Linehan knows many people want him gone

ST. LOUIS -- Normally a soft-spoken type in news conferences, St. Louis Rams coach Scott Linehan barely could contain his emotions during a postgame diatribe Sunday describing the team's shortcomings.

Having vented all that frustration, he opted to think positive a day later and somewhat weakly forecast success for this weekend as 10-point underdogs at Seattle.

"In my mind, we're going to beat Seattle," Linehan said Monday. "I'm not making any guarantees. In my mind we're going to beat Seattle and we're going to right this ship, OK, because we don't have a choice.

"I don't have a choice and neither does anybody else around here."

The Rams (0-2) have lost five in a row by an average score of 40-15 dating to last season and have yet to run a play inside the opponent's 20 this year.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Bernie Miklasz called for the resignations of Linehan and general manager Jay Zygmunt after Sunday's fourth-quarter collapse in a 41-13 loss to the New York Giants. The opening 38-3 loss at Philadelphia was a start-to-finish mismatch.

"When you don't win games, people are going to want the head coach's head. That's the way it works," Linehan said. "I've accepted that only as part of the job, but not as part of where we're going."

Jokingly, Linehan said he thought about radically altering the schedule in search of a positive result, perhaps by holding practice at midnight and having players sleep during the day. Seriously, he noted it was pointless to worry about practicing the red zone offense until the Rams get there.

"We could eat baloney sandwiches on Wednesday, penalize the team for not playing very good," Linehan said. "We could try all that stuff. The bottom line is it's how we play on Sunday and what we do when we get in those moments that's going to decide our fate."

Linehan did, however, hint at personnel changes this week. The list of potential candidates could include safety Corey Chavous, cornerback Tye Hill, wide receiver Dane Looker and offensive linemen Richie Incognito and Nick Leckey.

Winning coaches compliment their fallen foes all the time, so such plaudits should be kept in context, but Giants coach Tom Coughlin on Monday saw potential in the Rams.

"They played tough, they played hard," Coughlin said. "They were in position in the fourth quarter to win the game, so I think that they have many talented players. I realize they're 0-2, but they have a talented group."

Linehan was 8-8 in 2006, his first season as a head coach at any level. But the Rams are in the midst of a sorry 3-15 skid dating to last season, and echoes of their 0-8 start last year are lingering with an increasingly hostile fan base. Thus far the addition of offensive coordinator Al Saunders is a flop -- they scored their only touchdown of the season on a fluke play against the Giants.

The offense is 3-for-26 on third-down conversions, quarterback Marc Bulger has been sacked 10 times and Steven Jackson is still rounding into form after a 27-day contract holdout.

The defense has been every bit as shaky, surrendering 963 total yards.

The Giants had six gains of 28 yards or more while foiling the Rams' pregame strategy of controlling the run and stopping Plaxico Burress.

"I think there are some individuals lacking confidence," defensive coordinator Jim Haslett said. "They just need to go out and play."