Bonsignore: Introduction was awkward, but Rams' welcome-home party turned out OKBy VINCENT BONSIGNORE / STAFF COLUMNIST
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Timid is the foot that steps back into the old neighborhood.
Hoping to make a good impression on their first night back in town, the Rams nearly stuck their foots in their mouths.
Maybe they were trying too hard.
It happens some times.
You want to say the perfect thing so bad you end up babbling on and on until you’ve insulted everyone in sight.
You knock down a drink or two to loosen up, only to end up wicked plastered and making a fool of yourself.
The Rams were that guy for most of Saturday.
And get this: It was on a night the old neighborhood threw a party in their honor.
More than 89,000 tickets were distributed to Saturday’s game, and the vast majority showed up at the Coliseum to welcome the Rams home from the 21-year sentence they served in St. Louis after being banished there by former owner Georgia Frontiere.
Everything was set up for the Rams to succeed: A full house. A national television audience. An entire city eager to slap them on their backs and welcome them back home.
All they had to do was show up, fist-bump some of their former pals, kiss a couple of babies on the forehead and wink at a pretty girl or two and they would have had the whole joint eating out of their hands.
They were home-free.
Instead, most of them wake up this morning with a rip-roaring headache wondering what exactly went down on a night that began as a celebration but deteriorated into a blurry haze of first-half mistakes and misplays that buried them in a 17-point hole against the Dallas Cowboys.
“We have our work cut out for us,” Rams coach Jeff Fisher said. “We aren’t close to being regular-season ready.”
Nelson Spruce and Sean Mannion and the rest of the Rams B-teamers cleaned up the mess, roaring back in the second half with a spirited comeback to win 28-24.
It sent everyone home happy and saved the Rams starters from making an embarrassing first impression.
Spruce has a chance to make the team as an undrafted free-agent wide receiver, by the way, and if L.A. has any say in the matter he’ll have a spot on the final roster. The shouts of “Spruuuccceeee” coming from the packed house seemed to echo all the way to L.A. Live.
You figure Fisher was listening.
“He played really well. And it’s no different from what we’ve seen in practice,” said Rams starting quarterback Case Keenum. “Just a really good football player.”
As for the fans, by the end of the night it didn’t seem to matter that it was a bunch of backups and long shots they were cheering on.
The Rams won. There was a cool little fireworks show afterward.
And everyone left beaming.
“It was as if we just clinched the playoffs,” Fisher said.
That didn’t excuse what happened the first 30 minutes, though.
The Cowboys punished the Rams starters over the first two quarters, and in the whole scheme of things that’s more important than what happened in the second half.
The Cowboys returned the opening kickoff 101 yards for a touchdown and then got two touchdown passes from rookie quarterback Dak Prescott to take a 24-7 lead at halftime.
Outside of Bennie Cunningham’s touchdown run to cap a crisply led drive by Keenum, the first half was a big bummer.
“I just feel like we shot ourselves in the foot with penalties and mental errors,” Cunningham said.
Jared Goff, the top pick in last April’s draft and the quarterback the Rams have hitched their future to, completed 4 of 9 passes for 38 yards with an interception and a sack. His quarterback rating was 17.1. Worse, he took a vicious hit and suffered a shoulder injury that kept him on the bench in the second half.
Meanwhile, the defense got ambushed by a Cowboys offense quarterbacked by a fourth-round draft pick who sliced and diced his way to 139 yards and two touchdowns on 10-of-12 passing and a 154.5 passer rating.
“We made a couple of mistakes, but that’s part of the bump we’re doing to take, definitely,” Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald said.
That’s the bad news.
On the other hand, most of the 89,000 fans who crammed into the Coliseum stuck it out till the end and were rewarded with a positive finish.
They weren’t in any rush to kick the Rams to the curb, no matter how many times they cringed or turned away in the first half. And they cheered wildly as Spruce and Mannion ignited the second-half comeback.
After spending the last 21 years without the NFL, it seems they’re so happy to have it back they’ll set aside their critical eye and let the Rams ease their way back into their hearts.
No boos. No demands to fire the coach or bench the quarterback or pound dirt.
It was a night to celebrate. And L.A. wasn’t about to let a guest of honor who initially forgot his manners to louse up their party.
The Rams appreciated the support.
“It was great,” Donald said. “Definitely great to see a packed house, and it’s loud, so it’s pretty good.”
Besides, L.A. may have gone 21 years without pro football, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t savvy enough to put the first preseason game in perspective.
The Rams starters have three weeks left to get themselves cleaned up before the season opener. If they’re tripping all over themselves opening night against the San Francisco 49ers, we might have issues.
But for now, it’s just one sloppy first-half performance in an exhibition game no one is likely to remember or care about.
