After getting easily brushed aside the last three weeks, the Rams run defense will be feeling some heat to up their performance level.

To right the ship this week, the defensive front will be studying tape of Bears rookie RB Matt Forte. The Tulane product has become the Bears main running threat with 205 carries. Forte's one of only 4 running backs in the league with more than 200 carries. The Bears' next leading rusher in terms of carries is Kevin Jones ('memba him?) with 34, so, yeah, plenty of film on Matt Forte. Here are his stats:

As you can see, he's also a receiving threat. The Bears must be thinking they have a pretty good matchup against the Rams tackles and smallish linebackers, especially with Chris Draft out at least another week.

The Bears are so dependent on Forte that he accounts for 33.9 percent of their total yardage.

Forte isn't the flashy superstar running back in the Steven Jackson mold. He's much more of a grinder (a guy I'd use as part of a tandem) who needs his o-line to make things work. Looking at the stats from Football Outsiders, you can see that the Bears have one of the league's lower percentages of running plays going for 10+ yards. The Bears run up the middle about half the time, and have had success in getting yardage through that lane.

The Bears' passing game can't be ignored, but it is such that the Rams can use a few more 8 man fronts to limit the damage. Whatever Xs and Os they use, the Rams front seven all need to make a strong case for the sake of their careers.

Good reading today from the Post-Dispatch. (btw, their online edition is good enough to remind us all of exactly why we don't need printed papers anymore.) Realizing the Rams fate for the season is pretty much sealed up, they've got a broad look at the Rams needs and potential changes ahead of next season. Highly recommended.

As it's pretty interesting, we'll probably refer back to the articles throughout the day, but I'm going to jump in with a comment on their top five free agent list.

Getting a cornerback like the Raiders Nnamdi Asomugha would go a long way to erasing the ugly memories of the Rams secondary from the early going this season. Unfortunately, he's not going anywhere. The Raiders dumped CB DeAngelo Hall to free up money in order to ink Asomugha to a superstar contract. He hasn't accepted any offers yet, but conventional wisdom says the Raiders will hit him with the franchise tag for 2009. 

The Panthers used the franchise tag to retain LT Jordan Gross this season. Normally, you'd think a team would be crazy to let go of a solid left takle, but the Panthers have a tough situation for 2009 as Gross, DE Julius Peppers (also on the PD list), and CB Chris Gamble are all eligible for free agency. This report says Gamble is the most likely to go. Gamble would be a huge boost to the Rams secondary, but everyone else in the league will be making a run at him too.

I have think the Titans will give Albert Haynesworth whatever he wants. The guy's a potential MVP on an undefeated team, what wouldn't you do to keep him if he were on the Rams? Exactly.

Giants RB Derrick Ward, who had 58 yards on just 8 carries against the Rams this season, and teammate RB Brandon Jacobs are both free agents after this season. According to this report, Ward reminds Jacobs everyday of the paychecks they'll be collecting after this season, making it a pretty easy conclusion that Ward will be looking for a starting gig in 2009. I think the Rams could find a good power runner to share duties with Steven Jackson in the bargain bin or later in the draft even.

One position where the Rams might find a real impact player is at middle linebacker. Check out this list. I'm sure teams will make an effort to resign lots of those guys, but if the Rams could land a guy like Karlos Dansby or Channing Crowder it would give the team that presence in the middle they so desperately need. Lots of good names at safety on that list too.

Armchair GMs, don't worry, there's going to be plenty more talk about this to come.

Maybe Rams gaurd Richie Incognito should think about the product he and his teammates have given St. Louis football fans lately. Not much to cheer for.

Of course, I'm referring to his comments to the press today. Here's a sample:

It’s nice to have the other fans here. At least they cheer. Our fans get in their seats, they don’t know how to cheer, when to cheer.

Richie probably forgot, but the fans haven't had much to get excited about the last two seasons. He also probably forgot that ticket  sales went up after they beat the Redskins and Cowboys this season, their only two wins of the year. After the Rams last three stinkers, not much to cheer about in those games as I recall, I wonder how many people who bought tickets tried to swap them for a warm beer...

The middle of the line, offensive and defensive, has been terrible. Sure, Incognito's been one of our better linemen, but maybe he should be taking his teammates to task for their less-than-inspired play rather than the fans.

This isn't a defense of fair weather fans, who just show up for the social event. Fans like our little community here at TST have rooted for this team through thick and thin. Still do. But you can only watch your favorite team get their asses handed to them on week-in, week-out basis before deciding maybe it's not worth the couple hundred bucks it costs to take yourself and pal or the family to the game when the results have been preordained. Most fans don't get paid millions of dollars to do a half-assed job. In fact, I'd venture to say that if most of us did our jobs the way some of Incognito's teammates do, well, you know... Hell, it's been hard to watch the second half of the last few games on TV.

If Rams WR Donnie Avery's on your fantasy roster, this might be a good week to get him active.Take a look at the Bears' pass defense numbers.

Getting yards through the air hasn't been a problem for opponents, but the Bears have done a good job limiting the damage from long throws. In fact, the longest pass completed against Chicago was 47 yards, a lower number than anyone else in the league. Long balls or not, teams have still found success moving the chains with shorter throws. Paging Randy McMichael... (I think his loss has effected the Rams much more than we realize, more on that another time.)

Earlier, I linked to a post at Windy City Gridiron that noted the Bears powerful run defense had been due in part to the team using 8 man fronts often, having moved away from that against the Packers to aid the secondary. Using 8 men in the box that much explains why shorter passes have been successful, as opponents just make easy quick throws to WRs or RBs over the defensive front. No need to throw long when you can move the chains that way.

Also reflecting this is the Bears DVOA defending against running backs on passing plays. They own a DVOA of 21.5%, 27th in the league. That might work well for Kenneth Darby who caught 8 passes for 83 yards against the 49ers last week. If the Rams can build on that, quick and short throws to Darby could be particularly effective against the Bears.

Now, about Avery. We haven't seen a completed pass of more than 30 yards since Derek Stanley's 80 yard TD against the Cardinals in week 9. The Bears will probably account for the deep threat from Avery or Stanley, but they could still catch plenty of passes on a shorter field. At any rate, it seems like a good week to use plenty of 3 and 4 receiver sets.

It's hard to think about the Rams matchups lately. On paper, the NIners game played to this team's strengths or at least favored us in certain matchups. For example, the 49ers came into that game with a highly susceptible pass defense, something the Rams could have easily exploited if they passed efficiently, didn't have to be perfect, and kept hte ball out of opponents' hands. But, it didn't quite work out that way, did it? We can argue about when the game fell apart, but the sequence that started with a Marc Bulger fumble and ended with a Bulger INT a short while later, gave SF two easily scores and put the game out of reach.

The issue for the Rams is one of consistency. The week before last, the offensive line got manhandled by the Jets front seven. Their play improved against SF, admittedly not as strong a defensive front as the Jets, but they opened lanes for the runners and did well in pass protection. Scrolling down the roster, you can see other examples of up and down performances from individuals. The bottom line, however, is this: If key players - looking at you Marc Bulger - can at least play error, turnover free, the Rams have a chance.

That certainly makes dissecting the matchups against the Bears for this week's game all the more difficult. Fortunately, the Bears feature some consistency problems of their own. Prior to their week 10 game against the Packers, the Bears had one of the league's top run defenses. Then Ryan Grant ran all over them for 145 yards. At least one observer surmised that the porous run defense resulted from overcompensating for a vulberable secondary.

The Bears offense, which had shown some promise earlier in the season, lapsed too, scoring a measly 3 points in that game. And now, dealing with a level of inconsistency so familiar to us Rams fans, calls for sweeping changes to the roster and coaching staff echo throughout the Chicago media.

The big difference, though, is their 5-5 record, which, to 2 win team, sounds a lot like billionaires complaining that they're only millionaires now.

You might want to take a wait and see approach before thinking free agent OT Anthony Davis, signed by the Rams this week to round out their OL depth. Davis started two seasons, '05 and '06, at LT with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Before looking at the stats, it's worth noting that Davis was just one player on that unit. 

Sacks allowed aren't always the best, or fairest, stat for offensive linemen. I tend to take view them with a somewhat skeptical eye, but understanding they have their value too. In 2005, Davis allowed 7.5 sacks, and 7.00 the year after. 

In 2005, the Bucs' had a 41 sacks for a 7.9% sack rate, the league's 25th highest. 

The running game was helped considerably by the emergence of rookie RB Cadillac Williams. Davis' side of the line graded out well; at left end and left tackle, they were sat among the top ten in adjusted line yards.

Pass protection improved in 2006. Tampa Bay QBs were sacked 33 times for a sack rate of 5.3%, 10th best.

The run blocking dropped off some that season. Their adjusted line yards fell from 4.00 the season before to 3.88, ranking them 28th. But their "stuffed" numbers indicated some toughness on the line.

Davis, just 28, might be a fine addition to the depth chart at OT, but I'll withhold judgement until seeing some results.

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Sounds like Haslett did finally call out his players, threatening to sit them if they play like they have and keep making such lousy errors.  Ironically enough, still starting QB Marc Bulger agreed with the message.

I like hearing the do-or-die motivational talk, but, again, I'll wait to see the results before deciding whether it worked or not.

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We'll all be glad when RB Steven Jackson gets back on the field, at full speed. Still no word on when that might happen. When he does come back, he has to make it count, even if it's just a couple games. Why, besides the usual reasons? 

Since skipping training camp while holding out for a new contract, Jackson's taken plenty of heat from fans this season. And yesterday, head coach Jim Haslett told the press he believed that Jackson's hold out contributed to his injury status this year. From the coach:

Guys don't go to training camp, and when they come back, they either pull a hip flexor, groin, something, and you hope it's nothing major that keeps them out. You hope it's one of those one-week injuries, four or five days and they come back, but it happens all the time.

Nobody's surprised at that assessment - we've said as much since August - but hearing it from the head coach can give angry fans some more red meat to call into the talk shows with. 

The PD's Jeff Gordon looks at some of the Rams higher paid slackers, the guys that Haslett apparently has been vainly pressing upon to do better. There are 12 names on Gordon's list and he posits the Rams will have to cut about half of them to retool next year.

Let's look at the possibilities. Starting with the sure things: Dante Hall and La'Roi Glover's contracts are up after this season, so jettisoning their contracts is easy, and both players have passed their prime. You can forget dumping Bulger or Steven Jackson, for reasons we've discussed ad naseum. There's maybe a .001% chance the Rams could part ways with Bulger, via trade, but it's incredibly unlikely.

Witherspoon's a safe bet to remain a Ram too. He's playing with an injury and out of position. If the Rams add a real live middle linebacker next season, the chances of us seeing the player we saw last season go way up. DT Adam Carriker isn't going anywhere either. He's not playing like a first round pick this season - he has had moments though - but if the Rams can get a big body to play next to him on the line, he'll improve. I'd even think about making him a DE again. Given their needs on the line and the hit they'd take on the cap, G Jacob Bell is safe too. With improvements around him on the line, he'll be better.

It's hard to imagine the Rams without LT Orlando Pace, but at what point will he consider retirement? The Rams invested a lot of money in him for diminishing returns. He probably stays. The team's lack of depth helps LB Pisa Tinoisamoa's case, but if the team adds some quality to this group from the draft and/or free agency, then they could take the cap hit and say goodbye.

I don't know why the Rams would keep Trent Green. Cutting him costs them money, but I think they'll live with it. Fans might charge the field, and not for celebration, if WR Drew Bennett makes the roster next year. That leaves WR Torry Holt from Gordon's orignal list. Holt probably gets moved, traded for whatever they can get.

The debate about Jim Haslett's fate with the Rams after this season made for some good discussion yesterday. The overwhelming consensus, unscientific, was for Haslett to get his walking papers at the end of the season. Given the team's performance since the fourth quarter against the Patriots, it's tough to make the case for the Rams to keep Haslett.

However, there are plenty of arguments in his favor, not the least of which is the talent he has to work with. The PD's Bryan Burwell has a column in today's paper arguing that the Rams should keep Haslett. I have to question a few of his key points though, mostly in relation to Haslett's connection with the players. To wit:

Haslett knows how to be a head coach. He may not be the greatest X's and O's man who ever patrolled the sidelines, but he doesn't have to be. He's a leader, and this team will need a strong-willed, confident man in charge, not a sad-sack fatalist who mopes around Rams Park as if he's doomed whenever he faces hard times. I like the way Haslett is still working every day trying to weed out the weak-minded and the talent impaired.

He had me until that last sentence (emphasis mine). He comes back to that theme, two paragraphs later:

Haslett's value is that he's shown the good sense, judgment and credibility to sniff out all the slackers and jokers in that locker room. Like he said a few weeks ago, the problem with this team is that it has too many players who either don't want to play hard, lack the talent to play hard or suffer severe cases of both maladies.

Now, we know Haslett doesn't have much to work with, mismanagement over the years has left the Rams talent-barren and instilled something less than a winning tradition. My question, however, is what exactly has Haslett done to weed out the "weak-minded," the "talent impaired" and "slackers and jokers"?

It seems to me that it's the same guys in the same rotations out there week after week, excluding injured players, from the high points a few weeks ago to the recent run of putrid football the Rams have played. Granted, the lack of depth prevents the Rams from benching many guys, but if Haslett's called out any slackers in the locker room, that hasn't translated to the field. It's particularly hard to agree with this sentiment when it's already been announced that Marc Bulger will start at QB again this week. And Bulger's not particularly a slacker; he's just not playing well enough to justify another start at the moment.

I will say that Haslett's tactic with backup runners Antonio Pittman and Kenneth Darby worked well. Both had solid games against the 49ers, not just at garbage time either. Darby, you'll notice, didn't fumble in this game after a costly one against the Jets. And the offensive line came out looking sharp to start the game, but the rest of the team's performance showed no signs of rising to meet the challenge.

Without a doubt, whoever the Rams make haed coach next season, there has to be some real changes to the roster, not only to jettison overpriced or over-the-hill veterans but to also, you know, purge a few malcontents. There also has to be a sea change at the top, new leadership in the front office, and by all accounts that's coming. Things we've been saying here since 2006. Burwell makes both those points in his column too, but if Haslett's calling out the lugs, we've yet to see the results.

Next question: It's easy to talk about the bums and malcontents, the quitters and the half-effort types, but who are they? Which players on the Rams team need to go for these reasons?

Rams LT Orlando Pace is out at least 2-4 weeks with an MCL strain.

However, the team might opt to go the rest of the season without the seven-time Pro Bowler. The Rams are considering putting Pace on IR, ending his season. With just six games left to play and the team's problems extending far beyond anything Pace can do, there's no reason to put him at further risk for injury, especially with the LT under contract through 2011.

Speaking of that contract, look at the dollars coming his way, as pointed out by ESPN's Mike Sando. That's a boatload of green for a guy who's played 18 games in the last three seasons. I'd think the Rams have to approach Pace about reworking that contract. Especially, given that the Rams MUST add a tackle in the upcoming draft. I'd be really, really surprised if he had another full season of play left in him at this point. If you're Pace, at what point do you start thinking about retirement?