Rams hope to continue climb out of 0-5 start after a week off

ST. LOUIS -- It took the Rams almost half a season to recover from their Super Bowl hangover. Did they stop the bumbling in time?

The Rams entered the year claiming everything was behind them, and that they wouldn't allow the disappointment of their 20-17 loss to the double-digit underdog New England Patriots to linger.

Then they stumbled again and again and again and again and again. They're still climbing out of that hideous 0-5 hole, although they won their last two games in impressive fashion heading into their bye week.

"Anytime you get a win after starting 0-5, it's progress," safety Kim Herring said. "Especially going into the bye week, you don't want to be mulling over a loss."

That's all they did early in the year. Marshall Faulk, a student of the game as well as one of the league's best players, warned coach Mike Martz in the offseason to expect such a letdown.

"As you look through history, teams that are in that situation have a hard time fighting back through the doldrums, or whatever you want to call it, the next year," Martz said. "We tried to talk about it and address that issue so it didn't become a problem.

"I don't know if that was a problem or not, probably not, but maybe it had something to do with it."

The Titans haven't been a contender since their heartbreaking 23-16 loss to the Rams in the 2000 Super Bowl. The same goes for the Giants, who lost to the Ravens in 2001. And neither of those teams was favored.

To get so close and then fall well short of expectations had to eat at the Rams.

And this was no ordinary slow start. The NFC champions were a dominating 14-2 a year ago, and no team in NFL history has climbed out of an 0-5 hole to make the playoffs.

It started innocently enough, a seven-point loss at Denver followed by a five-point setback to the Giants. Both teams always play the Rams tough, and the Broncos had an entire offseason to prepare for Martz's high-flying offense.

The Rams hit rock bottom in a 13-10 home loss to the Cowboys followed by a 37-13 pasting in San Francisco, their first game after NFL MVP Kurt Warner was lost for at least two months with a broken pinkie on his throwing hand. It wasn't Warner they missed most in that game, it was a defense that missed numerous tackles.

Through it all, Martz remained calm at least on the outside and continually resolved to stay the course. He resisted motivational ploys to get the team going, reasoning that he was dealing with professionals who would wake up sooner or later.

"For a professional athlete to rely each week on a pep talk, I just don't think that happens," Martz said. "Not at this level. Obviously, it's a long season and you've got to try to keep your guys up every way you can, but you can't change who you are and I wouldn't do that."

Instead, Martz said he emphasized honesty with the players, talking about the disappointment and what was needed to turn the ship around.

Partly, he believes the team was victimized by high expectations. Super Bowl loss or not, it entered the season as the favorite to win the big game again.

With that type of pressure, Martz believes, winning becomes more of a relief than a cause for celebration.

"There's a stress level that raises because expectations creep up higher and higher and higher and higher," Martz said. "Over the long haul the stress becomes significant, and that's where you stop having fun and winning doesn't have the shine that sometimes it had in the past."

To end the losses, Martz said the Rams had to learn to play with enthusiasm again. He noticed a huge change after the Raiders game as the team rallied around third-string quarterback Marc Bulger.

"There was a completely different feeling in the locker room," he said.

The last two weeks, the Rams have looked more like themselves. First, they upset the Raiders, then there was an impressive 37-20 thumping of Seattle.

The schedule may be conducive to the comeback's continuing, with a game at Arizona, followed by home games against the Chargers and Bears.

"We're winning ballgames again, although we had a tough start," Faulk said. "You've got to make adjustments in this business, and the team that makes the adjustments quickest succeed, and they have success a lot longer."

The game plan on offense has crystalized: get the ball to Faulk and hope he holds up. He tied career highs with 32 carries and 39 overall touches against the Seahawks, ending with his fifth career four-touchdown day.

On defense, an unusual 4-1-6 alignment with only one linebacker, Tommy Polley, and two extra defensive backs, has excelled. The Rams had almost as many big plays on defense the last two games as they had combined in the first five weeks.

Martz doesn't expect the defense to suffer too much without All-Pro cornerback Aeneas Williams, who had season-ending ankle and leg injuries against the Seahawks. Rookie Travis Fisher, the team's second-round pick, has been a fast learner.

The line also totaled seven sacks against the Raiders and Seahawks, compared with 7 1/2 the first five games.

"They really have set the tempo for the whole team, actually," Martz said. "They've done just a tremendous job."