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Howard Balzer
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.101espn.com/category/hbalzer-blogs/20111205/Spagnuolo-Says-Injuries-Just-%27Seem-to-Never-End%27/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.101espn.com/category/hbalzer ... er-End%27/</a>
[wrapimg=left]http://www.101espn.com/images/authors/medium/hbalzer.jpg[/wrapimg]When Rams coach Steve Spagnuolo opened his day-after press conference Monday, he said he would begin with the injuries, which "just seem to never end." Truer words have never been spoken.
He then detailed the latest injuries, most notably to quarterback A.J. Feeley and left guard Jacob Bell.
Feeley suffered a "small fracture" in his right thumb in Sunday's game against San Francisco.
Said Spagnuolo, "Now, we don't know what we're sitting on right now. Reggie and the medical staff are researching what it exactly is, what does it mean, can he grab a ball? All those other things. So we're not really sure until we get through today and probably into tomorrow where A.J. is. Now that's obviously very concerning based on the situation Sam's in right now, so it's something we've got to work through."
Sam, of course, is quarterback Sam Bradford, who missed his third game of the season after aggravating the ankle injury he suffered on Oct. 16 against Green Bay.
Spagnuolo said, "We'll probably proceed the same way we did last week. When we get to Wednesday we'll decide just how much exertion we want to put on the ankle because the less you put on it the better off he is when you get down to a game-type decision. That's how these high ankle sprains operate. We'll probably tread lightly Wednesday, the same on Thursday. I don't know, we'll see how Sam feels. We'll just kind of basically go off how he feels."
Bradford told the Post-Dispatch Sunday, "It's definitely gone back to the first couple weeks after the injury. I knew I had hurt it (in last week's game against Arizona), but I didn't know how bad. I think going through Wednesday's practice I realized how severely I tweaked it again."
The news also wasn't good on Bell. He suffered a grade 2 sprain of the MCL in his right knee early in the fourth quarter Sunday. Spagnuolo said, "We might be looking at like a four week injury, so we'll have to make a decision there. We'll let you know on that, but that's a tough one right now."
The "decision" would be whether to place Bell on injured reserve because there are only four games left in the season.
Prior to leaving the game, Bell was the only lineman playing the same position from the season opener. Three changes were made on the line for the Nov. 27 game against Arizona, with Adam Goldberg moving from right to left tackle, Harvey Dahl sliding from right guard to right tackle and previously benched center Jason Brown coming in at right guard.
When Bell went out, Brown moved to left guard, Dahl went back to right guard and Thomas Welch, signed to the roster on Nov. 22, played right tackle.
Goldberg left Sunday's game with bruised ribs in the first quarter, but came back in. Spagnuolo said if there was practice Tuesday, Goldberg would be limited.
There is a chance that tackle Mark LeVoir, who suffered a pectoral injury against Seattle on Nov. 20, might be back this week. The other linemen on the active roster are guard/tackle Kevin Hughes, who was signed from the practice squad Nov. 19, and center/guard Bryan Mattison, who was claimed on waivers from Baltimore on Nov. 24.
The decision this week will be whether to go with the unit that ended the game Sunday, or to try another combination that might include Mattison to see what he can do. Whatever the decision, it's not a good situation.
Said Spagnuolo, "It's another re-shuffle. One of the toughest positions I think in this game to continually re-shuffle, that in my opinion and the secondary, because you need complete continuity in those two positions for both of those phases of the game of football to function efficiently, offense and defense."
Other injuries from Sunday include defensive tackle Fred Robbins (back, day-to-day), defensive end Eugene Sims (ankle) and safety Craig Dahl (knee; would be limited if there was practice Tuesday). Defensive tackle Gary Gibson played Sunday through sickness where he was vomiting and sick throughout the game. He will be checked out for possible ulcer symptoms.
Stuffing the red zone: In a search for silver linings, the Rams limited the 49ers to four field goal on four red-zone trips. In the first half, the defense was on the field for 21:36 of the 30 minutes and thtee of the red-zone stops came in the first two quarters.
All told, on 10 red-zone plays, the 49ers had a net of four yards.
Said defensive end Chris Long, who had two sacks in the game, including one on first-and-goal from the 10-yard line, "I was proud of the way we stepped up when we had a short field. The offense will make mistakes, that's part of football. San Francisco has certainly been a ball-hawking team winning the turnover battle and we knew that they might get one today. I thought we did a good job of stepping up on goal line and some guys made some nice plays."
In addition, a team with numerous injuries had players continuing to fight and play with injuries. Long has played the last two games on a bad ankle, and didn't practice Thursday and Friday after being very limited on Wednesday,
Said Spagnuolo, "That's what I believe our football team is about. Now, it still doesn't change the win loss column, I understand that but anytime guys do that and Chris is one of them. He didn't practice all week. That thing was sore, now. He finds a way to tough it out in the game."
The Rams had no takeaways against the 49ers, the second time this season they've had none. In six games, they have had just one and they have totaled 15 all season.
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.101espn.com/category/hbalzer-blogs/20111205/Spagnuolo-Says-Injuries-Just-%27Seem-to-Never-End%27/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.101espn.com/category/hbalzer ... er-End%27/</a>
[wrapimg=left]http://www.101espn.com/images/authors/medium/hbalzer.jpg[/wrapimg]When Rams coach Steve Spagnuolo opened his day-after press conference Monday, he said he would begin with the injuries, which "just seem to never end." Truer words have never been spoken.
He then detailed the latest injuries, most notably to quarterback A.J. Feeley and left guard Jacob Bell.
Feeley suffered a "small fracture" in his right thumb in Sunday's game against San Francisco.
Said Spagnuolo, "Now, we don't know what we're sitting on right now. Reggie and the medical staff are researching what it exactly is, what does it mean, can he grab a ball? All those other things. So we're not really sure until we get through today and probably into tomorrow where A.J. is. Now that's obviously very concerning based on the situation Sam's in right now, so it's something we've got to work through."
Sam, of course, is quarterback Sam Bradford, who missed his third game of the season after aggravating the ankle injury he suffered on Oct. 16 against Green Bay.
Spagnuolo said, "We'll probably proceed the same way we did last week. When we get to Wednesday we'll decide just how much exertion we want to put on the ankle because the less you put on it the better off he is when you get down to a game-type decision. That's how these high ankle sprains operate. We'll probably tread lightly Wednesday, the same on Thursday. I don't know, we'll see how Sam feels. We'll just kind of basically go off how he feels."
Bradford told the Post-Dispatch Sunday, "It's definitely gone back to the first couple weeks after the injury. I knew I had hurt it (in last week's game against Arizona), but I didn't know how bad. I think going through Wednesday's practice I realized how severely I tweaked it again."
The news also wasn't good on Bell. He suffered a grade 2 sprain of the MCL in his right knee early in the fourth quarter Sunday. Spagnuolo said, "We might be looking at like a four week injury, so we'll have to make a decision there. We'll let you know on that, but that's a tough one right now."
The "decision" would be whether to place Bell on injured reserve because there are only four games left in the season.
Prior to leaving the game, Bell was the only lineman playing the same position from the season opener. Three changes were made on the line for the Nov. 27 game against Arizona, with Adam Goldberg moving from right to left tackle, Harvey Dahl sliding from right guard to right tackle and previously benched center Jason Brown coming in at right guard.
When Bell went out, Brown moved to left guard, Dahl went back to right guard and Thomas Welch, signed to the roster on Nov. 22, played right tackle.
Goldberg left Sunday's game with bruised ribs in the first quarter, but came back in. Spagnuolo said if there was practice Tuesday, Goldberg would be limited.
There is a chance that tackle Mark LeVoir, who suffered a pectoral injury against Seattle on Nov. 20, might be back this week. The other linemen on the active roster are guard/tackle Kevin Hughes, who was signed from the practice squad Nov. 19, and center/guard Bryan Mattison, who was claimed on waivers from Baltimore on Nov. 24.
The decision this week will be whether to go with the unit that ended the game Sunday, or to try another combination that might include Mattison to see what he can do. Whatever the decision, it's not a good situation.
Said Spagnuolo, "It's another re-shuffle. One of the toughest positions I think in this game to continually re-shuffle, that in my opinion and the secondary, because you need complete continuity in those two positions for both of those phases of the game of football to function efficiently, offense and defense."
Other injuries from Sunday include defensive tackle Fred Robbins (back, day-to-day), defensive end Eugene Sims (ankle) and safety Craig Dahl (knee; would be limited if there was practice Tuesday). Defensive tackle Gary Gibson played Sunday through sickness where he was vomiting and sick throughout the game. He will be checked out for possible ulcer symptoms.
Stuffing the red zone: In a search for silver linings, the Rams limited the 49ers to four field goal on four red-zone trips. In the first half, the defense was on the field for 21:36 of the 30 minutes and thtee of the red-zone stops came in the first two quarters.
All told, on 10 red-zone plays, the 49ers had a net of four yards.
Said defensive end Chris Long, who had two sacks in the game, including one on first-and-goal from the 10-yard line, "I was proud of the way we stepped up when we had a short field. The offense will make mistakes, that's part of football. San Francisco has certainly been a ball-hawking team winning the turnover battle and we knew that they might get one today. I thought we did a good job of stepping up on goal line and some guys made some nice plays."
In addition, a team with numerous injuries had players continuing to fight and play with injuries. Long has played the last two games on a bad ankle, and didn't practice Thursday and Friday after being very limited on Wednesday,
Said Spagnuolo, "That's what I believe our football team is about. Now, it still doesn't change the win loss column, I understand that but anytime guys do that and Chris is one of them. He didn't practice all week. That thing was sore, now. He finds a way to tough it out in the game."
The Rams had no takeaways against the 49ers, the second time this season they've had none. In six games, they have had just one and they have totaled 15 all season.