By Nick Wagoner
Senior Writer
CLEVELAND – Rams coach Steve Spagnuolo made it clear what he wanted to see from in his team’s second preseason game.
Asked Thursday afternoon what he hoped to get out of the game against the Browns, Spagnuolo immediately mentioned that he wanted his team to get off to a fast start in Cleveland.
And the Rams gave him exactly what he wanted in putting together a strong first quarter and finishing with a flourish on the way to a 19-17 win at Cleveland Browns Stadium on Saturday night.
“It was good to see the team come out strong early like we talked about,” Spagnuolo said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s a preseason game or not when they keep score and you win, that’s a good thing so I think the team feels good about that.”
The Rams improved to 1-1 on the exhibition slate while the Browns fell to the same mark.
One week after the Rams offense failed to put any points on the board in the opener against Minnesota, they wasted no time in marching down the field and punching it in with a little help from a familiar face.
After the Browns won the toss and elected to receive, the Rams top defense picked up where it left off against the Vikings.
In the wet and rainy conditions in Cleveland, the Browns had trouble handling the ball and the defense came up with a quick three and out to get the ball into the hands of quarterback 
Against Minnesota, the offense struggled with pass protection, allowing six sacks and failed to find a rhythm.
Feeley wasted no time finding his, hitting tight end
With Jackson in the backfield and an offensive line with the five projected starters in place for the first time, the Rams confidence soared before they even stepped on the field.
“That’s the kind of boost…that’s what he is,” Spagnuolo said. “He’s one of the best players on our football team and to have him out there, I think the offensive line feels better about it, I think the quarterback does, I mean everybody does. We certainly look forward to having him.”
Suddenly, the Rams had some rhythm and Feeley continued to spread the ball around, finishing the drive with a 9-yard touchdown pass to tight end
The score gave the Rams a 7-0 lead on a drive that covered 65 yards on 10 plays in a little more than five minutes.
It was the type of drive that clearly increased the confidence of the offense across the board. Feeley was five-of-six for 45 yards with the touchdown and Jackson racked up 20 yards on four carries.
The news wasn’t all good as Feeley injured his right thumb and elbow midway through the series and had to leave the game.
Feeley said after the game his X rays came back negative and he was confident he’d be able to play next week against the Patriots.
“On the first drive, I liked the tempo,” Feeley said. “I wanted to finish the first quarter but with the injury I couldn’t. I think we’re getting better, which is what you want to do in the preseason. We hope to build on that and continue to improve. We’re showing improvement. We’re not where we want to be, but we’re headed in the right direction.”
Meanwhile, the first defensive unit continued to have the success it did last week. On the Browns’ second possession, the defense didn’t even wait for three downs to get the ball back to the offense.
This time, Cleveland quarterback Jake Delhomme again had trouble handling a snap and lost the ball. Defensive tackle
The defense followed with another three and out as Robbins came up with a sack on third down to again get it back for the offense.
All told, in the first quarter, the Rams defense came up with two three and outs, a fumble recovery and a sack in holding Cleveland to 50 yards of offense. The Browns didn’t get their first first down until there were 42 seconds left in the opening quarter.
For the game as a whole, the Rams allowed just 98 yards on 27 carries, an average of 3.6 per attempt and finished with four sacks, an interception and a fumble recovery.
“It felt good, just coming out and trying to improve from last week,” Robbins said. “We did some good things last week, but we had a lot of little mistakes we had to clean up. That was our focus today, to come out and play hard, eliminate some of our mistakes and play our football.”
As for rookie quarterback
Of course, that was tested further with the addition of the slippery outdoor conditions in Cleveland on Saturday night. But after one bobble early in his time, Bradford was able to improve and handle the ball clean the rest of the night.
Bradford played about the same amount of snaps as he did last week and finished his night six-of-14 for 24 yards.
“Obviously, I would have liked to have had some more completions out there tonight,” Bradford said. “I felt like I struggled a bit early but once I settled down, I made some smart decisions and for the most part I was in the right place with the ball.”
While the Rams got off to a hot start on offense and defense, their special teams might have made the biggest difference of all. In addition to the two fumble recoveries the punt team came up with, kicker Josh Brown nailed four field goals to provide the bulk of the offense.
Brown, who has been limited or missed practice for most of the past week and a half with a sore hip, opted to play this week after missing last week’s game.
Brown was busy right away, kicking an extra point and two field goals in the first quarter alone, not to mention four kickoffs.
But Brown made the most of his chances and booted a 28-yard field goal in the closing minutes to secure the win.
“He was ready to go,” Spagnuolo said. “I thought maybe we would have to limit the area we kick field goals but he said ‘Coach, I am fine” at the beginning of the game.”
The Rams have a short turnaround this week, getting back to action on Thursday night when they travel to New England to play the Patriots.
