Steve Spagnuolo is going through a rough season in his first as an NFL head coach. He had the unenviable task of taking over a roster which was left in disarray by the previous administration. No real effort had been done to bridge the gap from The Greatest Show on Turf to the next wave of players, with the notable exception of drafting studly running back Steven Jackson before Marshall Faulk was retired.
The results to this point have hardly been surprising. Poor Spags and his troops endured seven losses, including several blowouts, before finally earning their first victory this past Sunday against the Lions. While he's cherishing this first win, Spagnuolo realizes it's the first step of many.
Despite making a good amount of money to coach in the National Football League, Steve Spagnuolo has an unenviable task this year: coaching the St. Louis Rams. The Rams won just two games a year ago, and the roster was in a state of transition -- and in disrepair, really -- when he took over as the new head honcho.
If not for the ineptitude of the Lions, the 2008 Rams would have easily been the worst team in football. Only two teams scored less points and only one team (Lions, of course) allowed more. Some of the most talented players were aging and they dismissed two former stars (Orlando Pace and Torry Holt) as part of the rebuilding process after the disastrous campaign. Spagnuolo, though, is tired of hearing about and having to talk about 2008.
Training camps have wrapped up, the NFL season is right around the corner, and it's still hot as sin outside. But instead of cooling you off with a warm island song, FanHouse break out ye old heat check for our 2009 NFL Season Previews. We'll rate each club in 5 categories on a scale of 1 to 10, high score wins.
The Rams enter the 2009 season in full-on rebuilding mode. Another bad season wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing for the future of the franchise as a whole, as they need to continue to grow their young players. The remnants of the strong Rams rosters from earlier this decade are either gone or aging quickly. New head coach Steve Spagnuolo will look to mold the next generation his way, starting immediately.
Heading into the offseason, the Rams had a laundry list of needs. One of them was to find a strong safety to start in front of the hard-working, yet untalented Todd Johnson. Monday, the Rams likely satisfied that goal by acquiring James Butler.
Butler is a 26 year-old, four-year veteran who had played his entire career with the New York Giants. It's entirely plausible that his previous relationship with Steve Spagnuolo -- former Giants' defensive coordinator and new head coach in St. Louis -- had something to do with this signing.
Because the NFL season never ends, we present our 2009 Offseason Roadmaps for front offices to navigate through the summer.
The 2008 season was an unmitigated disaster for the Rams. They had their star running back hold out, only to be re-signed and get injured -- an injury which lingered far too long. They fired their coach after four embarrassing games, won two straight under his replacement, but then dropped their final 10.
It was hard to find a strength on this team. The offense ranked 27th in the league, while the defense was 28th. Then again, Donnie Jones was one of the best punters in the league. So there's that.
That seems ridiculous now, but every year there are teams that we think require multi-year rebuilding efforts, and each year at least one of those teams shocks us all. The Rams have a lot of holes, but they've also got some valuable pieces a smart coach and front office can build around quickly.
Rumor has it that the team thought that Jason Garrett was the best coach to do this, that Steve Spagnuolo was only the top option who fit into their budget, but it doesn't matter whether or not they lucked into the right hire. They made it. While Garrett may succeed with another team, the Rams need to win right away, and Spagnuolo is better equipped to make a bigger immediate impact with the Rams' roster.
NFL Offseason Roadmap is a series focused on the needs of NFL teams as they begin the offseason. 1. Offensive Tackle. The Rams have been lucky to have an incredible franchise left tackle for the last 11 seasons, and his play did as much for The Greatest Show on Turf as anyone else. But Orlando Pace has been ludicrously brittle the last two years and, at 32, can't really be depended on anymore. The drop-off in production without Pace has been glaring. On the other side, Alex Barron has been disappointing as a first-round pick; there's so much yellow cloth at Barron's feet on gameday that you'd think he stuffed his jersey with Terrible Towels. In the last four years, Barron ranks behind just Robert Gallery in penalties. On top of the starters, after all of the injuries the Rams endured on the line last year, depth should be considered critical. The easy and obvious answer is Jake Long, who should be available when the Rams pick second. Long can play both sides, which certainly helps, and he can immediately take over for Pace should something happen. If the team needs further depth, Kwame Harris or Damien Woody could be affordable options, and Woody triples as a possible guard and center.
You'll have to forgive me if I was a little bit surprised to see Gus Frerotte littering completions all over the field in a first half against the Falcons that included three touchdowns. This was the guy, after all, who couldn't transfer the ball about a yard from the center to the running back last week. But there he was today against the Falcons, all Steve Young and ish.
That lasted solely through the first half, however, as the real Frerotte showed up in the second. As Chris Redman was giving the Falcons new life operating under center, Frerotte was sucking the life from the Rams. He sandwiched two Redman touchdown drives with interceptions, allowing the Falcons to score 16 unanswered points.
You hear coachisms like "We made just enough plays to win the game" often, but the real story when you're talking about a Rams/49ers game is who can make enough plays not to lose the game. In this case, it was the Rams doing just enough to not sabotage their chance at victory.
A look at the box score, the discrepancy in stats, and you wonder why St. Louis didn't win this one more decisively. The team that seemed to have woken up last week against the Saints did a good job moving the ball, but untimely sacks set back a number of potential scoring drives. The 49ers got to Marc Bulger six times, losing 50 yards of offense in the process.
The 49ers also did a good job of forcing the Rams to dink-and-dunk their way down the field, holding Bulger to just 4.8 yards per attempt (with no pass longer than 17 yards) and the team to just 3.5 yards per carry. Offenses can still score effectively playing this style of ball (also known as the West Coast Offense, maybe you've heard of it), but you need to convert third downs at a high rate for that to be successful. The Rams' 6-of-18 third-down success just doesn't cut it.
Every week, NFL FanHouse hits the lowlights from Sunday's action, looking at those players who did the most to move their head coaches that much closer to returning to the Bed and Breakfast business.
Joe Gibbs, Redskins Gibbs comes across as a swell guy, a grandfatherly type who says things like "dadgummit" or "horse feathers" when he's angry, and always carries Werther's in his pocket for wide-eyed young fans. It all seems very Rockwellian. Except that reality for the Washington Redskins is nothing like the cover of the Saturday Evening Post.
Gibbs, who came out of retirement in 2004 for a second run with the Redskins, has looked out of sorts and overmatched for most of the last four years. And Sunday's game against the Eagles was a microcosm of that. The Hall of Famer and three-time Super Bowl winner now spends his weekends watching the his players -- in horror, no doubt -- repeat mistakes they were making in preseason. In yesterday's 33-25 loss to Philadelphia, the 'Skins committed 11 penalties for 74 yards, and on four occasions, penalties resulted in Eagles' first downs. Sorry, No Photos
Steve Spagnuolo is going through a rough season in his first as an NFL head coach. He had the unenviable task of taking over a roster which was left in disarray by the previous administration. No real effort had been done to bridge the gap from The Greatest Show on Turf to the next wave of players, with the notable exception of drafting studly running back Steven Jackson before Marshall Faulk was retired. 
Despite making a good amount of money to coach in the National Football League, 
Training camps have wrapped up, the 
Heading into the offseason, the Rams had a laundry list of needs. One of them was to find a strong safety to start in front of the hard-working, yet untalented 
Because the NFL season never ends, we present our 
The Rams can be a playoff team next year.
NFL Offseason Roadmap
You'll have to forgive me if I was a little bit surprised to see 
You hear coachisms like "We made just enough plays to win the game" often, but the real story when you're talking about a Rams/49ers game is who can make enough plays not to lose the game. In this case, it was the Rams doing just enough to not sabotage their chance at victory.
