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Sam Bradford Named AP’s Offensive Rookie of the Year

February 04, 2011   John Hickey   No comments

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Sam BradfordSam Bradford, the top pick in the draft last year, rewarded the St. Louis Rams with his play in his first year and on Friday was named the 2010 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year by The Associated Press.

The Rams went from 1-15- to 7-9 under Bradford, losing out on the playoffs to Seattle on a tiebreaker after the Seahawks also finished 7-9 in the NFC West.

“I think the more I’m out there, the more comfortable I become,” Bradford told The Associated Press. “It’s been like that all year. There’s been some ups, there’s been some downs, but I feel like for the most part I’ve learned from my mistakes each week. I think the game’s stating to slow down a little bit, but I really still have a long way to go before I’m as comfortable as I want to be.”

A nationwide panel of 50 voters chimed in on the voting, and he got a total of 44 votes as he became the fourth quarterback since 2004 to win the award.

 

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Sam Bradford Looks Beyond Need to Learn New System With Rams, Josh McDaniels

February 02, 2011   John Hickey   No comments

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It was a great first year for Rams quarterback Sam Bradford as he learned the NFL game on the fly in his rookie year.

It seems that his learning curve isn’t over.

St. Louis saw offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur hired away as the head coach of the Cleveland Browns, then saw quarterbacks coach Dick Curl retire just as new offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels came aboard.

So there will undoubtedly be a new system to ingest, and for that Bradford is trying to gear himself up.

“Yeah, I definitely will be starting over, which to a certain extent is kind of frustrating,” Bradford told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “Just the fact that a part of me wishes that our system would’ve remained the same. It would’ve made it a lot easier for me.”

That doesn’t mean that Bradford isn’t looking to his sophomore season and the chance to work with McDaniels, who has a good history of working with quarterbacks.

 

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Steve Spagnuolo Slowly Prepares to Seek Out Rams’ Next Quarterbacks Coach

January 28, 2011   John Hickey   No comments

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There was some thought when Josh McDaniels was hired by St. Louis as the Rams’ offensive coordinator that he would double as the quarterbacks coach.

But now, a week after the hiring, it seems that St. Louis coach Steve Spagnuolo is leaning toward adding a replacement for the retiring quarterbacks coach, Richard Curl. And McDaniels would likely have some input on the hire.

Talking at the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala., to stltoday.com, Spagnuolo said he had not talked to any prospective candidates, but he hinted that he might start doing so in the near future.

“I have some names,” Spagnuolo said when talking about the open position. “We’ll probably start having to bring some people into St. Louis. But we’re in no real rush. We want to get the right guy, and I want Josh to feel good about him, too, and the rest of the staff.”

Spagnuolo was due back in St. Louis on Friday and the plan was to sit down with McDaniels to talk about how to go forward.

“I want to get back there and sit down with Josh,” Spagnuolo said. “We’ve got to hone in on (the quarterback coach). Josh has done it both ways as a coordinator. Josh has had a quarterback coach, and has not had one. He’ll still have a lot to do with the quarterback even if we do have a quarterback coach.”

 

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Rams Hire Josh McDaniels as Offensive Coordinator

January 18, 2011   Jimmy Hascup   No comments

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Josh McDanielsAfter losing their offensive coordinator, Pat Shurmur, to the Cleveland Browns last week, the Rams wasted no time finding a replacement, agreeing to a deal with Josh McDaniels to run the offense. Terms of the deal were not immediately announced.

This is a significant hire for a Rams team that has often been relegated to lower-tier signings, both on the coaching and player personnel end, and it gives quarterback Sam Bradford a creative offensive mind with which to work.

Through early Tuesday, it appeared that the Rams-McDaniels negotiations were going nowhere and the team was looking elsewhere for a new person to run the offense. After Seattle fired its offensive coordinator, it also appeared that McDaniels would be a candidate there.

 

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Rams Receivers Let Title Shot Slip Through Their Fingers

January 02, 2011   John Hickey   No comments

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Brandon GibsonSEATTLE — Sam Bradford wound up hitting on 19 of 36 passes against Seattle Sunday, but the St. Louis quarterback saw the Rams‘ hopes of a playoff berth slip away as his passes continued to slip through the hands of his receivers.

Bradford, a rookie, should have had a much higher completion percentage, and the Rams never should have had seven three-and-out series. But that’s not the way the night went, and St. Louis went down, 16-6, in what was essentially the NFC West championship game.

Had they won, the Rams would have been readying themselves to host New Orleans in the playoffs. Now they have to settle for all the progress they made in getting from 1-15 last year to 7-9 and second place in the West this year.

 

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Rams vs. Seahawks Preview, Score and More

December 31, 2010   John Hickey   No comments

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The bad news for the NFC West is that people are calling it the NFC Worst. The good news is that its a storyline many of those same people will be watching in a nationally-televised game Sunday night. The winner of this game will move on to the first round of the NFL playoffs.

The St. Louis Rams (7-8) are coming off a one-win season and has a chance to get to .500 in addition to earning a trip to the playoffs with a win. Meanwhile, the Seattle Seahawks (6-9) have already locked-up a third consecutive losing season, but a win Sunday brings home the bacon in terms of a division title and a home game in the playoffs.

Two sub-.500 teams aren’t supposed to be playing for either a championship or a playoff berth, so this is uncharted territory.

Although the Rams and the Seahawks have had to defend themselves against charges that teams with losing records don’t deserve to be here, neither is putting much stock in what others are saying.

 

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Seattle’s Playoff Hopes Fall on Charlie Whitehurst

December 31, 2010   John Hickey   No comments

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There can’t be too many tougher spots for a quarterback to make his second NFL start than this – a winner-take-all game with the division championship and a spot in the playoffs on the line.

However, that’s exactly where Seattle Seahawks‘ Charlie Whitehurst finds himself. The Seahawks need to beat the St. Louis Rams Sunday night on national TV to make it to the playoffs as the NFC West champions. If the Seahawks lose, the season is over. Although the club would like to have veteran Matt Hasselbeck at the helm, it\s unlikely that will happen. Hasselbeck missed all but two series last week in the Tampa Bay game because of a hip injury, and he didn’t practice at all this week.

Now Whitehurst is the man. And the pressure is considerable for a franchise that has seen down times since appearing in Super Bowl XL five years ago. Seattle won just four games last year, and while they’ve improved to six wins in the first year under new Head Coach Pete Carroll, the season won’t be considered a success without a playoff game.

That being the case, offensive coordinator Jeremy Bates was asked if he needed to say anything extra to Whitehurst about either the magnitude of the game or about controlling his emotions when he steps out on Qwest Field Sunday night.

“You know, I don’t think you really have to say anything to anybody,” Bates said. “I mean if you have a pulse you kind of know what this game means.”

 

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Steven Jackson Leads Rams’ Resurgence in St. Louis

December 30, 2010   John Hickey   No comments

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Steven Jackson has played for far too many bad St. Louis teams. So now that the Rams are on the verge of a .500 record and an NFC West title, Jackson is loving life. As the Rams look forward to Sunday’s winner-take-all showdown in the West against Seattle, Jackson is looking forward to being a focal point with the title on the line.

“You try to embrace what’s going on,” Jackson said in describing his feelings on the Rams’ turnaround from one win a year ago to seven wins and counting in 2010. “You want to be happy but you don’t want to celebrate too much. I kind of feel like I’m shell-shocked. But I’m really happy, I’m looking forward to the game Sunday, to be playing for a meaningful game in quite some time – it really brings the excitement back to football.”

 

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49ers vs. Rams: St. Louis Forges Ahead as San Francisco Falls Apart

December 26, 2010   John Hickey   No comments

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Danny AmendolaOne year after finishing with one win and the worst record in the NFL, the St. Louis Rams will be playing for the NFC West championship when the season comes down to its final weekend next Sunday.

That’s thanks to a 25-17 win over San Francisco Sunday, a win that sets up a showdown with the Seahawks in Seattle.
The loss eliminated San Francisco from the playoff picture after the 49ers had clawed their way back into the picture in the staggeringly weak NFC West following an 0-5 start.

For a game both teams needed desperately to win, this one seemed to be played strictly for laughs. The 49ers spent most of the first half tripping over their own penalties and trying to fumble the ball away. The Rams had a chance to build up a huge first-half lead, but St. Louis had its own problems moving the ball and a lead that could have been more than two touchdowns was just 9-0 when big plays started to get San Francisco back in the game.

Ultimately, however, the 49ers made too many mistakes to make next week’s game against Arizona meaningful.

Some thoughts about this one:

o. Most of the big plays in this one belonged to San Francisco, but the fourth quarter saw St. Louis WR Danario Alexander get behind the 49ers Shawntae Spencer for a leaping two-handed catch of a Sam Bradford pass on the left sideline that covered 46 yards and gave the Rams the ball at the 3. Bradford then hit Laurent Robinson with a bullet for a score that pushed the Rams’ lead to eight, 22-14.

More coverage: Recap | Box Score

 

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49ers vs. Rams Preview, Score and More

December 23, 2010   John Hickey   No comments

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There is no understating the importance of this game to the 49ers in general and coach Mike Singletary in particular.
If the 5-9 49ers win, they are in excellent position to go to the playoffs as the NFC West champions, needing only a Week 17 win over lowly Arizona to make it despite having started the season 0-5.

If they lose, any playoff hopes are extinguished and for an eighth consecutive season the playoffs will take place without them.
Singletary, 18-21 as the 49ers’ coach, has not taken the 49ers to the postseason yet. If he doesn’t do it this year, that may be the end of the road for him in San Francisco, although team president Jed York has been outwardly supportive during the club’s struggles this year. San Francisco had been picked by many to win the division.

 

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