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Rams Win in Shootout
Sunday, October 1, 2006 Text Size Text Size By Nick Wagoner There was no more fitting occasion for coach Scott Linehan and his offense to break out in a major way than the arrival of the Detroit Lions to the Edward Jones Dome on Sunday. When the Rams needed offense the most, quarterback Marc Bulger and Co. provided it on the way to a thrilling 41-34 victory against the Lions. With the win the Rams improve to 3-1, their best start to a season since they opened the 2001 season 6-0. The Lions fall to 0-4 with the loss. The offense put on the type of display Linehan and the unit had become accustomed to, racking up 423 total yards with contributions from all angles. And nobody was better on Sunday than Bulger. Bulger had his best game of the season, throwing for 328 yards and three touchdowns on 26-of-42 passing. When the Rams needed an important third-down conversion or when he was forced to stand and deliver in the pocket, Bulger found a way to hang in and put the ball on target. “He was pretty darn good,” Linehan said. “He was doing whatever he needed to do. He was checking the ball down on some plays where they played pretty soft coverage. That was a heck of a game by that kid. I was really proud of him.” No throw was more important the game-winning touchdown he tossed to receiver Isaac Bruce with two minutes to play. Down 34-33, the Rams took over at their 44 with 4:42 to play. On second down, Bulger hit running back Steven Jackson for a 22-yard catch and run to Detroit’s 26. Five plays later, the Rams faced a third-and-4 at Detroit’s 5 with two minutes to go. Linehan was faced with a difficult decision of whether to run the ball and the clock and kick a field goal or to throw and go for the touchdown with the risk of stopping the clock with an incompletion or, worse, an interception. Linehan and his staff decided on a sprintout to the right for Bulger that was designed for Bulger to throw should the Lions play man to man coverage or for Bulger to run should the Lions have it covered. Either way, it was a safe play. It worked to perfection as Bulger hit Bruce curling to the right corner of the end zone for a touchdown and a lead. Bulger and Bruce hooked up again on the two-point conversion for a 41-34 lead that would prove to be the final margin. It was a special play for Bulger, Bruce and the whole team, but Bulger wasn’t surprised at the outcome. “He makes those important catches when he has to,” Bulger said. “He’s one of those guys that can be quiet and you won’t hear from him but when the game is on the line or if I tell him to give me a little bit extra, he’s a guy that can step it up and that’s why he’s a Hall of Fame guy.” Even after that score, though, the game was far from over. It took another huge play from another guy with a penchant for big plays to save the day. On Detroit’s ensuing possession, safety Jerome Carter came up with an interception. After kicker Jeff Wilkins missed a 47-yard field goal that would have iced the game, the Lions took over for one last gasp effort at their 37. A 19-yard and a 7-yard completion gave the Lions a third-and-3 at the Rams’ 37 with 16 seconds to play. Detroit quarterback Jon Kitna fired a deep pass intended for receiver Az Hakim. The pass fell incomplete but a flag came in on cornerback Tye Hill for defensive pass interference. After a long discussion, though, the referees ruled, correctly, that linebacker Will Witherspoon had tipped the ball before the contact, making the contact null and void. That’s right, after coming up with the game-winning fumble last week against Arizona and tipping a pass to set up a game-saving interception in the opener against Denver, it was once again Witherspoon to the rescue. “It’s a pretty good break that your linebacker is 35 yards deep and has the athleticism to tip a ball thrown that far down the field,” Linehan said. “He has got his hands on two critical balls in a couple of games here at home that have been very critical at the end of the game.” While Witherspoon provided the biggest play for the defense on a day when the Rams came out plus-three in turnovers, it was the offense that provided most of the fireworks. Bruce and Torry Holt each had a touchdown and went over 100 receiving yards as Bruce posted 100 and Holt adding 102. That duo has been doing what it does for years, so it was no surprise that it posted big numbers again Sunday. Detroit’s best cornerback Dre Bly defended Holt for most of the day, but the Lions were starting backup Jamar Fletcher in place of injured Fernando Bryant and Bruce took full advantage of his matchup. “It’s like pick your poison,” Holt said. “If you want to double me, then he’s going to get it. You double him and I’ll have an opportunity to get open. They had their third best corner on Isaac and Isaac has been terrorizing No. 1 corners for years so we felt like that was a matchup we could exploit and obviously Isaac came up with his ability to make plays and professionalism and dominated that game.” Well, technically Bruce wasn’t the only St. Louis skill position player to have a dominant day. While Bulger, Bruce and Holt did plenty of damage and tight end Joe Klopfenstein came up with his first career touchdown catch, Jackson was busy establishing himself as more than a punishing runner. Jackson had 81 yards on 22 carries with a touchdown on the ground, but that isn’t where he did his most troubling damage. Including his 22-yard catch in the fourth quarter, he finished with 65 receiving yards on six catches for 146 total yards. The emergence of Jackson’s pass catching ability has not only made him a more complete running back, but it has also had a direct effect on the offense’s burgeoning performance. “Yeah, (I’m) a big Marshall Faulk,” Jackson said, laughing. “A lot of teams have focused on stopping our running game since we started so good in the first two games. Coach has found other ways to get me to contribute to the offense and it just so happens it is in the passing game.” The offensive breakout was a welcome sight for a team that has seemed to be building toward an explosion for the past two weeks. Even with a short-handed offensive line that was lacking All Pro left tackle Orlando Pace, Bulger had plenty of time to throw the ball and find open receivers all over the field. The Rams were four of five in the red zone against the Lions after struggling some in the red zone in the first three games,. Meanwhile, Detroit was just three-of-five on its opportunities inside the Rams’ 20 which was enough to equal the difference in the game. Following last week’s win against the Cardinals, Holt said he thought an offensive breakout might be in the offing. Considering the shootout that took place on the field at the Edward Jones Dome on Sunday, the Rams couldn’t have picked a better team to bust loose. “Sometimes you in this type of game it’s going to be who gets the ball last,” Bulger said. “It was nice that our offense could finally step up and help that defense out a little bit. We didn’t do anything crazy this week to get better. We just kept plugging away. Hopefully we can keep it going.”
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