Rams' Linehan still in trouble, but ray of hope appears

Scott Linehan's Rams entered the season with big expectations, but lost thier first eight games this season. Chris Graythen/Getty Images

When the Rams finally had their first victory of the season, an improbable yet impressive 37-29 defeat of the surging Saints last Sunday, Marc Bulger tucked the football under his arm so he could present it to coach Scott Linehan as a show of appreciation.

It has been said that the character of a man is revealed in times of crisis, not prosperity, and Bulger said Linehan's ability to stay focused and remain positive during the team's 0-8 start deserved to be recognized.

"I felt it was important that once we came in [to the locker room] and coach did his speech, that we present him with the game ball on behalf of the team because he stuck with us," Bulger said. "He didn't change his philosophy and he hasn't thrown us under the bus or made us run more and practice longer. He stayed the same and got us ready, so I thought he deserved the game ball."

Linehan was emotional in the locker room after the game, according to several players. From a distance it's easy to overlook or ignore the toll that prolonged losing can take on a coach and his players, and Linehan appeared to be as worn out as Heather Mills' publicist Saturday afternoon when he arrived in New Orleans. At times while discussing the team's struggles, his facial expression seemed to be filled with equal parts frustration, exasperation and confusion.

He had spent most of his adult life preparing to be an NFL head coach, always imagining himself in different scenarios and asking himself what he would do in particular situations. But 0-8?

"There's really no chapter of any book you can go read that says, 'If you ever get in this situation, where you're 0-8, this is what you do,' " he said. "I don't think anyone could ever imagine being winless after eight games."

Linehan said there really wasn't anyone he could lean on for specific advice on how to handle the slow start because there aren't many people at his level who've started 0-8 and discovered a road map to success. The evening before the Saints game, he said: "I have had a lot of contact with family and friends that are in the business, but there's nothing specific said. I've had some good conversations with other coaches, even some other head coaches in the league. Everybody not so much gives advice but gives words of encouragement to keep working and do what you've always done. That's what we preach as coaches to the players, so we've got to do the same thing.

"When you're not winning, you know it's part of the deal that you'll be talked about. It's easier said than done not to pay attention to it. The only thing you can do is to focus on what you can do. We're in Week 9, and it's the first week of an eight-week season. We had a bye and maybe it was the best time for a bye. We needed to refocus, re-channel our energy another way. I think guys were trying almost too hard to find solutions, because that's what you spend all your time and energy doing."

The Rams were done in largely by injuries. The offensive line lost its best player, left tackle Orlando Pace, in Week 1 and things got progressively worse each week. Sunday, they started three linemen who earlier this season weren't even in the league.

"One thing I've probably learned the most is, if you can't maintain a certain level of stability with your front, it creates a lot of problems for you," Linehan said. "It's not an excuse. You've got to adjust, you've got to find a way. ... But I have learned that, if you were to start a football team from scratch, the knowledge that I know now -- or probably always had -- is that you better start with making sure you've got stable depth in your offensive front."

Complicating matters was that Bulger missed two games because of cracked ribs and running back Steven Jackson missed four games and parts of two others because of groin and back injuries.

"This situation is funny, because the O-line is kind of what the focus is on now," Linehan said. "But basically for five of eight games we've built a lot of what we're doing offensively around our running back, who has been hurt. And that creates another set of issues. What you've got to do is, you've got to say, 'OK, this is what we've got to do. These are the guys that are going to be available for this game' and do the best you can with it.

"[Three] weeks ago, Steven comes back for two series. He's in the game and we're up 14-0 (on the Browns) and doing it still with guys that are filling in up front. So that goes to show you that there was progress made there and there were adjustments that were made there. The problem was, Steven goes down again and so does our right guard, who was one of the only starters starting at the beginning of the season at his spot. They get hurt on the same series and can't come back and we lose [27-20]."

Time will tell if Sunday was the start of a turnaround or a brief detour on the highway to hell. Linehan persuaded his players to approach the second half of the season as if it were a new season. As one player made his way to the locker room after Sunday's win, he barked: "One and oh, baby. One and oh."