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By Nick Wagoner
Senior Writer

The Rams made a habit last season of taking the ball away at every opportunity defensively and hanging on to it as tight as possible offensively.

So far in this preseason, though, the Rams have not had the same success when it comes to the turnover battle. While it didn’t cost them to be minus-three against the Vikings in last week’s victory, it did hurt Saturday night at the Edward Jones Dome.

The Rams turned it over three more times, mostly in critical situations, on the way to a 30-13 loss in the second preseason game.

The loss drops the Rams to 1-1 in the preseason, but the loss was the least of coach Scott Linehan’s concerns. He was more worried about the fact that an offense that had just 18 turnovers and a defense that had 32 takeaways in 2006 is minus-six so far in the preseason.

“We emphasize it and we talk a lot about it,” Linehan said. “There’s no question that we put it (as an emphasis) last year, I think it showed. But we have not executed that in the preseason. It is what it is as they say. We have six turnovers, one being an insignificant one. No matter if it’s five or six it’s still a lot and we haven’t gotten any. That’s got to change.”
 
Saturday night it wasn’t so much that the turnovers happened as where they happened. On two occasions, the Rams had the ball with excellent field position and a chance to come away with points of some kind but came up with nothing. Both times, the first-team offense was on the field.

The Rams’ promising first drive came to an end when fullback Madison Hedgecock coughed up a fumble and the Chargers recovered in their territory. The play was close as Hedgecock appeared to have a knee down before the ball came loose.

Linehan challenged the play, but ultimately it stood as called.

“I felt it was 50/50 and I saw the knee looked like it hit,” Linehan said. “It was too close not to challenge.”

San Diego immediately went to work with running back Michael Turner. Turner gashed the Rams for 31 yards on the drive and quarterback Philip Rivers finished it with a 5-yard touchdown pass to receiver Vincent Jackson. The extra point gave the Chargers a 7-0 lead with 1:42 to go in the quarter.

Another promising drive for the Rams ended with another turnover with just under 12 minutes to go as Bulger looked for Torry Holt in the end zone from San Diego’s 25. But the pass was intercepted by San Diego’s Clinton Hart for a touchback in the back of the end zone.

Bulger took the blame for the interception, saying he probably shouldn’t have tried to lead Holt as much as he did. The first unit called it a day with about six minutes remaining in the half without a score. Bulger finished eight-of-12 for 79 yards.

“Everything is magnified because you only have so many chances, and you know how good you can be, and then you don't show it,” Bulger said. “It's frustrating because you've been working so hard, and you want to show the fans what we know we're capable of. That's the nature of preseason, and we're going to get back to work Monday and correct it.”

The news wasn’t all bad, though, for the Rams offense. The first unit did move the ball well and the team racked up 351 total yards.

While star running backs LaDainian Tomlinson and Steven Jackson essentially did not play at all (Jackson was on the field for one play), Brian Leonard and Michael Turner found themselves working overtime.

Jackson appeared on the first play of the game, but didn’t touch the ball and came off the field at the play’s conclusion. Leonard entered the game immediately and picked up where he left off last week against the Vikings, catching and running with equal aplomb.

But it didn’t take long for the Chargers to figure Leonard out as they put the clamps on the rookie soon after a relatively hot start. Leonard finished his day with 17 carries for 49 yards and two catches for 18 yards.

Turner did his part to fill Tomlinson’s shoes, working the entire first half and finishing his day with nine carries for 48 yards.

After a three and out behind backup Gus Frerotte, San Diego’s Darren Sproles broke the game open with an 81-yard punt return for a touchdown and a 14-0 lead. The return came on a 54-yard punt from Donnie Jones, but the middle of the field opened up and Sproles squirted past Jones on his way to the end zone.

The poor performance from the coverage units in general also had Linehan concerned after the game.

“They blocked us pretty good,” Linehan said. “Sproles made a great play on the return, that’s what he did in college, that’s why they have him on the team. I think what happened was No. 1 they blocked us and No. 2 we were stopping on contact which we didn’t do last year. There’s a lot of learning and teaching to come off of that.” 

The Rams got a spark at the end of the half as Frerotte hit Marques Hagans for a 34-yard gain to put the Rams in position for a potential score before the half at San Diego's 35. Frerotte hit Leonard for a gain of 9 to set up Kevin Lovell's 44-yard field goal attempt to end the half. Lovell connected and the Rams trail 14-3 at the end of the half.

The Chargers added six more points as Billy Volek hit rookie tight end Scott Chandler for an 8-yard touchdown to make it 20-6 San Diego.

St. Louis responded quickly with a drive of its own, spurred by a deep completion to Drew Bennett that set up a 7-yard touchdown grab by Marques Hagans.

With 12:04 to go, Frerotte hit receiver Drew Bennett down the middle for 34 yards. Bennett took a vicious shot and was down for about a minute before walking off on his own power. That was the biggest scare of the game for the Rams.

After Bennett left the game, the offense seemed to pick it up as Hagans continued his strong preseason and even better game with a 7-yard touchdown catch. Lovell converted the extra point to cut San Diego’s lead to 20-13 with 8:26 to play.

But San Diego pulled away again as running back Germaine Race scored from 13 yards out and kicker Nate Kaeding converted the third turnover of the night (a Brock Berlin thrown interception) into three points for the final margin.