Saturday, December 8, 2007

Bulger out

Marc Bulger's officially been ruled out of the Cincinnati game. He's had a setback in recovery from the concussion he received in the Seattle game.

Bernie Miklasz is pretty much all over this. He mentions something I worried about a couple of posts ago: Brock Berlin, your new Rams starting QB, hasn't gotten many snaps in practice and is going to be rushed into action. Scott Linehan's made a mistake there. He gambled wrong hoping Bulger would be fine. Berlin should have been prepared sufficiently to play Sunday.

Bernie also opines that Bulger ought to be shut down for the season. There's a lot of good reason for that. The nature of his injury, the fact the Rams have been long out of it, the chance to see if Berlin has got anything, the fact that upcoming opponent Green Bay has one of the league's best defensive lines, the fact that upcoming opponent Pittsburgh has always had a tough defense, the $65 million investment the Rams currently have in Marc, and securement of a very high draft position, top 5 for sure, for 2008.

The minuses? Dooming the team to 3-13, possibly denying the Big Dead a chance to make the playoffs, forcing Rams fans to watch Brock Berlin and/or Todd Bouman (who is in fact on the team now).

I haven't had strong feelings about automatically shutting Marc Bulger down, but there isn't much it can hurt now, other than Marc's and the team's long-term futures. It'll show strong character on Scott Linehan's part to go ahead and shut Marc down, put player welfare ahead of your own record. Go ahead and do the right thing here, coach. Give Marc the rest of the year off. The fans will understand.

Friday, December 7, 2007

Madden NFL 08 predicts a wacky game

The Madden NFL 08 prediction for the Cincinnati game has the Rams blowing a 21-3 4th-quarter lead, 2 TDs each for Steven Jackson and Funfundachtzig, Marques Hagans returning a kickoff for a TD to tie the game at 28 in the last 30 seconds, and the Bengals then returning the kickoff in overtime to win the game 34-28.

That'd be a fun recap.

Bulger: questionable at best; Rams: dead

Good news never lasts long with this year's team.

Marc Bulger did not feel well after practice yesterday and has been listed as questionable for the game at Cincinnati. Given that Marc's recovering from a concussion, and Scott Linehan and staff are exactly right that you DO NOT want to take chances with that, it looks very likely that Brock Berlin - Brock Freaking Berlin! - will start, and he'll be rushed into action at that, since I doubt he's gotten that many snaps in practice.

So either: Steven Jackson takes over the game and rushes for about 250;
the defense completely dominates the trenches, forcing at least 5 sacks and at least 5 turnovers;
or the Rams get completely killed dead.

What a season.

Make it Hagans

It'll be Marques Hagans returning kicks and punts at Cincinnati. I like that decision a lot. Hagans was outstanding in preseason and we've been wondering ever since then what he's got. We'll find out the next four weeks.

Also, Darius Vinnett was promoted to the main roster to replace Tye Hill. I imagine he'll be the dime back and play on special teams. Todd Bouman will be added to the roster as 3rd-string QB. That's fine, just as long as he never has to play.

Thursday, December 6, 2007

Corrections

Torry Holt didn't beat Lewis Sanders on his TD catch against Atlanta Sunday. He beat Chris Houston, same as on the 38-yard catch at the start of the drive. Isaac Bruce beat Sanders for his TD.

Also, I'm finding I have an annoying tendency to call Jonathan Wade "Jonathan Hall" instead. I have no idea where that comes from; one of those mild brain disorders, I guess.

Will get those errors fixed as time permits.

Dante Hall done for the season

High ankle sprain.

Article

With Brandon Williams also unlikely to go Sunday, Jonathan Wade could be the kick returner, punt returner and guy who's supposed to cover Ottantacinque on passing downs. Good luck, kid.

As for Hall, I'd like to see him come back next season. He blew the first game against San Francisco, but when the guy's ever at 100% (which wasn't that often this season), he's proven he's still a game-changing player.

ESPN mock draft / Jake Long

Todd McShay's first mock draft for espn.com is out. The top five projected picks:

1. Miami, Glenn Dorsey, DT, LSU
2. New England (from the Idiot Whiners), Darren McFadden, RB, Arkansas.*
3. NY Jets, James Laurinaitis, ILB, The Ohio State University.
4. Atlanta, Brian Brohm, QB, Louisville.
5. RAMS, Jake Long, RT, Michigan.

Scouts Inc. says the Rams' top need areas are OL, CB and DE.

Quoting McShay: "The season-ending injury to Orlando Pace and the Rams' overall poor play along the offensive line this season make Long a real possibility with this pick. He is unquestionably the most dominant offensive-line prospect in the 2008 class."

Must not be much of a class, then, if you ask the War Room. "Michigan OT Jake Long is playing like a late first- or early second-round pick after looking slow and stiff early this season. He's moving his feet much better and blocking with much better knee bend and leverage."

So, is he the most dominant OL prospect in the draft, or a guy who's had to improve to get into the first round?

The clear pick in this scenario as far as I'm concerned is Chris Long of Virginia. McShay, as I suspect a lot of mock drafters who value poetic license over accurate analysis will do, has Chris going to Oakland two picks later; of course, that's his dad Howie's old team.

But for the Rams, it's certainly more crucial to develop a pass rush that doesn't require blitzing on every play, which is currently the case, than it is to acquire a third tackle. Yes, the Ram offensive line has had an awful season on the field, and if Jake Long were indeed a top-5 quality pick, which appears to be far from the consensus right now, he might be a no-brainer. But it isn't like this is the Rams' first-string failing. It's not even the SECOND-string. Milford Brown, Nick Leckey, Brandon Gorin, Rod Pettiti et al. are third-stringers at best. Odds are good none of them will make next year's team, because the line will be healthier.
Orlando Pace will be back next year to start at LT. Richie Incognito and Mark Setterstrom will return to start at the guards. It'll be the line that dominated down the stretch of the 2006 season, except PLUS Pace.

Alex Barron is competent enough at RT that the Rams shouldn't cough up a top-5 pick to replace him. If you bring Long in, it's to replace him, as if that wouldn't be awkward in the locker room. And what if Long doesn't beat Barron out? You've used your top-5 pick on A BACKUP?

The Rams clearly need to improve their depth across the offensive line. But their starters are fine. Though personally I'm fine if the Ram draft goes: DE, WR, OL, OL, OL, OL, OL, OL, OL..., the one pick they don't need to use on the o-line is their first one. Between the 2nd-day picks and veteran free agency, the team ought to be able to put together the nucleus of a young, deep, capable offensive front.

* If that pick pans out, it'll rival the greatest draft steals in NFL history, which include Dallas giving up chump change in 1977 for Seattle's #1 overall pick, which became Tony Dorsett, and the Houston Oilers pulling a similar stunt in 1978 to get Tampa Bay's #1 pick, using it on Earl Campbell. It'll also likely add 10 years to the length of the Patriot dynasty of cheating and whining. Hoo boy.

12-0, with a loss

Upon further review, the Patriots did in fact win the game in Baltimore Monday night because of a mistake by the officials. Peter King's Monday Morning QB column this week proves it, though he, along with much of the rest of the national media, is actually busier trying to justify the Patriot win.

Just a couple of posts ago, I mentioned I was surprised to see that assistant coaches could call sideline timeouts, like Rex Ryan did Monday night, inadvertently erasing a 4th-down stop by his defense in the process. As it turns out, they can't.

Here's the relevant passage from King's article:
New England ball, fourth-and-1, Baltimore 30, 1:48 left, Baltimore up 24-20. At the last second before the snap, Baltimore defensive coordinator Rex Ryan calls timeout. The play went on, with Baltimore stuffing Tom Brady for a loss and, theoretically, that should have been New England's last gasp. One problem. Only the head coach is supposed to be able to call time on the sidelines. But in this case, the league has interpreted the rule on a last-millisecond timeout call that the side official cannot be responsible for seeing whether it's the head coach or another coach who calls time. So it's technically legal for Ryan to have called the timeout, and the league's point is the head coach is responsible for controlling his bench. In this case, Brian Billick has to be responsible for his sideline, and when Ryan calls time, the burden is on Billick to accept the call because it happened on the Baltimore sideline.

The timeout clearly should not have been given. Furthermore, the NFL's after-the-fact "interpretation" and King's blind acceptance of the explanation are pure, unadulterated bullshit. The side official cannot be responsible for seeing whether it's the head coach or not? Let me get this right, he's got the credibility to be able to say a play came up three inches short of a first down, he's got the credibility to call pass interference on a DB who's forty yards away, but he's not expected to be able to tell these two guys apart?



















Bullshit. The timeout shouldn't have counted, and New England shouldn't have won. The NFL's weak CYA effort and the press' round-the-clock efforts to pander to the Patriots show their lack of impartiality and integrity.

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Bulger's back (good news)

Marc Bulger's passed the neuro-whatever tests and has been cleared to play Sunday against Cincinnati. Article

Marc's return, and hopefully his good health for the rest of the season, has averted a QB Armageddon that would have seen Brock Berlin starting and backed up by Todd Bouman. Bouman visited Rams Park but left without a contract after the news on Bulger came out.

Please, please, please, let's keep Bulger upright.

Tye Hill out (bad news)

But there's ANOTHER season-ending injury for this team, and given Sunday's opponent, it almost couldn't have come at a worse time. The Rams are going to have to try to slow down TJ Houshmandzadeh and Funfundachtzig without Tye Hill, who's out for the season now due to a dislocated wrist. Article

This means we're going to see a lot of Jonathan Wade Sunday. Ron Bartell technically steps in for Hill, but rest assured the Bengals will be in a lot of 3- and 4- WR formations, which will keep him at nickelback. Oh, great, Quatre-vingt-cinq
vs. Jonathan Wade. At least Wade has the speed.

What the hell do the Rams do when Cincy goes 4 wide? As the article states, they have only THREE healthy CBs now! From the options the article lists, I'd lean toward promoting Darius Vinnett from the practice squad.

I see a lot of soft zones in the Rams' future.

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Scary close prediction

I meant to link to the ESPN.com/Madden Football prediction for the Atlanta game, but I've lost track of the page. Interestingly, Madden predicted a 31-17 Rams victory, with McMichael and Holt scoring TDs.

Not too shabby.

End the sideline timeout

Baltimore defensive coordinator Rex Ryan's last-millisecond timeout, which canceled a 4th-and-1 play where his defense stuffed a Tom Brady QB sneak, which in turn would have ended New England's undefeated season, is the last straw for me. The NFL has got to get rid of the sideline timeout.

The sideline timeout simply causes too much chaos. I was surprised last night to see that the head coach doesn't even have to be the guy to call the timeout. Who on the sidelines CAN'T call a timeout? The waterboy? The cheerleaders? These last-second timeouts from the sidelines create confusion not only on the field, but highly importantly, in the stands and wherever fans are watching TV. We see a 4th-and-1 play run to completion, then find out it doesn't count because the last-millisecond timeout came and they couldn't stop the play in time. We see a game-winning FG get kicked, then find out it doesn't count. They couldn't stop the play in time because a timeout came in from the sideline at the last second. (I think Mike Martz, as Rams HC, was a lobbying force for changing the rule, but I don't want to discredit him where it's not due.)

It used to be only the team captain on the field could call timeout. Specialization made that difficult, especially on defense, so the rule changed to let any player on the field call timeout. Apparently unskilled enough to coach their players to avoid a Chris Webber scenario, coaches wanted to be able to call timeouts from the sidelines, so they didn't have to worry about miscommunications or the players making dumb mistakes like calling TO's they don't have.

Then last week, Joe Gibbs makes the dumb mistake of calling timeouts back-to-back while trying to call cutesy timeouts to freeze Buffalo kicker Rian Lindell.

That didn't work, and neither do sideline timeouts. They only create confusion for the fans watching the game. They should be eliminated posthaste. Timeouts should be called only by players on the field of play, where everybody can see what's going on.

12-0, still whining

Of all the gall...

I'm tuned in to the Monday night post-game press conference last night, and there's Tom Brady, complaining about the officiating in New England's skin-of-its-ass 27-24 win at Baltimore. Whining that his receivers were getting grabbed downfield.

Hey, buddy, that's how you got your FIRST Super Bowl ring!

No Patriot player, fan, or writer has any business complaining about last night's officiating. The benefit of the doubt ALWAYS went to the Patriots. Rex Ryan's STUPID last-second timeout got called in time. More on that in a bit. That saved Brady getting stuffed on 4th-and-1. Another 4th-and-1 play failed, but was called back, properly by rule, by a false start. The refs then bailed Brady out again on 4th-and-6 by making a defensive holding call that's in the dictionary next to "ticky-tack". Jabar Gaffney's TD catch was close enough to call either way; naturally, New England got the call. The officials flagged Baltimore THIRTEEN times for 100 yards, New England? just 4 times for 30.

New England LOST that game THREE times but all three times got the referees' gracious permission to try again. The timeout was a correct call, the holding flag was cheesy. Five of New England's first downs came via penalty. And instead of being thankful that his team's lucky enough to remain undefeated, Brady instead is whining about the very officials who made his latest win possible.

Just shut the hell up.


QB emergency!

Berlin at QB?

OK, the Rams' injury woes have now graduated from the ridiculous to the absurd. Marc Bulger AND Gus Frerotte may be out for the Cincinnati game. Frerotte is out for sure with a shoulder injury. Bulger can't be cleared to play in light of his concussion until he can pass the neuropsyche test. Can we all help him study?

Because without Bulger, your starting quarterback against the Bengals will be one Brock Berlin. Ironically, Ryan Fitzpatrick will be watching from the other sideline.

Desperately seeking a backup, the Rams are going to sign Todd Bouman, who has all the qualifications to play QB here. Which means he's played for Linehan, and in Bouman's case, Jim Haslett, too.

RamView is in a rare position here. Thanks to my annual participation in the Preseason Challenge, I've actually gotten to see Todd Bouman play. And he's awful. You want an interception every other throw, Bouman's your guy. Frankly, I don't know why Haslett even let him through the door at Rams Park. Wasn't he watching when Todd chucked one INT after another every preseason? I guess not.

True, you're not going to find many veteran QBs this time of the season, but Bouman is just a poor QB. I'd sooner bring back Tony Banks. A little research shows Jared Zabransky, the rookie FA from Boise State, is available. I'd sooner go with him. Capable college QB, played in a complex passing offense, good athlete, quick release, fast and can run. Why not use the opportunity to bring in a young guy and see if you can turn him into something special instead of falling back on an old retread, an incompetent one at that?

The second half blues

Third-down success falls in second half

All five of the 2nd-half 3rd-down plays mentioned in the article were pass plays, even though THREE of the downs were third-and-two. I tried to put some of the second-half problems against Atlanta on Linehan getting too conservative right away after halftime, then trying to "turn the switch" back on.

What we see here is the Rams' coach, probably correctly, can't trust his running game to convert a 3rd-and-2 when they have to, at a time of the game they should be taking over the line of scrimmage and Jackson should be running it down the defense's throat. This is starting to develop as a theme of the Rams' second-half offensive failures.

More reason to improve the offensive line and line depth this offseason, and make sure it stays improved.

Carriker, Chillar, Eric Moore

An everywhere guy

Chillar's stock rises

More from Moore

I thought Adam Carriker was the defensive MVP against Atlanta. His sack moved ATL out of long FG range; the next play was a turnover. His TFL of Norwood forced ATL into long-yardage downs and they ended up settling for a FG. And the biggest play was the pass knockdown (second? I thought he had two) with Atlanta inside the 10, trailing 21-16. They ended up turning the ball over on downs. It's not a stretch to say Adam saved the Rams 14 points. Huge, clutch game.

I agree that this has been Brandon Chillar's best season, the last 4 to 6 weeks in particular. But I see little to no chance he'll return next season. The Rams already have a lot of money tied up in Will's and Pisa's contracts, and Chris Draft is already here to step into the starting role in 2008. Brandon's worth a nice contract. I just think he'll get it from another team.

Wade illegal touch penalty

Jonathan, when the referee asks you if you committed an infraction, you say no! Humorous...

UPON FURTHER REVIEW

In an impressive hustle play, Rams cornerback Jonathan Wade downed a Donnie Jones punt at the Atlanta 5 on the final play of the third quarter. The teams switched sides, walking all the way to the other end of the field. The Falcons offense huddled for the next play. Meanwhile, the officials huddled, and huddles some more. Although there was no flag thrown after the play, referee Peter Morelli then explained that Wade would be penalized for illegal touching. (He had gone out of bounds and then came back in to down the punt, which is a penalty.)

So why didn't the flag come out earlier?

"During the break, apparently one of the officials asked Wade if he'd gone out of bounds, and apparently he told them that he had," Linehan said. "So they changed the call after the commercial break."

Rams 28, Falcons 16

Rams earn first home win of 2007
I misheard the announced attendance; the Rams claimed 62,000, not 52,000. That's right where I would have expected them to announce, given the 3,000 tickets that went unsold. It's also nowhere close to the actual attendance, which I'd put at 40-45K.

Jackson's dash is exclamation point
The game-clinching run is part of the video highlights at nfl.com. It looks like Steven got it all on his own at first blush, but keep an eye out for blocks by Klopfenstein and Owens. Klop basically seals three guys in at the corner.

NFL GameCenter/video highlights

Frerotte comes back strong vs. Falcons

Rams finally get it done in the Dome

Rams rediscover longer passes

RamView