The hits just keep on coming at Rams Park. After having a relatively healthy camp the Rams have all of a sudden had a rash of injuries. Today it happened to one of their most important offensive pieces. Quarterback Marc Bulger broke his pinky finger in the morning practice during a center-quarterback exchange. Bulger will miss the next two weeks and will miss the next two preseason games.
The loss is obviously not a good situation for the Rams. When Bulger injured the hand this morning it was not thought to be that bad. In fact he stayed in after hurting it and then was at the afternoon practice working out and lifting weights with both hands. Head Coach Steve Spagnuolo said that the finger "is not displaced which is a good thing, so it's the best of all worlds. You can't cast it. You can't do anything to it." Bulger will not have to have anything done to the finger outside of keeping it immobilized.
I suspect that if this was the regular season that Bulger would be playing on Sunday but since this is the preseason and there is a long season ahead of the Rams decided it would be best for Bulger to sit out. Obviously the entire offense is not in but it is not as if Bulger is not capable of still doing everything with the mental side of the game and still keep his conditioning up.
Taking over for Bulger will be Kyle Boller. While Boller was not exactly sharp in his first outing Friday, going 3/9 for 25 yards, Boller is an upgrade over what the Rams had at the backup quarterback position. Boller said after practice that "It'll be an
opportunity for me to get out there with the ones. That's what they brought me in here for, in case something like this happens. Hopefully we can go out there and not miss a beat."
Boller is like a number of players on this roster in that he needs to prove himself on the field to stay in the NFL. Boller was a number one draft pick for the Baltimore Ravens that never panned out. Usually in the NFL life cycle a high draft pick will get a second chance to revive his career somewhere else. Boller may get his chance here in St. Louis.
With Brock Berlin's status in question for the game Friday night it will give both Boller and Keith Null a lot of opportunities to show what they have got. It will certainly be interesting to see how both perform for the Rams on Friday night vs the Falcons.
For more info: Get updates from Rams Park here and get instant updates on Twitter here