SB Nation St. Louis - The Sports of St. Louis

Should St. Louis Rams Fans Worry About Steven Jackson Yet?

2012-09-24T12:06:32Z

Lost in the rest of the offense being terrible Sunday against the Chicago Bears—the Rams lost 23-6, with Greg Zuerlein providing all the offense and about 50 yards of both scoring drives—was just how bad Steven Jackson was, for the second week out of three. The groin injury might have been affecting him, but through three games he's got 41 carries for just 140 yards—that's 3.4 yards per carry, and a pace that would leave him 250 yards short of 1000 on the season.

Even an effective Steven Jackson might not have set the Rams' offense right on Sunday, but Jackson's mediocrity against the Detroit Lions in Week 1—he carried the ball 21 times for 53 yards—was probably key to their falling four last-minute points short then.

This isn't entirely Jackson's fault. The Rams' offensive line is a mess, and like Sam Bradford he finds himself in a sea of defenders the moment the ball's in his hands. But the Steven Jackson that made himself into the decade's best bad-team player could get around that first defender for extra yards; this one, so far, hasn't found that gear.

"Nobody Cares About The St. Louis Rams" Is An Eerily Prescient Song From 1999

2012-09-23T13:00:37Z

As a kind of general-logrolling-disclaimer-plus-explanation-of-how-I-found-this, I should note that I write, once a week or so, for the Riverfront Times's RFT Music blog, where I antagonize people who actually know about music. Their editor stumbled this week upon a double-concept-album filled with NFL songs from a band with after-the-fact ties to the Mountain Goats. The St. Louis Rams' song is from the perspective of a spurned LA fan, and features an eerily prescient chorus: "Nobody cares about the St. Louis Rams / How could anybody care about the St. Louis Rams?"

You should listen to this song (and the rest of them), in part because—since it was recorded in 1999—you can take heart in the fact that it was very wrong in the short term about people caring about the St. Louis Rams.

But also because it's just catchy enough that you might find your brain shouting that chorus against your will, which will create a pleasant cognitive dissonance. I mean, surely at some point in the last year, when Josh McDaniels was slinking out the back door and Steve Spagnuolo was talking the janitor's ear off about Team Character, some part of your subconscious asked this very same question, right?

A Yadier Molina Injury Would Leave St. Louis Cardinals With Limited Catcher Options

2012-09-22T20:25:03Z

The St. Louis Cardinals do not have a lot of catcher depth. Maybe this is closer: The Cardinals have a lot of catcher depth—they're carrying three backups on the 40-man roster—but none of them is very good. If that apparent Yadier Molina injury in the ninth inning of their Chicago Cubs meet-up Saturday is serious, oblique serious, the Cardinals will have plenty of options to replace him. It's just that none of them come near replacing the National League's best catcher.

Tony Cruz is the first option. In his first full season as the Cardinals' backup Cruz has hit .250/.258/.362, which is one of those lines only a backup catcher can carry over a full season. A converted third baseman, Cruz has a little power, and—if not excellent defense—a pretty good arm. He's the closest thing to a well-rounded backup catcher the Cardinals have, and he's walked twice in 120 plate appearances.

Bryan Anderson, once one of the Cardinals' top prospects, is the next option. A long-time empty .280 hitter in Memphis, Anderson had the worst season of his career—and the worst season in the Pacific Coast League—in 2012, struggling to an empty .225 mark. He's shaky on defense, but he's left-handed and capable of some line drives at his best, meaning he'd probably soak up some of the at-bats against right-handers if it comes to this.

Finally, there's Steven Hill, who has played at least 20 minor league games at catcher, first base, left field, right field, and third base. Hill, brought in to replace Lance Berkman as a right-handed pinch hitter, has genuinely impressive power, player-of-last-resort defensive versatility, and not much else. But his presence on the roster will allow Matheny to play Cruz and Anderson a little like a set of platoon relievers, if he'd like to.

Or if he has to. Hopefully, he still doesn't.

Rams Vs. Bears: Devin Hester Will Be On Greg Zuerlein, Johnny Hekker's Mind Sunday

2012-09-22T12:01:51Z

At the Post-Dispatch, a nice writeup of the St. Louis Rams' rookie kickers, Greg Zuerlein—the breakout fantasy star of the squad, in your author's humble opinion—and Johnny Hekker, which mentions the easily forgotten fact that they both will have to deal with Devin Hester in the Rams' Week 3 matchup with the Chicago Bears. After an ill-advised trip into the Bears' offense, Hester's back to spending most of his time on special teams, and it's paid off—he's led the NFL in yards per punt return each of the last two years.

He comes into Week 3 having yet to break a punt or a kick off for big yardage, which means Hekker, in particular, is standing between perhaps the best kick returner ever and his first highlight-reel runback of the season. Through two weeks Johnny Hekker's proven himself capable of some booming punts; he averaged 54 yards over his first three in the Edward Jones Dome, including a beautiful 66-yarder in the fourth quarter.

Now he'll have to show how good he is at not punting to Devin Hester.

For more Rams vs. Bears news, analysis, and injury updates leading up to Sunday's game, stay tuned to SB Nation St. Louis's Week 3 storystream.

Robert Griffin III Says St. Louis Rams Play Dirty, Steven Jackson Says, Well, Maybe

2012-09-20T20:39:44Z

When last we left the asinine locker-room-material story generator, Robert Griffin III said the St. Louis Rams played dirty football in their 31-28 win over the Washington Redskins. In most places this kind of character-impugning might be met with a sniffy denial or a roll of the eyes at sore-loser-dom in general, but this is the hyper-aggressive NFL, and Steven Jackson is Steven Jackson. So the Rams' ostensibly injured running back responded by ragging on the Big 12:

When Rams RB Steven Jackson was asked about RG3's dirty team comments Jackson said " this is not the Big12"
— Tony Softli (@SoftliSTL) September 20, 2012

Griffin, of course, probably knew this, since he's now allowed to be paid for driving millions of eyeballs to advertisements about buffalo wings and cars or whatever, instead of funneling that money directly into a university's drooling maw.

But I'm not sure what else he hoped to achieve in making his original comments. Does he not know, by now, that the biggest compliment you can pay a football player at this point in the evolution of NFL culture is that he Plays Dirty? Playing dirty is practically the ideal of professional sports at this point.

This is Actually Happening

2012-09-20T14:57:17Z

HOLY [BEEP]ING [BEEP]

Deion Branch Returns As New England Patriots Cut Greg Salas

2012-09-19T12:01:08Z

Deion Branch and the Pats are about to kiss and make up, and now I just don't know who to believe: A few weeks ago the New England Patriots were supposed to be grooming Greg Salas, a Josh McDaniels favorite, to replace an on-the-outs Wes Welker in 2013. Then Week 1 came, and Greg Salas didn't play. Then Week 2 came, and Wes Welker--the real one--caught five balls for 95 yards. And now Deion Branch is back, and Greg Salas is cut.

Now might be the wrong time to say this, since Danny Amendola just had a Welker-plus game after years of getting white-slot-receiver comparisons, but I think this is just another example of people assuming it's a little easier to be Wes Welker than it actually is. I don't doubt that it's easier to be Wes Welker than it is Randy Moss; it doesn't take once-in-a-generation skills and having a great quarterback is a disproportionately large part of the equation. But having Wes Welker's weaknesses doesn't make you Wes Welker if you haven't demonstrated his strengths already.

Until then, it just makes you Greg Salas.

Some Blues Looking To Play, May Head Overseas For Lockout

2012-09-18T16:53:03Z

Elite Prospects, which is the go-to site for stats of European leagues, has a handy tracker of confirmed plans and rumors regarding NHL players playing during the lockout. It's a pretty long list, and a lot of it is made up of teams sending eligible players to their respective AHL franchises. It's entertaining to see the amount of guys heading to leagues that are so "beneath" the NHL in talent -- imagine, if you will, Joe Thornton and Rick Nash demolishing the rest of the SEL while playing for Davos. Heck, Evgeny Malkin will probably lead the KHL in goals after a week.

But the desire to keep playing (and keep getting paid something for doing it) is high, and you can't blame the guys. Several members of the Blues will be headed overseas to maintain their skating legs. Patrik Berglund will be playing for Västerås of Allsvenskan, whose website is heralding Berglund's arrival as an "Interview with a Bump!" Thank you, Google Translate.

A rumor that David Backes will be playing with Langnau of the NLA is just that right now: a rumor. Vladimir Sobotka, however, will be playing for HC Slavia Praha of the Czech League. Their logo is apparently a demented satanic polar bear, so Sobe should fit in well. I would attempt to translate what is on the Slavia Praha website, but Google Translate is worse than usual with Czech, apparently. All that I got out of it is that Sobotka is happy to go play at home.

No one else on the team is confirmed to be playing overseas right now, though Alex Steen is trying to figure stuff out with Modo. He's training with them now a he usually does over the off-season, and with the disastrous start the team's gotten this year, he'd probably be a huge help.

Any others signing up overseas right now? No, but as Jeff Quirin at Hockeybuzz points out, there are more than enough European players on the Blues to do so.