The Rams needed a tight victory over the Bucs to land a spot in the big game.

Don't say something stupid this early. You'll only be asked to expound on it all week.

The Rams flew into cold, windy Atlanta in the late afternoon Monday and promptly showed humility in the wake of their 11-6 squeaker over Tampa Bay in the NFC Championship Game. No outrageous boasts over what they'll do this Sunday in the Georgia Dome. No talk of trashing the Tennessee Titans in Super Bowl XXXIV.

"I think yesterday's game is going to help us mentally," Rams wide receiver Isaac Bruce said. "Because we haven't been in too many games this year that came down to a real test at the end. The focus will definitely be there this week. We were on the brink yesterday. We definitely had to play four quarters."

Similar to the Fed raising interest rates to keep inflation in check, the Rams will use the Bucs game to temper what some believe was runaway offensive ego. After all, St. Louis sailed through a 13-3 regular season by outscoring opponents by a whopping 526-242 margin. And then they added an embarrassingly easy 49-37 victory over the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC divisional playoffs.

Led by the arm of Kurt Warner and the legs of NFL-leading yard gainer Marshall Faulk, the Rams appeared impossible to stop in this improbable season. That is, until Sunday, when they scored fewer than 21 points for the first time all season.

"I thought (beforehand) that we would get into the 20-point range on them," Rams coach Dick Vermeil said of the Bucs. "But we turned the ball over, and they did a great job against us. I don't want to take anything away from them. They're tough (defensively), but I was surprised that we would score only one touchdown."

Vermeil, who spent 14 years as a television analyst, answers questions honestly. Sometimes too honestly. It's such openness that can be interpreted as cockiness.

"I don't think there's any reason for our offense to be embarrassed or humbled (by Sunday's game)," he said. "They've never really been cocky. They've just been very good and have executed extremely well."

Warner, the supermarket-stock-boy-turned-Arena-Leaguer-turned NFL MVP, also doesn't subscribe to the offense-has-gotten-big-headed theory.

"I think we've been humble all year," said the man who threw the third-most TD passes in a season (41) in NFL history and matched Dan Marino and Warren Moon for the all-time mark of 300-yard passing games (nine) in a year. "I don't think that we were arrogant. I don't think we were cocky. We just thought that we were good."

HOME ALONE

Just like the Titans, the Rams left their assistant coaches home Monday to work on the game plans for Super Bowl XXXIV. Such is life without a bye week. While Rams coach Dick Vermeil and the players arrived in Atlanta on Monday, the team's assistant coaches are scheduled to catch a charter flight Tuesday night. Tuesday is spent on a huge media-day gathering for both teams, and then the first on-field practices are set for Wednesday (the Rams will practice at the Atlanta Falcons' practice facility; the Titans will work out at Georgia Tech). "Football coaches are terrible creatures of habit," Vermeil said. "They feel very insecure outside their normal routine. "I thought if we could keep (the assistants) in a normal routine and if we could do that without breaking any NFL rules, I thought it would be the best way for our staff to get our football team prepared to practice on Wednesday." Vermeil said he would study film and make assessments separately while in Atlanta, communicate by phone with his staff and then delay finalizing some segments of the game plan until an early-morning coaches meeting Wednesday.

A kick in the ...
Vermeil denied that Jeff Wilkins' lingering injury problem with his left, planting leg caused him to miss a 44-yard field-goal attempt against the Bucs on Sunday.

"His leg is probably a little bit better today than it was yesterday," the Rams coach said. "He just wasn't very accurate yesterday. His injury is no excuse for missing a field goal. If I thought it was being used as an excuse, I wouldn't kick him. I'd bring somebody else in off the street."

Actually, Vermeil already did that, holding a tryout last week for three kickers in case Wilkins couldn't go against the Bucs. Nick Lowery won that tryout, and Vermeil said Monday that he would likely go with the 43-year-old veteran if Wilkins' ailment got worse this week.

Not gonna go there
A line of questioning in regards to how Vermeil approached his previous Super Bowl appearance (in 1981 as head coach of Philadelphia) struck a nerve. Vermeil readily admits he's not as intense now as he was then. But at his Monday news conference he was unwilling to explain how his uptight approach in handling the Eagles might have contributed heavily to their 27-10 loss to the party-hardy Oakland Raiders in New Orleans.

"You (the media) always have to have a storyline. I understand that," Vermeil said. "In my 14 years in the media, I always had to have a storyline to start the broadcast with, too.

"But to think that the Raiders beat us in the Super Bowl because we were extremely disciplined in our approach to the game and wanted to send a great image to America on what we're all about, and (their) guys could go on Bourbon Street and get drunk and get arrested and win -- I don't want that image even today."