By Nick Wagoner
Senior Writer

Already without top running back Steven Jackson the past two weeks, the Rams will be without their top offensive lineman for at least the next two weeks and possibly the rest of the season.

Left tackle Orlando Pace will miss two to four weeks with what coach Jim Haslett is calling a grade-two sprain of his medial collateral ligament.

Pace could be healed from the injury in the next few weeks but with just six weeks left, Haslett said he will speak with Pace in the coming days to discuss potential options for Pace, including his potential placement on the injured reserve list for the third consecutive season.

“That is something that we will have to discuss,” Haslett said. “But right now he is 2-4 (weeks) so I am going to talk to Orlando and see what he thinks.”

Pace said after the game that he suffered a similar injury in 2001 but that injury wasn’t as painful as the one he suffered in Sunday’s game against the 49ers.

Pace suffered the injury with about a minute and a half left in the first quarter when San Francisco linebacker Takeo Spikes’ leg accidentally whipped into the back of Pace’s right knee.

Adam Goldberg replaced Pace and will do so for however long Pace might be out with Alex Barron staying on the right side.

Pace, of course, spent most of the past two seasons on injured reserve because of shoulder and biceps injuries. Earlier this season, Pace missed the game against Dallas because of a slight tear in his quadriceps.

Now, it remains to be seen if he will play again this year.

“At this point, you've almost got to laugh about it,” Pace said. “It's been a frustrating last few years for me."

Goldberg and the rest of the offensive line will once again be blocking for backup running backs Antonio Pittman, Kenneth Darby and Travis Minor as Haslett has already ruled out a potential return for Jackson this week.

Jackson didn’t make the trip to San Francisco because of a quad injury that has hampered him for the past month. Jackson took the opportunity to get a second opinion on the injury and was told the same thing he already knew: that he has a strained quad.

“He has a strain with a little bit of blood in it and it is going to take some time to heal,” Haslett said. “He thought that he should take some time off also and let it heal and rest. I just go with the people that understand that. The trainers, I trust their judgment.”

Pittman started in place of Jackson against the 49ers and rushed for 95 yards on 14 carries. Darby also had success, catching eight passes for 83 yards to go with his 26 rushing yards on seven attempts.

Darby suffered a rib injury but is expected to be day to day.

“I thought the running game did all right,” Haslett said. “It was a shame that we got behind and we could not keep running it. We had 126 (yards rushing) and he had 95. I thought, for the most part, he was effective. I thought the running game as a whole was pretty good. When we got behind and with the margin that we got behind, it really did not make a difference.”

BULGER REMAINS: After sticking with quarterback Marc Bulger this week despite his struggles, Haslett indicated after the game that some thought would be given to potentially making the switch to Trent Green as his signal caller this week.

Haslett met with the offensive coaching staff to discuss the change on Monday morning and decided that Bulger will stay in place as the starter.

“We’re going to stick with Marc just based off of what we saw on film,” Haslett said. “He had a couple bad plays, but for the most part we had a bad seven plays in a nine minute span. Besides that he threw the ball pretty well and made good decisions.”

Bulger finished 34-of-53 for 295 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions. He also fumbled an exchange with center Nick Leckey, a play Leckey took the blame on after the game.

Haslett said the decision to stick with Bulger comes down to myriad factors.

“With Marc, I think it’s a little bit of everything,” Haslett said. “I think we have to do what we feel is best for the organization. If you have somebody that steps in, is he going to step in for the whole time? Or if he goes bad are you going to replace him and put Marc back in? You kind of have to take everything into account. Just talking to all of the offensive coaches upstairs they felt that Marc right now still gives us our best chance to win.”

BARTELL OK: Perhaps the best news to come from Monday’s series of MRIs was the development that cornerback Ron Bartell wasn’t as injured as first thought.

After the game, Haslett said the early return was that Bartell had torn meniscus in his knee after he got his knee caught below a pile on a cut block. But Haslett said Monday that Bartell’s MRI showed no tear and he will be day to day this week leading up to Sunday’s game against Chicago.

“It wasn’t a torn meniscus or a bone bruise so we just have to take it day-to-day and see how he is,” Haslett said. “It is a soft tissue injury.”

INJURY REPORT: As of early Monday evening, the Rams were still waiting on results from an MRI for right guard Richie Incognito, who injured his right shoulder against the 49ers.

If Incognito can’t play this week, Haslett indicated that John Greco would get the start in his place. Greco suffered a knee injury in practice last week but appears to be fine and will be day to day this week.

“We will see how he is,” Haslett said. “He hurt his knee last week and I think he should be able to practice this week. If Richie can’t go this week, I would expect him to be the starter over there. He will be up one way or another. We were going to bring him up this week but he got hurt on Friday.”

Elsewhere on the injury front, the Rams are expecting to start getting some injured players back in the fold.

Cornerback Tye Hill (knee) will begin running again this week and defensive end Eric Moore (neck) will return to practice while receiver Derek Stanley (ankle) and linebackers Pisa Tinoisamoa (ankle) and Will Witherspoon came through out of the game OK.

Defensive tackle La’Roi Glover has a torn meniscus in his knee that he’s been playing through. Haslett said he expects that to continue.

Linebacker Chris Draft (foot) will miss another week or two.

STRANGE CALL: With 1:36 left in the third quarter, Bulger completed a pass down the sideline to rookie receiver Donnie Avery for 29 yards. The Rams hurried to the line to attempt to get a play off before San Francisco could challenge whether Avery was in bounds or not when he caught the ball.

But the referee stood over the ball for an extended period and the Rams couldn’t get it off before the 49ers could challenge.

A visibly upset Haslett drew a penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct as he argued.

“That was against me,” Haslett said. “The referee was standing over the football and I was telling him to get off the ball so we could snap the ball. They were throwing the challenge, we were in, and the referee was standing over the ball. We were trying to run a play and he was standing over the top of the ball, so I was telling him to get off the ball so we run the play and he throws the flag. Nothing was directed at him. It was directed at him getting off the football, though. I don’t know why it was called. The guy beside me said the same thing.”