In his second season in St. Louis, Joe Barksdale has established himself as the Rams’ super sub on the offensive line. This Sunday, that role could expand a bit more.

After appearing briefly in the season opener, Barksdale was pressed into action Sunday after right tackle Rodger Saffold left the game with a knee injury. If Saffold remains out of the lineup this week, Barksdale would embrace the opportunity to start.

“You look forward to it a lot,” Barksdale said. “Any way you can help the team progress and win games and gain yards, you look forward to doing that, whether it’s one play or 60. Between coming in for guys when they go down and short-yardage goal line plays, things of that nature, that’s what I do.”

Quarterback Sam Bradford was more than comfortable with Barksdale’s work last Sunday, and credits the third-year pro’s experiences from last year for paying dividends.

“Joe did great,” Bradford said. “He’s been in that situation before, he was thrown into a similar situation coming off the bench last year. He prepares every week like he’s going to step onto the field, so I think he did a really good job. It’s not easy to step into a game cold like that.”

Injury Report: OT Rodger Saffold (knee), DE William Hayes (hip), DE Eugene Sims (foot), CB Cortland Finnegan (nose), Mike McNeill (chest), G Chris Williams (foot), S Darian Stewart (thigh), CB Quinton Pointer (thigh), RB Daryl Richardson (foot) and DE Chris Long (hip) did not practice Wednesday.

News and Notes:

-With the next two games in a five-day span, Head Coach Jeff Fisher has been mindful of planning this week of practice and contouring his plans to best serve his players for both games.

“We talked about it with the team late Monday what our plans were, that we need to not look past the Cowboys, but understand what the challenges are with the short week next week,” Fisher said.

-DE Robert Quinn is tied for second in the NFL with 4.0 sacks. Quinn weighed in on the challenge of putting pressure on Cowboys QB Tony Romo this week:

“Tony, he’s of course an elusive quarterback,” Quinn said. “They get the ball out fast, and you can’t underrate his arm or he’ll throw it all around the field. As a defensive line, we have to get pressure on him and make him make the difficult throw with pressure in his face.”