Oh, he's delighted to be back at .500 and in contention in the NFC West, but as he said Monday, ``the first quarter of the season is over and we're ready to move on.''
And he'd like move on to some better performances from his defense.
"No; we still did some things that need to be better,'' Spagnuolo said when asked if he was happy with his defense. ``There's still spurts of run defense in there we'd like to all be better, and there's some spotted big plays in there given up. So I'd like to ... I'm a perfectionist.''
Well, maybe he's not that unhappy with the defense after all.
Asked to describe why his team seems to play better in the second half of games this year, Spagnuolo seemed to indicate this group of Rams is more of a team than previous incarnations.
"It's probably the character of the guys in the locker room,'' he said. "The coaches are doing a good job, although I thought in prior games where people may have thought the right adjustments weren't made, I think they still were.
"They're going on all the time. I think it's just the character of the players. I would put it on them.''
Much of the turnaround this year, rightly or wrongly, is being laid at the feet of rookie quarterback Sam Bradford, the top pick in the draft out of Oklahoma.
But Bradford was an unknown, even to the Rams, as Spagnuolo was quick to point out.
"I don't think any of us ever know until you get into a real live regular season NFL game,'' he said. "We certainly saw hints of it in the preseason. We all did. Everybody in here. And then we were hopeful that when the speed of the game jacked up in the regular season, he would speed up with it and he has.
"I just think that the players that are playing with him are confident in him and I think that gets him a little bit more confidence. He's a great competitor and I think that filters through the whole offense.''
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