DENVER -- Rams coach Mike Martz spent the offseason being criticized for not running the ball enough in the Super Bowl loss to the Patriots. Martz opened the 2002 by ignoring the ground and calling one too many offensive plays in a 23-16 loss to the Broncos.

Sunday's criticism was going for a fourth-and-1 at the Broncos 9 near the end of the third quarter. At the time, the Rams had all the momentum. Broncos quarterback Brian Griese had thrown two interceptions, one that set up a short touchdown drive that cut the Broncos lead to 16-13.

Running the ball isn't a Rams specialty. They live and die by the pass. Look at Sunday's stats. They rushed for 32 yards on 13 carries, Marshall Faulk getting 19 yards on 10 carries. Faulk caught 14 passes for 91. When in doubt, pass.

In this instance, Martz showed no doubt in going for this fourth-and-1. The offense stayed on the field. Martz thought he had the right play, and for the most part it was a good call. Fullback Chris Hetherington would have been wide open if he hadn't slipped coming out of the backfield. Whoops. He stumbled over someone's foot, so quarterback Kurt Warner, who was being pressured by the Broncos defensive line, knew he couldn't throw to Hetherington.

Warner looked around and still threw to Hetherington after he ran toward the sidelines, but the pass wasn't completed. Instead of an automatic field goal that would have tied the game, the Rams still trailed, 16-13. They never got over the top to win.

	“	I felt like we needed the points, number one, and this is a play that was one of those 100-percent plays that, all of a sudden, isn't 100 percent anymore. We will be aggressive in our approach. Some may question it, but that's how I'm going to approach it. ”
		— Mike Martz, Rams coach

"I felt like we needed the points, number one, and this is a play that was one of those 100-percent plays that, all of a sudden, isn't 100 percent anymore," Martz said. "We will be aggressive in our approach. Some may question it, but that's how I'm going to approach it."

Once again, the Rams will be questioned. In their past two games (including the Super Bowl), they've scored only 33 points. It can't be overlooked that they played against two good defenses. The Patriots were underrated last year. The Broncos defense may be underrated this year.

But Martz showed that being aggressive can be ill advised if it's actually taking points off the scoreboard. The Rams have scored scored 500 points in three straight seasons. They are a scoring machine, but this is an offense that sometimes is hard to manage when it's behind.

There is a lot of motion in the Rams offense, and it takes time for Warner to call all of his adjustments. Often, he'll have to call time outs. That became costly Sunday because the Rams exhausted all their timeouts by 3:10 of the fourth quarter. Two were gone by the 10:50 mark.

Trailing 23-13 in the fourth quarter, the Rams took 3:43 to run eight plays in what didn't look like a hurry up offense. Martz had to settle for a field goal with 2:12 left in the game, and they never got the ball again.

"In some instances, yes," Martz said in response to a question about the Rams taking too much time in their final possession. "But you've got to remember about three or four of those players were check downs where we were trying to take the ball downfield."

Still, it's hard to criticize an offense that has so much fire power. The Rams didn't play well offensively Sunday, yet Warner completed 32 of 41 passes for 315 yards. All the worries about right tackle John St. Clair being overpowered by Broncos Pro Bowl defensive lineman Trevor Pryce eased after the first possession.

St. Clair struggled against Pryce in the first Rams possession, but he settled down after that and played respectably. Pryce finished the game with three tackles and one sack. A few times, Martz had a tight end or running back help him against Pryce, but after the shaky first series, St. Clair wasn't a negative.

"This game was for those who are used to getting physical," Pryce said. "The Rams play with more finesse, and we had our minds made up that we were going to play very physical. We were able to stay away from blitzing and get a lot of pressure with our front four. I think we only had to blitz a couple of times."

While St. Clair did an acceptable job, the rest of the line had breakdowns. Warner was sacked three times, and he had to throw early several other times. The Broncos took away the deep pass with zone schemes, but Martz preferred not to run the ball, and the few times that they ran, they didn't succeed.

Faulk had a 15-yard carry in the fourth quarter. Six of his 10 attempts went for one yard or less, including three for losses.

"Usually, we're father along on both side of the ball," Martz said. "My biggest disappointment is that we weren't able to run the ball more efficiently."

Faulk didn't mind whether he caught the ball 14 times or ran it 14. He knows he's getting 20-plus touches a game.

"If we don't make it, people wonder what happened," Faulk said of coming up short on fourth down in the third quarter. "It's just the little things you look at. You get rid of the coulda, woulda, shoulda and just win ballgames."

And that's the problem. The Rams have been used to earning the right to have a big margin of error. They score so many points in games that they don't care if they make a few turnovers or mistakes. They love being unconventional, but in low scoring games, the mistakes are glaring.

Special teams blunders killed them Sunday. Grant Wistrom roughed Broncos punter Tom Rouen on a fourth down at the Broncos 4 in the first quarter and let the Broncos come back on the field to go 97 yards in 13 plays for a touchdown. Rookie Lamar Gordon fumbled two kickoffs. Holder Ricky Proehl bobbled a field goal snap that led to a critical miss.

All in all, the Rams are costing themselves points. But the decision to go for the fourth down in the third quarter might have cost them more.

John Clayton is a senior NFL writer for ESPN.com.