By Nick Wagoner
Senior Writer

Regardless of Sunday afternoon outcomes, the 2009 Rams won’t have much opportunity to get too high or too low based on what happened the previous day.

A little less than 24 hours after his team dropped a 28-0 decision to the Seahawks, Rams coach Steve Spagnuolo wanted to make it clear to his team and everybody else that the vision in the tunnel will only be focused on the here and now and not on ghosts of football seasons past or future.

“I told the team this morning that we all should be upset that we lost because we are not going to accept losing,” Spagnuolo said. “But we don’t get frustrated, we don’t get down, we just get the mistakes corrected that led to the losing and then we move on to Washington. Today, it’s focus on the football and get the things corrected that we made mistakes on and once today is over the whole focus will go on Washington.”

From the time he arrived in St. Louis back in January, that message of moving forward has been one Spagnuolo has emphasized.

Even in the aftermath of Sunday’s game, Spagnuolo and many of the players in the locker room talked at length about identifying the mistakes and correcting them but also finding the positives and accentuating them as well.

During Monday’s team meetings and film sessions, Spagnuolo again conveyed that message to the team.

“I told the guys this morning also that we are only concerned with the 2009 Rams,” Spagnuolo said. “The 2009 Rams stand on their own. It has nothing to do with teams coming forward or any teams going backward. It is all just about the 2009 Rams and we lost a football game. We lost one football game. We figure out ways and why it happened and we move on to the next team.”

The Rams did just that after taking the small time frame to figure out what happened against Seattle on Monday morning according to linebacker James Laurinaitis.

“There’s a lot of coaching going on, teaching,” Laurinaitis said. “That’s the important thing. You go over the things that need obvious correction and you put those aside then go to the film and evaluate things. You congratulate guys on plays that they did well and correct ones they didn’t. Then after it’s over, it’s over. You go out and correct them on the field and the next thing you know you are already focused on Washington.”

Correcting mistakes is a normal occurrence in NFL meeting rooms on Monday afternoons but it also is limited to those rooms in many cities across the league. Spagnuolo and his staff take an approach similar to the ones used in his time in Philadelphia and with the Giants in New York.

After watching the film and picking up those miscues, the team retreated to the indoor practice facility at the Russell Training Center and literally walked through the errors with the coaches in attendance.

That process is new to the Rams but one that safety Oshiomogho Atogwe said is necessary to get everybody on the same page so the same mistakes don’t happen again.

“It’s important to correct the mistakes from last game and the more times you walk through it and get visual reps at it, it should sink into a player’s head,” Atogwe said.

At the top of the list of things to correct on Monday was the team’s penchant for taking silly penalties. The Rams were flagged 10 times for 85 yards against the Seahawks with many of those flags effectively killing offensive drives in the first half.

Using that as an example, Spagnuolo and the players spent plenty of time Monday hammering out the details of those penalties and emphasizing the need to maintain focus and composure while still bringing the passion, desire and competitive drive he wants to see from his players.

Speaking in a noticeably upbeat locker room, linebacker David Vobora echoed the sentiments of the head coach.

“We are not concerned with anything but the right now and right now we are on to Washington week,” Vobora said. “We have made our corrections; we just finished that in the indoor. Now it’s on to the Redskins. That’s week one. We lost a game and move on. We learn from it and we improve a whole lot more to week two.”

On the positive side, the Rams looked at their continued ability to get takeaways as something they can hang their hat on for the future. The defense came up with three turnovers while the Rams only gave it up once, on a fumble by kick returner Donnie Avery to open the game.

But unlike the preseason when the Rams regularly converted those golden opportunities created by those takeaways into points, they came up empty against the Seahawks. More often than not, that was a product of the aforementioned penalties killing drives.

Still, while getting takeaways can be fickle, there’s no doubting it’s still something that can alter games and change results. More often than not, a team that’s plus 2 in turnover margin is going to get a win.

Defensive end Leonard Little says while the takeaways are a good thing, the defense will never be satisfied.

“We are a total team,” Little said. “Sometimes it doesn’t go the way we want it to go. We have got to get more turnovers. We got two or three turnovers; we have just got to get more. If it takes us getting seven or eight turnovers, whatever it takes. We are a team and we have got those guys backs just like they have got ours. We just want to go out and play another series and try to get another turnover for our offense.”

With the corrections made and the film broken down and the grades handed out, the Rams were already taking the advice of rapper Jay-Z and had moved on to the next one.

The coaching staff is already in game mode for this week’s game against Washington and the opponent tape will be available to players to come in and get a sneak peak on Tuesday morning.

By Wednesday, the intent is to have any memories of the Seattle game long since washed away. In other words, the only short term memory these Rams should have under Spagnuolo are from earlier in the same day.

“I’m just worried about the 2009 Rams,” Spagnuolo said. “That’s the only way I know how to do it. It’s what I’ve been from. It’s what I believe you have to do. You put things behind you and you move on. You can’t do it any other way.”