The Rams experienced a huge amount of injuries to key player in Sunday's loss to the Eagles. At least two starters will be out next week (Jackson and Bartell) and another might join them (Fletcher). Bradford appears to be good to go with a bruised hand. The good thing for the Rams is they are playing a team in the Giants who are equally as bitten by the injury bug. Injuries will be no excuse on Monday Night Football. The backups will just have to step up. On to the links.
Kevin Seifert of ESPN.com had a good article about the new kickoff rule. Two returns of over 100 yards occurred during week one. Even though touchbacks are up big returns aren't. A good returner shouldn't be held useless by the new rule argues Seifert. The reason for that is he thinks people underestimate the rule that the kickoff team can't be back farther than five yards. It's early and we still need more time to fully judge the new rule, but now it's not having as huge of an impact as thought.
Sando had his weekly NFC West stock watch. He had one up and one down for the Rams. The up was Cadillac Williams. He looked very good in week one with over 90 yards rushing. The down arrow was the Rams "mojo". Sando was talking about all the injuries the Rams had. He said the schedule is tough enough and will only get tougher with these injuries.
Quinn "shocked" he was benched
Jim Thomas of stltoday.com had a nice article about the reason the Rams put Quinn on the inactive list Sunday. Thomas himself was stunned. With how much the Eagles like to pass and the ability of Quinn to rush the passer, isn't it a no brainer to play him? Well the problem is that right now Quinn is the fifth best DE mostly because he has only played football for about 5 weeks since being suspended for over a year. Quinn will get playing time on Monday night, since CJ Ah You won't be playing.
Also from Thomas, Ron Bartell is done for the season with a broken neck. Some have been saying that his career might be over now, but Bartell sure isn't one of them. He said he fully expect to play next season. Here's Bartell on his injury.
"The good news is, it's not displaced," Bartell said. "Because usually when you have displacement, you're talking about surgery; you're talking about spinal cord issues and everything. So it's stable. It's an injury that can heal over time. And everything I'm hearing is it doesn't prevent me from playing in the future."
That's all I got for today. Have a good one and GO RAMS!!