Wednesday, April 19, 2000

Champs will be heard from

Rams are being overlooked due to surge by Bucs and Redskins

By Ron Pollack, Editor-in-chief

One wouldn’t think such a formality would be necessary for the defending Super Bowl champions, but everyone I talk to these days seems to have forgotten about the Rams.

All I hear these days is how the offseason moves of the Buccaneers and Redskins should have them fighting it out for the NFC’s berth in the Super Bowl.

I have no beef with anyone stating a case for Tampa Bay or Washington as Super Bowl contenders. Both clubs have had spectacular offseasons, making sensational additions to what were already quality teams.

My complaint is that everyone seems to be acting as if there will be only two prize fighters in the ring battling for the NFC title belt.

Make no mistake about it. There should be more than two teams in this picture. This will be a battle royal — a no-love-lost triangle — between the Rams, Buccaneers and Redskins.

The Rams are not a team to be easily dismissed. They were a dominating bunch last season, and they really haven’t suffered significant losses since then.

The only hits they took were the losses of a couple of decent but hardly spectacular offensive linemen. Plus, I think the depth was in place to restock the starting lineup just fine. Depth along the offensive line now becomes a bit of a concern, but that hardly qualifies as reason to scream that the sky is falling.

The only thing that will cause a big decline on the part of the Rams will be if they are struck down by an avalanche of injuries.

"Now comes another year," Rams pro personnel administrator Jack Faulkner said. "The biggest thing — you’ve got to knock on wood — we didn’t have any major injury (last season) except Trent Green."

The naysayers argue that the Rams were so fortunate last season in the injury department that the odds have to catch up with them. It doesn’t necessarily work that way. The football gods don’t keep the books on such matters and try to even things up the following season.

The Rams may very well face a truckload of injuries in 2000, but the fact is that they are no more or less likely to be struck down by bad luck than the Buccaneers, Redskins or any other team.

Plus, the Rams are in exceptionally good position to deal with injuries. If QB Kurt Warner gets hurt, Green can take his place. If WR Isaac Bruce gets hurt, Torry Holt is capable of producing like a star. The defense has quality performers all over the place.

The offensive line is a bit thin in the depth department, and star OT Orlando Pace would be extremely difficult to replace, but Warner gets rid of the ball so fast and has such great timing that I think the passing game would more than survive.

RB Marshall Faulk probably could not be replaced for an extended period of time, but first-round draft choice Trung Canidate could stop the bleeding for a few games if necessary.

The naysayers also say that Warner cannot possibly repeat last season’s outrageous numbers.

Even Faulkner admitted, "I don’t know whether he’s a one-year wonder or what, but it was one hell of a year."

The prediction here is that Warner is not a flash in the pan. The talent around him is too good, and even though he doesn’t have the strongest arm in the world, he is so accurate, so in sync with his receivers, so cool under pressure and so level-headed that I fully expect him to torture opposing secondaries again. So too does Faulkner.

When asked how many TD passes he thinks Warner will throw for during the 2000 season, Faulkner said, "He’ll probably be around 35, 40, somewhere in that area."

That’s a pretty good area. I wish I lived in that area, although I doubt I could afford the taxes.

The naysayers say that now that the Rams have won a Super Bowl, all the distractions will take their toll. That is certainly a possibility. Many a Super Bowl winner has lost its focus. That said, this team seems to have tremendous chemistry.

"The biggest thing that I see is they all like each other," Faulkner said. "There’s no bickering or none of that nonsense, which is really good."

The naysayers will say that, of course, a Rams executive would say that. I don’t think this is spin-doctoring, however. I sensed the positive chemistry all of last season about the Rams, and I think they will handle success well.

To my way of thinking, the key for the Rams is to stick with what worked so well last season. Speed and aggressiveness.

I think they showed that they realized this on Draft Day. Even though depth for the offensive line seemed to be a much greater need, the Rams spent their first-round pick on Canidate in an effort to add even more speed to the field, if that is possible. Look for that aggressiveness to continue in their play-calling in 2000.

"If we continue that same mentality of attack, attack, attack, (opponents) have got a problem," Faulkner said. "Because if we’ve got three receivers in there and you’ve got Marshall coming out of the backfield … (opponents) have got a real problem because you motion one guy and then Marshall’s sitting back there, who’s covering what? Boy, they’ve got a problem."

No one around the NFL dealt with the problems the Rams posed last season. Don’t rule out the possibility that another season will pass without a cure being found.

The Buccaneers and Redskins will be serious contenders to the heavyweight title. If they want to take the NFC championship belt, though, they’ll have to knock out the Rams.

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