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Rams Rest Starters

Thursday, August 28, 2008

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By Nick Wagoner
Senior Writer

KANSAS CITY – In keeping with the tradition of the fourth preseason game, the Rams opted to rest all but one of their starters Thursday night against the Chiefs.

Trent Green, making his return to Kansas City where he spent six years of his career, got the start in place of Marc Bulger at quarterback. Coach Scott Linehan previously announced that move but many thought that meant at least a few starters would play on the offensive line to ensure Green’s health.

Instead, all but one of the Rams’ starters got the night off.

"We had been talking a lot," coach Scott Linehan said. "A number of these guys needed a certain amount of snaps and based on some of the elements tonight and the plan to play them a lot tonight anyway, we just went ahead and went with it."

Antonio Pittman started at running back, Dane Looker, Donnie Avery and Keenan Burton started at receiver and Anthony Becht replaced Randy McMichael at tight end.

On the offensive line, the Rams plugged in Adam Goldberg for Orlando Pace at left tackle, Roy Schuening for Jacob Bell at left guard, Nick Leckey at center, John Greco at right guard for Richie Incognito and Mark LeVoir at right tackle in place of Alex Barron.

Leckey was the only starter of that group and he has not been officially named the starter in the middle.

Green played just the first three offensive snaps, handing off twice and throwing an incompletion before calling it a night. Brock Berlin replaced him.

Green wasn’t the only one making just a cameo. Leckey was replaced on the second possession by Donovan Raiola, LeVoir moved to left tackle, Greco moved to right tackle and Dustin Fry entered at right guard.

On defense, the Rams started Victor Adeyanju and Eric Moore at end, Willie Williams and Clifton Ryan at tackle, Marc Magro, Tim McGarigle and Chris Chamberlain at linebacker, Jonathan Wade and David Macklin at cornerback and Eric Bassey and Jerome Carter at safety.

The Chiefs, meanwhile, used almost all of their starters. Tight end Tony Gonzalez and running back Larry Johnson were the only two on offense not to start. On defense, they used all starters except cornerback Patrick Surtain.

Linehan said the opportunity for some of the lesser used players to play a lot and get work against Kansas City's starters was worthwhile.

"It was good," Linehan said. "I'm glad we did it. These guys needed these extra snaps tonight. To give them close to a full game's work gives us a lot more to look at here tomorrow morning."

The Rams open the regular season on Sept. 7 against Philadelphia .

WEATHER PERMITTING: because of the historic happenings in Denver , where Barack Obama was scheduled to make his acceptance speech for the Democratic nomination for President of the United State , the NFL asked all teams to move up the start time of their preseason contests Thursday night.

The Rams and Chiefs were scheduled for a 6 p.m. start in hopes that they’d be done by around 9 p.m. central, when Obama was scheduled to speak.

Both teams got the memo but Mother Nature did not. At around 5:30 , the skies opened up and rain began to pour. More pressing, though, was the staggering amount of thunder and lightning in the area.

Those two elements forced a long delay that pushed the game’s start back. Originally, they had hoped for a 6:45 kickoff but the rain kicked in a again after a short break and the start time was moved to closer to 7:30 .

The players found themselves pacing the hallways and doing anything they could to keep busy.

“You try to keep moving around, talking to a couple guys,” linebacker Quinton Culberson said. “You don’t want to sit back and relax too much. You get a little lazy and then you tend to get sleepy.”

The rain resumed at around 9:15 and 10:10 , this time with no lightning and the game continued as planned.

RADIO REPLACEMENT: Those listening to the Rams Radio broadcast on KLOU Thursday night were likely surprised to not hear the voice of color analyst Jim Hanifan.

Hanifan suffered from some dizziness during dinner Wednesday night and was checked into a Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Peters when the team departed for Kansas City on Thursday afternoon.

The broadcast team looked into getting a former player such as Grant Wistrom to fill in but eventually used former Cardinal offensive lineman Conrad Dobler for the duties.

INJURY REPORT: Rookie receiver Avery suffered a sprained right knee early in the second quarter.

Avery limped off the field and did not return to the game. In the immediate aftermath of the game, Linehan said he didn't believe Avery's injury was too serious.

"I think it's minor but we'll check again tomorrow," Linehan said. "He's had a sprain before. He's a young guy, he should bounce back quickly from it."

Free safety Oshiomogho Atogwe (hamstring), running back Brian Leonard (shoulder), cornerback Fakhir Brown (shoulder), linebacker Will Witherspoon (back), center Brett Romberg (broken hand), tackle Orlando Pace (shoulder), receiver Dante Hall (ankle) and receiver Drew Bennett (groin) were scratched from Thursday’s game.

Running back Steven Jackson remains on the exemption list and did not play. The Rams would have had to pull the exemption and cut a player in order to play him.

That exemption will be pulled in the next day or so, though, as the Rams must cut down to their final 53 players by Saturday afternoon.

LOCAL LINE: Fans in St. Louis hoping to get a look at favorite son Will Franklin were denied the opportunity Thursday night.

The Chiefs drafted the receiver out of Mizzou in the third round of this year’s NFL Draft in hopes he could instantly upgrade a sagging offense.

But Franklin suffered a knee injury and underwent arthroscopic surgery on it last week. The Vashon product was projected to be the Chiefs’ third, possibly second, wide receiver behind Dwayne Bowe.

Instead, he was inactive for Thursday’s game and his return is uncertain.

RAM BITS: No matter which team came out victorious Thursday night, the Governor’s Cup was destined to stay in Kansas City . The trophy is being reworked because the base has become faulty…Because of the weather; the Rams had no use of radios and were forced to signal in plays the high school way…One note of interest: fullback Dan Kreider did not play Thursday night which probably means he’s cemented a spot on the final roster.