 SOME OBSERVATIONS, BY FAST EDDIE (Oct 18) |
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BEFORE THE ATLANTA GAME:
This is not meant to be alarmist, because I think the Rams will handle the Falcons today
even if they aren't nearly as sharp as they've looked thus far... BUT... I've heard this from two different sources who were out at Rams Park watching practice this week... the Rams did not look sharp and the intensity and the determination that everyone out there felt last week has not been there this week. Prior to the whiner game, the team was very focussed and my friend who writes Rams stories for the AP said that even the media guys were running off the field ready to hit somebody because the team was so intense... This week, by contrast, the atmosphere has been a circus with players and coaches soaking up the media glare and Kurt Warner autographing copies of SI... the team appears to have let 4-0 go to it's collective head. The mood is lighthearted and the complete opposite of a week ago. Now we'll find out how the team responds to being treated like superstars. AFTER THE GAME: They say you play like you practice and I think that explains the sloppiness that we saw from the offense through the balance of the game. But then the Falcons sat back in cover two and Faulk responded just as we thought he would. I was impressed with Warner as well... he did not get the ball off immediately to his primary receiver as he has been able to do thus far, due to the coverage by the Falcons, but he didn't force anything and he didn't take many sacks... he held the ball to the last second and he threw it away when that was called for. He really looks like a savvy veteran. FAULK: Don't say the Falcons have a poor rushing defense---they don't... even without Tuggle and Brooking, that front seven is pretty solid. Check what they did to Ricky Williams a week earlier, even with two reserve linebackers. The key is that Faulk can have this kind of day when the defense gives it to them. Brooks made a decision to drop his safeties in cover 2 and Martz and Marshall made him pay. WISTROM. Calloway, I believe, was in pursuit of Wistrom on the TD... not exactly a burner, but he's going to be dreading watching that in film study this week... watching a lineman match him stride for stride down the field... Grant was just on Sports Plus with Mike Bush talking about how tight the Rams defensive line is... the guys hang out together off the field... I've heard Timmerman say the same things about the offensive line this year. Here's a funny Wistrom story that you won't read about in the papers in honor of Grant being named defensive player of the game... In the week leading up to the whiner game last week, Wistrom rallied the defensive line around a common theme... he got them all to agree not to have sex with their wives for the entire week, so that they'd be mean as hell when the whiners came in on Sunday... well, perhaps it helped, maybe not... who knows? ... The funny part of the story is that Grant didn't tell them until after the game that his wife was out of town all week anyhow -:). |
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