Martz not about to fret over one loss

ST. LOUIS -- Mike Martz was muted yet defiant a day after questionable decision-making contributed to the St. Louis Rams' opening loss at Denver.

The coach of the team favored to make the Super Bowl for the third time in four years didn't appear worried the Rams, who averaged 31 points last year, have totaled 33 in their last two games, including their Super Bowl loss to the New England Patriots last February.

"We played one game," Martz said Monday. "We played one game. I guess it's over for us. Shoot."

Speaking softly, he refused to second-guess himself about the Rams' failed 4th-and-2 play from the Denver 10 late in the third quarter when a field goal would have tied the score. Instead, Kurt Warner's pass to fullback Chris Hetherington, not exactly among the team's cavalcade of weapons, was incomplete and the Rams never challenged again.

Martz said the Rams had been waiting for that situation all day and emphasized that it was not an emotional decision.

"That's not something that 'Oh boy, gee, I think I'll go for it,"' Martz said. "I just felt like it was right, I didn't bat an eye.

"We're just not going to be afraid to do those things. I trust they'll work out."

If they don't, Martz is not going to let it change his aggressive philosophy.

"When you call a play like that, you can think about all the things that can go wrong, or you can trust that it's going to work," Martz said. "When you stop trusting that those things will work, then you start being more and more conservative, and we're not going to do that."

Martz wouldn't revisit a reverse on the opening kickoff, another play that blew up in his face, either. The exchange from rookie Lamar Gordon to Dexter McCleon wasn't clean and McCleon had to recover the fumble for a shaky start to the game.

"If we don't mishandle the exchange, that's got a chance to be a pretty good one," Martz said.

Gordon also fumbled a kickoff away in the second quarter, although he didn't appear to have been hit particularly hard. He'll be replaced by Terrence Wilkins on kickoffs Sunday against the New York Giants.

"I'd like to see Terrence in there a little bit more," Martz said. "When that ball came out, it was not one of those things where somebody pulled the ball out, and I'm concerned about that."

Martz also wants to use Wilkins as the third wide receiver. He was not used in the offense in the opener because he missed the last two preseason games with injured ribs.

"We had so much in for this initial game plan and he'd missed so much time, it was too hard for him to get caught up in a lot of this stuff," Martz said. "We're going to really concentrate on putting him at one position for a while and get him back in the flow of things."

The Rams' clock management, a persistent problem under Martz, also drew heavy criticism. They took their time moving downfield for a field goal by Jeff Wilkins with 2:12 to go and quarterback Kurt Warner called the last timeout with 3:10 to play, leaving the team helpless at the finish.

"We were trying to take the ball down field basically on every snap and were forced into checkdowns," Martz said. "Otherwise, we'd have liked to have gotten big chunks."

Not all was bad news on Monday. The injury report was brief: Middle linebacker Jamie Duncan may play this week wearing a cast on two dislocated fingers and tight end Ernie Conwell missed a few plays with a stinger.

Duncan has been playing with the injury since the Titans preseason game Aug. 10, but was limited to two tackles Sunday. Martz said he's basically been playing with "one arm."

"We came out of this in pretty good shape physically," Martz said. "This is probably the healthiest that we've been for some time, which is good news. We've got everybody at this point."