St. Louis Rams Sign Center Hank Fraley

The St. Louis Rams continued with their "so what" free agent signings, by adding 32 year old center Hank Fraley to their roster. Fraley was the back up center in 2009 for the Cleveland Browns, starting only four games. Fraley has been very durable for an interior lineman starting 123 games of the 135 that he has played in over his 10 year career. Steve Spagnuolo again has ties to this free agent pickup. Coach Spagnuolo was with the Philadelphia Eagles while Fraley was playing in Philadelphia. First we had the FOSL's with Scott Linehan, then ex-Saints players coming to town for Jim Haslett and now Spagnuolo continues to focus on Eagles and Giants retreads. Sure their may be an advantage to knowing these players or having a relationship with them but are they the top players to help the St. Louis Rams in 2010?

Steve Spagnuolo You Are The Head Coach

Unlike Scott Linehan or Jim Haslett I would like to let Steve Spagnuolo know that we already know he is the head coach of the St. Louis Rams. This seems obvious so why am I telling you? Because during the last 3 years we have watched the St. Louis Rams win only 6 of their last 44 games! Scott Linehan and Jim Haslett just wanted to keep their job so they were trying to play perfect and pick up some wins instead of trying to build a team and prepare the young players. Well Scott you were just made head coach at the start of the 2009 season. You are not going to get fired, you can try some things, coach up some of these players, take a risk once in a while. I feel compelled to tell you this because watching the St. Louis Rams is like watching paint dry. After their 17-9 loss to the Chicago Bears today the Rams have a nice four game losing streak going again. The Chicago Bears are playing awful football right now and with Jay Cutler at the helm they may soon break down and cry. This is a team the Rams could beat.

The Rams were in Bears territory 9 times today, and only managed to score 9 points. This may be the reason the Rams are dead last in the NFL in points scored. The Rams and Spagnuolo seem to have a goal to get to the other teams 35 yard line so they can set up as many 50 yard field goals as possible. The Rams had a total of only 233 yards today and were 2 for 14 on 3rd down conversions. One reason they may not convert on 3rd down may be the lack of trying. The Rams ran a draw on 3rd and 11 today, and many other times would throw the ball well short of the first down marker. Why, why can we not attempt to convert a first down, or score a TD in the Red Zone. This team is 1-11 and we want to play it as safe as possible. Steve, you are not trying to save your job, you are suppose to be coaching these players up and helping them win games. I have put way to much time, effort and money into the Rams to get excited about you telling me they had a good week of practice or that they are trying hard. Tell Pat Shurmur to turn the page everyone knows Steven Jackson will run up the middle on every first down. The other teams secondary know they never have to cover a deep ball and can play tight and break on every ball because nobody is going to make a double move and run past them.

Although the effort may be slightly better since you have arrived, the roster is worse, and the results are no better. It is time for the excuses to end and the wins to pick up. Just because your team is less talented than most or possibly all does not give you a free pass to lose every game. Sometimes the smaller less talented team can win, maybe we could actually have a game plan and outcoach the other team. Another top 5 draft pick is not going to cure all that ails these St. Louis Rams and neither is a 3rd and 11 draw play. Think about it.

NFL.com Has Rams As Laughing Stock Already

The St. Louis Rams are in the Sunday funnies section of the Good, Bad & Ugly section of NFL.com today. The Rams are going to have to battle for their own respect before the season spirals out of control.

Michael Lombardi of the NFL Network has this to say of the Rams:

"It would be easy each week to make fun of the St Louis Rams, who in my mind are
one of the least talented teams in the NFL. But they are trying to improve with
new coach Steve Spagnuolo, so let's give them a little time."

Steve Spagnuolo gets Shit on 28-0

Steve Spagnuolo now knows what he was getting into or on him by taking the St. Louis Rams coaching job. The Rams were once again shit on by a divisional foe, this time 28-0 by the Seattle Seahawks who were 4-12 last year. It only took one play for the Rams to make a mistake on Sunday. On the opening kickoff Donnie Avery ran up the middle and immediately fumbled once contact was made and Seattle's Herring recovered. My first question of many today would be why was Avery back there? Avery returned one kick all of 2008 and that was due to an injury. Stanley and Gado were back there through the preseason so why Avery today, why your starting wideout on a team with no depth at wideout? Well that turned out to be the least of our problems today. The Rams shot themselves in the foot all day long. The Rams had a penalty on every offensive possession during the 1st quarter.

In the first 11 minutes and 49 seconds of the game the Rams defense was flying to the ball like in the preseason and managed to force two interceptions and a fumble recovery. The early interception by James Butler kept the Seahawks off the board early and gave the Rams hope. James Laurinaitis recovered a fumble on the Seattle 38 to set the Rams up in scoring position midway through the 1st quarter. After a bad penalty and a bad snap the Rams were only able to move the ball 3 total yards to the Seahawks 35 yard line. I thought the Rams would go for the long FG and try to take the lead but instead they pinned the Seahawks deep. The next drive O.J. Atogwe intercepted Hasselbeck and that was about it for the defense. They gave the offense 3 opportunities but were unable to cash in with any points.

After that the comedy or errors just got worse from that point on for the Rams. John Carlson caught a TD pass from Matt Hasselbeck to complete a 73 yard drive and put the Seahawks up 7-0. Then came the play of the game. With Seattle driving late before halftime the Rams forced a 4th and 5 and Seattle went for a field goal. With 1:05 left in the half C.J. Ah You broke in and blocked the kick, which was recovered and returned for a touchdown by Quincy Butler. The Rams had tied the score! We were going to be in a 30 minute battle to win a game. But wait, they seem to be reviewing the play which came inside the last two minutes of the half. What could they be reviewing? Turns out the Rams had 12 men on the field and the TD would not count. To make matters worse it was 4th and 5, and the 5 yard penalty gave the Seahawks a first down. Well you know what happened after that, Matt Hasselbeck completed the 72 yard drive with a 12 yard TD pass to Nate Burleson. Within 53 seconds we went from being tied 7-7, to being down 14-0 at the half.

The Rams seemed discourage starting the second half as they were manhandled in the 3rd quarter. Seattle tacked on 2 more touchdowns and almost 200 yards of offense in the 3rd quarter alone to put the game out of reach at 28-0. The Rams only managed 41 yards and 3 more Donnie Jones punts in the quarter. The rams had 93 yards of total offense through 3 quarters, and almost as many penalty yards. The Rams wasted timeouts, had false start penalties, and two 15 yard personal foul calls on our friend Richie Incognito. Steven Jackson had 3 carried for 8 yards in the 3rd and was basically a non-factor on the day.

The numbers do not lie the Rams are just a bad football team. The Rams have lost 11 straight regular season games. You have to go back to October 19th 2008 for the Rams last victory, a 34-14 win over the Dallas Cowboys. The Rams have lost 11 straight division games. The Rams have lost 9 straight games to the Seattle Seahawks. The Rams have only 5 wins in their last 33 games. The Rams have cut a lot of dead weight off the roster but they still need to add some stars and talent.

There were not many bright spots for the Rams. They played hard to the end and Donnie Jones was great other than that the same issues were still there. The new offensive line only allowed 3 sacks, but they had their normal false starts and the run blocking was nothing to write home about. The offense was plain vanilla and was unable to get anything started or provide the defense with many breaks. The defense started off fast but faded. They once again allowed a lot of rushing yards (167) and one big run. The secondary played well but at times players were wide open. Hasselbeck was able to throw for 179 yards, 3 TDs, and a QB rating of 96.9.

The Rams will now travel to Washington to take on the 0-1 Redskins who lost 23-17 to the New York Giants today. Hang in there coach Spagnuolo, we believe in you but it will take some time. For now wipe off your shoulder and put those boys to work.

St. Louis Rams Release Draft, Add Culberson

In a surprise move, 72 hours prior to the St. Louis Rams opener against the Seattle Seahawks, the Rams released LB Chris Draft. Apparently the Rams asked Draft to take a pay cut and he declined. The Rams then released Draft which will save $380,000. However Draft was going to start on Sunday so now what? With Larry Grant injured, who I believe should be the starting outside linebacker, David Vabora (Mr. Irrelevant) will step in. Quinton Culberson who was just cut was added back to the Rams roster. The Rams only have 5 cornerbacks on the roster and 4 wide receivers, so I am also surprised they brought back another linebacker. Culberson a undrafted rookie free agent is far from a star, and not as good as Draft. I believe this move was to once again make the team younger and to save money against the cap. Also remember coach Steve Spagnuolo worked with the Philadelphia Eagles who are great with the cap but are known for cutting players over 30. Is Spagnuolo a chip off of the Andy Reid block?

St. Louis Rams Claim Two Off Waivers

The St. Louis Rams picked up two players off waivers today. the Rams have picked up Safety Anthony Smith and Defensive Tackle Lajuan Ramsey. To make room for those two players the Rams cut/released Quinton Culberson and Nate Jones. Culberson comes as no surprise to me and I predicted Culberson and Roach would be the first to go if we picked up any players. With the release of Nate Jones the Rams are down to four wide receivers on their roster. Expect the Rams to make more moves, they will not head into the fist game at Seattle with only four wide receivers on the roster. Also will We see the release of David Roach?

Lajuan Ramsey (USC) has played 3 years in the NFL, two with the Philadelphia Eagles and last year with the Indianapolis Colts. He has never started a game but has been in 19 overall making 12 tackles. Steve Spagnuolo was in Philly in 2006 so he knows Ramsey.

Anthony Smith is a 6' 200lb Safety out of Syracuse. He played on the Pittsburgh Steelers Super Bowl Championship team. Smith has started 14 games in his 3 years in the NFL. During that time he has made 106 tackles and had four interceptions.

I like how coach Steve Spagnuolo seems to be bringing in winners. Note that the Rams signed Jason Brown (Balt), James Butler (NYG), and Mike Karney (NO) during 2009 free agency period. Now they pick up two more players in Ramsey and Smith with playoff experience.