Tuesday, Nov. 03, 2009

Spagnuolo says Rams still have work to do

Will give them some time off in bye week

ST. LOUIS -- Heading into their bye week riding the emotion of their first win of the season, St. Louis Rams coach Steve Spagnuolo reminded his team that they're still 1-7 and have a lot of room for improvement.

"We can't be blinded by the fact that we won a football game,'' Spagnuolo said of the Rams' 17-10 win over the Detroit Lions on Sunday. "There's still a lot of work to do. I think the guys realize that. They'll be in tomorrow. We're going to approach it like we approach any other week. We're going to go in and make the corrections so that they don't happen again. There are plenty of them."

The win snapped a 17-game losing steak, and it ended any speculation about the Rams joining the 2008 Lions as the only teams in NFL history to go 0-16.

"I'm real happy for the team,'' Spagnuolo said. "Through all this work and the effort that the guys have put in, I was always begging in my own mind for them to feel that reward of them getting a win.''

The Rams players presented Spagnuolo the game ball in the locker room after his first win as a head coach on any level.

"That was pretty special,'' Spagnuolo said. "I hadn't thought about what that was going to be like or what would happen after a win, but that was special."

Spagnuolo said he didn't feel like a giant weight had been lifted off his shoulders.

"When you ask that, that would lead you to believe that I felt a big weight,'' Spagnuolo said. "I was just taking one week at a time. It's great to win, don't get me wrong. I don't take that for granted. It's hard to win in this league. Players know that, coaches know that. So when you win, you should enjoy that. After that enjoyment is done, the 12 hours or whatever you get, it's back to the job."

Spagnuolo said the mailbox on his telephone was filled with text messages congratulating him.

Among the well-wishers was Philadelphia Eagles coach Andy Reid. Spagnuolo spent eight years on Reid's coaching staff.

"Coach Reid did, there were a bunch of other coaches around the league,'' Spagnuolo said of the people who sent him text messages. "Friends, assistant coaches ... I am trying to remember now and there's still some on there that I haven't even looked at yet.

"I guess they haven't forgotten about me completely, which is a good thing."

The Rams' bye week comes right at the halfway point of their 16-game schedule.

Spagnuolo said he didn't know if the bye week was coming at a perfect time or not.

"When the schedule comes out and you see when your bye week is, everybody kind of goes, 'This is a good one, that's not a good one,''' Spagnuolo said. "I want to say it was 2001 -- I can't remember which year in Philadelphia -- we had the bye after the second game. When you got the schedule, everybody was like, 'That is a terrible time to have a bye.' We went 0-2 and had all kinds of injuries after the first two games, so it came at a perfect time. We have it now. It is here and we are going to use it.''

The Rams will practice today and Wednesday, and then the players will have the rest of the week off.

As for the coaches, they'll be spending a lot of time doing self-scouting, making sure that they don't have any obvious tendencies.

"This is the only time during the year when I will look at a bunch of stats and rankings,'' Spagnuolo said. "It does give you a chunk of information to go off of, to really study yourself. In that regard, it is good."

Spagnuolo said the coaches will get some time off over the weekend.

"We'll get five minutes in here somewhere,'' Spagnuolo said.

Rams notes

Kick returner Danny Amendola sustained a concussion, while right guard Jacob Bell sustained a head-neck injury. Bell will undergo a neurological exam today, while Amendola will undergo a neurological exam Wednesday. "They want to give him some time before that test,'' Spagnuolo said of Amendola. ... Spagnuolo said X-rays on tight end Randy McMichael came back negative. ... The Rams hit the halfway point of the season ranked 26th in offense and 28th in defense among the NFL's 32 teams.