the last 5 yards. No rush again on the TD pass to wide open TE Rickey Dudley. Completely different story in the 2nd half. They snuff Tampa’s first possession 1-2-3 after a punt had pinned them at the 3. Jamie Duncan stopped Pittman for 1, Pittman was stopped for 2 on a short pass, then a big rush from Tyoka Jackson at LE nearly got the Rams a safety and blew up a screen to Pittman. The next Tampa drive, Wistrom nearly got a sack on 1st down, then big heat on Johnson led to Aeneas’ INT (or strip). They finished off a great 3rd quarter with another 3-and out. Leonard Little scored a sack on Johnson and a fumble for a 14-yard loss, then stopped a 3rd-and-long shovel pass for another loss. At the start of the 4th, the D got steamrolled for a while, but good heat from Wistrom on 3rd-and-2 forced a Johnson incompletion and another Tampa punt. Granted, Tommy Polley looked weak on Mike Alstott’s 4th quarter TD, and the Rams got outmuscled a lot, but the defense repeatedly put the offense in good position throughout the 2nd half, and tightened up in the red zone when they had to in the first half. All told, it was a winning effort on this side of the ball.

* Secondary: Impressive in the 2nd half and depressive in the first, although they started out OK, with Dre Bly batting down a 3rd-and-2 pass in the red zone to force a Tampa TD. Aeneas Williams blew a tackle badly on the longest play of that drive, a 19-yard Keenan McCardell catch. That wasn’t all the secondary blew in that half. Tampa repeatedly, maddeningly got their TEs w i d e o p e n throughout the 1st half. It was as if the Rams refused to cover them. I count at least 8 catches by wide open TEs in the 1st half, including a 10-yard TD to Rickey Dudley. The key play of that TD drive was the secondary leaving Key-shawn Johnson all alone for a 20-yard catch on 3rd and 14. WTF?!?!? Dre Bly was really no match for Keyshawn, and who taught him how to tackle? You wrap guys up, you don’t try to pinball yourself off them!!! But good coverage held Tampa to a FG on their second drive, and after halftime, the secondary was dominating. I do not believe Tampa WRs had a catch in the second half. Desperately in need of a big play in the 3rd quarter, Aeneas made one, stripping a pass away from McCardell. The secondary was a big part of the defense’s 2nd half success. Despite some flaws tonight, they also played well enough to win.

* Special teams: Punting was very effective. Mitch Berger pinned Tampa inside their 20 a bunch of times, inside the 5 a couple of times. Witnessing his punts and Jeff Wilkins’ funky opening kickoff, I wonder if the kickers have been hanging out with Phil Mickelson. Nick Sorenson has become a specialist at downing Berger’s punts, although Jerametrius Butler stupidly tangled with him on a touchback that would have been downed at the 1. Kickoff returns were rotten. Tampa’s coverage beat the Ram blockers consistently, and Terrence Wilkins didn’t look like he had any speed, returning nothing across the 20.

* Coaching/discipline: Mike Martz’s offense looked really good out of the gate. He was getting the ball to Faulk a lot, and the downfield passing game was working. Unfortunately, not long after that you have the loss of Faulk and the struggles of the offensive line. I’m not sure that much of this loss really hangs on Martz. I agree completely with keeping Faulk out; you do not mess around with neck injuries. On the couple of 4th-and-shorts in the 3rd, I don’t see that Martz should have gone for it, especially with Faulk out, and with the defense finally proving they could shut Tampa down. I wonder if a fake punt would have been there, but that is a high-risk call. Gordon spun a bad call into gold on that 4th-and-inches TD, though… Lovie Smith’s defense once again did not look ready to play at the start of the game. No pass rush the whole first half, and Tampa got the TEs wide open far too many times. Can’t say what happened at halftime, but it looked like a whole new defense the 2nd half. I hope Lovie finally figured out that the zone defense had to be tightened up. If he blitzed more this week, it didn’t seem like a lot more.

* Upon further review: Can’t blame officiating tonight. Johnny Grier’s crew called a great game. The umpire was right on top of Aeneas’ INT/strip and called it correctly, and Grier did not overrule it on the replay challenge. They also very correctly called Shelton Quarles for roughness on a hit on Yo! Murphy on the next drive. Despite early carping from the MNF booth, this game was as well-called as it gets.

* Cheers: Well, I hate the Monday Night Football crew now, except Melissa, of course. If Al Michaels is so good, how come he has Dre Bly returning all the first half kickoffs instead of Terrence Wilkins? Madden accused Bly of holding on the play that stopped the Bucs’ first drive. Thanks for noticing that but not noticing all the mugging going on during the Super Bowl, fathead. Madden and Michaels accused Heth-erington of holding on Faulk’s 1st TD. Yeah, his crunching hit on Lynch had nothing to do with the precious “loss of containment.” Instead Michaels tries to create a controversy out of a picayune non-call. On the other hand, I thought Savard and Snow went way over the homer edge at halftime on radio, claiming the Rams were playing well enough to have the lead, despite playing no defense, scoring 7 measly points, turning the ball over twice and losing Faulk for the game. Certainly not how I saw the first half, anyway.

* Who’s next?: St. Louis hasn’t gotten to see its old football nemesis, the Dallas Cowboys, in a regular season game for many years, and they are finally back in town next Sunday. Much as we have to complain about the Rams’ start, the Cowboys are a truly awful team. They have been drilled by the Eagles and were awful in an opening day loss to the expansion Texans. The Rams will still be a 2-TD favorite to beat them, however, if they lose, you can start pouring dirt on the season. Very important to get heat on Quincy Carter. He is mediocre at best, but under pressure, he makes Tony Banks look like Johnny Unitas. Their best line-man, Larry Allen, is hurting, which could affect their pass protection and make their ineffective running game even more so. Their receivers aren’t any good, and Emmitt Smith doesn’t look fast at all and can’t run with any power any more. Troy Hambrick’s a better back for them at this point. You would expect the Ram offense to move well on the Cowboy defense. Their front seven has not played up to its reputation, although the Rams always have to watch out for La’Roi Glover. Dallas may have the worst cornerbacks in the NFL. Warner darn well ought to be VERY effective against them, provided he doesn’t throw TO them. Now, his is a classic look-ahead game for the Rams, a mediocre opponent sandwiched between a tough loss and 49er Week. The Rams have to prevent that mentality and have to be ready for a game that should be a win.

-- Mike