Ekern: All the Right Movies : Ram Linebacker Gets Edge by Being Game-Film Junkie
Somebody get the lights. And close the door on your way out. Carl Ekern’s about to settle in and watch a Cowboy movie, and he doesn’t want to be disturbed.
This week, it’s Cowboys. Last week, it was Jets. Next week, it’s Dolphins, with no narration from Jacques Cousteau. The subjects may change, but Ekern’s viewing habits don’t.
It’s hardly unusual for the average National Football League player to spend hours each week in the film room, in search of any little clue or tip-off that will give him an advantage on an opponent. But Ram linebacker Ekern has a reputation as a certified game-film junkie.
Said Fritz Shurmur, the team’s defensive coordinator: “He does a huge amount of studying . . . more so than most. And he’s a great note taker. He fills volumes of notebooks with every word that every coach ever says to him. He’s a real student of the game.”
Like any film buff, Ekern has his favorites. They tend to be the ones in which he can envision himself in the midst of the action on the screen. Sort of vicarious pursuit and collision.
“We get end-zone copies of film,” Ekern said. “That gives me a real chance to see what the offense is doing and, if I’m watching a team playing a 3-4 defense, I can put myself in my position and read the plays.
“Actually, I think it almost might be better than practice because you’re actually watching the guy you’re going to be playing and watching how things develop. It gives you that initial read, and that’s what I like to have. You do that visualization, whether you’re aware of it or not. I’m aware of doing it. I try to do it.”
Ekern follows a system each week. The hours of film watching are supplemented by the pages and pages of notes he takes. It’s almost as if he were a student facing a final exam every Sunday.
From all indications, the system works. Ekern, the Rams’ defensive signal caller, has quietly become the key link in a defense that ranks third in the NFL.
Although he has missed three games this season with a pulled hamstring, Ekern has been in on 72 tackles, third on the team behind linebacker Mark Jerue with 91 and defensive back Vince Newsome with 90. Last Sunday, the Rams held the New York Jets to a fourth-quarter field goal on the way to a 17-3 victory in East Rutherford, N.J. Ekern led the Rams with 15 tackles.
Ekern is the guy on whom Shurmur and Coach John Robinson rely to see that the Rams defend against the run and prevent the big pass, without getting their signals crossed in the process. Shurmur may not be the most impartial observer, but he thinks there is nobody in the NFL better at being a defensive coordinator on the field.
“Most people would describe him as a limited athlete,” he said of Ekern. “He’s not as fast as some, he’s not as big and strong as some. As a result, I think they put the knock on him (and say) he can’t play as well as the rest of them. But that’s far from the truth. Since we’ve been here, he’s played in the neighborhood of 60 games, and I don’t think you can take any linebacker in the league--All-Pro or not--and say they’ve played better than this guy has over the long haul.
“We’ve won some games without him, but I don’t think there’s any question that we all go into a ballgame with a different comfort level knowing he’s there than we have when he’s not.”
The Rams got an idea of Ekern’s worth in the games he missed. They lost to Philadelphia, 34-20. They had to go into overtime to beat Tampa Bay, 26-20. And Atlanta running back Gerald Riggs rushed for 141 yards in leading the Falcons to a 26-14 victory. The Rams have given up more than 20 points in a game only four times this season, and three of those were games that Ekern missed.
Coincidence? Hardly, Shurmur said. So how is it that fame keeps reversing its field before getting to Ekern? Why isn’t his name being mentioned along with the Giants’ Lawrence Taylor or the Bears’ Mike Singletary by broadcasters everywhere?
Well, that just wouldn’t work. You can’t have a name player in a no-name defense, and that’s how the Rams have been accustommed to hearing themselves described. Besides, he says, there is a perfectly logical explanation as to why guys like Taylor get more attention.
“Any defense would be glad to have a Lawrence Taylor on their team,” he said. “He is a great player, and a dominant player. We really don’t have any dominant people like that. But it doesn’t bother me and I don’t think it bothers anybody else on our defense.
“We haven’t gotten a lot of individual glory, perhaps, but our defense really isn’t designed to spotlight or have people stand out like that.”
The Ram defense has been called simple and unsophisticated. Its machismo has been questioned, its effectiveness considered something of a mystery. It hasn’t happened yet, but it may be just a matter of time before a frustrated opposing player blurts out something like, “That sure is a wimpy zone those guys play.”
But the results speak for the defense. The Rams have been winning with it, and although it may be unspectacular, it works.
Said Ekern: “We’ve got a bunch of guys who are good football players and who do a damn good job of doing their jobs.”