Rough and ready

A 'finesse' team? You tell that to the St. Louis Rams

ST. LOUIS -- We can do this hard or we can do this easy. We can score on you in the flick of a wrist and a blue streak down the field, or we can bust you in the mouth with the best runner in the whole damn league.

Yes, the St. Louis Rams can do it any way they want, any time they want. That's what they said Sunday in the NFC Championship Game. That's what they showed the whole NFL. That's what they proved to everybody, everywhere, in their win against the Philadelphia Eagles.

The Rams, a finesse team? C'mon, already. Get over it.

"I don't know too many soft teams that have won the Super Bowl," said big Rams tackle Orlando Pace, walking gingerly on a bum knee that will bug him a lot more Monday than it did Sunday. "We probably still have some non-believers."

CNNSI.com's John Donovan Closer Look: The big, bad Rams were down by a point with about 3 1/2 minutes left in the third quarter. Facing a third down, with eight to go, on the Eagles' 25-yard line. It was, as it's known in these parts, "Warner Time."

After Sunday's gritty 29-24 win over the game Eagles, there should be no NFL observer alive who relegates St. Louis to the all-flash heap. No fan worth his remote control or his chili con queso should call the Rams a team of finesse.

How about Marshall Faulk, pounding out 159 hard, hard rushing yards? Is he soft? On one play early in the third quarter, he took a handoff from quarterback Kurt Warner on a draw and was crushed by 290-something-pound tackle Corey Simon. Faulk banged up his right elbow and his left wrist on the play.

Yet, on that 12-play drive alone, he touched the ball on nine plays, including, amazingly enough, the first seven plays of the half. The next drive, he had his helmet torn off on a 1-yard plunge -- it was more like an excruciatingly slow-motion push -- into the end zone.

And there he was in the fourth quarter, back to the goal line, twisting to his left, stretching out, reaching the ball into the end zone for another one-yard score.

"It's football," Faulk said. "I didn't lose any teeth."

What about Warner? You ever try to simply breathe with sore ribs?

But there he was Sunday, winging the ball all over the place again, avoiding the Eagles' rush, staying mostly upright, throwing for a touchdown and completing 22 of his 33 throws.

That might not even have been the toughest thing he did. Before the game, he sucked it up and took a painkilling shot in his ribs.

"I don't like to do that," Warner said, "but just with the scenario of the way it played out this week and how sore and how many problems I had throughout the week … I didn't want to be out of this game at all, for any reason …"

How about that St. Louis defense, which kept wandering Philadelphia quarterback Donovan McNabb from wandering too far? McNabb did run in a late touchdown, but he was held to 26 rushing yards Sunday. He was sacked three times.

How about the Rams' hard-nosed defensive end, Grant Wistrom? He threw everything at McNabb early in the fourth quarter, sacking the QB once, and then, on a third-and-15 in the same series, reaching out with his right hand and clipping him from behind to keep McNabb from running for a sure first down.

"That's a drill we work on every day," Wistrom said, "laying out and flicking at the heels. That's why we practice it."

The Rams are huge favorites in Sunday's Super Bowl against the New England Patriots, mainly because of an offense that is among the best the NFL ever has seen. The Rams are fast and shifty and sometimes make things look so easy that people might think it's kind of effortless.

But the Rams should be favorites to win their second Super Bowl in three seasons because they showed Sunday that one of the hardest-hitting defenses in the league, a defense that blitzed its way to within a win of the Super Bowl, wasn't tough enough for them.

They should be favored because their offense is more than flash. It is a bunch of offensive linemen busting holes for Faulk, who is smart enough and good enough to wait for those holes to open before he shoots through. Those linemen, too, kept Warner from feeling those ribs by keeping him safe through most of Sunday's game.

"We can score and move the ball," a rough-and-tumble Adam Timmerman, the fine Rams guard, said, "however we want to."

Yes, you can call the Rams soft. You can call them a finesse team.

"So what?" guard Tom Nütten said. "I don't care what you call us."

The Rams win any way they want.

John Donovan is a senior writer for CNNSI.com. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.

Comments? To e-mail Donovan, click here.

 

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