Blitz fits

ST. LOUIS -- The St. Louis Rams were vulnerable to the blitz all season, and the bye week gave the coaching staff extra time to deal with it.

The Rams gave up 43 sacks this season, tied for fourth-highest in the NFL. The vast majority of the sacks came on blitzes, including all four in their 30-20 loss at Detroit in the regular-season finale.

"In the protections, we had an awful lot of mental errors," coach Mike Martz said. "We had some simple dogs and blitzes that are routine basically, that we had guys not pick up."

The result was a rough game physically for quarterback Marc Bulger. Martz wanted to get backup Kurt Warner in the game anyway for his first action since the season opener, but the punishment Bulger was taking added to the urgency in the fourth quarter.

Bulger lost fumbles on two of the sacks. Tight end Brandon Manumaleuna has struggled against the blitz all year.

"We just had some things happen on three different occasions, and two of them resulted in sack-fumbles where they were just assignment errors," Martz said. "That should never happen, but it did and it was very indicative throughout the team."

The loss knocked the Rams (12-4) out of home-field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs, a scenario that helped them advance to the Super Bowl in 1999 and 2001. They're the No. 2 seed behind the Eagles and will play either Carolina, Seattle or Green Bay in the second round of the playoffs next Saturday in St. Louis.

The Rams have won a franchise-record 14 in a row at home and just completed their second unbeaten season at home since moving to St. Louis in 1995.

"Against anyone but Philly, we have a home field advantage," Bulger said. "We have come too far to let this ruin our season."

Martz gave players the week off except for running and lifting on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Players also had a team meeting on Friday morning.

Wide receiver Isaac Bruce (ankle) and linebacker Robert Thomas (groin) are expected to return when the team resumes practicing either Monday or Tuesday. Bruce missed the Bengals game Dec. 21 and played despite the injury at Detroit, although he had no catches and finished the year 19 yards shy of his fifth straight 1,000-yard season.

"The players are, to say the least, very disappointed," Martz said. "We're ready to move. We've got to put that one to bed and move on."