RamView, August 27, 2009
From The Couch
(Report and opinions on the game.)
Preseason Game #3: Rams 24, Bengals 21
The Rams took a hard knock early from the stars of Hard Knocks, but rode the turnover wave again to bounce back for their second preseason victory, and bounce back from last week’s tough loss. Overcoming their flaws tonight with opportunism and resiliency, this team’s showing the character Steve Spagnuolo’s trying to instill in them. They’re far from perfect, but unlike the last two seasons, they’re playing like believers.
* QB: It was a nice night to be Kyle Boller (14-20-96, 1 TD), as he led a long TD drive in the 1st to reset the team’s momentum from a poor start. Boller showed fine poise in the pocket, nice mobility I should have given him more credit for last week, and good accuracy on most of his passes. It helped that everything was to the middle of the field this week instead of the more difficult outside throws Boller’s been struggling with. But it helped more that he made critical plays during the two TD drives he led. A screen to Steven Jackson with a blitz coming converted a 2nd-and-long, and again later with a Bengal bearing down on him, Boller found Ronald Curry on 3rd-and-7 to keep the 1st TD drive alive. Boller kept the 2nd TD drive afloat with clutch play, a tough 2nd-down scramble followed by a bullet slant pass to Laurent Robinson for a first down at the Bengals 5. Factor in 2 or 3 drops by his receivers, and Boller had as good a night as you could want him to have, especially since it left out those difficult deep throws that vexed him last week. The QB3 battle, meanwhile, has turned into an unpretty war of attrition, with neither of the back-benchers showing much tonight. Brock Berlin was 2-5-21 in the 3rd, and in the 4th, Keith Null (1-4-24) suddenly turned into 2000 Rick Ankiel, making high, wild throws and looking little like a player who had developed into one of the surprises of training camp. Even his one completion was a dubious play, a ball unwisely chucked into coverage but caught by Sean Walker across midfield. Not sure what made Null so uncomfortable tonight – less work from the shotgun? Bengal blitzing? But he looked as bad making sideline throws as Boller did last week, and the clash at QB3 is going to come down to a tiebreaker next week.
* RB: What does Steven Jackson (5-12) have in common with the President of the US? They both get a LOT of August off. Jackson had just 6 touches tonight, most of them handoffs with no room to run where he got stuffed. He had one 10-yard run, but a key play of the first TD drive was a 2nd-and-11 screen pass where he hurdled a tackler and scooted for the 1st. Samkon Gado (5-33) stepped in that same drive at RB2 and loudly announced “I’d like to keep this job, please,” with a 9-yard power run and a 16-yard cutback run for a TD that put the Rams back in the game. Also helping Gado keep RB2: Antonio Pittman (7-13) didn’t do a whole heck of a lot, and Kenneth Darby (4-6) did even less. Chris Ogbannaya (6-24) was actually the second-best rusher of the night. Life ain’t fair; Gado got a couple of good blocks, while Pittman and Darby got hardly any blocking at all. But those last two, the previous two RBs tabbed by the Rams to backup Jackson, are probably going to be fighting it out for RB3, or bust, next week.
* Receivers: Despite a drop and a penalty early, Laurent Robinson (3-20) continues to emerge as the top pleasant surprise of the preseason. He converted a critical 3rd-and-3 at the Bengals 5-yard-line running Torry Holt’s old slant route. What impressed me about the play was that it looked like Boller totally telegraphed the throw but Robinson still outmuscled and got inside the DB, who had to know the ball was coming. A big but, though, and we’re talking Kim Kardashian here, is that NO one else is stepping up. If Robinson and Donnie Avery aren’t the WRs on the field for the Rams, I fear big problems. Keenan Burton (1-8) made a nice run after a quick slant, but again, just one catch. They only even tried to throw to Burton twice; at least Tim Carter (2-9) got five targets, though few catchable balls. Derek Stanley didn’t have a catch. Ronald Curry had two, including a key catch on a 3rd-and-7 drag route that kept the 1st TD drive going. I guess it’s Curry or Burton for WR3, though it’s hardly an inspiring contest. A highly discouraging development was Randy McMichael’s (2-22) poor night at tight end. He blocked poorly and dropped two or three balls, and we know the Rams will HAVE to get better play than that from that position this year.
* Offensive line: The Rams won, and the o-line didn’t allow a sack and had some moments worthy of fist pumps, but there was way too much inconsistency to be happy with their performance tonight, especially with the running game averaging just 3.3 a carry. Adam Goldberg and Richie Incognito’s early play on the right side was epic fail. Those two, and McMichael, all found Robert Geathers impossible to block on various plays, and on all of them, Jackson got stuffed for little or no gain. They combined all their poor play on an early 2nd-and-7 pass. Domata Peko shed Incognito and crushed the pocket. Geathers beat Goldberg cleanly. Boller got away and threw to McMichael… who dropped it. Alex Barron’s man beat him the next play and hammered Boller, but not before the QB got away a big 3rd-down completion. Barron got whipped badly by rookie Michael Johnson early in the drive for a pass deflection, and tripped on a pull block that got a Gado run stuffed later. But the left side still fared better than the right side, where Incognito and Goldberg didn’t run-block well all night. Jason Brown’s pull block got Jackson the lane for a 10-yard run in the first TD drive (though Robinson’s illegal block brought most of it back). Mark Setterstrom started at LG and delivered key blocks on both Gado TDs. The first one was a beauty. He made the hole by collapsing a lineman to the right, then lunged left to pick off a LB. Barron also drove his man a good five yards downfield on the first TD. Setterstrom pulled and sealed the edge good and tight for Gado’s second TD. But at center later, Mark missed a blitz pickup and was responsible for a couple of failed runs. Jason Smith wasn’t terribly good, either, from the six minutes or so I saw of him in the 2nd and 3rd quarters. He got beat 4 or 5 times, mostly by Johnson, but usually with the good fortune of the play not running his direction, or Boller proving able to elude the pressure. Smith shifted from RT to LT after halftime but was only marginally better. So again, it’s a win, but one that leaves plenty of reason for concern. There’s too much inconsistency, too many mistakes run-blocking, and Jason Smith will NOT be ready to block for Marc Bulger come opening day. Two bad developments for a franchise counting on good run-blocking and on having Smith in the lineup sooner than later.
* Defensive line / LB: Inversely proportional to the offense’s miserable 3-and-out start and the special teams’ miserable start on punt coverage, the defense came out flying and kept it up. James Butler walked in on J.T. O’Sullivan for a sack on the first play, and James Laurinaitis and Jonathan Wade followed the next play by recovering O’Sullivan’s fumbled snap to set up the Rams’ 2nd TD. All three LBs blitzed on a play the next drive that got David Vobora a sack (after Will Witherspoon whiffed). Craig Dahl blitzed in for a sack to start the 3rd, coming up the middle with two blitzmates attacking the left side. Victor Adeyanju had a terrific night, with a second half sack but an even bigger play with Cincinnati driving in the first half. He stuffed big fullback Jeremi Johnson on 2nd-and-1 and held him up long enough for O.J. Atogwe to rip the ball loose for what became a defensive TD. Eric Moore saved the game late by whipping his man and sacking Jordan Palmer near the Rams 30. He classically went after the ball on the tackle, scraped it loose, and C.J. Ah You recovered to prevent overtime (or worse). Ah You had a sack/fumble near the goal line in the 3rd; the Rams had so many sacks tonight, I actually missed that one. What was the last time they had SIX sacks in a game? A badly-needed impressive night for the pass rush, and it came with Leonard Little held out with a slightly-sprained knee. Starting at LDE for Little, Chris Long didn’t have a sack but was still a wild man. He pressured the pocket well throughout the night and made an outstanding play on an attempted screen in the 1st, breaking into the backfield and swatting down the pass before the tight end it was intended for even got turned around to look for it! Cliff Ryan and Hollis Thomas also swatted down passes. I LOVE a line that does that. Still some troubling inconsistency, though. They were too soft on third down, especially in the first half, allowing 50% (5/10) conversion on the night. Run defense was up and down. For every run they’d stuff, they’d give up a long run, ending up charged with 141 yards total. James Hall stuffed Cedric Benson in the 1st but Benson ran for 8 the next play, I believe because James Laurinaitis missed a fill. Larry Grant stuffed a Benson draw for -3 to start the 2nd, but he just took off up the middle for 12 the next play. Ryan couldn’t hold his ground and Laurinaitis was picked off by a TE. But Adeyanju followed that with the stuff that set up Atogwe’s forced fumble. Witherspoon had a stuff later, but they couldn’t pin Cincinnati at the goal line at the end of the half. Bernard Scott got a huge hole for 14 after the fullback (possibly Brian Leonard) took out Long and Butler missed badly in the hole. A 97-yard TD drive got going in the 4th after Scott swept left for 22 ON 3RD AND 21. Dominic Douglas lost containment on the corner and a safety (I think David Roach) dived and missed badly. But the backups killed two Bengal drives in scoring territory after that to secure the win. Ah You submarined a 4th-and-1 run, his second stuff of the series, to end the first threat, and his fumble recovery ended the second threat. I guess I’d take a game like this from the defense every week, though it would surely take a few months off my lifespan. If the big plays continue to outweigh the big misses and result in wins, I wasn’t planning on doing that much early in the year 2053 anyway.
* Secondary: A bushel basket of big plays from the secondary made them the star unit of the game. James Butler had a big night, with a sack and a fumble recovery TD. That fumble was courtesy of O.J. Atogwe, ripping the ball away from Jeremi Johnson. VINTAGE ATOGWE! Butler returned it 71 yards to give the Rams a 21-7 lead. Craig Dahl had a sack, as the secondary contributed to all areas of the defense. No Ram’s needed a big night worse lately than Quincy Butler, and he achieved that and then some in the 3rd. With the Bengals near FG range, he blew up a screen for -2, then played a Chris Henry route perfectly, – he wasn’t open for a second – picked off Jordan Palmer’s underthrown pass and returned it about 60 yards to set up a FG. And he helped stuff a run for -4 to start a 3-and-out the next drive. Quincy’s not out of the race in the secondary yet, because NOBODY seems able to step up. It’s still Bartell/Hill/Wade atop the list, though none was exceptional tonight. Justin King should have been burned by Andre Caldwell deep but Caldwell dropped the pass. If that was a burn, Bradley Fletcher was scorched beyond recognition in the 4th, whipped by Henry for a 54-yard TD that pulled the Bengals within 24-21. That put a cherry on a pretty lousy night for the Rams’ 2009 draft class. The best rookie tonight was the 7th round pick, Ogbannaya. Teams that force turnovers, though, are teams that win games. Let’s see how well the Rams keep this up.
* Special teams: Oh, those Rams special teams. Donnie Jones was wildly inconsistent. He had three punts of 55 or over, but two sub-40-yarders (with apparently poor hang time, as no Ram was even within 7-8 yards of the returner who fielded the poor punts) proved costly. Someone named Quan Cosby (seriously?) fielded the first one at midfield, ran by James Butler and past whiffs by Will Witherspoon and Chris Chamberlain for an easy TD that put the Bengals ahead 7-0. None of the coverage unit appeared to even have an idea where a poor Jones punt went in the 3rd. Someone named Tom Nelson didn’t even have a Ram in front of him when he caught that punt and zipped back 44 yards with it. Josh Brown yakked on two FGs in the 50-51 yard range, even choking after Marvin Lewis played the cheeseball last-nanosecond timeout trick to make him kick over right before halftime. Whether or not that kind of cheap coaching gamesmanship should be allowed, a veteran kicker making $millions like Brown is should be hitting those the second time just like the first time. But tonight’s Rams special teams, manned by veterans, showed little of the composure expected of them tonight and sorely needed heading into the regular season.
* Coaching: Yeah, I know. They barely beat a pretty bad Cincinnati team that didn’t have Carson Palmer. Special teams were terrible. They didn’t really establish the run and gave up too many long runs on defense. The o-line was somewhat inconsistent and the rookies didn’t really shine tonight.
But this team is still moving in the right direction. All those bad things and they still won, thanks to winning the turnover battle 4-0 and playing aggressive defense, two of the bulwarks Steve Spagnuolo’s building the team on. Ken Flajole had the blitz meter cranked all the way to 11 tonight. The Rams got a couple of blitzes, Butler and Grant to the QB completely untouched on their sacks; as Roland Williams said on TV, that’s a credit to the play-calling. The Rams brought it a lot of different ways, including all 3 LBs on David Vobora’s sack, and overloading a side, on Dahl’s sack. The Bengals beat the blitz a couple of times – I’m thinking especially of the weird flip pass to Brian Leonard – but with six sacks on the night, half from blitzes, the strategy paid off on the whole for the Rams.
Especially if the zone blitz ever does what it’s supposed to do. It looked mostly like a source of confusion tonight, especially for Long, who had some really messed-up plays on an otherwise good night, I believe all on zone blitzes. The second half started with an 8-yard DeDe Dorsey run through a hole Long vacated because he thought he had to cover the receiver. A play late in the first started out looking cool, but ended up looking WTF. Long and Laurinaitis are in constant motion to try to fool the QB. Long eventually takes a standup rush stance, inside a DE to his left and Jonathan Wade off the edge in a blitz look. BUT NO, it’s a zone blitz, and cue the Keystone Kops music. Long falls down dropping back into coverage, and Laurinaitis ends up covering Andre Caldwell (equals: MISMATCH), with a lost Wade trailing the play by ten yards. Look, here in Rams Nation we’re expecting big things out of Chris Long at defensive end, like sacks and stopping the run. We don’t need him getting all messed up mentally because he’s having trouble figuring out what RECEIVER TO COVER on some plays. A defense making downfield coverage a significant part of Chris Long’s job is a defense that is too cute by far. Sure, if Long stays on his feet and Wade blitzes like he’s probably supposed to, maybe it’s another big defensive play for the Rams. And I know zone blitzing can work in the NFL. But I haven’t found anything to like about it here, yet.
The offensive game plan didn’t look any more tricked up for the third preseason game than it did the other two. The passing offense really looked like it was protecting Boller from having to make outside throws; I’d expect a good defense to sit on that tendency in a real game. The only trickeration I saw was Gado’s second TD, the shovel pass. They really sucked the outside LB in on that play. And hey, I saw them practicing that in training camp!
* Waiver bait: Teams have to cut down to 75 players by the 1st, though I wouldn’t be surprised if Spagnuolo gets this week’s moves made before I even get a chance to guess them. My projections for the fated five: 1) they IR WR Brooks Foster; 2) CB Marcus Brown; 3) SS Mark Rubin; 4) WR Jarrett Byers. If those last three are even finding the field, it’s been very deep into games and they’re not popping up earlier. FS David Roach and RT Eric Young have made enough bad plays to earn an early exit, but I’ll save them from cut #5 and declare an end to the Joe Klopfenstein Era instead. They’re not going to need 5 TEs next week, and Joe is clearly TE5. Maybe even TE6.
* Upon further review: The Rams completed the back half of the Carey brothers doubleheader by drawing Drew tonight. Just kidding, it was senior referee Mike Carey. My biggest problem play was Boller’s scramble in the first, where a couple of Bengals still hit him (and good) clearly after he had given himself up and gone to the ground. I thought this league was trying to protect QBs; that somehow never applies to those dressed in Ram uniforms. They called a pretty ticky-tack DPI on Cord Parks very late in the game to put Cincinnati in FG range. If nothing else, that proves they weren’t trying to get home early. That and the SEVENTEEN other flags tonight. Grade: B.
* Cheers: After their solid broadcast two weeks ago, tonight’s Fox-2 presentation was sorely lacking, a huge disappointment. Production values were awful. Camera work was terrible all night long. Camera angles were lousy. We couldn’t even see the returner on the opening kickoff. We couldn’t see the PUNTER on the first PUNT. You know, the one Cincinnati returned for a TD. It looked like most of the game was shot with zoom on by mistake, and that the cameraman didn’t know where to aim half the time. Announcers go off the camera feed even though the play’s right in front of them, so tonight’s cinematographic misadventures could not have made their job easy, but Martin Kilcoyne and Roland Williams didn’t help any. Kilcoyne slipped back into morning radio-goof mode, looking too hard for humor and not enough for timely details. Failing to introduce the starting lineups until late in the second quarter is a good example of the latter, though I doubt that was Kilcoyne’s fault. Williams was likeable and personable but didn’t add anything. He misidentified players, and some of the few plays he did break down, he broke down wrong, though poor angles on many replays could not have helped him any. And Roland was a player apologist par excellence – how about the exchange where he talked up Brown, and Bell, and Incognito, and then said the Rams are just a few moves from having an outstanding line? Gah! Which is it? If 60% of the line is so great, how many moves can they need to make? I won’t get to see Roland next week, but let’s hope they get him some decent replays to break down, cut his usage of clichés by 80% (still leaving about 100 a game), and maybe get him and Martin a director and camera crew that’s seen a football game broadcast on TV before. Snicker of the night: Jason Brown during a sideline interview referring to the Rams’ #1 QB as “Big Bulge”.
* Who’s next?: Sure, there’s the Lombardi Trophy, the Stanley Cup, the World Cup, the O’Brien Trophy, and that dorky baseball thing that looks like a birthday cake with a bunch of flags stuck in it, but what, I ask you, what, can stand up to the import, integrity and honor of the Missouri Governor’s Cup, a trophy that has only been earned by three different teams? So, do you remember who won it last year? (Hint: the Rams’ head coach last year was Scott Linehan.) Correct! The Chiefs, 21-17. (I admit I had to look the score up.)
This is the dumbest game of the year to try to break down, so why even try? Coaches are already planning for the first regular season game; nothing very interesting’s going to happen on the field. About all a fan can do is watch with an eye on the closer roster position battles. Who ya got? QB3: Berlin or Null? (I think Berlin now; Null to practice squad) RB2: Gado, Pittman or Darby? (Gado. Wouldn’t shock me if Darby doesn’t make the team) WR3: Burton, Curry or Stanley? (Don’t sell the veteran Curry’s chances short) KR/PR: Anybody besides Gado and Stanley? (apparently not) CB2: Anybody besides Hill? (I fear not)
Or, start up a drinking game! Take a drink for any: naked bootleg, draw play or screen pass on 3rd and longer than 10, illegal block in the back, or broadcast reference to a professional wrestler. You could be completely wasted by halftime, but remember, the party really starts if David Roach commits a clipping penalty.
Just make sure you’re ready to go (hopefully a lot more ready than last year’s team) for the start of the regular season September 13th!
--Mike
Game stats from nfl.com
Friday, August 28, 2009
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
RamView, 8/21/2009: Falcons 20, Rams 13
RamView, August 21, 2009
From Row HH
(Report and opinions from the game.)
Preseason Game #2: Falcons 20, Rams 13
Preseason is easy to overreact to; trust me, I'm an expert at it. The Rams definitely showed flaws, some painfully familiar, while getting overpowered by the Falcons tonight. But just as those weren't the 1999 Rams who won in New York last week, those weren't the 2007-08 Rams last night. While not ignoring the minuses, we'll be better off heeding the timeless words of Allen Iverson. We're talking about practice!
* QB: Now that I know Kyle Boller is dating former Miss California Carrie Prejean, who joins a list that includes Tara Reid and Petra Nemcova, all I can think now when I see him is, “Stoney Case”. If Boller (9-16-91) was as rusty in the singles scene as he was on the field tonight, he'd be dating Madeline Albright. Boller was about as accurate as a rookie weatherman at times. Most of his sideline passes were adventures. At least two of them should have been picked off. Laurent Robinson was open by a good couple of yards for what should have been a 40-yard TD in the 2nd, and Boller threw a bomb out of bounds that the WR couldn't even get to. He had Randy McMichael open by a mile on a dig route deep in Atlanta territory in the 2nd and threw the pass into the ground, short of him by yards. He had Keenan Burton open on one sideline pass, pumped, then had to roll out Burton's direction and throw him the pass on the comeback, that way he could get it out there. Yikes. I understand Boller's coming off shoulder surgery, and that he had men in his face on some of his throws, but everybody else understand that we're going to miss Marc Bulger if he stays hurt. A lot. I'll try to account for Boller's rust and that we've been spoiled by pinpoint-accurate throwers like Bulger and Kurt Warner for a decade. But Boller's numbers on the night were inches from being Ryan Leaf-quality. Speaking of Leaf, his protege Keith Null (6-9-56) had a pretty nice 4th quarter, though Null should look good in the 2:00 drill; that's basically his college offense. Null was accurate, threw the ball into some tight spots, showed a sweet play fake, and ran the offense and stood tall in the pocket with poise. He drove the Rams right down the field from their 35 toward the tying TD before Sean Walker got knocked off his route on a 4th-down blitz, and Null's spot pass for him was intercepted in the end zone. But it looks more and more like the kid's got “it”. That may be a bad thing for Brock Berlin (5-8-71), though he didn't have a bad 3rd quarter. His TD pass to Derek Stanley was a suh-weet throw. He couldn't keep the momentum going, though, taking a sack the next possession despite having plenty of time to throw and Jerome Johnson out in the flat lonelier than a pork chop at a vegan buffet. Thank you! I'll be here all week. So will Berlin, though thanks to Null's development, I'm not as sure about him the week after next.
* RB: Steven Jackson opened the game with a nine-yard run, but it was a long night for the RBs after that. As a group they managed only 60 yards, on 27 carries. Jackson got just three carries. Samkon Gado won promotion to second string with a strong effort last week, but he followed that with a very poor outing, netting only 5 yards on 12 rushes, with a dropped pass and a fumble. The dropped screen pass was probably best for everyone concerned, but the fumble was a backbreaker, killing a drive in the red zone near the end of the first half. Boller put the ball right where it was supposed to be; Gado never put it away. Antonio Pittman (5-15) was next and took a while to get going before having some success with his bread and butter, cutback runs. Kenneth Darby's (7-30) 21-yard draw in the last 2:00 was 1/3 of the RBs' rushing yardage on the night. He was 6-9, and Pittman was 4-3, taking away their longest runs. The Falcons might have been vulnerable to cutbacks or runs bounced outside, but that's not Gado's bread and butter, Darby was in the game in come-from-behind mode, and Pittman didn't play with his elusive style till he was almost out of the game. RB2 is back to a three-horse race. If there's any good news: the Rams worked all week on blitz pickup, and it showed. Can't blame either sack on a RB, and Gado picked up a couple of blitzes nicely. And let's go back to that very first rush. Mike Karney was in the backfield and threw a crushing block to give Jackson room. I hope we'll see a lot more of that, and much better offensive adjustment, than we did tonight.
* WR: Will Donnie Avery be the #1 WR when he gets back? Laurent Robinson (5-65) had another strong game. Robinson has good hands and uses his size well. He was inches away from a monster game; he got behind the Falcon secondary right before the 2:00 warning but stumbled and had to settle for a 25-yard gain, and Boller missed what should have been a 40-yard TD bomb to him in the 2nd. Robinson beat his defender soundly both times. If the former Atlanta WR wasn't just amped up to face his old team, Billy Devaney has a real find on his hands. With all the WR injuries right now, I was disappointed no one grabbed the brass ring tonight. Keenan Burton (2-12), the ostensible WR2, made a nice move to get a first down after the catch late in the 2nd, but hasn't stood out much. Derek Stanley (2-32) came close, with a TD catch and a nice 20-yard end around (called back), though Ron Curry (1-10) was actually the third wideout. Nate Jones (2-19) made a couple of easy catches in the 2:00 drill but hurt his cause with a drop. Stanley also had a drop. Sean Walker (1-6) didn't get much action. The game-ending INT looks to have been intended for him but he got knocked off his route. The Rams did damage with the TEs. Daniel Fells (2-21) broke a couple of tackles in the 3rd on a 17-yard catch. Joe Klopfenstein (1-5) made a nice diving catch in tight quarters late in the game. If any receiver popped tonight, it was Billy Bajema (3-42), who showed good hands and was difficult to bring down. I wouldn't mind seeing some more pop from this group, though.
* Offensive line: The Rams gave up just two sacks, and Berlin held the ball too long on one, but with the Rams gaining 2.6 yards a rush, it wasn't a successful night. The Falcons frequently put an extra man in the box and brought more guys than the Rams could block, but they missed a lot of blocks, too. Richie Incognito couldn't make it through the line and missed a block, which shut down one of Jackson's runs. I thought Adam Goldberg had a poor night at LT. He missed run blocks, and like last week, had a LB blitz right by him for a sack. The LG combo of Mark Setterstrom and John Greco could have been stronger. The Rams couldn't run to that side at all, and I know Greco missed at least one block. Setterstrom, who played at LG and center, also had a shotgun snap short of the QB that threw off a play. I watched Jason Smith on most of his plays. He started at RT and stayed there into the third quarter. There was a play where he nearly got bowled back into Boller, and Gado's best run of the night was called back because Jason was beaten right off the snap and had to hold his man. And he had a bad possession, I think in the 3rd, where Jamaal Anderson pwned him three straight plays for backfield pressures. But I also know I wished the Rams would have run behind Jason more because he was the one lineman really pushing guys around and driving them back into the pile. He had plenty of good pass protection plays, too, and often without extra help on his side. He recognizes stunts and makes the proper pickups there. I don't think it's a stretch to say Smith's progressed to the point of being solid bench depth, or that he's pretty much right on schedule.
* Defensive line/LB: The Rams starters got pushed around the game's opening possession and Atlanta ran the ball down their throats. Then on the second drive, Atlanta went no-huddle and waltzed downfield, with the Rams putting no pass pressure at all on QB Matt Ryan. Michael Turner exploded for over 40 yards on the game's SECOND play. Leonard Little overplayed it, the TE ran a pattern up the line of scrimmage and took Will Witherspoon away from the play, leaving Turner a huge hole. James Laurinaitis couldn't fill that; he got picked off by the RT Little wasn't occupying. James Butler diagnosed run, but I think Turner surprised him with his burst, and he ended up with a terrible angle. Cliff Ryan and Gary Gibson got pushed around the whole drive; tackling was bad throughout. Chris Draft and Butler missed tackles badly on a sideline pass to Roddy White. Laurinaitis and Little tackled poorly on a Turner run near the goal line. James Hall got walled off like he was behind a bank vault door on Turner's TD run. Turner got such a big hole it didn't even matter that Ryan fell making the handoff. Gotta give the Falcons credit – they have some really well-designed, well-run running plays. They fooled the Rams on one 2nd-half pitch left where the whole defense (except, luckily, David Vobora from the far side) keyed on the fullback slamming into the hole like it was a middle run. Lack of pass rush was the story of Atlanta's 2nd TD drive. Even when the Rams blitzed, no one could get to Ryan in time. I think some of the blitzers did it too tentatively, like they're afraid of screwing something up. I know Jonathan Wade should be getting to the QB a lot faster than he did, considering he was unblocked. Little had a very quiet night. Chris Long had a couple of run stops but I didn't see him as a factor pass rushing. Draft had an off night. I watched Laurinaitis on most of his plays, with the starters in the first half. He's a fine ball pursuer but wasn't as effective tonight as he was last week because the line wasn't tying up blockers as well. Laurinaitis looks pretty good in pass coverage. He was beaten once deep by a TE but the play came back. Otherwise, his drops and coverage were solid. He had a sure INT taken from him by Will Witherspoon, who dropped the ball, but later made a diving play on Justin King's pass breakup for an INT that set up a FG. From the bench, Larry Grant forced a fumble to set up a TD. Hollis Thomas, who pretty much engulfs everything, engulfed the ball Grant knocked loose on a blitz and sack of D.J. Shockley. Darell Scott had a great sequence with the Falcons inside the Ram 20 in the 3rd. He stuffed a run on first down and dived and tripped up Shockley on a scramble on 3rd down for a sack that forced a FG. That was it for sacks, though. The reserves got a little better pass pressure than the first string, where they're still searching for effective ways to get to the quarterback. Add in that the Falcons ran for 162 yards – 5.6 a rush – and we've got a defense tonight that skidded a step back toward last season.
* Secondary: Disappointing play by the starters tightened up the cornerback race some more. Tye Hill looked brutal on Atlanta's 2nd TD, which, in classic Fakhir Brown fashion, he never knew was coming, even though he was defending Tony Gonzalez near the end zone. And he broke in when Gonzalez broke out, making it even easier for Gonzalez to exploit his seven-inch height advantage. Ron Bartell looked outmatched early against Roddy White, getting beaten twice pretty easily on the same drive. Quincy Butler looks nowhere near as good in live action as he did in practice. Jonathan Wade and Justin King took steps forward. Wade made a couple of nice plays and supported the run well. King broke up a pass that became Laurinaitis' INT. James Butler delivered the hit of the night, clocking White on the sideline at the end of a catch-and-run. Todd Johnson picked off a deflection of a poor Shockley pass. Cincinnati is sure to test the Rams through the air next week. Time for the Rams' secondary prospects to take a big step up.
* Special teams: Gado showed a definite edge on the scoresheet over Darby, getting a couple of late kick returns across the 30 while Darby failed to cross the 20. That's really more a factor, though, of special teams taking all night to figure out the blocking for returning Atlanta's directional kicking. A lot of the night the Falcons got their outside man around to the returner untouched. Stanley had a nice punt return and a non-return. Coverage units were highly effective, even with David Roach committing a brutal facemask penalty on one kickoff. Donnie Jones landed a couple of punts inside the 10 but killed his average with his last punt, very high but way too short at just 25 yards.
* Coaching/discipline: The Falcons attacked the Rams' running game by bringing the safety up into the box almost constantly. The Rams, for their part, never adjusted for it, running on nearly every first down play. I know it's preseason and teams don't put out the fine china, so I'll stay confident they won't be so predictable in the regular season and will dial up more play-action passing against teams that deploy Atlanta's strategy tonight. The offensive call I hated most was the flatout stupid draw play to Darby on 3rd-and-5 with 1:00 left from the Atlanta 12. Why are you doing that when Null's throwing as well as he is? And are you really expecting that to work twice in four plays? I also hated, hated, hated the decision to kick a FG on 4th-and-2 from the 6-yard line earlier in the 4th. Josh Brown doesn't need the work! It's preseason, show a little gusto! The only advantage I can think of for a FG there is that it lessened the chance of a tie game, which nobody wants in preseason (and Coach Spagnuolo damn sure better have been going for 2 had they scored the late TD.) They also continue to insist on running zone blitzes with the opponent in the red zone. I think that's a terrible spot on the field for that, but we'll see. I don't consider tonight's loss any kind of blemish on the nascent Spagnuolo regime. Life will be a lot different with Jackson on the field more than three plays, Boller not starting, and regular-season game planning, in all three areas of the game. The defense still doesn't blitz much with the starters in. Scouting last week's Falcons game should have indicated their penchant for directional kickoffs, but the Rams played less than prepared for it. The regular season will be much different. For the second straight week, the Rams committed just 5 penalties and won the turnover battle. If they're really worse than they looked last week, they're also better than they looked this week.
* Waiver bait: David Roach had some good run stops, but ripping the returner's helmet off on the kickoff, with no one else around for several yards, accident or not, is about as dumb a penalty as I can imagine. Bajema's big night probably seals the deal for Klopfenstein and Eric Butler. Nate Jones and Sean Walker sure didn't get much time, even given the Rams' injury situation at WR. Quincy Butler needs to play like he practices, which I know I'm not saying for the first time. Chris Ogbannaya was curious by his absence.
* Upon further review: Mike Carey's brother Don refereed tonight's game, mostly without problems. Frankly, it should have been an easy game to officiate. There weren't many difficult calls to make. Atlanta had to burn a challenge on a play incorrectly called a fumble. After Quincy Butler got a questionable DPI in the 3rd, Atlanta LB Tony Gilbert mugged Bajema over the middle without a flag the next drive. That wasn't very popular with the fans, and replay showed we were right. I give Carey and crew a C.
* Extreme makeover, Dome edition: Maybe not extreme (I can't resist a mediocre pun), but the changes at the Dome are distinctly for the better. The star of the show is the massive new video screen behind the north end zone. It's huge, almost as wide as the end zone; it's crystal clear and it gives an extra wide angle for replays. I'm pretty sure God watches Sunday Ticket on a TV like that. OK, maybe a little bigger. The south end zone looks silly in comparison, though, with a much smaller video screen surrounded by what appears to be new luxury seating. Yes, Dancing Elvis has left the building. A major plus is that commercials have been cut way back, in favor of entertainment during breaks, ranging from player and cheerleader interviews to the infamous “Kiss-Cam” to apparently the crash highlight reel from America's Funniest Home Videos. The fans ate it up. The out-of-town scoreboard will show four games at a time now, and there's also a board for fantasy stats. That's where the game clock used to be; it's by itself on a lower level now, which will take some getting used to. My main dislikes: the stadium clock's gone, and the trivia question was not only ridiculously easy, it wasn't even about football! The new PA announcer's another plus. He keeps the crowd engaged without going over the top, gives the stadium good energy without sounding like an idiot. Good choice to tell the fans to get on their feet when the team is introduced. Sets a good tone. The halftime show, traditional for the first preseason game, was pee-wee football. White paint behind the upper levels seems to lighten the interior and give the Dome a little more of an open feel, dumb as that may sound. And – do you believe in miracles – I think they've even got the sound system straightened out (after just 14 years). It sounds like “Thunderstruck” is going to be the kickoff song, though they also played it for Atlanta once. FGs were followed by “Jump Around”, and the TD was followed by “Zombie Nation”. And that last one's gonna have to change, because I don't need to be reminded of the end of Super Bowl XXXVI whenever the Rams score. But even with that, the gameday experience at the Dome has taken a big step forward.
* Who's next?: On to Cincinnati for game 3 of the preseason, traditionally and supposedly the most important game prior to opening day. The Bengals have scored 14 points in two weeks (actually winning Thursday night, though), and haven't signed first-round draft pick Andre Smith – this is not a team I need to see moving up and down the field like the Falcons did tonight. Felonious Chris Henry and supreme clown Chad JOHNSON are proving a potent pair. Henry has both Bengal TDs and close to 200 receiving yards in two games. JOHNSON, who I will never call by his ridiculous gimmick last name, though I will occasionally call him “Funfundachtzig”, is also putting up strong receiving numbers. Apparently never wanting to see an end to his self-aggrandizing clown show, Bengals HC Marvin Lewis had JOHNSON kicking extra points and kickoffs last week, with Shayne Graham injured. J.T. O'Sullivan's had a couple of effective outings for Cincy at QB, though I assume the Rams are going to get a heavy dose of Carson Palmer. Defensively, they're stopping the run pretty well, and they got to Patriot QBs 4 times Thursday night. They're benefiting from the return of Keith Rivers and the emergence of second-year tackle Pat Sims. Rey Maualuga wasn't on the stat sheet Week 1 but had three tackles in New England. The Bengals also aren't getting lit up via air, though I couldn't say the last time they had a secondary that garnered much respect. I wouldn't be against giving Boller almost all of this game to knock off his apparently considerable cobwebs, and let Berlin and Null duel it out against Kansas City.
Having seen a lot of vanilla D and non-adjusting O from the Rams for a couple of weeks, I'm eagerly awaiting a game that's treated much more like a regular-season game, and this should be the week. Let's see a game where the offense adjusts to what the defense is doing. Let's see the defense get after the QB aggressively like we're expecting them to in the regular season. How good or bad they look at pass rush, run defense, establishing the running game and red zone offense, should give us some idea of how far along Extreme Makeover: Rams Edition has come, and how much farther it has to go. Grab your hard hats, and enjoy the show.
-- Mike
Game stats from nfl.com
Photos from nfl.com
Friday, August 21, 2009
Preview: Rams can =benefit= from injury situation
The Rams host the Atlanta Falcons tonight in their first home game of 2009. Some of the things I'll be trying to keep an eye out for:
* Benefits of player injuries. Injuries to the team over the past week are some reason for concern, yes, but they make the field tonight an ideal laboratory for putting other players in positions we need to see them in. I.e.:
* We need to find out how Kyle Boller looks with the starting offense, and will, since Marc Bulger's out with Warner Pinky Syndrome.
* Keith Null earned more playing time last Friday night. He's gonna get it.
* Alex Barron's injury - he's iffy for tonight - means we may see Jason Smith with the starters. Can he hack it? And Jacob Bell's concussion puts some pep in the steps of Mark Setterstrom and John Greco.
* Three WRs (Avery, Carter, Foster) are out, but even on a roster this thin at WR, that doesn't have to be a bad thing. It's an ideal night for a young, intriguing prospect like Nate Jones or Sean Walker to break out. It'll be great to see those guys get extra reps. I'd even bet somebody does take a big step forward at WR tonight, though Atlanta has a very promising DB prospect of their own, third-round pick Chris Owens.
Other stuff to watch:
* Will there be any pass rush? I especially want to get a look at Chris Long.
* Will there be any blitz protection? This will be a lot harder to diagnose from the stands than by watching TV (and I have forgotten to bring my binoculars for the game), but I'll do my best. We also have to mind that any time Boller escapes from a blitz, that'd still be a sack of Bulger. We want Boller's jersey nice and clean tonight.
* The defensive youth movement. I'll also try to keep an eye on James Laurinaitis and the fight for positions in the secondary, where the youngsters disappointed a little bit against the Jets.
* Finally, what's the atmosphere in the Dome going to be? It underwent $millions in renovations in the offseason: has it improved as a venue any? And the Rams underwent all kinds of organizational changes in the name of improving the gameday experience; how's that going to play out?
And you thought tonight was just a plain old exhibition game, eh?
Where the heck are they now: Dane Looker
Quick note that former Ram WR Dane Looker was finally picked up by another team earlier this week. The good news for Looker is, he's working. The bad news, he's working for Scott Linehan again, having been signed by the Lions.
Now that he's in a camp, though, remember to never sell Dane Looker short. He's certainly behind Calvin Johnson, Dennis Northcutt, Derrick Williams and Bryant Johnson, but I see little reason, other than getting a late start, that Looker couldn't hang in Detroit as WR5. They don't have a possession-type receiver like him there that I'd want to rely on. Keary Colbert was a pass-dropping machine their first game, and is more of a deep-route runner anyway. Billy McMullen's never done anything. The rest look like free agent types.
Looker's shown the Rams more than once his ability to pull the offense out of a fire with a clutch play. Watch if he doesn't repeat that feat with his career up in Detroit. Best of luck to a hard-working Rams favorite (who, admittedly, the current Rams roster could use).
Saturday, August 15, 2009
RamView, 8/14/2009: Rams 23, Jets 20
RamView, August 14, 2009
From The Couch
(Report and opinions on the game.)
Preseason Game #1: Rams 23, Jets 20
Last year's disastrous preseason opener led to a disaster of a season. With tonight's game, Rams fans can hope the team has put a lot of 2008 behind it. Compare the first preseason games. Winning 23-20 instead of losing 34-13? I'll take it. Giving up 102 yards on the ground instead of 343? I'll definitely take it. The offense that settles for too many field goals and still doesn't protect Marc Bulger adequately? We'll have to wait on that. But this year's Rams are starting off on the right foot, instead of shooting themselves in it.
Position by position:
* QB: Marc Bulger (4-4-77) played about a quarter and a half, and when his teammates protected him, he looked sharp and threw accurately, including as good a pass as he's thrown as a pro, a 50-yard bomb he dropped right into Laurent Robinson's breadbasket in the 2nd. Protection problems, though, got Bulger sacked a startling three times and forced the offense to settle for 3 FGs. Kyle Boller got about a quarter but was pressured into an underwhelming 3-9-25 performance, relying a lot on bootlegs and swing passes. Brock Berlin was 6-8-27 but had a short night, spraining a knee while getting dragged down at the end of a naked bootleg by Zach Potter. The most impressive QB off the bench may have been Keith Null (2-2-16). After Berlin's injury rushed him into play, the Rams got a composed and ultimately game-winning play from the rookie. Sean Walker lined up wrong with the Rams at the Jet 14, but instead of blowing a timeout, Null got Walker lined up correctly before the snap and wound up exploiting a mismatch with a LB and hitting Walker for the go-ahead TD. Berlin'd better be wary or he'll get Wally Pipped. Or is that Trent Greened?
* RB: Steven Jackson had just a couple of carries and was pulled from the game after a 13-yard gain late in the first. The competition for the spots behind Jackson got more heated when Samkon Gado (6-93) started the second half by exploding up the middle and running through the Jet secondary for a 77-yard TD. Antonio Pittman's (4-36) getting plenty of chances and still looks like the Rams' most elusive back. He bounced a run outside for 20 and forced a fumble on special teams to enhance his chances. Unfortunately, the biggest competition between the RBs tonight was to see who could pick up blitzes the worst. Jackson didn't get a block on the blitzing safety, helping LB David Harris score a sack to shut down the Rams' opening drive. Chris Ogbannaya (9-29) let Kenwin Cummings go right by him and drop Berlin for a huge loss in the 4th. The big winner(?), though, was Kenneth Darby (6-16), who looked far worse in blitz protection tonight than he ever did last season. He let a DB go right around him, creating pressure that led to Calvin Pace getting the Jets' second sack. The third came when two Jets blitzed in off right tackle, and Darby picked the wrong one to block. Adam Goldberg had the outside blitzer, and Darby's supposed to pick up the inside blitzer, but he mistakenly went outside and couldn't recover in time to prevent Donald Strickland from dropping Bulger. And now we know why the Ram defense can blitz so successfully in practice. None of the Ram backs, from Jackson on down, are worth a darn at picking it up. Still! And it just shouldn't be happening, not this badly. Blitz protection isn't something that goes into a slump, but it does count on the backs knowing what they're supposed to be doing. Unless everybody does their job, Bulger's going to get killed again in 2009, and it won't even be the offensive line's fault.
* Receivers: At least ten Rams had catches, but none had more than two. Laurent Robinson (2-52) set up a FG with a pretty 50-yard catch of a pretty Bulger throw. He shielded the cornerback with his body and hauled the pass in over his shoulder right at his belt buckle. Sean Walker (2-18) jumped over a LB in the end zone to make the game-winning TD catch. Randy McMichael (2-25) got the opening drive going with a 15-yard catch-and-run off a swing pass but helped kill said drive with a false start. Daniel Fells didn't have a catch but his block helped spring Gado's 77-yard TD run. I don't relish picking on Joe Klopfenstein, but he helped get Berlin hurt in the 4th by getting off to a poor start on that naked bootleg play and wasn't out there for Berlin when he should have been.
* Offensive line: Ram QBs were sacked four times – Bulger three of them – but most of it was the fault of poor blitz pickups by the RBs, not of the offensive line itself. The Jets' first blitz was well-disguised and tricked Adam Goldberg into blocking down instead of blocking out, and Harris ran right by him en route to the Jets' first sack. The game's big play, the Gado TD run, was made possible by a very good seal block by Mark Setterstrom, with Fells sealing off the back side to give Gado a crease. Jackson's 13-yard run was sprung by nice blocks from Goldberg and Richie Incognito. The Rams picked up a blitz to give Bulger time to hit Robinson for 50 in the 2nd; might have been Darby making that play. Jacob Bell apparently left the game early and created some shuffling of the line. Roy Schuening got some plays with the ones and I believe John Greco also did. Roger Allen worked into the mix with the twos. Schuening wasn't as stiff blocking the run as I'd hoped he'd be, and he gave up a pass deflection, but he fought mightily to give Pittman a lane for a 9-yard run in the last 2:00 of the first half. The key block there was a sweet pull block by first-round draft pick Jason Smith, who had a nice, if not dominating, night, working exclusively with the twos. Vernon Gholston wasn't really much of a challenge to Smith at all. Smith was steady in pass protection and started the third quarter by knocking Ty Steinkuhler on his butt. I'd give Jason at least a B-minus. Setterstrom's good outing was tempered somewhat by his tendency to sail his shotgun snaps, throwing off the timing of plays. Phil Trautwein held down LT for the second string. The Rams ran for 4.1 an attempt, and that's leaving out the Gado TD; and as a unit they didn't give up a sack or commit a penalty. Fine work for the first week of preseason.
* Defensive line/LB: Leonard Little got the Rams off to a rousing early start by racing around Wayne Hunter and jarring the ball out of Kellen Clemens' hand for a sack and fumble. James Hall pounced on the loose ball to set up a Rams FG. Unfortunately, that was the only sack until Eric Moore knocked the ball loose as Eric Ainge cocked to throw in the 4th. That ball ended up about 20 yards downfield after C.J. Ah You mysteriously took a big swat at the ball instead of trying to corral it. Well, at least he knocked the Jets well out of field-goal position. Pass rush wasn't strong, allowing Jet QBs plenty of time, especially when rookie Mark Sanchez was at the controls. Little didn't stay on the field long and I was a little disappointed with Chris Long, to be honest, though he did stuff a run. The Rams let a couple of long runs get loose but were very good overall at clogging up the middle and taking away running lanes. This defense has a noticeably more physical presence from its DTs and LBs than it's had in a long time. Cliff Ryan jammed up some runs and James Laurinaitis looked pretty good at MLB, getting action with the starters and some extra work with the twos. He at least broke even for the night. Sure, sometimes he'd get picked off by a guard or get knocked out of the hole by the fullback, but he also filled the lane or waded through trash nicely to stop a couple of runs. He won one heavy collision with the fullback to fill a hole and forced Thomas Jones into Chris Draft. Good stuff, though he did blow one pass coverage. Gary Gibson started and stuffed a couple of runs, but Antwon (Who?) Burton may have been the defensive star of the night. You know how the Rams have lacked a big run-stuffer like Hollis Thomas forever? Well, Burton gives them two. He, and Thomas, can stand their ground, occupy two blockers and give the runner nowhere to go unlike any recent Ram DT I can think of. Burton's even got good lateral mobility, getting outside quickly to stuff a Shonn Greene sweep in the 3rd. Thomas had a good game, too, but Burton's night was a real eye-opener. Ah You and Eric Moore were the next-best pass rushers after Little, in scrub time. Moore blew up a screen pass as well as forcing the aforementioned fumble. They gave up a couple of long runs, a well-blocked reverse to Brad Smith and a 35-yard Greene run where a lot went wrong. Burton overpenetrated and missed Greene in the backfield. Darell Scott, who had a quiet night, was turned aside. David Vobora ran up Victor Adeyanju's back, and Chris Chamberlain got out of position, to give Greene a lane and safety David Roach a wide-open stage to whiff on. Chamberlain ran the play down from behind, something he accomplished several times tonight. The Rams have to mount a better pass rush, but the run defense was the story of the night, allowing a very respectable 102 yards with 3.6 yards an attempt. Like I already said, I'll take that.
* Secondary: You'll forgive Dustin Keller if he felt like Tony Gonzalez tonight, as the Rams were generally unable to cover him. At all. He beat O.J. Atogwe for 12 in the 1st. On a later 2nd-and-7, Laurinaitis never moved over to cover him and left him wide open four yards downfield on a play where he'd gain 16. And Keller gained 21 yards, down to the 2, on a 3rd-and-7 in the 2nd to set up a TD, courtesy of David Roach's terrible tackling. Roach had a bad night, getting undressed by a Greene fake in the 3rd that turned what should have been an 8-yard run into a 35-yarder. Roach's play there was worthy of Corey Chavous, Mike Furrey, Rich Coady, and Jason Sehorn, i.e., not good. Tye Hill leaves the night still in charge of the #2 CB spot in my eyes. He made a heady play in the first to stop a third-down pass to Chansi Stuckey short of a first down, forcing a FG. Stuckey was left all alone in the flat on a play unwisely designed to have Chris Long covering him, but Hill flew in to prevent a brewing disaster with a fine open-field play. Jonathan Wade was up-and-down. He broke up a couple of passes but looked silly when converted college QB Brad Smith beat him handily on a jump ball in the 2nd. Wade also had a couple of special teams gaffes. Justin King appeared to have a bad night, though. David Clowney beat him for 48 on Mark Sanchez's first throw in the 1st. It wasn't very reassuring to see the Rams' coverage let a rookie QB drive 93 yards for a TD the first time he took the field. Nor was it reassuring to see Clowney catch 3 for 102 yards. That includes a 50-yard TD from Eric Ainge in the 2nd half where Todd Johnson bit on play-action like a rank rookie. Clowney ended up open downfield by 10 yards for the TD pass. King got beat a couple of other times and left a door open for Bradley Fletcher. Or is that Flecther, as spelled on his uniform? Either way, I'd like to see him doing better than fighting to a draw with the likes of Wallace Wright before making him a starter. The door didn't open for Quincy Butler, either, who I was really disappointed with tonight, never moreso than the last play of the game. What do you do with a Hail Mary pass heading your way? You knock it down! No, Butler tried to catch it and muffed it into the air, where Jets could have had a chance to play it. Fortunately, rookie free agent LB K.C. Asiodu had better sense and did knock the ricochet to the ground. Disappointing results tonight after the secondary had looked so good in camp. Steve Spagnuolo's got a lot more secondary coaching to do, and they have to find a way to stop leaving the tight end wide open all the time.
* Special teams: These new-look Rams actually made a lot of good special teams plays. Josh Brown hit 3 FGs, including a 48-yarder, and kicked everything deep. Donnie Jones averaged 46.7 a punt, 43 net, including one average-stunting attempt to pin the Jets deep. Brooks Foster recovered a muffed punt in the 4th to set up the Rams' winning TD. Pittman forced a fumble on an earlier return, but Wade blew the turnover when he failed to pick the ball up in his attempt to scoop it up and run it back for a TD. Wade also committed a special teams penalty. So did Quinton Culberson, erasing a nice weaving 27-yard return by Derek Stanley. Stanley looked shaky on punts otherwise, misjudging a couple. He lost five yards trying to backtrack after one bouncer and run away backwards with it. And Darby continues to be an adventure on kickoffs, muffing one in the end zone but recovering it. Gado can return kicks, but he comes up to top speed about as fast as your average semi from a dead start. Punt coverage chased the returner on one play instead of watching the ball, costing the Rams a chance to down a punt inside the 5. Don't get me wrong; solid but unspectacular special teams works, compared to the special teams fiascoes of the past, but I do wonder how and when they're going to establish a real threat on returns.
* Coaching/discipline: Scott Linehan and Jim Haslett ought to be ashamed of themselves if either got to watch how crisply the Rams played in many aspects of the game tonight. No turnovers, and I believe no dropped passes. They committed just 5 penalties, and one of those was an intentional delay-of-game taken by the punting unit. There weren't any “wasted” timeouts, and though Steve Spagnuolo's one challenge failed, it was a challenge worth trying. The defense stuffed the run and even forced a couple of turnovers. Special teams even looked competent, though returns weren't much to write home about. Spagnuolo had the Rams more prepared tonight than they were at least 14 weeks of last season. And I especially liked that he kept most of the starting offense on the field until they at least put together a drive of decent length.
The Rams blitzed very little except with the scrubs, so they may be saving any fancy stuff they want to do with the starters for the regular season. Little blitzing, though, still appears to mean little pass pressure right now for the blue and gold. And they nearly got burned in the 1st with a too-cute zone blitz that left Chris Long covering WR Chansi Stuckey on 3rd-and-6 at the Ram 20. That seems a terrible down and distance for that ploy, which took a very good play by Tye Hill to bail out. The offense expectedly didn't show much in the way of wrinkles, either. They held Mike Karney out and as a result did almost no running with a fullback in the backfield. I wonder what Pat Shurmur's thinking was on the early 3rd-and-6 that ended in Bulger's first sack. The Rams went four-wide there, a curious formation I thought they'd hardly be using this year, and one very susceptible to blitzes like the one the Jets threw at them.
Spagnuolo's decisions to go for FGs are worth at least talking about. I mean, it's not like Josh Brown needs the work; why not go for it a little bit? 4th and 13 from the Jet 16 is probably too ambitious, but why not go for it on 4th-and-2 from the Jet 21 at the end of the first half instead of just letting all the time run out? And I really hope Spagnuolo's not committed to punting on 4th-and-1 from the opposing 38 like he called for in the third quarter tonight. If he's got Karney and Jackson on the field, he should be going for that in the regular season every time it comes up.
* Waiver bait: It's early to worry about cuts yet, but some Rams are making themselves unwanted early candidates. Roach was the worst tackler on the field. Klopfenstein ran a play so poorly he actually managed to get his QB hurt, which takes some doing. Culberson only stood out for a special teams penalty, the worst kind of preseason publicity. There's still time to save their jobs, but these guys better get it turned around in a hurry.
* Upon further review: Pretty decent job by Terry McAulay and crew. The call on the Thomas Jones TD was right, much to my chagrin. The ball broke the plane before Larry Grant put his helmet on it and dislodged it. Can't blame Spagnuolo for challenging, though. Same thing on the play where Ah You stripped Ainge. Fine and correct initial call, but I couldn't fault Rex Ryan for challenging, either. What the refs did miss on that play was Ian Campbell getting blatantly pulled down by the jersey. I thought Darby was yanked down by a horse collar tackle in the 1st and that the refs didn't do much for QB safety the way they let Berlin get dragged down after the pass was away on his last play in the 4th. However, they didn't blow any big calls and didn't do much to draw attention to themselves – a pretty good night officiating.
* Cheers: Martin Kilcoyne and Trent Green did a good job with the local call of the game. Green sounded like a booth veteran, quickly making insightful points after many plays. Though it did often sound like nothing short of defensive perfection will ever be good enough in Green's eyes. He seemed to expect the DBs to knock down every pass and the LBs to stop every run for a loss. Just like players, Kilcoyne seems to be improving with repetition. He was on top of down, distance and gain of last play much more than usual, while offering some accurate on-the-fly analysis of his own. The two announcers worked quite well as a team. Their worst glitch was not letting us know anything about Jacob Bell at all until late in the game. The broadcast had some glitches of its own. We missed one play in the last 2:00 of the first because TV was way late coming back from replay. Don't usually have time for those in end-of-half situations. And one drive was shoved to the background in favor of a sideline interview with Kevin Demoff. Standard, but still annoying. All in all, though, this was to me one of the best preseason broadcasts we've had locally.
* Who’s next?: The Rams have a win and some wind in their sails, but have some important areas to fortify in order to build on that against Atlanta in v. 2.0 of the Dome next Friday night. The offense absolutely has to get its blitz protections straightened out, or Marc Bulger won't even make it to the regular season. There'll be plenty to watch on offense. Can Jason Smith build on tonight's acceptable outing? Will Laurent Robinson have an edge going up against his old team? How will the RB situation behind Jackson shake out?
The Rams don't figure to see a lot of Falcon offensive leaders Matt Ryan and Michael Turner, but they especially need to step up their pass rush if they're to prevent getting lit up by last year's NFC Cinderellas. The secondary needs to step up, too, and play a lot more like it practices. Lest we forget, the Falcons have the actual Tony Gonzalez now, and the way the Rams (didn't) covered the TE tonight, he may be in line for a 200-yard night.
It's funny. Last year the Falcons were the downtrodden team most of the league saw as an automatic win on the schedule entering the season. But they instituted wholesale changes and made an impressive run, from castoffs to the playoffs. Now the Rams are trying to emulate that run, with some of “their” people, like Robinson and GM Billy Devaney. We'll take another step Friday night finding out whether that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery or a subpar impression act.
-- Mike
Game stats from nfl.com
From The Couch
(Report and opinions on the game.)
Preseason Game #1: Rams 23, Jets 20
Last year's disastrous preseason opener led to a disaster of a season. With tonight's game, Rams fans can hope the team has put a lot of 2008 behind it. Compare the first preseason games. Winning 23-20 instead of losing 34-13? I'll take it. Giving up 102 yards on the ground instead of 343? I'll definitely take it. The offense that settles for too many field goals and still doesn't protect Marc Bulger adequately? We'll have to wait on that. But this year's Rams are starting off on the right foot, instead of shooting themselves in it.
Position by position:
* QB: Marc Bulger (4-4-77) played about a quarter and a half, and when his teammates protected him, he looked sharp and threw accurately, including as good a pass as he's thrown as a pro, a 50-yard bomb he dropped right into Laurent Robinson's breadbasket in the 2nd. Protection problems, though, got Bulger sacked a startling three times and forced the offense to settle for 3 FGs. Kyle Boller got about a quarter but was pressured into an underwhelming 3-9-25 performance, relying a lot on bootlegs and swing passes. Brock Berlin was 6-8-27 but had a short night, spraining a knee while getting dragged down at the end of a naked bootleg by Zach Potter. The most impressive QB off the bench may have been Keith Null (2-2-16). After Berlin's injury rushed him into play, the Rams got a composed and ultimately game-winning play from the rookie. Sean Walker lined up wrong with the Rams at the Jet 14, but instead of blowing a timeout, Null got Walker lined up correctly before the snap and wound up exploiting a mismatch with a LB and hitting Walker for the go-ahead TD. Berlin'd better be wary or he'll get Wally Pipped. Or is that Trent Greened?
* RB: Steven Jackson had just a couple of carries and was pulled from the game after a 13-yard gain late in the first. The competition for the spots behind Jackson got more heated when Samkon Gado (6-93) started the second half by exploding up the middle and running through the Jet secondary for a 77-yard TD. Antonio Pittman's (4-36) getting plenty of chances and still looks like the Rams' most elusive back. He bounced a run outside for 20 and forced a fumble on special teams to enhance his chances. Unfortunately, the biggest competition between the RBs tonight was to see who could pick up blitzes the worst. Jackson didn't get a block on the blitzing safety, helping LB David Harris score a sack to shut down the Rams' opening drive. Chris Ogbannaya (9-29) let Kenwin Cummings go right by him and drop Berlin for a huge loss in the 4th. The big winner(?), though, was Kenneth Darby (6-16), who looked far worse in blitz protection tonight than he ever did last season. He let a DB go right around him, creating pressure that led to Calvin Pace getting the Jets' second sack. The third came when two Jets blitzed in off right tackle, and Darby picked the wrong one to block. Adam Goldberg had the outside blitzer, and Darby's supposed to pick up the inside blitzer, but he mistakenly went outside and couldn't recover in time to prevent Donald Strickland from dropping Bulger. And now we know why the Ram defense can blitz so successfully in practice. None of the Ram backs, from Jackson on down, are worth a darn at picking it up. Still! And it just shouldn't be happening, not this badly. Blitz protection isn't something that goes into a slump, but it does count on the backs knowing what they're supposed to be doing. Unless everybody does their job, Bulger's going to get killed again in 2009, and it won't even be the offensive line's fault.
* Receivers: At least ten Rams had catches, but none had more than two. Laurent Robinson (2-52) set up a FG with a pretty 50-yard catch of a pretty Bulger throw. He shielded the cornerback with his body and hauled the pass in over his shoulder right at his belt buckle. Sean Walker (2-18) jumped over a LB in the end zone to make the game-winning TD catch. Randy McMichael (2-25) got the opening drive going with a 15-yard catch-and-run off a swing pass but helped kill said drive with a false start. Daniel Fells didn't have a catch but his block helped spring Gado's 77-yard TD run. I don't relish picking on Joe Klopfenstein, but he helped get Berlin hurt in the 4th by getting off to a poor start on that naked bootleg play and wasn't out there for Berlin when he should have been.
* Offensive line: Ram QBs were sacked four times – Bulger three of them – but most of it was the fault of poor blitz pickups by the RBs, not of the offensive line itself. The Jets' first blitz was well-disguised and tricked Adam Goldberg into blocking down instead of blocking out, and Harris ran right by him en route to the Jets' first sack. The game's big play, the Gado TD run, was made possible by a very good seal block by Mark Setterstrom, with Fells sealing off the back side to give Gado a crease. Jackson's 13-yard run was sprung by nice blocks from Goldberg and Richie Incognito. The Rams picked up a blitz to give Bulger time to hit Robinson for 50 in the 2nd; might have been Darby making that play. Jacob Bell apparently left the game early and created some shuffling of the line. Roy Schuening got some plays with the ones and I believe John Greco also did. Roger Allen worked into the mix with the twos. Schuening wasn't as stiff blocking the run as I'd hoped he'd be, and he gave up a pass deflection, but he fought mightily to give Pittman a lane for a 9-yard run in the last 2:00 of the first half. The key block there was a sweet pull block by first-round draft pick Jason Smith, who had a nice, if not dominating, night, working exclusively with the twos. Vernon Gholston wasn't really much of a challenge to Smith at all. Smith was steady in pass protection and started the third quarter by knocking Ty Steinkuhler on his butt. I'd give Jason at least a B-minus. Setterstrom's good outing was tempered somewhat by his tendency to sail his shotgun snaps, throwing off the timing of plays. Phil Trautwein held down LT for the second string. The Rams ran for 4.1 an attempt, and that's leaving out the Gado TD; and as a unit they didn't give up a sack or commit a penalty. Fine work for the first week of preseason.
* Defensive line/LB: Leonard Little got the Rams off to a rousing early start by racing around Wayne Hunter and jarring the ball out of Kellen Clemens' hand for a sack and fumble. James Hall pounced on the loose ball to set up a Rams FG. Unfortunately, that was the only sack until Eric Moore knocked the ball loose as Eric Ainge cocked to throw in the 4th. That ball ended up about 20 yards downfield after C.J. Ah You mysteriously took a big swat at the ball instead of trying to corral it. Well, at least he knocked the Jets well out of field-goal position. Pass rush wasn't strong, allowing Jet QBs plenty of time, especially when rookie Mark Sanchez was at the controls. Little didn't stay on the field long and I was a little disappointed with Chris Long, to be honest, though he did stuff a run. The Rams let a couple of long runs get loose but were very good overall at clogging up the middle and taking away running lanes. This defense has a noticeably more physical presence from its DTs and LBs than it's had in a long time. Cliff Ryan jammed up some runs and James Laurinaitis looked pretty good at MLB, getting action with the starters and some extra work with the twos. He at least broke even for the night. Sure, sometimes he'd get picked off by a guard or get knocked out of the hole by the fullback, but he also filled the lane or waded through trash nicely to stop a couple of runs. He won one heavy collision with the fullback to fill a hole and forced Thomas Jones into Chris Draft. Good stuff, though he did blow one pass coverage. Gary Gibson started and stuffed a couple of runs, but Antwon (Who?) Burton may have been the defensive star of the night. You know how the Rams have lacked a big run-stuffer like Hollis Thomas forever? Well, Burton gives them two. He, and Thomas, can stand their ground, occupy two blockers and give the runner nowhere to go unlike any recent Ram DT I can think of. Burton's even got good lateral mobility, getting outside quickly to stuff a Shonn Greene sweep in the 3rd. Thomas had a good game, too, but Burton's night was a real eye-opener. Ah You and Eric Moore were the next-best pass rushers after Little, in scrub time. Moore blew up a screen pass as well as forcing the aforementioned fumble. They gave up a couple of long runs, a well-blocked reverse to Brad Smith and a 35-yard Greene run where a lot went wrong. Burton overpenetrated and missed Greene in the backfield. Darell Scott, who had a quiet night, was turned aside. David Vobora ran up Victor Adeyanju's back, and Chris Chamberlain got out of position, to give Greene a lane and safety David Roach a wide-open stage to whiff on. Chamberlain ran the play down from behind, something he accomplished several times tonight. The Rams have to mount a better pass rush, but the run defense was the story of the night, allowing a very respectable 102 yards with 3.6 yards an attempt. Like I already said, I'll take that.
* Secondary: You'll forgive Dustin Keller if he felt like Tony Gonzalez tonight, as the Rams were generally unable to cover him. At all. He beat O.J. Atogwe for 12 in the 1st. On a later 2nd-and-7, Laurinaitis never moved over to cover him and left him wide open four yards downfield on a play where he'd gain 16. And Keller gained 21 yards, down to the 2, on a 3rd-and-7 in the 2nd to set up a TD, courtesy of David Roach's terrible tackling. Roach had a bad night, getting undressed by a Greene fake in the 3rd that turned what should have been an 8-yard run into a 35-yarder. Roach's play there was worthy of Corey Chavous, Mike Furrey, Rich Coady, and Jason Sehorn, i.e., not good. Tye Hill leaves the night still in charge of the #2 CB spot in my eyes. He made a heady play in the first to stop a third-down pass to Chansi Stuckey short of a first down, forcing a FG. Stuckey was left all alone in the flat on a play unwisely designed to have Chris Long covering him, but Hill flew in to prevent a brewing disaster with a fine open-field play. Jonathan Wade was up-and-down. He broke up a couple of passes but looked silly when converted college QB Brad Smith beat him handily on a jump ball in the 2nd. Wade also had a couple of special teams gaffes. Justin King appeared to have a bad night, though. David Clowney beat him for 48 on Mark Sanchez's first throw in the 1st. It wasn't very reassuring to see the Rams' coverage let a rookie QB drive 93 yards for a TD the first time he took the field. Nor was it reassuring to see Clowney catch 3 for 102 yards. That includes a 50-yard TD from Eric Ainge in the 2nd half where Todd Johnson bit on play-action like a rank rookie. Clowney ended up open downfield by 10 yards for the TD pass. King got beat a couple of other times and left a door open for Bradley Fletcher. Or is that Flecther, as spelled on his uniform? Either way, I'd like to see him doing better than fighting to a draw with the likes of Wallace Wright before making him a starter. The door didn't open for Quincy Butler, either, who I was really disappointed with tonight, never moreso than the last play of the game. What do you do with a Hail Mary pass heading your way? You knock it down! No, Butler tried to catch it and muffed it into the air, where Jets could have had a chance to play it. Fortunately, rookie free agent LB K.C. Asiodu had better sense and did knock the ricochet to the ground. Disappointing results tonight after the secondary had looked so good in camp. Steve Spagnuolo's got a lot more secondary coaching to do, and they have to find a way to stop leaving the tight end wide open all the time.
* Special teams: These new-look Rams actually made a lot of good special teams plays. Josh Brown hit 3 FGs, including a 48-yarder, and kicked everything deep. Donnie Jones averaged 46.7 a punt, 43 net, including one average-stunting attempt to pin the Jets deep. Brooks Foster recovered a muffed punt in the 4th to set up the Rams' winning TD. Pittman forced a fumble on an earlier return, but Wade blew the turnover when he failed to pick the ball up in his attempt to scoop it up and run it back for a TD. Wade also committed a special teams penalty. So did Quinton Culberson, erasing a nice weaving 27-yard return by Derek Stanley. Stanley looked shaky on punts otherwise, misjudging a couple. He lost five yards trying to backtrack after one bouncer and run away backwards with it. And Darby continues to be an adventure on kickoffs, muffing one in the end zone but recovering it. Gado can return kicks, but he comes up to top speed about as fast as your average semi from a dead start. Punt coverage chased the returner on one play instead of watching the ball, costing the Rams a chance to down a punt inside the 5. Don't get me wrong; solid but unspectacular special teams works, compared to the special teams fiascoes of the past, but I do wonder how and when they're going to establish a real threat on returns.
* Coaching/discipline: Scott Linehan and Jim Haslett ought to be ashamed of themselves if either got to watch how crisply the Rams played in many aspects of the game tonight. No turnovers, and I believe no dropped passes. They committed just 5 penalties, and one of those was an intentional delay-of-game taken by the punting unit. There weren't any “wasted” timeouts, and though Steve Spagnuolo's one challenge failed, it was a challenge worth trying. The defense stuffed the run and even forced a couple of turnovers. Special teams even looked competent, though returns weren't much to write home about. Spagnuolo had the Rams more prepared tonight than they were at least 14 weeks of last season. And I especially liked that he kept most of the starting offense on the field until they at least put together a drive of decent length.
The Rams blitzed very little except with the scrubs, so they may be saving any fancy stuff they want to do with the starters for the regular season. Little blitzing, though, still appears to mean little pass pressure right now for the blue and gold. And they nearly got burned in the 1st with a too-cute zone blitz that left Chris Long covering WR Chansi Stuckey on 3rd-and-6 at the Ram 20. That seems a terrible down and distance for that ploy, which took a very good play by Tye Hill to bail out. The offense expectedly didn't show much in the way of wrinkles, either. They held Mike Karney out and as a result did almost no running with a fullback in the backfield. I wonder what Pat Shurmur's thinking was on the early 3rd-and-6 that ended in Bulger's first sack. The Rams went four-wide there, a curious formation I thought they'd hardly be using this year, and one very susceptible to blitzes like the one the Jets threw at them.
Spagnuolo's decisions to go for FGs are worth at least talking about. I mean, it's not like Josh Brown needs the work; why not go for it a little bit? 4th and 13 from the Jet 16 is probably too ambitious, but why not go for it on 4th-and-2 from the Jet 21 at the end of the first half instead of just letting all the time run out? And I really hope Spagnuolo's not committed to punting on 4th-and-1 from the opposing 38 like he called for in the third quarter tonight. If he's got Karney and Jackson on the field, he should be going for that in the regular season every time it comes up.
* Waiver bait: It's early to worry about cuts yet, but some Rams are making themselves unwanted early candidates. Roach was the worst tackler on the field. Klopfenstein ran a play so poorly he actually managed to get his QB hurt, which takes some doing. Culberson only stood out for a special teams penalty, the worst kind of preseason publicity. There's still time to save their jobs, but these guys better get it turned around in a hurry.
* Upon further review: Pretty decent job by Terry McAulay and crew. The call on the Thomas Jones TD was right, much to my chagrin. The ball broke the plane before Larry Grant put his helmet on it and dislodged it. Can't blame Spagnuolo for challenging, though. Same thing on the play where Ah You stripped Ainge. Fine and correct initial call, but I couldn't fault Rex Ryan for challenging, either. What the refs did miss on that play was Ian Campbell getting blatantly pulled down by the jersey. I thought Darby was yanked down by a horse collar tackle in the 1st and that the refs didn't do much for QB safety the way they let Berlin get dragged down after the pass was away on his last play in the 4th. However, they didn't blow any big calls and didn't do much to draw attention to themselves – a pretty good night officiating.
* Cheers: Martin Kilcoyne and Trent Green did a good job with the local call of the game. Green sounded like a booth veteran, quickly making insightful points after many plays. Though it did often sound like nothing short of defensive perfection will ever be good enough in Green's eyes. He seemed to expect the DBs to knock down every pass and the LBs to stop every run for a loss. Just like players, Kilcoyne seems to be improving with repetition. He was on top of down, distance and gain of last play much more than usual, while offering some accurate on-the-fly analysis of his own. The two announcers worked quite well as a team. Their worst glitch was not letting us know anything about Jacob Bell at all until late in the game. The broadcast had some glitches of its own. We missed one play in the last 2:00 of the first because TV was way late coming back from replay. Don't usually have time for those in end-of-half situations. And one drive was shoved to the background in favor of a sideline interview with Kevin Demoff. Standard, but still annoying. All in all, though, this was to me one of the best preseason broadcasts we've had locally.
* Who’s next?: The Rams have a win and some wind in their sails, but have some important areas to fortify in order to build on that against Atlanta in v. 2.0 of the Dome next Friday night. The offense absolutely has to get its blitz protections straightened out, or Marc Bulger won't even make it to the regular season. There'll be plenty to watch on offense. Can Jason Smith build on tonight's acceptable outing? Will Laurent Robinson have an edge going up against his old team? How will the RB situation behind Jackson shake out?
The Rams don't figure to see a lot of Falcon offensive leaders Matt Ryan and Michael Turner, but they especially need to step up their pass rush if they're to prevent getting lit up by last year's NFC Cinderellas. The secondary needs to step up, too, and play a lot more like it practices. Lest we forget, the Falcons have the actual Tony Gonzalez now, and the way the Rams (didn't) covered the TE tonight, he may be in line for a 200-yard night.
It's funny. Last year the Falcons were the downtrodden team most of the league saw as an automatic win on the schedule entering the season. But they instituted wholesale changes and made an impressive run, from castoffs to the playoffs. Now the Rams are trying to emulate that run, with some of “their” people, like Robinson and GM Billy Devaney. We'll take another step Friday night finding out whether that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery or a subpar impression act.
-- Mike
Game stats from nfl.com
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Where the heck are they now: Lawrence Phillips
That would be, still in jail... Link
SAN DIEGO -- Former NFL running back Lawrence Phillips was convicted of assault and other felony charges in San Diego.
A Superior Court jury found Phillips guilty Tuesday of seven counts. He had been accused of choking his girlfriend on two occasions in August 2005, once into unconsciousness.
He faces up to 25 years in prison when he is sentenced next month. Phillips already is serving a 10-year sentence for hitting three teenagers with his car in Los Angeles.
Phillips was once one of the nation's top college football players at Nebraska. The St. Louis Rams released him for insubordination in 1997.
He went on to play for the Miami Dolphins and San Francisco 49ers, and spent time in NFL Europe and the Canadian Football League.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Injury report: Avery out 4 to 6 weeks
Donnie Avery got off to a slow start last year, suffering a cracked pelvis early in training camp. Somebody get that guy a glass of milk, or some calcium supplements, because he's at it again. Avery broke a bone in his foot at Friday night's scrimmage and is expected to be out 4 to 6 weeks, potentially carrying into the first couple of weeks of the regular season.
This is a blow to a Ram receiving corps that was starting to show promise, with Avery, Laurent Robinson and Keenan Burton all playing quite well in camp thus far. Robinson and Burton will start with Avery down. Derek Stanley and Tim Carter appear to be the top candidates for third wideout.
Another Ram for whom injuries are nothing new: Adam Carriker will miss a couple of weeks due to an ankle sprain also suffered in Friday's scrimmage.
Mike Karney is slowly returning to action from an ankle injury of his own. He's been running drills but nothing at full speed.
Craig Dahl has been sidelined lately due to a hamstring injury. I suppose it's just what they call a "tweak".
Leonard Little suffered a neck stinger at Sunday morning's practice and was held out of Monday's practices.
Last but not least, Classy Eric Bassey's season ended with a torn ACL at the scrimmage. He was waived injured but may get another shot with the team down the line.
Training camp stock report, 8/11
Busy weekend for the Rams training camp stock market. The bell is ringing. The bulls are running. The bears are running. The bulls are running into the bears. I swear I even saw some people jump off of window ledges! Here’s RamView’s assessment of who’s up and who’s down:
STRONG BUY (best performers): OJ Atogwe, Donnie Jones.
BLUE CHIPS (well-established high performers giving little cause for worry): Josh Brown, James Butler, Steven Jackson, Leonard Little, Randy McMichael, Will Witherspoon. Little got an upgrade because he’s really been tearing it up so far.
SMALL CAPS (younger players showing significant upside): Keenan Burton, Kenneth Darby, Daniel Fells, Bradley Fletcher, Larry Grant, John Greco, Justin King, James Laurinaitis, Chris Long, Laurent Robinson, Cliff Ryan, Darell Scott, Jason Smith, David Vobora, Jonathan Wade. Upgrade for
VALUE STOCKS (steady veterans with some upside): Victor Adeyanju, Ron Bartell, Jason Brown, Mark Bulger, Chris Draft, Adam Goldberg, James Hall, Richie Incognito, Mike Karney, Chris Massey. Draft, Hall and Incognito are all having excellent camps. Bartell’s on the fast track to blue chip after reassuring performances this past weekend.
EARNINGS SURPRISES (veterans performing much better than anticipated): Craig Dahl, Samkon Gado, Gary Gibson, Hollis Thomas. Gado jumps up here for his versatility.
CDs (steady but not exciting): C.J. Ah You, Billy Bajema, Alex Barron, Jacob Bell, Kyle Boller, Antwon Burton, Eric Butler, Tim Carter, Chris Chamberlain, Ronald Curry, Brooks Foster, Tye Hill, Todd Johnson, Eric Moore, Antonio Pittman, Mark Rubin, Roy Schuening, Mark Setterstrom, Derek Stanley, Phil Trautwein. Pittman moves off the ‘sell’ list because they’re giving him more looks. New safety Rubin started off camp on the right foot with an INT yesterday. Schuening’s downgraded because his play is leveling off a little. Setterstrom’s downgraded because of Greco getting work at center, but he could bounce right back. Ah You moves up because he’s been tearing up fellow third-stringers.
PASSBOOK ACCOUNTS (players with uphill fight to make the roster): K.C. Asiodu, Brock Berlin, Ian Campbell, Dominic Douglas, Jerome Johnson, Tim Mattran, Keith Null, David Roach, Daniel Sanders. Bad combo for
STOCKS WITH HIGH BETAS: Donnie Avery. Avery was having one of the best camps of anybody on the team before breaking a bone in his foot at last Friday’s scrimmage. Now you have to wonder about his long-term durability; he fought injuries all of last year, too.
PROMISING MICROCAPS (young players performing surprisingly well): Quincy Butler, Nate Jones, Chris Ogbannaya,
PINK SHEETS (young players with long odds of making the roster): Roger Allen, Marcus Brown, Jarrett Byers, Sean Walker, Eric Young. Downgrade for Young, who hasn’t looked good.
EARNINGS DISAPPOINTMENTS: Adam Carriker, Quinton Culberson. Argh, Carriker’s injured AGAIN.
SELL: Joe Klopfenstein.
DE-LISTED: Classy Eric Bassey (waived, torn ACL).
Reminder: Past performance is no guarantee of future results.
Sunday, August 9, 2009
8/9/2009 training camp report
RamView, August 9, 2007
Training Camp Report from Rams Park
RamView: Close enough today to be nearly decapitated by a Josh Brown field goal. Close enough to hear Steven Jackson belch. Let's see how close I can get to relating what transpired on the field at today's fairly steamy, two-hours-plus morning practice:
Position by position:
* QB/Receivers: Dumb place to start because this is where I paid the least attention today. Marc Bulger drilled a TD pass to Daniel Fells in the goal line drill. Kyle Boller threw a couple of nice sideline passes but also got picked off out there by – Quincy Butler. Boller threw the other INT I saw today as well. I'm not sure which QB had the nice pass on a deep corner route to Brooks Foster – I think it was Boller, but no matter; Foster, who had his man beaten by a step, couldn't come up with a catch he should have. None of the receivers really stood out to me today; Joe Klopfenstein was unlucky enough to have one of the few drops of practice that I saw. (I saw the report on Donnie Avery's injury before I posted this, but I didn't see it happen.)
* RB: I have photographic evidence that Steven Jackson's pretty easily the Rams' most powerful back, and I'm not referring to his ability to burp loudly. They ran the drill through the “arms machine” right in front of us, and Jackson gets through that thing so quickly, I could not get the timing right to get a photo of him inside of it. Every other back I got. Jackson? Just photos of an empty practice apparatus. Very light day for Jackson; very heavy day for Chris Ogbannaya, the poor sucker who received the day's biggest hits in 11-on-11. It was certainly a full-contact practice for him. Mike Karney did some work in drills but I did not see him participate in 11-on-11. Samkon Gado's one of my stars of the day simply because his versatility makes him a pretty solid bet to make the team. He delivered some quality hits playing fullback and looked fluid and sure-handed returning kickoffs. Yet he's supposed to be a tailback, isn't he? Doing everything the coaches ask you to do? Good way to stick on an NFL roster. Having said all that, though, Antonio Pittman seems to be getting an increasing number of turns at RB3. They had the draw play working today; Kenneth Darby got a big hole and broke off a long run.
* O-line/D-line: A rough morning for Jason Smith. Victor Adeyanju handled him in the pass rush / pass pro drill. Smith got outside quickly to stop the initial rush, but Adeyanju and Leonard Little were following that with rip moves back to the inside and getting by him easily. Adeyanju did it to him in drills and Little did it to him in 11-on-11 to slam the door on a run designed to go behind Jason. Smith also false-started twice during the drill to draw Steve Loney's wrath. The game appears to be moving a little fast for Jason Smith at the moment. He looked a little more comfortable in drills at LT, and he continues to get in extra solo work on his footwork. Smith wasn't the only one to struggle on the o-line. Chris Long and James Hall beat Alex Barron pretty cleanly. Little got two pretty clear wins over Adam Goldberg. Gary Gibson's better than a dark horse to make this roster; at least in drills, he ran with the ones today with Adam Carriker sidelined (though not limping noticeably, so I'm optimistic there). I'd say Gibson and Jacob Bell drew. The strength of the o-line was Jason Brown, holding his own against Cliff Ryan, and Richie Incognito, whom Hall didn't beat either time they faced off. Substitution patterns were a little, well, different, today. John Greco got work at second-string center in drills and looked pretty good doing it; I didn't see Mark Setterstrom at work. Renardo Foster appears to have moved up to second-unit LT. C.J. Ah You smoked Eric Young. Roy Schuening looked woeful against DEs Adeyanju and Hall but held his own against Hollis Thomas. And that figures to be a key to the Rams this season: getting those favorable speed matchups inside, attacking the weakness of opposing guards with lesser speed. It's sure working against our o-line, anyway.
* LB: James Laurinaitis ran the whole practice with the ones today, with Chris Draft strongside and Will Witherspoon weakside. So on August 9th, I think we're already looking at our starting day lineup at that unit. Draft delivered the day's biggest -POP- on an Ogbannaya run.
* Secondary: Secondary may have been the team's strongest suit today. There were a good number of plays where the QBs were forced to throw the ball away. Boller even had to scramble once! You'd look up and see that every DB had his receiver blanketed. Nice, nice work by practically everybody. Ron Bartell looked solid; the offense continues not to even throw at him. Quincy Butler made yet another interception, jumping a sideline route just like he did at the scrimmage. I think he did get beat downfield a couple of times, though. Justin King made an acrobatic play to take a long pass away for the defense's other interception. O.J. Atogwe's the most tenacious player out there. He's even willing to contest Steven Jackson's efforts to run a play out to the end zone. He even took Darby down once instead of letting him run out the play. There was not a lot of goal line work; James Butler shut down the #2 offense's effort by blitzing in clean for a sack. With King and Bradley Fletcher and Jonathan Wade all playing pretty well behind him, Tye Hill's grasp on a starting spot seems to be getting slipperier. He got beat a couple of times in 11-on-11 and looked visibly frustrated about it. Though either King or Fletcher got beat deep by Brooks on the long ball he should have caught. Craig Dahl did not participate.
* Special teams: So I'm standing in the bleachers behind the near field, trying to take pictures of the action on the far field. I suspect nothing because Josh Brown and Donnie Jones have been mostly goofing around on the field in front of me. I credit my finely-honed football instincts (because NOBODY there sure gave me a heads-up) that I suddenly sensed danger, lowered my camera, and... got a paw up just in time to prevent a Brown field goal from taking my head off. My contribution for the year to Rams special teams. Brown wasn't all that good during the “Banzai” part of 11-on-11, missing a couple of times from where I assume was the 45-50-yard range. Hey, you're going to go after MY head, you better kick better than that, buddy. Special teams practiced onside kicks early and kickoff returns late, where I'm hard-pressed to describe Kenneth Darby as anything short of a disaster. He muffed three kickoffs. One of the assistants had to keep handing him a football so they could continue practicing the return. Gado looked a lot better there than Darby today. Tim Carter and Derek Stanley also got some attempts back there.
* Coaching/discipline: I get more and more jazzed about the Spagnuolo defense as every day of training camp goes by. I really like how he's going to use defensive ends as interior rushers, exploiting the speed advantage they're going to have on guards. I like this defense's prospects of finding the other team's weakness and attacking it relentlessly. I like the energy the defensive players have. They're being asked to be more aggressive, to do more, and I think that always results in a higher level of play. How quickly it manifests itself is fair to ask, but I think Spagnuolo's the defensive coach we've been waiting for around here. Waitress! More Kool-Aid over here! The only offensive wrinkle of note was an attempted flanker option off an end-around; I think Tim Carter was the passer. The play failed pretty miserably, but at least they're trying.
* Cheers: 300-400 fans attending this morning, including a big crowd in the VIP area. The weather was humid, and the temperature was 90 by the end of practice; in other words, St. Louis in August. If I had not had an appliance-related disaster that delayed this report by several hours, I could have let everybody know the afternoon practice was moving inside. Heard the facility manager talking about that very possibility on my way out. I know, lot of help that is now.
* Who’s next?: That may have been my last practice of training camp, depending on whether they keep the other Sunday sessions open. The next focus for Rams Nation is rightly on the preseason opener Friday night against the Jets in New York. Top questions: Is the defense for real? The Jets have a pretty talented offensive line. One thing I do not want to see is Kellen Clemens going off. I believe he is a terrible quarterback and it would be a very bad thing for the Rams to make him look good. Let's start the cries for Mark Sanchez early. Can they stop the run? We can be pretty sure the Jets are going to run a run-oriented attack. The other big developing defensive stories are Laurinaitis as starting MLB and Hill (or otherwise) at CB2. The Rams should not be giving up scary results to the likes of Jerricho Cotchery and Chansi Stuckey. Offensively, I'm not expecting Jason Smith to start Friday night, but he'll definitely be a person of interest. The offense may be bound to be double vanilla and of dubious educational value, but the work of the offensive line won't be. And on special teams, I'd sure like to see who's going to return kicks, and whether or not they'll be players who actually hold on to those kicks.
The song doesn't necessarily apply to the NFL: if the Rams can make it in New York, it doesn't mean they can make it anywhere. A good, crisp outing would be a promising start, though.
-- Mike
Training Camp Report from Rams Park
RamView: Close enough today to be nearly decapitated by a Josh Brown field goal. Close enough to hear Steven Jackson belch. Let's see how close I can get to relating what transpired on the field at today's fairly steamy, two-hours-plus morning practice:
Position by position:
* QB/Receivers: Dumb place to start because this is where I paid the least attention today. Marc Bulger drilled a TD pass to Daniel Fells in the goal line drill. Kyle Boller threw a couple of nice sideline passes but also got picked off out there by – Quincy Butler. Boller threw the other INT I saw today as well. I'm not sure which QB had the nice pass on a deep corner route to Brooks Foster – I think it was Boller, but no matter; Foster, who had his man beaten by a step, couldn't come up with a catch he should have. None of the receivers really stood out to me today; Joe Klopfenstein was unlucky enough to have one of the few drops of practice that I saw. (I saw the report on Donnie Avery's injury before I posted this, but I didn't see it happen.)
* RB: I have photographic evidence that Steven Jackson's pretty easily the Rams' most powerful back, and I'm not referring to his ability to burp loudly. They ran the drill through the “arms machine” right in front of us, and Jackson gets through that thing so quickly, I could not get the timing right to get a photo of him inside of it. Every other back I got. Jackson? Just photos of an empty practice apparatus. Very light day for Jackson; very heavy day for Chris Ogbannaya, the poor sucker who received the day's biggest hits in 11-on-11. It was certainly a full-contact practice for him. Mike Karney did some work in drills but I did not see him participate in 11-on-11. Samkon Gado's one of my stars of the day simply because his versatility makes him a pretty solid bet to make the team. He delivered some quality hits playing fullback and looked fluid and sure-handed returning kickoffs. Yet he's supposed to be a tailback, isn't he? Doing everything the coaches ask you to do? Good way to stick on an NFL roster. Having said all that, though, Antonio Pittman seems to be getting an increasing number of turns at RB3. They had the draw play working today; Kenneth Darby got a big hole and broke off a long run.
* O-line/D-line: A rough morning for Jason Smith. Victor Adeyanju handled him in the pass rush / pass pro drill. Smith got outside quickly to stop the initial rush, but Adeyanju and Leonard Little were following that with rip moves back to the inside and getting by him easily. Adeyanju did it to him in drills and Little did it to him in 11-on-11 to slam the door on a run designed to go behind Jason. Smith also false-started twice during the drill to draw Steve Loney's wrath. The game appears to be moving a little fast for Jason Smith at the moment. He looked a little more comfortable in drills at LT, and he continues to get in extra solo work on his footwork. Smith wasn't the only one to struggle on the o-line. Chris Long and James Hall beat Alex Barron pretty cleanly. Little got two pretty clear wins over Adam Goldberg. Gary Gibson's better than a dark horse to make this roster; at least in drills, he ran with the ones today with Adam Carriker sidelined (though not limping noticeably, so I'm optimistic there). I'd say Gibson and Jacob Bell drew. The strength of the o-line was Jason Brown, holding his own against Cliff Ryan, and Richie Incognito, whom Hall didn't beat either time they faced off. Substitution patterns were a little, well, different, today. John Greco got work at second-string center in drills and looked pretty good doing it; I didn't see Mark Setterstrom at work. Renardo Foster appears to have moved up to second-unit LT. C.J. Ah You smoked Eric Young. Roy Schuening looked woeful against DEs Adeyanju and Hall but held his own against Hollis Thomas. And that figures to be a key to the Rams this season: getting those favorable speed matchups inside, attacking the weakness of opposing guards with lesser speed. It's sure working against our o-line, anyway.
* LB: James Laurinaitis ran the whole practice with the ones today, with Chris Draft strongside and Will Witherspoon weakside. So on August 9th, I think we're already looking at our starting day lineup at that unit. Draft delivered the day's biggest -POP- on an Ogbannaya run.
* Secondary: Secondary may have been the team's strongest suit today. There were a good number of plays where the QBs were forced to throw the ball away. Boller even had to scramble once! You'd look up and see that every DB had his receiver blanketed. Nice, nice work by practically everybody. Ron Bartell looked solid; the offense continues not to even throw at him. Quincy Butler made yet another interception, jumping a sideline route just like he did at the scrimmage. I think he did get beat downfield a couple of times, though. Justin King made an acrobatic play to take a long pass away for the defense's other interception. O.J. Atogwe's the most tenacious player out there. He's even willing to contest Steven Jackson's efforts to run a play out to the end zone. He even took Darby down once instead of letting him run out the play. There was not a lot of goal line work; James Butler shut down the #2 offense's effort by blitzing in clean for a sack. With King and Bradley Fletcher and Jonathan Wade all playing pretty well behind him, Tye Hill's grasp on a starting spot seems to be getting slipperier. He got beat a couple of times in 11-on-11 and looked visibly frustrated about it. Though either King or Fletcher got beat deep by Brooks on the long ball he should have caught. Craig Dahl did not participate.
* Special teams: So I'm standing in the bleachers behind the near field, trying to take pictures of the action on the far field. I suspect nothing because Josh Brown and Donnie Jones have been mostly goofing around on the field in front of me. I credit my finely-honed football instincts (because NOBODY there sure gave me a heads-up) that I suddenly sensed danger, lowered my camera, and... got a paw up just in time to prevent a Brown field goal from taking my head off. My contribution for the year to Rams special teams. Brown wasn't all that good during the “Banzai” part of 11-on-11, missing a couple of times from where I assume was the 45-50-yard range. Hey, you're going to go after MY head, you better kick better than that, buddy. Special teams practiced onside kicks early and kickoff returns late, where I'm hard-pressed to describe Kenneth Darby as anything short of a disaster. He muffed three kickoffs. One of the assistants had to keep handing him a football so they could continue practicing the return. Gado looked a lot better there than Darby today. Tim Carter and Derek Stanley also got some attempts back there.
* Coaching/discipline: I get more and more jazzed about the Spagnuolo defense as every day of training camp goes by. I really like how he's going to use defensive ends as interior rushers, exploiting the speed advantage they're going to have on guards. I like this defense's prospects of finding the other team's weakness and attacking it relentlessly. I like the energy the defensive players have. They're being asked to be more aggressive, to do more, and I think that always results in a higher level of play. How quickly it manifests itself is fair to ask, but I think Spagnuolo's the defensive coach we've been waiting for around here. Waitress! More Kool-Aid over here! The only offensive wrinkle of note was an attempted flanker option off an end-around; I think Tim Carter was the passer. The play failed pretty miserably, but at least they're trying.
* Cheers: 300-400 fans attending this morning, including a big crowd in the VIP area. The weather was humid, and the temperature was 90 by the end of practice; in other words, St. Louis in August. If I had not had an appliance-related disaster that delayed this report by several hours, I could have let everybody know the afternoon practice was moving inside. Heard the facility manager talking about that very possibility on my way out. I know, lot of help that is now.
* Who’s next?: That may have been my last practice of training camp, depending on whether they keep the other Sunday sessions open. The next focus for Rams Nation is rightly on the preseason opener Friday night against the Jets in New York. Top questions: Is the defense for real? The Jets have a pretty talented offensive line. One thing I do not want to see is Kellen Clemens going off. I believe he is a terrible quarterback and it would be a very bad thing for the Rams to make him look good. Let's start the cries for Mark Sanchez early. Can they stop the run? We can be pretty sure the Jets are going to run a run-oriented attack. The other big developing defensive stories are Laurinaitis as starting MLB and Hill (or otherwise) at CB2. The Rams should not be giving up scary results to the likes of Jerricho Cotchery and Chansi Stuckey. Offensively, I'm not expecting Jason Smith to start Friday night, but he'll definitely be a person of interest. The offense may be bound to be double vanilla and of dubious educational value, but the work of the offensive line won't be. And on special teams, I'd sure like to see who's going to return kicks, and whether or not they'll be players who actually hold on to those kicks.
The song doesn't necessarily apply to the NFL: if the Rams can make it in New York, it doesn't mean they can make it anywhere. A good, crisp outing would be a promising start, though.
-- Mike
Saturday, August 8, 2009
8/7/2009 scrimmage report
RamView, August 7, 2007
Team Scrimmage Report from Lindenwood College
Hey, St. Louis may have figured out it's time for some football. A capacity crowd of 7,000 watched tonight as the Rams locked horns with one another in the closest atmosphere to a live game they've seen so far this preseason. The problem is, I'm not really sure exactly what we all learned tonight. The Rams might have answers right now to a couple of their myriad issues, but there are still an awful lot of questions left blank thus far on their 2009 NFL entrance exam.
Position by position:
* QB: Marc Bulger looked solid enough, though I'm not ready to proclaim he's “back” like they just did on the 10 o'clock news. The short passing game clicked and Bulger especially made some nice throws into tight spaces. He found Keenan Burton and Donnie Avery downfield a couple of times and is still working really well with Randy McMichael. He was picked off from the goal line by Quincy Butler on an attempted out route to Laurent Robinson. Butler really jumped that route, so I'm not sure if Bulger's throw was the problem there. At least I hope not. That wasn't Bulger's only INT, though; Craig Dahl picked off a deep throw to end the offense's first two-minute drill. Nobody inspired much confidence behind Bulger. Kyle Boller was under pretty good pressure much of the scrimmage and chucked a couple of INTs – one a dumb throw into double coverage, another 10 yards past the nearest receiver and right to the deep safety, I think Dahl again. The TE cut off his route early on that second INT, though, and I'll bet he wasn't supposed to. At least in Boller's mind. I actually started worrying about Boller before the scrimmage started; I don't think he made a single good throw to the sideline in warmups. Brock Berlin lost the snap from center on his first play, really bad timing since the Rams were starting that drive at their goal line. Keith Null didn't show a lot of zing on his deep throws, and he badly missed on a timing route into the end zone during goal line drills, but he drilled a pass into the end zone the next play for a TD on what had to be his best throw of camp so far. Null also showed off a pretty nice play-fake. They're doing well enough by-and-large with the short passing game, but there were a lot of misses deep.
* RB: Very limited action for Steven Jackson – 3-4 snaps – and Kenneth Darby, and on just about any sweep, the refs were blowing the whistle before the back could get out and turn the corner, making it hard again to figure how well many running plays actually would have fared. Samkon Gado started at fullback; I do not believe Mike Karney played. Gado's RB3 ahead of Antonio Pittman, but Pittman showed some of the nice footwork and elusiveness that makes him worth keeping around. Chris Ogbannaya and Null collided on one attempted handoff and had a lengthy discussion on the field over who was at fault. It's going to be hard for me to get a good feel for the progress of the running game until real, live competition starts next week.
* Receivers: Keenan Burton's in the mix for star of the night. He made a couple of nice downfield catches and also caught the one short TD pass I can remember Bulger throwing. Donnie Avery and Laurent Robinson also had nice outings, and my confidence increased tonight about the Rams entering the regular season with those as the top three receivers. Derek Stanley is 4th at WR, based on tonight's substitution pattern. Tim Carter made a nice play to haul in an underthrown deep ball from Null. Eric Butler had two TD catches at TE but also had the worst drop of the night and may have been the TE who helped cause one of Boller's INTs. Especially with Burton turning in some consistently good performances, WR is starting to look like an area the Rams are getting shored up.
* Offensive line: Definitely a step backwards tonight for first-round pick Jason Smith, eaten up by Victor Adeyanju and taken to school by Leonard Little. There was a three-play sequence late in scrimmage where Smith probably would have given up three straight sacks. Looked to me like he was dropping too deep too fast, and with bad balance, and his man would just drive him straight back to the QB. Smith saw some snaps on the first unit, but I'm gonna have to slow down my expectations on him, though his potential is undeniable. What's also undeniable? Alex Barron's ability to false start, which he did on a simulated third-and-short to a chorus of thousands of boos. The line had a second false start, but with an unidentified perpetrator. I'm thinking 70 again. And, grrrr. The more some things change, the more they stay the same.
* Defensive line/LB: The first-string defense started a little slowly but can pretty much be said to have won the night. Leonard Little pwned Jason Smith the series they got to face off, beating him three straight times. The first time he appeared to stun Smith with his punch and rushed right through him. Victor Adeyanju also made some inroads against Smith during the night. Boller can thank God for red jerseys when he gets home, because Cliff Ryan would have obliterated him on a rollout pass that blew up. Nice range from Ryan. Chris Long got a couple of pressures from his end and also spent a curious amount of time working with the twos. C.J. Ah You put on quite a bit of effective pressure in scrub action. And in the oh-crap-here-we-go-again category, Adam Carriker left early with a leg injury I could not determine and did not return. The line got the QBs to rush a lot of throws and had a lot of shots at sacks without doing a lot of blitzing, so it was a successful night for them. Some good linebacking going on as well. Chris Draft flashed in a bunch of times to stuff runs. He also ranks as one of the stars of the night. James Laurinaitis spent the whole night with the second unit and Draft is not giving his position up without a fight. I'm catching up with the Larry Grant bandwagon. He's around the ball a lot. K.C. Asiodu got a moment of glory by picking off a Berlin pass, though the referee's whistle brought a premature end to his return to the house. Dominic Douglas made a couple of nice plays, though he got one pass defense mainly because Null (or Berlin) didn't get enough on a deep throw and hit him in the back with it.
* Secondary: Jonathan Wade had the hit of the night, sticking Robinson to prevent conversion of a short-yardage down, but he got beat downfield a couple of other times. Ram QBs didn't even try to go after Ron Bartell. I hoped to get a better look at Bartell tonight but he was in zone a few yards off the line anytime I remembered to look. Quincy Butler “flashed” with a very nice INT of Bulger near the offense's goal line, jumping the route perfectly and beating Robinson to the spot. I'm catching up with that bandwagon now, too. Bradley Fletcher looked good the few times the passing game went his way, though watching him try to play gunner on one punt still makes me wonder how much he'll contribute to special teams. The secondary as a whole is noticeably stronger against the run. O.J. Atogwe slashed in a couple of times to stuff runs, though on the starting defense's first play in goal line drills, he bit HARD on a play fake and left TE Butler all alone in the end zone for an easy TD. Cord Parks had a nice pass breakup, catching up to an underthrown bomb from Null after getting beaten deep by his man (Brooks, I think; possibly Curry). Beyond getting beat constantly by the underneath drag route, the secondary played well. They're well-organized and didn't blow any assignments. They supported well against the run. Ram QBs had a fair share of trouble finding receivers, and the defense picked off a bunch of passes, at least 5 or 6. Hmm, any possibility the Rams have a defensive-minded coach now? It's still up in the air to me how the CBs shake out behind Bartell, though, because I don't think Tye Hill has done much to separate himself from the rest of the pack.
* Special teams: Return specialist auditions continue to be a veritable cattle call. Returning punts at one time or another tonight: Stanley, Curry, Avery, Parks. Kickoffs: Darby, Gado, Carter, and Jarrett Byers. Burton may have returned punts as well. And little's settled here in my mind. Stanley didn't look right out there. He dropped a couple and had to sprint backward 15-20 yards a couple of times to track punts down. I hope he was setting up way too short on purpose. Otherwise, it's Donnie Freaking Jones, for crying out loud, drop back deep. Jones boomed consistent 55-60 yarders before the scrimmage,but his protection allowed too much pressure right up the middle during the scrimmage and he had to rush some punts that came up shorter than his usual standard, and nothing the various Ram returners could really bring back. Josh Brown hit a 50-yard FG to close out a successful 2:00 drill and was hitting from 60 prior to the scrimmage.
* Coaching/discipline: Steve Spagnuolo observed much of the scrimmage from deep in the Ram backfield. I thought I saw him chew Barron out a little after his false start but that may have been wishful thinking on my part. Not many offensive wrinkles again tonight. There were a few fake end-arounds, and on the opening play, Jackson motioned out of his backfield position to the left slot before an inside handoff to Gado at FB. The secondary appeared to pick Jackson up well. Pat Shurmur appears determined to roll out the QB more than we're accustomed to here, though Boller's the main one I've seen rolling out to date. I'm late bringing this up, but Shurmur is an inverse Al Saunders in that this offense is really working the middle of the field, thank God. And the underneath drag route was there any time the offense wanted it. The Ram D will have to get that tightened up.
* Cheers: Great crowd tonight! Lindenwood's stadium was filled to capacity on a beautiful summer night with a warm southerly breeze blowing. Announced attendance was 7,000, and I won't argue with the estimate for a change. Stadium capacity is 6,000 and there were plenty of people in the standing areas. The shady west side of the stadium was almost completely filled more than a half hour before the scrimmage was scheduled to start. Lindenwood has a very nice facility (with FieldTurf), and would be a perfect place for the Rams to work out should they decide to have future preseasons outside of Rams Park.
* Who’s next?: Just Sunday practices from here on out for yours truly. This Sunday'll be my last opportunity to see the team in person before it starts playing live opponents Friday night in New York. The Rams continue to show some pep defensively and look more and more like they'll survive at WR. But there is still a lot of challenge ahead for the team to address by the start of the 2009 season.
-- Mike
Team Scrimmage Report from Lindenwood College
Hey, St. Louis may have figured out it's time for some football. A capacity crowd of 7,000 watched tonight as the Rams locked horns with one another in the closest atmosphere to a live game they've seen so far this preseason. The problem is, I'm not really sure exactly what we all learned tonight. The Rams might have answers right now to a couple of their myriad issues, but there are still an awful lot of questions left blank thus far on their 2009 NFL entrance exam.
Position by position:
* QB: Marc Bulger looked solid enough, though I'm not ready to proclaim he's “back” like they just did on the 10 o'clock news. The short passing game clicked and Bulger especially made some nice throws into tight spaces. He found Keenan Burton and Donnie Avery downfield a couple of times and is still working really well with Randy McMichael. He was picked off from the goal line by Quincy Butler on an attempted out route to Laurent Robinson. Butler really jumped that route, so I'm not sure if Bulger's throw was the problem there. At least I hope not. That wasn't Bulger's only INT, though; Craig Dahl picked off a deep throw to end the offense's first two-minute drill. Nobody inspired much confidence behind Bulger. Kyle Boller was under pretty good pressure much of the scrimmage and chucked a couple of INTs – one a dumb throw into double coverage, another 10 yards past the nearest receiver and right to the deep safety, I think Dahl again. The TE cut off his route early on that second INT, though, and I'll bet he wasn't supposed to. At least in Boller's mind. I actually started worrying about Boller before the scrimmage started; I don't think he made a single good throw to the sideline in warmups. Brock Berlin lost the snap from center on his first play, really bad timing since the Rams were starting that drive at their goal line. Keith Null didn't show a lot of zing on his deep throws, and he badly missed on a timing route into the end zone during goal line drills, but he drilled a pass into the end zone the next play for a TD on what had to be his best throw of camp so far. Null also showed off a pretty nice play-fake. They're doing well enough by-and-large with the short passing game, but there were a lot of misses deep.
* RB: Very limited action for Steven Jackson – 3-4 snaps – and Kenneth Darby, and on just about any sweep, the refs were blowing the whistle before the back could get out and turn the corner, making it hard again to figure how well many running plays actually would have fared. Samkon Gado started at fullback; I do not believe Mike Karney played. Gado's RB3 ahead of Antonio Pittman, but Pittman showed some of the nice footwork and elusiveness that makes him worth keeping around. Chris Ogbannaya and Null collided on one attempted handoff and had a lengthy discussion on the field over who was at fault. It's going to be hard for me to get a good feel for the progress of the running game until real, live competition starts next week.
* Receivers: Keenan Burton's in the mix for star of the night. He made a couple of nice downfield catches and also caught the one short TD pass I can remember Bulger throwing. Donnie Avery and Laurent Robinson also had nice outings, and my confidence increased tonight about the Rams entering the regular season with those as the top three receivers. Derek Stanley is 4th at WR, based on tonight's substitution pattern. Tim Carter made a nice play to haul in an underthrown deep ball from Null. Eric Butler had two TD catches at TE but also had the worst drop of the night and may have been the TE who helped cause one of Boller's INTs. Especially with Burton turning in some consistently good performances, WR is starting to look like an area the Rams are getting shored up.
* Offensive line: Definitely a step backwards tonight for first-round pick Jason Smith, eaten up by Victor Adeyanju and taken to school by Leonard Little. There was a three-play sequence late in scrimmage where Smith probably would have given up three straight sacks. Looked to me like he was dropping too deep too fast, and with bad balance, and his man would just drive him straight back to the QB. Smith saw some snaps on the first unit, but I'm gonna have to slow down my expectations on him, though his potential is undeniable. What's also undeniable? Alex Barron's ability to false start, which he did on a simulated third-and-short to a chorus of thousands of boos. The line had a second false start, but with an unidentified perpetrator. I'm thinking 70 again. And, grrrr. The more some things change, the more they stay the same.
* Defensive line/LB: The first-string defense started a little slowly but can pretty much be said to have won the night. Leonard Little pwned Jason Smith the series they got to face off, beating him three straight times. The first time he appeared to stun Smith with his punch and rushed right through him. Victor Adeyanju also made some inroads against Smith during the night. Boller can thank God for red jerseys when he gets home, because Cliff Ryan would have obliterated him on a rollout pass that blew up. Nice range from Ryan. Chris Long got a couple of pressures from his end and also spent a curious amount of time working with the twos. C.J. Ah You put on quite a bit of effective pressure in scrub action. And in the oh-crap-here-we-go-again category, Adam Carriker left early with a leg injury I could not determine and did not return. The line got the QBs to rush a lot of throws and had a lot of shots at sacks without doing a lot of blitzing, so it was a successful night for them. Some good linebacking going on as well. Chris Draft flashed in a bunch of times to stuff runs. He also ranks as one of the stars of the night. James Laurinaitis spent the whole night with the second unit and Draft is not giving his position up without a fight. I'm catching up with the Larry Grant bandwagon. He's around the ball a lot. K.C. Asiodu got a moment of glory by picking off a Berlin pass, though the referee's whistle brought a premature end to his return to the house. Dominic Douglas made a couple of nice plays, though he got one pass defense mainly because Null (or Berlin) didn't get enough on a deep throw and hit him in the back with it.
* Secondary: Jonathan Wade had the hit of the night, sticking Robinson to prevent conversion of a short-yardage down, but he got beat downfield a couple of other times. Ram QBs didn't even try to go after Ron Bartell. I hoped to get a better look at Bartell tonight but he was in zone a few yards off the line anytime I remembered to look. Quincy Butler “flashed” with a very nice INT of Bulger near the offense's goal line, jumping the route perfectly and beating Robinson to the spot. I'm catching up with that bandwagon now, too. Bradley Fletcher looked good the few times the passing game went his way, though watching him try to play gunner on one punt still makes me wonder how much he'll contribute to special teams. The secondary as a whole is noticeably stronger against the run. O.J. Atogwe slashed in a couple of times to stuff runs, though on the starting defense's first play in goal line drills, he bit HARD on a play fake and left TE Butler all alone in the end zone for an easy TD. Cord Parks had a nice pass breakup, catching up to an underthrown bomb from Null after getting beaten deep by his man (Brooks, I think; possibly Curry). Beyond getting beat constantly by the underneath drag route, the secondary played well. They're well-organized and didn't blow any assignments. They supported well against the run. Ram QBs had a fair share of trouble finding receivers, and the defense picked off a bunch of passes, at least 5 or 6. Hmm, any possibility the Rams have a defensive-minded coach now? It's still up in the air to me how the CBs shake out behind Bartell, though, because I don't think Tye Hill has done much to separate himself from the rest of the pack.
* Special teams: Return specialist auditions continue to be a veritable cattle call. Returning punts at one time or another tonight: Stanley, Curry, Avery, Parks. Kickoffs: Darby, Gado, Carter, and Jarrett Byers. Burton may have returned punts as well. And little's settled here in my mind. Stanley didn't look right out there. He dropped a couple and had to sprint backward 15-20 yards a couple of times to track punts down. I hope he was setting up way too short on purpose. Otherwise, it's Donnie Freaking Jones, for crying out loud, drop back deep. Jones boomed consistent 55-60 yarders before the scrimmage,but his protection allowed too much pressure right up the middle during the scrimmage and he had to rush some punts that came up shorter than his usual standard, and nothing the various Ram returners could really bring back. Josh Brown hit a 50-yard FG to close out a successful 2:00 drill and was hitting from 60 prior to the scrimmage.
* Coaching/discipline: Steve Spagnuolo observed much of the scrimmage from deep in the Ram backfield. I thought I saw him chew Barron out a little after his false start but that may have been wishful thinking on my part. Not many offensive wrinkles again tonight. There were a few fake end-arounds, and on the opening play, Jackson motioned out of his backfield position to the left slot before an inside handoff to Gado at FB. The secondary appeared to pick Jackson up well. Pat Shurmur appears determined to roll out the QB more than we're accustomed to here, though Boller's the main one I've seen rolling out to date. I'm late bringing this up, but Shurmur is an inverse Al Saunders in that this offense is really working the middle of the field, thank God. And the underneath drag route was there any time the offense wanted it. The Ram D will have to get that tightened up.
* Cheers: Great crowd tonight! Lindenwood's stadium was filled to capacity on a beautiful summer night with a warm southerly breeze blowing. Announced attendance was 7,000, and I won't argue with the estimate for a change. Stadium capacity is 6,000 and there were plenty of people in the standing areas. The shady west side of the stadium was almost completely filled more than a half hour before the scrimmage was scheduled to start. Lindenwood has a very nice facility (with FieldTurf), and would be a perfect place for the Rams to work out should they decide to have future preseasons outside of Rams Park.
* Who’s next?: Just Sunday practices from here on out for yours truly. This Sunday'll be my last opportunity to see the team in person before it starts playing live opponents Friday night in New York. The Rams continue to show some pep defensively and look more and more like they'll survive at WR. But there is still a lot of challenge ahead for the team to address by the start of the 2009 season.
-- Mike
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Training camp stock report, 8/6
Update heading into tomorrow night's scrimmage (which I'm still on course to attend):
* Reports are that Adam Carriker's picking up his play, so he's been restored to a value stock.
* I'm less positive about Quincy Butler's work in pass coverage, but there are mostly good reports about him out there, especially as a run supporter. I moved him up to passbook class.
* Chris Ogbannaya's impressing many, especially as a receiver. Stands to reason given his college career. He's bumped up to microcap.
* The Rams have had very few injuries this camp, yet unlucky John Greco has been injured multiple times. Let's hope his luck turns and he can get back into the green. Mike Karney's ankle injury is developing into a bit of a concern.
* I should think about siccing the SEC on Chris Chamberlain for accidentally hitting Steven Jackson in the knees yesterday. I also hope to get some due diligence done on Ron Bartell tomorrow night.
STRONG BUY: OJ Atogwe, Donnie Avery, Donnie Jones, Jason Smith. Having the visibly-best camps so far.
BLUE CHIPS: Josh Brown, James Butler, Steven Jackson, Randy McMichael, Will Witherspoon. Well-established high performers who give little cause for worry.
SMALL CAPS: Kenneth Darby, Daniel Fells, Bradley Fletcher, Larry Grant, James Laurinaitis, Chris Long, Laurent Robinson, Cliff Ryan, Darell Scott, David Vobora, Jonathan Wade. Younger players with significant upside.
VALUE STOCKS: Victor Adeyanju, Jason Brown, Mark Bulger, Adam Carriker, Chris Draft, Adam Goldberg, James Hall, Richie Incognito, Mike Karney, Leonard Little, Chris Massey, Mark Setterstrom. Steady veterans with some upside.
EARNINGS SURPRISES: Craig Dahl, Gary Gibson, Roy Schuening, Hollis Thomas. Veterans performing much better than anticipated.
CDs: Billy Bajema, Alex Barron, Jacob Bell, Brock Berlin, Kyle Boller, Antwon Burton, Keenan Burton, Eric Butler, Tim Carter, Chris Chamberlain, Ronald Curry, Brooks Foster, Samkon Gado, Tye Hill, Todd Johnson, Eric Moore, Derek Stanley, Phil Trautwein. CDs may be steady investments, but they're never going to be a cause for excitement.
PASSBOOK ACCOUNTS: C.J. Ah You, K.C. Asiodu, Eric Bassey, Quincy Butler, Ian Campbell, Dominic Douglas, Jerome Johnson, Tim Mattran, David Roach, Daniel Sanders, Eric Young. Passbook investments are an uphill fight because they don't even beat inflation.
STOCKS WITH HIGH BETAS: Ron Bartell. I don't understand high-beta stocks any more than I understand Ron Bartell's performance in camp so far. I would hope he will quickly be upgraded to at least value stock status.
PROMISING MICROCAPS: Nate Jones, Justin King, Chris Ogbannaya, Cord Parks. Young players performing surprisingly well.
PINK SHEETS: Roger Allen, Marcus Brown, Jarrett Byers, Keith Null, Sean Walker. Young players with ability but with pretty long odds of being fruitful investments.
EARNINGS DISAPPOINTMENTS: Quinton Culberson, John Greco.
SELL: Joe Klopfenstein, Antonio Pittman.
Reminder: Past performance is no guarantee of future results.
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