Boston.com / Sports / Bruins

Rams received a battering

Media pepper fallen favorites

By Jim McCabe, Globe Staff, 2/4/2002

EW ORLEANS - Towels were piled high. Perhaps 3 feet deep in the middle of the locker room. Wet, dirty towels. A fitting match to the mood of the St. Louis Rams, many of whom had showered and dressed in world-record time last night.

They had washed away the blood and the sweat, but the tears still were there. Ditto for the look of shock.

Offensive lineman Orlando Pace sat quietly, asking for some time before he spoke. Linebacker London Fletcher took the opposite approach, choosing to get the session with the media over with.

He still played for the better football team, he believed, ''but today, New England was the better football team,'' Fletcher said. ''And I told them that.''

The questions were fired at him relentlessly. What went wrong? What did the Patriots do to stop his team offensively? Why hadn't the defense forced any turnovers?

To each one, Fletcher shook his head. He didn't know. Finally, he said, ''Maybe it was meant to go this way. I mean, the Patriots. The symbolism, with the red, white, and blue. Maybe that was it.'' Under the circumstances, it was the best he could do.

Indeed, one by one the Rams faced the music, but the mood was unanimous: the 20-17 loss had ruined their season.

''You don't come to play for second place,'' said defensive end Grant Wistrom. He was seated in the bowels of the Superdome, his hair wet from a shower that hadn't at all cooled his emotions. He was angry. Angry that Adam Vinatieri's kick had been good, yes, but angry that he and his colleagues on defense hadn't stepped up when the Super Bowl was on the line.

''We didn't do the job, and that goes for me, too,'' said Wistrom. ''I'm not leaving myself out of this. I didn't do the job, either.''

It was suggested that the Patriots threw new wrinkles at the Rams, that it was a different offense from back in November when the teams met in Foxboro Stadium. Wistrom wore a blank stare.

''No, not at all,'' he said. ''They ran the ball down our throats. They threw play-action at us. That's what they did in the other game, too. But in the first game we stopped them; this time, we let 'em run over us.''

So many questions suggested that the Rams had taken the Patriots lightly, but that was a ridiculous thought, they said.

''We knew what [Tom Brady] could do, because we had played them before,'' said defensive end Leonard Little, trying to slip into his clothes as the media squeezed around his locker.

''We knew what type of football team they had,'' said Fletcher. ''We weren't overconfident at all.''

But as they got dressed, they were stunned. Shocked. Disappointed.

''The only thing I'm leaving New Orleans with is a hole in my stomach,'' said rookie safety Adam Archuleta.

Couldn't he at least take solace in the fact that he had made it to the Super Bowl in his first season, starting on a defense ranked third in the NFC? He stopped buttoning his shirt and looked in disbelief toward a row of reporters.

''The way I look at it, it doesn't really mean anything,'' he said.

Across the way, a veteran star echoed the rookie's feeling. Marshall Faulk had even more reporters around him, but he didn't have any answers. Like Archuleta, he was consumed by a hollow feeling and took no solace in the fact his team had battled back to nearly force overtime.

''Anytime you lose in the playoffs, it's disappointing,'' Faulk said. ''To lose in the Super Bowl might be a little more disappointing. I really don't know what to tell you because it's still sort of a shock to me.''

Faulk, who formed a dynamic duo with quarterback Kurt Warner, had been held to 130 total yards, 76 rushing, 54 receiving, but except for a few quick darts through the line, the damage to the Patriots' defense had been minimal. Still, he didn't throw bouquets New England's way, choosing not to praise the Patriots (''They did nothing that we hadn't seen before'') but to point to his team's miscues.

''I don't think we struggled,'' he said. ''In games like this at this time of the season, funny things happen in a game. Our defense played great. For the most part, we put them in bad situations with the turnovers. We turned the ball over three times and lost the game.''

There was a media frenzy around them and heartbreak everywhere, but the Rams struggled with their composure until coach Mike Martz heard something that made him bark. Again, the question: ''Did the Rams take the Patriots lightly?''

''Oh, please, that's insulting to me,'' he said. ''This is the Super Bowl. How can you overlook somebody in the Super Bowl? I don't understand that question.''

Just as his players didn't understand how they had lost.