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Dirty word Rams focusing on Sunday before starting dynasty talkPosted: Saturday February 02, 2002 10:20 PMNEW ORLEANS (AP) -- The St. Louis Rams are starting to hear the "D" word. As in dynasty. Kurt Warner talked this week of becoming the first quarterback to win five Super Bowls. It prompted a shudder from Jay Zygmunt, the team's president of football operations. "Let's just win Sunday," Zygmunt said. "Let's try to win two." There's no arguing that the Rams have been the dominant team in the NFL the last three seasons. They're 37-11 in that span, including a franchise-record 14 victories this year, and they're 14-point favorites -- their average margin of victory during the season -- against the New England Patriots to win their second Super Bowl in three years. They have the NFL's last three most valuable players and Marshall Faulk has been offensive player of the year the last three years. They're the first team in league history to score 500 points three consecutive seasons. And, they have the NFL's No. 3 defense to boot. New defensive coordinator Lovie Smith has done a remarkable job turning a pathetic unit around, replacing eight starters. No one, it seems, can stop them. Except themselves. In the Rams' two losses, they committed an astounding 14 turnovers. Then again, even giveaways don't guarantee doom. They had 30 more turnovers in the other 14 games, all victories. So, even a cautious guy like Zygmunt, the Rams' salary-cap specialist and the architect of thievery trades for Faulk (1999) and Aeneas Williams (2001) -- MVP types that cost the team only draft picks -- can get a bit giddy. "As Mike Martz has told everyone, this is a very unique time and place we're in," Zygmunt said. But as he knows too well from the nine consecutive losing seasons the Rams endured before the 1999 breakthrough, hard work is not always rewarded. And there are no guarantees. "All I know is this: You'd better worry about tomorrow and you'd better quit thinking about yesterday," Zygmunt said. "Because, boy, things change very fast. It's a humbling game and a humbling business." Martz, in a sense, began guarding against a Super Bowl upset on Nov. 18, the day the Rams beat the Patriots 24-17 in Foxboro, Mass. He told players that he wouldn't be surprised if they saw the Patriots again, and he's been reprising those remarks all this week, just in case they forgot. "I don't have to convince our players this is not a mismatch," Martz said. "They understand. They know how good these guys are. Trust me."
What the Rams need to do to win
Special teams are a Rams weakness, although they usually have so much cushion it doesn't matter. The teams have improved since midseason, however, when a number of injured starters who also are on coverage teams returned. "We've got to be sure we've got him hemmed in and he can't get started," Martz said. "I feel good about our special teams at this point." Like Faulk and Williams, the game is a homecoming for special teams coach Bobby April. "We want our last game to be our best game," April said. "And that game is coming up soon." Brown is also the Patriots' most dangerous receiver, catching eight passes for 121 yards in the AFC Championship Game agaisnt the Steelers, and All-Pro cornerback Aeneas Williams likely will follow him all over the field.
"They like to use two tight ends and pound you, and then when you bow up to stop the run they move Brown around and creat mismatches," tackle Tyoka Jackson said. "They do a lot of different things, but underneath all the disguises, they really want to pound you with Smith."
The offensive line rose to the occasion last week, allowing only one sack, and Warner was hit only three times the entire game. Left tackle Orlando Pace, who protects Warner's blind side, was particularly effective in neutralizing Hugh Douglas even though he strained a knee ligament in the first half. Pace will play wearing a knee brace and Rod Jones will get his third straight playoff start at right tackle in place of Ryan Tucker, who's been slow to recover from a sprained ankle.
Warner enters the average game with more than 200 plays in his arsenal, thanks to Martz madness. "Obviously, the biggest challenge is being able to adjust on the run," Warner said. "Belichick never gives you the same look twice. "It was a great challenge the first time. We saw seven defensive backs, we saw the 3-4, and a 4-3 look. We'll see a variety of things and that's what makes it fun."
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