"Occasionally, a head coach might stop things in the middle of practice to address the team. But a player?

It was an odd sight, something you might not see in hundreds of practices at Rams Park. But about 20 minutes into Tuesday's bye week practice session, running back Steven Jackson called the entire offense together for what sounded like part lecture and part pep talk.

It lasted maybe a couple of minutes, then practice resumed. With the Rams listing badly at 0-4, coach Steve Spagnuolo appreciates all the help he can get, particularly from one of his team captains.

Jackson's message?

"Just some determination," Spagnuolo said. "Some will to succeed, some drive for excellence. Just some key points and we appreciate that. I'm sure the guys on defense were doing the same thing. (Defensive captain) James Hall and I talked this morning. They get it. These guys are warriors. They've been through this and we've just got to fight our way out of it."

Jackson declined to comment Tuesday about his talk to the team. But his message apparently resonated.

"He just reaffirmed things that we had talked about as an offense and a team," guard/center Tony Wragge said. "And we are going to constantly do that. We're going to constantly talk about the positive things that we can do. We're going to talk about some of the negative things that we need to improve on. It's not something that we're going to brush aside. We're going to talk about how to improve on it.

"And we're not going to stop. This is the NFL, anything can happen. It's awesome to hear Steven talk about that, and to hear some of the other guys in the huddle talk about it, too. Because leadership goes a long way in this league.""