| | | | | | | |  Saturday, September 21, 2002
Statement game for the Rams
By Melissa Stark
Special to ABC Sports Online
The Rams-Bucs rivalry is about as intense as it gets. This is one you get really excited about. These two teams always give us an amazing game. The past three years, this has been a great rivalry.
The Rams say they are not panicking at this point and you don't want to call Week 3 a must-win game. But it has to be a statement game for the Rams. People are already pushing the panic button at 0-2, what are they going to do if they are 0-3?
|  | | Losing London Fletcher to the Bills was a blow to the Rams. |
Torry Holt said this is a team that knows how to be successful and knows how to win. Mike Martz has pointed out that they very easily could have started 0-2 last year. Those two games last year (an overtime win over Philadelphia and a 30-26 win over San Francisco) came down to one or two plays. So he says it's not the time to panic.
Martz is also not the type to go show them a movie or show them the standings or this or that; he is not a rah-rah type of guy. He puts it on the players, and puts it on them to be prepared. He doesn't want to make them tighten up or get stressed out. Holt describes it as Martz making them get prepared.
Holt said the biggest problem is that they are not finishing and not in a rhythm. More concerning is that Holt admitted that they lack enthusiasm at the start of the game. I find that interesting. I asked what is missing?
They lost their vocal leader on and off the field in London Fletcher. They miss that. Torry was honest about that. Grant Wistrom has stepped to a certain degree, but not nearly enough. Ronde Barber of the Bucs can relate to that, pointing out that an emotional player like Fletcher can be huge for a team. Barber said he got fired up in Baltimore last week listening to Ray Lewis blaring his music. He'd love to play with him.
Looking over the Rams' vulnerabilities, Holt said that when teams throw in seven or eight DBs, they have to do a better job establishing the running game. What they really want to do is get Marshall the ball and establish the run.
And everyone insists that Kurt Warner is fine. But clearly looking at film, the Bucs say that he has lost a lot of his zip in the second half of games. The rumors are swirling -- Is his right thumb injured again? The Rams say no, but it will be interesting to see on Monday night because it's clearly bothered him for a while, and they had him wear protection during the preseason.
As a whole, they are not questioning themselves. At this point Holt says the best they can finish is 14-2 and the worst is 13-3. They are very confident. They know what it takes to win, and they know what it takes to be successful. They have made little mistakes on the way. In the past, they were able to overcome those mistakes.
The Bucs still say the Rams are the team to beat, as long as they are the NFC champs. Everyone gets up to play them.
Barber talked about getting up for them in '99, and that they learned everything they needed to know about the Rams. That has carried over the last two years (both Tampa Bay wins). Barber gives a lot of credit to the Broncos and Giants for shutting down the Rams the last two weeks, and look for the Bucs to do similar things this week: a lot of Cover-2 and trying to take out Marshall Faulk.
One problem for Tampa is that it had no offensive touchdowns last week. The Bucs still have the same offensive problems they have always had, but they are very excited about Michael Pittman and his enthusiasm. He runs hard. But they need to get the offensive line clicking.
But this team is happy. They love Jon Gruden. (Barber kids that the defense loves him because they only see him once a week.) He is an intense guy. The biggest difference the players find with him and Tony Dungy is that they felt there was a double-standard with the offense and defense with Dungy. Dungy demanded near-perfection from the defense. Everybody is held accountable now. Gruden demands near-perfection from everyone.
Everyone thought Warren Sapp and Gruden wouldn't get along.
The Bucs say a lot of the stories about Gruden are true, but they say the media plays him up a little bit, too. He does wake up at 3:17 a.m. and go to work. Sapp says you got to love the man because he's at work while you're sleeping, he's at work when you're at work, and when you go home, he's still working.
Talking to his wife, the fact is that it is really hard to slow him down, even when he goes home. When they watch videos at home, he watches it in fast-forward.
Gruden comes in there and takes charge. Whereas Dungy would have found ways to get around obstacles, he likes to break it down.
That's what Sapp and this team love about Gruden.
Melissa Stark is Monday Night Football's sideline reporter and a regular contributor to ABC Sports Online.
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