The Rams Special Teams Unit is Ready to Turn Heads
Posted by: Luke Schnake
http://www.101sports.com/2015/09/18/rams-special-teams-ready-part-season/
The locker room has cleared after a recent Rams practice, but wide receiver and special teams member Bradley Marquez sticks around, describing what went through his head on the key play of the Rams’ 34-31 win over the Seahawks.
Marquez’s recovery of a Seattle onside kick at the beginning of overtime was essential to logging the win. Marquez captured the 14-yarder from Seahawks kicker Steven Hauschka while signaling for a fair catch and taking a hit in the process.
“We were just saying, ‘watch the ball,’ and be ready for anything,” Marquez said. “And if nothing comes then we just get back in the return, but I just saw the ball go up and I was able to go make a play on it.”
“That was a big play. That was a veteran move,” special teams co-captain Daren Bates said. “It was a veteran play to get the ball and to call a fair-catch…You can’t get any better than that.”
Stomachs turned when it seemed the officials would order a re-kick, claiming Marquez’s fair catch signal was illegal due to the ball bouncing off the ground first, but those watching on television or the big screen in the Edward Jones Dome knew better.
The refs eventually got the call right, but not without invoking butterflies on the home side.
Marquez admitted not knowing what to think when he saw the flag.
“I don’t know. I guess I had mixed emotions.” Marquez said “In my head I was pretty sure it popped up in the air and I did everything correct so I was wondering what the flag was for…I wondered if I did something wrong, but I knew I hadn’t and they were able to get it corrected. The replay was playing over and over on the jumbo-tron and I guess they got together and got it right.”
Marquez, brought to St. Louis as an undrafted rookie free agent, has impressed the coaching staff with his mental and physical acumen.
“(Marquez) is an instinctive football player,” Rams coach Jeff Fisher said. “That was not the only really good play he made. He made a couple of other really good plays. He works hard, he pays attention, he acts like he’s been around for three or four years. We can trust him and put him in some unusually difficult positions, especially as a personal protector on our punt team to make all the calls and protection and things. We trust him and he gets it right.”
The rookie is a cog in the Rams’ special team unit, a unit that’s a source of great pride for the team. For every Tavon Austin return for a touchdown or Johnny Hekker punt, there are 11 guys on the field executing an important part of each special teams play.
john fassel
Rams special teams coordinator John Fassel looks on as officials discuss an onside kick call in Sunday’s game vs. the Seahawks.
Special teams players traditionally don’t receive much outside praise for their play, but Bates says that’s taken care of in-house.
“We try to give each other our praise when we get in the meeting room and we get to see each other’s work. We know what we’re doing as individuals, but we get to see our peers on film.” Bates said. “So we’re able to congratulate and praise each other and that’s all you need sometimes…It’s always good to get it from the media and fans, but to keep each other going we do it inside our meeting rooms.”
Hekker is the unit’s other co-captain and has made first and second NFL All-Pro teams over the past two seasons, respectively.
The Rams punter says the team’s resilience impressed him most in their week one win.
“As a unit we didn’t hang our heads.” Hekker said. “The second special teams play we had after the kickoff cover was our punt that got returned for a touchdown, and I’ve been in a couple games before where our first couple plays haven’t gone very well and we’ve hung our heads and kind of let that lead to a whole game-wide poor performance.”
The offense, defense, and special teams all made mistakes Sunday, but all three bounced back.
This hasn’t always been the case with the Rams in recent years, but Nick Foles, Hekker, and Bates were patrolling the sideline in week one making sure their troops’ heads stayed high.
“I think we’re very close knit. We have a great group of guys and are led by an amazing group of coaches that are highly experienced and have our trust and a ton of respect.” Hekker added. “Our special teams unit is young, but we’re very well led by Coach (John) Fassel and Coach Fisher. They have a lot of hand-on knowledge of special teams and they take a lot of pride in it. We see that and take a lot of pride in it as well and look out for each other on the field.”
The pride the Rams staff have in their special teams knowledge shows in stories like rookie free agent Marquez’s. The receiver’s life took a turn for the positive after not getting any draft day calls. He may be a bit player, but the rookie says he’ll do his job each week on a special teams unit that should have teams taking notice.
“The vets really bring the younger guys along and they made me feel comfortable, especially with being a rookie in my first game and first season.” Marquez said “They’ve helped bring me along and imparted me with their wisdom and knowledge they’ve gotten over the years. I’m still learning every single day from these guys.”
“The confidence they instill in me to get my job done helps me to go out and play worry free. I’ve been blessed to find a role thus far and hopefully I can continue to help us in whatever way they need me.”