Bulger tries to rally Rams from shutout

ST. LOUIS -- When he listens to the radio, Marc Bulger prefers political talk shows. Watching TV, he favors nature shows. No sports. Might be too painful.

The St. Louis Rams' quarterback has been a poster boy for the franchise's failures in recent seasons, beginning his career with the impossible task of replacing two-time MVP Kurt Warner. His soft-spoken demeanor, accompanied by the team's inevitable decline from its heyday at the turn of the century, has led to incessant criticism of a perceived lack of fire and leadership.

"I come to work and the coaches, whatever they want me to get better at, I do," Bulger said Wednesday. "I don't really take advice from anyone except my coaches."

With the rebuilding Rams coming off a dispiriting 28-0 opening loss at Seattle and heading back on the road Sunday to play the Redskins, it's not like the pressure is going away. St. Louis concentrated on improving the offensive line in the offseason, yet was the only NFL team to get shut out last week.

Like a lot of his teammates, Bulger is heeding new coach Steve Spagnuolo's often-repeated suggestion that they concentrate on what they can change and forget about the franchise's past failures. That includes last week, when the Rams were held to 247 yards and couldn't stay competitive long enough to allow Steven Jackson to become a factor.

Jackson was held to 67 yards on 16 carries, his role minimized with the Rams playing catchup.

"We were all frustrated Sunday," Bulger said. "We were down. But as coach explained to us, we don't have time to be down. We're not going to look backward. We have to get our first win, and that's all we're focused on."

They're so into this tunnel vision that Bulger didn't even want to revisit success. One of the Rams' victories in last year's dismal 2-14 season came at Washington.

St. Louis was a two-touchdown underdog before winning 19-17 in Jim Haslett's first game as coach after replacing Scott Linehan.

"We can't say we're not going to look back at last year and all the losses, and turn around and say we're going to look back at a win," Bulger said. "It's a whole new year. So we can't look back at all."

Bulger, who joined the Rams in 2001, needs two completions to pass Jim Everett (1,847) and become the franchise's all-time leader. He's likely to become No. 1 in attempts and yards passing, too, by the end of the season.

But in the opener he was 17 of 36 for 191 yards and the Rams were a pitiful 2 for 12 on third-down conversions.

There's plenty of blame to go around. The inexperienced wide receiving corps had difficulty getting open. The upgraded offensive line was far from a solid wall of protection, allowing three sacks.

"It's everything," Bulger said. "We don't want to point to one thing."

Like Bulger, center Jason Brown parrots the coach's mantra.

"There are a lot of things we need to improve upon from last week," Brown said. "But we're moving forward right now. We're working hard to make sure we get on all cylinders for Sunday."

The Rams got 107 yards in the fourth quarter, garbage time with Seattle sitting on a 28-0 lead.

"Nobody is going to tell you we did a good job out there," tight end Randy McMichael said. "We've got to get in a better rhythm, and we can't really kill ourselves like we did a lot of times when we had opportunities to make plays."