The Rams came away from last night’s game very happy as their defense only allowed 3 points to the Vikings.  The outcome of the game was in doubt until the very last second when Kevin Lovell nailed a “walk-off” 40-yard field goal.  Marc Bulger made a brief appearance in the football game and he completed 6 of 7 passes for 42 yards with 1 interception.  He has followed in the game at QB by Gus Frerotte who was 5 for 6 passing for 32 yards.  Ryan Fitzpatrick then entered the game and he had a rough night.  He completed 13 of 21 passes for 127 yards with 2 INTs one of which was returned 82 yards for a TD by Vikings’ linebacker Dontarrious Thomas.  Brock Berlin then finished the game at QB setting the team up for the winning field goal by completing 6 of 9 passes for 65 yards.  Rookie running back Brian Leonard had an impressive debut for the Rams as he carried the football 9 times for 36 yards (4.0 ypc) with a TD run and he also caught 5 passes for 30 yards (6.0 avg).  Kay-Jay Harris also made a good impression at running back as he carried the football 3 times for 25 yards (8.3 ypc).  Rookie WR Derek Stanley got his chance to shine last night and he made the most of it catching 4 passes for 61 yards (15.3 avg).  The Rams finished up the night carrying the football 22 times for 87 yards (4.0 ypc) and they completed 30 of 43 passes for 236 yards.

The Rams defense shut down the Vikings offense…but that isn’t saying a whole lot.  The Vikings carried the ball 23 times for 87 yards (3.8 ypc) and they completed 15 of 23 passes for 128 yards.  Still, the Rams had to be encouraged by the way the defense played last night.

http://scores.espn.go.com/nfl/boxscore?gameId=270810016

The Rams like to run the spread offense a lot so they likely will only use fullbacks in short yardage and goal line situations.  The leader appears to be Madison Hedgecock for the starting job.  He played in 16 games (9 starts) last season and he carried the ball 2 times for 2 yards (1.0 ypc) and he caught 7 passes for 29 yards (4.1 avg).  Hedgecock also made 9 tackles on special teams last year.  He has now played in 32 games (16 starts) and he carried the ball 2 times for 2 yards (1.0 ypc) and he has caught 16 passes for 98 yards (6.1 avg).  He also has been active on special teams with 23 career tackles.  Chris Massey is more of a special teams player than a fullback.  He played in all 16 games for the Rams last season and he made 4 tackles but didn’t touch the football.  Massey has now played in 80 games (1 start) in his NFL career and he has carried the ball 1 time for -1 yards (-1.0 ypc) and he has made 18 tackles.  Rich Alexis is third in line at fullback for the Rams.  He played in 1 game last season and he carried the ball 3 times for 5 yards (1.7 ypc) and he made 1 tackle.  Alexis has now played in 3 career games and he has carried the ball 3 times for 5 yards (1.7 ypc).  He also has returned 1 kickoff for 31 yards and he has made 1 tackle.

Jeff Wilkins makes the Greatest Show on Turf get points at the end of drives with his right leg.  Wilkins made 86.5% of his field goals and he has converted all 35 of his extra points to finish last season with 131 points.  Wilkins made all 18 of his field goal attempts of 39 yards or under and he also converted 14 of 19 kicks of 40+ yards showing that he still has a strong leg.

Wilkins has now played in 184 career games and he has scored 1,319 points for an average of 7.2 points per game.  Wilkins has now made 283 of 343 (82.5%) of his field goal attempts and he has converted 470 of 473 extra points in his career.  Look for Wilkins to add big numbers to his career totals in 2007.

The Rams have cut cornerback Mike Rumph.  He didn’t seem to have the speed needed to handle a spot in the Rams secondary as the turf at the Edward Jones Dome plays fast.  He played in 7 games last season for the Redskins and he made 11 tackles and defensed 4 passes.  The Rams won’t miss him one bit.