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49ers Get Past Rams
Text Size Text Size By Nick Wagoner SAN FRANCISCO – The Rams offense finally broke through and scored a touchdown against the 49ers on Sunday, but there wasn’t enough of a breakthrough for that unit to muster the points necessary to beat their heated rivals. That unit sputtered behind a reshuffled offensive line and some missed opportunities and the defense and special teams allowed big plays as the 49ers pulled off a 20-13 win at Monster Park on Sunday. The loss dropped the Rams to 1-1 and erased the momentum built in last week’s season-opening win against Denver. San Francisco improved to 1-1 with the victory. In last week’s victory, the Rams were able to overcome any offensive shortcomings with a tremendous defensive performance that included five takeaways, helping set the stage for Jeff Wilkins’ six field goals. Despite that victory, many clamored for a major improvement in an offense that once was one of the league’s most dangerous. But, as the Rams continue to try to grow and learn coach Scott Linehan’s system, the frustration seems to be mounting. “I told you last week that you can’t have it all at the same time, Linehan said. “We are running the ball pretty effectively at times. I would be more concerned if we were standing here after turning the ball over 10 times in the first two or three weeks and doing something crazy like that. So we are starting there, we just have to work on timing and get it down. It’s not the 16th game of the season, it’s game two and I have always believed it’s not how you start but how you finish.” The Rams didn’t finish the second half of Sunday’s game with much of a flourish at all. After a promising second quarter, St. Louis struggled mightily in the third quarter after losing left tackle Orlando Pace to a concussion and linebacker Pisa Tinoisamoa to a dislocated elbow. San Francisco’s big blow came on a 72-yard touchdown strike from quarterback Alex Smith to receiver Antonio Bryant. The Rams defense which had allowed some big plays earlier, including running back Frank Gore’s 32-yard touchdown run, had been pretty solid once again but this time a breakdown in their Cover 2 package made the difference. With the score tied at 10, Smith dropped back to pass with rookie cornerback Tye Hill isolated one on one with Bryant. Hill’s job was to reroute Bryant and turn the coverage over to free safety Oshiomogho Atogwe who would be there to help vertically. Instead, Hill was unable to get the push on Bryant and when he released him into the secondary, Bryant was wide open over the top. He caught the pass in stride and raced in for a touchdown and a 17-10 lead that would prove to be the winning touchdown. While the offense struggled to find a rhythm again, the defense was unable to bail them out this time. In addition to some big plays in the passing game, Gore was able to rumble for 127 yards on 29 carries as the Rams’ run defense continues to search for consistency. “It’s different week in and week out,” linebacker Will Witherspoon said. “You can’t put what happened last week in to the same game plan; you can’t replace that with the same deal. It’s a new team, a new offense and a new game plan week in and week out. After everything that happened last week everyone was excited and happy and after everything that happened today you are down. Today we were left saying ‘What can we go back and do? What can we go back and make better?”’ One way to help the defense is to keep it off the field with an offense that can score points on a consistent basis. After the first unit failed to score a touchdown in 11 preseason opportunities and then again last week, including four red zone chances, St. Louis finally put the ball in the end zone in the second quarter Sunday. The offense got its first taste of paydirt on the same play the offense ran against Denver last week when quarterback Marc Bulger missed Torry Holt in the back of the end zone. This time, Holt streaked across from the left side, settled into the zone and Bulger threaded the needle for a 3-yard touchdown. It was the final cap of a dominating second quarter in which the Rams controlled the ball and the clock for almost 13 minutes. Holt said he learned last week to settle into the zone instead of continuing to run and that made the difference this time. “We are just looking at it as a score we needed to have to move forward in the game,” Holt said. “Hopefully you get that opportunity again in the red zone and I guess you could say you hope it will snowball and we will have the opportunity to score again. We just have to continue to will ourselves and really dig down deep and punch the ball in the end zone.” Many Rams believed that touchdown would indeed lead to an avalanche of points, but that didn’t come to fruition against San Francisco as the Rams struggled in the second half without the services of Pace. Linehan plugged Todd Steussie in Pace’s place with Adam Goldberg coming in at left guard. That didn’t work too well as the 49ers racked up six sacks on the day and caused Bulger to fumble late, helping to ruin a potential game-winning drive. “I really feel like we are moving the ball at times and we scored a touchdown and it got the monkey off our backs a little bit, but we were confident in moving the ball,” guard Adam Timmerman said. “I thought in the second half was when we were not doing our job.” With the offensive line patched together, the Rams struggled mightily in the third quarter, but Linehan and his team were not about to use that as an excuse. San Francisco was without starting left tackle Jonas Jennings and left guard Larry Allen, but the 49ers offensive line allowed no sacks and was able to help the 49ers find the end zone twice. “No excuses,” Linehan said. “They had injuries too on their line, so we weren’t able to come out in the second half and perform like we need to perform on the road.” The St. Louis offense posted just 265 yards of offense with running back Steven Jackson carrying the load by posting 103 yards on 22 carries. Sunday’s loss marked the first Rams’ loss in 40 games when they had a 100-yard rusher. Bulger finished 19-of-34 for 185 yards and a touchdown, but missed on several deep ball opportunities. Bulger and Holt seemed to be out of synch early and missed on a pair of deep balls, including one that would have been a sure touchdown had Holt caught it. And while frustration mounts for Rams fans, Bulger says it is going to be a long and arduous process to get where Linehan wants the offense to be. “We are learning this new system,” Bulger said. “It’s one thing to know it on paper, but it’s going to take time and reps. You have to grow a little bit. It’s painful, but that’s just reality.” Now, the Rams have to regroup for another west coast road trip as they travel to Arizona next week. It remains to be seen whether the offense will pick up steam from Sunday’s performance, but they know it’s not going to happen overnight. “I’m sure as you evaluate from where we start to the end of the year, you will see a progression and improvement,” Linehan said. “It’s not easy to make a change whether it’s an offense or a terminology or all of that. He's (Bulger) not making excuses. He is managing the game and he will get better and he will make more throws and our guys will make more plays for him. I just think offensively we have to hang in there and stick together and we’ll improve.”
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