St. Louis Rams: 3 Players Who Stepped Up in Week 4

The St. Louis Rams are now 0-4, and have to be considered one of the very worst teams in football.  There is plenty of blame to go around—poor coaching, horrible secondary, atrocious offensive line, weak receiving corps—but that is another article all together.

Today, I'm going to try to focus on the positive. 

There are some bright spots for the Rams.  It is going to take some major changes in St. Louis if they are going to win football games, but these are the three guys they could build around.

James Laurinaitis

James Laurinaitis is still playing hard, despite the 0-4 start by the Rams.  He played hard, he was physical and he had a key interception in the fourth quarter.  Laurinaitis is flanked by two aging veteran linebackers, Brady Poppinga and Ben Leber.  Simply put, both players have been very underwhelming in their time with the Rams. 

Laurinaitis has had to step up and make even more plays.  Sunday against Washington, he did just that.  His interception gave the Rams a chance to tie the score at 17 late in the fourth quarter.  Of course, the Rams O-Line played matador and let Bradford get sacked, negating Laurinaitis' great play.

But that doesn't change the fact that James Laurinaitis stepped up Sunday.

Darian Stewart

Darian Stewart started last week at safety against Baltimore, and he was burned badly.  Everybody remembers Rams CB Justin King's scorched remains, as he was burned over and over again by Ravens rookie WR Torrey Smith.

What I saw was Stewart not providing deep help for King.

This week against the Redskins, Stewart redeemed himself.  According to the cnnsi.com box score, Stewart had six tackles and defended three passes.  While watching the game, the FOX broadcasters, Chris Myers and Tim Ryan, even commented that Stewart might have been the Rams' best player in the first half of the game.

It would be nice if Stewart could play this well all the time.  The Rams could use all the help they can get in the secondary.

Sam Bradford

Sam Bradford got killed against the Eagles.  He got beat up against the Giants.  He got assaulted against the Ravens.  I was hoping that the Ravens game was the low point, but...

The Redskins absolutely destroyed Bradford.

Washington sacked Bradford seven times, as the Rams continue to let their QB get beat up.  According to the FOX broadcast, Bradford leads the NFL in the number of times he's been sacked/hit/knocked down.  The Redskins simply helped Bradford pad his lead in this area.

When Bradford did have time to throw, his receivers dropped several easy passes.  By my own unofficial count, they dropped seven catch-able passes.  Three of those passes would have been easy touchdowns.  That isn't a surprise though, because according to the same FOX broadcast, the Rams also lead the NFL in dropped passes.

So Bradford never had time to throw, and when he did, the Rams didn't catch it for him.

Despite this, Bradford hung in the pocket, bleeding and bruised, and kept firing.  He gave the Rams a chance to win right up to the last two minutes of the game.  It is scary to think about how good Bradford is going to be once the Rams get him some help.  All of the other young NFL QBs have a good target to throw to, whether is Stafford-Johnson in Detroit, or Sanchez-Holmes for the Jets.

Bradford doesn't have any help.  Some of that is poor coaching, but a lot of it is awful drafting by the Rams' front office.  I could go on and on about how inept the Rams' recent drafts have been in rounds 3-6.

But that is an article for another day.  Today, I'm trying to be positive.