Steve Spagnuolo is going through a rough season in his first as an NFL head coach. He had the unenviable task of taking over a roster which was left in disarray by the previous administration. No real effort had been done to bridge the gap from The Greatest Show on Turf to the next wave of players, with the notable exception of drafting studly running back Steven Jackson before Marshall Faulk was retired. The results to this point have hardly been surprising. Poor Spags and his troops endured seven losses, including several blowouts, before finally earning their first victory this past Sunday against the Lions. While he's cherishing this first win, Spagnuolo realizes it's the first step of many.
"We're not going to be blinded by one game: We're 1-7″ going into the bye week, he stressed. "There are a lot of good things we've got to look at and get right. That's what we're going to try to do the better part of this week ... "It's good that Spagnuolo realizes this is a long road and is keeping his eye on what is important. The Rams seem to have some semblance of positive direction on their team, unlike some of the other dreadful teams out there this season -- like the Browns, Bucs and probably even the Raiders.
"It's great to win; don't get me wrong now. I don't take that for granted. It's hard to win in this league. Players know that, coaches know that. So when you win, you should enjoy it. But after that enjoyment's done, 12 hours or whatever you get, it's back to the job."
They have a strong-willed, well-spoken head coach who is determined to take his time righting the ship his way. They have a superstar in Jackson. They have good building blocks on the offensive line in first round pick Jason Smith and potentially Pro Bowl-caliber free agent signee Jason Brown. Despite a slow start to the career of Chris Long, there is still promise he'll form a potent front along with veteran Leonard Little and rookie linebacker James Laurinaitis. O.J. Atogwe and James Butler are a good pair of safeties as well.
There are a few more areas with a bit of promise, but most other areas are lacking to some degree -- other than kicker and punter, which can't do much for an awful team -- which is why the Rams will find wins rare the rest of the way in 2009, just like they did in the first half of the season. The headaches will begin after the bye week when the Rams have to deal with the mighty New Orleans Saints in Week 10. In fact, it's probable the Rams don't win another game in 2009 (the best bets for a win would be against Seattle at home or at Tennessee).
That won't make the season a failure, though. They need to continue to build and that all starts through the draft. A real question will be if they draft a quarterback with their early first-round selection, but that's far from being determined at this point. For now, it's time to continue building with the players they have.
Fans need to take a page from the head coach and just watch the growth of the nucleus as they hope for a turnaround to begin in 2010 and come to fruition in 2011. Anything quicker than that is just gravy.
For 2009, savor the victories without overdoing it. It's all part of the rebuilding process. One that should have started three years before it actually did.
