ST. LOUIS -- For a month, the Rams couldn't figure out what was wrong with them.
|  | | Marshall Faulk begins to celebrate the first of his four rushing TDs. |
Torry Holt was dropping passes. Marshall Faulk babied a sore knee and shoulder. Kurt Warner was rusty coming off a broken pinky. And the defense? Well, let's stick to more positive things. Rams coach Mike Martz couldn't pinpoint the troubles that caused his Rams to drop four of five games and face the possibility of not making the playoffs.
They should have realized the symptoms. The modern day Fun Bunch couldn't function well in the No Fun League, which fines celebrations in the end zone. On Thursday, the Rams decided to dig into their pockets, pay fines for celebrations and flat out have fun again. The result was a 40-29 blowout of the Minnesota Vikings that brought the "Bob 'N Weave" back into the league.
You remember the "Bob 'N Weave," the symbol of last year's Rams Super Bowl run. After a touchdown last season, five or six Rams offensive players formed a circle, bent over, pumped their arms and shouted their motto, "Gotta Go To Work." It was innocent. It was fun. The Competition Committee, led ironically by Vikings coach Dennis Green, treated it as a punishable offense, fining players $2,500 a "Bob." Five Rams received those fines after a touchdown in Week 3 against the 49ers, so they stopped.
"This team is about emotion," Warner said. "When we show and play with emotion, that's when we play our best. I called the players in the other day and told them that we need to get that back. I could care less if we do the Bob 'N Weave, but I told them if we do the Bob 'N Weave and get fined, it's on me."
Figuring Warner signed a seven-year, $46.5 million contract this summer, he's good for the debt. Since Thursday, Rams offensive players itched for the end zone show. A strength coach from Southern University showed up at Thursday's practice, gave a pep talk and led a "Gotta Go To Work" chant.
The energy carried through to pregame warm-ups and seeing Green, the co-chairman of the Competition Committee, on the sidelines inspired them more and more. So, they got to work.
Warner carved up a strange 3-4 Vikings defensive alignment by hitting six consecutive completions against a defense in which basically
eight players dropped into zone coverages. The 80-yard drive was completed by the first of four Faulk touchdown runs and the first Bob 'N Weave.
"It's good to get that swagger back," Holt said. "Obviously, it was a concentration thing. Nobody stopped us all year, but we stopped
ourselves. We honed in on our skills in practices and got back to basics. But the swagger came back today. That's the way we are."
On the next possession, Warner, who was 7-for-7 for 75 yards on the first drive aided by Az-Zahir Hakim's 35-yard punt return, completed two passes and set up a another short Faulk touchdown run. The Rams led 14-0, and Warner was down roughly $32,500 from two sets of celebrations involving roughly 13 individual, some repeat offenders.
"It's about expressing yourself," said Faulk, who expressed his MVP credentials by rushing for 135 yards on 25 carries and a team-record four rushing touchdowns. "If you look at every other sport, after you make a good dunk in the NBA, you get to express yourself. It doesn't hinder or slow down the game. This game is high impact. It's emotion.
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If I've got to pay a fine to get this team back to where we are capable of playing, then fine. ” |
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— Kurt Warner, Rams quarterback |
"Sometimes, a person on the other side is better than you, stronger
than you, faster than you, but your emotion tends to go and make you play
better. Sometimes, you've got to ride that."
Don't misconstrue the Rams' message here. This wasn't a freedom of speech symposium being held in the TWA Dome on Sunday. They are fighting for their playoff lives, and they face a tough closing schedule which forces them to beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New Orleans Saints on the road to ensure making the playoffs.
The Rams rode the emotional high to rip apart the Vikings' defense for 508 yards on 66 plays. It was a repeat performance of the Rams' 49-37 playoff victory last season.
"If I've got to pay a fine to get this team back to where we are capable of playing, then fine," Warner said.
Sunday's game should send shockwaves through the NFL. A week ago, Warner, playing his first game since breaking his right pinky, threw four interceptions in a 16-3 loss to the Carolina Panthers. Coach Mike Martz said Faulk would be back close to full form three weeks following arthroscopic knee surgery.
The Vikings game was the third week. He's back.
So is Holt, who admits he's been in a midseason funk. Friends even started worrying about him. A high-school friend sent him a letter advising him to go out and have fun again on the field. He sensed that Holt wasn't having a good time.
"There were times at night I couldn't sleep because I was anxious getting up and getting back to work," Holt said. "I wanted to get back on the Jugs machine to catch some passes. I focused really strong this week and came in and caught a lot of balls off the jugs machine."
The third key was Warner. He was the old Warner in practices where maybe two or three passes a day hit the ground. Everything else went into the hands of receivers. In the first half, Warner, who completed his first 11 attempts, hit 18 of 21 passes for 219 yards in opening a 20-7 lead.
What the Rams did was learn a huge lesson. As Super Bowl champs, they are big targets. Teams gear their seasons toward beating them, and the Rams can't peak their energy every week. They became sloppy, committing 14 turnovers in a three-game losing streak.
"We had a great week of practice," wide receiver Ricky Proehl said. "We could feel the energy and enthusiasm in the pregame warm-ups and in the locker room. We needed it because it was a must win."
Proehl had dinner in a St. Louis restaurant and ran into August Busch IV, who learned that the Bob 'N Weave was coming back. Busch promised to pay all fines. All they had to worry about was having a good time.
John Clayton is the senior NFL writer for ESPN.com.
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VIDEO
  Marshall Faulk talks with ESPN's Andrea Kremer after scoring a team-record four rushing touchdowns. wav: 360 kRealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6 ESPN's Andrea Kremer catches up with QB Kurt Warner after the Rams victory. wav: 633 kRealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6 |
