In Modern Era, Nobody Does It Better Than Rams
He might have been listening, or he might not--there’s no way to really know--but what I told him was, “I only want one thing for Christmas. I want a guarantee signed, ‘Santa’ that the Rams will win every playoff game this winter.”
Later, I thought I heard him say, “I’ll help if I can, but I’ve never been able to do a darn thing about turnovers, and to all a good night.”
They’re special, the Rams. From the North Pole to St. Louis and beyond, they have an upbeat effect on most sports fans. Sometimes criticized as a finesse team, they’re exactly that, of course. They don’t run through you. They go past you and over you. The Rams bust you not with helmet hits but with what’s inside those helmets, and that’s what makes them unique.
Thus, many who watch football each week, no doubt, would vote to see a Ram game if they had a vote. They like to see quarterback Kurt Warner coolly pitching the ball around. And I’m with them--not that I’m a Ram fan. If Warner loses the Super Bowl on a final-play turnover, fine. But as long as he’s still in there--with Coach Mike Martz sending in the plays--this is one football team that’s worth a sports fan’s time.
BRAINPOWER TEAM
A better word than finesse for a team like the Rams is, simply, “smart.” The Rams play brainpower football, which is the obverse of smash-mouth football. And that’s what upsets the smash-mouth coaches, whose idea of the game is to line up a large running back behind large blockers and run the ball off tackle. Repeatedly. But how much intelligence does that take? Grade-school teams can do it--and do. As for the pros, 25 or more of the 31 NFL coaches say football is a game of running the ball and defending against the run. As strategic planning, that’s not only crude and deficient, it also guarantees sports fans an afternoon of not much to see.
Webster’s defines finesse as “the ability to handle difficult situations with skill and adroitness.” That describes the Rams and their coach.
SHUN BIG HITS
One good way to play football wisely is to shun unnecessary hits. For example, any time a receiver has gained more than enough for a first down, it’s smarter to step out of bounds than to try for one more yard by heading into a defensive player. And Ram receivers are that well coached. After gaining 10, 12 yards or more, they’ll skip out of bounds--or even dive to the ground--if the alternative is an unavoidable collision.
Such avoidance moves annoy announcers who, like John Madden, insist that running away from a hit is unprofessional because football is a contact sport. In that analysis, however, Madden is wrong.
The Rams’ offensive team isn’t in every position a finesse bunch. The quarterback is a tough guy, the running back is tough, the blockers are rough. But Ram receivers are mostly small, swift people who know that every avoidable collision poses three unacceptable risks: It might end the day for them. It might end their career. Most certain of all, every hit takes something out of the man whacked.
Even so, when a daring play on a crowded field is essential to keep a key drive alive, Warner’s receivers will all unhesitatingly lay out for the ball. It’s the avoidable hits they shun.
IT’S A BLEND
The Ram way is a careful blend of finesse and appropriate toughness. It’s the finesse, though, that makes them different--and successful. That could be as obvious in the Atlanta game today as it was in the Indianapolis game last Sunday, when, during a 42-17 romp, Warner presided over a four-touchdown second quarter.
The Rams’ toughness was most conspicuously evident when it became necessary for their offensive line to blast some holes in the Colt defense. Their blockers did that with force and strength.
Still, on the game’s key running plays, it wasn’t Ram power that got the first downs and touchdowns, it was the finesse moves and the speed that Marshall Faulk brings as a running back.
THEY’RE DOMINANT
The dominant team that some media critics pine for isn’t years away, it’s right in front of them at Ram games this year.
Many just don’t recognize it. They equate dominance with physical power and toughness--the kind of toughness that teams like Pittsburgh and Green Bay formerly showed in their Super Bowl days.
But dominance can be achieved just as surely the Ram way, with speed, finesse, and unmatched strategy. If the Rams beat Atlanta today, they’ll finish the regular season as the only 14-2 team in football, and that’s dominant.
It’s also a fact that injuries are a ceaseless problem, but when the Rams have all hands on board, they’re No. 1 in the league on offense this season, and No. 2 on defense.
Nearly every week, they do the two big offensive things just right: Martz figures out the opposing defenses correctly and Warner moves the Rams up and down the field with the quickest reads and quickest passes since Joe Namath.
That prompts some turnovers, true, but coaches who worry about and talk about turnovers are basically timid. Some don’t know how to attack defensive teams with well-thought out pass offenses and most lack the nerve to throw a lot of passes because, as they say, passes mean turnovers.
The Rams understand that when you’re throwing the ball, there are going to be interceptions. That when you take hits that can’t be avoided to catch the ball on a crowded field, there are going to be fumbles.
PASS-RUN PLAYER
The so-called trick plays, that some coaches disdain and the Rams enjoy, have been some of their most effective. For one, there isn’t a better play in football than the halfback pass-run option. And the world might never have seen a better halfback-option engineer than Az-Zahir Hakim, who at 5-feet-10 and 182 pounds is also the fastest Ram receiver and one of the league’s best punt returners since Deion Sanders.
The uniqueness of the Rams is, of course, in the speed that everybody has when Martz sends in a lineup with, in effect, five receivers--Isaac Bruce, Ricky Proehl, Torry Holt, Hakim and Faulk. The Hakim option merely provides another weapon.
When he moves inside to run or pass, Hakim lights more fear in the opposition than Hall of Famers Paul Hornung or Frank Gifford used to. He’s a better passer than they were and, as a ballcarrier, much faster.
The Rams haven’t often used the Hakim option, although it really should be in their game plan.
One year when Green Bay was the NFL’s dominant team, the Packers ran Hornung on the option eight consecutive times from scrimmage, going 60 yards for a touchdown in Philadelphia.
It would be fun to see what it would gain for the Rams if Martz called the Hakim option on consecutive plays. Lately, however, Martz hasn’t often used unusual plays.