MVN - Most Valuable Network

Shopping for a Super Bowl

With only 386 shopping days left until Super Bowl XLII, the Rams front office has some work to do before they can book their trip to Glendale or even hope to be back in the playoff chase. After spending all season looking at what can be done on the field, let’s take a look at what Georgia Frontiere and company can do off the field for a more successful 2007.

DEFENSE:

This should be first on the list for upper management. I know tradition says to draft offensive weapons to return to the “Greatest Show on Turf,” but (Indianapolis Colts aside) no team can expect to consistently out-gain opponents while allowing them to control the clock with an average of 145 rushing yards per game. Their inability to stop the run also led to twenty-one touchdowns on the ground. St. Louis should use their first-round pick (thirteenth overall) to grab a defensive lineman who can help to stuff the run but primarily pressure the quarterback. 2006 Rotary Lombardi Award winner LaMarr Woodley (DE, Michigan) could be a good complement to Leonard Little and augment their number of sacks (34 last season). Woodley finished his senior season with 11 sacks, 15.5 tackles for loss, and 4 forced fumbles.

On paper, the defense put up mildly impressive numbers, including a +14 turnover margin and fewer total average yards than the offense managed to provide (Opp: 335.1; StL: 360.4). But really this just amounts to holding the opponent defensively in about half the games, hence the 8-8 season. MLB Witherspoon assaulted the ball carrier with 112 tackles, and rookie cornerback Tye Hill had an impressive freshman season, pulling down three INTs and grabbing 42 tackles.

OFFENSE:

Many people would see this as the Rams’ best asset, which it is inasmuch as it includes their three best players (Jackson, Bulger, and Holt) all of whom made the 2006 Pro Bowl. Outside of Holt, Jackson, and Bruce, Bulger threw few passes to other Rams. Curtis isn’t a bad third receiver, but it’s doubtful he could step up to be #2 should an aging Bruce fall victim to injury.

Bolstering the receiving corps would help The Bulge in the backfield, but he really needs a stronger offensive line to give him more time to find his weapons. Quarterbacks can’t throw on their back, as Bulger was forty-nine times this season. Orlando Pace getting injured hurt the squad, but they were giving up passes to the quarterback even with him in the lineup. They did look like a more cohesive unit in their last three wins. On the other hand, they were against Washington, Oakland, and Minnesota.

SPECIAL TEAMS:

Allowing three special teams touchdowns can be a gamebreaker no matter how well your defense or offense is playing. Reinforcements on defense will help prevent this momentum swing. Bringing in a solid return man for St. Louis would also be proactive in swinging the momentum back to a team with no return TDs in 2006. Willie Ponder returned most of the kicks for the Boys in Blue and averaged just over a touchback (23.3 yards, no touchdowns). Shaun McDonald was Ponder’s counterpart on punts and averaged 7.5 return yards.

 

The shopping list is fairly long and potentially expensive, but the good news is that the NFC has been so mediocre of late that even a few pick-ups could push them into the playoffs. Putting another Lombardi Trophy in Georgia’s hands will take a few more dollars out of her pocket.

 

Wrapping Up: Grading the 2006 St. Louis Rams

And so, for the second year in a row, we meet the end of a largely disappointing season for the St. Louis Rams. They played well for much of the first five games; they played well for the last three games, and in between…hmmm, not so much. With lockers already cleaned out and players heading home for the off-season, before we turn our focus to the twelve remaining teams in the NFL’s second season, it is time to break out the good ol’-fashioned Team Report Card for the 2006 edition of the Rams. Let’s do this.

Offense: Given the state of the defense (not to mention the fact that the offense was legitimately pretty solid), the Rams have nothing to be ashamed of on this end of the ball, as the offense played an entire season sans starting center Andy McCollum as well as much of the season without all-world left tackle Orlando Pace, and yet it still managed to rank sixth in the league in yardage (360.4 yards per game) and tenth in scoring (22.9 points per). Further, the offense produced Pro Bowlers at three skill positions in quarterback Marc Bulger, running back Steven Jackson, and wideout Torry Holt, which is a testament to the success of the unit on the whole. However, the offense did struggle finishing the job and punching the ball into the end zone at times this season. Given that they did an excellent job taking care of the ball (18 giveaways was good for second least in the NFC) and were fourth in the league in yardage, the fact that the boys from the Lou only put up 22.9 points per game is something to wonder at – something that can be explained by the six-field-goals-and-no-touchdowns victory over Denver in the season opener and other similar games over the course of the season. Being able to punch the ball into the end zone and get seven instead of three with more regularity will be a key goal for next year’s squad, but on the whole, the offense had a very good showing in 2006 and was easily the strongest part of the team. Grade: A-

Defense: Not so much. Really. Not so much. An utter train wreck in every capacity. How the Rams finished the season with thirty takeaways (good for fourth in the NFC) is beyond the casual observer, because they certainly did not make too many stops this year. After an off-season of acquisitions and draft picks, such as linebacker Will Witherspoon and corner back Tye Hill respectively (as well as then-newly installed defensive coordinator Jim Haslett), designed to bolster the defense, the Rams failed to show a truly marked improvement in this area. In addition to ranking just 23rd in total defense and an abominable 28th in scoring defense (23.8 points allowed per game), worst of all was the fact that the Rams got absolutely hammered on the ground, to the tune of allowing 145.4 yards per game, good for second to last in the league. The deductive reasoning expert will note this statistic and realize that running the ball – especially as effectively as teams did against the Rams this year – keeps the Rams’ potent offense off the field as well as keeping the clock moving, thus minimizing the time the Rams have to get the points back next time down to the field, which could have been another factor contributing to the problem described above regarding the power of the St. Louis offense but its disparity between being fourth in yardage but just tenth in scoring. Particularly disturbing were subpar efforts against offenses led by such esteemed and proven individuals in this league as Seneca Wallace and Jason Campbell (a game they actually won, although there is still no excuse for the 31 points allowed), and the absolute debacle that was the 34 points allowed in a home loss to the lowly Cardinals. Yikes. Grade: D

Special Teams: The special teams strikes perhaps the perfect middle ground between the excellent offense and the atrocious defense, representing the very good, the fairly useless, and the median. The return game was utterly abysmal, netting zero trips to the paint and falling in the bottom quarter of the league on both kick-off and punt return averages. Matt Turk’s punt team had a definitively modest year, doing its job well enough to qualify for twelfth in the league in net punt yardage at 39.7 yards per punt, although it was notably burned on Nate Burleson’s game-changing score in a season-defining 24-22 loss to Seattle on November 12th. On the other hand, Jeff Wilkins was an absolute rock for the Rams, as he kicked the lights out, hitting on every extra-point attempt and going 32-for-37 on field goals, good for third in the league in points scored among kickers. Kicking, returning, punting: the good, the bad, and something somewhere in the middle. Grade: B

Coaching: This is still probably meritorious of its own column – and we may yet get to that before the off-season heads into full swing – but an abbreviated Linehan rant will have to do for now. For all the talk about how different this team would be from those of years past, very little seems to have changed. The Rams were just two tenths of a point per game better in scoring offense than they were last year – and that is with Marc Bulger healthy for sixteen games whereas he only played eight last year. After all the promises to commit to the run game, while the Rams did improve their output on the ground, Bulger set a career high in passes attempted this season (588), as well as, interestingly, a career low in completion percentage. Further, after years of Mike Martz serving as a whipping boy for pundits around the league regarding the Rams deficiencies in terms of defense, special teams, and discipline, none of those three areas seems to have witnessed quantum leaps forward. Though the Rams improved by three points per game in scoring defense, they were even worse against the rush than they were last year, which, again, would counteract the alleged run-and-eat-clock philosophy of the Rams. Perhaps the reason they never employed that strategy as much as they wanted to was because of how much clock was being eaten up by the opposing teams merely pounding away at the Rams’ Swiss cheese “run defense.” The special teams were workmanlike (and two crushing kick returns by Devin Hester effectively ended the Rams season in a 15-point loss to the Bears at home in Week 14), and the Rams continued to take backbreaking penalties with alarming regularity. Frankly, in its inaugural year, the new coaching regime fell far short of what it was cracked up to be. Grade: C-

And there you have it, folks: in assessing the 2006 St. Louis Rams, the letters don’t lie. There is no overall grade needed, because an excellent offense, ineffective defense, modest special teams, and poor coaching along with, most significantly, an 8-8 record, scream one word: mediocre. Which is exactly what this Rams team was. An exciting 4-1 start was great (albeit misleading as they played a fair degree of substandard competition), a 1-7 stretch in the heart of the season destroyed hopes for greater successes this year, and a season-ending three-game winning streak bred a small degree of momentum and hope for next year. So yes, mediocrity is indeed the order of the day.

Jackson’s Four Lead Rams to Third Straight Win

The St. Louis Rams were able to stave off a losing season before the New Year with a 41-21 win over Minnesota. The win put them at 8-8, but not in the playoffs as they lacked the help they needed from the other teams. The remaining wild card spots went to the Giants and Cowboys, two teams that faded in the second half of the regular season.

The recent streak was a pleasant end for the Rams who had forgotten how to win midway through the season. The losing stretch of five was brought about mostly from costly turnovers and sacks allowed by an offensive line that lacked the leadership of Orlando Pace. St. Louis faced neither problem against the Vikes.

Steven Jackson, a constant bright spot for the Lou, failed to disappoint on Sunday. Action shredded the Vikings for 142 yards on twenty-five carries. He rushed for three touchdowns on a team that had the NFL record for fewest rushing yards allowed (970 – ’00 Ravens) within their sights. They only missed the mark by fifteen.

Marc looked sharp, completing nearly two-thirds of his passes for 248 yards. One throw went to Jackson for the second of his four scores. His twenty-four receiving yards put his season-long total at 806 and made him the leading receiver among NFL running backs. Torry Holt caught nine passes from Bulger for ninety yards.

The St. Louis defense on Sunday was an exception to their far-from-exceptional performance this season. The Boys in Blue only gave up one touchdown through the first three quarters of play and allowed 82 yards rushing, a feat nearly unheard of to a team averaging just under 150 allowed per game.
The Rams also came up with two takeaways: both on interceptions and both by Ron Bartell. The defensive back returned the first for the Rams’ first touchdown of the day and the first in his career.

With the Giants taking their playoff spot on Saturday, the Rams had nothing to play for save pride and avoiding a losing season. Now they face a long off-season of wondering how their 4-1 record became an 8-8 not worthy of the playoffs.

Jackson’s OT TD Keeps Rams on Post-season Life Support

With Santa already on his annual gift-giving ride, most Rams fans just wanted to ride the recent winning momentum into the playoffs. The afternoon before Christmas had both Washington and St. Louis in the giving spirit with their defenses each allowing over thirty points. The Redskins felt particularly charitable, giving up 579 total yards and showing why they are not sending any defensive players to the Hawai’i this year.

The shootout started in the first quarter with T.J. Duckett putting up six on the ground from five yards out. After the Rams had capped two consecutive drives with touchdown passes in the second quarter, Washington RB Ladell Betts answered with a touchdown run to tie the game at fourteen. He would finish the game with two scores and 129 yards. Later in the second, Redskins QB Jason Campbell threw a nine-yard touchdown pass to Chris Cooley to put Washington ahead 21-14.

The lead changes continued with Washington sending Betts into the endzone for his second touchdown, only to be answered with two more Marc Bulger touchdown passes. One pass was a dump-off to Steven Jackson who broke loose for the remainder of the sixty-four yards that stood between the Rams and six more points. The game only featured two field goals, one by each team, at the end of the game to knot it at thirty-one. A failed attempt from Jeff Wilkins as regulation expired sent the game into overtime and Rams fans to the edge of their seats.

St. Louis won the toss but had to end the drive at midfield with a punt. Their defense turned stingy in OT, forcing Washington to go three and out. On the ensuing possession, Action Jackson churned out twenty-one yards on the ground for the score that the Rams needed for the victory.

Washington’s defensive futility allowed The Eddy to play host to a pro-bowl talent showcase for the Rams’ offensive honorees. Bulger went 25-for-38 and threw for 388 yards with four scores and no picks. Steven Jackson ran for 150 yards in addition to his 102 receiving yards. He scored in each category. Torry Holt did not have a game at the level of his all-pro teammates, but did finish with fifty-four yards on four receptions.

Linehan and company are hoping Minnesota shows similar holiday spirit to allow the Rams hit 8-8 and perhaps find their way into the playoffs. It is unlikely the Vikes will show them such hospitality in the Metrodome, perhaps leaving St. Louis to ring in the New Year with the start of a long off-season.