Special teams turn Martz into insomniac

The Rams coach promises more changes in an area that has become a nightmare.

By R.B. Fallstrom ~ The Associated Press

ST. LOUIS -- St. Louis Rams special teams have given their coach a bad case of insomnia.

Mike Martz endured his first sleepless night in his NFL coaching career, replaying in his mind what went wrong in Sunday's 34-17 loss at Buffalo and what might be done about it.

On Monday, he promised unspecified changes for what may be the NFL's worst specialty units that he labeled "revolting" and "pitiful" a day earlier.

"I went back and looked at it really hard early this morning," Martz said. "A lot of things went through my head but the more I thought about it and worked at it, the more clear it became. I think I know what the approach is. I do know what the approach is and the course it will take."

The Rams are 30th in the league in punt returns, 31st in kickoff returns and 31st in both kickoff and punt coverage. They're so porous on coverage that kicker Jeff Wilkins has made five tackles.

Punter Sean Landeta, 42, is 31st out of 33 in the NFL with a net average of 32.5 yards, and was singled out for criticism. He had a 26-yarder in the second quarter, and two punts that ended up with long returns came on low line drives.

"Sean didn't punt well at all, and he hasn't for some time now," Martz said. "That's a major issue."

It didn't help matters that the Rams got embarrassed by Bills special teams coached by Bobby April, who was fired by the Rams after last season. Besides a punt return for a touchdown and another that went to the 5 to set up a score, they recovered a fumble on a kickoff.

Special teams breakdowns led to 17 points during a span of less than six minutes in the third quarter when the Bills broke open a game that had been tied at 17 at halftime.

"Fortunately or unfortunately, I've coached long enough where I've played against former teams a lot of times," April said. "It certainly is always an incentive to go back to your 'old neighborhood' and win."

The Rams began the season using mostly backups on special teams, but in recent weeks a handful of starters have seen action with no visible improvement. Now, Martz said he'll become more involved and devote more time.

Since the Rams (5-5) have an extra day to prepare for Monday night's game at Green Bay, Martz even could spend an entire practice honing the team's weakest link. He said he hadn't decided on a practice schedule this week beyond Wednesday.

"There's a lot of things we're going to change," Martz said. "There's a great deal we will change now. We're not going to sit still and accept it, that's for sure. There will be even more time spent on special teams, you bet there will be."

Beyond special teams, he faulted the team in general for failing to respond to adversity.

"We're just not resilient or tough enough emotionally in a lot of areas to overcome some of these things that you have to overcome," he said.

It's been an interesting season already for Martz. Two weeks ago, in an effort to spark the team and wake up young players to life in the NFL, he added Wednesday full-contact scrimmages to his normal routine.

Despite those efforts, which resulted in a victory over Seattle last week that briefly put the Rams in first place in the NFC West, Martz said some of the team's younger players still don't understand the amount of effort needed.

"Before the year's over with, there's some guys that aren't going to be here," Martz said. "There's some guys we obviously counted very heavily on that have not risen to the occasion.

"We've got some young players who feel like they're on scholarship or something. Some of them just don't get it."

Martz refused to use as an excuse the fact the Rams were down to their fourth right tackle and fourth left guard and fifth cornerback on Sunday. That, Martz said, also is life in the NFL.

"You're preparing yourself for your moment in the sun, so to speak," Martz said. "So when you get called in there, if I'm Kevin Garrett and two corners are down and I'm in there, then I should have been preparing for this all week long.

"That's the responsibility you have."