Special teams not carrying water

For the season, the Rams are among the worst special teams units in the NFL.

Updated: November 4, 2003, 1:33 PM ET
By By Darrell Trimble | NFL Insider
The St. Louis Rams don't have a ton of weaknesses. Their offense has been missing Kurt Warner and Marshall Faulk and still topping 30 points almost every single week. Their defense has rebounded to become one of the top 10 in the league, and their seems to be less acrimony than at other points in coach Mike Martz's tenure. But the Achilles' heel of this time reared its ugly head Sunday in the form of a 95-yard touchdown return by Cedrick Wilson on the opening kickoff.

However, coach Mike Martz downplayed the score saying there were mitigating factors and that special teams coach Bobby April was not at fault.

"Bobby's situation, in this case," Martz told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, "(he) is more a victim of circumstances, what he has available, trying to get ready for a game, handcuffed to some extent because you can't afford to lose Pisa (Tinoisamoa) on a kickoff when you only have three linebackers. You can't afford to lose Bryce (Fisher) because he is a starting defensive end and Tyoka (Jackson) because we don't have anybody else. We have so many kids on the second level of defense who are injured, it's difficult to cover kicks.


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