Rams Bring Back Last Year’s Model
The old Rams were back Sunday, and you can put it on Kurt Warner’s tab.
Humbled by three consecutive losses and fighting to make the playoffs, the Super Bowl champions took it out on the Minnesota Vikings with a 40-29 victory.
The Rams played like it was 1999, and they partied like it too, celebrating their first two touchdowns with the banned Bob ‘N Weave.
Bring on the fines.
“I told them it’s on me. Go have some fun at my expense,” said Warner, who wanted to see the old swagger again.
“That’s why I told them I’d pay the fines. It’s unfortunate that [the NFL] took that away from us, and I wanted these guys to go out and have fun.”
If it wasn’t the Bob ‘N Weave, it was receiver Isaac Bruce spinning the ball on end after a reception.
The Rams (9-5) looked like their old selves, even if they are far from out of the woods in the playoff race, still tied for first place in the NFC West with New Orleans, which came back to beat San Francisco on Sunday.
Still ahead for the Rams: a Monday night game at Tampa Bay and the season finale at New Orleans.
Adding to the degree of difficulty: Because the Saints hold the advantage in a tiebreaker, the Rams can’t win the division unless they go in to the game with the Saints at least tied for the division lead.
The Ram-Viking game was supposed to be a shootout, but the Rams had most of the bullets.
Minnesota’s Randy Moss was held to four receptions, and Robert Smith, who came in as the NFL’s leading rusher, managed only 67 yards.
The biggest reason the Rams won was because they avoided the turnovers that have plagued them in recent weeks. The Ram offense on display for 66,273 at the Trans World Dome was vintage.
Warner recovered from his four-interception performance last week against Carolina to pass for 346 yards without an interception.
“I certainly wanted to prove to the guys in this room the quarterback who played last week wasn’t the quarterback they know,” Warner said.
He was sharp from the get-go, completing his first 11 passes and 27 of 32 in the game.
“We just could not stay with them,” Minnesota Coach Dennis Green said. “Kurt Warner was very sharp.”
The Rams also got their best game from Marshall Faulk since he returned from arthroscopic knee surgery. For the first time, Coach Mike Martz didn’t limit his carries.
Faulk rushed for 135 yards in 25 carries and set a team record with four touchdowns. He also caught six passes for 43 yards.
“Emotionally, the way you feel tends to be the way you play,” said Faulk, the ringleader for the illegal celebrations after his first two touchdowns.
“Whatever, we had fun,” he said. “This game is about emotion and expressing yourself. If it’s not taunting anybody, it’s expressing yourself.”
Along with their victory, the Rams performed a valuable service for NFL watchers: They exposed the Viking defense.
Minnesota had become the Super Bowl favorite with an explosive offense and an 11-2 record before Sunday’s loss.
But the Viking defense is not very good--not even as good as the Rams’ much-maligned defense--and it might be time to consider a balanced team such as the Tennessee Titans a more probable Super Bowl champion.
A look at the Viking record shows it has been built against a schedule that includes only two offenses ranked in the top half of the NFL--Buffalo and Green Bay--with an average ranking of 22nd.
A diet of Chicago, Miami, New England, Detroit, Tampa Bay, Arizona, Carolina, Dallas and Detroit doesn’t prove much.
With a secondary that consists of veteran Robert Griffith, Kenny Wright, Robert Tate and Tyrone Carter, the Viking pass defense ranked 25th among 31 NFL teams before the game, and they were last in interceptions.
The Rams went right at Minnesota and met little resistance, with Warner finding receivers on quick timing routes early and amassing all that yardage with no play longer than 36 yards.
The Ram defense, meanwhile, no longer deserves to be ridiculed.
The addition of Bud Carson, lured out of retirement to oversee the defense, has made an impact--especially since he began calling the defensive coverages last week.
Was holding the Vikings to 29 points the Rams’ best performance of the season?
“I don’t know,” Martz said. “Shoot, we won. You’ve got to be good.
“I thought the effort was outstanding against a great offense. I know they scored some points, but we were able to stay out front.”
Against Moss and Cris Carter, the Rams mixed coverages, often using a safety to help double-team.
“We tried to keep Daunte [Culpepper] off-balance. We’d check our defense when they checked,” said cornerback Todd Lyght, who has returned to his Pro Bowl form after briefly being benched earlier this season.
It didn’t look as if they did anything special against Moss, but he was off his game.
“He’s the type of player who wants to get involved early,” Lyght said. “We know that and took that into account to try to take him out of it.”
The Rams also set their celebratory tone early, with two Bob ‘N Weave sessions in the first quarter as they took a 17-0 lead by early in the second.
That they had their fun against a team coached by Green, co-chairman of the committee that banned group celebrations, was just icing.
Green was asked for his reaction.
“I don’t have any,” he said.
Lyght did.
“That’s us telling the NFL, ‘Hey look, we’re going to do our thing regardless,’ ” he said. “We’re going to defend this title. It’s not about money now.”
Not with Warner, who signed a seven-year, $46.35-million contract before the season, footing the bill.
With six or seven players taking part in each celebration, the early estimate at $2,500 a pop is it will cost him $32,500.
Somebody asked if he’ll sponsor the Bob ‘N Weave the rest of the way.
Warner laughed.
“I’ll have to see how light my wallet is after this week,” he said.
SUNDAY AT A GLANCE
Buccaneers Seize Chance
Tampa Bay took advantage of five turnovers and rallied to beat the Dolphins, 16-13. D11
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Redskins Lose Again
Washington fell to 7-7, but Troy Aikman’s career is in peril after another concussion in Dallas’ 32-13 win. D9
THE REST
BALTIMORE 24: SAN DIEGO 3
CHICAGO 24: NEW ENGLAND 17
PHILADELPHIA 35: CLEVELAND 24
GREEN BAY 26: DETROIT 13
JACKSONVILLE 44: ARIZONA 10
KANSAS CITY 15: CAROLINA 14
NEW YORK GIANTS 30: PITTSBURGH 10
TENNESSEE 35: CINCINNATI 3
DENVER 31: SEATTLE 24
NEW ORLEANS 31: SAN FRANCISCO 27
ST. LOUIS 40: MINNESOTA 29
OAKLAND 31: NEW YORK JETS 7
(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)
Different Tactic, Similar Outcome
While Sunday’s Minnesota-St. Louis game played out much like last January’s playoff game, there were some key differences. The Rams were able to to keep the much-maligned Viking defense on the field by chewing up the clock with a strong running game:
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JAN 16, 2000 DEC. 10, 2000 MIN STL MIN STL 37 49 Points 29 40 27 23 First Downs 23 32 289 374 Passing Yards 208 346 87 31 Rushing Yards 104 162 3 3 Turnovers 0 0 10-57 10-70 Penalties 7-60 7-43 2 4 Sacks 0 4 34:11 25:49 Time of Possessions 25:36 34:24
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Research by ROY JURGENS