This Picture of Rams Looks Much Brighter : Pro football: Despite the loss to 49ers, young players give the team hope for the future.
How far have the Rams progressed under Chuck Knox?
Owner Georgia Frontiere, Knox and the rest of the players and coaches posed for the Ram team photo shoot Monday and actually made it through the day without anybody being discarded along the way.
The 1991 team photo was staged 15 minutes before John Robinson’s formal resignation, signaling the end of an era and freezing a moment in time of the Rams that used to be.
A day after the San Francisco 49ers had showed them the level of play the Rams (4-7) haven’t yet been able to master, Knox and his players posed for the shot, and talked about being poised for future success as a team.
“I think we’ll just continue to work and get better,” Knox said when he was asked if he thought Sunday’s 27-10 loss to the 49ers was a step backward. “We’re a young football team. We have to learn how to deal with these kinds of games.”
Knox pointed out three players--rookie defensive tackles Sean Gilbert and Marc Boutte and second-year running back David Lang--who had games Sunday that could have long-range meaning.
Gilbert, 22, the team’s No. 1 pick from the University of Pittsburgh, got his second and third sacks in his best game.
Gilbert also pressured 49er quarterback Steve Young several times and was all over the field trying to chase down 49er ballcarriers.
Boutte also pressured Young at times and was active in the middle. And Lang, the starting fullback, stepped in for injured tailback Cleveland Gary and rushed 11 times for 62 yards.
“Sean has been getting better every week . . . with experience,” Knox said Monday. “He didn’t play a lot of football at Pitt the time he was there. Boutte, they’re going to give us some young guys who can play in that middle for a long time.
“And David Lang, he’s got that burst . . . “
Gilbert and Boutte are the hopes for a defense that continues to be pounded on the ground. The Rams went into the game last in the league in run defense, and gave up 213 yards rushing to San Francisco--163 by Ricky Watters.
As those twin 300-pounders grow up, the Rams believe the run defense will grow as well.
“Everything will work out fine--just patience, you know?” Gilbert said Monday. “You can’t rush things. You have to let everything take its course, step by step. You can’t sit here and say I could have been where I am now back in the beginning of the season. Because what I know now, I didn’t know back then.
“There’s no way I can just turn into Superman.”
Gilbert did say he was happier with his pass rush than he had been.
“My pass rush was decent until the off week (Oct. 25),” he said. “But it kind of slugged again when we came back off the open week. It was like I had to start over from there. But it feels like it’s coming back again.”
And though Gilbert got his sacks against Young, a quarterback known for turning near-sacks into 39-yard touchdown runs, he said these weren’t any more enjoyable than others.
“Every quarterback is special,” Gilbert said. “He’s the golden key.”
Boutte, a third-round pick from Louisiana State, said the two have been waiting to break loose--and that they know how much is riding on their development.
“It’s something we’ve been meaning to do all year,” Boutte said. “If we want to be a good team, it’s up to me and Sean to play great football week in and week out. We can’t play good one week and come back and play mediocre the next.
“Oh yeah, the potential’s there, but we’ve got to stop waiting for it to happen. We’ve got to do it now. We can’t help but look down the road, but it’s only in the back of our minds.”
Lang, meanwhile, has turned in a series of impressive performances at both tailback and fullback.
And at least for now, Knox said, Lang is a good alternative if Gary isn’t able to go 100%.
“We knew going into the game we had some plays for two fullbacks in there (with Lang and rookie) Tim Lester,” Knox said. “We wanted to get him into the game. So we had a package of those two guys. And with Cleveland . . . being hampered with that ankle injury, (Lang) ran very well.”