RamView, December 24, 2006
From Row HH
(Report and opinions from the game.)
Game #15: Rams 37, Redskins 31 (OT)

Merry Christmas from the Rams, who rack up close to 600 yards of
offense, beat the Redskins in the Dome for the first time, and of all
things, keep their NFC playoff hopes alive, with a 37-31 thriller.

Position by position:
* QB: Today's postgame spotlights weren't aimed at Marc Bulger, but his
contributions must not be overlooked. Part field general, part silent
assassin, Marc helped keep the Rams' season alive with one of his very
best performances. As a field general, he rallied the Rams from a
two-touchdown second-half deficit, and directed TD drives of 85, 83, 82
and 69 yards, plus a FG drive of 87 yards. In the role of silent
assassin, Marc looked more calm and cool in the (very solid) pocket
than he has all season, and before you even realized it, he piled up
stats that more than validated his Pro Bowl selection: 25-38-388 with 4
TDs and a passer rating of 134.5. Marc started off slowly, as usual.
Early on, he panicked with just a moderate rush coming and dumped off
to Steven Jackson for a loss just as Kevin Curtis streaked open deep
downfield. Marc didn't let that linger long, though. Next drive, he
throws another of those end zone passes only his man can catch, a dart
to Isaac Bruce in the back of the endzone, for the Rams' first TD. He
followed that by putting the Rams in the lead, hitting a wide open
Bruce for 43 and then throwing a perfect out pass to Dominique Byrd,
who took off with it for a 27-yard TD. Marc took only one sack today
and threw in excellent rhythm, never holding the ball too long. In the
3rd, he hit Jackson with a tricky short pass to beat a blitz for a
64-yard TD, a game-changing play that kick-started the Rams' comeback
from a 28-14 deficit. That play was like to the one Steven played into
an INT against the Big Dead, but Marc's pass this time was on time
and accurate. Marc's dead-eye day continued with a 22-yard sideline
pass to Torry Holt late in the 3rd, which led to a shovel-pass TD to
Stephen Davis, Marc's 4th of the day. Bulger made his biggest play of
the day with his feet. On a 3rd-and-9 near midfield, Bulger shocked the
world by taking off, but that was a superb idea given the acres of open
space he had. The 29-yard scramble set up a Jeff Wilkins FG to put the
Rams ahead 31-28. After the Redskins tied the game again, Marc moved
the Rams for yet another long drive. Starting from his 13, he went 3-4
for 56 yards, including a clutch 3rd-down pass to Kevin Curtis, to get
the Rams into winning FG range. Wilkins couldn't cash that in, and
Jackson made the big play in OT, but Marc deserves a game ball as much
as Steven does, repeatedly leading the Ram offense out of bad field
position for scores and playing as well as he has all season. An
impressive, Pro Bowl-worthy performance.

* RB: Steven Jackson actually got off to a slow start today. At
halftime he had just 43 yards rushing, most of it on the Rams' first
TD drive. Steven exploded in the 2nd half, though, and ended with an
outrageously good day that surpassed even some of Marshall Faulk's
peak accomplishments. On a 3rd-and-4 midway through the 3rd, with the
Redskins blitzing, reminiscent of a Faulk play against San Diego in
2000, Steven immediately knew he'd be open and started waving for the
ball almost at the snap. Bulger hit him with a short pass, he outran
the LB, who blitzed and had to double back, broke a sloppy safety
tackle and was off to the races. About 50 yards later, in the face of
the oncoming Train, Sean Taylor won the Massengill Player of the Year
award, back-pedaling away from Jackson instead of trying for the
tackle, and Steven scored easily, a 64-yard TD that brought the Rams
within 28-21. I bet if you run that play back slow enough, you can see
exactly when Taylor's testicles retract into his body cavity. That
play got Jackson rolling. Next drive, he gained 8 with a Faulk-like
jump cut and bounced a run outside for 17 behind a nice downfield block
from Holt. That set up Stephen Davis' game-tying 10-yard TD. With the
Rams up 31-28, Steven tried perhaps too hard to convert a 3rd down:
driving for extra yardage, he got stripped by Cornelius Griffin to set
up a tying Redskin FG. He appeared to make up for that near the end of
regulation, setting up a Jeff Wilkins FG attempt by juking his way for
a 24-yard catch. When the FG didn't pan out, Steven took things into
his own hands in overtime, blasting through a hole on the left side for
the game-winning 21-yard TD, stiff-arming off another weak tackle
effort by Taylor. That capped off a Ram win and an amazing day for
Jackson: 33 rushes for 150, 6 catches for 102, 2 TD. 200+ total yards
after halftime. He broke Faulk's team record for season receptions by
a RB and became the first Ram to rush for 100 and receive for 100 in
the same game (Note: the Rams are 1-0 when that happens). Steven
Jackson had the best game of his career when his team needed it the
most, and provided ample proof that he is one of the NFL's elite
players.

* WR: With Torry Holt (4-54) drawing extra attention, it was up to
Isaac Bruce to make the Redskins pay, and boy, did he, climbing to #7
on the all-time receiving list with 9 catches for 148. After Holt drew
a long DPI early in the 2nd, Ike capitalized with a nifty 10-yard catch
in the back of the end zone to even the score at 7, though it took the
refs a while to figure out the catch was good. Next drive, Ike worked
his way wide open in the secondary for a 43-yard catch-and-run, which
set up a 27-yard TD the next play to... Dominique Byrd (2-39)? The
rookie made a nice catch, wheeled out of a tackle and motored up the
sideline. Holt kicked off the Rams' tying TD drive in the 3rd with a
nice sideline catch for 22, and Kevin Curtis' lone catch appeared to
be a clutch one, an 18-yard leaping grab on 3rd-and-6 with under 2:00
to play. With Holt as the deep threat, Bruce making 3 plays of over 20
yards, the TEs making plays and Jackson omnipresent as a big play
threat, this is as dangerous as the Ram receiving corps has looked for
a while.

* Offensive line: A strong game for the Ram offense up front. Jackson
continually got big holes, and Bulger had a pretty solid pocket and
time to throw most of the day. Bulger was sacked just once, when Andre
Carter beat Todd Steussie soundly at the snap. But Steussie held up
well enough otherwise, and Alex Barron didn't let anyone on his side
sack the QB (though he did have another false start). Sure, there were
plays where Bulger was hurried, or had to step up, but the Ram tackles
did solid work, staying with their man, keeping in contact with him,
keeping him in front of them. Mark Setterstrom, Brett Romberg and
Richie Incognito in the middle continue to be a big story. They clogged
the middle and gave Bulger solid pockets to step into. Washington
blitzed frequently, but the Rams either picked it up or had the right
play called. Romberg has been a find, as has Setterstrom, who Jackson
runs behind a lot. Steven's game-winning TD came behind great work on
the left side by Steussie and TEs Aaron Walker and Joe Klopfenstein.
Walker has been a solid blocker all year, and Klop was awesome on that
play, effectively tying up two Redskins. Jackson got great blocking
from Holt on a couple of runs, including his first TD. A complete team
effort, and it bears mentioning again the yeoman work the Rams are
getting out of their backup LT, a second-year RT and three interior
linemen without an NFL start between them prior to this season.

* Defensive line/LB: The Ram defense doesn't really deserve to be
mentioned in the same sentence as Muhammed Ali, but that was
rope-a-dope D today if I ever saw any. Sometimes the Ram defense was
Joe Frazier; other times it was Frasier Crane. Washington marched
methodically downfield for an easy TD their opening drive, running
whichever direction they wanted to. Outside containment was
particularly poor, including on the TD run by TJ Duckett, who didn't
really seem to have a lot of resistance. After that, though, the Ram
defense manned up a little. Ron Bartell gave them some starch, and Will
Witherspoon and Brandon Chillar stuffed Ladell Betts runs, as the
'Skins 3-and-outed twice and did not cross midfield, while the offense
gave the Rams a 14-7 lead. Momentum swung again, though, after
Washington blocked a punt midway through the 2nd. True, the TD drive
was just 8 yards, but Betts still scored easily, as a guard rode
Chillar out of the play, a TE got out on Witherspoon, who dove
futilely, and two DBs came late and with little help. Poor outside
containment, typical non-play from the center of the line and a lot of
running at Brandon Green helped Washington run up 176 rushing yards,
129 from Betts on 29 carries. But the pass "rush" was even worse,
barely even threatening Jason Campbell throughout the course of the
game. Campbell wasn't sacked at all, and there were way too many plays
like the TD pass to Chris Cooley right before halftime, where Campbell
had a good eight seconds to throw. Cooley beat Witherspoon for the TD,
but how fair is it to expect Will to keep coverage that long? Earlier
in the drive, a big tackle-for-loss by Jimmy Kennedy went for naught
when Betts took a short pass for 21 on 3rd-AND-15. Washington appeared
to put the Rams away after halftime. Campbell wounded them with a
3rd-down scramble, and Betts rode another power sweep into the end zone
from the 7 to go up 28-14. Witherspoon and Dexter Coakley got bodied
out of the play and Betts easily overcame Fakhir Brown's lousy effort
at the 2. But then they toughened up again. Bartell stuffed Betts
again. OJ Atogwe made the first of two TD-saving plays. Leonard Little
stuffed Betts to force a 3-and-out. All that defense let the Rams catch
up and then take a 31-28 lead. After Jackson's 4th-quarter fumble,
Green made a big play to stuff Betts on 3rd down and force a FG. With
the game tied at 31, and the 2:00 warning looming, the Rams let Betts
break off another big run, into scoring position, but Atogwe saved the
day to help force overtime. In the extra session, Raonall Smith
(!)stopped Duckett cold on 3rd-and-1 to force a punt and get the Rams
the ball back for the game-winning drive. So the Rope-A-Dope defense
did it again. Run defense was spotty at best, pass rush was awful, and
they got pummeled most of the game, but they landed big punches in the
clutch, and the team still won.

* Secondary: Youth was served today. The Ram secondary failed badly at
times to contain the run, but still made most of the game's biggest
defensive plays. Ron Bartell, playing like the big, physical DB we
hoped the Rams got when they drafted him, rocked a reeling defense back
on track with a big hit on Betts late in the 1st. The hit was a real
momentum-changer, bogging down Washington's second drive near midfield.
In the 3rd, Bartell blitzed in and trapped Betts for a loss to stop the
'Skins again and set the Rams up for the 28-28 tying drive. About then
was when OJ Atogwe got started, making two very big plays down the
stretch. Betts ran through a huge hole on the left side for a 7-yard
gain late in the 3rd, which would have been much larger had OJ not
chased him down. And impressively, OJ caught Betts even though he had
blitzed from the opposite side of the formation. But OJ's biggest play
today, and of the season, came with just over 2:00 left in the game.
Betts broke away with a 25-yard run off the right side, and was surely
about to set up the Redskins for a game-winning score. But as OJ caught
up to him, he clubbed at the ball, as he's done all season, and this
time, he hit paydirt, popping the ball out of Betts' hands for Corey
Chavous to fall on. A game-saving, and who knows, possibly
season-saving play by Atogwe. Tye Hill had a nice game, too, with some
nice downfield stops, and it turned out that Redskin WRs totaled just 3
catches for 29 yards. There's more talk about the young offensive line
lately, but the young Ram secondary had a standout game today.

* Special teams: Jeff Wilkins is normally "Money" but has bounced a
couple of checks this month, including a 41-yard game-winning attempt
at the end of regulation that veered a couple of feet wide left. Dane
Looker's hold was good, but the snap was high, which I don't doubt
messed the kick up, and which also has me worried that Chris Massey has
gone into some kind of long-snapping slump. The punting game fared even
worse. Apparently jinxed because I mentioned it last week, Matt Turk
had the first punt block of his career, by Vernon Fox in the 2nd,
setting up a Redskin TD. The "protection" inexcusably just let Fox trot
right up the middle untouched. An apparently-rattled Turk followed that
block with nasty 25- and 36-yard shanks. Blocking was also absent on
just about any Ram special teams return. Almost every kick return saw
Willie Ponder run to about the 18 and get killed by two or three
Redskins pouring in unblocked. Shaun McDonald idiotically ran backwards
with every punt return, with expectedly poor results: minus-1 net yards
in four attempts. Until the last one, that is. Punting in overtime, the
Redskins played Shaun to run sideways, with plenty of outside
containment, but there was nobody up the middle, and Shaun FINALLY ran
there, tearing off for 33 yards and putting the Rams in almost
immediate scoring position. I can't put my finger on the problem -
injuries? too few veterans in the lineup? fatigue? lack of speed? -
but Bob Ligashesky's special teams have floundered badly down the
stretch after playing at least average most of the season.

* Coaching/discipline: After all the angst coming from here and other
parts throughout the season, Scott Linehan's due for some kudos this
week. The team's seven wins guarantees they'll finish better than
they did last season, and the Rams are still alive in what passes for a
playoff race in the NFC. They've been flat at times, but the players
haven't given up on Linehan all year, particularly today, down 2 TDs.
Are they a great team? No. But they're better, and better off, than
last year's team. That's a start.
Greg Olson called a super game today. He kept the Redskin D honest,
and loose, with calls like throwing deep on the first play of the game
and the early end-around to Curtis. Olson looked almost psychic with
his ability to catch the Redskins blitzing. Jackson's long TD came
against a blitz, as did Davis' TD, which was a masterful call, a
shovel pass with Washington bringing three extra suckers, er, rushers.
The play passed them all right by. Olson has also been setting up
defenses beautifully with fake 90-flips in short yardage situations in
recent weeks. Defenders wary of the flip jump out on Jackson and miss
the inside handoff and Davis going right by them. The Ram timeout with
0:10 left in the game, followed by a Bulger kneeldown, looked pretty
inexplicable, but reportedly had to do with setting up Wilkins exactly
where he wanted to kick from. Guess he should have picked another spot.
Jim Haslett had more success blitzing today than Gregg Williams did. It
didn't show up in the pass rush, though; it showed up in run defense,
where well-timed, well-placed blitzes stopped Betts cold a couple of
times, especially with Bartell coming in extra. Like the players, the
Ram coaching staff made some nice moves at exactly the right times
today.

* Upon further review: The Rams got their best-officiated game of the
season from Bill Leavy's crew, with a major assist from the JumboTron
operator. Bruce's TD catch in the 2nd was originally called off, but
the refs were pretty leisurely about getting the ball back in play.
This allowed time for several inconclusive replays on the big screen.
With Linehan plainly watching, relying on it for his decision, and the
crowd yelling for the 'Tron to put up a better angle, it delivered,
showing Isaac with both feet in and control of the ball, and away went
Linehan's red flag. Review, TD, Rams. Other than Ram blitzers getting
held a couple of times, that was Leavy's only hiccup of the day.
Bruce's TD was set up by a good (and obvious) DPI committed on Holt.
The Redskins were only flagged twice, but it was a cleanly-played,
well-officiated contest.

* Cheers: The Rams' first non-sellout since moving here ironically kept
the best game, and best crowd, of the 2006 season off of TV for the
rest of St. Louis to witness. The Dome was about 1/3 empty, in line
with the game being on Christmas Eve, and those in attendance were
pretty ready to boo. The Rams' early offensive stalls and inability to
compete on Redskin TD runs were booed pretty quickly. But, whether out
of holiday spirit or appreciation for the team's effort, the crowd
settled into an upbeat mode, rallying the Rams on whether they were
stinking or not, which is really what it's all about. Sound levels on
some 3rd downs in the 2nd half, were better than anything since Opening
Day. Rams Nation can be happy that the Dome fans finished the season on
a high note. The last halftime show of the year was not, thankfully,
the Jazzercize ladies, it was "America's Best Frisbee Dogs", starring
Jumpin' Jack the Maniac, who has apparently been demoted from Captain.
(Must have humped the wrong leg.) The Dome atmosphere still needs work,
but the Rams are at least doing a better job of getting some fun
activities out on the field for halftime.

* Who's next?: If the Giants win in Washington Saturday, the Rams'
game in Minnesota becomes a glorified exhibition game. There'd still
be incentive to win: Scott Linehan will be in his old stomping grounds,
and 8-8 just looks a lot better in the year-end standings than 7-9
does. I'm sure for many Ram fans, that's far from enough to justify
taking a tumble in draft position. But whether or not you're in the
play-to-win crowd (like me), the Rams have to prepare all week for this
game like it's going to be for a playoff spot; they'll just put
themselves in a really bad position if they suddenly change tack on
Saturday to empty the bench and keep their star players under wraps. I
understand you'd eliminate the chance of catastrophic injury to a
star, but you'd also only be setting up the guys who do play to fail,
which does them little good. Whatever the Giants do, the Ram starters
should figure on playing most if not all of the Minnesota game.

The Vikings switched their calendar to 2007 a couple of weeks early,
benching veteran Brad Johnson in favor of Tarvaris Jackson. The
experiment didn't work well at all last week in Green Bay, as the
Viking offense managed just three first downs. Jackson was 10-20 for
just 50 yards. In preseason, though, he looked as promising as any of
the other rookie QBs. He's an intelligent, mobile QB with a good arm,
and he has a good chance to start for the Vikings next year. Brad
Childress kept him chained to the pocket Thursday night, and
surprisingly, Minnesota's o-line was quite porous, putting their
rookie QB in frequent jeopardy. Childress could put Jackson on the move
more, but Jim Haslett's usually had the answer to mobile QBs this
season. Having dumped Randy Moss and Daunte Culpepper the last two
seasons, the Vikings have become a running team, and don't win if
they don't run well. They haven't really done either in 8 of their
last 10 games. Banged-up Chester Taylor has just 87 yards the last two
weeks, so it wouldn't be surprising to see more of Artose Pinner.
Taylor's much more the "home run" threat, but either way, winning
Sunday will hinge on how the Rams fare against the run. The Viking WR
corps is almost a joke. Troy Williamson's feet are much better than
his hands. Travis Taylor's the leading receiver with 52 catches, and
they just cut Marcus Robinson. The biggest threat among their receivers
is Bethel Johnson, and that's as a kick returner. The Rams need to
stack the box and make the Vikings try to beat them through the air.

Minnesota's run defense is as tough as any I can remember. They
allow only 54.5 yards a game on 2.6 yards a carry, easily league bests.
EJ Henderson's had a very good season at LB, and Kevin and Pat
Williams are tough DTs. The Vikings really hate defending the pass,
though, even with a name secondary: Antoine Winfield, Fred Smoot,
Dwight Smith & Darren Sharper. Chad Pennington dump-and-chased them to
death for a personal best 339 yards two weeks ago. That's two weeks
of passing for Chad; imagine what Bulger could do, and how comfortable
Olson and Linehan will be, with the dump-and-chase strategy suiting
them to a tee. Minnesota really hates it when you spread the field on
them, so I'm expecting to see a lot more of Curtis and McDonald next
week. The Vikings don't help themselves with a pretty soft pass rush;
just 30 sacks this year, about 1/3 of it from blitzers. Former first
round draft pick Kenechi Udeze has 1.5 sacks less than Anthony Hargrove
this year. That would be zero. Key matchup will be (if nfl.com's
depth charts are ever right) Mark Setterstrom vs. Kevin Williams, one
of the league's best pass-rushing DTs. If he doesn't get
overwhelmed, and Alex Barron can handle Darrian Scott, the Rams will
have the table set.

Whether that table's set for a playoff party or a farewell party, we
won't know until Saturday. But it's funny how pulses are quickening
in Rams Nation. The Rams have a decent chance to claim the last NFC
playoff berth. And so what if it's a race for a booby prize, that the
whole race is a farce. The Whiners are out of it, aren't they? The
Big Dead, too. So are Mike Martz, Jon Gruden and Joe Gibbs and the rest
of Dan Snyder's billion-dollar coaching staff. Yeah, if the Rams beat
the Dead at home, and at least split with Seattle, like they SHOULD
have, it's a whole other ballgame. At the same time, it's not like
Linehan has bombed; just two of this season's seven rookie coaches,
Sean Payton and Eric Mangini, have more wins. Next week could add some
excitement to what's turning out to be a credible season to start the
Linehan Era.