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Steve Spagnuolo has reached back into the Rams' rich history to fill the open receivers coach vacancy, hiring Nolan Cromwell, a Rams DB and four-time Pro Bowler with the Rams from 1977-1987.
A defensive back to coach receivers, you ask? Cromwell actually has a lot of experience in this role: 1998 in Green Bay and 1999-2007 in Seattle. He comes here from Texas A&M, where he was receivers coach and offensive coordinator.
Wide receivers Cromwell would have worked a lot with in Seattle include Darrell Jackson, Koren Robinson and Bobby Engram. D.J. Hackett developed pretty well under Cromwell as well before succumbing to a variety of injuries.
Unfortunately, the wide receivers of the Cromwell era in Seattle, led by Jackson, were known best for their inability to hang on to the ball. But since the Rams have rarely covered Seattle receivers in recent years anyway, maybe coach Cromwell can lend some help to that side of the ball.
...and maybe even vice versa. With the scenario that the Rams are going to be sold and move out of town in short order still thriving, who around here couldn't like the words of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell at his "state of the league" message last week?
"We want to be in St. Louis."
Even though Goodell's hypocritical and likely uninformed proclamations against Rush Limbaugh caused unneeded difficulty for the lead effort to keep the Rams in here, it's still nice to hear that from an NFL commissioner for once. After all, Pete Rozelle didn't exactly stand in Bidwill's path to Phoenix, and Paul Tagliabue seemed to do everything he could to keep any NFL team, expansion or existing, from coming here, and clearly held a grudge for years after the Rams did move here.
It's nice that it at least looks like the league commissioner's in our city's corner for a change.
Seriously. Has there ever been a CRAPPIER set of Super Bowl commercials? This has to have been the worst crop since people started paying attention to the in-game advertising. I have never seen such a bunch of unfunny and unappealing bunch of commercials in my life. Very few winners, very few commercials that were even likable. My votes:
Funniest: Denny's screaming chickens, which tells you how low the bar went tonight.
Best: Google's ad, simple yet nicely-done. Told a nice story and spotlighted the product.
Mentionable: For a long time, the only good ones were the first two. Bud Light with the house made out of beer cans, and Snickers with Betty White and Abe Vigoda playing pickup football. (Snickers appears to have come out the winner in polls according to Monday morning's news.) Bridgestone's killer whale was funny; the sock monkey and his toy buddies going to Vegas (Kia, I think) was funnier. The Coke sleepwalking safari one wasn't too bad. The VW "slug bug" commercial was one of the better ones. Funny, highlighted the product, and had a funny punch line with Stevie Wonder.
But it was mostly a night of bleh, meh and yecch. So many spots looked like they had some promise and ended up flat. A-B, how about a punchline for the Clydesdale ad with the longhorn? Instead they went for schmaltz, and it wasn't even good schmaltz. Did Coke commission a commercial with all the Simpsons characters but tell the writers not to be funny? Once again, not even good schmaltz. WAY too many commercials with unattractive, flabby people walking around without shirts, without pants or walking around in their underwear. That's not going to get me to buy any product, people. Those were crude enough, and then you had the Megan Fox one, which had a lot of potential until we got the thinly-veiled masturbating kid joke. We really need THAT from a commercial? And what was with all the suck-ass commercials that went nowhere, then basically said, we know this ad sucked, come see the long version on our website? Um, no, Mr. and Mrs. Griswold. Besides, I'm on a dial-up anyway.
And W, T, F?!?!? was Jay Leno doing in a spot for David Letterman's show, especially one allowing him to be completely one-upped? Who's the idiot advising Leno it's a good idea to do a spot like that? Never mind, we've all had enough of NBC's awful late-night decision-making the last couple of months.
And even on a night of unfunny, crude and/or mediocre commercials, there was a clear winner for Worst Commercial of the Night. Congratulations to the Boost Mobile Shuffle. Moronic lyrics, unwelcome thong-based humor, Jim McMahon and Mike Ditka making total idiots out of themselves, this one pretty much had it all.
I'd make more fun of Boost Mobile blowing $2.5 million on that crap had my own government not seen fit to idiotically do the same with our tax dollars for a Census ad that's already been on a million times. And still hasn't been funny. And witnessing the brutal dictatorial environmentalist attitude posing as humor in the Audi Green Police commercial, it's altogether possible the U.S. government bought that commercial, too.
Anybody who goes on about tonight's commercials at the water cooler tomorrow morning, feel free to punch them in the face for me.
It seems destined that Drew Brees is going to win Super Bowl MVP, and I won't begrudge him the honor. It's too bad, though, that there won't be offensive and defensive MVPs tonight, so Tracy Porter could get something. Reggie Wayne (tonight's LVP) appeared to be in the witness protection program in the first half, then Porter jumps the route for the back-breaking 78-yard pick-six to seal the game with the Colts trying to come back for the tie. Porter deserves some kind of award tonight. Head coach Sean Payton deserves a game ball, too. Going on 4th-and-goal at the end of the 1st half proved absolutely the right move once the Saints got the ball back and got the FG anyway. The onside kick to start the second half was the ballsiest call in Super Bowl history. Another key decision was getting the double-team back out on Dwight Freeney, after which the Colt pass rush completely disappeared. Sean Payton seemed to make all the right moves tonight.
Congratulations to the world champion Saints.
Despite our shared first name, Michael Vick and I couldn't be much different. I've got 13-14 years on him. He's been a world-class athlete; I haven't been anywhere close. He's an African-American who grew up in the projects. I'm a Caucasian of German/French/Irish extraction who's always lived in Midwestern farm country. He once signed a contract worth $130 million. I aspire to be worth 0.2% of that someday. And, unavoidable to the discussion, he's a convicted felon; I have at worst a handful of traffic violations, and none of those in the last 20 years.
And yet the signs are increasing, despite the Philadelphia Eagles' earnest statements to the contrary, that Michael Vick and I may be sharing a building next year, the Edward Jones Dome. Talk has only increased that the Rams are interested in him, and it's being slowed by absolutely no public objection of which I am aware, outside some of us in the "blogosphere," which includes my own very clear objections, on the field and off.
Bernie Miklasz has reported that Rams assistant coaches are talking to their Eagle counterparts about Vick. He also reported public comments from Steve Spagnuolo last week in which coach Spags practically broke the NFL's tampering rules:
“I’ve got a lot of respect for Michael as a player. Everything I’ve heard out of Philadelphia is kind of good. We haven’t gone down that road in our process yet. I think he’s a terrific player.” Maybe I'm trying way too hard to read between the lines, but there's certainly nothing there to suggest the Rams aren't actively considering or pursuing the Vick option. Plus there was the recent ESPN 101.1 interview with Spagnuolo where he backed away from the "Four Pillars" like Tye Hill backing away from Amani Toomer before the snap. Yes, that happened, and no, neither should EVER be necessary.
But it's happening. There's going to be a point (if it hasn't happened already, who knows?) where Billy Devaney and Steve Spagnuolo are going to look Michael Vick in the eye and make a judgment whether he is the man to bring here, the man to make the starting QB, the man to make the team leader. On a team where the current team leader certainly has his own problems, is this the right move? Can we mere fans ever get a chance to find out without the chance to sit in a room with Michael Vick ourselves?
Probably not. But we might be getting the next best thing. Last week, BET started running what's billed as a documentary series called The Michael Vick Project. All the rumors out there have made this series particularly relevant to Rams fans.
So I'll be watching and learning, and until the Vick rumor is resolved one way or another, I invite Rams Nation to do the same. Is Michael Vick a thug? Is he a good man who got caught up in a bad situation? Is he a professional athlete with a slick P.R. operation? The Michael Vick Project looks like a good opportunity to make a somewhat-informed decision.
Let's hear his case and see what we think.
I dunno, I may be an idiot but I'm starting to feel like this game is going to be lower-scoring than everybody seems to think.
Obviously one of tonight's keys will be how Dwight Freeney's situation resolves itself. If the Colt pass rush is significantly affected, Drew Brees should pick their secondary apart. No one's expecting this to be much of a running game at all, yet, wouldn't it be wise strategy by either team to try to establish the run and keep the opposing offense off the field? But because of their still-overlooked run defense, which doesn't rely on Freeney, I like the Colts' chances of doing that a lot better than the Saints'. If there's a player who jumps up out of nowhere to become a big factor today, I say it's Joseph Addai. He'll be key as a runner and as a blitz pick-up man. I just don't see the Saints getting to Peyton Manning without gambling significantly with blitzes. Their secondary's good, but he'll pick them apart tonight anyway, especially when they blitz. And to steal a point from NFL Playbook, look for Peyton to do a lot of Gay-bashing tonight. Randall Gay, that is. If Donnie Avery can beat the guy for two TDs, what are the Colts wideouts going to do to him? And has anybody ever mentioned that Manning hasn't lost a game he played start-to-finish all season?
Yeah, I thought so. Ultimately tonight, it'll be too much Manning for the Saints to handle.
Official prediction: Colts 34, Saints 28. (down from 38-35)
No live blog tonight. Got pizza and wings to attend to.
Enjoy the game. Shouldn't be too hard.
Not a lot to note from the broadcasts of Thursday's practices, even compared to Wednesday's. The players practiced without pads and ran a lot of half-speed drills that I just don't get a lot out of. And the "Path To The Draft" show, when asked to name the players who helped their pro prospects out the most this week, proceeded to give a rundown of about two dozen players. Yeah, thanks for that.
* Secondary primary. CBs looked good in both practices today. Patrick Robertson broke up one pass and intercepted Zac Robinson's poor overthrow in 7-on-7. Perrish Cox also had a nice pass break-up for the South. For the North, Kyle Wilson broke up a couple of passes and blanketed Mardy Gilyard beautifully on kind of a red zone broken play. My favorite CB of the week has been Chris Cook, who broke up one pass and intercepted another pretty stupid pass, stupid because he had his man absolutely smothered. I couldn't ID the offending QB. SydQuan Thompson struggled a little but Mike Mayock stayed behind him, saying he's a player who's better on game day than he is in practice.
* Passing muster. QB play is improving. Tony Pike threw some very precise red zone passes into tight spaces. Tim Tebow's throwing seems to have improved throughout the week. He had a sweet deep completion to Florida teammate Riley Cooper. Jarrett Brown got most of the 11-on-11 reps that were televised. Corey Chavous projected Dan LeFevour as a second-round pick, apparently higher than the draftnik consensus has him.
* WR projections and objections. Taylor Price didn't show good hands, missing a couple of catches. Cooper, on the other hand, looked a lot better today than he had all week. The entertaining moment of the day was Chavous RIPPING Mayock's ranking of Golden Tate, Arrelious Benn and Demaryius Thomas as his 2nd-thru-4th-best WR prospects. Amazingly, Mayock just let Chavous' criticism slide by. They both agree on Dez Bryant as the #1 WR prospect; Chavous ranks Brandon LaFell 2nd while practically calling Mayock's other WR rankings a joke.
* Same old stuff. The biggest problem with NFL Network's coverage is that they always focus on the same old guys. They talked in depth about Taylor Mays for the FOURTH straight day. Are there no other prominent players to talk about? For the record, Mays acknowledged in an interview that he needs to go for the ball more and for the big hit less. Hey, and did you hear Mike Iupati's good? Well, we heard it again. Is Mayock the guy's agent? They showed Iupati pretty much running like a deer during special teams drills. They also said Terrence Cody should be a FIRST-round pick by a team running a 3-4 defense, but he'd pretty much better not gain a pound from where he is right now. Yeah, I've got 395 in the Mount Cody Combine Weigh-In pool.
* So who do I think helped themselves the most this week? Iupati went from a player I'd never heard of at all to a sure top-20 pick. Kyle Wilson and Brandon Graham probably played their way into the first round. Chris Cook, Devin McCourty and Alex Carrington look like nice sleeper picks. Also good weeks for Jared Odrick, Patrick Robertson, Daryl Washington, Sean Weatherspoon, Dexter McCluster, Tyson Alualu, Shawn Lauvao, Koa Misi, John Jerry, Stafon Johnson, Myron Rolle, and Ben Tate. And yes, that's as bad as what I criticized the Path to the Draft show for doing earlier.
The short answer is the Idahoans, Iupati and Wilson. Who saw that coming? The hotbed of NFL draft talent - Idaho?
* Stock down: Danario Alexander for getting hurt again. Zane Beadles never looked very good. Terrence Cody's neighborhood baker. Anybody from Kentucky. Riley (Drew Bennett) Cooper. Joe (Hands of Soap) Webb. May the Combine be better to each of you.
That leaves me with just the game itself to review. I may do that this coming weekend. There's nothing going on Sunday night, is there?
