RamView, September 27, 2009
From Row HH
(Report and opinions from the game.)
Game #3: Packers 36, Rams 17
Trying to give the Packers more than they expected today, the Rams bogged down in turnovers, penalties, and a defense yet to learn that bend-but-don't-break doesn't mean bend over backwards. And in the end, the Rams may have been the ones getting something they weren't expecting. Like maybe a quarterback controversy?
* QB: Marc Bulger (3-4-23) had a painful day that came to a painful end. He wiped out modest early success with a fumble inside his own 20 late in the 1st quarter, as Aaron Kampman wheeled around right tackle and stripped him from behind. Bulger was just too unaware of that non-blind-side pressure and not protecting the ball well enough there. Luckily, that only cost the Rams three points. Bulger was also injured on that play, what’s currently being called a bruised shoulder. Kyle Boller (16-31-164) entered in the 2nd, and after opening with his best Rick Ankiel impression, settled down and sparked the Rams into turning a blowout into a competitive game. He kept a drive alive with 3rd-down passes to Laurent Robinson and Kenneth Darby before firing a perfect pass to Daniel Fells in the far right end zone for the Rams’ first TD. That drive also featured Boller insanely trying to lead-block for Jackson, throwing a big hit on a cutback. Boller answered again after Green Bay extended the lead to 23-7, taking the offense 84 yards in under 2:00, capped off by another perfect TD throw to Fells, this time in the far left end zone. Key plays to set that up: a 16-yard pass to Keenan Burton and a 13-yard scramble. Boller ran 4 times for 31 yards, which looks like a necessary release valve for the Rams’ stuttering offense, while also being a gear Bulger doesn’t really have. But after pulling within 23-14 at halftime, Boller couldn’t sustain momentum. The Rams settled for a FG when Boller scrambled and threw a pass well short of Donnie Avery inside the 10. Unfortunately he didn’t see Danny Amendola breaking open late for an easier first down. A deflection nearly intercepted by Johnny Jolly killed another drive, as did a Randy McMichael drop. Things gradually fell apart for Boller as the Packers consistently got good pressure on his rollouts. Down 12 again in the 4th, Boller could only produce a weak 3-and-out and then an interception by Charles Woodson, jumping a telegraphed pass over the middle for Amendola. Accuracy’s an issue for Boller that it isn’t for Bulger. Boller missed several open receivers on the sidelines, in a variety of ways, too; overthrows, one-hoppers, you name it. Despite the pretty TD passes, I haven’t known Boller to be a very accurate sideline thrower. That and the pick helped drop his passer rating to 75.2, or about where Bulger’s been all season, but while scoring double Bulger’s TD output for the season. I know, I know. The most popular player on a losing football team is the backup QB. There are clear weaknesses in Boller’s game. At the same time, he gave the Ram offense a jolt of energy today, and his running and pocket mobility seem to make him a more natural fit than Bulger for what the Rams want to do on offense. Who knows? Maybe Boller is the Rams’ version of Shaun Hill. Hill’s a terrible QB, but his team responds to him behind center, and they probably should be 3-0 right now. Either way, Steve Spagnuolo will be left an interesting decision when and if Marc Bulger is cleared to play again.
* RB: Before we consign Marc Bulger to the dustbin of Rams history, though, let’s note that Boller got a lot more help from Steven Jackson in the game plan than Bulger did either of the first two games. Jackson ran for 117 on 27 carries and led the team in receiving with 5 catches for 46. He ran well in every direction, especially up the middle, where he had three carries of 10 yards or more. His biggest run of the day came around left end, which Green Bay basically left vacant on that play, for 20. Jackson got to show off a lot of versatility, too, as a receiver out of the backfield, a downfield receiver, actually picking up the blitz effectively, even running the offense in Wildcat formation a couple of times. He looked to be pretty strictly sticking to running where the plays were designed to go. He followed Mike Karney in the two-back set, and passed up what actually looked like some wide-open opportunities to bounce plays outside and cut inside instead. One of those, unfortunately, was the play where he fumbled deep in Ram territory in the first. He barged around left tackle and was held up by several Packers before one finally stripped the ball. Jackson plays with laudable effort, but sometimes you’ve gotta know when to go down. He also helped Boller convert a 4th-down plunge with a “Bush Push”. Jackson didn’t really beat anybody with quickness today, though. You see those wide-open swaths of space and want him to bounce out there. You see him isolated on a DB downfield and want him to juke the guy and sprint off another 20 yards. Jackson doesn’t have that. This is the Ram offense – Jackson left, Jackson right, Jackson middle, Jackson early and often. That’s fine, and Jackson’s great, to a point. But you can see the need to mix in a quicker, more elusive back sometimes.
* WR: Well, at least it’ll be fun to watch fantasy football columns tout Daniel Fells (2-35) for a week. (“Start him! He’s receiving additional touches!”) Fells made nice catches of nice Boller throws, despite being blanketed by Brandon Chillar both times, for both Ram TDs in the 2nd to help keep things close. Randy McMichael’s (2-24) blocking was improved this week, but he cursed himself all the way back to the sideline after a drive-killing drop in the 3rd. The Rams’ WR situation devolved almost into a total joke with Laurent Robinson’s (2-26) ankle injury right before halftime. He was blocking on a run and Jackson rolled up on him. The offense sure couldn’t rely on Donnie Avery, an ineffectual 3-12 with a drop, no downfield looks and an early departure in the 4th due to a rib injury. Holy cats. Danny Amendola the kick returner’s on the Eggle practice squad one week; he’s the Rams’ #2 wideout the next. Keenan Burton (3-37), though, shows nice potential if he can stay healthy. He plays bigger than his size, and transitions from receiver to runner very well to get decent YAC. Hopefully he’ll get some help from whoever the Rams find in a van down by the river in the coming week and gets both some open space and an extended look.
* Offensive line: It’s hard to give the offensive line a good grade on a day where they let the starting QB get killed. RT continues to be a very weak link in the Ram offense. The Rams made many efforts to run behind Adam Goldberg without much happening, and Goldberg gave up the sack by Aaron Kampman that forced a Bulger fumble and likely put him out of the game. At the same time, they didn’t give up any other sacks, and Jackson averaged 4.3 a carry. Jason Brown and Richie Incognito moved Packers aside for an early 11-yard Jackson run up the middle. Jackson also followed fullback Mike Karney for a couple of nice runs. The line got good help from Jackson on blitz pickups and better-than-usual blocking from McMichael. Incognito didn’t get off to a fast start. Jackson lost 1 on the game’s first play because he couldn’t move Johnny Jolly, and Ryan Pickett made Richie look just bad in stuffing Jackson for -2 a few plays later. Boller got some heat from blitzes off the edges but was able to run away from it, thanks to the middle of the line giving him a pocket to step up into. The line didn’t seem to protect very well on rollouts, but there may have been screen action where they’re supposed to let defenders filter through. I imagine this was the o-line’s best performance so far this season, but results were decidedly mixed.
* Defensive line / LB: The Rams didn’t really get whipped in the trenches on either side of the ball. They played the run well. At least 25 of Ryan Grant’s 99 yards came after the game was well in hand. Will Witherspoon was very active and looked good stuffing the run. The Ram linemen held Grant to a bunch of short carries. LaJuan (WHO?) Ramsey stopped Grant for a loss to set the bend-but-don’t-break point on Green Bay’s opening drive. Gary Gibson had 5 tackles and a couple of stuffs for no gain. The worst play of the day for the run defense was actually a one-yard gain – a TD run by somebody named John Kuhn in the 2nd. The entire Ram defense got moved far too easily to the left for a goal-line situation. Bowie Kuhn could have scored that TD. A couple of young Rams looked like pretty limited factors today. James Laurinaitis landed only 3 tackles and I couldn’t find him in the flow of play much. At least I could find him. The amount of time Chris Long was off the field in pass rush situations caught me off guard. And Long wasn’t a strong run force, either, with some of Grant’s better gains run at him. Leonard Little was the star of the day on pass rush, the only one, unfortunately, with two sacks that helped save the Rams eight points by forcing FGs. He smoked Allen Barbre and sacked Aaron Rodgers to force a FG on Green Bay’s opening drive, and with good help from downfield coverage, scalped Barbre and got to Rodgers again for a big loss to force a FG after Bulger’s fumble in the 1st. But that leaves three quarters where the Rams weren’t getting a lot of pressure on the Packer QB, and for the second straight week, they got burned by QB scrambles (4-37). Two of those got the Packers inside the 10 to finish off touchdown drives. Terrible tactics, and Hollis Thomas getting handled at the goal line, helped Rodgers finish one of those drives with a run himself. Rodgers got the Ram pass rush to literally stop about a half-dozen times with highly-effective play fakes. He’d fake the handoff and go almost totally limp, and the Ram linemen would just quit coming after him. Pass rush continues to be the most disappointing aspect of the Rams this season. The Bengals had one guy sack Rodgers five times last week. I’m not sure the Rams even got to Rodgers that many times, including the times Little sacked him. He was free to step into long passes all day, and unconstrained from taking off downfield when he couldn’t find a receiver. Even with all the roster turnover, even with a head coach who cut his teeth on a defense with a dominating pass rush, the Rams’ pass rush continues to be an epic fail.
* Secondary: Last week, the secondary needed more help from the pass rush; this week, even the Fearsome Foursome couldn’t have done enough up front to cover for the backfield’s many breakdowns and letdowns. Ron Bartell’s day was highly disappointing (though I now understand he was playing with a thigh injury). All he did all day was trail Packer receivers who had beaten him downfield. Greg Jennings burned him for 50 right before the first half 2:00 warning to get Green Bay out of a 3rd-and-7 hole in their own end and set up a TD to put them up 23-7. Imagine what the game’s like if the Rams force a punt there instead of giving up a 50-yard bomb. Next play, Rodgers rolls left and the Rams cover his two closest options, but Jonathan Wade gets turned inside out by Donald Driver in the end zone to give Rodgers an even better option. Wade just can’t let that happen. Maybe negligent play like that is why Bradley Fletcher was in for Wade earlier in the game, to get burned by Driver for 46 on what would have been DPI if not for Driver’s brilliant one-handed catch. That bomb also set up a Packer TD. And that’s not the last time the Rams got bombed, as Jennings zinged Bartell again for 53 at the start of the 4th. And guess what, that bomb set up another Packer TD, and a 12-point lead that would prove insurmountable. The Packers topped it off with FULLBACK John Kuhn’s SECOND TD of the day, the same simple play-action pass to the fullback in the flat that’s been fooling the Rams since approximately forever, with David Vobora as the victim this time. The secondary didn’t get any help on the injury front, either, losing James Butler on their first play due to a sprained knee, though it looked like Craig Dahl filled in for him well. That’d be the secondary’s one bright spot today. But this game was highly, highly winnable had the secondary not suddenly picked this week to get lit up. Or should I say fondued?
* Special teams: Danny Amendola sparked some early excitement with a 42-yard kick return, but after that, didn't look any different than any other Rams kick returner the last ten years who got taken down around the 20 without any blocking, except for his dangerous tendency to go airborne at the end of returns. If that doesn't eventually result in an injury, or a turnover, I don't know what will. Amendola did average 11 yards on 2 punt returns, taking them straight upfield, and showed nice burst, though he isn’t the only returner lately to show that, and won’t be the last. Team MVP and the league's best punter, Donnie Jones, blasted for a 54-yard average, with two sixty-plus-yarders and three kicks downed or fielded inside the 10, including one downed by Quincy Butler at the 2. Josh Brown hit a 53-yard bomb and his miss wasn’t his fault, as Johnny Jolly blew right over Chris Massey and by Hollis Thomas to block an attempt at the end of the Rams' opening drive. Jones shoved Will Blackmon out of bounds attempting to make an even bigger play on the return. May have saved 4 points. Like I said, team MVP.
* Coaching: Was that Rick Venturi calling the Ram defense today? The Rams blitzed early but gave up on it, despite the ripeness of Green Bay’s makeshift offensive line for an aggressive attack. That was disappointing, because the Rams sure didn’t make up for it in pass coverage. Why was Fletcher covering Driver early in the game instead of Wade? Wade’s play the first two weeks didn’t suggest to me that he should be losing reps to Fletcher. The Rams were way too fooled by Rodgers’ play-faking, something that adequate coaching should have had them prepared for. And somebody feel free to correct me on this one, because I want to be wrong. On second-and-goal at the Rams’ 4-yard-line in the 4th, tell me the Rams were not zone-blitzing. Tell me I did not see defensive tackle Gary Gibson madly back-pedaling into his own end zone while Rodgers basically just ran through the large space he vacated for a TD. Tell me something else was going on there, because I do not want to believe Ken Flajole just made the worst defensive play-call of all time. This is supposed to be an attacking defense, well, except that it doesn’t blitz most of a game and has its tackles bailing out at the snap, even backed up on their own goal line. Help me out here.
Pat Shurmur wisely increased Jackson’s role in the offense, approximately doubling it this week. That’s what the Rams are supposed to be doing offensively, isn’t it? And with two touchdown catches from the position, I certainly won’t complain about the TEs not being involved. (In fact, both TEs ran routes into the end zone on Fells’ TD catches. The TD plays were mirror images of one another.) It’s also kind of a tell that Shurmur prefers a more mobile QB when he’s immediately calling roll-outs for Boller when he gets into the game. But Shurmur has a tough chore ahead trying to pump up the Ram passing game. Most of today’s passing offense seemed constrained within ten yards of the line of scrimmage; more effort has to be made to stretch the field. How many long passes have the Rams thrown the last two weeks? One? On the other hand, I fully realize Shurmur may very well lack the talent, and now the health, at WR to adequately stretch the field without just throwing downs away.
Steve Spagnuolo no doubt sees that, while also seeing the offense coming closer to being what he said it was going to be. I would like to see him re-commit this week to making sure his defense continues to advance toward what he said it was going to be. This week was a large step in the wrong direction.
* Upon further review: Really? The Rams and Packers each had six penalties today? Sure didn't feel that even at the beginning of the game, when it seemed like Walt Coleman and crew were calling the Rams for everything short of jaywalking and mail fraud. They missed a pretty clear block in the back by Green Bay on one punt. The official was looking right at it, which mystifies. I felt the Goldberg hold that retracted a 19-yard Jackson run was more a case of erstwhile victim Jolly embellishing the play by taking a dive. If Goldberg actually did something that play to knock a 330-pound man off his feet, he should quit football tomorrow and become a superhero. And they picked up a flag for a facemask committed against Jackson after saying he was actually grabbed by the shoulder. Then when the play came up on the Jumbotron, it sure looked like he was facemasked. I'll give Coleman a B and leave it at that.
* Cheers: The Cheese-out feared for today didn't really go as expected. I wouldn't estimate a lot more than 15,000 Packers fans present. Don't laugh - I thought it would be a lot worse. The cheesers weren't loud when their team was on defense, just for big Packer plays. The Dome was much less hostile to the home team than had been concerned. And the home crowd did the Rams proud today (for 54 minutes, anyway), generating good decibels most of the game, well louder than any cheering Packers fans did. As for as the abrupt mass exodus after Boller's INT, we'll have to work on that. Deacon Jones' jersey retirement went well. The Rams put together a good video package. George Allen's son Bruce enthusiastically recapped Deacon's achievements and called him the greatest defensive player of all time. No argument here. Or from Deacon, whose acceptance began, “everything he said... is right!”. The halftime show was a women's pro football exhibition. Let's just say I'm still working out my feelings about that.
* Who’s next?: For at least a decade, the NFC West has been won by teams where offense rules and defense drools. Sure, recent NFC West champs have had defensive playmakers, from London Fletcher to Aeneas Williams to Lofa Tatupu to Adrian Wilson, but the NFC West champions going back to The Greatest Show on Earth have almost always been teams that made their identities on offense. By building their team around a tough defense, though, San Francisco, much as I hate to say it, is poised to take charge of the division in 2009, and for a while.
It stands to reason that a team coached by Mike Singletary would be strong on defense, and that it would be led by a linebacker. Patrick Willis personifies the defense he leads: fast, strong, physical, always swarming to the ball, covering the field sideline to sideline. The two-time Pro Bowler has already intercepted Kurt Warner and broken one of Matt Hasselbeck's ribs this season, so the Rams QB had better keep one eye on him at all times. With Nate Clements finally playing up to the value of his mega-contract, the Niner secondary is playing lockdown ball. All Seattle could do against them was check down, and it took Arizona a quarter and a half just to get a ball to Fitzgerald or Boldin. The Ram receivers will be little match the way the Niner secondary is playing right now. The Rams will have to have to get the TE involved: 1, because they’re running out of receivers, and 2, it'll help keep Manny Lawson honest on the edge of their 3-4. He and last year's team sack leader Parys Haralson will be threats from the edges. And good luck attacking the 49er run D – they're great at stringing out sweeps, and solid up the middle with NT Aubreyo Franklin. Conventional weapons, at least the ones in the Rams' arsenal, won't be enough to attack San Francisco next week. They're going to have to really mix up the run game, maybe run on them in dime defense situations. They'd be well-advised to run some no-huddle; that was about the only offense Arizona or Seattle could move the ball well in the first two weeks. A breath of creativity for this offense could be a breath of life.
The Rams may catch a break, or actually a sprain, on defense as Frank Gore will be questionable at best next Sunday due to an injured ankle. The Rams could be seeing a lot of rookie Glen Coffee instead. Gore's 200-yard day against Seattle may raise concern, but that Seahawk D was very depleted up the middle, minus Tatupu and Brandon Mebane. Coffee would have had 200, too, given those absences and the hideous safety play by Jordan Babineaux on both of Gore’s long TD runs. Gore got nowhere against Arizona's run blitzes week 1, so they ran a bunch of trap plays against Seattle. If the Rams remain strong up the middle against San Francisco's improving offensive line and get good backing from safety, and can keep the Niner running game from turning the corner on them, they can play mostly eight in the box and make Shaun Hill beat them. Hill telegraphs his passes, looks like a shot-putter when he throws and is as underwhelming as any QB in the league, but at the same time, he moves their offense the best, so the job is his. Hmm. Though many of his throws would be challenged by a stiff wind, the 49ers will have Hill take a shot or two deep, but the most productive receiver stands to be his favorite checkdown, Vernon Davis. Uh-oh, a TE the Rams have to cover. Getting pressure in Hill's face will be paramount, but it has been all season, and this defensive line has not rallied to the cause. Anybody interested in helping Leonard Little out?
Many argue that the Rams-49ers rivalry isn't that big a deal any more, or that the Rams would be an easy and sensible team to re-align in the future because they don't have any good rivalries in the NFC West. I think that's the Rams' recent failure in the division talking. Did baseball's Dodgers and Giants lose their rivalry, even after moving clear across the country? Not at all. The Rams and 49ers have been going at it for over 50 years. This year's Rams will meet them twice, just like Marshall Faulk's Rams did, just like Chuck Knox's did, just like Eric Dickerson's did, just like Jackie Slater's did. Just like Deacon Jones' Rams did. Is it a great rivalry right now? Maybe not. But it is time-honored. It can't hurt to get the team up for the sake of the rivalry and see what happens, can it?
--Mike
Game stats from nfl.com
Monday, September 28, 2009
Monday, September 21, 2009
RamView, September 20, 2009
From The Couch
(Report and opinions on the game.)
Game #2: Redskins 9, Rams 7
The Rams played well enough to win, but in Washington, that and $640 will get you a toilet seat. The Rams lacked big plays on both sides of the ball, allowing the Redskins to string together a mile worth of long drives while giving them little to worry from an offense that’ll have to improve 100% to even qualify as “sputtering”. Maybe next week.
* QB: Marc Bulger didn't have a mistake-free game, but those who want to blame him first for the Rams' troubles are going to have me to fight again this week. He had Donnie Avery open at midfield on 3rd down the Rams' opening drive but threw behind him. The next drive, he got away with a fumble at the end of a 2nd down scramble, but showed some moxie doing it. He bailed out his line a lot, by scrambling, by hanging tough in the pocket, by overcoming penalties, by making tough throws in the face of an oncoming hit. Bulger was sacked once, killing a drive early in the 2nd. He capped off a later drive with a perfect fade pass to Laurent Robinson for a TD, putting the Rams ahead 7-6. The Rams didn't start the 2nd half fast, with Bulger nearly getting picked off by a DT dropping into coverage. But, down 9-7, he launched what could have been a galvanizing drive. On 3rd-and-6, with Albert Haynesworth right in his face, he hit Keenan Burton for 13. On 2nd-and-20, again with a Redskin in his face, Bulger hit Robinson for a 25-yard catch-and-run. At the Washington 43 on 2nd-and-long, he saved a sack on one of many blown-up screen plays by scrambling, taking a big, almost legal hit from Haynesworth in the back. His next play, after a timeout? Zing to Robinson for 13 and another first. The Rams pounded their way inside the 10 before Bulger found Avery with a perfectly good throw at the 5, only to see the young WR lose the ball for a soul-crushing turnover. The Rams got the ball back at midfield early in the 4th but 3-and-outed, with a poor-looking throw for Robinson on 3rd-and-2. The Rams didn't get the ball back until there was under 2:00 left, and at their own 4. With no timeouts, down 2, could Bulger lead them into game-winning FG position? Yeah, no happy ending here. He had to throw away a 1st-down pass with Brian Orakpo all over him. 2nd down, just a 5-yard pass to Avery, who couldn't hold on to it anyway. 3rd down, Haynesworth hammers the pass back in Marc's face. 4th-and-10 from the 4 is a play I'd like to have back. Orakpo flushes Bulger forward. Jackson is SCREAMING for the ball in the near flat and surely would have had a first down – no Redskin around for miles – and the Rams would have lived to fight another day. Bulger chucks the ball deep downfield instead for Avery, who's tightly covered, and the pass falls incomplete. Maybe a completion to Jackson would have sparked them to a game-winning score, maybe not. Bulger still led them to what should have been two scores, enough to win today. He showed toughness, he didn't end up committing a turnover – still hasn't this season - and made his line look a lot better than it was by taking only one sack, while preventing at least half-a-dozen others. No, it wasn't a great day, and Bulger's reward for it is an unimpressive stats line, 12-25-125, passer rating 77.2, a bunch of bruises, and probably half of Rams Nation sniping that it's his fault that the Rams are 0-2 and have just 7 points in two weeks. Bulger deserved better last week, and does again today.
* RB: After a quarter of frustration with about as much room as a Tokyo subway car, Steven Jackson (17-104) broke things open for the Rams' running game in the 2nd, busting past a sloppy tackle attempt in the hole by the Redskin safety and exploding up the sideline for a 58-yard gain. That set up the Rams' lone TD. Jackson was a big factor in the Rams' long drive that ended in the Avery fumble, with four carries of more than 5 yards. Too bad he couldn't have finished off that drive. The last play of the 3rd was a run he bounced outside for 6 to the Redskin 21 and nearly broke all the way. He made his biggest mistake of the day on 2nd-and-4 from the Redskin 9 a little later. Instead of following fullback Mike Karney into the hole, Jackson decided he saw a better opportunity outside, bounced right, and lost 1. Karney, meanwhile, had an unimpeded path to the goal line. Jackson hasn't danced much this year, but that was a masochism tango. The Rams got Jackson a little involved receiving (2-15), and he caught one first down on a slant after lining up wide. But the Redskins must have blown up a half-dozen attempts to get screen passes to him. The Ram running game progressed today but the line has to perform better at the start of games to get it going.
* WR: Laurent Robinson (6-54) has clearly emerged as Bulger’s go-to guy. He got over his dropsies from last week and made clutch plays. His terrific hands catch of an 8-yard pass thrown behind him at the 5-yard-line on 3rd-and-3 set up a TD pass, to him, fittingly. He made a pretty play on a fade pass from the 2 and beat DeAngelo Hall for the score. He added a clutch catch on 3rd-and-7 to extend a drive in the 3rd. Keenan Burton (2-3
helped keep that drive alive with a 25-yard reception, half the yards after the catch, on 2nd-and-20. Not so clutch today: Donnie Avery (1-4), who hasn't looked ready lately to be a #3 WR in the league, let alone a #1. Targeted six times, he had one bonafide drop, and the only ball he did catch, he left hanging off his hip for Chris Horton to blast loose for a game-changing turnover. Avery's training camp injury sure killed his momentum; let's hope it builds back up. Randy McMichael (2-14) also lurks as one of the day's culprits. He committed a sloppy fumble in the 1st and dropped a TD pass in the 3rd, but got bailed out of them by a penalty and by Robinson respectively. The veteran's blocking has been suspect, and he hasn't been a reliable receiver; look across the field to Chris Cooley today to see how far behind a lot of the league the Rams still are at this position, which is supposed to be a key one on this team.
* Offensive line: Good thing Richie Incognito had a key block on Jackson's 58-yard run in the 2nd; otherwise, I'd wonder what supposedly makes him worth the knuckleheaded penalties (though no personal fouls today!). Yukon Cornelius Griffin beat him in the 1st to stuff Jackson for a loss. Griffin also ripped Incognito with a rip move for a sack in the 2nd. Thanks mainly to Bulger, though, that was the only sack. The Skins must have had about a billion pressures and hurries. Griffin wasn't the only thorn in the Rams' side. 36-year-old Philip Daniels blocking-sledded McMichael into the backfield to force a Bulger scramble in the first. Rookie Brian Orakpo was in Bulger's face a lot. He whipped Jason Smith to force Bulger to throw away a screen pass in the 2nd. Smith got some revenge later, making a great turnout block to open Jackson a big lane for his long run. But he missed the second half due to a knee injury. Adam Goldberg was so-so in his place, making a couple of good blocks but getting knocked two yards off the line to get Jackson stuffed another time. Mark Setterstrom briefly spelled Brown after an ankle injury and made a big play to recover Bulger's fumble. Blocks by Bell, Brown and Karney all helped Jackson pound the Rams in close before the Avery fumble. Alex Barron, though, had a poor game, committing two holding penalties and blowing a blitz assignment on Rocky McIntosh in the 2nd. There were way too many protection breakdowns at the end of the game. Orakpo beat Barron twice that final possession, and stunted and beat Brown to flush Bulger on the Rams' last play. Albert Haynesworth beat Bell during that series to smack down a Bulger pass, and started the game by splitting Bell and Barron to stuff Jackson's first carry. That's the offensive line's day in a nutshell: they got off to a slow start, and didn't finish strong. Given the big monetary investments in Smith, Bell and Brown, and the goodwill Spagnuolo’s invested in Incognito, that’s simply not good enough.
* Defensive line / LB: The Ram defense made strides from last week. They held Clinton Portis to 79 yards and kept the Redskins out of the end zone. So why wasn’t that enough? They couldn’t get the Redskins off the field. Washington knocked out long drives as easily as Tiger Woods. 83 yards, 6:19, 13 plays, FG. 64 yards, 6 minutes, 13 plays, FG. 40 yards, 10 plays, fumble. 74 yards, 7:30, 14 plays, FG. 72 yards, seven and a half more minutes, 15 plays, turnover on downs. The Rams made some plays, but not enough. Will Witherspoon is off to a very rough start. On the Redskins’ first FG drive, the fullback picked him off in the hole twice to set up long Portis runs, and Chris Cooley beat him for 16. Campbell was a scrambling menace. His 14-yarder set up the first FG. In the 2nd, he ran for 21 on 3rd-and-2 to set up their 2nd FG. James Hall got caught too far inside, and Campbell had a huge lane there, and plenty of room. Cooley and the Redskin backs took LBs out of the middle of the field all day with pass routes. Your pass rush especially has to get there when those guys aren’t back to block. All the pressures in the world aren’t good enough if the QB always gets away. That messes up pass coverage, too, if the DBs start abandoning their man because they’re worried about the scramble. All that happened today. Another long FG march for Washington in the 3rd. A run stuff and a good pressure by DT LaJuan (WHO?) Ramsey forced 3rd-and-10, but then a zone blitz didn’t get to Campbell, and he found Cooley behind Witherspoon and noted pass defender Leonard Little for 18. No pass rush the next play, either, and Campbell hits Santana Moss for 24 to put them in FG range. The Rams nearly made the big play they needed in the 4th, with the Redskins backed up near their goal line. Hall put a super rush on Chris Samuels and drove him backward. Chris Long whipped RT Stephon Heyer. They met at the QB for the Rams’ FIRST sack of the season, but Campbell stretched the ball across the goal line to avoid a safety by inches. The Rams got no momentum from that play, though. The offense 3-and-outed, and the defense next gave up another long drive. Portis gained 7 after Cliff Ryan got knocked down, and 6 more on 3rd down as TE Fred Davis picked off James Laurinaitis, who got blocked out of a lot of plays today. Long got caught inside for a 25-yard screen to Ladell Betts, with James Butler and Laurinaitis taken out downfield. It got down to 4th-and-short at the 20, from where Portis gained 8 through a HUGE hole, far larger than any hole that should ever be given up on 4th-and-short. Laurinaitis missed the tackle, and Witherspoon was taken out yet again, along with O.J. Atogwe. That same group all did great work to shut down a Portis sweep on 4th down at the 4, though, and get the Ram offense the ball back for one last futile gesture. That obviously wasn’t their only red zone stand. Little and Hall forced a Campbell throwaway and a FG with good pressure. Little played the run well, tripping Portis at the 8 to help force the 2nd FG attempt. He also deflected a pass. Long and Ryan also made critical run stops, and Long fouled up several Redskin screen pass attempts by getting out on the receiver. But I think the only time anybody touched Campbell was on the sack in the 4th. He got too much time to throw and too much room to run. Fine effort by the defense today, but we found out bend-but-don’t-break defense may not work if you bend too much.
* Secondary: Campbell threw for 242, a third of it (7-83) to TE Chris Cooley, for whom the Rams unsurprisingly had no answer. Cooley had a major impact on the game, catching a bunch of WIDE OPEN passes early. To account for him at all, the Rams had to vacate the middle of the field, and with the line failing to sack Campbell, that left them wide open to scrambles. When Cooley wasn’t beating Witherspoon, he was just hanging out with NOBODY covering him. Ron Bartell had a decent game, forcing a fumble from Santana Moss in the 2nd, but Moss made him look silly on a 21-yard catch inside the 10 that set up Washington’s 2nd FG. Bartell bit gullibly on a Campbell pump-fake, while Moss squared out in front of him and made him look (more) foolish. A big pass up the seam to Antwaan Randle-El in the 3rd set up the third Redskin FG. He was wide open in the zone, though Justin King needed to slow him up better (= at all) at the line. Red zone play by the secondary was exemplary. They didn’t give Campbell an open receiver. Bartell didn’t buy that halfback option in the 3rd and stayed on his man. O.J. Atogwe and James Butler helped out on some key run stops. The secondary was successful enough against the Redskin WRs, and would have been even better against them, and maybe even on Cooley, with more help from the pass rush.
* Special teams: Kenneth Darby resumed kick-return duties but was mostly defused by effective Washington directional kicking. Derek Stanley's taking punt returns straight up the field - I like that. Donnie Jones' average was just 43.3 as he had 3 punts from near midfield. Two were downed inside the 20, but nothing inside the 10. The special teams mistake of the day was by Darby as the punting unit up man in the 4th. On 4th-and-2 at the Redskin 41, the Rams tried to fool Washington by motioning Jones out wide, bluffing at a fake, hoping they could get them to jump offside. Darby, whose role was surely to let the play clock expire if Washington didn't jump, got caught up and used the Rams' last timeout to prevent delay-of-game instead. Ulp. Just take the penalty and give Jones a little more room to kick! And the Rams false-started after the timeout anyway! Quick thinking by the coaching staff to put this play in motion, but it ended up looking like a case of the Rams needing to learn to walk before they can run.
* Coaching: The offensive playcalling has to be looked at when a team scores one touchdown in two weeks, and I’ve got some questions. What is going on with the screen passes? Did the Rams get one off today without the Redskins blowing it up? If execution of the play is poor, or the Redskins are on to it, why was Pat Shurmur calling for it SO much? How many, seven, eight? At a minimum, that play needs a lot more practice. Good that Shurmur tried so much more this week to get Jackson involved in the passing game; I just wish he would have looked for different ways after about the third blown screen. Didn’t care for the end-of-game play-calling. From the 4 with 1:50 left, no timeouts, who’s going to buy a fake handoff? With McMichael blanketed in the flat, Bulger had to throw away the first down pass. On 2nd down, what good was a 5-yard Avery route? Again, you’re on your own 4 with no timeouts. The offense was a successful 6-for-12 on third down, and I liked how Shurmur recognized the Redskins were back on their heels early in the 4th and started banging Jackson at them for nice red zone gains. And Jackson should have scored right before the Avery fumble. But Shurmur’s still hunting to find good ways to get the offense moving. It improved a little this week; let’s hope that improvement’s exponential.
Interesting wrinkles again defensively, but still some plays I can’t help but wonder about. The two-down-DE set with Long standing up over center helped 3-and-out the first Redskin possession. Probably slow, I noticed the classic Spagnuolo four-DE line for the first time late in the first half, with C.J. Ah You and Hall lining up inside. Mixed results with that so far. Zone blitzing nearly got Little an INT that same drive, but it also got beat on 3rd-and-10 on the Skins’ last FG drive on an 18-yard pass to Cooley. Whatever the plan was for Cooley, it didn’t work, and it was disappointing, as this staff has played against him many times. The breakdowns defending him were a huge key to the game, surpassed only by the failure to sack Campbell. They didn’t get to Campbell with the blitz, and never seemed to have a blitz called when the Skins sent Cooley and their backs out into the pattern. And on a day where you’re not getting to the opposing QB, and he’s scrambling effectively, I can’t stress how much I hate the idea of going to a THREE-man rush. In the end, I think Cooley really fouled up what they came in intending to do on defense. Let’s get a better job done on Donald Lee and Jermichael Finley next week.
* Upon further review: Looked like Jerome Boger and crew called a top-notch game. The worst call of the day was the end zone DPI on Bartell against Randle El in the 2nd on a clearly uncatchable ball that had clearly been released prior to the infraction. And the official picked that flag up. Nice work! The roughing-the-passer call that retracted McMichael's fumble was also a good call, with Bulger clearly being hit well after he released the ball. I would have liked another roughing penalty later, when Haynesworth hit a vulnerable Bulger late and on the ground at the end of his scramble in the 3rd, when he appeared to get his back injured. Referees appear to have it in for Bulger as much as many in Rams Nation. But I won't be a total scrooge in grading Boger's bunch today. B+.
* Cheers: Too bad Sam Rosen and Tim Ryan can't announce every Rams game. They're the best team Fox has. Ryan is the best color analyst out there. He had an excellent observation on almost every play. Rosen has a great eye for detail, and rarely fails to tell you down, distance and gain on the last play. Too many announcers are too busy trying to crack jokes or trying to make themselves look smart with “trivia” everyone watching the game already knows and ignore those basic fundamentals. They missed a couple of things, like Bulger actually fumbling after a scramble in the 1st, but give me an old-schooler like Rosen and a no-nonsense analyst who just knows his stuff like Ryan every week. Give me the Rams' “classic” blue-and-gold look from today every week, too, even though they lost in it.
* Who’s next?: Say, Green Bay, thanks a bunch for losing at home to Cincinnati today and totally destroying my pre-written preview for next week's Rams home opener. That shocker is still unlikely to keep the Packers' faithful fan base from washing the Dome in a sea of green, though. 0-2 and one touchdown in two weeks surely won't inspire a lot of late local ticket sales to Rams fans. With the Packers following an outstanding preseason with an opening night win over Chicago, next week's game still looks like a high hurdle for the young, rebuilding Rams to clear, when back in April, I'd have given them a shot opening at home against a 6-10 team from the year before.
That 6-10 record from 2008 is mighty deceptive – the Packers lost a whopping seven games by four points or less, and return all the skill players from a top 10 offense. 26-year-old Aaron Rodgers' career is off to a splendid start. He threw for over 4,000 yards last year with 28 TD and just 13 INTs. Very explosive WR Greg Jennings and crafty possession WR Donald Driver are both coming off 1,000-yard seasons. It would be as unlike the Packers not to get TEs Donald Lee and Jermichael Finley involved as it would be unlike the Rams to leave them wide open all day. RB Ryan Grant doesn't have top speed, but is among the league leaders in rushing since taking over as a starter. The Rams are going to want to keep Rodgers in the pocket. He is very effective, and the Packers like him throwing deep, on the move. Pass protection is proving a sticking point in Green Bay after two weeks. Bengals DE Antwan Odom exploited a game-ending injury to LT Chad Clifton for FIVE sacks today, and Bears DE Adewale Ogunleye pwned inexperienced RT Allen Barbre week 1. The Packers may come to St. Louis with four new starters on the o-line. They've got serious issues protecting their QB right now, and it is paramount for the Rams to exploit their edge weaknesses while they can. Problem is, the Rams have already had two games against lesser offensive lines they should have been able to exploit, and have come away with exactly one sack. Will this finally be the week?
Green Bay fired their defensive coordinator after the Pack landed only 27 sacks in 2008 and allowed a soft-as-Brie 131.6 rushing yards a game, 26th in the league. Enter Dom Capers, who brought in his scheme, a 3-4 D that blitzes almost every play from almost every angle. Make no mistake about their aggressiveness. Charles Woodson may blitz as often as he drops back into coverage. They got Jay Cutler to chuck up 4 INTs week 1. Didn't seem to work today, though, as Cedric Benson shredded the Cheeseheads for 141. An offense that plays it smart and goes after them on the ground has a shot at making inroads. The Bears were late to do that week 1. The Bengals apparently did it today. Run on Green Bay and you'll really de-fang that blitz. That's not to say the Packers won't match up well with the Rams, hard to believe as it is that they didn't seem to match up well with the Bengals. Alex Barron and Jacob Bell will have their hands full with DT-turned-monster-DE Cullen Jenkins. Nose tackle Johnny Jolly makes a lot of plays, even has an INT already this year. The Packers' best LB week 1 was – what do you know – Brandon Chillar, who makes a lot of plays along with fellow OLB Nick Barnett and is even a pass rush weapon up north. Al Harris is their best CB, backed up by big hitter and playmaker Atari Bigby, and partnered with Woodson. The Rams would be wise to test the duo deep, as they're neither as young nor as fast as they used to be. And the Packer secondary's long had difficulty dealing with receivers with decent size. There's your cue, Laurent Robinson. Can the Rams tame the Packers with the run, and protect Bulger well enough to take advantage when they do?
I keep seeing this point made online, and I'll borrow it here. The Giants lost their first two games with Steve Spagnuolo at defensive coordinator, and badly. They came back, won their third game and went on to a (very) successful season. No, the Rams aren't headed for the Super Bowl, but the point is, nothing is over until we say it is. Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Furthermore, the Giants' second-biggest win that year came against – Green Bay, in the NFC Championship, a game in which the Packers proved helpless to stop a big receiver. The Rams still believe in what they're doing: let's see if they can't repeat some good history for a change.
--Mike
Game stats from nfl.com
From The Couch
(Report and opinions on the game.)
Game #2: Redskins 9, Rams 7
The Rams played well enough to win, but in Washington, that and $640 will get you a toilet seat. The Rams lacked big plays on both sides of the ball, allowing the Redskins to string together a mile worth of long drives while giving them little to worry from an offense that’ll have to improve 100% to even qualify as “sputtering”. Maybe next week.
* QB: Marc Bulger didn't have a mistake-free game, but those who want to blame him first for the Rams' troubles are going to have me to fight again this week. He had Donnie Avery open at midfield on 3rd down the Rams' opening drive but threw behind him. The next drive, he got away with a fumble at the end of a 2nd down scramble, but showed some moxie doing it. He bailed out his line a lot, by scrambling, by hanging tough in the pocket, by overcoming penalties, by making tough throws in the face of an oncoming hit. Bulger was sacked once, killing a drive early in the 2nd. He capped off a later drive with a perfect fade pass to Laurent Robinson for a TD, putting the Rams ahead 7-6. The Rams didn't start the 2nd half fast, with Bulger nearly getting picked off by a DT dropping into coverage. But, down 9-7, he launched what could have been a galvanizing drive. On 3rd-and-6, with Albert Haynesworth right in his face, he hit Keenan Burton for 13. On 2nd-and-20, again with a Redskin in his face, Bulger hit Robinson for a 25-yard catch-and-run. At the Washington 43 on 2nd-and-long, he saved a sack on one of many blown-up screen plays by scrambling, taking a big, almost legal hit from Haynesworth in the back. His next play, after a timeout? Zing to Robinson for 13 and another first. The Rams pounded their way inside the 10 before Bulger found Avery with a perfectly good throw at the 5, only to see the young WR lose the ball for a soul-crushing turnover. The Rams got the ball back at midfield early in the 4th but 3-and-outed, with a poor-looking throw for Robinson on 3rd-and-2. The Rams didn't get the ball back until there was under 2:00 left, and at their own 4. With no timeouts, down 2, could Bulger lead them into game-winning FG position? Yeah, no happy ending here. He had to throw away a 1st-down pass with Brian Orakpo all over him. 2nd down, just a 5-yard pass to Avery, who couldn't hold on to it anyway. 3rd down, Haynesworth hammers the pass back in Marc's face. 4th-and-10 from the 4 is a play I'd like to have back. Orakpo flushes Bulger forward. Jackson is SCREAMING for the ball in the near flat and surely would have had a first down – no Redskin around for miles – and the Rams would have lived to fight another day. Bulger chucks the ball deep downfield instead for Avery, who's tightly covered, and the pass falls incomplete. Maybe a completion to Jackson would have sparked them to a game-winning score, maybe not. Bulger still led them to what should have been two scores, enough to win today. He showed toughness, he didn't end up committing a turnover – still hasn't this season - and made his line look a lot better than it was by taking only one sack, while preventing at least half-a-dozen others. No, it wasn't a great day, and Bulger's reward for it is an unimpressive stats line, 12-25-125, passer rating 77.2, a bunch of bruises, and probably half of Rams Nation sniping that it's his fault that the Rams are 0-2 and have just 7 points in two weeks. Bulger deserved better last week, and does again today.
* RB: After a quarter of frustration with about as much room as a Tokyo subway car, Steven Jackson (17-104) broke things open for the Rams' running game in the 2nd, busting past a sloppy tackle attempt in the hole by the Redskin safety and exploding up the sideline for a 58-yard gain. That set up the Rams' lone TD. Jackson was a big factor in the Rams' long drive that ended in the Avery fumble, with four carries of more than 5 yards. Too bad he couldn't have finished off that drive. The last play of the 3rd was a run he bounced outside for 6 to the Redskin 21 and nearly broke all the way. He made his biggest mistake of the day on 2nd-and-4 from the Redskin 9 a little later. Instead of following fullback Mike Karney into the hole, Jackson decided he saw a better opportunity outside, bounced right, and lost 1. Karney, meanwhile, had an unimpeded path to the goal line. Jackson hasn't danced much this year, but that was a masochism tango. The Rams got Jackson a little involved receiving (2-15), and he caught one first down on a slant after lining up wide. But the Redskins must have blown up a half-dozen attempts to get screen passes to him. The Ram running game progressed today but the line has to perform better at the start of games to get it going.
* WR: Laurent Robinson (6-54) has clearly emerged as Bulger’s go-to guy. He got over his dropsies from last week and made clutch plays. His terrific hands catch of an 8-yard pass thrown behind him at the 5-yard-line on 3rd-and-3 set up a TD pass, to him, fittingly. He made a pretty play on a fade pass from the 2 and beat DeAngelo Hall for the score. He added a clutch catch on 3rd-and-7 to extend a drive in the 3rd. Keenan Burton (2-3
helped keep that drive alive with a 25-yard reception, half the yards after the catch, on 2nd-and-20. Not so clutch today: Donnie Avery (1-4), who hasn't looked ready lately to be a #3 WR in the league, let alone a #1. Targeted six times, he had one bonafide drop, and the only ball he did catch, he left hanging off his hip for Chris Horton to blast loose for a game-changing turnover. Avery's training camp injury sure killed his momentum; let's hope it builds back up. Randy McMichael (2-14) also lurks as one of the day's culprits. He committed a sloppy fumble in the 1st and dropped a TD pass in the 3rd, but got bailed out of them by a penalty and by Robinson respectively. The veteran's blocking has been suspect, and he hasn't been a reliable receiver; look across the field to Chris Cooley today to see how far behind a lot of the league the Rams still are at this position, which is supposed to be a key one on this team. * Offensive line: Good thing Richie Incognito had a key block on Jackson's 58-yard run in the 2nd; otherwise, I'd wonder what supposedly makes him worth the knuckleheaded penalties (though no personal fouls today!). Yukon Cornelius Griffin beat him in the 1st to stuff Jackson for a loss. Griffin also ripped Incognito with a rip move for a sack in the 2nd. Thanks mainly to Bulger, though, that was the only sack. The Skins must have had about a billion pressures and hurries. Griffin wasn't the only thorn in the Rams' side. 36-year-old Philip Daniels blocking-sledded McMichael into the backfield to force a Bulger scramble in the first. Rookie Brian Orakpo was in Bulger's face a lot. He whipped Jason Smith to force Bulger to throw away a screen pass in the 2nd. Smith got some revenge later, making a great turnout block to open Jackson a big lane for his long run. But he missed the second half due to a knee injury. Adam Goldberg was so-so in his place, making a couple of good blocks but getting knocked two yards off the line to get Jackson stuffed another time. Mark Setterstrom briefly spelled Brown after an ankle injury and made a big play to recover Bulger's fumble. Blocks by Bell, Brown and Karney all helped Jackson pound the Rams in close before the Avery fumble. Alex Barron, though, had a poor game, committing two holding penalties and blowing a blitz assignment on Rocky McIntosh in the 2nd. There were way too many protection breakdowns at the end of the game. Orakpo beat Barron twice that final possession, and stunted and beat Brown to flush Bulger on the Rams' last play. Albert Haynesworth beat Bell during that series to smack down a Bulger pass, and started the game by splitting Bell and Barron to stuff Jackson's first carry. That's the offensive line's day in a nutshell: they got off to a slow start, and didn't finish strong. Given the big monetary investments in Smith, Bell and Brown, and the goodwill Spagnuolo’s invested in Incognito, that’s simply not good enough.
* Defensive line / LB: The Ram defense made strides from last week. They held Clinton Portis to 79 yards and kept the Redskins out of the end zone. So why wasn’t that enough? They couldn’t get the Redskins off the field. Washington knocked out long drives as easily as Tiger Woods. 83 yards, 6:19, 13 plays, FG. 64 yards, 6 minutes, 13 plays, FG. 40 yards, 10 plays, fumble. 74 yards, 7:30, 14 plays, FG. 72 yards, seven and a half more minutes, 15 plays, turnover on downs. The Rams made some plays, but not enough. Will Witherspoon is off to a very rough start. On the Redskins’ first FG drive, the fullback picked him off in the hole twice to set up long Portis runs, and Chris Cooley beat him for 16. Campbell was a scrambling menace. His 14-yarder set up the first FG. In the 2nd, he ran for 21 on 3rd-and-2 to set up their 2nd FG. James Hall got caught too far inside, and Campbell had a huge lane there, and plenty of room. Cooley and the Redskin backs took LBs out of the middle of the field all day with pass routes. Your pass rush especially has to get there when those guys aren’t back to block. All the pressures in the world aren’t good enough if the QB always gets away. That messes up pass coverage, too, if the DBs start abandoning their man because they’re worried about the scramble. All that happened today. Another long FG march for Washington in the 3rd. A run stuff and a good pressure by DT LaJuan (WHO?) Ramsey forced 3rd-and-10, but then a zone blitz didn’t get to Campbell, and he found Cooley behind Witherspoon and noted pass defender Leonard Little for 18. No pass rush the next play, either, and Campbell hits Santana Moss for 24 to put them in FG range. The Rams nearly made the big play they needed in the 4th, with the Redskins backed up near their goal line. Hall put a super rush on Chris Samuels and drove him backward. Chris Long whipped RT Stephon Heyer. They met at the QB for the Rams’ FIRST sack of the season, but Campbell stretched the ball across the goal line to avoid a safety by inches. The Rams got no momentum from that play, though. The offense 3-and-outed, and the defense next gave up another long drive. Portis gained 7 after Cliff Ryan got knocked down, and 6 more on 3rd down as TE Fred Davis picked off James Laurinaitis, who got blocked out of a lot of plays today. Long got caught inside for a 25-yard screen to Ladell Betts, with James Butler and Laurinaitis taken out downfield. It got down to 4th-and-short at the 20, from where Portis gained 8 through a HUGE hole, far larger than any hole that should ever be given up on 4th-and-short. Laurinaitis missed the tackle, and Witherspoon was taken out yet again, along with O.J. Atogwe. That same group all did great work to shut down a Portis sweep on 4th down at the 4, though, and get the Ram offense the ball back for one last futile gesture. That obviously wasn’t their only red zone stand. Little and Hall forced a Campbell throwaway and a FG with good pressure. Little played the run well, tripping Portis at the 8 to help force the 2nd FG attempt. He also deflected a pass. Long and Ryan also made critical run stops, and Long fouled up several Redskin screen pass attempts by getting out on the receiver. But I think the only time anybody touched Campbell was on the sack in the 4th. He got too much time to throw and too much room to run. Fine effort by the defense today, but we found out bend-but-don’t-break defense may not work if you bend too much.
* Secondary: Campbell threw for 242, a third of it (7-83) to TE Chris Cooley, for whom the Rams unsurprisingly had no answer. Cooley had a major impact on the game, catching a bunch of WIDE OPEN passes early. To account for him at all, the Rams had to vacate the middle of the field, and with the line failing to sack Campbell, that left them wide open to scrambles. When Cooley wasn’t beating Witherspoon, he was just hanging out with NOBODY covering him. Ron Bartell had a decent game, forcing a fumble from Santana Moss in the 2nd, but Moss made him look silly on a 21-yard catch inside the 10 that set up Washington’s 2nd FG. Bartell bit gullibly on a Campbell pump-fake, while Moss squared out in front of him and made him look (more) foolish. A big pass up the seam to Antwaan Randle-El in the 3rd set up the third Redskin FG. He was wide open in the zone, though Justin King needed to slow him up better (= at all) at the line. Red zone play by the secondary was exemplary. They didn’t give Campbell an open receiver. Bartell didn’t buy that halfback option in the 3rd and stayed on his man. O.J. Atogwe and James Butler helped out on some key run stops. The secondary was successful enough against the Redskin WRs, and would have been even better against them, and maybe even on Cooley, with more help from the pass rush.
* Special teams: Kenneth Darby resumed kick-return duties but was mostly defused by effective Washington directional kicking. Derek Stanley's taking punt returns straight up the field - I like that. Donnie Jones' average was just 43.3 as he had 3 punts from near midfield. Two were downed inside the 20, but nothing inside the 10. The special teams mistake of the day was by Darby as the punting unit up man in the 4th. On 4th-and-2 at the Redskin 41, the Rams tried to fool Washington by motioning Jones out wide, bluffing at a fake, hoping they could get them to jump offside. Darby, whose role was surely to let the play clock expire if Washington didn't jump, got caught up and used the Rams' last timeout to prevent delay-of-game instead. Ulp. Just take the penalty and give Jones a little more room to kick! And the Rams false-started after the timeout anyway! Quick thinking by the coaching staff to put this play in motion, but it ended up looking like a case of the Rams needing to learn to walk before they can run.
* Coaching: The offensive playcalling has to be looked at when a team scores one touchdown in two weeks, and I’ve got some questions. What is going on with the screen passes? Did the Rams get one off today without the Redskins blowing it up? If execution of the play is poor, or the Redskins are on to it, why was Pat Shurmur calling for it SO much? How many, seven, eight? At a minimum, that play needs a lot more practice. Good that Shurmur tried so much more this week to get Jackson involved in the passing game; I just wish he would have looked for different ways after about the third blown screen. Didn’t care for the end-of-game play-calling. From the 4 with 1:50 left, no timeouts, who’s going to buy a fake handoff? With McMichael blanketed in the flat, Bulger had to throw away the first down pass. On 2nd down, what good was a 5-yard Avery route? Again, you’re on your own 4 with no timeouts. The offense was a successful 6-for-12 on third down, and I liked how Shurmur recognized the Redskins were back on their heels early in the 4th and started banging Jackson at them for nice red zone gains. And Jackson should have scored right before the Avery fumble. But Shurmur’s still hunting to find good ways to get the offense moving. It improved a little this week; let’s hope that improvement’s exponential.
Interesting wrinkles again defensively, but still some plays I can’t help but wonder about. The two-down-DE set with Long standing up over center helped 3-and-out the first Redskin possession. Probably slow, I noticed the classic Spagnuolo four-DE line for the first time late in the first half, with C.J. Ah You and Hall lining up inside. Mixed results with that so far. Zone blitzing nearly got Little an INT that same drive, but it also got beat on 3rd-and-10 on the Skins’ last FG drive on an 18-yard pass to Cooley. Whatever the plan was for Cooley, it didn’t work, and it was disappointing, as this staff has played against him many times. The breakdowns defending him were a huge key to the game, surpassed only by the failure to sack Campbell. They didn’t get to Campbell with the blitz, and never seemed to have a blitz called when the Skins sent Cooley and their backs out into the pattern. And on a day where you’re not getting to the opposing QB, and he’s scrambling effectively, I can’t stress how much I hate the idea of going to a THREE-man rush. In the end, I think Cooley really fouled up what they came in intending to do on defense. Let’s get a better job done on Donald Lee and Jermichael Finley next week.
* Upon further review: Looked like Jerome Boger and crew called a top-notch game. The worst call of the day was the end zone DPI on Bartell against Randle El in the 2nd on a clearly uncatchable ball that had clearly been released prior to the infraction. And the official picked that flag up. Nice work! The roughing-the-passer call that retracted McMichael's fumble was also a good call, with Bulger clearly being hit well after he released the ball. I would have liked another roughing penalty later, when Haynesworth hit a vulnerable Bulger late and on the ground at the end of his scramble in the 3rd, when he appeared to get his back injured. Referees appear to have it in for Bulger as much as many in Rams Nation. But I won't be a total scrooge in grading Boger's bunch today. B+.
* Cheers: Too bad Sam Rosen and Tim Ryan can't announce every Rams game. They're the best team Fox has. Ryan is the best color analyst out there. He had an excellent observation on almost every play. Rosen has a great eye for detail, and rarely fails to tell you down, distance and gain on the last play. Too many announcers are too busy trying to crack jokes or trying to make themselves look smart with “trivia” everyone watching the game already knows and ignore those basic fundamentals. They missed a couple of things, like Bulger actually fumbling after a scramble in the 1st, but give me an old-schooler like Rosen and a no-nonsense analyst who just knows his stuff like Ryan every week. Give me the Rams' “classic” blue-and-gold look from today every week, too, even though they lost in it.
* Who’s next?: Say, Green Bay, thanks a bunch for losing at home to Cincinnati today and totally destroying my pre-written preview for next week's Rams home opener. That shocker is still unlikely to keep the Packers' faithful fan base from washing the Dome in a sea of green, though. 0-2 and one touchdown in two weeks surely won't inspire a lot of late local ticket sales to Rams fans. With the Packers following an outstanding preseason with an opening night win over Chicago, next week's game still looks like a high hurdle for the young, rebuilding Rams to clear, when back in April, I'd have given them a shot opening at home against a 6-10 team from the year before.
That 6-10 record from 2008 is mighty deceptive – the Packers lost a whopping seven games by four points or less, and return all the skill players from a top 10 offense. 26-year-old Aaron Rodgers' career is off to a splendid start. He threw for over 4,000 yards last year with 28 TD and just 13 INTs. Very explosive WR Greg Jennings and crafty possession WR Donald Driver are both coming off 1,000-yard seasons. It would be as unlike the Packers not to get TEs Donald Lee and Jermichael Finley involved as it would be unlike the Rams to leave them wide open all day. RB Ryan Grant doesn't have top speed, but is among the league leaders in rushing since taking over as a starter. The Rams are going to want to keep Rodgers in the pocket. He is very effective, and the Packers like him throwing deep, on the move. Pass protection is proving a sticking point in Green Bay after two weeks. Bengals DE Antwan Odom exploited a game-ending injury to LT Chad Clifton for FIVE sacks today, and Bears DE Adewale Ogunleye pwned inexperienced RT Allen Barbre week 1. The Packers may come to St. Louis with four new starters on the o-line. They've got serious issues protecting their QB right now, and it is paramount for the Rams to exploit their edge weaknesses while they can. Problem is, the Rams have already had two games against lesser offensive lines they should have been able to exploit, and have come away with exactly one sack. Will this finally be the week?
Green Bay fired their defensive coordinator after the Pack landed only 27 sacks in 2008 and allowed a soft-as-Brie 131.6 rushing yards a game, 26th in the league. Enter Dom Capers, who brought in his scheme, a 3-4 D that blitzes almost every play from almost every angle. Make no mistake about their aggressiveness. Charles Woodson may blitz as often as he drops back into coverage. They got Jay Cutler to chuck up 4 INTs week 1. Didn't seem to work today, though, as Cedric Benson shredded the Cheeseheads for 141. An offense that plays it smart and goes after them on the ground has a shot at making inroads. The Bears were late to do that week 1. The Bengals apparently did it today. Run on Green Bay and you'll really de-fang that blitz. That's not to say the Packers won't match up well with the Rams, hard to believe as it is that they didn't seem to match up well with the Bengals. Alex Barron and Jacob Bell will have their hands full with DT-turned-monster-DE Cullen Jenkins. Nose tackle Johnny Jolly makes a lot of plays, even has an INT already this year. The Packers' best LB week 1 was – what do you know – Brandon Chillar, who makes a lot of plays along with fellow OLB Nick Barnett and is even a pass rush weapon up north. Al Harris is their best CB, backed up by big hitter and playmaker Atari Bigby, and partnered with Woodson. The Rams would be wise to test the duo deep, as they're neither as young nor as fast as they used to be. And the Packer secondary's long had difficulty dealing with receivers with decent size. There's your cue, Laurent Robinson. Can the Rams tame the Packers with the run, and protect Bulger well enough to take advantage when they do?
I keep seeing this point made online, and I'll borrow it here. The Giants lost their first two games with Steve Spagnuolo at defensive coordinator, and badly. They came back, won their third game and went on to a (very) successful season. No, the Rams aren't headed for the Super Bowl, but the point is, nothing is over until we say it is. Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Furthermore, the Giants' second-biggest win that year came against – Green Bay, in the NFC Championship, a game in which the Packers proved helpless to stop a big receiver. The Rams still believe in what they're doing: let's see if they can't repeat some good history for a change.
--Mike
Game stats from nfl.com
Monday, September 14, 2009
RamView, 9/13/2009: Seahawks 28. Rams 0
RamView, September 13, 2009
From The Couch
(Report and opinions on the game.)
Game #1: Seahawks 28, Rams 0
Despite sea change at Rams Park since the end of last season, where the Rams and Seattle Seahawks are concerned, things just stay the same. The Rams failed to cash in big opportunities early in the game, and for the rest of the game, they just failed. ELEVEN straight regular-season losses, ELEVEN straight losses in the division, NINE straight losses to Seattle... Somebody change the station, I am sick of this song.
* QB: The St. Louis Post-Dispatch handed out exactly one F on their report card for this game, and it went to Marc Bulger (17-36-191). Really? As ugly as the offense looked, didn't Bulger do his job? He had two poor plays that were nearly interceptions, but those were his only bad throws. He threw two pretty bombs to Laurent Robinson, who whiffed on one he should have caught in the 3rd before grabbing one for 46 late in the game. A complaint is that Bulger “didn't make a lot happen even when he had time to throw”. And a common play today was: Bulger gets plenty of time to throw, rolls out, throws the ball away. So receivers were popping open in the Seahawk secondary all day and Bulger was missing them? Funny, nobody points that out. Until somebody does, all one's doing in criticizing Bulger is criticizing him for playing possession football, which is what he's supposed to be doing. Am I wrong? Here's the Post-Dispatch, though: “When a team gets shut out, most of the blame falls on the QB.” Maybe the Rams' poor 3rd-down conversion rate, 2 for 12, is supposed to be Bulger's fault, though most of those 3rd downs were exacerbated by line penalties, and again, lack of open receivers. Poor shotgun snaps, dropped passes, flinchy linemen, $14 million kickers choking on medium-length field goals, special teams gaffes, absence of run blocking, blitzers coming up the middle untouched or running over $45 million running backs, global warming, dogs and cats living together, turnovers, all Bulger's fault today, I guess. Oh, that's right, Bulger didn't commit any turnovers. No doubt, more (= any) mobility could help Bulger and the Rams out. On some of the plays where Bulger took one of his three sacks or made one of his umpteen throwaways, maybe Kyle Boller pulls the ball down and gets upfield with some kind of gain. Some argument - the Rams got shut out because the QB didn't scramble enough. I know there's a cottage industry in making excuses for Marc Bulger's play the last couple of seasons, but dammit, scapegoating the guy for today's loss is just as questionable. Vintage Marc Bulger couldn’t have gotten anything done today, either. A lot on offense needs to get fixed before current Bulger can be blamed for its problems.
* RB: Such as the running game, which is supposed to carry the Ram offense but is where Steven Jackson had a quiet 67 yards on 16 carries instead, a third of those coming in one carry during the Rams’ final possession, a nice cutback run off a Jacob Bell block. That and two 9-yard runs were about the only times all day Jackson gained much more than a yard. The second 9-yard run was sweet, as Jackson got outside and flattened Ken Lucas with a stiffarm. But the Seattle D and the Ram offensive line just didn’t offer him much room to run otherwise. And Jackson didn’t compensate in other areas of his game; he had no receptions, one dropped pass. Samkon Gado made some good blitz pickups but Jackson got flat run over by Will Herring for a sack (credited to Brandon Mebane) in the 4th. Mike Karney’s performance at fullback was disappointing. Jackson couldn’t follow his block at all because he wasn’t clearing anybody out. Jackson actually got the most out of his carries. Last year’s Jackson would have had a worse game. None of the runs that blew up today did because he got caught dancing around in the backfield. He was much more a decisive, one-cut runner today, a style I believe will suit him very well. If he ever gets any blocking.
* WR: Other than Laurent Robinson (5-87), the Ram receiving corps was the Greatest No-Show on Earth. Bulger got all day to throw more than a few times but had no one open, even against one of the league’s worst pass defenses in 2008, minus their best cornerback. Donnie Avery (6-46) had just a couple of downfield catches and couldn’t make anything big happen after the catch with “smoke” passes. Randy McMichael (4-44) had one meaningful catch for 6 yards. The rest of his game was garbage time or dumpoffs on third-and-a-mile. Keenan Burton added little (1-5), as did Daniel Fells (1-9). What the Rams receivers did add was penalties. Avery had a hold; McMichael, a false start. Robinson seemed to be the only receiver able to get open. He was a pretty consistent threat on slant passes, making good use of his size. He beat a double-team to catch a perfectly-thrown 46-yard bomb from Bulger late in the game after blowing a similar opportunity in the 3rd. But he was the only reliable receiving target today, even against one of last year’s more scorchable secondaries. West Coast offense or not, that isn’t going to cut it.
* Offensive line: So can we be done waiting for Richie Incognito to grow up, or wise up, or whatever? Because it ain’t happening. The Rams’ knucklehead RG was in classic form today, killing three drives with penalties, two of them the stupid personal foul variety. He provided nothing in run-blocking to compensate for being a knucklehead; the Rams tried Jackson behind him several times but his man beat him. Incognito also let Lofa Tatupu blitz right past him for a sack in the 2nd. After a second personal foul in the 3rd, Steve Spagnuolo actually, finally, yanked Incognito for Adam Goldberg, but Rams Nation wasn’t even done rejoicing before Spagnuolo ran the knucklehead right back out there, basically sending him back out with a hug. Yeah, that’ll set him right. Incognito was the worst lineman on the field today. Quit treating him like he’s your best lineman. He’s not, if he doesn’t run-block any better than he did today. The Rams false-started four times; shockingly, none by Alex Barron. Barron was beaten enough times but didn’t allow a sack. The other two sacks came from Jackson getting run over like a weakling on an attempted blitz pickup in the 4th, and by Lawrence Jackson beating Jason Smith clean for a sack at the end of the 3rd. Smith got a lot of help from McMichael on the right side and held up ok for the game, though the Rams tried to run right a lot without finding any room. Jason Brown blew up a third-down play with a terrible shotgun snap and cost the Rams a delay-of-game penalty in the red zone in the 2nd, failing to detect Bulger calling for the snap. Instead of clearing room for the Ram offense, they threw roadblocks in the way all day in the form of flags, mistakes and miscues. I loved the play where McMichael appeared to be screaming at the bench for running an inside handoff on 3rd-and-goal in the 4th. Who completely missed the backside block, which pretty much shut down the play? McMichael. Don’t call that play! I can’t block! Hee. But most of the Ram linemen could say that today, and that’s the biggest reason the team opened what’s supposed to be a new era with a humiliating shutout.
* Defensive line / LB: What’s supposed to be the strongest link of Steve Spagnuolo’s team was utterly ineffective today. Rookie MLB James Laurinaitis deserves recognition for 14 tackles and for forcing a Nate Burleson fumble in the first, but he also had a couple of costly breakdowns in pass coverage. That was part of Seattle’s 99-yard TD drive in the 3rd, as the Ram defense continues its disturbing preseason trend of failing to pin offenses near their own goal line. They let the Seahawks get off their 4 in the 1st. The front seven did very little run stuffing and left Seattle still in search of their first sack of the season. Matt Hasselbeck was pressured in the first half maybe twice, on a couple of blitzes. (One did pressure him into an INT.) Chris Long and David Vobora each had a couple of run stops. Vobora got burned for a John Carlson TD, though, and Long didn’t provide any pass rush I noticed. Leonard Little did even less, with just 1 tackle, a personal foul he didn’t deserve and some missed action with an injury. James Hall also got injured, and with Victor Adeyanju inexplicably on the inactive list, the Rams didn’t have a lot of pass rushers, let alone pass rush. Will Witherspoon got hurt in the 2nd and didn’t play well. He got handled and left Justin Forsett a big hole on 3rd-and-2 from the Seattle 9, a play that launched the 99-yard TD drive. Witherspoon also wasn’t there to make the play on Julius Jones’ 62-yard TD run in the 3rd, made worse with Atogwe blitzing to leave that side of the field empty, and Vobora getting pushed away like a sliding door. Ineffective by any measure – allowing 8 of 15 conversions on 3rd down, 167 rushing yards, no sacks, 28 points allowed, permitting long scoring drives – Rams Nation can only hope there’s nowhere but up for the Spagnuolo defense from here.
* Secondary: First of all, hooray for Jonathan Wade, who was probably the Rams’ best defensive player today, maybe even the second-best Ram on the field. After Donnie Jones. He broke up an early end zone pass for T.J. Houshmandzadeh (6-48) and tipped it into an INT for James Butler. He jumped a slant for Nate Burleson beautifully to 3-and-out Seattle’s next possession. In the 3rd, he helped stop Houshmandzadeh on a 3rd down and later broke up a sideline pass. O.J. Atogwe had a HUGE first quarter, breaking up an end zone pass for Burleson, recovering a fumble AND picking off Matt Hasselbeck. That’s a heck of a big-money performance right there. I cannot say the same for Ron Bartell. He couldn’t defend Ram-killer Nate Burleson (7-74) running comeback patterns on him to save his life. Burleson also beat him for Seattle’s 2nd TD. Bartell might as well have been Tye Hill in the 4th quarter. He whiffed hideously trying to shoulder-tackle Justin Forsett on a 3rd-and-4; gave up 8. John Carlson beat him on a later 3rd-and-4. A few plays after that, the great BEN OBAMANU fakes Bartell out of his jock with some shake-n-bake at the line to convert a 3rd-and-8. P.U., Bartell, clean that up. The Rams’ grade for TE coverage today? F-minus. Carlson (6-95, 2 TD) got behind an unsuspecting Laurinaitis in the end zone for Seattle’s first TD and burned Ram LBs for most of a 99-yard TD drive in the 3rd. He got 38 off Laurinaitis after the rookie (and most of the rest of the D) bit hard on a play fake, and scored from 33 the next play with David Vobora leaving him practically uncovered. New players, but far from a new problem for a Ram defense that will face a lot of good TEs and QBs who love to throw to TEs this season. Good grief, Dallas Clark may gain 1,000 yards the week the Colts come here.
* Special teams: Shades of Chris Johnson in 2005. The Rams make the questionable decision to start a kick returner who got no work at it during preseason games, and who's done it one other time as a pro, and how do you expect that's going to pay off? Avery starts the Rams' season losing a fumble inside the 20. The Rams continue to get diverging play from their kickers. Josh Brown has proven nowhere near worth the $14 million contract he got, gagging on a 37-yarder he had absolutely no excuse to miss. Meanwhile, what damn sure better be a Pro Bowl bid for Donnie Jones took off today like one of his punts. He had FOUR punts 59 yards or longer and killed two inside the 5, once with very nice help from Quincy Butler and David Roach. Sadly, that would be Butler's only key special teams play of the day, though not for lack of trying. Late in the first half, C.J. Ah You blocked a FG attempt, Butler scooped up the loose ball and took it back 60 yards for a TD, and everyone back home reveled as the Rams tied the game at 7. Except the Rams had 12 men on the field. Oh, and it was 4th and FIVE, so the penalty also gave Seattle a first down, letting them drive on for a TD, and the game's 14-0 instead of 7-7. Whoever that 12th man was (ironically, it was reportedly Ah You) provided the turning point of the game. Barf.
* Coaching: Success in the preseason had me hoping otherwise, but this rookie coaching staff looked like a bunch of rookies today. 10 penalties for 85 yards, many of them of the undisciplined variety? Terrible. (Scott Linehan’s first game? 10 flags for 94 yards.) Many penalties were caused by crowd noise, for which the Rams did not appear the least bit prepared. Seattle’s crowd made audibling impossible, and Bulger didn’t appear to adjust any plays at the line; he can’t possibly be that bad at reading defenses, can he? I think the problem was poor communication vs. poor field-reading by Bulger because of the delay-of-game in the third. All Bulger did was yell at Brown for the snap – where’s the stomp move you see every other shotgun QB make to tell his center to snap the ball? The offense was either poorly-prepared for the hostile environment or had a poor system for dealing with it. Either counts as a significant failure on the part of the coaching staff. Needless to say what a terrible screw-up it was to have 12 men on the field on the blocked FG play, but good grief, you have GOT to be able to get the right men on the field at the proper time! Which they didn’t do on offense, either, blowing two timeouts reported as due to personnel issues!
Questionable tactics and questionable personnel decisions are also in the coaching spotlight this week. With almost no game experience at it, Avery was a terrible choice to return kickoffs. I cannot fathom banishing Victor Adeyanju to the inactive list after the good preseason he had. Whether or not it was a necessary call, the midweek move to cut Chris Draft was certainly poorly-timed, and I have little doubt this week’s starting D would have been better with him in it. (Equal time: good call on Wade; decent call on J. Smith.) And I really don’t get yanking Incognito, giving him a hug and sending him back out a little bit later. Not when Goldberg or Setterstrom can play the position at least as well without the idiotic personal fouls. Incognito’s making the message Spagnuolo and Devaney have been claiming to send since this year’s housecleaning a mixed one.
Tactically, shades of Scott Linehan, we’re told our offense is going to throw to the tight end more, and the position gets two meaningful targets. We’re going to throw to Jackson more. Threw to him twice. That didn’t exactly discourage Seattle from stacking eight in the box. Bulger didn’t appear to have a release valve on the many plays he was running around trying to find a receiver. And yeah, that 3rd-and-goal inside handoff McMichael yelled at the bench about was worth yelling at. Poorly executed, but worth yelling at. We’re expecting/demanding aggressive defensive attacks from Spagnuolo and Ken Flajole, but the blitz mostly didn’t work today. The key first quarter plays all came with the Rams in a plain Jane D before a Bartell blitz rushed Hasselbeck’s INT to Atogwe. The blitz quit getting there after that point, though. A big completion to Burleson (plus dubious late hit call) beat a blitz. Another Burleson completion beat a blitz before the 2:00 warning. The long Jones TD run also looked like it beat a blitz. The Rams killed a drive in the 3rd using a cool look: two down linemen with Long creeping up to rush from the nose tackle position. Might have killed a drive in the 4th, too, had Bartell not stunk.
The team’s energy and effort certainly look fine, but game-planning and in-game adjustments sure look like they need a lot of work. These guys are lucky expectations around here are starting very low. Three-quarters of this game was as bad as last year’s season opener. Going back a few staffs, all I can say is, gotta go to work.
* Upon further review: The Peter Morelli-led crew had me up in arms a couple of times. Late in the first, Jackson was taken down by two Seahawks five yards out of bounds without drawing a flag. The next series, Little got a late hit penalty for shoving Burleson when the WR was still clearly in bounds and trying to tiptoe for extra yards. For all the penalties they called on the Rams, they missed a false start on Smith and at least one delay of game. And let's not forget they MISSED the 12 men on the field call on the blocked FG play. If that play hadn't been in the last 2:00 of the half, it wouldn't have been called unless Seattle saw it and challenged. That could have been a fiasco. The Rams didn't deserve to get away with it, but the zebras don't deserve a very good grade, either. More like a D.
* Cheers: Props to the crowd in Seattle, their team's best player today. They forced false starts and delays of game, and probably helped get Tatupu's sack in the 2nd. It was pretty apparent Tatupu was coming, but the Rams didn't, or couldn't, make the necessary adjustment, probably due to the noise. Ah, for the days when Rams fans could affect a game in such a way. As much as it's said there are too many ex-jocks in broadcast booths, John Lynch and play-by-play man Ron Pitts did a nice job calling the game. Like any other color man, Lynch'll overstate the obvious, but he broke down plays well and was personable and witty without forcing it. His pre-game breakdown was super. He did blow the review of the blocked FG, though, strenuously crediting the Seattle special teams coach for challenging the play (?) instead of realizing it was the replay official's prerogative in the last 2:00 of the half. Pitts overfocused on the Avery fumble on the opening kickoff as the game's key play – not compared to the redacted blocked FG, it wasn't – but did well on the whole. I'd call the Rams the “Good Humor Men” for the hideous white-on-white uniforms they wore, but that's much longer to type, and I'm simply not in good humor after this fiasco.
* Who’s next?: In two meetings last year against Tennessee, the Baltimore Ravens averaged 124 yards a game rushing and didn’t allow a sack. I mention those teams because the heart of those matchups was Albert Haynesworth (Titans, now Washington) vs. Jason Brown (Ravens, now Rams). Getting to next week's opponent, the Redskins had the NFL's 4th-best D in 2008, ranked near the top in rushing, passing and scoring defense, yet still missed the playoffs. So, in classic Washington fashion, they decided they weren’t spending enough fast enough, and shelled out $76 million guaranteed on Haynesworth, first-round draft pick Brian Orakpo and cornerback DeAngelo Hall. Haynesworth crushes pass pockets like the housing bubble collapsed the U.S. economy. Orakpo looked like the defensive rookie of the year in preseason. The Rams won in D.C. last year, and Donnie Avery was one of the heroes, but he has a much tougher matchup in Hall or Carlos Rogers instead of Leigh Torrence. Steven Jackson, in 22 carries, had only 79 yards and a costly fumble against a defense that’s even better now. Those factors don’t bode well when your offense can't even score. But a lot can swing on how well Brown contains Haynesworth. Those Ravens-Titans stats tell me that Brown did his job by and large last year. Today's game in Seattle, though, tells me the Rams are in a ton of trouble. If Brown even holds his own against Haynesworth, he'll need help. Jason Smith won't have a book on Orakpo, who missed last year's Texas-Baylor game due to a sprained knee. But Orakpo's speed off the edge should guarantee the first-rounders will clash a lot next week. Richie Incognito was a key player in last year's game, both good and bad (naturally). He instigated a lot of bad blood and the Redskins are going to be out for him. If he plays. I’d prefer to bench the knucklehead, but can’t say I expect it. Benching Incognito may not help the Rams' excuse for a running game, but it could save triple-digit penalty yards.
If your fantasy league gives points for penalty yards, by all means, start Incognito. Otherwise, you definitely want to start Redskins TE Chris Cooley. He led his team in receptions last year. Jason Campbell definitely looks to him in the passing game. If the Rams “defend” the tight end next week as poorly as they did today, I've got Cooley good for ten catches, 150 yards and 3 TDs. The Redskins are supposed to be opening up the passing game for the slowly-improving Campbell, though they had so little confidence in him this offseason they weren't shy about shopping for Mark Sanchez. If nothing else, Campbell's careful with the ball, throwing only six INTs last season. Besides Cooley, Campbell may finally have a decent big receiver to throw to in 2nd-year WR Malcolm Kelly, and he has Santana Moss to stretch the field. The Redskins are what the Rams are trying to be, though, a successful run-first team. Clinton Portis, still just 28, is coming off one of his best seasons for an offense that ran for 131 a game. The Rams sure didn't stop him last year – he ran for 129 and the Redskins ran for 181. But they were one of the worst scoring offenses in the league because they couldn't get the big play out of Campbell and the 23rd-ranked pass offense (28th in completions over 20 yards). The Rams have to be able to get to Campbell in key situations next week – RT Stephon Heyer is a highly-attackable weak link – avoid the big plays they didn't today against a team not known for them, and slow Portis down a little, all just to have a chance.
The Rams who may have the most to prove in Washington could be the coaching staff. If the team is as lost at sea in D.C. as it was today in Seattle, they're going to be adrift for a long, long while. Washington is a team this staff should be very familiar with. Steve Spagnuolo faced them four times as Giants defensive coordinator, and has opposed them twice a year since 1999. They averaged 13 points a game against Spagnuolo's Giants D, and scored only 7 points in each of last year's meetings. Pat Shurmur's faced them twice a year with Philadelphia since 1999. The Eagles only scored 20 points against the Redskins in '08, though. The opponent on this year's schedule this coaching staff is going to know best is the Washington Redskins, and how close the Rams come, or don't, in FedEx Field will confirm or deny whether today represents a trend. Will the Rams absolutely, positively get the job done? Let's hope familiarity breeds contempt next week. Maybe even a touchdown or two?
--Mike
Game stats from nfl.com
From The Couch
(Report and opinions on the game.)
Game #1: Seahawks 28, Rams 0
Despite sea change at Rams Park since the end of last season, where the Rams and Seattle Seahawks are concerned, things just stay the same. The Rams failed to cash in big opportunities early in the game, and for the rest of the game, they just failed. ELEVEN straight regular-season losses, ELEVEN straight losses in the division, NINE straight losses to Seattle... Somebody change the station, I am sick of this song.
* QB: The St. Louis Post-Dispatch handed out exactly one F on their report card for this game, and it went to Marc Bulger (17-36-191). Really? As ugly as the offense looked, didn't Bulger do his job? He had two poor plays that were nearly interceptions, but those were his only bad throws. He threw two pretty bombs to Laurent Robinson, who whiffed on one he should have caught in the 3rd before grabbing one for 46 late in the game. A complaint is that Bulger “didn't make a lot happen even when he had time to throw”. And a common play today was: Bulger gets plenty of time to throw, rolls out, throws the ball away. So receivers were popping open in the Seahawk secondary all day and Bulger was missing them? Funny, nobody points that out. Until somebody does, all one's doing in criticizing Bulger is criticizing him for playing possession football, which is what he's supposed to be doing. Am I wrong? Here's the Post-Dispatch, though: “When a team gets shut out, most of the blame falls on the QB.” Maybe the Rams' poor 3rd-down conversion rate, 2 for 12, is supposed to be Bulger's fault, though most of those 3rd downs were exacerbated by line penalties, and again, lack of open receivers. Poor shotgun snaps, dropped passes, flinchy linemen, $14 million kickers choking on medium-length field goals, special teams gaffes, absence of run blocking, blitzers coming up the middle untouched or running over $45 million running backs, global warming, dogs and cats living together, turnovers, all Bulger's fault today, I guess. Oh, that's right, Bulger didn't commit any turnovers. No doubt, more (= any) mobility could help Bulger and the Rams out. On some of the plays where Bulger took one of his three sacks or made one of his umpteen throwaways, maybe Kyle Boller pulls the ball down and gets upfield with some kind of gain. Some argument - the Rams got shut out because the QB didn't scramble enough. I know there's a cottage industry in making excuses for Marc Bulger's play the last couple of seasons, but dammit, scapegoating the guy for today's loss is just as questionable. Vintage Marc Bulger couldn’t have gotten anything done today, either. A lot on offense needs to get fixed before current Bulger can be blamed for its problems.
* RB: Such as the running game, which is supposed to carry the Ram offense but is where Steven Jackson had a quiet 67 yards on 16 carries instead, a third of those coming in one carry during the Rams’ final possession, a nice cutback run off a Jacob Bell block. That and two 9-yard runs were about the only times all day Jackson gained much more than a yard. The second 9-yard run was sweet, as Jackson got outside and flattened Ken Lucas with a stiffarm. But the Seattle D and the Ram offensive line just didn’t offer him much room to run otherwise. And Jackson didn’t compensate in other areas of his game; he had no receptions, one dropped pass. Samkon Gado made some good blitz pickups but Jackson got flat run over by Will Herring for a sack (credited to Brandon Mebane) in the 4th. Mike Karney’s performance at fullback was disappointing. Jackson couldn’t follow his block at all because he wasn’t clearing anybody out. Jackson actually got the most out of his carries. Last year’s Jackson would have had a worse game. None of the runs that blew up today did because he got caught dancing around in the backfield. He was much more a decisive, one-cut runner today, a style I believe will suit him very well. If he ever gets any blocking.
* WR: Other than Laurent Robinson (5-87), the Ram receiving corps was the Greatest No-Show on Earth. Bulger got all day to throw more than a few times but had no one open, even against one of the league’s worst pass defenses in 2008, minus their best cornerback. Donnie Avery (6-46) had just a couple of downfield catches and couldn’t make anything big happen after the catch with “smoke” passes. Randy McMichael (4-44) had one meaningful catch for 6 yards. The rest of his game was garbage time or dumpoffs on third-and-a-mile. Keenan Burton added little (1-5), as did Daniel Fells (1-9). What the Rams receivers did add was penalties. Avery had a hold; McMichael, a false start. Robinson seemed to be the only receiver able to get open. He was a pretty consistent threat on slant passes, making good use of his size. He beat a double-team to catch a perfectly-thrown 46-yard bomb from Bulger late in the game after blowing a similar opportunity in the 3rd. But he was the only reliable receiving target today, even against one of last year’s more scorchable secondaries. West Coast offense or not, that isn’t going to cut it.
* Offensive line: So can we be done waiting for Richie Incognito to grow up, or wise up, or whatever? Because it ain’t happening. The Rams’ knucklehead RG was in classic form today, killing three drives with penalties, two of them the stupid personal foul variety. He provided nothing in run-blocking to compensate for being a knucklehead; the Rams tried Jackson behind him several times but his man beat him. Incognito also let Lofa Tatupu blitz right past him for a sack in the 2nd. After a second personal foul in the 3rd, Steve Spagnuolo actually, finally, yanked Incognito for Adam Goldberg, but Rams Nation wasn’t even done rejoicing before Spagnuolo ran the knucklehead right back out there, basically sending him back out with a hug. Yeah, that’ll set him right. Incognito was the worst lineman on the field today. Quit treating him like he’s your best lineman. He’s not, if he doesn’t run-block any better than he did today. The Rams false-started four times; shockingly, none by Alex Barron. Barron was beaten enough times but didn’t allow a sack. The other two sacks came from Jackson getting run over like a weakling on an attempted blitz pickup in the 4th, and by Lawrence Jackson beating Jason Smith clean for a sack at the end of the 3rd. Smith got a lot of help from McMichael on the right side and held up ok for the game, though the Rams tried to run right a lot without finding any room. Jason Brown blew up a third-down play with a terrible shotgun snap and cost the Rams a delay-of-game penalty in the red zone in the 2nd, failing to detect Bulger calling for the snap. Instead of clearing room for the Ram offense, they threw roadblocks in the way all day in the form of flags, mistakes and miscues. I loved the play where McMichael appeared to be screaming at the bench for running an inside handoff on 3rd-and-goal in the 4th. Who completely missed the backside block, which pretty much shut down the play? McMichael. Don’t call that play! I can’t block! Hee. But most of the Ram linemen could say that today, and that’s the biggest reason the team opened what’s supposed to be a new era with a humiliating shutout.
* Defensive line / LB: What’s supposed to be the strongest link of Steve Spagnuolo’s team was utterly ineffective today. Rookie MLB James Laurinaitis deserves recognition for 14 tackles and for forcing a Nate Burleson fumble in the first, but he also had a couple of costly breakdowns in pass coverage. That was part of Seattle’s 99-yard TD drive in the 3rd, as the Ram defense continues its disturbing preseason trend of failing to pin offenses near their own goal line. They let the Seahawks get off their 4 in the 1st. The front seven did very little run stuffing and left Seattle still in search of their first sack of the season. Matt Hasselbeck was pressured in the first half maybe twice, on a couple of blitzes. (One did pressure him into an INT.) Chris Long and David Vobora each had a couple of run stops. Vobora got burned for a John Carlson TD, though, and Long didn’t provide any pass rush I noticed. Leonard Little did even less, with just 1 tackle, a personal foul he didn’t deserve and some missed action with an injury. James Hall also got injured, and with Victor Adeyanju inexplicably on the inactive list, the Rams didn’t have a lot of pass rushers, let alone pass rush. Will Witherspoon got hurt in the 2nd and didn’t play well. He got handled and left Justin Forsett a big hole on 3rd-and-2 from the Seattle 9, a play that launched the 99-yard TD drive. Witherspoon also wasn’t there to make the play on Julius Jones’ 62-yard TD run in the 3rd, made worse with Atogwe blitzing to leave that side of the field empty, and Vobora getting pushed away like a sliding door. Ineffective by any measure – allowing 8 of 15 conversions on 3rd down, 167 rushing yards, no sacks, 28 points allowed, permitting long scoring drives – Rams Nation can only hope there’s nowhere but up for the Spagnuolo defense from here.
* Secondary: First of all, hooray for Jonathan Wade, who was probably the Rams’ best defensive player today, maybe even the second-best Ram on the field. After Donnie Jones. He broke up an early end zone pass for T.J. Houshmandzadeh (6-48) and tipped it into an INT for James Butler. He jumped a slant for Nate Burleson beautifully to 3-and-out Seattle’s next possession. In the 3rd, he helped stop Houshmandzadeh on a 3rd down and later broke up a sideline pass. O.J. Atogwe had a HUGE first quarter, breaking up an end zone pass for Burleson, recovering a fumble AND picking off Matt Hasselbeck. That’s a heck of a big-money performance right there. I cannot say the same for Ron Bartell. He couldn’t defend Ram-killer Nate Burleson (7-74) running comeback patterns on him to save his life. Burleson also beat him for Seattle’s 2nd TD. Bartell might as well have been Tye Hill in the 4th quarter. He whiffed hideously trying to shoulder-tackle Justin Forsett on a 3rd-and-4; gave up 8. John Carlson beat him on a later 3rd-and-4. A few plays after that, the great BEN OBAMANU fakes Bartell out of his jock with some shake-n-bake at the line to convert a 3rd-and-8. P.U., Bartell, clean that up. The Rams’ grade for TE coverage today? F-minus. Carlson (6-95, 2 TD) got behind an unsuspecting Laurinaitis in the end zone for Seattle’s first TD and burned Ram LBs for most of a 99-yard TD drive in the 3rd. He got 38 off Laurinaitis after the rookie (and most of the rest of the D) bit hard on a play fake, and scored from 33 the next play with David Vobora leaving him practically uncovered. New players, but far from a new problem for a Ram defense that will face a lot of good TEs and QBs who love to throw to TEs this season. Good grief, Dallas Clark may gain 1,000 yards the week the Colts come here.
* Special teams: Shades of Chris Johnson in 2005. The Rams make the questionable decision to start a kick returner who got no work at it during preseason games, and who's done it one other time as a pro, and how do you expect that's going to pay off? Avery starts the Rams' season losing a fumble inside the 20. The Rams continue to get diverging play from their kickers. Josh Brown has proven nowhere near worth the $14 million contract he got, gagging on a 37-yarder he had absolutely no excuse to miss. Meanwhile, what damn sure better be a Pro Bowl bid for Donnie Jones took off today like one of his punts. He had FOUR punts 59 yards or longer and killed two inside the 5, once with very nice help from Quincy Butler and David Roach. Sadly, that would be Butler's only key special teams play of the day, though not for lack of trying. Late in the first half, C.J. Ah You blocked a FG attempt, Butler scooped up the loose ball and took it back 60 yards for a TD, and everyone back home reveled as the Rams tied the game at 7. Except the Rams had 12 men on the field. Oh, and it was 4th and FIVE, so the penalty also gave Seattle a first down, letting them drive on for a TD, and the game's 14-0 instead of 7-7. Whoever that 12th man was (ironically, it was reportedly Ah You) provided the turning point of the game. Barf.
* Coaching: Success in the preseason had me hoping otherwise, but this rookie coaching staff looked like a bunch of rookies today. 10 penalties for 85 yards, many of them of the undisciplined variety? Terrible. (Scott Linehan’s first game? 10 flags for 94 yards.) Many penalties were caused by crowd noise, for which the Rams did not appear the least bit prepared. Seattle’s crowd made audibling impossible, and Bulger didn’t appear to adjust any plays at the line; he can’t possibly be that bad at reading defenses, can he? I think the problem was poor communication vs. poor field-reading by Bulger because of the delay-of-game in the third. All Bulger did was yell at Brown for the snap – where’s the stomp move you see every other shotgun QB make to tell his center to snap the ball? The offense was either poorly-prepared for the hostile environment or had a poor system for dealing with it. Either counts as a significant failure on the part of the coaching staff. Needless to say what a terrible screw-up it was to have 12 men on the field on the blocked FG play, but good grief, you have GOT to be able to get the right men on the field at the proper time! Which they didn’t do on offense, either, blowing two timeouts reported as due to personnel issues!
Questionable tactics and questionable personnel decisions are also in the coaching spotlight this week. With almost no game experience at it, Avery was a terrible choice to return kickoffs. I cannot fathom banishing Victor Adeyanju to the inactive list after the good preseason he had. Whether or not it was a necessary call, the midweek move to cut Chris Draft was certainly poorly-timed, and I have little doubt this week’s starting D would have been better with him in it. (Equal time: good call on Wade; decent call on J. Smith.) And I really don’t get yanking Incognito, giving him a hug and sending him back out a little bit later. Not when Goldberg or Setterstrom can play the position at least as well without the idiotic personal fouls. Incognito’s making the message Spagnuolo and Devaney have been claiming to send since this year’s housecleaning a mixed one.
Tactically, shades of Scott Linehan, we’re told our offense is going to throw to the tight end more, and the position gets two meaningful targets. We’re going to throw to Jackson more. Threw to him twice. That didn’t exactly discourage Seattle from stacking eight in the box. Bulger didn’t appear to have a release valve on the many plays he was running around trying to find a receiver. And yeah, that 3rd-and-goal inside handoff McMichael yelled at the bench about was worth yelling at. Poorly executed, but worth yelling at. We’re expecting/demanding aggressive defensive attacks from Spagnuolo and Ken Flajole, but the blitz mostly didn’t work today. The key first quarter plays all came with the Rams in a plain Jane D before a Bartell blitz rushed Hasselbeck’s INT to Atogwe. The blitz quit getting there after that point, though. A big completion to Burleson (plus dubious late hit call) beat a blitz. Another Burleson completion beat a blitz before the 2:00 warning. The long Jones TD run also looked like it beat a blitz. The Rams killed a drive in the 3rd using a cool look: two down linemen with Long creeping up to rush from the nose tackle position. Might have killed a drive in the 4th, too, had Bartell not stunk.
The team’s energy and effort certainly look fine, but game-planning and in-game adjustments sure look like they need a lot of work. These guys are lucky expectations around here are starting very low. Three-quarters of this game was as bad as last year’s season opener. Going back a few staffs, all I can say is, gotta go to work.
* Upon further review: The Peter Morelli-led crew had me up in arms a couple of times. Late in the first, Jackson was taken down by two Seahawks five yards out of bounds without drawing a flag. The next series, Little got a late hit penalty for shoving Burleson when the WR was still clearly in bounds and trying to tiptoe for extra yards. For all the penalties they called on the Rams, they missed a false start on Smith and at least one delay of game. And let's not forget they MISSED the 12 men on the field call on the blocked FG play. If that play hadn't been in the last 2:00 of the half, it wouldn't have been called unless Seattle saw it and challenged. That could have been a fiasco. The Rams didn't deserve to get away with it, but the zebras don't deserve a very good grade, either. More like a D.
* Cheers: Props to the crowd in Seattle, their team's best player today. They forced false starts and delays of game, and probably helped get Tatupu's sack in the 2nd. It was pretty apparent Tatupu was coming, but the Rams didn't, or couldn't, make the necessary adjustment, probably due to the noise. Ah, for the days when Rams fans could affect a game in such a way. As much as it's said there are too many ex-jocks in broadcast booths, John Lynch and play-by-play man Ron Pitts did a nice job calling the game. Like any other color man, Lynch'll overstate the obvious, but he broke down plays well and was personable and witty without forcing it. His pre-game breakdown was super. He did blow the review of the blocked FG, though, strenuously crediting the Seattle special teams coach for challenging the play (?) instead of realizing it was the replay official's prerogative in the last 2:00 of the half. Pitts overfocused on the Avery fumble on the opening kickoff as the game's key play – not compared to the redacted blocked FG, it wasn't – but did well on the whole. I'd call the Rams the “Good Humor Men” for the hideous white-on-white uniforms they wore, but that's much longer to type, and I'm simply not in good humor after this fiasco.
* Who’s next?: In two meetings last year against Tennessee, the Baltimore Ravens averaged 124 yards a game rushing and didn’t allow a sack. I mention those teams because the heart of those matchups was Albert Haynesworth (Titans, now Washington) vs. Jason Brown (Ravens, now Rams). Getting to next week's opponent, the Redskins had the NFL's 4th-best D in 2008, ranked near the top in rushing, passing and scoring defense, yet still missed the playoffs. So, in classic Washington fashion, they decided they weren’t spending enough fast enough, and shelled out $76 million guaranteed on Haynesworth, first-round draft pick Brian Orakpo and cornerback DeAngelo Hall. Haynesworth crushes pass pockets like the housing bubble collapsed the U.S. economy. Orakpo looked like the defensive rookie of the year in preseason. The Rams won in D.C. last year, and Donnie Avery was one of the heroes, but he has a much tougher matchup in Hall or Carlos Rogers instead of Leigh Torrence. Steven Jackson, in 22 carries, had only 79 yards and a costly fumble against a defense that’s even better now. Those factors don’t bode well when your offense can't even score. But a lot can swing on how well Brown contains Haynesworth. Those Ravens-Titans stats tell me that Brown did his job by and large last year. Today's game in Seattle, though, tells me the Rams are in a ton of trouble. If Brown even holds his own against Haynesworth, he'll need help. Jason Smith won't have a book on Orakpo, who missed last year's Texas-Baylor game due to a sprained knee. But Orakpo's speed off the edge should guarantee the first-rounders will clash a lot next week. Richie Incognito was a key player in last year's game, both good and bad (naturally). He instigated a lot of bad blood and the Redskins are going to be out for him. If he plays. I’d prefer to bench the knucklehead, but can’t say I expect it. Benching Incognito may not help the Rams' excuse for a running game, but it could save triple-digit penalty yards.
If your fantasy league gives points for penalty yards, by all means, start Incognito. Otherwise, you definitely want to start Redskins TE Chris Cooley. He led his team in receptions last year. Jason Campbell definitely looks to him in the passing game. If the Rams “defend” the tight end next week as poorly as they did today, I've got Cooley good for ten catches, 150 yards and 3 TDs. The Redskins are supposed to be opening up the passing game for the slowly-improving Campbell, though they had so little confidence in him this offseason they weren't shy about shopping for Mark Sanchez. If nothing else, Campbell's careful with the ball, throwing only six INTs last season. Besides Cooley, Campbell may finally have a decent big receiver to throw to in 2nd-year WR Malcolm Kelly, and he has Santana Moss to stretch the field. The Redskins are what the Rams are trying to be, though, a successful run-first team. Clinton Portis, still just 28, is coming off one of his best seasons for an offense that ran for 131 a game. The Rams sure didn't stop him last year – he ran for 129 and the Redskins ran for 181. But they were one of the worst scoring offenses in the league because they couldn't get the big play out of Campbell and the 23rd-ranked pass offense (28th in completions over 20 yards). The Rams have to be able to get to Campbell in key situations next week – RT Stephon Heyer is a highly-attackable weak link – avoid the big plays they didn't today against a team not known for them, and slow Portis down a little, all just to have a chance.
The Rams who may have the most to prove in Washington could be the coaching staff. If the team is as lost at sea in D.C. as it was today in Seattle, they're going to be adrift for a long, long while. Washington is a team this staff should be very familiar with. Steve Spagnuolo faced them four times as Giants defensive coordinator, and has opposed them twice a year since 1999. They averaged 13 points a game against Spagnuolo's Giants D, and scored only 7 points in each of last year's meetings. Pat Shurmur's faced them twice a year with Philadelphia since 1999. The Eagles only scored 20 points against the Redskins in '08, though. The opponent on this year's schedule this coaching staff is going to know best is the Washington Redskins, and how close the Rams come, or don't, in FedEx Field will confirm or deny whether today represents a trend. Will the Rams absolutely, positively get the job done? Let's hope familiarity breeds contempt next week. Maybe even a touchdown or two?
--Mike
Game stats from nfl.com
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Rams cut - Chris Draft???
This is an extremely difficult move to figure, but the Rams have cut linebacker Chris Draft, who by all indications would have started for them at strongside LB on Sunday. Draft was a team leader and is a versatile player capable of playing all three LB positions. This certainly isn't a "four pillars" move - Draft was a pillar of the community here before Steve Spagnuolo was even hired. This can't even be based on current play from what I know. Draft looked good at all the practices I went to. I saw nothing wrong with his preseason game play. He was used in preseason games in a pattern consistent with that of a player who'd locked up a starting job. Furthermore, the Rams' next-best LB, Larry Grant, has shown signs of being starter material but is out due to injury. They're actually going to start David Vobora Sunday, who hasn't yet shown he's as good as Draft on his best day.Maybe I lack imagination, but I cannot picture Chris Draft doing something worthy of cutting him from the team three days before the season opens. Did he undermine a coach? Recommend Spagnuolo perform a physically-impossible sex act? Was his dogfighting ring exposed? Did he beat up a teammate? Get caught with drugs? Hookers? Both? I can't imagine Draft doing anything of the sort.
Three days before the season and you cut one of your leaders on defense? There HAS to be more to this. Stay tuned.
UPDATE: Per Jim Thomas, this is a payroll-related move? Draft was cut three days before the start of the season because he wouldn't take a pay cut? The Rams demanded Draft take a pay cut even though they're below the salary cap? Why are the Rams are making financial moves like this, unnecessary to the salary cap, without regard for on-field performance, team chemistry, or ability of the roster to fill the vacancy? I can only assume it's because ownership wants or needs the money and doesn't care what it takes to get it.
Boy, and you thought 2008 was bad. Cheap sports team owners = disaster. We know this in St. Louis as well as they do anywhere, thanks to 30-some-odd years of cheap Bidwill.
If this is the way this team is going to be run, it needs to be sold, and quickly, or it'll be like Bidwill never left.
SECOND UPDATE: Draft says the Rams told him they needed to cut his salary because incentive payments that would come due to other players would put the Rams over the cap, later in the season, I guess. Assuming the Rams weren't posturing (lying) to Draft, then this was a pure salary cap move, not an owners-can't-afford-their-own-team move.
Though still a puzzlingly-timed, poorly, poorly planned one. Three days before the season starts, and we just noticed a salary cap problem that forces us to cut a starting linebacker?
Has management actually changed at Rams Park?
photo - stltoday.com
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Rams get down to 53-man roster
...by placing DE Eric Moore on injured reserve.
I went 16 for 21 on my projected cuts in Friday's RamView, even though the two I thought I was most likely to miss, Berlin and Pittman, were two I guessed correctly.
I kept: Ogbonnaya, Curry, Todd Johnson, and Burton.
The Rams kept: Nate Jones, David Roach, Eric Young, Roger Allen and Quinton Culberson.
Yes, I know that doesn't match. I cut one player too many in RamView Friday night. (Another good reason I'll never be an NFL GM.) Had I realized that, I probably would have kept Phil Trautwein as the ninth lineman, or Tim Carter as the 6th receiver, though; wouldn't have helped my average. I never saw it with Young; Allen's presence surprises me mainly because there's 5 other guys on the roster who can play guard, and guard is all he plays.
Surprises thus far, some of which I've mentioned already:
* Ten offensive linemen on the final roster.
* Four running backs.
* Ron Curry cut in favor of Jones.
* David Roach on the roster despite a multitude of bad plays in preseason.
I would imagine they'll pick up another RB off waivers and cut one of the offensive linemen. Keep an eye on those transaction wires.
I went 16 for 21 on my projected cuts in Friday's RamView, even though the two I thought I was most likely to miss, Berlin and Pittman, were two I guessed correctly.
I kept: Ogbonnaya, Curry, Todd Johnson, and Burton.
The Rams kept: Nate Jones, David Roach, Eric Young, Roger Allen and Quinton Culberson.
Yes, I know that doesn't match. I cut one player too many in RamView Friday night. (Another good reason I'll never be an NFL GM.) Had I realized that, I probably would have kept Phil Trautwein as the ninth lineman, or Tim Carter as the 6th receiver, though; wouldn't have helped my average. I never saw it with Young; Allen's presence surprises me mainly because there's 5 other guys on the roster who can play guard, and guard is all he plays.
Surprises thus far, some of which I've mentioned already:
* Ten offensive linemen on the final roster.
* Four running backs.
* Ron Curry cut in favor of Jones.
* David Roach on the roster despite a multitude of bad plays in preseason.
I would imagine they'll pick up another RB off waivers and cut one of the offensive linemen. Keep an eye on those transaction wires.
Rams make cuts
They're down to 54, which means there's one move left to make...
Players cut:
QB: Brock Berlin
RB: Chris Ogbonnaya, Antonio Pittman
FB: Jerome Johnson
WR: Ronald Curry, Tim Carter, Shawn Walker
TE: Eric Nelson
OT: Phil Trautwein, Renardo Foster
OG: Roy Schuening
C: Tim Mattran
DE: Ian Campbell
DT: Antwan Burton
LB: K.C. Asiodu, Dominic Douglas
S: Todd Johnson, Mark Rubin
CB: Cord Parks
IR: Adam Carriker
I do not believe Carriker costs them a roster spot, but if he does, they actually still have two moves to make.
Quick hits on the cuts:
* At the moment it looks like Nate Jones has beaten out Curry and Carter for WR5. They wouldn't keep just 4 WRs, would they? I like Jones but am surprised he beat out Curry.
* 5 others I thought would be cut by now: T Eric Young, G Roger Allen, DE Eric Moore, LB Quinton Culberson, S David Roach. Roach is the big surprise to me of that group, but Todd Johnson wasn't setting the world on fire, either.
* Interesting roster balance at the moment: 10 offensive linemen, 6 defensive ends, 7 linebackers, just 4 running backs.
* Certainly there are still some moves on the way besides the solitary remaining cut.
Players cut:
QB: Brock Berlin
RB: Chris Ogbonnaya, Antonio Pittman
FB: Jerome Johnson
WR: Ronald Curry, Tim Carter, Shawn Walker
TE: Eric Nelson
OT: Phil Trautwein, Renardo Foster
OG: Roy Schuening
C: Tim Mattran
DE: Ian Campbell
DT: Antwan Burton
LB: K.C. Asiodu, Dominic Douglas
S: Todd Johnson, Mark Rubin
CB: Cord Parks
IR: Adam Carriker
I do not believe Carriker costs them a roster spot, but if he does, they actually still have two moves to make.
Quick hits on the cuts:
* At the moment it looks like Nate Jones has beaten out Curry and Carter for WR5. They wouldn't keep just 4 WRs, would they? I like Jones but am surprised he beat out Curry.
* 5 others I thought would be cut by now: T Eric Young, G Roger Allen, DE Eric Moore, LB Quinton Culberson, S David Roach. Roach is the big surprise to me of that group, but Todd Johnson wasn't setting the world on fire, either.
* Interesting roster balance at the moment: 10 offensive linemen, 6 defensive ends, 7 linebackers, just 4 running backs.
* Certainly there are still some moves on the way besides the solitary remaining cut.
Friday, September 4, 2009
RamView, 9/3/2009: Rams 17, Kansas City 9
RamView, September 3, 2009
From Row HH
(Report and opinions from the game.)
Preseason Game #4: Rams 17, Chiefs 9
The St. Louis Rams – 2009 Missouri state champs! But more important than that, believe it or not, were the final intrasquad contests, at nearly every position. RamView will now take on the daunting task of breaking down those battles while not detracting from the historical nature of the Rams bringing the storied Governor’s Cup back east…
* QB: Whoever won the fight at third QB tonight didn’t do it by knockout. Brock Berlin (9-17-97) probably had the better night, despite a bad interception deep in the Rams’ own end in the 2nd. Berlin underthrew what was supposed to be a quick out for Daniel Fells. Hard to believe he didn’t see DaJuan Morgan out there, so I’m assuming the throw was worse than the decision was. Berlin played the second quarter and led the Rams on an earlier TD drive, making several nice throws along the way. After being robbed of a 33-yard TD pass thanks to Derek Stanley’s brutal drop, he hit Nate Jones on the sideline at the 6 with a 27- yard pass, and shortly after, drilled a pass to Fells in traffic at the goal line for the go-ahead TD. Berlin’s engineered some TD drives this summer; his ability to finish drives has to work in his favor. Keith Null (9-17-78) auditioned the whole second half, hitting only one long throw of note, as 23-yarder to Sean Walker. Null didn’t show a lot of touch on what you’d have to call classic WCO throws. Several of the five-yard slant-variety throws he made were high, hard ones his receiver couldn’t handle. Easy there, hoss. Null also fumbled on a completely-blown running play and walked right into a sack in the 4th. Tonight’s starter was actually Kyle Boller (3-4-24), who barely broke even if you take away the 18 yards he lost on just two sacks. I have no idea what the decision’s going to be at QB. Taking the snap from center, having to deal with blitzes, Null hasn’t looked ready to run the offense the last couple of weeks. Yeah, about as ready as Berlin was to play in Cincinnati a couple of years ago. And Steve Spagnuolo’s last team in New York wasn’t that concerned about entering recent seasons without much experience at third string, like Andre Woodson or Hefty Lefty Lorenzen, both 7th-round picks iirc. The guess here is that Berlin’s really going to wish he had that interception back. Waiver bait: Berlin.
* RB: The muddle behind Steven Jackson on the depth chart got even more muddled when Samkon Gado (6-17) left the game due to a rib injury. And even more muddled because the other backs didn’t make much of their golden ticket. Antonio Pittman (3-3) made a couple of nice blitz pickups but didn’t find much running room. Kenneth Darby (3-14) weaved through the middle nicely a couple of times. Chris Ogbannaya (12-41) got extensive work in the 2nd half. He popped a couple of 10-yard runs early but spent the rest of the game mostly running into pileups at the line. His field vision still seems a work in progress; he seemed to have many lanes or opportunities to bounce a play outside that he just didn’t see. Or when he did see them, he was a step late getting to them and couldn’t take advantage. My guess? Obie needs to use the force. He’s thinking too much. If he plays a little more instinctively, he’ll break off more long runs. Ahead of him? I have no idea again, especially with Gado’s injury clouding the waters. Darby ran better tonight, and has added advantages over Pittman as a receiver and a kick returner. But as at QB, I won’t be surprised if I’m completely wrong here. Waiver bait: Pittman, FB Jerome Johnson.
* WR: Besides Donnie Avery (0-0) taking the field for 10-12 snaps, the most notable development in the receiving corps was Ronald Curry locking down a roster spot with 3 catches for 40 yards. He showed some moves after the catch and that he can find the soft spots underneath the zone. Derek Stanley (3-23) completely blew what should have been a TD catch in the 2nd by letting the ball get into his body, but helped make his case later with a determined run through a tackle on an end around or a first down. And he’s the likely punt returner. The wideout merry-go-round probably stops there, though. Tim Carter (2-10), who was here on a flyer anyway, hasn’t made a whole lot happen and failed to make a couple of catches tonight, though he was hit heavily on both. Sean Walker (2-37) and Nate Jones (1-27) each made nice longer plays but have never cracked the higher echelons of the depth chart. Daniel Fells had a tough TD catch of a Berlin fast ball, while Randy McMichael missed more blocks tonight, had a lot of trouble with Mike Vrabel, and really needs to stop disappointing me. Waiver bait: Carter and TE Eric Butler; practice squad: Walker and probably Jones.
* Offensive line: Rams Nation was probably more worried about pass protection than run blocking heading into training camp, but the Rams only netted 2.2 yards a rush attempt tonight and really have to do a better job of taking over the line of scrimmage. Doesn’t really matter to me that Richie Incognito was out, either. You can fall down for 2 yards a rush. The Rams have to do better. Starting line was Smith and Barron at the tackles, Goldberg and Bell at guard, Brown at center. Smith, later joined by McMichael, had a ton of trouble with Tamba Hali and Mike Vrabel over on the right side. Hali went through Smith like he wasn’t even there for a sack that killed the Rams’ second drive. The first play of the game was a sack of Boller that lost 12, with Chiefs pouring up the middle on what I can only guess was meant to be a screen pass, judging from the way Boller held on to the ball. Gado even made a hard hit to pick up one of the blitzers, but to no avail. I have difficulty blaming the line for the third sack; Null unalertly stepped up right into that. Smith settled down and played better than early on when Hali beat him consistently, but his better play (some at LT) was not against starters. If they start him against Seattle, Boller will be stepping in for Bulger before the first quarter’s over. Waiver bait: T Eric Young, C Tim Mattran, T Renardo Foster. Practice squad: T Phil Trautwein, G Roy Schuening, G Roger Allen. Schuening’s the 4th pure guard, and with Goldberg and Setterstrom able to move inside in a pinch, he’s really down in the numbers game. Trautwein’s been getting in ahead of Foster; if the Rams do go with a ninth lineman, I think it would be him.
* Defensive line / LB: The defense won ugly again tonight. The first unit pass rush did nothing whatsoever and the defense failed badly several times in golden field position, giving up huge plays. They made up for most of it though, by winning the turnover battle again and keeping Kansas City out of the end zone. Victor Adeyanju already had a job but put it in stone with one of the night’s top defensive performances. His hard hit sacking Brody Croyle in the 2nd was one of the highlights of the night. He pressured the pocket well and played like his hair was on fire. The sack was a huge play, too, coming on 3rd down in the red zone and forcing a FG. The other sack was by C. J. Ah You (or as D’Marco Farr says, Au Jus), who won himself a job tonight. The sack punctuated a 3-and-out in the 2nd, and he forced a FG when he missed a sack but still got up to chase Croyle out of bounds on 3rd down. He consistently pressured the pocket, like he’s done all summer. Eric Moore had the unfortunate timing of having a quieter game and getting hurt late (broken hand). The defense needed to make the big plays to force FGs that they did because they gave up several HIDEOUS long plays. Punts pinned the Chiefs deep inside their 10 THREE times and the defense blew them ALL, and badly. A 40-yard pass to Sean Ryan from the Chief 13 was followed by a 41-yard Larry Johnson run. The Johnson run was against a zone blitz – you see Chris Long back-pedal at the start of the play and get picked off by a lineman well out of his DE position to create a big hole, with David Roach following with his best Mike Furrey impression. Dantrell Savage got the Chiefs off their 2-yard line with a SEVENTY yard run in the 2nd. Teams are supposed to STUFF runs in that part of the field, let alone get gashed for SEVENTY. Savage ran right by Adam Carriker, who grabbed him while being blocked and didn’t appear to realize he had the ball. Quincy Butler’s horrible missed tackle then really sent Savage to the races. The Chiefs’ 2:00 offense got from their 6 to across midfield in just three plays, but time ran out on them and preserved the Rams’ lead. I iso’ed a lot on Carriker tonight and was almost completely unimpressed. He played the second quarter and got double-team attention early, but also couldn’t get any penetration one-on-one against either Mike Goff or Brian Waters. I think what barely saves his job is that he was able to split some double-teaming late in the quarter and put some pressure on the passer, and Antwan Burton had a quiet game against lesser competition. The third-string linebackers probably outplayed the second string. Dominic Douglas broke up a pass to save a TD late in the game, while Chamberlain got burned on that long TE pass. Waiver bait: Moore (sorry), DE Ian Campbell, LBs Quinton Culberson, K.C. Asiodu. Practice squad: Douglas. IR: Carriker, since late word says he has a “serious” shoulder injury. That would save Burton a pink slip.
* Secondary: David Roach’s name shows up in all the Rams’ worst plays tonight. TE Sean Ryan beat Chris Chamberlain badly downfield, with Roach late to close from safety, for a 40-yard gain in the first. Roach missed a diving tackle on Johnson’s long run and got squashed like a bug by a downfield block on the Savage run. But his worst play was a 40-plus yard bomb to Ashley Lelie in the second half. His reaction on the play was terrible; Lelie had already turned and practically signaled a fair catch on the underthrown long ball before Roach even figured out what was going on. Roach is practice squad material because he’s played hard and made a few good plays. NFL.com scores him with forcing the Quentin Lawrence fumble in the 3rd. But WAY too many mistakes. Quincy Butler had to atone for his terrible missed tackle on the long Savage run, and he did with interest, making the play he’s been making all preseason on passes out in the flat, jumping the route, picking off the pass and returning to the house. VINTAGE QUINCY BUTLER! That pick put the Rams ahead 14-9. Justin King helped make it 17-9 later with an acrobatic, one-handed catch on a just-STUPID falling shot put of a throw by Tyler Thigpen. The radio broadcast mentioned, and I agree with, the idea that the move to dump Tye Hill earlier this week sparked the rest of the secondary’s play. Also credit Bradley Fletcher and Todd Johnson for tracking down Savage and LJ on their long runs. Waiver bait: Mark Rubin; practice squad: Roach.
* Special teams: Though the defense never took advantage, Donnie Jones was a lethal weapon, with punts downed at the 1, 2, and 6, while still averaging 47.6 a shot. His clutch 61-yard rocket down to the Chief 6 late in the 4th quarter proved key to keeping them off the board. Josh Brown hit a short FG but was visibly pissed earlier in the game when Spagnuolo sent in the punting team in lieu of letting him try a 54-yarder. Coverage was much more effective than last week. Chief returners basically got nowhere. Cord Parks did all the returns but was nothing special, though I do like that he heads immediately upfield on punt returns. Practice squad: Parks.
* Coaching: Tonight showed more reasons to have optimism in the Steve Spagnuolo regime. For instance, he lets his coordinators call the plays and stays out of their way. Contrast that with fellow rookie head coach Todd Haley of the Chiefs, who just fired his OC and is now his team’s head coach, offensive coordinator AND QBs coach. That’s way too many hats, and all the goofy quasi-psycho intense glares on the sideline won’t fix that. There was a spot tonight when Haley the head coach should have been challenging a play – the Lawrence fumble stood a good chance of being overturned if reviewed – but instead, Haley the OC was over on the bench meeting with the offense. Spagnuolo knows his role, and looks to be free of the I-have-to-do-everything hubris that catches many new head coaches. It caught Scott Linehan and it’s certain to catch Haley.
Another thing to like about the Rams coaching staff is that things that go wrong one week tend to get fixed the next. Ten penalties last week; just four tonight. Awful punt coverage last week; every punt return shut down tonight. The backs couldn’t pick up the blitz in New York to save their lives; they’ve picked blitzes up pretty well ever since. There’s no “shoot, we’ll fix that” going on here – they just get it fixed.
The zone blitz actually worked early tonight, on the first third down of the game where Jonathan Wade shot in to blow up a Jamaal Charles run. But it also got burned big on the long Larry Johnson run, and I ask again: what is the infatuation with dropping Chris Long into pass coverage? Pat Shurmur rolled out a little bit of Wildcat formation tonight, though the play turned out just to be a bland run up the middle for Gado. Gained 5, though.
Does the coaching staff have this team ready for the regular season? Something else I don’t know. The lack of pass rush and the gashing big plays would say no. Keeping the opponent out of the end zone and winning the turnover battle again, though, speak better to their readiness. Also figure in the lack of intensity of the fourth preseason game and the many Rams players who sat out, and we’re not really going to learn much about the team’s readiness until the regular season starts in Seattle in 10 days.
* Waiver bait: Quick review of my cut projections (20 instead of 21, expecting an IR on Carriker) – 1) Berlin, 2) Pittman, 3) Jerome Johnson, 4) Tim Carter, 5) Eric Butler, 6) Eric Young, 7) Mattran, 8) Foster, 9) Eric Moore, 10) Asiodu, 11) Culberson, 12) Rubin. Practice squad: 1) Sean Walker, 2) Nate Jones, 3) Schuening, 4) Roger Allen, 5) Trautwein, 6) Douglas, 7) Roach, 8) Parks. Immediate disclaimer: I’m expecting to have a bad year projecting cuts; this has been one of the least predictable years in memory, with many close contests.
* Upon further review: Folks who saw the game on TV can correct me, but I thought the Carl Cheffers crew would have had significant calls overturned on replay. The replay official seemed to be asleep at the switch. It’s hard to believe Fells’ TD, which came right after the first half 2:00 warning, wasn’t challenged by the booth. Wasn’t that apparent to me or the Rams radio crew that he got in. Looked like Lawrence could easily have been down before his fumble, but Haley wasn’t really paying attention to challenge it. And it looked very much like Carter actually possessed and then fumbled a pass to him that was ruled incomplete. If the crew actually got three pivotal bang-bang plays right, then more power to them. They certainly looked open to question to me. Grade: D+.
* Cheers: The gameday experience at the Dome continues to improve. The primary game clock has been moved back up to the middle of the top “ribbon”, where it is much bigger and easier to find and read than it was in a couple of weeks ago in the lower position. A lot of fans mentioned they had trouble with the location of the game clock last game; sounds like our objections were heard. And a correction from last home game – the out-of-town scoreboard shows five games at a time. The halftime show was pee-wee football again this week; the national anthem was sung by a Ron Jeremy look-alike who gamely fought through microphone problems. And befitting the big event atmosphere of the Governor’s Cup game, the actual governor of Missouri was at the game to award the Rams the hallowed trophy. Unintentional comedy moment of the night came on radio pregame when Jim Hanifan enthused that the Rams had gotten a second round pick for Tye Hill. He was pretty disappointed after being informed that it was actually a seventh round pick. All that segment was missing was Emily Littella saying “Never mind!”
* Who’s next?: The Seattle Seahawks have beaten the St. Louis Rams EIGHT straight times. I’ve said more than once that this has to be the least-deserved winning streak in sports. Two of the wins were by game-ending FGs. One came courtesy of Gus Frerotte’s crap luck. A 4-12 team doesn’t deserve to beat anybody twice in one season, yet Seattle did just that to the Rams last year. Now the Rams get the unwelcome chore of opening the 2009 season at Dopily-Spelled Telecom Company Field, where Seattle went 33-7 from 2003-2007, to try to break this streak, and the wills of 67,000 screaming fans.
Will the 2009 Seahawks be more like the 2007 team (10-6), or 2008 (4-12)? Seattle fans have reason to hope the former. The 29th-rated passing offense of last year should get a nice bump back up the ratings. Matt Hasselbeck’s back after missing over half of last season, and a team that took the field some weeks missing its first SEVEN options at wideout looks healthy now, with Nate Burleson back, joined by one of the offseason’s bigger acquisitions in T.J. Houshmandzadeh. Judging from Seattle’s personnel at RB, though, they must have picked 10th in the fantasy league this year. Edgerrin James may start, and if it’s not Edge, it’s Julius Jones (who’s certainly had his moments against the Rams), with quietly-dangerous Justin Forsett as the third-down back. (Watch the screen!) Rams fans, though, have reason for hope of their own, because the Seabird offensive line is in more flux than the Obama healthcare plan. They’ll be missing as many as three starters on the line. Center Chris Spencer is out, though replacement Steve Vallos is fairly capable. They’ll have a rookie, Max Unger, at RG. And regular LT/legend Walter Jones missed the preseason because of knee surgery. He’ll either be rusty (think Orlando Pace against the Broncos last Sunday), or more likely, on the bench in favor of Shaun Locklear. And Seattle would be better off with Heather Locklear at LT, because defenders would at least slow down to check her out on their way to the QB and might not drill Hasselbeck as hard. This is an offensive line meant to be exploited by an attacking defense. If the Rams are who we think they are, this should be like leaving a raw steak out for a Rottweiler. It should get devoured.
That goes both ways, though. The Seattle pass rush has had spectacular success against the Ram o-line in the past. Darryl Tapp’s matching up on either Adam Goldberg, who’s too slow to keep up with him, or Jason Smith, who I don’t think is ready for him. Patrick Kerney’s spent a lot of his career in the Rams backfield. LeRoy Hill is a proven (and well-paid) threat to Rams QBs and RBs alike. Their defense should be solid up the middle, with pocket-crusher Brandon Mebane, free agent/widebody acquisition Colin Cole and Lofa Tatupu backing the big men up. And we’ll get early indications on how good or bad a choice the Rams made to pass on Aaron Curry in the draft. Seattle’s a fast, attacking front that has given the Rams worse fits than Brandon Marshall in training camp over the years. One hopes the Rams can counterattack with Steven Jackson running behind Smith/Goldberg, to at least keep Tapp off balance. The Seahawk secondary is quite weak if the Rams give their QB enough time to attack it. Their overall D was 30th in the league because their pass defense came in dead last. They intercepted very few passes, while rating as one of the league’s worst teams in allowing 20- and 40-yard completions. And the hot question in Seattle isn’t whether Marcus Trufant will miss the opener, it’s whether he will be put on injured reserve due to a bad back. I’d like to see Donnie Avery get a bunch of shots next Sunday, and I don’t mean swine flu. Or Jagermeister.
The home of Microsoft is a fitting place for the rollout of the latest version of the St. Louis Rams. The Rams coaching staff has put in the overtime and implemented their design. Have they worked out enough of the bugs? Will Rams 2009 run smoothly on the Seattle platform, or will the Seahawks greet them with the blue screen of death? I’m the incurable optimist right now; I think the Rams have a good shot at breaking Seattle’s streak next Sunday. But we’ll all have to log on then and find out.
--Mike
Game stats from nfl.com
From Row HH
(Report and opinions from the game.)
Preseason Game #4: Rams 17, Chiefs 9
The St. Louis Rams – 2009 Missouri state champs! But more important than that, believe it or not, were the final intrasquad contests, at nearly every position. RamView will now take on the daunting task of breaking down those battles while not detracting from the historical nature of the Rams bringing the storied Governor’s Cup back east…
* QB: Whoever won the fight at third QB tonight didn’t do it by knockout. Brock Berlin (9-17-97) probably had the better night, despite a bad interception deep in the Rams’ own end in the 2nd. Berlin underthrew what was supposed to be a quick out for Daniel Fells. Hard to believe he didn’t see DaJuan Morgan out there, so I’m assuming the throw was worse than the decision was. Berlin played the second quarter and led the Rams on an earlier TD drive, making several nice throws along the way. After being robbed of a 33-yard TD pass thanks to Derek Stanley’s brutal drop, he hit Nate Jones on the sideline at the 6 with a 27- yard pass, and shortly after, drilled a pass to Fells in traffic at the goal line for the go-ahead TD. Berlin’s engineered some TD drives this summer; his ability to finish drives has to work in his favor. Keith Null (9-17-78) auditioned the whole second half, hitting only one long throw of note, as 23-yarder to Sean Walker. Null didn’t show a lot of touch on what you’d have to call classic WCO throws. Several of the five-yard slant-variety throws he made were high, hard ones his receiver couldn’t handle. Easy there, hoss. Null also fumbled on a completely-blown running play and walked right into a sack in the 4th. Tonight’s starter was actually Kyle Boller (3-4-24), who barely broke even if you take away the 18 yards he lost on just two sacks. I have no idea what the decision’s going to be at QB. Taking the snap from center, having to deal with blitzes, Null hasn’t looked ready to run the offense the last couple of weeks. Yeah, about as ready as Berlin was to play in Cincinnati a couple of years ago. And Steve Spagnuolo’s last team in New York wasn’t that concerned about entering recent seasons without much experience at third string, like Andre Woodson or Hefty Lefty Lorenzen, both 7th-round picks iirc. The guess here is that Berlin’s really going to wish he had that interception back. Waiver bait: Berlin.
* RB: The muddle behind Steven Jackson on the depth chart got even more muddled when Samkon Gado (6-17) left the game due to a rib injury. And even more muddled because the other backs didn’t make much of their golden ticket. Antonio Pittman (3-3) made a couple of nice blitz pickups but didn’t find much running room. Kenneth Darby (3-14) weaved through the middle nicely a couple of times. Chris Ogbannaya (12-41) got extensive work in the 2nd half. He popped a couple of 10-yard runs early but spent the rest of the game mostly running into pileups at the line. His field vision still seems a work in progress; he seemed to have many lanes or opportunities to bounce a play outside that he just didn’t see. Or when he did see them, he was a step late getting to them and couldn’t take advantage. My guess? Obie needs to use the force. He’s thinking too much. If he plays a little more instinctively, he’ll break off more long runs. Ahead of him? I have no idea again, especially with Gado’s injury clouding the waters. Darby ran better tonight, and has added advantages over Pittman as a receiver and a kick returner. But as at QB, I won’t be surprised if I’m completely wrong here. Waiver bait: Pittman, FB Jerome Johnson.
* WR: Besides Donnie Avery (0-0) taking the field for 10-12 snaps, the most notable development in the receiving corps was Ronald Curry locking down a roster spot with 3 catches for 40 yards. He showed some moves after the catch and that he can find the soft spots underneath the zone. Derek Stanley (3-23) completely blew what should have been a TD catch in the 2nd by letting the ball get into his body, but helped make his case later with a determined run through a tackle on an end around or a first down. And he’s the likely punt returner. The wideout merry-go-round probably stops there, though. Tim Carter (2-10), who was here on a flyer anyway, hasn’t made a whole lot happen and failed to make a couple of catches tonight, though he was hit heavily on both. Sean Walker (2-37) and Nate Jones (1-27) each made nice longer plays but have never cracked the higher echelons of the depth chart. Daniel Fells had a tough TD catch of a Berlin fast ball, while Randy McMichael missed more blocks tonight, had a lot of trouble with Mike Vrabel, and really needs to stop disappointing me. Waiver bait: Carter and TE Eric Butler; practice squad: Walker and probably Jones.
* Offensive line: Rams Nation was probably more worried about pass protection than run blocking heading into training camp, but the Rams only netted 2.2 yards a rush attempt tonight and really have to do a better job of taking over the line of scrimmage. Doesn’t really matter to me that Richie Incognito was out, either. You can fall down for 2 yards a rush. The Rams have to do better. Starting line was Smith and Barron at the tackles, Goldberg and Bell at guard, Brown at center. Smith, later joined by McMichael, had a ton of trouble with Tamba Hali and Mike Vrabel over on the right side. Hali went through Smith like he wasn’t even there for a sack that killed the Rams’ second drive. The first play of the game was a sack of Boller that lost 12, with Chiefs pouring up the middle on what I can only guess was meant to be a screen pass, judging from the way Boller held on to the ball. Gado even made a hard hit to pick up one of the blitzers, but to no avail. I have difficulty blaming the line for the third sack; Null unalertly stepped up right into that. Smith settled down and played better than early on when Hali beat him consistently, but his better play (some at LT) was not against starters. If they start him against Seattle, Boller will be stepping in for Bulger before the first quarter’s over. Waiver bait: T Eric Young, C Tim Mattran, T Renardo Foster. Practice squad: T Phil Trautwein, G Roy Schuening, G Roger Allen. Schuening’s the 4th pure guard, and with Goldberg and Setterstrom able to move inside in a pinch, he’s really down in the numbers game. Trautwein’s been getting in ahead of Foster; if the Rams do go with a ninth lineman, I think it would be him.
* Defensive line / LB: The defense won ugly again tonight. The first unit pass rush did nothing whatsoever and the defense failed badly several times in golden field position, giving up huge plays. They made up for most of it though, by winning the turnover battle again and keeping Kansas City out of the end zone. Victor Adeyanju already had a job but put it in stone with one of the night’s top defensive performances. His hard hit sacking Brody Croyle in the 2nd was one of the highlights of the night. He pressured the pocket well and played like his hair was on fire. The sack was a huge play, too, coming on 3rd down in the red zone and forcing a FG. The other sack was by C. J. Ah You (or as D’Marco Farr says, Au Jus), who won himself a job tonight. The sack punctuated a 3-and-out in the 2nd, and he forced a FG when he missed a sack but still got up to chase Croyle out of bounds on 3rd down. He consistently pressured the pocket, like he’s done all summer. Eric Moore had the unfortunate timing of having a quieter game and getting hurt late (broken hand). The defense needed to make the big plays to force FGs that they did because they gave up several HIDEOUS long plays. Punts pinned the Chiefs deep inside their 10 THREE times and the defense blew them ALL, and badly. A 40-yard pass to Sean Ryan from the Chief 13 was followed by a 41-yard Larry Johnson run. The Johnson run was against a zone blitz – you see Chris Long back-pedal at the start of the play and get picked off by a lineman well out of his DE position to create a big hole, with David Roach following with his best Mike Furrey impression. Dantrell Savage got the Chiefs off their 2-yard line with a SEVENTY yard run in the 2nd. Teams are supposed to STUFF runs in that part of the field, let alone get gashed for SEVENTY. Savage ran right by Adam Carriker, who grabbed him while being blocked and didn’t appear to realize he had the ball. Quincy Butler’s horrible missed tackle then really sent Savage to the races. The Chiefs’ 2:00 offense got from their 6 to across midfield in just three plays, but time ran out on them and preserved the Rams’ lead. I iso’ed a lot on Carriker tonight and was almost completely unimpressed. He played the second quarter and got double-team attention early, but also couldn’t get any penetration one-on-one against either Mike Goff or Brian Waters. I think what barely saves his job is that he was able to split some double-teaming late in the quarter and put some pressure on the passer, and Antwan Burton had a quiet game against lesser competition. The third-string linebackers probably outplayed the second string. Dominic Douglas broke up a pass to save a TD late in the game, while Chamberlain got burned on that long TE pass. Waiver bait: Moore (sorry), DE Ian Campbell, LBs Quinton Culberson, K.C. Asiodu. Practice squad: Douglas. IR: Carriker, since late word says he has a “serious” shoulder injury. That would save Burton a pink slip.
* Secondary: David Roach’s name shows up in all the Rams’ worst plays tonight. TE Sean Ryan beat Chris Chamberlain badly downfield, with Roach late to close from safety, for a 40-yard gain in the first. Roach missed a diving tackle on Johnson’s long run and got squashed like a bug by a downfield block on the Savage run. But his worst play was a 40-plus yard bomb to Ashley Lelie in the second half. His reaction on the play was terrible; Lelie had already turned and practically signaled a fair catch on the underthrown long ball before Roach even figured out what was going on. Roach is practice squad material because he’s played hard and made a few good plays. NFL.com scores him with forcing the Quentin Lawrence fumble in the 3rd. But WAY too many mistakes. Quincy Butler had to atone for his terrible missed tackle on the long Savage run, and he did with interest, making the play he’s been making all preseason on passes out in the flat, jumping the route, picking off the pass and returning to the house. VINTAGE QUINCY BUTLER! That pick put the Rams ahead 14-9. Justin King helped make it 17-9 later with an acrobatic, one-handed catch on a just-STUPID falling shot put of a throw by Tyler Thigpen. The radio broadcast mentioned, and I agree with, the idea that the move to dump Tye Hill earlier this week sparked the rest of the secondary’s play. Also credit Bradley Fletcher and Todd Johnson for tracking down Savage and LJ on their long runs. Waiver bait: Mark Rubin; practice squad: Roach.
* Special teams: Though the defense never took advantage, Donnie Jones was a lethal weapon, with punts downed at the 1, 2, and 6, while still averaging 47.6 a shot. His clutch 61-yard rocket down to the Chief 6 late in the 4th quarter proved key to keeping them off the board. Josh Brown hit a short FG but was visibly pissed earlier in the game when Spagnuolo sent in the punting team in lieu of letting him try a 54-yarder. Coverage was much more effective than last week. Chief returners basically got nowhere. Cord Parks did all the returns but was nothing special, though I do like that he heads immediately upfield on punt returns. Practice squad: Parks.
* Coaching: Tonight showed more reasons to have optimism in the Steve Spagnuolo regime. For instance, he lets his coordinators call the plays and stays out of their way. Contrast that with fellow rookie head coach Todd Haley of the Chiefs, who just fired his OC and is now his team’s head coach, offensive coordinator AND QBs coach. That’s way too many hats, and all the goofy quasi-psycho intense glares on the sideline won’t fix that. There was a spot tonight when Haley the head coach should have been challenging a play – the Lawrence fumble stood a good chance of being overturned if reviewed – but instead, Haley the OC was over on the bench meeting with the offense. Spagnuolo knows his role, and looks to be free of the I-have-to-do-everything hubris that catches many new head coaches. It caught Scott Linehan and it’s certain to catch Haley.
Another thing to like about the Rams coaching staff is that things that go wrong one week tend to get fixed the next. Ten penalties last week; just four tonight. Awful punt coverage last week; every punt return shut down tonight. The backs couldn’t pick up the blitz in New York to save their lives; they’ve picked blitzes up pretty well ever since. There’s no “shoot, we’ll fix that” going on here – they just get it fixed.
The zone blitz actually worked early tonight, on the first third down of the game where Jonathan Wade shot in to blow up a Jamaal Charles run. But it also got burned big on the long Larry Johnson run, and I ask again: what is the infatuation with dropping Chris Long into pass coverage? Pat Shurmur rolled out a little bit of Wildcat formation tonight, though the play turned out just to be a bland run up the middle for Gado. Gained 5, though.
Does the coaching staff have this team ready for the regular season? Something else I don’t know. The lack of pass rush and the gashing big plays would say no. Keeping the opponent out of the end zone and winning the turnover battle again, though, speak better to their readiness. Also figure in the lack of intensity of the fourth preseason game and the many Rams players who sat out, and we’re not really going to learn much about the team’s readiness until the regular season starts in Seattle in 10 days.
* Waiver bait: Quick review of my cut projections (20 instead of 21, expecting an IR on Carriker) – 1) Berlin, 2) Pittman, 3) Jerome Johnson, 4) Tim Carter, 5) Eric Butler, 6) Eric Young, 7) Mattran, 8) Foster, 9) Eric Moore, 10) Asiodu, 11) Culberson, 12) Rubin. Practice squad: 1) Sean Walker, 2) Nate Jones, 3) Schuening, 4) Roger Allen, 5) Trautwein, 6) Douglas, 7) Roach, 8) Parks. Immediate disclaimer: I’m expecting to have a bad year projecting cuts; this has been one of the least predictable years in memory, with many close contests.
* Upon further review: Folks who saw the game on TV can correct me, but I thought the Carl Cheffers crew would have had significant calls overturned on replay. The replay official seemed to be asleep at the switch. It’s hard to believe Fells’ TD, which came right after the first half 2:00 warning, wasn’t challenged by the booth. Wasn’t that apparent to me or the Rams radio crew that he got in. Looked like Lawrence could easily have been down before his fumble, but Haley wasn’t really paying attention to challenge it. And it looked very much like Carter actually possessed and then fumbled a pass to him that was ruled incomplete. If the crew actually got three pivotal bang-bang plays right, then more power to them. They certainly looked open to question to me. Grade: D+.
* Cheers: The gameday experience at the Dome continues to improve. The primary game clock has been moved back up to the middle of the top “ribbon”, where it is much bigger and easier to find and read than it was in a couple of weeks ago in the lower position. A lot of fans mentioned they had trouble with the location of the game clock last game; sounds like our objections were heard. And a correction from last home game – the out-of-town scoreboard shows five games at a time. The halftime show was pee-wee football again this week; the national anthem was sung by a Ron Jeremy look-alike who gamely fought through microphone problems. And befitting the big event atmosphere of the Governor’s Cup game, the actual governor of Missouri was at the game to award the Rams the hallowed trophy. Unintentional comedy moment of the night came on radio pregame when Jim Hanifan enthused that the Rams had gotten a second round pick for Tye Hill. He was pretty disappointed after being informed that it was actually a seventh round pick. All that segment was missing was Emily Littella saying “Never mind!”
* Who’s next?: The Seattle Seahawks have beaten the St. Louis Rams EIGHT straight times. I’ve said more than once that this has to be the least-deserved winning streak in sports. Two of the wins were by game-ending FGs. One came courtesy of Gus Frerotte’s crap luck. A 4-12 team doesn’t deserve to beat anybody twice in one season, yet Seattle did just that to the Rams last year. Now the Rams get the unwelcome chore of opening the 2009 season at Dopily-Spelled Telecom Company Field, where Seattle went 33-7 from 2003-2007, to try to break this streak, and the wills of 67,000 screaming fans.
Will the 2009 Seahawks be more like the 2007 team (10-6), or 2008 (4-12)? Seattle fans have reason to hope the former. The 29th-rated passing offense of last year should get a nice bump back up the ratings. Matt Hasselbeck’s back after missing over half of last season, and a team that took the field some weeks missing its first SEVEN options at wideout looks healthy now, with Nate Burleson back, joined by one of the offseason’s bigger acquisitions in T.J. Houshmandzadeh. Judging from Seattle’s personnel at RB, though, they must have picked 10th in the fantasy league this year. Edgerrin James may start, and if it’s not Edge, it’s Julius Jones (who’s certainly had his moments against the Rams), with quietly-dangerous Justin Forsett as the third-down back. (Watch the screen!) Rams fans, though, have reason for hope of their own, because the Seabird offensive line is in more flux than the Obama healthcare plan. They’ll be missing as many as three starters on the line. Center Chris Spencer is out, though replacement Steve Vallos is fairly capable. They’ll have a rookie, Max Unger, at RG. And regular LT/legend Walter Jones missed the preseason because of knee surgery. He’ll either be rusty (think Orlando Pace against the Broncos last Sunday), or more likely, on the bench in favor of Shaun Locklear. And Seattle would be better off with Heather Locklear at LT, because defenders would at least slow down to check her out on their way to the QB and might not drill Hasselbeck as hard. This is an offensive line meant to be exploited by an attacking defense. If the Rams are who we think they are, this should be like leaving a raw steak out for a Rottweiler. It should get devoured.
That goes both ways, though. The Seattle pass rush has had spectacular success against the Ram o-line in the past. Darryl Tapp’s matching up on either Adam Goldberg, who’s too slow to keep up with him, or Jason Smith, who I don’t think is ready for him. Patrick Kerney’s spent a lot of his career in the Rams backfield. LeRoy Hill is a proven (and well-paid) threat to Rams QBs and RBs alike. Their defense should be solid up the middle, with pocket-crusher Brandon Mebane, free agent/widebody acquisition Colin Cole and Lofa Tatupu backing the big men up. And we’ll get early indications on how good or bad a choice the Rams made to pass on Aaron Curry in the draft. Seattle’s a fast, attacking front that has given the Rams worse fits than Brandon Marshall in training camp over the years. One hopes the Rams can counterattack with Steven Jackson running behind Smith/Goldberg, to at least keep Tapp off balance. The Seahawk secondary is quite weak if the Rams give their QB enough time to attack it. Their overall D was 30th in the league because their pass defense came in dead last. They intercepted very few passes, while rating as one of the league’s worst teams in allowing 20- and 40-yard completions. And the hot question in Seattle isn’t whether Marcus Trufant will miss the opener, it’s whether he will be put on injured reserve due to a bad back. I’d like to see Donnie Avery get a bunch of shots next Sunday, and I don’t mean swine flu. Or Jagermeister.
The home of Microsoft is a fitting place for the rollout of the latest version of the St. Louis Rams. The Rams coaching staff has put in the overtime and implemented their design. Have they worked out enough of the bugs? Will Rams 2009 run smoothly on the Seattle platform, or will the Seahawks greet them with the blue screen of death? I’m the incurable optimist right now; I think the Rams have a good shot at breaking Seattle’s streak next Sunday. But we’ll all have to log on then and find out.
--Mike
Game stats from nfl.com
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
TMQ sucks, for the last time
This isn’t the first time I’ve written a post titled “TMQ Sucks” – the last time it was politically motivated, but TMQ earns the insult this time on football terms.
In Gregg Easterbrook’s 10,000-words-plus opus previewing the NFC at espn.com this week, he typically devotes 2 to 4 long paragraphs to a team. The Eagles got 4 paragraphs and 750 words, though admittedly, most of that was about Michael Vick and the Eagles’ overrated cheerleaders. (San Diego!) The Saints got 3 paragraphs and over 500 words. The Cardinals? 3 paragraphs, 400 words. Seattle? 3 paragraphs, 350 words. Whiners? 3 paragraphs, almost 500 words, not counting a 175-word paragraph about Rorshach testing.
The NFC Preview article had 7 paragraphs and 1,100 words on college football teams that schedule cupcakes, one of Easterbrook’s annual rants. Two paragraphs, 150 words on the increasingly-earlier commercialization of Christmas every year, a familiar (and tired) Easterbrook rant. Five paragraphs, 400 words devoted to the (appalling) notion that the word “atheist” is too mean-sounding and a new, more politically-correct term is needed to replace it. Really? 200 words on how college players have to practice too much. 6 paragraphs, 700 words ripping college football scandals (isn’t this the NFC Preview?). 6 paragraphs, 750 words discussing the real powers of governors with regard to the National Guard (isn’t this a football column?). He wrote several lines about upscale cupcake bakeries and several more about putting together a trampoline last Christmas.
Hey, it’s all cool, usually – TMQ’s trademark is that Easterbrook veers from the subject, and even if a lot of it is getting repetitive and tiring, when it’s not politically-motivated garbage, it’s still a decent read, still holding entertainment value. Shoot, as a guy who just cranked out almost 4,000 words on a preseason game, I’d like to think I share a kinship with Easterbrook, a brotherhood of gridiron logorrhea, if you will. Though I stick to the subject.
So anyway, I’m rooting through TMQ’s NFC Preview to see what he says about the Rams. We’ve got a new coach, one he’s talked about a lot before because his defense held the legendary 16-0 Patriots in check in Super Bowl 42. We drafted an offensive lineman first. Easterbrook loves when teams do that. Not only that, we’re expecting to emphasize the run in 2009 and spent our biggest free agent dollars on a center. We also got one of the best linebackers in college football history in the second round of the draft. Easterbrook’s gotta be loving this team.
Here, then, in its entirety, is Tuesday Morning Quarterback’s 2009 St. Louis Rams preview:
St. Louis: The Rams, who already have a player named Richie Incognito, drafted a player named Keith Null. I've seen Null play -- he's got nothing. The same may be said of a team on a 5-27 run.
Nope, I didn’t leave anything out. Barely 2 lines, less than 40 words. Hell, many of the column’s photograph captions go over 20 words!
And these aren’t even inspired words. A science geek like Easterbrook ought to have more Keith Null jokes than he knows what to do with. He could argue that his jersey shouldn’t be represented with a number. He could joke that no matter how he sorts the roster on the Rams’ website, Null stays on top. Instead of anything like that, we get a flat, apathetic one-sentence scouting report that isn’t even accurate. Null’s had two good outings, and a bad one last week. Has Easterbrook even actually watched him? I accuse; you decide.
Gregg Easterbrook doesn’t give a damn about the Rams, that much is clear. Three half-hearted, half-assed sentences from a guy who doesn’t give a crap that he spent SIX times as much space talking about the 0-16 Detroit Lions. Rams fans should return the favor in kind and quit giving a damn about his column. Read the good writing by devoted Rams fans all over the Web and ignore TMQ the way the column ignores our team.
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