All things considered, the Rams’ 33-10 win over the Colts wasn’t nearly as impressive as it would have been during the regular season. The Colts notoriously sleepwalk through the preseason, and quarterback Peyton Manning remains out as he recovers from neck surgery. Other key players, like defensive end Dwight Freeney, didn’t play, either.
But the fact that the Rams went hard the entire game left coach Steve Spagnuolo pleased, because one of his goals is to ensure that the players never let up under game conditions.
“The one thing I said to them, I was talking about it last night, in this league there is no on/off switches,” Spagnuolo said, via comments distributed by the team. “It should always be on, it doesn’t matter who you play, when you play, preseason, regular season. And I thought they did that today. I reminded them of that at half time, 23-3 at half or something, I was a little bit concerned that they’d let down.
“But the young guys went in there, what was really good to see was the second half when the young guys were in there performing, I thought the veterans on the sideline were really into it and that says a lot about the vets. That says a lot about the team, kind of coming together and the chemistry.”
The approach resulted in seven scores in nine possessions. And it’s the kind of thing that could help the Rams climb to the top of a wide-open NFC West, once the real games start.