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CNN Live At Daybreak

Rams Win NFC Championship

Aired January 28, 2002 - 06:37   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
COSTELLO: OK, listen to this Chad. The stage is set for next weekend's Super Bowl. The New England Patriots took advantage of too many Pittsburgh mistakes, beating the Steelers 24-17 in the AFC championship game. Oh what a game it was, and in the NFC championship, it was St. Louis over Philadelphia 29-24, oh but the Ram machine did not get going until the second half.

CNN's John Giannone has that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN GIANNONE, CNN SPORTS: Its mission statement was to command respect, but in the first half on Sunday, the Rams' defense had very little command of its role. A half so sloppy, so sluggish, that intermission brought a stern admonition.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You guys were quiet and in just a situation like this, you don't want guys quiet. You want guys to realize that this is our home turf. The game is not over.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We came in to say that was not Ram football, which you saw in the first half, especially from the defense. We were able to give up -- we gave up 17 points. That's not us.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I saw guys with their heads down acting like we had lost the ballgame. You know, I told them, hey, go out there. Let's have fun. Let's -- defense, we need to step it up. You know, offense, we need to step it up. We need to go out here and play Ram football, attack, attack, attack. We were out there playing tight -- like we were the underdogs.

GIANNONE: Fletcher's message struck a second-half chord. With energy and intensity to burn, the Rams limited the Eagles to nine plays in 17 yards in 22 minutes, and turned a four-point deficit into a 12-point lead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can't handcuff yourself when you're out there. The second half we didn't. We just went out there and turned it loose a little bit more, the defensive line, got a lot more heat on them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They started off with the stunts (ph) in the first quarter, and then we kind of shut that down, and then they kind of went back to it, and they kind of threw us off a little bit, and then it was so loud you couldn't hear that, it throws off your timing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We should have done a better job of grinding something out, getting some offense. We left our defense on the field, and we can't do that in that type of situation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They were making plays, and getting us the ball back, and put us in a position to get that other touchdown and to really go up by 12 and kind of seal the deal.

GIANNONE: And with the Super Bowl looming and the final few minutes ticking, Williams stamped his storybook ticket, a moment that for the Rams was both fitting and stirring.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When I'm on the ground man, my teammates attacked me. I got hit harder by them than I did by anybody from Philadelphia today. So it was just a tremendous blessing man.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When he made that interception, I said if anybody deserved to make a play to win the game for us, it was him, because he had been stuck in futility for so many years, I mean Arizona.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What can you say, the guy's worked his butt off for 11 years and now -- and now look at him, and this is his chance to shine.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We look for him to make a big play. I mean he's -- that's his role now, and no one can do it better than him.

GIANNONE: All week the Rams talked about the benefits of being able to watch films of their game won victory over the Eagles.

That said, the Rams will probably spend plenty of time this week watching the November 18 game against the Patriots, a game the Rams won by seven points in Foxborough, in which Kurt Warner passed for more than 400 yards for the second time in his career, a game incidentally that represents the last time the Patriots suffered defeat.

At the NFC Championship game in St. Louis, I'm John Giannone.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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