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Call it silence of the Rams
(Monday, February 4, 2002) -- Adam Vinatieri's final-play field-goal attempt was one yard longer than Scott Norwood's 11 years ago. Norwood's kick sailed wide right. Vinatieri's went right down the middle. Vinatieri's 48-yard field goal to give the 14-point underdog New England Patriots a 20-17 victory over St. Louis will be remembered as one of the great clutch kicks in NFL history, but it was a total team effort. Give Bill Belichick credit for one of the great coaching jobs in history. What a joke that he isn't the NFL Coach of the Year. Chicago's Dick Jauron got that honor because the postseason didn't count in the balloting. Why shouldn't it? Belichick outfoxed St. Louis head coach and offensive guru Mike Martz with a flood of defensive backs. For the first three quarters, the only thing uglier than the St. Louis offense was a giant rat in the anti-smoking ad. He also picked out the veteran free agents who improved the team on the field and in the locker room. He stuck with second-year quarterback Tom Brady after veteran Drew Bledsoe was healthy again and ready to play and Brady wound up MVP of Sunday's game. He didn't let the distraction of a troubled star receiver undermine the team. And the way Belichick had his players introduced as a team before Sunday's game was a classy touch and a sharp contrast to Super Bowl XXXV's introductions of the Baltimore Ravens, starring look-at-me linebacker Ray Lewis who at least backed up his showboating with an MVP performance. How good were these Patriots? Good enough to win a Super Bowl and to be remembered as one of the great teams in terms of teamwork and a positive attitude. I believe the Rams would give any of them all they could handle, but they'll have to win at least one more Super Bowl to belong in their company. I rate St. Louis' Kurt Warner and Marshall Faulk among the all-time best QB-RB combinations, but Warner learned the hard way that it is a good idea to win a second Super Bowl before you talk about becoming the first QB to win five Super Bowls. If Warner is going to win even one more Super Bowl, he'll need a lot of help from Jay Zygmunt. He's the team's capologist (technically president of football operations) and he has the difficult job of keeping the team reasonably intact under the salary cap. The three main soon-to-be free agents are pass-rushing DE Leonard Little, MLB London Fletcher and WR Az-Zahir Hakim. Retaining Little is the top priority. The Rams will be the team to beat in the NFC, but they'll be playing in a tough division with San Francisco, Seattle and up-and-coming Arizona. If Philadelphia, Chicago or any other team that plays home games outdoors can earn the home-field advantage in next season's NFC playoffs, St. Louis could be vulnerable. New England will face tough challenges from Miami and the New York Jets in the AFC East next season and Brady will have to prove he is more than a one-year wonder. Before Brady pulled the victory out, my favorites for MVP were: New England's secondary as a unit. As many as seven played at a time and they all performed well. It took the Rams more than three quarters to get their passing game in gear. Antowain Smith. He had 18 carries for 92 yards and gave his team the running game it needed to keep the Rams from dominating time of possession. He has been with St. Louis and worked for three different head coaches. That suggests that he is easy to get along with. Systems can help make a team great, but the players in the system are vastly more significant. If Warner and Faulk weren't Rams, would Ramsdell be coveted by the Bills? If Ramsdell tried to run St. Louis' offensive schemes in Buffalo, he probably wouldn't be nearly as successful because of the significant talent gap between the offensive skill players on the Rams and Bills. One reason Ramsdell and other candidates might be wary of becoming offensive coordinator of the Bills: head coach Gregg Williams could be facing a make-or-break season and if he were to be fired, his staff would go down with him. Being an assistant coach for a good team is better than being an unemployed one-year offensive coordinator for a poor team. |
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