NEW ORLEANS -- The New Orleans Saints could have silenced St. Louis on Sunday and they didn't.
|  | | With Marshall Faulk leading the running game, the Rams can be potent regardless of Kurt Warner's play. |
Eleven defensive coordinators around the NFL must have felt like throwing down their play charts and cursing the name of Chicago kicker Paul Edinger once the Rams' 26-21 victory
was complete.
Though the Rams are beatable, you still have to beat them to
eliminate them. True, their defense is still porous. They lack speed on
the perimeter of their defense and their defensive line can be pushed around by a big offense. Because the Saints didn't dispose of them Sunday in the
Superdome, they draw the dubious honor of facing them again next week.
The greatest statistical offense in league history has life. That's
bad news for the New York Giants, who'd have to face them if the Rams beat the Saints
next Saturday. It's also bad news for Minnesota and Tampa Bay, which has
already faced them once. Face it, the Rams are your worst nightmare because they keep attacking and attacking.
"I don't say we redeemed ourselves or anything like that," Rams
defensive end Grant Wistrom said. "We're happy to get in the playoffs. Now
that we are in, you have to contend with us. We feel like we've been on the
road all the time, but we've been a good road team."
At first, though, the Rams looked lifeless Sunday. After the national
anthem, Rams players stood along their sideline as though they were bored.
The defense, which played lifeless in a Monday night loss to Tampa Bay,
approached their regular-season finale matter of factly. Emotion was
missing. To make the playoffs, the Rams needed the Lions to lose to the
Bears.
To further insult the Rams, Saints management posted the
Lions-Bears score only when the news was bad for the Rams. That angered the higher-ups of the Rams' franchise and didn't please the players. With 5:33 left in the first
quarter, the Saints posted a 10-0 Lions' lead on their biggest message board.
The Rams offense responded with a flat three-and-out inside their 20.
"As you know, I got that quality Pac-10 education, so if they
weren't flashing the score up there, we knew it was something good for us,"
said Rams defensive tackle D'Marco Farr, who played at the University of
Washington. "As long as we didn't see it, we felt it was good news."
What put life into the Rams was the Saints' mistakes. Saints
quarterback Aaron Brooks misfired on his fourth passing attempt and Rams cornerback Dre' Bly came up with the interception. The Rams needed only five
plays to score Marshall Faulk's first of three touchdowns. Knowing the Rams have scored a touchdown on their opening drive only twice this season,
coach Mike Martz felt this might be a good day.
"I had a feeling Saturday night that was based on just luck,"
Martz said. "It was how these guys prepared and the character that these
guys have. I knew they'd respond. Bud Carson challenged the defense Saturday
night. We challenged the offense a little bit. They responded very well.
These guys are champions. Shoot, they played like champions today. To have
this moment going is very important."
Perhaps the most important part of this victory that might bode well
in the next week or two is that the Rams played well when Kurt Warner
didn't. A year ago, Warner played at an unconscious level, throwing for 41
touchdown passes. On Sunday, he wasn't the same guy.
Early in the game, Warner struggled getting the ball to Isaac Bruce,
Torry Holt and Co. His success was handing off or tossing the ball to Faulk, which is a pretty good strategy, but is very
un-Warner-like. True, the Saints' defense hit him often and hit him hard.
With 12 minutes left in the first half, Warner was woozy on the
sidelines from a helmet-to-helmet hit by linebacker Keith Mitchell. On his next possession, Warner threw an interception that
linebacker Darrin Smith returned for a 41-yard touchdown to tie the score 7-7. It was the fourth interception returned for a touchdown against Warner
this season.
In the second half, after a couple of hits, Warner was taken to the
locker room and later to the hospital because of lingering concussion
problems. Though the Rams say Warner's fine and should start the rematch, Martz might
be advised to change his practice routine and give some snaps to Trent
Green.
Green bailed out Warner big time. Warner left with a 13-7 lead
having completed 12 of 17 for 133 yards and one touchdown. Green controlled
the clock and made third-down plays when necessary. His 6-for-10 for 115
yards passing looks pedestrian, but think of the degree of difficulty in which
he was working.
"Nobody understands how hard it is to do what he did," Martz said
of Green. "He's not taken a snap in practice since he last played (in
Carolina, Dec. 3). That's the way we run things. The starting quarterback
takes all the snaps, so the backup has to be a student and know what's going
on. We have some calls that are a sentence long, so what he did was a
magnificent performance by a magnificent quarterback."
Here's what should scare the rest of the NFC. The Rams found a
defense that contained quarterback Aaron Brooks and made him look inexperienced. Carson changed his alignments up front, occasionally
designated one defender a play as a spy and kept Brooks in the pocket most
of the day. Consequently, Brooks had his worst performance of the year,
completing 16 of 31 for 208 yards, numbers that didn't reflect as poorly as
he played.
"This is the worst he looked all year," Saints coach Jim Haslett
said of Brooks. "They played a lot of two-deep man-under coverages."
Wistrom said that Brooks is most dangerous when he gets out of the
pocket and throws. For some reason, Brooks didn't want to run the ball much
Sunday.
"He was an unknown the first time we faced him," Wistrom said.
"We focused on keeping him in the pocket and getting some hits on him."
The other aspect of the rematch will be the dislike between the two
teams. Faulk almost was ejected in the first quarter for slapping Saints
cornerback Kevin Mathis and then charging at him again, drawing a personal
foul penalty. All day long, the Saints and Rams pushed, shoved and cursed
at each other.
"This is not pretty, but it's a big rivalry," Farr said. "It's
kind like wrestling the good guys vs. the bad guys. There was a lot of
trash talking, and guys were trying to take other guys out of the game. If
you are faint at heart, don't go out there."
And if you wanted to say goodbye to the Rams, hold onto your
defensive clipboards. The worst nightmare for a defensive coordinator is
still alive.
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Marshall Faulk breaks NFL single-season TD record
Warner suffers mild concussion, leaves Saints game
VIDEO
  Mike Martz and the Rams get into the playoffs thanks to a little help from Bears kicker Paul Edinger. RealVideo: 28.8 Marshall Faulk and the Rams' offensive line step up and help send the Rams into the playoffs. RealVideo: 28.8  The Rams are in and Kurt Warner knows repeating will be difficult, but not impossible. wav: 81 kRealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6 |
