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Final

By Nick Wagoner

Senior Writer

 

All it took was an injection of youth for the Rams to find the cure to their first team offensive ailments.

 

With the first extended playing time of the preseason for rookie receivers Donnie Avery and Keenan Burton with the top offensive unit came an offensive outburst well beyond anything that group had done in a preseason game under coach Scott Linehan.

 

With the top offense humming and the defense continuing its domination from last week, the Rams surged to a 24-10 win against Baltimore at the Edward Jones Dome on Saturday night.

 

The Rams improve to 2-1 on the preseason and Baltimore fell to 1-2.

 

“It was a very good outing for our football team,” Linehan said. “I think we took some more strides in the right direction. We looked at these two home games as real key games on our schedule as we were looking into training camp and our progress. We wanted to be about where it is right now. We have a long way to go and all of that stuff but I am very pleased with the effort of our team.”

 

So dynamic was the youthful duo’s connection with a suddenly crisp and sharp Marc Bulger that the Rams posted 17 first half points and 250 yards of total offense.

 

To get the monkey off the horns, though, every step was contested. The first drive of the game held promise but came up short as the Rams settled for a 37-yard field goal from Josh Brown.

 

But with the start of the second quarter came the start of the offensive revelation that everyone had been anticipating.

 

Bulger picked on former Rams cornerback Corey Ivy for three straight completions including a 14-yard strike to Torry Holt and a 15-yard completion to Avery, his first catch of the preseason.

 

Finally, with six minutes left in the second quarter, the streak of 10 consecutive preseason games under Linehan without a touchdown from the first team offense came to an end.

 

Bulger lofted a pass to the right corner of the end zone where Burton had his man beat. Burton laid out heading toward the sideline and hauled it in as his feet dragged behind. The play was ruled incomplete but Linehan was having none of it as he could taste that first touchdown.

 

“I felt like I got my foot down but the eye in the sky never lies,” Burton said.

 

Linehan waited to ensure Burton had the ball and with Burton protesting for the flag to come out, he tossed his red challenge flag. After a lengthy review, Burton had his first NFL touchdown and the touchdown hex was broken.

 

“I said they are really going to make this thing hard (on us),” Linehan said. “Now we have to challenge to get a touchdown. It was good. I thought that was great to see them having the confidence to go to the young kid in the end zone and to have him come down with the ball, it was great.”

 

Getting that little jinx out of the way only made the offense better as Burton and Avery played with the confidence and poise of receivers well beyond their years and Bulger looked like Pro Bowl Bulger for the first time since the end of 2006.

 

Even after having some success, the Rams aren’t getting too high just like they refused to get too low after some struggles in the previous contests.

 

“We really don’t talk about monkeys off our back in the preseason,” Bulger said.  “We still have to do it against Philly so we can’t get too excited about a couple of drives tonight.”

 

Backed up to their 9 with just over two minutes to go in the second quarter, Bulger led another long drive with a string of precision passes.

 

A 12-yard strike to Dane Looker followed by another for 11 yards. After a jaw dropping one-handed grab by Burton was reviewed and ruled incomplete, the Rams went right back to work.

 

Bulger hit Avery for 26 yards down the right sideline after Avery juked his man coverage to the ground. That paved the way to a 19-yard strike to Burton , a 19-yard connection to Avery and another 11-yard hookup to Looker.

 

The wait for the second touchdown didn’t come with as much of a contest as the first as Bulger hit running back Travis Minor in the flat for a 1-yard touchdown and a 17-3 lead going into the locker room.

 

All told, Bulger was 18-of-25 for 182 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions for a rating of 119.1. And to be sure, he could just as easily have completed about five of those incompletions were it not for drops.

 

“I think he put a lot of pressure on himself sometimes and the pressure to perform,” Linehan said. “In this case, I just think it was a matter of him going out and relaxing, having fun and getting that smile back on his face. I saw that tonight. I think the way the offensive line played had something to do with that. He looked like his old self to me.”

 

 

When the Rams drafted Burton and Avery in the fourth and second rounds of this year’s NFL Draft, they did it with the idea that they could stretch the field and infuse the offense with some youthful exuberance.

 

Although it took a while for that duo to get on the field at the same time because of Avery’s pelvic bone injury and Burton ’s tendonitis, the pair made more than just a strong first impression against the Ravens.

 

They weren’t perfect as Avery had a few drops and Burton mishandled one of his own but when it was over, Burton had three catches for 63 yards with a touchdown and Avery added five catches for 65 yards.

 

“The good thing about them is when they make a mistake, they come right back and try to make a play and they want to learn,” Bulger said. “It’s not something where they get discouraged so they are good kids first and they have a heck of a lot of talent. I think we saw what both of them can do in different situations. I’m glad we didn’t just put those guys in for one or two series, we got to see them throughout the game.”

 

The backup offense even got into the act as Brock Berlin was sharp once again in relief of Bulger. Berlin pieced together a nice drive in the third quarter, a drive capped by Lance Ball’s 5-yard touchdown burst for a 24-10 lead.

 

Berlin is competing with Bruce Gradkowski for the third signal caller spot and continues to shine in the preseason. He finished eight-of-11 for 99 yards.

 

“I thought it was great how after they came out and scored to open the third quarter, we came right back and responded,” Linehan said.

 

Gradkowski took over in the fourth and struggled a bit, going three-of-five for 17 yards with an interception. The offense picked up 411 yards of offense in the win.

 

The defense, meanwhile, built on its momentum from last week by continuing a streak of its own. The top unit did not allow a touchdown in either of the first two games despite being backed into difficult spots on multiple occasions.

 

That group performed well again, finally ceding a touchdown in the one possession it played in the third quarter. But the first half flashed more glimpses of the pressure the defensive line can create combined with solid secondary play.

 

The Ravens mustered just 76 yards in the half and quarterback Joe Flacco was just four-of-13 for 33 yards. Things didn’t get much better in the second half as the Ravens finished the game with just 209 yards, averaging 3.7 yards per play.

 

“We feel pretty good,” defensive end Leonard Little said. “We know it’s not the regular season. We’re just trying to work on our vanilla package. We didn’t really blitz or anything like that. We’re just trying to work on the little stuff we need to do to be successful during the season.”

 

The Rams will now turn their attention to the final preseason contest Thursday against Kansas City with an eye toward the regular season.

 

“We are getting ready,” Linehan said. “We have a lot of things we have got to get done. We have another preseason game to play. Our roster will need to be set. Some guys are battling for those final couple of roster spots. There are a lot of guys that have a good idea they are going to make this football team. I think that makes sense but there’s a few things going on still that we need to get done here. I’d like us to take some really good strides leading up to this last preseason game. Then I think we will be close to being ready.”

 

 

 

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