Preparing for a rushing Faulk

TAMPA -- Stopping the run is key to winning in the NFL. Stopping Marshall Faulk from running is something only Rams coach Mike Martz has been capable of.

Faulk, the forgotten man in Super Bowl XXXVI, has just 24 carries in two games this season, both losses.

But it is not as if Faulk never sees the ball. He is the Rams' leading receiver with 21 catches and has accounted for 233 yards rushing and receiving.

The Bucs expect Faulk to take a lot of handoffs tonight at Raymond James Stadium.

"When he played us in the championship game, he said, 'I never brought my Rolls Royce out,' " said defensive tackle Warren Sapp, who has four sacks in the past two games against St. Louis. "He kept Faulk in and chipped and blocked and did some different things in the championship game. When he came down here, he said, 'I'm just going to release him. I'm going to one-on-one block on the line.' You get tortured like that, both years. I had him twice down here and twice up there. If you're going to bring out your Rolls Royce, your Rolls Royce gets dented up. Especially in my neighborhood. We don't play that.

"(Martz) is worse than (Brian) Billick. He's an egotistical maniac. But that's how his offense works."

NO PICKS, NO PROBLEM: Cornerback Brian Kelly has gone 22 games without an interception and has just three in his career. But that does not concern coaches.

"It really doesn't. Everybody in the secondary and everybody in this defense has a role," defensive backs coach Mike Tomlin said. "Everybody knows the positives that he brings to the table in terms of being a great Cover 2 corner, being a sound tackler, a technique guy.

"But you know, we all strive to be complete players, and that's an aspect of his game he needs to work on. He's attacking it, he's striving to do that. The concern is not there. The concern would be there if he didn't realize that wasn't an area of his game that's deficient and he wasn't working to improve on it. But he is, and I fully expect him to improve on it just as Ronde Barber has.

"Everybody brings their own talents to the table. (John) Lynch is the hitter. Dexter (Jackson) covers grass, Ronde makes the splash plays. (Kelly) puts in the blue-collar grunt work."

IN GOOD STANDING: The Bucs were supposed to wipe their cleats with opponents in the NFC South. But the new division is stronger than anyone expected.

New Orleans and Carolina are undefeated while Atlanta, which is 1-2 after routing the Bengals on Sunday night, is two plays from wins over Green Bay and Chicago.

With two wild-card spots available this season, the Bucs can't afford to fall far behind in the standings.

"I think the big thing is we try to make sure we don't concentrate on anyone else's business but our own," coach Jon Gruden said. "I think you can't start looking in the standings. It's not like major-league baseball where you have 86 games left or 112 to go and say we'll catch them in the second half. We've got to play this down by down, week by week.

"We split the season up into four quarters. We're 1-1 in the first quarter. If you go 3-1, 3-1, 3-1, 3-1, that adds up to 12-4. If you have a 2-2 split or a 1-3, you've got to rally in the next quarter. But we try to stay real short-term, and whether or not everybody's bought into that yet, I don't know. But you can't really concentrate on how New Orleans is doing. You've got to worry about yourself."