Spagnuolo: Focus Only on 2009 Rams

Despite making a good amount of money to coach in the National Football League, Steve Spagnuolo has an unenviable task this year: coaching the St. Louis Rams. The Rams won just two games a year ago, and the roster was in a state of transition -- and in disrepair, really -- when he took over as the new head honcho.

If not for the ineptitude of the Lions, the 2008 Rams would have easily been the worst team in football. Only two teams scored less points and only one team (Lions, of course) allowed more. Some of the most talented players were aging and they dismissed two former stars (Orlando Pace and Torry Holt) as part of the rebuilding process after the disastrous campaign. Spagnuolo, though, is tired of hearing about and having to talk about 2008.

"It has nothing to do with teams coming forward or any teams going backward," he said. "It's all just about the 2009 Rams, and we lost a football game. We lost one football game."

On the other hand, it's kind of hard to blame fans -- who became accustomed to winning football in the earlier part of this decade before being treated to a 5-27 record the past two seasons -- for thinking "here we go again," after watching the Rams get stomped on opening weekend in Seattle.

Not that I blame Spagnuolo, either, for trying to keep his team focused on this season and hoping to muster all the wins he can out of his lackluster roster. Even if he knows this year is going to be about building a foundation for the future, he can't start acting like he doesn't care about playing winning football each week.

If you look at the upcoming schedule, in addition to realizing all the holes the Rams have, all signs point to this season being a long one. The Rams visit Washington before hosting the Packers. They then head to San Francisco -- who looked tough in defending NFC Champion Arizona's home -- before hosting the Vikings. Thus, it's pretty realistic to see the Rams starting the season 0-5.

The key for the fan-base remaining interested is going to be to keep their eyes on the future, whether Spags want to admit it or not. They have a few parts -- Steven Jackson, O.J. Atogwe, Chris Long, James Laurinaitis, Jason Brown, Jason Smith, etc. -- but not enough of a whole team to compete just yet. You could even argue it would be better for the team to have an incredibly high draft pick again this year to help round out the stable of young talent for Spagnuolo mold. In the meantime, just watch how the young players develop as NFL players.

If you do listen to Coach and focus only on this year, though, odds are it's going to be a long campaign.