On a day that Lance Berkman said was finally "fun," several members of the World Champion Cardinals took a little detour on the way to their victory parade.
Prior to the start of the Rams' game against the New Orleans Saints, they gathered on the sideline of the Edward Jones Dome with the World Series trophy, and listened to the cheers of the crowd as the scoreboard camera moved from player to player.
Manager Tony La Russa was wearing a Sam Bradford throwback jersey. Chris Carpenter, in what turned out to be the most symbolic aspect of the day, had on a Steven Jackson jersey and participated in the coin toss.
Little did Carpenter and his teammates know what would happen between the sidelines during the game. Little did they know how Jackson had taken it upon himself before the game to address his teammates, not much different than when Carpenter called that fateful team meeting in late August after the Cardinals had fallen 10 and a half games out of the wild card.
Then, we saw the passionate Jackson during the game, most notably in the fourth quarter when the team started lapsing into its self-destructive tendencies that had sabotaged the first six games of the season.
When it was over, the Rams had an inexplicable 31-21 victory, and Jackson had backed up his words by totaling 191 yards from scrimmage that included 159 yards rushing and two touchdowns.
As coach Steve Spagnuolo said, "If you're going to do that as a leader, you've got to lead. He probably put a little pressure on himself."
Asked what Jackson said, Spagnuolo answered, "I don't think it's right for me to share. If Steven wants to, that's OK, but it was good stuff."
So, Steven, explain yourself.
"To be honest with you," he said, "I woke up at about 3:30 in the morning. I couldn't sleep, just something resonated in me. I was just asking myself and praying, to be honest with you, about what can I say to inspire this team to play 60 minutes of good football? I think we've all seen us play 30 minutes, 40 minutes of football. We have yet this season put together a full game, a full four quarters of good football, so pretty much all I said was, ‘If you have ever been in a fight where you ever get hit by a punch, you've only got two decisions. You can either run from the person, or you can dig deep inside and find the will in you to keep swinging and keep fighting. When that happens, you're challenged.'
"So I challenged them, not as football players. I challenged them as men. I said, ‘You know what? We've been hit, we've taken a lot of shots, we will be hit in this game going against a potent offense, and when that hit comes, I challenge you to respond in a way that you have to dig deep inside to find something in you that you didn't know you had.' I think today, in that fourth quarter, we saw that. And the guys rose to the challenge and I'm very proud of them."
Jackson said as much when he held a ball aloft in the raucous locker room. He said, "I challenged everyone in the locker room, coaches included, to come out and fight and you did exactly that, so this game ball goes out to everybody."
A passionate Jackson told reporters afterward, "What we did last Sunday in Dallas was not what this team is made of. It's not what we've built here over the last three seasons under coach Spagnuolo and his staff. We wanted to go out and prove that what people were saying, what people were trying to put on us, labels, that we're not that. We're a much better team. Flat out, this was a team effort, a team win."
Similar to the team win fashioned by the Cardinals, there were numerous heroes aside from Jackson during those 60 minutes Sunday.
But, while so many were trying to make a connection between the Cardinals' presence and the Rams' performance, and wondering if it served as motivation, Jackson put that notion into his perspective.
He said, "I think the Cardinals being here was great for the city." He then paused for five seconds and concluded, "Whoever showed up today, regardless if the place was empty; today was a day not to play the Rams. We came out with a mindset that we were going to fight and we were going to fight for 60 minutes of football regardless who was in the stands, or who was the opponent. And even if we made mistakes, we're not going to dwell on it and I think we saw that today."
Entering the game, the Rams had led for a total of 6:28 in the first six games of the season. They had never taken an offensive snap with a lead. The defense rarely got their opponent in long-yardage situations. As games careened out of control, the defense was gashed by the run, never more so that the 294 yards gained by Dallas the week before.
The script was different Sunday. Even though the Rams wouldn't take their first lead until there was 8:32 left in the second quarter, the explosive New Orleans offense never got untracked.
The Saints' first drive ended after a deflection by linebacker James Laurinaitis and good coverage by cornerback Al Harris. A Laurinaitis sack on the next possession moved the Saints back from the Rams' 36-yard line, and even after a 17-yard play on third-and-22 got New Orleans into field-goal range, John Kasay missed a 49-yard field goal.
In the first half, the Saints had third-down plays of 14, 19 and 22 yards. The game truly turned in a span of 84 seconds late in the second quarter.
Rookie defensive end Robert Quinn blocked a punt, and the ball bounced out of bounds at the New Orleans 15-yard line. Quarterback A.J. Feeley hit rookie receiver Greg Salas for 12 yards, and Jackson recovered a Jackson fumble. For some reason, the Rams rushed to the line of scrimmage to run the next play even though the Saints had no time outs left. When Jackson scored on the next play, there was still 1:10 left in the half, plenty of time for quarterback Drew Brees to move the ball down the field.
Yet, on first down, cornerback Josh Gordy had great position and intercepted Brees' pass at the 38-yard line.
Seven plays later, after a 14-yard completion to Brandon Gibson on third-and-10, and a 6-yard run by Feeley, the quarterback hit Brandon Lloyd on an 8-yard touchdown pass. Suddenly, the score at halftime was 17-0.
Yes, there was a stretch in the second half where the Rams let the Saints back in the game and Jackson exhorted the offense to get their heads back in the game.
But it was safety Darian Stewart that made the defining play with the Rams leading 24-14 and the Saints on their own 20 with 3:01 remaining. Stewart stepped in front of a pass intended for tight end Jimmy Graham, and not only intercepted it, but raced 27 yards for a touchdown. It was the first return score by the Rams in 33 games since Oct. 18, 2-009, against Jacksonville.
As Spagnuolo said, "I told the guys last night, there is going to be eight to 10 difference-making moments. I'll add them up when I watch the film, but my guess is that we made them this time. If you don't make them it's hard to win."
Notable numbers: The Saints were coming off a 62-point explosion against Indianapolis, and they entered the game with the second-ranked offense in the NFL, averaging 467.1 yards per game and 6.5 yards per play, which ranked fourth. They gained just 283 yards (4.0 per play), and 80 came on a meaningless final touchdown drive designed solely to extend Brees' streak of consecutive games with a touchdown pass to 35.
After three quarters, the Rams led 24-7 and New Orleans had totaled just 130 yards on 41 plays (3.2 per play).
In seven previous games, Brees had been sacked 13 times. The Rams had six sacks Sunday, three by defensive end Chris Long.
The Saints were ninth in rushing yards per game (126.1) and seventh in average per attempt (4.6) prior to Sunday. Playing without Mark Ingram (heel), they rushed for 56 yards on 20 carries (2.8-yard average).
The combined record of the Rams' first six opponents is 31-19. Starting with Arizona next Sunday, five of the next six games and three of the next four will be played against NFC West teams in November. Those four games are against three teams - Arizona (two times), Cleveland and Seattle - that have a combined record of 7-21, counting the Cardinals twice.
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