Monday, January 03, 2005
DISPATCHED, MONDAY EDITION
This week, I'll be posting links from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and national sports sites related to Saturday's St. Louis Rams-Seattle Seahawks game.
If the Seahawks beat the Rams on Saturday, then I'll do the same thing next week, posting columns/articles from either the Philadelphia or Atlanta papers, as well as the national sites.
In the meantime, here's what the St. Louis media has on this Monday on the Rams' 32-29 overtime victory over the New York Jets:
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
MONDAY, JANUARY 3
Jim Thomas: 8-8, Ain't It Great?
Jeff Wilkins' eighth winning field goal as a Ram - a 31-yarder, 11 minutes 58 seconds into overtime - gave the Rams a 32-29 victory over the Jets.
"I think it's only appropriate," a grinning Stan Kroenke, the team's vice chairman and part owner, said in the locker room Sunday. "We hung on by the skin of our teeth, and finally fought our way into it."
Kroenke is the owner of the Colorado Avalanche and the Denver Nuggets. So that makes him even worse in our eyes. Let's just say that the Rams and Avs are two of the teams that I just don't like at all. David feels the same way.
By this time, the Vikings already had lost to Washington, meaning the Rams were in with a win. Not that Martz was aware of this - he was not engaged in any scoreboard-peeking.
"Are you kidding?" Martz teased a reporter. "Did you watch the game? When was I going to look at the score? I was trying to figure out how to get a first down."
Martz, in fact, ordered officials at the Edward Jones Dome to quit showing the Vikings-Redskins score midway through the first half. The out-of-town scoreboard may have been blank, but Rams players were getting updates from fans seated right behind them - fans who were getting scores from the radio or via cellphone.
It was only after the Vikings-Redskins game was over that the score was posted once again in the stadium.
In what should not be shocking news, Mike Martz is paranoid.
Jeff Gordon: Martz-bashing has a hollow ring to it with Rams in the playoffs
Face the facts, folks. Martz did a nice job getting this team into postseason play. This was an enormous accomplishment, one he deserved to bask in Sunday night.
“This is why you coach,” he said, “for moments like this.”
I was among the many that didn’t believe this team, in its depleted state, could reach the postseason. I picked the Jets to win this game. I believed this team was toast after those losses at Carolina and Arizona.
I am among the many that Mad Mike can rightfully thumb his nose at.
I'll admit, I thought the Rams were toast as well. But let's not give them too much credit. They got to play Koy Detmer and the Philadelphia Eagles last week. Matt Schaub is better than Koy Detmer.
Bernie Miklasz: Critics be damned, Martz goes to playoffs
"I guess our head coach won't be fired now," running back Marshall Faulk said in a fine display of sarcasm.
But Martz will be fired upon. On the day the Rams survived the New York Jets to win 32-29 in overtime, Martz got pounded again by ESPN football analyst Tom Jackson. Asked to name the worst coaching decision of the 2004 season, Jackson barked "Anytime Mike Martz did anything on the field."
And Friday, in an interview on the NFL channel on Sirius satellite radio, washed-up Oakland Raiders defensive tackle Warren Sapp said Martz was "a little on the girlie side." Asked about the Martz vs. Kyle Turley confrontation, Sapp apparently fantasized about being in Turley's place and said, "I'll just stomp him (Martz) right across his damn head because he really thinks his (stuff) don't stink and you really don't like those kind of guys in this league."
Martz wouldn't win elections, but he does win games.
Tom Jackson is the man.
And in this case, so is Warren Sapp.
Brian Burwell: Wilkins kicks down playoff door
They have now won two consecutive do-or-die games and turned their struggling season of mediocrity into a second-chance dash to redemption. They have just been given a chance to wash away any trace of that 8-8 mediocrity and maddening unpredictability, because they are now in a Super Bowl tournament where everyone has a 0-0 record.
"Once you get into the playoffs, everything is fair game," Jackson said, speaking like a wise playoff veteran. "That's the feeling that we have right here. We know, especially in these past couple of weeks, that we've been playing good on both sides of the ball. We feel that we have as good of a chance as anyone. We think we're peaking at the right time."
8-8 is 8-8.
Thank God the Seahawks didn't finish 8-8.
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
ESPN.com
MONDAY, JANUARY 3
John Clayton: Every team has a question mark
The model for winning the Super Bowl is simple. Run the ball well, play good defense and don't commit turnovers.
[...]
Can Seahawks overcome weakness on defense?
Former starting strong safety Terreal Bierria was torched so often by the Rams in their two meetings that he was benched in favor of rookie Michael Boulware, a converted linebacker.
Boulware is the X-factor for the Seahawks on Saturday. No way does he allow the Rams to torch him. Whatever the Seahawks do, do not put Terreal Bierria on the field on Saturday.
ESPN.com Rams-Seahawks divisional playoff page
Eric Allen: The Rams are playing well and will completely sweep the 'Hawks this season.
I'm not worried about Allen. He's still smarting over Shaun Alexander running 266 yards on his Raiders defense in 2001.
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
CBS Sportsline
MONDAY, JANUARY 3
Clark Judge: Dude, where's my dome?
So Seattle and St. Louis meet again, with the Rams trying to beat the NFC West champs for the third time this season. Don't bet on it, not because of how the Seahawks are playing now but because of where they're playing.
That would be the great outdoors.
It's not that St. Louis has trouble winning there; it's that it almost never does. OK, so the Rams beat Seattle in Seattle this year, but someone please tell me what they've done in the wide open spaces lately.
I'll spare you the research -- nothing.
They lost at Arizona. They lost at Carolina. At Green Bay. At Buffalo. At Miami. They haven't won once outside since, well, since that miraculous come-from-behind defeat of Seattle on Oct. 10.
I'm not going to be a Packer fan here and say that the weather will win this football game for the Seahawks. But it will definitely be a factor. Hey, anything that goes in the Seahawks' favor is a good thing.
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
Sports Illustrated (sportsillustrated.cnnsi.com)
Peter King: Monday Morning Quarterback
11. Seattle (9-7). Stopped a two-point conversion at the six-inch line at home this weekend.
King had the Seahawks ranked one spot behind the New Orleans Saints.
--- --- --- --- --- --- ---- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
There will definitely be more to come this week.
BRING ON THE RAMS!
If the Seahawks beat the Rams on Saturday, then I'll do the same thing next week, posting columns/articles from either the Philadelphia or Atlanta papers, as well as the national sites.
In the meantime, here's what the St. Louis media has on this Monday on the Rams' 32-29 overtime victory over the New York Jets:
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
MONDAY, JANUARY 3
Jim Thomas: 8-8, Ain't It Great?
Jeff Wilkins' eighth winning field goal as a Ram - a 31-yarder, 11 minutes 58 seconds into overtime - gave the Rams a 32-29 victory over the Jets.
"I think it's only appropriate," a grinning Stan Kroenke, the team's vice chairman and part owner, said in the locker room Sunday. "We hung on by the skin of our teeth, and finally fought our way into it."
Kroenke is the owner of the Colorado Avalanche and the Denver Nuggets. So that makes him even worse in our eyes. Let's just say that the Rams and Avs are two of the teams that I just don't like at all. David feels the same way.
By this time, the Vikings already had lost to Washington, meaning the Rams were in with a win. Not that Martz was aware of this - he was not engaged in any scoreboard-peeking.
"Are you kidding?" Martz teased a reporter. "Did you watch the game? When was I going to look at the score? I was trying to figure out how to get a first down."
Martz, in fact, ordered officials at the Edward Jones Dome to quit showing the Vikings-Redskins score midway through the first half. The out-of-town scoreboard may have been blank, but Rams players were getting updates from fans seated right behind them - fans who were getting scores from the radio or via cellphone.
It was only after the Vikings-Redskins game was over that the score was posted once again in the stadium.
In what should not be shocking news, Mike Martz is paranoid.
Jeff Gordon: Martz-bashing has a hollow ring to it with Rams in the playoffs
Face the facts, folks. Martz did a nice job getting this team into postseason play. This was an enormous accomplishment, one he deserved to bask in Sunday night.
“This is why you coach,” he said, “for moments like this.”
I was among the many that didn’t believe this team, in its depleted state, could reach the postseason. I picked the Jets to win this game. I believed this team was toast after those losses at Carolina and Arizona.
I am among the many that Mad Mike can rightfully thumb his nose at.
I'll admit, I thought the Rams were toast as well. But let's not give them too much credit. They got to play Koy Detmer and the Philadelphia Eagles last week. Matt Schaub is better than Koy Detmer.
Bernie Miklasz: Critics be damned, Martz goes to playoffs
"I guess our head coach won't be fired now," running back Marshall Faulk said in a fine display of sarcasm.
But Martz will be fired upon. On the day the Rams survived the New York Jets to win 32-29 in overtime, Martz got pounded again by ESPN football analyst Tom Jackson. Asked to name the worst coaching decision of the 2004 season, Jackson barked "Anytime Mike Martz did anything on the field."
And Friday, in an interview on the NFL channel on Sirius satellite radio, washed-up Oakland Raiders defensive tackle Warren Sapp said Martz was "a little on the girlie side." Asked about the Martz vs. Kyle Turley confrontation, Sapp apparently fantasized about being in Turley's place and said, "I'll just stomp him (Martz) right across his damn head because he really thinks his (stuff) don't stink and you really don't like those kind of guys in this league."
Martz wouldn't win elections, but he does win games.
Tom Jackson is the man.
And in this case, so is Warren Sapp.
Brian Burwell: Wilkins kicks down playoff door
They have now won two consecutive do-or-die games and turned their struggling season of mediocrity into a second-chance dash to redemption. They have just been given a chance to wash away any trace of that 8-8 mediocrity and maddening unpredictability, because they are now in a Super Bowl tournament where everyone has a 0-0 record.
"Once you get into the playoffs, everything is fair game," Jackson said, speaking like a wise playoff veteran. "That's the feeling that we have right here. We know, especially in these past couple of weeks, that we've been playing good on both sides of the ball. We feel that we have as good of a chance as anyone. We think we're peaking at the right time."
8-8 is 8-8.
Thank God the Seahawks didn't finish 8-8.
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
ESPN.com
MONDAY, JANUARY 3
John Clayton: Every team has a question mark
The model for winning the Super Bowl is simple. Run the ball well, play good defense and don't commit turnovers.
[...]
Can Seahawks overcome weakness on defense?
Former starting strong safety Terreal Bierria was torched so often by the Rams in their two meetings that he was benched in favor of rookie Michael Boulware, a converted linebacker.
Boulware is the X-factor for the Seahawks on Saturday. No way does he allow the Rams to torch him. Whatever the Seahawks do, do not put Terreal Bierria on the field on Saturday.
ESPN.com Rams-Seahawks divisional playoff page
Eric Allen: The Rams are playing well and will completely sweep the 'Hawks this season.
I'm not worried about Allen. He's still smarting over Shaun Alexander running 266 yards on his Raiders defense in 2001.
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
CBS Sportsline
MONDAY, JANUARY 3
Clark Judge: Dude, where's my dome?
So Seattle and St. Louis meet again, with the Rams trying to beat the NFC West champs for the third time this season. Don't bet on it, not because of how the Seahawks are playing now but because of where they're playing.
That would be the great outdoors.
It's not that St. Louis has trouble winning there; it's that it almost never does. OK, so the Rams beat Seattle in Seattle this year, but someone please tell me what they've done in the wide open spaces lately.
I'll spare you the research -- nothing.
They lost at Arizona. They lost at Carolina. At Green Bay. At Buffalo. At Miami. They haven't won once outside since, well, since that miraculous come-from-behind defeat of Seattle on Oct. 10.
I'm not going to be a Packer fan here and say that the weather will win this football game for the Seahawks. But it will definitely be a factor. Hey, anything that goes in the Seahawks' favor is a good thing.
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
Sports Illustrated (sportsillustrated.cnnsi.com)
Peter King: Monday Morning Quarterback
11. Seattle (9-7). Stopped a two-point conversion at the six-inch line at home this weekend.
King had the Seahawks ranked one spot behind the New Orleans Saints.
--- --- --- --- --- --- ---- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
There will definitely be more to come this week.
BRING ON THE RAMS!
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