St. Louis 'D' finally puts heat on someone besides Haslett

~ The low-ranking unit recorded its first shutout since 2003.

ST. LOUIS -- St. Louis Rams defensive coordinator Jim Haslett meets the media once a week, the day after the game, and most of this season he's been under fire.

On Monday, Haslett got a rare chance to smile after his beleaguered unit shut out the Oakland Raiders 20-0. It's the first shutout for the Rams (6-8) since 2003, and it ended a slump during which St. Louis had lost seven of eight.

"It's fun, you can kind of dial things up," Haslett said. "Our guys were out there having fun. I was telling the line, 'We haven't had this opportunity too often, let's go and rush the quarterback. Don't worry about the run."'

The Rams are 26th in the NFL in scoring defense and next to last in total defense. The two previous weeks, the Bears and Cardinals totaled 76 points against St. Louis.

Most of the year there have been too many holes, even with position upgrades including tackle La'Roi Glover, safety Corey Chavous, middle linebacker Will Witherspoon and cornerback Tye Hill, the team's first-round pick.

Stopping the run

Against the struggling Raiders, it all came together. The Rams allowed 251 total yards and only 57 yards rushing on 18 carries. The rushing statistics are impressive, no matter the competition, given St. Louis has allowed seven 100-yard individual games.

"I don't know about all the stuff in the past," Haslett said. "Anytime you can get a shutout, they're hard to come by."

Haslett has grumbled all year that the Rams have been seeing the NFL's best running backs on a weekly basis. They were gouged in consecutive games by LaDainian Tomlinson and Larry Johnson, and Frank Gore has a pair of 100-yard games.

"We've played probably the best running backs that we'll probably see for at least the next four years," Haslett said. "You don't see LT every year and you're not going to see Johnson every year, although we'll get Gore twice a year."

On the other hand, the Rams also gave up 100 yards to the Packers' Noah Herron and Seahawks backup Maurice Morris.

Haslett said the difference against the Raiders, who committed five turnovers while the Rams had none, was playing with a lead. The Rams were in control after Steven Jackson's 4-yard touchdown run on their opening drive of the third quarter put them ahead 13-0.

Thus, the Raiders' low rush total.

"Those are the types of games you wait for," Haslett said. "You'd like to have those every week. I think that's when the best comes out of you."

What it means the rest of the way is anybody's guess. Next week they'll take on the Redskins, who rushed for 161 yards in a 16-10 victory over the Saints.

"This game changes from week to week," Haslett said. "Just looking at them on film, the last four or five weeks they've really picked up their game on offense.

"This will be another challenge and we'll see where we sit after this game."

Coach Scott Linehan was pleased with the way the team responded on short rest, after losing last Monday to the Bears, and the way they didn't get discouraged by their struggles.

"It would have been easy to kind of look at it and say 'Boy, how are we going to get ourselves out of this hole we've dug?"' Linehan said. "And we're still in it, somewhat.

"You don't know until you play the game how we're going to respond, and I think it was a pretty good test of character."

Because of the parity in the NFC the Rams remain playoff longshots. Linehan won't even look at the possibilities unless the Rams win again this week.

"I think the scenarios become appropriate going into the last game," Linehan said. "There's a number of things that can happen that are out of our control."

"I know it's a pretty easy thing to say, but if we don't win the scenarios don't matter."