Rams head coach Steve Spagnuolo sat down for an interview with the Sporting News. Mostly, he covered the points that have already been covered, but there were a few things that grabbed my attention.
Obviously, he reiterated the Steven Jackson-as-center-of-the-offense theme...people are really going to be surprised when the Rams end up passing on 50% of their plays.
Which of the four pillars has really been seen on the field? Team first, of course.
"The 'team first' is always going to be important to us, and we've talked a lot about that as a group -- both players and coaches. ...I think, from the words being said, that they are putting the team first. I have no reason to believe they're not thinking that way."
To me, that's the most important pillar, and it's good to see that the players and the coaches are buying into the changes at Rams Park. Of course, the real test, as Spags suggests elsewhere in the interview, comes when they face some adversity. Let's see where things stand in week 3 or 4.
Does anyone else get the sense that Tony La Russa (quoted in the interview) is going to be a motivational speaker when he's done giving washed up veteran baseball players a chance to play?
Lastly, Spags gave us a preview of training camp this year. If spring practices were about learning and installing the playbook, camp is all about molding the team. To wit:
We need to establish the physicality of this team, and you can only do that with pads. We need to lay a foundation for the latter part of the season, when you need to win games in late November and December. And we need to come out as a unified team.
That's exactly what I want to hear. Camp is going to be tough this year, like the coach told his players to close out spring practices. And it needs to be. If this team doesn't play more physical than it has in recent seasons - player age and other factors had something to do with that - they won't even be able to make things interesting on a weekly basis.