3. St. Louis Rams
During a 74-second span of their
Aug. 15
preseason game against the Cowboys, the Rams showed just how
bad—and how good—their passing attack can be. With 1:22
left in the first half, second-year quarterback Tony Banks
threw a ball right into the hands of Dallas cornerback
Kevin Mathis, who
returned it 27 yards for a touchdown. On St. Louis's ensuing
possession, Banks drove his team 74 yards in seven plays,
capping the march with a 33-yard rainbow pass to
second-year wideout Eddie Kennison, who caught the ball
without breaking stride and
streaked into the end zone with eight seconds on the
clock.
The Rams eventually lost
34-31 but not before providing a glimpse of what could be one
of the league's most exciting passing games in 1997.
Kennison, who won the NFL's Fastest Man contest this summer
by covering 60 yards in 6.1 seconds, finished that game
with three catches for
78 yards and two
touchdowns—to the delight of numerous family members, many of whom had
driven to the game at Texas Stadium from his hometown of
Lake Charles, La. "It always takes a quarterback and a
receiver one game like this to
break through the
wall," new St. Louis
offensive coordinator Jerry Rhome said afterward. "I
think we might just be seeing the start of something really
big."
The 18th pick in the '96 draft,
Kennison isn't even the best wideout on the team. That
honor belongs to Isaac Bruce, who last season had 84
receptions for an NFL-high 1,338 yards and was the only Ram
to go to the Pro Bowl. He has 224 career receptions,
the most by a player after three years in the league. Bruce
was nursing a sore hamstring and didn't make the trip to
Texas. "I'm sure Isaac was happy to see this
game," says Banks.
"I know he's looking for me to get better so that he can put
up even
better
stats."
Despite coughing up an NFL-record 21 fumbles and being
sacked 48 times in '96, Banks threw for 2,544 yards and 15
touchdowns. He'll get more protection up front from
334-pound left tackle Orlando Pace, the No. 1 pick in the
April draft. St. Louis
thought so highly of Pace that it traded the Jets four draft
choices to move up five spots and get him. Pace didn't
think too highly of the Rams' contract offer and held out
until Aug. 16, at which point he signed a seven-year, $29.4
million deal and
immediately became the highest-paid scout-team player in NFL history.
His penance served in one week, Pace began his advance
toward a starting job—which won't take long, considering
that the line was arguably the club's weakest area a year
ago.
Who would have thought that a new coaching staff headed by
60-year-old Dick Vermeil, and with six assistants 55 or
older, could put its fate largely in the hands of three
24-year-olds (Banks, Bruce and Kennison) and a 21-year-old
(Pace)? During their
free time this summer Bruce and Kennison could often be found
at Banks's St. Louis house, where discussions usually
centered on the '97 season. "We talked about what we
wanted to accomplish, about putting together the kind of
passing package that strikes
fear in defensive coordinators," says Kennison, who last
year set team rookie records for receptions (54) and yards
(924) while leading the Rams with
11
touchdowns.
After the Cowboys game Banks said,
"Tonight was exciting because
I think we saw what could happen in every
game."
We'll assume he was talking about the touchdown pass to
Kennison and not the
interception.—David Fleming
SCHEDULE
SKINNY
In the first seven weeks of the season, St. Louis travels
to Denver and Oakland and twice faces San Francisco, which
has won the last 13 meetings between the two teams. Even
though they are tied with the Jets for the most losses in
this decade and have
finished no better than 7-9 during that span, the Rams
believe they're a playoff-caliber team. By
mid-October, we should have a good idea whether they're
right.
STRENGTH OF
SCHEDULE
NFL rank: 9 (tied)
Opponents' 1996 winning
percentage: .512
Games against playoff
teams: 6
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