Rams Get Physical Early

By Nick Wagoner
Senior Writer

The tone has been set.

It took all of one full-squad, padded practice for anyone wondering what attitude the new-look Rams are going to adopt in 2009 to become crystal clear.

The high-flying, finesse-oriented Rams are a thing of the past. If nothing else, these new Rams are going to be physical and battle tested when the season starts.

In Saturday morning’s practice session, new coach Steve Spagnuolo sent that message loud and clear by going “live” for a good portion of practice.

“You better have some attitude,” cornerback Ron Bartell said. “I don’t think we have carried the attitude the past couple of years we should have had. We paid for it on the field. They are coming in and instilling new attitudes, new philosophies, everything.”

Taking a page from what he learned in his years in Philadelphia and small samples from New York, Spagnuolo made it known to his team well in advance of Saturday’s morning practice that he intended to have his team dive into the deep end without so much as dipping its toes in the water first.

“Usually you don’t go live that first day of pads but it’s good,” linebacker Will Witherspoon said. “You really want to get the feel of hitting again, striking guys again. That was kind of the key point of it and getting the feel of hitting through a guy. It was great. I think it was good for everybody to come out here and just get moving and get in the momentum of the game.”

Not many teams go live in training camp at all aside from the occasional scrimmage. In St. Louis, the practice was a serious departure from what the Rams have done in recent seasons.

Aside from the days of Dick Vermeil, practices haven’t been terribly difficult or physical. The idea was to keep players fresh until preseason games and then let them get that contact work in when the exhibition schedule starts.

Instead of slowly accelerating, though, Spagnuolo wants to hit the gas pedal early and then dial it back by pumping the brakes as camp goes on.

“One thing I have learned over the years is that it’s a lot easier to be hard on guys and then kind of back off than it is to be light and try to get hard on guys again,” Bartell said. “I think he knows what he’s doing. He knows when to let up. Right now, it’s day two so I think we’ll be fine.”

To Spagnuolo’s way of thinking, that is just one of the reasons for jumping into live action right away.

After he was hired in January, Spagnuolo and his staff had limited opportunities to get a look at the players on the roster aside from watching game tape from 2008.

Even when the team stepped on the field for Organized Team Activities and the minicamps, Spagnuolo and the staff really had no chance to get a feel for what they have.

And because the game is played hard, fast and physical with pads on, the only way to truly get a handle on what is already in place is to put the pads on and begin hitting.

So, why not just get it going right away?

“We need to find out quickly – you’ve got to remember again it’s a whole new staff and a lot of unknowns – really the only way to find out is to put them in those kind of situations,” Spagnuolo said. “As we go along here every day we will decide how many of those periods will be live. It was really two periods and about 30 plays of live.”

It certainly seemed like much more than that to observers of the team and some of the players on the field. While so far Mother Nature has blessed the Rams with overcast skies and temperatures in the 70s, things won’t get much easier from here on out.

The live portion of practice had plenty of highlights for those who came to watch. Rookie tackle Jason Smith had a good moment getting to the second level and throwing a knockdown block on linebacker Chris Chamberlain as just one of the many collisions that came with a thud during the workout.

While it’s still awfully early in practice and it’s a common occurrence, it was pretty clear the defense was a few steps ahead of the offense, particularly in terms of the running game.

Aside from the quarterbacks, nobody was off limits, including star running back Steve Jackson. Jackson said Friday he wanted to get some hits early in camp and found them in abundance Saturday.

Although Bartell says the defense knows not to go low on Jackson, he is still fair game when it comes to hitting. On more than one occasion, Jackson found himself on the bottom of a pile before bouncing right back up and getting to work.

“He’s got to get hit, everybody else has got to get hit,” linebacker Chris Draft said. “We have got to get ready too. Right now, that’s what we have. We have our chance to get out here, run to the ball and be able to tackle the ball. It doesn’t matter who has it.”

In recent camps, the Rams haven’t gone live until a scheduled scrimmage about a week and a half into camp. The team’s scrimmage this year is scheduled for Aug. 7 but clearly it isn’t waiting around to hit until that day.

Spagnuolo told his team he wanted to get going right away and be physical from day one. The Rams backed off into shells for the afternoon session but there’s no doubt that at least initially the physical tone set Saturday morning is going to carry on into the coming days with padded practices scheduled for most of the morning sessions.

“You have to create that mentality as early as possible,” Witherspoon said. “If you kind of work your way into it or you are weaned into it, it’s a little different and you can maybe be a few days behind where you really could be. You can kind of look at the mistakes you have when you are actually going full speed and looking at how things look a little different. That’s where the key is.”