Head Coach Scott Linehan
Sunday, August 27

(Opening Statement) “Kevin Curtis came out okay.  He had a slight concussion in the first half and everything checked out fine after the game.  He actually came back in and caught that touchdown that got called back.  Jimmy Kennedy got an MRI on his ankle.  We don’t have the results yet.  He looked okay today and moved around better than we thought.  He actually went back in, as you probably saw, and played a little bit.  He’s pretty doubtful to be available for this week’s game, but I don’t think it looks too bad.  I think we might have dodged a bullet there.  We’re going have Torry (Holt) have a precautionary MRI on that sternum just for piece of mind more than anything.  It’s fairly sore, but there’s no reason other than to make sure there’s nothing else in there with him.  Isaac (Bruce) has a sore hamstring and he’ll be day-to-day.  I’ll be surprised if we do something with him tomorrow, maybe a little bit more on Tuesday.  Madison (Hedgecock) worked out yesterday in pregame.  He’s improving; straight line running only.  I’m not sure he’s ready to do much radical cutting on that.  Those high ankle sprains they get into that joint and the cutting is the issue, so we’ll see what he can do this week. Leonard (Little) came out okay.  Actually, better than we had even hoped coming out of that game, as far as the quadriceps.  (With) Claude Terrell we are looking into getting that wrist surgery that was recommended by all the doctors that were involved with looking at the wrist.  It is somewhat an experimental procedure, but hopefully it will be something that alleviates the problem.  So, if he goes ahead and does that he’d obviously be done for the year, but we’re going to look into that here in the next couple of days.”

(On last night’s game) “Obviously we didn’t play very well.  Not well enough to win certainly.  I think it was sloppy offensively and that I alluded to the fact that, regardless of how the preseason has gone, I think that the one thing the ones have done very consistently was be explosive offensively and take care of the ball.  Yesterday we weren’t either one.  We had three turnovers, two with the first unit.  We didn’t have the big plays, that was absent somewhat.  Even though we only had six penalties for the game, we had two critical penalties that cost us opportunities for touchdowns.  One got a touchdown called back and then we had a penalty that moved us out of the red zone.  Those are things that are certainly unacceptable, but definitely a lesson for us to learn and to hopefully set our sights to improve on that.  Defensively, I think we settled down after the first two drives.  I think the one issue has been getting off the field.  In the first two drives yesterday they were able to maintain drives on us defensively.  I think they had one drive that was 14 (plays) and one that was 11 (plays).  You don’t want to stay on the field like that (defensively).  You want to stay on the field offensively like that and wear the other team down.  I think that starts to wear on you.  I think after those two initial scoring drives they certainly settled down and limited the (Chiefs) offense to minimal gains and points.  Their offense didn’t score any points in the second half and I think that’s certainly something to build on.  There was improvement on special teams.  We held our blocks better on the returns, but they didn’t show up so much in our production.  I think we did better on special teams, but I still think we need to find a returner.  I think Shaun (McDonald) will be the guy we look to in the punt returns, but I think we’re still trying to figure out who that kickoff returner will be.  I haven’t ruled out Kevin (Curtis) as a full-time returner.  We’re still trying to find somebody to take over that role for us.  The one thing I’m very pleased with is our specialists.  Our kicker and I think Matt Turk has had a great preseason.  I think our specialists are certainly going to be the strength of our special teams. That’s at least a good place to start.  We’ve got a long way to go in all areas.  I’m certainly not content with where we are, but it’s preseason and it’s that time of year, where we’re in the midst of competing and evaluating the middle and bottom half of our roster to see who’s going to round out the 53 come the end of this next week.”

(On G Richie Incognito’s penalties) “They were penalties I think.  They were effort plays, but they certainly weren’t acceptable.  You have it right in front of you and it’s a rule.  All though they allow cutting, there’s the adjacent player rule where you can’t cut when another guy is next to you.  So that was the one on the touchdown.  The other one was behind the ball, which is a cardinal rule that you don’t block behind the ball.  They just weren’t good plays.  I’m really glad that this wasn’t September 10, and hopefully we can clean them up by then.”

(On G Claude Terrell’s possible surgery) “The biggest issue is Claude has to decide who is going to do the surgery.  There are a number of very good surgeons who can do this.  We haven’t gotten to that point yet, but I think that’s certainly our best option at this point.  It certainly doesn’t feel like he can play with the wrist as it is now and this is a recommendation from three different specialists that this be something we try.  That’s pretty much what I think we decided that we’re going to do.  It’s just a matter of deciding who it’s going to be.  Claude’s got to decide that.  It would be an IR situation for sure.”

(On Incognito’s cut block penalties) “It’s not a rule change, but it is a point of emphasis that was initially brought up last year, but they really brought it up this year that the below the waist cut plays were going to be strictly enforced just like they talked about the low hits on the quarterback.  They may not go that way all the time during the regular season, but in the preseason, if you do it, it’s going to be called.”

 (On unclear rules possibly contributing to Incognito’s penalties) "In this case I think it was just bad judgment.  It wasn’t really a grey area, it was just a mistake.  I think the biggest lesson learned is that those were two critical plays in a game that are hard to overcome.  You get seven points taken off the board or potentially 14 points based on the drive before.  We can’t accept that.”

(On the first team struggling to score) “I’m just like everybody else.  You want to win in preseason.  I try to keep the focus on the big picture, which is certainly what we’re trying to get done and we want to do better and play better.  But it does give us something to shoot for.  We need to be more efficient, especially when we get down in the red zone.  I really felt our focus going into this game was much improved.  I thought we really had a good red zone plan.  Our biggest problem this week was that we didn’t get down there.  The one time we get down there it gets called back, and that was frustrating for all of us.  It just goes to show you that everybody’s got to be on the same page.  You can’t have one guy miss an assignment or make an error or its going to cost you.  I think that’s the biggest thing we’re trying to get across to our offensive players, and they understand that.  That’s been the best part about this.  Nobody’s getting frustrated, they understand that we have to put it together and we have to be in sync.  You can’t have 10 guys do the right thing and one guy makes a critical error because it’s going to cost the team.”

(On knowing the capabilities of his players) “I think I have a pretty good idea of what they can do.  It’s hard to just put it all out there in five to eight series.  I know more and feel better about what I see everyday in practice and I have a pretty good idea of what we’re going to do in the Denver game because we spent a quite a bit of time working on our opening opponents.  You still want to execute the basic plays.  Those aren’t plays that we don’t intend to execute and do well, but there’s got to be a certain level of confidence or leap of faith.  I feel very confident that it is going to be the case.  It’s just hard.  It was hard for me last year at Miami to feel the same way.  I was standing here three games into the preseason after playing Pittsburgh after our offense had turned the ball over eight times on the road.  At Pittsburgh I think we may have had 120 yards of total offense.  I was trying to have that same pep talk about getting ready for Denver then.  Wondering how we could cross the 50, let alone score.  You just have to know that you’ll have your best players out there to give it your best go.  Lucky for us, we came out and played very well offensively and did really well against a really good Denver team at that time.  It doesn’t mean that’s in store this year.  Every year’s a new year, but I’ve certainly been through it enough.”

(On negative-yardage rushing attempts in the preseason) “That’s been a problem.  It’s hard to overcome negative yards… zero yards, one yard, two yards, that’s going to happen.  The negative yardage play is something we have to eliminate.  It’s one thing to have a sack, but we can’t have those plays where we lose yardage on a run.  Lets say you get an efficient run on first down, you think you’re going to put yourself in third-and-short, then you lose yards on the next call, then you run it again… that’s not acceptable, I think that’s going to be a real point we’re going to hit hard with our team.  There’s going to times where teams stop the run, but we certainly don’t want to back up.  We’ve got to figure out what we’ve got to do to eliminate that problem.  I think the fact of having Isaac (Bruce) and Torry (Holt) on the field will help us get some good looks running the ball once we get into the regular season, just because of our ability to throw it.  There’s going to be times when people know we’re running it, or think we’re running it, and they’re going to come through, but we can’t back up.”

(On WR Shaun McDonald as a punt returner) “Well he’s a fast guy, but he’s quick.  I think he’s both.  He’s got the ability to turn a return into a first down because he’s got the ability to make the first guy miss.  His devotion to it this whole off-season.  It’s something that he wants to do, his whole approach has been that this is a way that he feels he can really help this team, and that helps me as well.  He’s had a few returns here, and he hasn’t done anything to make me think he’s not going to be very good at it.  I feel very comfortable with him there, I think we’ve still got to get those other guys a little bit of work there and we’ve got to come up with a kick returner.”

(On the kick returner spot) “I don’t know what we’re going to do there.  I think we’re going to keep working the guys we have.  I think DeJuan’s (Groce) an option, but right now we’re still getting him established in that secondary rotation.  That’s where we started and that’s how we’re going to finish with him.  He’s certainly got a background in it, and it would be an option, but right now we’re exhausting every possibility.”

(On RB Paul Smith’s performance against Kansas City) “I’m not sure Paul’s healthy.  He didn’t look himself in this game, and he’s no different than anyone else in that it certainly wasn’t his best game in the preseason.  But he’s a guy that came back, hasn’t been 100%.  He just didn’t look like himself.  I’d be surprised if we see that kind of performance from him again.”

(On the cuts he must make to get the roster down to 75 players) “We’re going to meet again tonight.  I think we’ll get to our 75 by the morning.”

(On the offense coming together) “I don’t know if there’s confusion.  I think it takes a while to get a feel for how I’m going to call the game, where we go, what types of plays we run in situations.  It takes a while.  It’s really hard because I’ve seen so much more growth in practice.  You get in the game, you get one or two shots and if you don’t take advantage of them, then you don’t really get to go out and fix them in the second quarter or third quarter.  There was a point last night where I was asking Henry (Ellard) who the ‘Z’ and ‘X’ were… that’s really not the rhythm you want to be in.”

(On showing other teams what kind of team the Rams will be this season through preseason games) “We didn’t show them much.  I’m more concerned with what we do in the early season, what people see off the film.  What people do is they break down when the ‘ones’ play, and they factor that into their breakdown.  For us specifically, they have to use preseason games to base their game plan.  It would be not wise, in my opinion, to give them an idea of exactly how you might attack a team that plays a similar defense to who you play in the opener or second or third game.  One of the things we got out of the Chiefs was that they gave us some things that were a little new.  We adjusted in the second half, but it caused some adjustments on the sideline as far as what they hadn’t shown.  I’m glad they did it now, as opposed to when we play them again, but I’m sure they will have shown that by then.”

(On not playing QBs Ryan Fitzpatrick and Dave Ragone against Kansas City) “It kind of went that way.  I told both Ryan and Dave that they were going to play a lot more in the next game.  I’m primarily going to play Marc (Bulger) in the first half and the first series of the second half, and then have Gus (Frerotte) finish out the game, possibly have one or both play, but in this particular game, I just made the decision to let Gus finish the game and give those guys more looks in this next one.”

(On playing T Orlando Pace against Kansas City) “We were going to bring him out in the middle of the second quarter, maybe earlier.  I told Paul (Boudreau) to leave him in there for 10-15 more plays to get the work.  He missed the game before so he needed the work, he needed the time.  We needed to get him more than a quarter based on how many plays we had in the first quarter.”

(On LB Drew Wahlroos not playing against Kansas City) “His only setback is, what this injury is, he has such a hard time playing with this big, cumbersome cast on.  He can’t really be as effective in special teams, and certainly is limited in his ability to play ‘Sam’ linebacker and play in coverage and not be able to use that hand, it’s hard on linebackers.  He was available in case we had some kind of injury in the game, but we weren’t going to play him unless something happened.”

(On going with white pants with the white jerseys at Kansas City) “You know what?  I kind of did like them.  Regardless of the outcome of the game, I think there’s a future with them.  We wanted something a little different.  I make reference a lot to tradition, and a lot of the tradition is combining the Rams organization to the city of St. Louis.  The old Rams uniform was an all-white version.  I like the all-white, that’s one thing I really liked at Miami, was our all-white uniform look.  I remember growing up watching the West Coast version of the Rams in all-white uniforms.  I just said that I want to have a combination of our St. Louis Rams colors and the all-white Rams look from years ago and see what it looks like.  I thought it looked pretty decent.  It’d be good for hot-weather games.  It was something that he veteran core of players that I meet with occasionally had on their mind when we were talking about subtle changes we could make.”