Picking up Pace put them ahead of game

By Peter May, Globe Staff, 1/31/2002

EW ORLEANS - Three days removed from their NFC championship conquest of the Philadelphia Eagles, the St. Louis Rams finally awarded the game ball yesterday. It didn't go to Kurt Warner, who passed for 212 yards, or to Marshall Faulk, who ran for 159 yards and scored two touchdowns. It didn't go to Isaac Bruce, who caught eight passes for 84 yards and one TD.

It went to Orlando Pace, the Rams' very large, very mobile, and very frightening left tackle who hurt his right knee during the game. At halftime, Jim Hanifan, the Rams' offensive line coach, was telling Pace's comrades in the trenches that they'd be without the three-time Pro Bowler for the second half. He told them Pace could not move laterally and, as he put it, ''I thought I'd come out and see O in civvies. Instead I saw No. 76.''

Pace played the second half. ''He played a helluva second half,'' Hanifan said. And, for that, coach Mike Martz gave Pace the game ball as the offensive player of the game.

''It was,'' Martz said yesterday, ''a testimony [sic] in great courage to come back in that second half when they had told him to sit down. But he said, `I'm playing.'''

It was, Pace said yesterday, no big deal.

''I just wanted to be in there,'' he said. ''It was a big game. I wanted to stay in and fight through it. I didn't want to be on the sideline in a big game like that.''

The knee is still a tad sore, Pace said, but he's wearing a small brace on it and Martz is holding him out of practice until tomorrow. He plans to play Sunday, which is bad news for the Patriots and good news for Warner and the rampaging Rams.

''There's just a confidence when Orlando is in the game,'' Warner said. ''He's kind of the stalwart of the front five. He's a comfort zone when he's in there and he's on your back side. When he went down, it was a big blow. And when he came back in, it was a big confidence boost.''

It may be hard, even futile, to locate a more dominating offensive tackle in the game than the 6-foot-7-inch, 325-pounder from Ohio State. He has been overpowering at his position for a long time. He won successive Lombardi Awards at Ohio State in 1995 and '96. The award, given to the best lineman in the country, never had had a repeat winner. He was a legitimate Heisman Trophy candidate in '96, finishing fourth. You heard the word ''pancake'' a lot when you talked about Pace, referring to his ability to flatten his opponent.

And, in 1997, the Rams traded four draft picks - the sixth, 67th, 102d, and 207th - to the Jets for the No. 1 pick overall to draft Pace.

''They paid a high price, but they're lucky to have him,'' said Patriots offensive line coach Dante Scarnecchia. ''They really have themselves a gifted player.''

Pace was the first offensive lineman in nearly 30 years (Ron Yary in 1968) to be selected as the No. 1 pick. The Rams had been 6-10 the year before, and, Pace said, ''I really wasn't all that happy to go to St. Louis because they weren't that good.'' They weren't that good in his first two years there, either, going 9-23. Pace played well enough in his second season to earn recognition as a Pro Bowl alternate while Rams executives began to reshape the team.

''Initially, it is tough for an offensive lineman to come in and change the whole team,'' Pace said. ''When I first came into the league, there was so much pressure on me and all these expectations. But those pressures and expectations weren't nearly as high as those I put on myself. I wanted to go out and play well and do Pro Bowls and win Super Bowls and things like that. I can say I'm on the right track now.

''I've been on a good team. I'm fortunate to be with good players, and have been able to grow a lot,'' Pace continued. ''The organization brought some key guys in and made it into a championship-type team. We've got MVPs at quarterback and running back, and that makes it easy for you.''

He also makes it easy for them. His linemate, center Andy McCollum, calls Pace ''a freak of nature. He just shuts people down every week. And those are some of the best athletes in the league, those defensive ends. He's done it since he got in the league.''

Pace believes his position is a particularly critical one because he's usually facing an athletic big guy on the other side of the ball. He thinks of his position as a ''glamour position'' - he understands he's in the minority there - and knows that Warner's passing and Faulk's running depend on him and his mates doing their job.

''Offensive linemen don't get the credit because you have other guys who score the touchdowns,'' Pace said. ''You try to do your job. We know that. We might not show up in the stat book, but, as a team, we know where it starts. If we don't have a good day, they won't have a good day.''

Pace doesn't have too many bad days. He also doesn't have too many off days. He has started every game for the last four-plus seasons and his first brush with injury last weekend won't stop that streak.

Hanifan has been around the NFL since 1973 and has been coaching for 43 years. He was asked yesterday if he'd ever seen anyone better than Pace.

''I always try to refrain from answering that kind of question. That goes against a lot of guys I've been with, players, friends, brothers, and some I should probably call sons,'' he said.

''But let me put it this way: He's way up there.''