The Official St. Louis Rams 2009 Season Discussion Thread

[KCJ58]

Pre-Season: 3-1

@ NY Jets (W: 23-20)
Atlanta (L: 20-13)
@ Cincinnati (W: 24-21)
Kansas City (W: 17-9)

Regular Season Schedule: 1-9

Week 1: @ Seattle (L: 28-0)
Week 2: @ Washington (L: 9-7)
Week 3: Green Bay (L: 36-17)
Week 4: @ San Francisco (L: 35-0)
Week 5: Minnesota (L: 38-10)
Week 6: @ Jacksonville (L: 23-20 OT)
Week 7: Indianapolis (L: 42-6)
Week 8: @ Detroit (W: 17-10)
Week 9: Bye
Week 10: New Orleans (L: 28-23)
Week 11: Arizona (L: 21-13)
Week 12: Seattle
Week 13: @ Chicago
Week 14: @ Tennessee
Week 15: Houston
Week 16: @ Arizona
Week 17: San Francisco

[holt_bruce81]

Can't wait for the game! I hate 3:00 games, I would rather they play at Noon. I think they'll fight and be a lot more competitive than they were the past few seasons.

Win or Lose tomorrow I don't really care, I just want to see progress and signs that the team is turning it around.

[KCJ58]

turnovers is the key to our season, 2 already in the 1st quarter

[KCJ58]

wow our offense looked bad, nothing postive about his game that I can say, hopefully we can pull it together and get a win like last year in Washington

[nfrillman]

wow our offense looked bad, nothing postive about his game that I can say, hopefully we can pull it together and get a win like last year in Washington

Hey, Donnie Jones is set up for back to back team MVPs. They are only going to win 2-4 games. I just hope they can be more competitive.

[NGSeiler]

Hopefully NG can sticky this

Consider it done!

[holt_bruce81]

There were a lot of positives........

1. This team fought for 60 minutes, never gave up. Might not think that's a big deal, but the past few years the Rams have had no fight in them, especially when things go bad.

2. 3 turnovers by the Defense

3. Bulger and The Offensive Line played well, just some dumb penalties that absolutely killed drives.

4. The Secondary looked solid, Jonathan Wade gave up a few big plays but you can tell he is soo much better than Tye Hill

5. Donnie Jones is a beast.

[yodabear]

It is kinda hard to tell by looking at gamecast on NFL.com, and looking at stats and highlights and tell like I have to do to find some positives. But I have heard some positives from people who watched. The way it sounded to me is that we got to quit the dumbass pentalies. Incognito, 4 false starts, and the 12 men on the field (kinda hate the fact they can review that). But hey, we went to Washington last year and beat them, so there is some hope from me. My goal for this team is 5 wins, but it is looking like another 2-14 season.

[NGSeiler]

Yes, there were some positives to take away from today. And I have faith that Spagnuolo and company are moving in the right direction. Still, it was disappointing to see Spagnuolo's Rams seemingly so undisciplined. I hope that's something we can get corrected as the season progresses.

This will be a work in progress, not a quick fix. The Rams fought hard yesterday, but just aren't quite good enough to overcome the number of negative plays they also had. I think they'll continue to get better.

[rockio42]

My points of the game...

1) The first 1 1/2 quarters and the last quarter the defense played great., seeing turnovers was beautiful...I won't talk about the other quarter and a half...

2) So far the draft this year finally looks great, Laurinitis and Smith looked damn good, I didn't catch Fletcher or Scott (anyone see them)

3) If Jackson doesn't hit the holes like he did in 2006, he had finally learned not to dance in the backfield and now that what he did...he didn't have a bad game though, but it was just juke-juke and then 4 yards...

I also thought the officiating was terrible and extremely one-sided...there were some ridiculous calls against us and some that they refused to call against Seattle (that o-line was clipping way too much). That pissed me off...

[holt_bruce81]

Rockio.....I don't think Scott or Fletcher played. I don't know, the only Corners I saw in the game were Bartell, Wade and King. And I didn't see Scott but who knows not like the D-Line made any plays anyways!

[GB12]

Holy crap this forum is pretty dead.

Anyway, you guys picked up Ruvell Martin.

[NGSeiler]

Holy crap this forum is pretty dead.

Anyway, you guys picked up Ruvell Martin.

Care to offer some thoughts about him seeing as how he's a former Packer?

[GB12]

Care to offer some thoughts about him seeing as how he's a former Packer?

Well he was our 5th WR last season and was cut this year in favor of Brett Swain. However he is a lot better than you would think from that. He has had a career path that's very unusual. He has progressed and improved each year, but has also seen a decline in playing time each year. He had a nice rookie year where he worked his way up the depth chart to the #3 WR and even made a couple starts. Then we drafted James Jones and he was pushed back to 4th. He played better than his rookie year and caught 4 TDs, but both his catches and yards decreased. After 2007 we took Jordy Nelson and Martin slipped to 5th on the depth chart. He only saw time in our Big 5 set and specialty package due to how many good receivers we had in front of him. Then this season it was really a shock that he got cut. He was clearly the better receiver than Swain, but I guess the coaches wanted to keep Swain for his special teams and wanted to get Finley involved in the Big 5.

He is a big receiver at 6'4" 220lbs, and can be the endzone threat that his size would lead you to believe. Of his 6 career TDs 4 of them were inside the redzone, and he has also caught a two point conversion. He can also get it done outside of the redzone though. He does have a career average of 14.4.

Ruvell Martin will be at least your #3 as soon as he learns the St. Louis offense and should be a starter before the year ends. He is easily better than every receiver on the Rams besides Donnie Avery.

Besides football, he is also a great person. I think what the coaches and players said about him after he was cut explains a lot.

Jennings was fairly bummed that his good friend, training camp roommate and spades partner Ruvell Martin was among those cut. "Man, this was a tough one I think for all of us," Jennings said. "He's just a great guy. Great family-oriented guy, he stands for all the right things. You want a guy like that to stick around and you understand that it's a business and unfortunately for him he's not with us. He has an opportunity to not be as deep on the depth chart somewhere else. So hopefully he gets an opportunity to showcase his talents."

"The Ruvell Martin decision, personally it tears you up because of the type of person that Ruvell is and what he has meant to us as a team and as a teammate. He's been a productive player. I told Ruvell that if we were to have a billboard and wanted to put a picture of someone that exemplifies a Green Bay Packer, we would put his picture up."

Interesting note on Brett Swain, courtesy of Lori Nickel. Swain was the first person Martin called after finding out he was cut. "Saturday was actually really nerve-wracking. You never know what is going to happen. I didn’t get a call until about 1:30. This is how good of a man Ruvell Martin is – he called me at about 1:30 in the afternoon and he said that he wanted to give me an early congratulations. It touched my heart and that’s one thing I will learn from him. He’s taught me since I’ve been here, be a good person and have good character. I love Ruvell for that."

He was also very involved in the community and participated in all the charity events ran by the Packers or his teammates. He's someone you want to root for and I really hope he does well in St. Louis. It sucks to see him go, but it'll be cool for him to get a real chance and get to play rather than be the 5th WR in Green Bay.

I know I'm talking him up quite a bit, and that's not normal to do for someone who was cut, but he really is a good guy and good player. I'm suprised we couldn't trade him for a pick rather than cutting him. There are a number of teams that he could be the #3 WR on.

[KCJ58]

Well he was our 5th WR last season and was cut this year in favor of Brett Swain. However he is a lot better than you would think from that. He has had a career path that's very unusual. He has progressed and improved each year, but has also seen a decline in playing time each year. He had a nice rookie year where he worked his way up the depth chart to the #3 WR and even made a couple starts. Then we drafted James Jones and he was pushed back to 4th. He played better than his rookie year and caught 4 TDs, but both his catches and yards decreased. After 2007 we took Jordy Nelson and Martin slipped to 5th on the depth chart. He only saw time in our Big 5 set and specialty package due to how many good receivers we had in front of him. Then this season it was really a shock that he got cut. He was clearly the better receiver than Swain, but I guess the coaches wanted to keep Swain for his special teams and wanted to get Finley involved in the Big 5.

He is a big receiver at 6'4" 220lbs, and can be the endzone threat that his size would lead you to believe. Of his 6 career TDs 4 of them were inside the redzone, and he has also caught a two point conversion. He can also get it done outside of the redzone though. He does have a career average of 14.4.

Ruvell Martin will be at least your #3 as soon as he learns the St. Louis offense and should be a starter before the year ends. He is easily better than every receiver on the Rams besides Donnie Avery.

Besides football, he is also a great person. I think what the coaches and players said about him after he was cut explains a lot.


He was also very involved in the community and participated in all the charity events ran by the Packers or his teammates. He's someone you want to root for and I really hope he does well in St. Louis. It sucks to see him go, but it'll be cool for him to get a real chance and get to play rather than be the 5th WR in Green Bay.

I know I'm talking him up quite a bit, and that's not normal to do for someone who was cut, but he really is a good guy and good player. I'm suprised we couldn't trade him for a pick rather than cutting him. There are a number of teams that he could be the #3 WR on.

after reading this (great post btw) I'm excited to see this guy get on the field, I do remember him in Green Bay I was very impressed by him in the games I saw him on in his Rookie Year, i was wondering what had happen to him, I'm no really glad we picked this guy up