Rams QB Marc Bulger took a shot from Darnell Dockett on the Rams last gasp drive with no timeouts and a minute remaining.  The next few plays Bulger did not look like he had everything together and the game was over.

Well, it turns out Bulger took a shot to the head on that sack and he is undergoing tests for a concussion, Pro Football Talk is reporting.

In reference to Nebraska DT Ndamukong Suh:

Jeff Gordon: The Rams like another DT or two over him at this point. Maybe the whole Nebraska thing scares the team.

Jeff Gordon: He’s a playmaker, but the Rams very much believe in size at that position. They can go small with other players in pass rush situations. They want a run stuffer.

Suh is listed as 291 pounds.

The next highest rated DTs are Gerald McCoy of Oklahoma who is listed at 297 lbs and Terrance Cody of Alabama who is listed at 365 pounds.  Interesting.

The Rams obviously need some help at DT and they would prefer a space eater to a smaller and quicker tackle.

The St. Louis Rams were pounded into the ground by the Arizona Cardinals in a very frustrating afternoon at the Edward Jones Dome. The Cardinals were able to do anything they wanted on offense in the first half, and that was all the points they needed to defeat the punch-less St. Louis Rams. For the second week in a row, the Rams staged a frantic, 4^th quarter comeback and for the second week in a row, it fell short. The Rams were ineffective on offense, even though Steven Jackson ran for over 100 yards. However, that number was buoyed by one 48 yard run where Jackson was pushed out of bounds at the 5 yard line.

The Rams played well in their first win against the Detroit Lions and played the top-flight New Orleans Saints tough down to the final whistle, but played very flat against the Arizona Cardinals. The Rams were quickly in the red zone at the start of the game as Beanie Well fumbled a toss from Kurt Warner. The Rams failed to move the football and settled for a field goal. The Rams didn’t visit the red zone again until late in the 3^rd quarter when the Rams opted for a field goal on 4^th and goal from the 2 yard line. However, the desperate Rams were able to score a touchdown in the 4^th quarter on a 1 yard Steven Jackson run after a daring Danny Amendola catch on 4^th and long.

The Rams frantic comeback came to an end after the Rams called two fade passes to the corner of the end zone. The first one was well defensed by Adrian Wilson on Brandon Gibson. The second one was to Donnie Avery who is not known for his height, strength or leaping ability. The oddness of the call was obvious to all the paying patrons of the dome who rained boos down on their home team.

The Cardinals did not even need to force quarterback Kurt Warner back into the game in the second half as the 21 points they scored in the first half was enough. The Rams knocked out Kurt Warner near the end of the first half with a potential head injury. The Cardinals were not even close to the same team with Matt Leinart in at quarterback. Leinart’s only success was avoiding a sack and completing a pass on 3^rd and 4 to end the Rams chances on a crucial pass to Early Doucet.

There is no way the Rams should have even kept the game close against the Cardinals, but without Warner the Cardinals folded up their tent and successfully ran out the clock on the overwhelmed St. Louis Rams. The Rams offense only moved the ball against the Cardinals prevent defense and their struggles in the red zone continued. Field goals and too little too late touchdowns are not enough to beat even one half of the Kurt Warner Cardinals.

Rams inactives: QB Keith Null, CB Danny Gorrer, LB Dominic Douglas, G Roger Allen III, G Richie Incognito, WR Jordan Kent, DE Ah You.

No surprises here.  Null is the 3rd QB, Incognito is still hurt, Jordan Kent is brand new and CJ Ah You is already on the IR.

I hated to see Will Witherspoon leave, but I’d have to say that I am pleasantly surprised by the performance of Brandon Gibson.  He is a much needed addition to the Rams receiving core that has been plagued with mediocrity and injury.

Gibson (and a fifth round draft pick) was picked up from the Eagles in October in a trade for linebacker Will Witherspoon.  In 2008 Gibson played for Washington State University which completed its Pac-10 season an abysmal 2-11.  However, Gibson finished his college career at Washington State as the school’s all-time leading receiver with 2,756 yards and 182 receptions along with 17 touchdowns.  His senior year Gibson was given honorable mention All-Pacific-10 Conference and the team’s Offensive Most Valuable Player.

In his first appearance as a Ram, Gibson came out and impressed.  He racked up a team season-high of 93 yards on seven catches (this is a Rams record for a rookie’s first game).  Prior to week 10, the Rams top receivers production per game is as follows:

(In weeks 3 and 6 Steven Jackson caught passes for 46 and 78 yards respectively.)

It was announced Monday that Keenan Burton’s knee injury will require surgery and end his season. This will open up a huge opportunity for Gibson in this weekend’s game against the Arizona Cardinals. In addition, two of the Cardinals cornerbacks didn’t practice Wednesday – CBs Bryant McFadden (ankle) and Michael Adams (hamstring). Let’s hope our exciting new rookies can take advantage and help get us a win.

RamView, November 15, 2009
From Row HH
(Report and opinions from the game.)
Game #9: Saints 28, Rams 23

* Who’s next?: Of all the streaks in all the football joints in all the towns in all the world, this one has to come back into mine. The bane of my football existence, Bill Bidwill’s Big Dead, return to St. Louis next week not only having beaten the Rams five times in a row, they’ve won four straight in the Dome. So worthless Bidwill has more success with his franchise as the visitors in St. Louis than he ever did in 28 incompetent years here as the home team!

More preview after the jump!

One trend in this series the Rams have to break is their proclivity to give up touchdowns to the Big Dead defense. Arizona has scored 6 defensive TDs in the last five games against the Rams, 5 of them on INT returns. But instead of arguing that the Rams’ receivers and offensive linemen need to become better tacklers, let’s take the tack that facing Arizona puts extra emphasis on the Rams to try to win with their usual offensive M.O. There’s just one problem. Arizona’s pretty much shut Steven Jackson down the last three meetings, and they entered this past week with the #3 run defense in the league, and their 3-4 under new coordinator Bill Davis has gone from the bottom of the league to the top in points allowed and third down conversions. And they lead the league in runs stuffed (per Football Outsiders), led by super safety Adrian Wilson. Carolina, though, gashed them for about 250 by lining a slot receiver up on one side, to take a defender out of the box, and running behind the tight end to the other side. NFL.com sure makes it sound easy, anyway, and seeing Billy Bajema or Mike Karney picking off Wilson all day would be a sight for sore eyes as far as this rivalry goes. Jackson should be a dangerous receiver next week either way. Arizona’s aggression makes them vulnerable to screens and short passes, and a great way to defuse Wilson and Arizona’s aggressive LB corps is to make them cover people downfield. The Rams’ll enter this showdown at least with some outs; will they hit one this time or get flushed down the river they way they have been?

Speaking of things the Rams need to hit, another crushing trend of this series has been their inability to pressure Kurt Warner. They’ve sacked Kurt three times in the last four meetings and given  Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin more time than they’ll ever need to get open. Opponents have slowed Arizona down a little by dropping their safeties back to take away the Warner-to-Fitzgerald deep game and daring the Big Dead, with their typically bottom-of-the-league rushing game, to run on them. For the Rams to make that work, they’d better defend the run a LOT better than the last time Arizona was here, when Tim Hightower and J.J. Arrington rolled them for 170 yards. The Rams did hold that same pair to 54 yards in Arizona last December, so there’s reason for hope, though rookie Beanie Wells is emerging as a big upgrade to the out-of-the-league Arrington. But that won’t be enough reason for hope if the Rams don’t put serious pressure on Warner for a change. More than even Jackson this week, the Rams have to get a winning effort from their defensive front. Not a very promising prospect after today.

I’ve said before the Rams would be improved over last year just because they changed coaches. Jim Haslett’s defenses failed for three years to put much pressure on Warner. Steve Spagnuolo’s here because of past brilliance pressuring the QB. Unleash the hounds, coach. This is the perfect week for an underdog playing with more intensity to knock off a talented, yet inconsistent, favorite. If Spagnuolo combines a good defensive game plan with 53 players rockin’ right out of the locker room next Sunday, he can certainly catch Arizona by surprise. It’s time to draw a line in the sand in this rivalry. The Rams need to let Bidwill’s boys know that when they step off the plane in St. Louis, they’re not stepping on a doormat any more – they’re stepping into a snakepit.

* Upon further review: The home crowd wanted a lot of calls today we didn’t get. Unfortunately for us, Gene Steratore and crew got the calls right. We wanted a fumble when David Thomas got flipped and lost the ball. His arm hit the ground first, though. Wanted DPI on that weird cross-field throw to McMichael that Roman Harper broke up. Well, Harper was playing the ball. Wanted roughing when Tracy Porter fell on a prone Jackson after a good run. Nope, Jason Brown blocked him into Jackson. I don’t know why the call on Jackson’s TD run took so long, but they got it right, and they also called Gibson’s 4th-down scoop on the final drive correctly without replay. Probably the best-officiated Rams game of the season. They sure out-reffed the crowd, at least. A-minus.

* Cheers: It took an extra day extension from the league and an infusion of, um, shall we say exuberant Saints fans, but the game did sell out, and the crowd was very good. St. Louis has got nothing to be embarrassed about when they’ve got 50,000-plus showing up for a 1-7 team. The crowd was great, too, at least until special teams killed the mood right after halftime. From my sampling, Saint fans can pride themselves on making today’s the drunkest, fightingest crowd of the year. Who dat, indeed. Military was the theme of the day, from the dog tag giveaway to Navy officer / gospel singer Generald Wilson nailing the National Anthem, to the traditional parade pass at halftime. Guess I can’t complain about that, though it sure couldn’t have cost the Rams much to put on.

ESPN’s NFC West blogger Mike Sando has some nice things to say about the direction of the Rams in his video podcast today.  Take a look.

The Rams improved performance has lead Mike to head to St. Louis for the Rams game against the Arizona Cardinals.

St. Louis’s favorite son, Kurt Warner returns to the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis on Sunday as an Arizona Cardinal for the 5th time.  He is still beloved in St. Louis even though he has played for a division rival for as long as he played for the St. Louis Rams.

The reason is plain and simple.  Kurt Warner won a Super Bowl.  He quarterbacked the St. Louis Rams during the time of their greatest achievements.  Not only did he lead the Rams to one Super Bowl victory, he lead them to another Super Bowl two years later, only to lose.  The Rams have not seen those heights since Warner left and so Kurt Warner is still loved in St. Louis.  It is also easy to remember the good times with Warner and gloss over the bad times, like in 2002, when he fumbled 6 times against the New York Giants because his broken finger was not fully healed.  Or when he left St. Louis and he was so battered and bruised by Mike Martz’s offense that he was a shell of his former self in New York.

Beyond the football stuff, which is easy, “He won the Super Bowl”.  Kurt Warner is a very likable guy.  He’s always up for interviews, which keeps the media happy, he’s an avout Christian, a family man, and is always conspicuous in the community helping others.

It also doesn’t help that the Rams play Warner’s Cardinals twice a year and the St. Louis TV affiliates put as many Cardinals games on TV in St. Louis as possible.

It is impossible for St. Louisans to forget the hey day of St. Louis Rams football, but the Rams will be back and eventually Kurt Warner will not be playing in St. Louis once a year.

RamView, November 15, 2009
From Row HH
(Report and opinions from the game.)
Game #9: Saints 28, Rams 23

* Coaching: End-of-game time management looms large today. The Rams expended a timeout at the 2:50 mark after a 23-yard pass to Fells. My guess is Steve Spagnuolo was concerned about the offense getting lined back up for the next play in time. The timeout was followed immediately by a TD, so it was successful, if costly, because they spent only two timeouts getting the ball back from the Saints. And with no TO’s left the last 2:00, they did almost nothing but throw over the middle. After the completion to McMichael with 0:42 left, the best move is a spike. But you can’t spike out of shotgun formation, which is where they kept Bulger, and a screen pass will NEVER be worth TWENTY seconds in this situation, but away it goes, for four whole yards. Bulger didn’t get out of shotgun the entire drive. There was no way he was going to improvise a spike play. Pat Shurmur’s supposed to watch the clock, too; he needed to order up a spike, but I guess he got too caught up getting Bulger multiple play calls and/or trying to bleed time off the clock so the Saints couldn’t have any if the Rams scored. Bulger probably should have thrown it away instead of hitting Jackson the second time. Either way, the Rams tried to cut the endgame way too fine, and they’re much too wet behind the ears to try that. Hell, look at how big an idiot Belichick made out of himself in Indianapolis last night trying it. Right now the Rams need to worry about scoring, period, in late-game situations before they move on to more advanced material. Another problem for Shurmur today was the offense again failing to get back out of the blocks after halftime. Both Jackson after the game and D’Marco Farr during the game mentioned alignment and stunting changes the Saints made after halftime. A rookie coordinator’s going to get outschemed by Gregg Williams, and there was a lot right with today’s offense, in balance, distribution and catching the Saints in defenses they wanted to catch them in. But the halftime letdown is still a Shurmur trend.

I believe Ken Flajole’s strategy today was to keep men back in coverage and blitz very little. It’s an understandable strategy against that passing attack, and the Rams held the Saints to a season “low” 28 points, and Brees to a very modest 223 yards. But they got gashed on the ground for 201, put very little pressure on the QB, and still lost. Spagnuolo and Flajole have to realize by now that their front four guys aren’t going to get it done without help. The conservatism of the Ram offense has chafed at a lot of Rams Nation this year, but I’m not sure that the conservatism on defense hasn’t been worse. Was this the defense you expected? Bailing out at the snap? Playing pass prevent on 1st-and-goal at the 3? Maybe I’m just too impatient to wait out a talent upgrade, but the best this defensive approach was going to achieve today was to slow the Saints down. It was never going to beat them.