It Took the Rams 8 Days to Lose Their Luster by Stlvinnie

On September 9th the St. Louis Rams were about to open up the 2007 season with high hopes against the Carolina Panthers. Everyone could hardly wait. Down near the dome y2ou could smell the hotdogs & brats, you could see all of the wonderful colors of opening day, in addition to the bands playing and the noise of thousands. The Rams were picked in Vegas to win 7.5 games but how could that be. The Rams are loaded with Bulger, Bruce, Holt, Jackson, McMichael, Leonard and others just waiting to explode. I myself was thinking the Rams had a shot at 10 wins and the ability to score 500 points this season. Now just 8 days later….
With the Rams up 13-7 and driving on the Panthers early in the 3rd quarter Steven Jackson fumbled around the Panthers 32. A simple FG would have put the Rams up 16-7 and given them a pretty good chance to win that game. As you know the Rams went on to lose 27-13. In addition to the loss the Rams lost Orlando Pace for the year. You could feel the edge start from there, from 1-0 we were now 0-1 and almost in a must win situation against the 49ers. The game started well with the Rams jumping to an early 7-0 lead. Again many mistakes were made and the Rams lost again 17-16.
The St. Louis Rams are now 0-2, 0-2 in the conference and 0-1 in the division. Orlando Pace and Todd Stuessie are both on IR. Fakir Brown is still serving a 4 game suspension. Hill, Incognito and Tinoisamoa all missed game two and may miss game 3 as well. The St. Louis Rams play 4 of their next 5 games on the road. The mood of the city has soured on the Rams and the fans are already bailing on this years squad. On the talks shows you can hear about anything, get rid of Linehan, start Berlin, etc. Everything is now against the Rams can they rally?
We have an upcoming 8 day window were the St. Louis Rams will play the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Dallas Cowboys. If the Rams can win both they will be 2-2 and right back in it. A lot can happen in 8 days….can’t it?

Roger Goodell Turns Into a Marshmallow

After weeks of Roger Goodell scaring NFL players straight he became a marshmallow on September 13th, letting Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots skate by with CHEATING. The same man that has suspended players from the league before they have even been found guilty. The same league that can give a player a 4 game suspension for missing their drug test, missing it not just for failing one. The Patriots were flat out busted for cheating this week against the New York Jets. There is also more speculation that they have cheated in the past as well, and every team was just warned about illegal taping and photographing prior to the season. So what happens next is the Patriots are caught with a cameraman on the Jets sidelines taking pictures of their signals. Sure Patriots fans will point to the fact they won the game by 24 points. Maybe we should point to the fact they won 3 Superbowls all by 3 points. Did they have an illegal edge in those games? That is a point to ponder but not the point of today.
The NFL and Roger Goodell fined Patriots coach Bill Belichick $500,000 and Patriots $250,000 for spying on an opponent. Roger Goodell also ordered the team to give up next year's first-round draft choice if it reaches the playoffs and second and third round draft picks if it doesn't. Is your favorite comedian Richard Pryor, George Carlin, or Chris Rock? Well now it is clear the best comedian is Roger Goodell. First how does the Patriots record have anything to do with their penalty for cheating? The Patriots penalty becomes less if they do not make the playoffs. What does that have to do with anything they already cheated! In addition the penalty is NOTHING. This is the 2007 season. Robert Krafts net worth was reported by Forbes as 1.1 BILLION dollars in 2006. So the 500,000 fine to Bill and the 250,000 to Patriots will have NO effect. In addition the Patriots will still have the current 53 man roster and coaching staff that they always have.
Bottom Line there was NO penalty at all given to the Patriots by the new marshmallow man!

Madison Hedgecock Released

Scott Linehan apparently has problems with our fullback blocking. I have concluded this after seeing that the St. Louis Rams released Madison on Tuesday. I thought to myself that we must be bringing in some O-line help but was I wrong. We cut our starting full back to bring in Richard Owens, a fullback-tight end, that was cut before the season by the Minnesota Vikings. Ah-ha there is the key word I was looking for, the Minnesota Vikings. Another xplayer from Linehans past. Linehan said, "As soon as he's comfortable, he'll probably fill the role of our blocking fullback.” Well that is nice so we now don’t have a “comfortable” fullback for week 2. At least we have four tight ends on the roster. WTF is going on? Did anyone else notice that we lost 2 offensive tackles in 2 weeks and will now be moving our only starting tackle to the off side to play Goldberg at the other side. Maybe we should pick up an offensive lineman before Bulger and Jackson get killed. Well at least we will soon be comfortable at fullback!

Rams are on the Edge

Only one week into the NFL season the St. Louis Rams are on the fence. Which side of the fence are you on? Is the glass half empty are half full? You decide.
Half full – The St. Louis Rams offense is loaded. We have Bulger, Jackson, Holt, Bruce, Bennett, McMichael, Leonard, Wilkins, etc and should be able to put points up at will. We have 2 HOF receivers, an All-Pro QB making 65 million dollars and a running back that has a goal of 2500 total yards. The Rams scored 20 or more points 11 times in 06’ they should easily do better than that in 07’. In the second year under Linehan the offense should be more stable and on the same page more often then last year. Bulger should be able to be more aggressive and get the ball to his receivers more this season instead of playing it safe all the time and dumping the ball off to Jackson. We all know it is a long season and the Rams will be just fine.
Half empty – The St. Louis Rams are getting old. Our star players are no longer at the top of their game. Bulger has injured his arm/shoulder a few times over the years; will he be protected well enough to stay healthy? Can Bulger win the big games and the close games? Does Torry Holt have a more serious injury than we think? Can Torry still cut on a dime and create separation from the DB? Isaac Bruce is almost 35 and claims he is ready for his biggest year yet, however Bulger does not seem to look his way under Linehan. Is this because Bruce is not open or because of the scheme we are using? Our star players are all on offense, can this defense produce?
Which side of the fence are you on…

Orlando Pace Out for the Year

With the score tied 7-7 right before halftime Orlando Pace was blocking Julius Peppers and the next thing you know he was down on the ground favoring his arm. Pace did not return in second half and later it was found out that he had severely hurt his right shoulder. An MRI exam on Monday revealed that Pace has a torn labrum and rotator cuff in his right shoulder and will miss the rest off the 07’ season. Adam Goldberg replaced Pace for the rest of the game. This injury has major ramifications for the Rams who just lost their back up tackle Todd Steussie about a week ago to a foot injury. Now 5 days from our week two match up against the 49ers we are down to two tackles. I already questioned why we have 4 tight ends on our roster when we don’t even use them. With Incognito injured, and Baron probably moving to left tackle and Goldberg playing right tackle we don’t have the most stable line in the NFL. The Rams have a lot to iron out before Sunday.

Week 1 Predictions

My week one Predictions for straight up winners are:


INDIANAPOLIS
WASHINGTON
JACKSONVILLE
HOUSTON
ST. LOUIS
MINNESOTA
SEATTLE
OAKLAND
SAN DIEGO
DALLAS
CINCINNATI
SAN FRANCISCO
BUFFALO
CLEVELAND
GREEN BAY
NEW YORK (NYJ)

What are yours?

Rams Final Roster Cuts Made

The St. Louis Rams released the following players on Saturday September 1st, after the trade of Ryan Fitzpatrick to the Bengals:

Brock Berlin
Derek Stanley
Dominique Thompson
Dustin Fry
Jeremy Parquet
Jon Alston
Keith Jackson
Darius Vinnett

Todd Steussie was placed on IR after breaking his foot in the game Thursday night against the Kansas City Chiefs. With Fakhir Brown suspended he will not count against the 53 man roster at this point. The Rams still have 4 TEs on the roster even though it does not seem like we plan to throw them many balls. The battle for the last DE spot has yet to end as both Eric Moore and Taylor Johnson are on the roster. This years draft picks, Fry, Stanley, Shackleford, and Jackson all failed to make this squad. Time will tell if the St. Louis Rams kept the right guys.

Rams Trade Leading Rusher to Bengals!

The St. Louis Rams traded their 2007 Preseason leading rusher the last two games, Ryan Fitzpatrick to the Cincinnati Bengals today. The Rams report he was traded to Cincinnati for a seventh-round draft pick in the 2008 draft. It’s believed to be a conditional pick.

Rams cut 11 Players

The St. Louis Rams cut 11 players on Friday. The Rams must cut another 11 on Saturday by 5PM CST. No surprises in the cuts made on Friday.

Ken Shackelford
Jamal Brooks
Josh Lay
Tim Sandidge
Mark Anelli
Shaine Smith
Fred Gibson
Drew Strojny
Kevin Lovell
Andre Kirkland
J.D. Washington