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[lovemyrams]

BY BILL COATS
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Monday, Nov. 02 2009
DETROIT — The last time Rams kicker Josh Brown launched a pass, he was
playing eight-man football at tiny Foyil (Okla.) High.

As of Sunday afternoon, Brown is one for one — with a perfect passer rating of
158.3 — as a pro. His short toss to tight end Daniel Fells on a fake field goal
late in the first half resulted in a 36-yard touchdown and gave the Rams a 10-2
lead on their way to a 17-10 victory over the Detroit Lions.

"I hadn't run a fake in seven years, in my time in the league," Brown said. "It
worked to perfection."

At first, the Rams lined up to go for a first down on fourth and 8 with 1
minute, 7 seconds left in the half. Quarterback Marc Bulger aborted the attempt
by calling a timeout.

"We got to the line a little bit late and it just didn't feel comfortable,"
Bulger explained, while noting that head coach Steve Spagnuolo and quarterbacks
coach Dick Curl "really hate to waste timeouts, or use them at all.

"But I was willing to take the fall for it because I thought it was an
important part of the game. It worked out."

After the break, the Rams lined up for a 54-yard field goal attempt by Brown.
But with the Lions in an exploitable formation that special-teams coach Tom
McMahon had noticed on film, the fake was on.

First, new long-snapper Ryan Neill hiked the ball to holder Donnie Jones, who
set the ball down for a split-second to further the ruse, then pitched back to
Brown.

Jogging to his left, Brown short-armed a soft toss to Fells, who gathered in
the ball and headed down the left sideline. He shrugged off a couple of
defenders en route to the end zone.

"I said, 'I don't want to be denied. Get some points on the board and get us
rolling,'" Fells said. "We'd seen that look on film all week long. Coach dialed
it up at the right time."

Said Jones: "That was a huge play for us, a great momentum-changer."

The Rams added the fake to their game plan at the eleventh hour. "It was a play
that we worked on for about six minutes on Saturday," Brown said.

And when they did work on it, tight end Randy McMichael was the target. But
McMichael was on the sideline with a rib injury, so Fells — who hadn't run the
play even once in practice — filled in.

"They were a little worried: 'Oh, he doesn't know what's going on,'" Fells
said, laughing. "But I knew the play. I studied just like everybody else."

Brown, a running back in high school, had the option of keeping the ball, and
he said he felt as if he could've picked up the first down.

"But (Fells) was just too wide open to not take advantage of somebody who has
the ball in his hands a little bit more often," Brown said. "It was the best
decision."

[miller time]

BOO!