Cutdown to 75 (updated)

Roster moves made by the Rams Monday:

Placed on injured reserve:
E.J. Gaines

Roster cuts:
Steven Baker
Travis Bond
Imoan Claiborne
Jay Hughes
Keshaun Malone
Tyler Ott
Michael Palardy
Tyler Slavin
Brad Smelley (waived injured)
Korey Toomer (waived injured)
David Wang
Damian Williams
Doug Worthington (assumed waived injured)


RamView's predictions were right for 9 of the first 13, and I figured they would keep Darrell Williams over Treetop Bond; possibly they have Williams targeted for the practice squad. I don't see what they see in Williams and think Bond has more than outplayed him. I don't think he is PS-eligible, though. Claiborne is a bigger surprise. He seemed to play well enough in games, and he sure made his mark on Dez Bryant. Toomer was a contributor on special teams last year, but Cameron Lynch has done well there, and has PS eligibility. Hard to predict what to do with injured players; Toomer was injured all camp. Same for Doug Worthington, who was cut Tuesday. Damian Williams is also a surprise, I can't believe anyone would think he hasn't outplayed Emory Blake.

I'd expect each of the backup QBs to play a quarter-plus Thursday night, though it's way too late for Austin Davis to do much about his fate.

-$-

First cut predictions

...since I haven't posted them here yet. Rams will move E.J. Gaines to IR and will have to release 13 other players to get down to 75. Predictions:

Steven Baker
Emory Blake
Austin Davis
Montell Garner
Jay Hughes
Zach Laskey
Keshaun Malone
Tyler Ott
Michael Palardy
Tyler Slavin
Brad Smelley
David Wang
Darrell Williams

Les Snead said during last night's broadcast that cuts will start being announced Monday.

-$-

RamView live blog, 8/29/2015: Colts 24, Rams 14

Like preseason game #2, game #3 for the Rams sees need for improvement over game #1 in just about every way, a really disturbing trend. But the starting offense has looked awful in landing a whole 3 points in roughly three quarters over two games. The defense that's supposed to carry this team hasn't been any better; Slack City has barely pressured a QB yet, let alone landed a sack. Gregg Williams' blitzes continue to never get there. The kicking game has even stunk, with Johnny Hekker flubbing 20-yarders and Greg Zuerlein making 50-yard attempts look like 70-yarders.

In every phase of the game, the St. Louis Rams are a team in need of signs of life. Some teams can afford to fade preseason games; does Jeff Fisher believe his Rams are one of those? Because they decidedly are NOT.

Andrew Siciliano, Marshall Faulk and Torry Holt on the mike for the "Rams Broadcast  Network". John Hussey likely to get a lot of mike work as tonight's flagmaster of ceremonies.

FIRST QUARTER
Colts kick off for a touchback to open. Barrett Jones at center, Demetrius Rhaney at RIGHT guard, so in a little-mentioned move, Jamon Brown has shifted to left guard. The dynamic Ram offense opens the game by IMMEDIATELY LOSING FIVE YARDS. An attempted Tre Mason sweep left fails miserably when neither TE on that side makes a block and Greg Robinson gets smoked. Freaking brilliant. WHY DO THE RAMS HAVE ANY OFFENSIVE PLAYS THAT RELY ON JARED COOK TO MAKE A BLOCK?!?! Great, this team has me yelling in caps after EXACTLY ONE PLAY. Brown saves Nick Foles' life after Trent Cole smoked Robinson (WAKE UP!) and Nick dumps off to Mason to re-gain the loss. Decent protection on 3rd-and-9, with Mason making a nice blitz pickup, but, of course, PENALTY NUMBER ONE, OPI on Tavon Austin after making a nice gain. Torry Holt is exactly right, though - that was NOT A PENALTY. Third-and-a-mile, so of course it's a useless dumpoff to Cook, and the 10% capacity home crowd sounds like it might, justifiably, be booing. Lamarcus Joyner gets away with bumping Donte Moncrief attempting to fair catch a 49-yard (!) Johnny Hekker punt. So far, so bad once AGAIN for the 2015 Rams.

Andrew Luck takes over at his 35. Aaron Donald (phew, he sat out practice Thursday) beats a TRIPLE-team and gets held (no flag) and still blows up, fittingly, a "Boom" Herron run for no gain. Akeem Ayers got the tackle but Donald did the crucial work. Janoris Jenkins breaks up a slant for Moncrief. But, no rush that play, and no rush the next play, either, and Luck's got Moncrief on a deep cross through the zone for 23. Draw to Herron for 7, as, rewind the 2013-14 lowlight reels, Chris Long gets driven inside by the TE. Ogletree gets initially fooled by the cutback but recovers to make the tackle. William Hayes and Lamarcus Joyner hold Josh Robinson to a short gain. 3rd-1, no edge seal by Long at all as he gets driven inside again and Herron takes a pitch right for an easy 5. Laurinaitis got sealed easily as well, and Joyner got blocked out of the play by feared blocker T.Y. Hilton. Another 4 for Herron, as Long is stuffed yet again and Donald and Brockers get no penetration. Robert Quinn stems the tide by knocking down a play-action pass. 3rd-7, a delayed double-LB blitz gives Luck plenty of time to throw but Hilton can't get his back foot down curling around the pylon. The Rams get away with a late hit on Luck and Jenkins getting a shove on Hilton in tight coverage. He Whose Name Will Not Be Spoken puts the Colts on the board. Colts 3, Rams 0

Sure, they held the opponent to a FG again, but the Rams for the THIRD STRAIGHT WEEK look like garbage on both sides of the ball. They have serious deficiencies (everyone wearing a number less than 99) in run defense and aren't pressuring the passer. Still tired from Oxnard, fellas?

OH FOR CRIPES SAKE THE COLTS RECOVER AN ONSIDE KICK. Cody Davis, in classic bad infielder form, lets the bouncing ball play him instead of the other way around, Zurlon Tipton beats him to it, and Indy recovers at midfield. To Cody's credit, he was not fooled by the play. To Cody's detriment, he did not make the play, as the Rams prove again that they are not sharp in ANY of the three aspects of the game. Marshall Faulk protests the Colts touched the ball first, but they did so more than ten yards downfield.

Search me why the Colts found it necessary to try the onside kick. Luck doesn't need the work. We already knew the Rams are sleep-walking through the whole preseason. There was nothing to prove here. Maybe they're pissed off about getting whipped by the Rams a couple of years ago. In any event, more lack of preparation by Jeff Fisher for a more motivated team. Nothing about that is acceptable.

St. Louis Rams

And, PENALTY NUMBER TWO, the super sharp Rams jump offside on Luck's hard count to open the drive. Quinn and Mr. Offside, Ethan Westbrooks. T.J. McDonald at least breaks up the deep corner pass for Andre Johnson. The secondary came to play tonight; the REST OF THE TEAM is welcome to join them at any time. 1st-and-5 Colts at the Ram 42. BIG HOLE FOR HERRON FOR 11. Has a coaching staff ever been fired during the preseason? I'm ready for it. Quinn and Westbrooks got turned and were rendered useless, Ogletree got blocked and could not fill, and Trumaine Johnson got steamrolled ten yards by Hilton. I hate typing so much about this, especially when my effort in doing so is twice what the Rams' is in playing tonight. What business on Vince Lombardi's green earth do these 6-10 clowns have in playing so non-chalantly? Then again, Louis Trinca-Pasat is already in the game. He's in on the tackle when Luck and Boom blow a handoff and Luck loses a yard eating the ball. Light rush at best on 2nd-11, but T.J. breaks up a pass that Dwayne Allen apparently didn't catch.

FUCKING PATHETIC. 4-man rush on 3rd-and-11, a reasonable call by Williams, but in a coverage he has already blown many times, Joyner turns out to cover a receiver he probably should have left to Jenkins, allowing Andre Johnson a completely free run out of the slot for a 32-yard TD. Jenkins scrambles over to try to make a play which is unfortunately a laughable whiff at a no-wrap shoulder tackle. Those tackles are stupid enough, Janoris, and they look especially stupid when you completely miss. Colts 10-0

If this team is trying to drive St. Louis fans away, they're doing a hell of a job. This game has been a complete farce so far.

Upon further review by Faulk, no, Joyner was fine on that play, but a LB was supposed to rotate over and pick up Johnson and didn't. Williams was rotating the coverage. Williams has done many times so far as Rams' DC, and the only people he's fooled ARE HIS OWN PLAYERS. STOP IT. JUST STOP IT. Who wants a LB covering Andre Johnson anyway, unless you are a simpleton?

St. Louis Rams

Rams at their own 20 and on pace to lose 80-0. AND WOW, A FREAKING FIRST DOWN. Nice play by Foles, nothing open deep, so he pulled it down, rolled left and hit Kenny Britt for 13. Robinson continues to get abused by Cole but shoved him down from behind to give Foles an escape hatch. Mason up the middle for 5, strong drive block by Barrett Jones and good job by Rob Havenstein collapsing down the line. Only 1 for Mason the next play, cutting back and into former Ram Kendall Langford, whom Torry Holt points out Cook barely blocked at all on the backside. Fortunately, Frank Cignetti fools 'em on 3rd-3 with a shotgun handoff that Mason takes around the right corner for 10 to midfield. Alert the media! Cook with a fine lead block that time. Decent-looking protection but nothing open downfield has Foles scrambling and dumping off to Corey Harkey. And, forget it. PENALTY NUMBER THREE, facemask, Barrett Jones. So much for field position. Now Bennie Cunningham gets stuffed in the hole, with Freeman making the fill the Rams LBs appear incapable of making this month. Rhaney whiffed on him. 2nd-25! (It's been Trent Cole beating Robinson at RDE, not Freeman. The 58 on Cole's jersey looks exactly like a 50.) Foles beats a bizarre Colt formation, though, with a screen to Benny for 14 back to midfield. Indy had three guys lined up over center and no DEs. Yeah, the screen was a little open. Nice block by Rhaney out front. Cole burns Robinson YET AGAIN on 3rd down, but Foles hits Mason, who no one picked up out of the back field, with a little dump pass for 17. And of course, Mason's injured on the play. Isaiah Pead's first carry is into a wall of Colts for no gain. Jones was the only Ram who made a block on that play. Quick swing pass to Pead for 3. 3rd-8, Foles goes immediately to Britt on the left sideline to counter a blitz from his right, but Kenny's shoved out of bounds a little short. Torry criticizes Britt for not "netting the sticks," but there wasn't time for it because of the hot read. The Rams go on 4th-and-inches and unadvisedly run wide, but Benny appears to get the 1st after a late lunging block by Rhaney. Rhaney's one of the few Rams who had a good first quarter, but they do end it in scoring range.

SECOND QUARTER
Another maybe not silver, but tinfoil lining is that Foles has been fine so far. He's making the most of what he's got. 3 for Benny with Barrett driving a guy about 10 yards out of the play. Benny for a couple more, safety came in untouched. On 3rd-5, PENALTY NUMBER FOUR, facemask, Rhaney, beaten soundly inside by the feared Kendall Langford. Goodbye, FG range! Humorously, Benny put such a hard chip block on Erik Walden that he knocked him out of Havenstein's path and gave him a free run to flush Foles. Walden needs no such help on 3rd-22, speeding past Havenstein easily for the first sack of the game. Rams got into FG range and then promptly lost 20. Held the ball a long time but didn't score a point. Nothing is changing. Nothing!

St. Louis Rams

Pead at least does a good job downing Hekker's punt at the 5. Donald buries the Boom for 1, then he and Michael Brockers blow up a draw to Boom for minus-3. Donald finishes the trifecta by blowing up Todd Herremans and nearly dropping the Boom for a safety. Finally some clutch defense this preseason! Damian Williams is apparently doing all the returning tonight, stumbles to the IND44 with the punt. The Ram D has set up the offense nicely; do something with it now.

St. Louis Rams

AND, TOUCHDOWN! Double-play fake, including a fake end-around to Tavon Austin, and Foles uncorks a perfect ball to Chris Givens (!) on a deep cross for the 44-yard TD. The play-action sucked in the LBs; a safety jumped up to cover up for them, but gave Givens all the room he needed while burning the other safety badly. Turned him inside out. I saw the Rams run this play in camp, but they only ever dumped off to Austin in the flat off of it. Love love love.

But of course, Jamon Brown is down after the play clutching his leg. I am getting really sick of Rams luck. He does limp off the field under his own power after the commercial break. Colts 10, Rams 7 The Rams are back in the game after a disaster of a first quarter on the strength of a couple of their leaders, Donald and Foles.

Moncrief to the 16 from nine deep, tackle by Marshall McFadden. Quick middle pass to Allen for 11 beats a three-man blitz. Ogletree whiffs on Robinson at the line, and he gains 3. Screen to Robinson for 4, good hit by Ogletree. Clutch PENALTY NUMBER FIVE on 3rd-and-3, though, as TruJo held Moncrief while denying a quick slant. Somehow this penalty was charged to McDonald. With Jenkins ten yards off Hilton, Luck's quick hitch to him logically gets 5. Trinca-Pasat and Akeem Ayers both get into the backfield untouched to blow up the 2nd-down run.

Third-and-7, and there are signs of life in the Dome. The crowd is getting loud. Chris Long makes his first play of the preseason, whizzing past the RT with great handwork and hitting Luck as he throws, airmailing the ball right to Jenkins, who returns it down to the Colt 15! There is life in Rams Nation! Life!

PENALTY NUMBER SIX, defensive holding. Hussey doesn't have the courtesy to say who it was on. Faulk believes it was on Ogletree covering Allen, whom he'd been jawing with the play before. Holy freaking cats. Second third-down penalty of the drive.

St. Louis Rams

The Rams are on pace for 15 penalties tonight, if JEFF FISHER WOULD EVER WANT TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT THAT. James Laurinaitis shoots the gap to stuff Robinson. Westbrooks shoots through to stuff the next run in the backfield, with McDonald cruising in for a big finishing hit. 3rd-9, double-LB blitz, Hilton beats Jenkins on a square out but can't control it in bounds. Faulk credits the Ram blitz for rushing the throw. At least the D has finally shown up. Nice deke by Williams earns a touchback on the punt.

Foles is 8-8-108 right now. Nothing for Benny on a sweep left. They were "power" on that side with both TEs, but Cook did nothing on his block and Robinson got knocked backward at the snap. The middle line, with Garrett Reynolds in for Brown, gets overrun on 2nd down, though Benny cut it back (!) for 6. And never mind. PENALTY NUMBER SEVEN, illegal formation. Rams only had 6 men on the LOS; either Cook or the slot receiver was lined up wrong. Well set-up screen to Benny gets 16 and the first down! Another great lead block by Rhaney. Now Pead pops off the left side for 13! Good block by Robinson and another by Harkey in the hole. Kiss the momentum goodbye, though, with the Colts' 2nd sack. Walden rushed from Sam LB position and bulled Havenstein into Foles, with D'Qwell Jackson dogging through untouched. Faulk blames Pead for not recognizing the blitz, but it was timed perfectly and you also have to believe some of the non-recognition is on Foles. 2nd-19, 2:20 to go, the Rams have to burn a timeout because they don't have the right personnel. Foles overthrows a deep slant to Britt as Holt continues to accuse Britt of running crappy routes. Was that Foles' first miss? Darius Butler blows Lance Kendricks up after about three yards on a leakout route, and the Rams will punt after the 2:00 warning. Well, the starters are up to 10 points in three games.

Super 48-yard punt by Hekker, not returnable at the Colt 14. Ogletree mauls Allen to break up a short pass. Corner blitz induces a quick screen to Moncrief that gets only 5. Marcus Roberson nearly batted it down. Humorous false start on Herron, who flinches eagerly because he's got Ogletree 1-on-1 out wide. But Moncrief's open in front of Trovon Reed on the sideline for a 20-yard bullet from Luck. Allen finds a soft spot behind Ogletree for 14 more. Luck's arm is a damn cannon. Colts at their 48 in barely 30 seconds, still 1:29 left. Hilton WIDE open in another Gregg Williams bizarro zone for 16, with Joyner bailing off him to deep centerfield at the snap. The hell? PENALTY EIGHT, Ogletree laughably offside, is declined because Cris Carter's kid beats Reed on another square out for 14. From the Ram 22, Herron runs smack into William Hayes for a couple. Luck and Hilton cross wires on 2nd down and miss a TD opportunity. 3rd-8, Luck has to blow a TO with the crowd firing up for the second time tonight. On the following play, Allen false starts WITH NO CALL. Luck fires quickly to Boom, Ogletree blows the tackle, first down at the 10. Typical Rams, get the crowd fired up with no payoff. 3-man rush, but -Trinca-Pasat- had blanketed Allen in coverage. Williams got what he wanted as DC and Ogletree didn't execute. 1st-and-goal, Luck overthrows Allen in triple-coverage. Another 3-man rush, with Westbrooks dropping. 2nd-goal, Carter gets down to the 2 on a drag route. The broadcast has done a terrible job keeping us up-to-date on timeouts, we've just found out the Colts have none, and Luck overthrows a fade route for Carter with 0:09 left and the clock running. Roberson shut him off. He Whose Name Shall Not Be Spoken chips the Colts ahead 13-7.

St. Louis Rams

HALFTIME SUMMARY
Ultimately an improvement over the swill the Rams gave us the first two games, but they've only improved to the typical Rams of last year, the team that excels most at finding ways to lose. Eight penalties, key penalties on 3rd downs, bad pass pro by the tackles, soft, sloppy and possibly lazy play by the receivers. We're now ten quarters into the preseason without a Rams sack, with pressure on Luck light at best. The secondary made big plays for both teams. Foles and Donald have been highlights, but the Rams still have a lot of work to do.


THIRD QUARTER
LOL, it took me two hours fifty to watch the first half, again, unlike Jeff Fisher, I'll again try to tighten things up some.

Foles deservedly has the baseball cap on. He was 10-11-128 for a passer rating of 145.5. Though Luck had 161 yards passing in the 1st half, he's back in. But Robinson completely bungles a handoff and Bryce Hager falls on it to land the Rams a turnover! Rams 14, Colts 13

St. Louis Rams

Nice starting field position for Case Keenum, the Indy 18. Trey Watts rumbles for 6 off a Harkey block. Harkey then gets down to the 3 off the misdirection backside pass they've gotten enamored with this year, and Watts walks in from the 3 for the TD. Nice surge by Garrett Reynolds, nice move block by Justice Cunningham, and a good block at the LOS by Alex Bayer, who hasn't been known for that.

500-year-old Matt Hasselbeck now at QB. Tipton right up the gut for 8. LTP overran it; Marcus Forston couldn't budge anybody, Jo-Lonn Dunbar got blocked. 4 more for Tipton as Forston gets run over. Dunbar flies through and trips Tipton in the backfield, but PENALTY NUMBER NINE, offsides, I think on Martin Ifedi but Hussey doesn't have the courtesy to even announce this one over the PA, for crying out loud. 3 more for Tipton; Forston continues to stuff nothing. Holding, Colts to erase a 10-yard Tyler Varga run. Dunbar defends back-to-back passes in the flat on either side of the field to force the punting team in. Dunbar wins MVP for that possession.

Like every rookie, Sergeant Dan thinks he can make 20 ninja moves and return every punt for a TD, and like every rookie, gains maybe one yard trying it. And, TWO HOLDING PENALTIES BY THE RAMS ON THE RETURN, by Bayer and Watts.

And now that the field position's terrible, the Ram 8, let's put Austin Davis in the game! He has gotten about as unfair a shot as I've ever seen a returning QB get this summer. Pead breaks a tackle and drives for 8, with Reynolds throwing a couple of good blocks. Pead tries the left side but gets nothing, with Bayer and Darrell Williams getting no push. But Davis stands tall on 3rd down and hits Givens on a drag for 20. End-around to Givens for 6, good block by Justice outside but that was about all Givens got. Pead left for a couple, and then gets stuffed on 3rd-2. Tim Barnes is at center now and got tossed aside by Josh Chapman.


Penalty on the punt starts the Colts at their 6. Screen to Jack Doyle, played well by Hager for 4. Quick out to Vincent Brown beats Roberson's soft coverage for 11. Imoan Claiborne blows up a TE arrow route for 1. A penalty puts them back inside their 15, but Hasselbeck gets them back out with a completion to Griff Whalen and a garbage back hand throw to Varga, with Hager blowing a 1st-down-saving tackle badly. Matt Longacre stuffs a run for 3. Hasselbeck throws behind TE Sean McGrath incomplete. 3rd-7, Roberson breaks up an out route to Carter. Williams was pretty vanilla here, not that it hurt.

Sean Mannion enters the game for the Rams with about 2:00 left in the 3rd. Yes, Davis got one possession, on which he got to throw one pass. While agreeing Keenum has beaten him out, how can you give a guy who started half your games last season so little chance to defend his spot on the roster? Davis deserves a lot better than he's gotten this year.

Mannion hits Damian Williams for 12 on a comeback, showing off arm strength I didn't see in his Senior Bowl workouts, but then throws behind Williams on a slant. Blitz may have rushed his throw. He goes for Williams a third time, but it sure looked like he stared him down and Jalil Brown jumped the route for an INT. Faulk blames Williams for running a poor route, but I didn't detect Mannion looking anywhere else. Mannion's first setback this preseason.

FOURTH QUARTER
Brown's return set the Colts up at the Ram 14. Hager stuffs Varga on the left edge for 1. Jay Hughes flounders at Varga's feet on a 3rd-down circle route, which lets him power down to the 1. Hussey overrides an injustly thrown flag on Reed, who perfectly blanketed Carter on another fade route attempt. So the Colts keep it simple on 2nd-goal, with Varga running through McFadden in the hole for the TD. The Colts go for two and Whalen beats Claiborne to the pylon on the quick out. Colts 21, Rams 14 

The o-line's gotten very little push in the running game since Mannion's come in, but he beats a heavy rush with a screen to Malcolm Brown for 11. Brown gets 7 on two tough carries, and Mannion hits Tyler Slavin on a quick slant for another 1st at the 46. Brown sweeps left for another 4, and his runs have been all him so far. Watts comes back in and hits a brilliant spin move on Matt Overton to get another first down. The Rams rerun the Givens TD play, but Mannion's throw is nowhere near where Emory Blake is running. Mannion also missed Justice all alone 25 yards downfield. Mannion hangs in well against a 3rd-and-10 blitz but only hits Sergeant Dan for 8 on the quick out. Indy calls timeout with the Rams going for it on 4th-and-3 at the Colt 37. They blitz big, and Mannion's quick out for Slavin is off target. Indy ball.

Hasselbeck stays in with about 6:00 left to play. The Rams continue not tackling Varga, who breaks a couple for 3. But Hasselbeck hard-counts his own guys into false-starting, and Carter breaks the wrong way on the 3rd-down throw to give the Rams one of their rare three-and-outs so far this summer.

A short run for Brown is followed by his bad one-handed drop, and then Bradley Marquez dropping a ball over his head. Viva preseason!

Somebody named Quan Bray brings the punt back 28 yards to the Ram 40, with Sergeant Dan and Brown missing tackles after flags are NOT thrown for Watts getting blatantly shoved in the back and Marquez getting obviously held for about 15 yards. You want to bet the Rams get this Hussey crew at least twice this regular season, too?

St. Louis Rams

A nice hit by McFadden and a nice deep pass breakup by Claiborne stop the Colts in their tracks, but for no particularly good reason, Chuck Pagano sends in He Whose Name Shall Not Be Spoken, and he continues to haunt the Rams by drilling a 55-yard FG. Nearly kicked his age there. Colts 24, Rams 14 Special teams cost the Rams those points, and it would be nice if Greg Zuerlein would have looked anywhere near as good kicking from that distance last week as a guy twice his age did here tonight.

Sgt. Dan splits the defense and gets to the 25 from 9 deep on the return. Screen to Brown for nothing, nobody blocked the nose tackle, who chased him down. Bayer makes a nice overhead grab for a 1st down, but, after a long time without one for this team, here's PENALTY NUMBER TWELVE, holding on Isaiah Battle. That pretty much kills the night for the Rams. Slavin drops a quick slant on 3rd down, and going for it on 4th and 10, Mannion gets plenty of time to throw but eats a sack from blitzing CB Chance Casey.

I'll open the RamView recap with my close here: the Rams look readier than they did the first two dreadful weeks, but they still don't look ready for prime time.

-$-

Rams news, 8/29

I'll have to rely on Thursday's practice report for tonight's injury report:

Not practicing Thursday:
Daren Bates (knee)
Andrew Donnal (not specified)
Nick Fairley (collarbone)
Brandon McGee (foot)
Rodger Saffold (shoulder)
Brad Smelley (hand and unspecified leg injury)
Korey Toomer (ankle)
Doug Worthington (foot/ankle)

Michael Brockers (shoulder), and disturbingly, Aaron Donald, did not participate in team drills. We have no idea why Donald was held out.

In better news, Todd Gurley was cleared to practice, which makes me think he could be playing for real by week 3 and that I should have drafted him in my fantasy league this week. I wanted him as a RB3 but somebody else took him as a RB2.

Update: Brian Quick was cleared during the week to play tonight. I'm not sure if Cody Wichmann will play, but he has been practicing.

Demetrius Rhaney is getting work at LG with Saffold not likely to play until opening day. That's an important role update for Rhaney; whoever backs up at center is going to have to be able to play another position. Could be a sign the staff likes Rhaney. I hope he's got better anchor at guard than he showed at center last week.

Robert Quinn was NOT fined for his forearm shot to Marcus Mariota's head at Tennessee last week. This especially fascinates me because Jo-Lonn Dunbar got fined last year for tapping a QB on the shoulder pad and getting incorrectly called for contact to the head. Some crackerjack work there by Dean Blandino and company at NFL HQ.

More updates if I come up with anything interesting between now and game time; otherwise, look for the "live" (it takes me about 5 hours to watch/process a game) blog posts during (and after) the game.

-$-

Teams Austin Davis could play for

CBS Sports

Wake up, blog, wake up! -hunh- It's 2:30 till gametime! Oh, OK.

Suspecting this is Austin Davis' last game in St. Louis tonight, I'll list where else in the league I think he could play. As one of Davis' bigger fans, this is probably a longer list than other people would have...

Austin Davis could easily start:
Cleveland, N.Y. Jets


Austin Davis would push the starter:
Chicago (no confidence in Cutler), Cincinnati (less confidence in Dalton), Kansas City (if Alex Smith continues to be afraid to throw more than 5 yards downfield)


Austin Davis would be an improvement at backup and could be starting by the end of the season:
Arizona (Palmer is not durable), Jacksonville (if Bortles implodes)

Austin Davis would be an improvement at backup:
Baltimore, Carolina, Dallas, Miami, Minnesota (Austin is already better than Shaun Hill, as seen last year), San Diego (better than Kellen Clemens), San Francisco, Seattle

Austin Davis would have no chance because he's a terrible fit for the system:
Atlanta, Denver, Detroit, Green Bay, Indianapolis, New England, New Orleans, N.Y. Giants (probably), Oakland, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh

Austin Davis would not fit on the roster:
Buffalo (crowd at QB), Houston (crowd at QB), Tampa Bay (two young QBs), Tennessee (ditto), Washington (already has two starting candidates besides RGIII)


Austin Davis surprisingly had no chance at all:
St. Louis

Best of luck to Austin. Your fan club reluctantly closes its doors.

(In case I don't get a pregame update up, I'm sticking with the live blog format tonight here. The RamView I post to the fan forums flows pretty quickly from that.)

-$-

RamView, 8/23/2015: Titans 27, Rams 14

Format change for RamView this week: I'm going to "live"-blog the game like I've done in the past with playoff games and dress it up as needed. Having a night game right in front of a work day just isn't going to give me a great chance to get the regular recap done in timely fashion. This may even be the format of RamView going forward. TBD.

Rams at Titans
Preseason game #2 for the Rams sees need for improvement over game #1 in just about every way. The offense needs to score touchdowns. Sack City needs to live up to its name. Special teams need to clean up a little bit, and the whole team needs to commit fewer penalties. Good luck with that tonight with an EXTRA referee on the field.

Kevin Burkhardt and John Lynch calling the game for Fox, with referee Walt Anderson warming up in the bullpen. Get that arm loose, Walt.

Michael Brockers not playing tonight for the Rams. Total mystery to me.

FIRST QUARTER
The Rams kick off, so I assume Tennessee won the toss. Bishop Sankey genuflects with the opening kick 9 yards deep.


Titans at their 20. Ethan Westbrooks starting for Brockers. Marcus Mariota's play-action pass is out quickly, with Kendall Wright running a slant in front of Trumaine Johnson's soft coverage for 16. Also, one play, one blown tackle for Rodney McLeod. Big hole for Bishop Sankey, who gets 18, and we are on our way to a long night in Sack City. Chris Long, Aaron Donald, James Laurinaitis, TruJo, all got blocked. Sankey gained half the run after T.J. McDonald failed to bring him down with a no-wrap shoulder tackle. Two plays, two blown tackles. I idiotically drafted Sankey in my fantasy league last year; I think he just matched his 2014 rushing total. Donald gets penetration on 1st-and-10 but Sankey cuts back for yet another 7. Robert Quinn and Alec Ogletree got blocked. But hey, no missed tackles! PENALTY NUMBER ONE: offsides, Westbrooks. Delay handoff to Sankey, but Quinn is having none of that, whipping Taylor Lewan to stuff the run at the Ram 34. Tennessee attempts a counter run on 2nd-10, but Quinn whips Lewan again to stuff Sankey for minus-2, and loses his helmet for the second straight play. On 3rd-and-12, statistically not a blitzing situation, Gregg Williams of course blitzes Laurinaitis and Ogletree, Mariota gets all day, but Lamarcus Joyner saves his DC's bacon with a nice pass breakup. Tennessee punts instead of trying a 53-yard FG, gets too high a bounce at the goal line and nets 16 yards. Viva preseason. Quinn wins the drive MVP.

St. Louis Rams

Rams from their 20. Demetrius Rhaney (!) at center, Brandon Washington at LG. Tre Mason goes nowhere trying to run behind right tackle; Al Woods knocked Rhaney a yard off the line at the snap. Nick Foles to Kenny Britt on a comeback for 8. Britt does not get a friendly reaction from his former home fans. Mason goes right up the middle for 3 and a first down off a solid block by Rhaney. Only a yard for Mason, outside right again, shut down by Avery Williamson. Cody Sensabaugh also run-supporting well early. And, never mind. PENALTY NUMBER TWO: holding, Rob Havenstein. Didn't he not commit a hold his entire senior year? Eh, that was a B.S. call. Havenstein didn't really hook the guy, and he went down on his own, I think tripping over Washington. It wasn't an intentional flop, but it still would have done Arjen Robben proud.

Sigh. On 1st-and-20, Foles gets light heat from Rhaney getting driven back into the pocket and Derrick Morgan getting too easily around Havenstein, who I think was expecting a chip block from Mason. Foles' feet are not set, he throws a quick in route for Britt that was run quite sloppily and easily cut off by Perrish Cox for a pick-six. Not sure what Britt was doing there, but he wasn't exactly exploding to the ball. 7-0, Titans

Still waiting for any sign whatsoever that this team is going to be better than last year. This preseason to date has just been a rewind of the 2014 lowlight reel.

Isaiah Pead returns the kick to the 21 from about 8 deep. Benny Cunningham (that's it for Mason?!?) right for 3, had a nice lane but Michael Griffin came from around the other end and tripped him from behind. Cunningham middle for 2. Middle line got nice initial push but the DTs regrouped. Stay on them next time. Sweet play by Foles on 3rd-and-4. Rhaney nearly gets pushed over him again and can't react in time to a Morgan stunt, but Foles dodges that and hits a well-covered Britt for 7. I'm more than ready to bring Tim Barnes back in at C at this point. Cunningham gets mauled by Brian Orakpo, who sneaked behind Greg Robinson to make a down-the-line play. Attempted four-yard out for Tavon Austin is way off. I have no clue. 3rd-and-9, Karl Klug flat runs over Washington and forces Foles to fire a blank out of bounds. And to add to an already sucky night, Johnny Hekker flubs about a 35-yard punt.

Sure will be nice if the Rams actually come to play a game sometime this season.

Penalty on the punt, not on the Rams, shockingly. Titans from their 20. Donald nearly blows up a Mariota bootleg but TE Craig F. Stevens is WIDE OPEN behind most of the Ram secondary for 35. Tricky play; Stevens was the inside TE of a double-TE set and released downfield. TruJo and McDonald both bit on Mariota's play action to set the dominoes in motion. Sack City has already been hard-counted and play-faked by a rookie QB in his 2nd game tonight. Nothing for Justin Hunter on the smoke route; McLeod sniffed it out; Janoris Jenkins made a good tackle. But then ANOTHER BIG RUN for Sankey, popping off the left side for 19. Quinn and all 3 LBs got blocked. The Rams are just getting blocked out of all these big runs. Titans at the Ram 25 in no time at all. Sankey gets 3 on a counter, tripped by Westbrooks. Williams brings the house on 2nd-and-7, blitzing all 3 LBs, and Laurinaitis dogs his way to Mariota to force a throwaway. Since QBs barely have to move at all to get "outside" the tackle box, Anderson's no-call for grounding is probably right. Oh, and PENALTY NUMBER THREE, personal foul, Quinn, who took a pretty dirty shot at Mariota's head as Laurinaitis was holding him up. NOTHING IS FREAKING CHANGING WITH THIS WORTHLESS TEAM. Quinn deserves a hefty fine for that cheapshot. What a wonderful group of guys this is to root for, huh. Ogletree does a good job running a Mariota bootleg out of bounds and gets away with a mistake in coverage on 3rd when Dexter McCluster makes a McCluster out of a TD pass. NO pass rush at all because Williams idiotically brought only 3 and dropped Westbrooks in coverage. Titans settle for 3. 10-0 Tennessee

Pead makes the 27 from about 3 deep. The Titans PERFECTLY sniff out the same play Austin hit big on against the Raiders last week and Foles has to throw it away. Another strong play by Sensabaugh, jumping Austin's route. Mason's back, but only gets a couple to the right side, another play blown up by Sensabaugh. Time runs out on yet another preseason quarter to forget in Rams Nation.

SECOND QUARTER
Sorry for the windiness, I'll try to tighten things up more while begging Jeff Fisher to do the same. Someday. Ever.

The Rams' big 3rd-and-7 play is a 3-yard arrow route to Jared Cook. Just as uninspired is Hekker's RANCID TWENTY-THREE YARD PUNT. What the blue hell is wrong with Hekker?

So the Titans already start at their 44. Mariota beats the Rams with another play-action bootleg pass, hitting Dorial Green-Beckham to the Ram 44. Good thing the QBs in the Rams' division rarely use misdirection!  Lewan mauls/holds Quinn to open a lane for David Cobb's 5-yard run. Mark Barron's blitz helps blow up a quick screen to Wright, though another blown McLeod tackle let him get back to the LOS. Williams blitzes a couple on 3rd-and-6 (yay, blitz down) and Barron mistimes his jump and blows an interception. Nice sand wedge by Brett Kern pins the Rams inside the 5.

St. Louis Rams

Cunningham cuts back for 5. Titans way overpursued; Mason would have turned that into a big gain. 3 more for Benny; nice blocking by Robinson on both of those plays. But Benny again makes the least out of huge cutback lanes left by Titan overpursuit and gets a yard and a half on 3rd-and-2. A brilliant 3-and-out for the Ram offense. Wow, a 45-yard punt by Hekker, start the parade. Fine coverage by Stedman Bailey, Cameron Lynch and Malcolm Brown.

Titans from their 38. Zach Mettenberger in at QB with 9:00 till halftime. McCluster sweeps right for 8, most of it after Joyner's no-wrap shoulder tackle. At least four blown tackles by Rams starters so far. Nick Fairley stuffed a run, but the Rams' defensive momentum lasted no longer. With Williams blitzing all 3 LBs and a safety, Mettenberger and Nicks turn a quick out into a 40-yard gain after Marcus Roberson slips in (terrible) coverage and Barron opts to tomahawk at the ball instead of tackling, doing neither. Maybe some of these jokers should just try to start a brawl and get this game suspended. Cobb draws through a GIGANTIC hole the Rams basically left in the middle of the formation and gets inside the 3. Jo-Lonn Dunbar was the only front seven player who could have made a play, and he got blocked. Joyner and Dunbar make run-stuffs but Mettenberger hits TE Chase Coffman in the back of the end zone. Barron got inside-outed and then Dunbar crashed into him as Mettenberger threaded the needle. 17-0 Titans

Fisher's Rams are about 1/1,000th as prepared to go tonight as his Titans were when the Rams played there in August of 2000 and got embarrassed on national TV 30-3. For the second straight week, a preseason game will accomplish squat for the Rams. (I do believe that last drive was Titans' starting o-line vs. the Rams' twos, though)


Chris Givens from the goal line to the 22. Case Keenum in with 4:20 till halftime, and immediately has to throw away a screen pass. Still, stick a fork in Austin Davis, I suppose. Not even getting a chance at QB2. Pead gets 4 off left tackle. Keenum sticks a sweet throw to Bailey in traffic on a crossing route that gets 30.

After the 2:00 warning, Fox shows Tennessee's fans offering Fisher a standing ovation after a scoreboard tribute. Yeah, don't expect any of those in the Dome next weekend.

Pead gets the Rams a first down at the Titan 33 off nice blocks by Corey Harkey and Andrew Donnal, who can run-maul. Looks like Rhaney got the whole first half at center. Search me, I've seen nothing so far that says Tim Barnes shouldn't have the job. Screen to Pead loses a couple after Bailey gets beat on his block. Good initial pop but didn't sustain. Keenum ends up throwing the next two passes away. Washington let a blitzer through untouched on 3rd down. After Burkhardt talks up Greg Zuerlein, he misses pretty badly from 52. In honor of Dexter, the Rams have been a complete McCluster in all three aspects of the game tonight.

PENALTY NUMBER FOUR: roughing the passer, Eugene Sims, a personal foul magnet who should know better than to hit the QB helmet-to-helmet. I think it was offset by Titans OPI. Mettenberger picks on Cody Davis three straight times, twice with DGB, to get the Titans in easy FG range. Imoan Claiborne also blows a tackle on DGB. Maybe he should just hit him in the face next time. After a false start, Mettenberger misses Hunter open vs. Barron at the goal line and the Titans settle for another FG. 20-0 Titans at halftime

HALFTIME SUMMARY
Completely uninspired and worthless performance by the Rams. Uninspired defense getting fooled by a rookie, starters still do not have a sack, run D gashed repeatedly by solid Tennessee blocking, secondary missing all kinds of tackles. Kicking game that is supposed to be Pro Bowl-quality was little but pathetic. Foles didn't play like a difference-maker at QB, instead making big mistakes behind an o-line that still has a long way to go. We're two games from the start of the regular season and I still have no idea what Foles can do. On the o-line, Washington is a big liability, Rhaney almost as big. They tried more running right this week but didn't get much of anywhere behind the rookies. Starting receivers didn't accomplish anything. The only good news is that penalties are down - just three accepted so far, but the entire team is still about as disciplined as Charlie Sheen at a cocaine party.


THIRD QUARTER
Daniel Rodriguez only makes the 12 from about 5 deep on the opening kick return. Keenum stays in. Trey Watts cuts back for 8 off blocks from Garrett Reynolds and Barrett Jones for a 1st down. A screen to Watts gets 33, another nice play by Keenum to beat a blitz. PENALTY NUMBER FIVE: delay of game. Reynolds lost his shoe and Anderson wouldn't give Keenum a timeout. Givens drops a third down deep crossing route to send in Michael Palardy for a 35-yard punt, fair-caught at the 10.


When I say that last drive was hard to watch, I mean physically, because Fox has become much more interested in interviewing Marcus Mariota than showing the game. This whole broadcast has been almost completely focused on Mariota; as far as Fox is concerned, the Rams are just the Washington Generals tonight. Except playing much worse.

Charlie Whitehurst at QB for Tennessee. Antonio Allen stiffarms Jacob Hagen to the ground like a little, um, girl on a 9-yard gain. 6 more left as Matt Longacre and Louis Trinca-Pasat get washed out. Somebody called Phillip Supernaw gets deep behind Keshaun Malone for a huge gain but it comes back for illegal formation. The Titans are actually out-penaltying the Rams tonight, believe it or not. Christian Bryant's big hit saves the Rams from giving up a 1st down on 3rd-13. Oh, for crying out loud, Ken Whisenhunt is challenging the play, up 20 points in the 2nd half of a preseason game. That is a party foul. The call stands. Sgt. Dan tries to swing wide with the punt return but doesn't get much.

And, ha! Tennessee tried soft coverage on Givens but he burned past everyone for an 80-yard TD bomb anyway. I wondered about Keenum's deep ball last week, but he uncorked a perfect 50-yard throw here with DT Mike Martin taking a free run at him. I think both ends of this play just locked up spots on the team. Also, great protection on the right side by Treetop Bond and Donnal. Titans 20, Rams 7

Bryant makes a big hit on Supernaw to force a fumble but the Titans recover. PENALTY NUMBER SIX: offsides, Trinca-Pasat. And SEVEN: offsides, Martin Ifedi. We are officially in garbage time, though the Rams have been in it since the coin toss. Tennessee struck back with more penalties, Lynch broke up a pass to Coffman and Hagen shut down a quick slant to force the punt. PENALTY EIGHT: facemask on Bryant during the return. Viva preseason!

Keenum STAYS IN, and Watts pops off the right side for 18 off a Steven Baker block. He weaves left for another 12, off good blocks by Bond and Isiah Battle. Looks like we have our Rams "MVP" here. Watts up the middle for ten more, with Bond again sealing the middle really well.

FOURTH QUARTER
From midfield, Watts breaks a tackle on a bubble screen to gain another 8. Titans blitz and run over Watts as Keenum's pass is tipped. Watts turns a loss into a 3-yard gain with a spin move. Guess who'll be returning to the team in October. Watts has outplayed not only Pead but Cunningham tonight. Keenum's 3rd down pass is behind Damian Williams incomplete. The Rams go for it on 4th down and Williams gets 9 on an out route. They don't get much closer, though, leaving Palardy to leave a 46-yard attempt wide left.

The number of Rams who haven't sucked tonight is in single digits, I'll tell you that much.

Keshaun Malone might make that short list, though. He's made a couple of plays, including a run stuff. And now here's Montell Garner, undercutting the feared Supernaw to hold a pass to a short gain. And Trovon Reed breaks up the 3rd down pass (by getting there too early). Rodriguez takes the punt inside his 5 and sweeps right again for about 10.

(St. Louis Rams) Warmups are about the only action Austin Davis gets

Austin Davis makes it out of mothballs to start a drive from the 18 with 10:00 to play. Brown sweeps left for 13. Pam Oliver interviews Nick Foles on the sideline, where he takes the blame for the pick-six. Davis steps up from the rush and hits Bradley Marquez over the middle for 20. He then throws a slant too late and behind a receiver, and that's Davis' problem, isn't it? That throw was open; he didn't read the field quickly enough to make it when it had to be made. Then we finally get the first sack of the night with 8:00 left. A blitzer sneaked behind Battle while Davis held the ball too long, even pulling it down. That looked avoidable. Palardy pins the Titans inside the 10.

Trinca-Pasat sheds his block nicely to blow up a 2nd-down run, which pays off on 3rd down when the Titans settle for a swing pass. Sgt. Dan heads upfield with the return this time, and gets a good 20 yards, but PENALTY NINE is holding on Bryant. Aagh.

St. Louis Rams

And that was all the chance Davis got. One drive. Sean Mannion comes in for the last 4:45. PENALTY TEN is OPI on Tyler Slavin. At least the claim that most of the penalties are by people who won't make the team is true this week. Mannion checks down a couple of times to keep Palardy busy. Nice hit by Justice Cunningham on the punt return. He has also played well again this week at fullback and should have a good line on a roster spot. Oh great, Fisher's using his timeouts with 2:40 left. After the 2:00 warning, Longacre makes a good play coming down the line to stuff a run.

Which is wasted by a stupid blitz call on 3rd-and-11 (non-blitz situation), and somebody called Alex Tanney hitting Preseason Hall-of-Famer Coffman for a 56-yard TD, as he ran through a poor-looking tackle attempt by Jay Hughes, who may have been trying to make a play on the ball. All the same, the Rams wish Jay Hughes the best in his future endeavors. Tennessee 27-7

Sgt. Dan decides not to come out and takes a knee just inside the goal line. Hurry-up time with 1:45 left. Mannion to Brown for 8. 10 more to Alex Bayer, who's having a much quieter preseason than last year. Dumpoff to Brown for 7, who gets decleated and dehelmeted but hangs on to the ball. Perfect and legal hit, though.

The game finishes with a play for the highlight reel: the Titans try to clock Brown on a dumpoff pass again, but he spins off this one, heads up the sideline, breaks an ankle tackle and sprints away for a 54-yard TD. 27-14 final score Nice backside block by Justice Cunningham, and awesomely, Sgt. Dan running with Brown for 40 yards, looking for someone to block.

Jeff Fisher has basically a week to get 85 guys to make the effort those three guys did on that play. I wish I liked his odds.

-$-

Rams report, 8/22

* Injury report. Rookie free agent wide receiver Isiah Ferguson has been waived/injured after tearing his ACL during practice this week. That will move him from the active roster to the injured reserve and give Les Snead another opportunity to sign a player from AUBURN. (I'd say to give Greg Reid another look, but his Jacksonville Sharks play in the Arena League semifinals tomorrow.)

At this point in the NFL calendar, any player with less than four seasons of service has to be waived/injured to be placed on I.R., so E.J. Gaines, though also done for the season, will remain on the active roster until the first cutdown. I assume this rule is to prevent teams from stashing players. Gaines is obviously a much bigger risk to be picked up by another team if exposed to waivers than Ferguson, so he'll remain on the roster till September 1st when teams cut down to 75.

Fox Sports

Friday's did-not-practice list from Jim Thomas:
Daren Bates (knee), Michael Brockers, Gaines (foot), Todd Gurley (knee), Brandon McGee (foot), Rodger Saffold (shoulder), Korey Toomer (ankle), Cody Wichmann (calf), Doug Worthington (ankle/foot)

I know of no injury news for Brockers and expect he just got a veteran's day off.

Saffold has been tweeting that his shoulder injury is nothing serious and he expects to be back in the starting lineup opening day. Brandon Washington will start Sunday night in Tennessee and hopefully will be sharper than he was coming off the bench cold in Oakland.

Cody Wichmann was pretty involved in Tuesday's brawl with the Cowboys in Oxnard for a guy on the PUP list. Injured players should try to stay out of brawls. Didn't work out for Dez Bryant.

Gurley will be limited to individual drills all of training camp. Jeff Fisher has said not to expect to see him in preseason.

I assume we'll see Chris Long in action Sunday night. I believe it will also be Mark Barron's first game.

* Rams alumni catchup:
- Shane Suisham was hit while covering a kickoff during the Hall of Fame game and is out for the season with a torn ACL. Shouldn't starting kickers be obliged not to cover kickoffs during preseason? I hope Greg Zuerlein is just running straight to the sideline after kicking off.

- Buffalo closed the book on an awful signing by waiving guard Chris Williams. He failed a physical after appearing in only three games last season due to a back injury. I believe he has essentially been replaced by Richie Incognito. Back injuries are serious business, so best wishes to Williams in recovery. The Bills just paid way too much for him when they signed him away from the Rams in free agency a couple of years ago.

- And, the last Michael Sam update I expect to do for a while: Sam has retired from football. He appeared in one game in Montreal and did not record a tackle. In making his announcement on Twitter, Sam cited that the past 12 months have been very difficult for him, to the point he'd become concerned about his mental health.

What basically happened here was after the media long clamored for an out gay player in the NFL, once they finally got one, they drove him out. Sure, Sam is less athletic than the average NFL player, and he made some naive mistakes in handling his unique situation, but there were enough signs that he could have been a successful pro. I say he would have made it had he been able to put all the media b.s. behind.

Michael Sam didn't make it as a pro football player, not because he's gay, not because football or society is more hostile to gays than anybody else, but because the media was obsessed with him being gay. Will they learn that lesson and let the next Michael Sam just play football?

Inc. Magazine

* Eight is enough? There will be an extra referee on the field for Sunday night's game. The NFL is experimenting with an eighth official, lined up either deep in the offensive or defensive backfield, to watch for holding in the middle of the line.

And, wait a minute. Jeff Fisher, notably, is a member of the NFL's competition committee. Did he actually vote FOR this? Shouldn't Fisher be lobbying for reducing the number of referees, to six, or maybe one, given his team's complete inability to avoid penalties? Hell, this is a team that can't even complete a practice with another team without cheap-shotting its way into a bench-clearing brawl. Can Jeff Fisher actually be in favor of having MORE men on the field who can throw penalty flags at his team?

I'll set the over/under for Rams penalties Sunday at 11.5.

Sporting News

* I haven't mentioned much about Tuesday's brawl with the Cowboys in Oxnard till now, mainly because of a lack of time, but also because it was not surprise from a Jeff Fisher team whatsoever. It was so predictable I doubt it should even have made news. Go all the way back to 2000 when Fisher's Titans cheap-shotted their way through two days of scrimmages against the Greatest Show. The main goal of Fisher's coaching career appears to be replacing the Raiders as the NFL's outlaw team. Well, congratulations.

Playing in the NFL demands toughness and demands people who don't back down, but the continual lack of discipline of Fisher's teams deserves to be called the disgrace this is. The Rams are going to be one of the most-penalized teams in the NFL again in 2015. I'm not even going to pretend to hope otherwise. The question will be if they've finally gotten good enough in the rest of the game to get around it.

Also, congratulations to Imoan Claiborne for making the 53-man roster. I doubt it took much more than this.

* With Sunday night the stupidest timing possible for a preseason game, I can't say to expect RamView to be out very quickly for the Tennessee game. I'm thinking Tuesday night but will do all I can to work quicker.

-$-

Injury update, 8/15

Good news on the Rams' injury front: Daren Bates has a sprained MCL, an injury that will not require surgery. He's expected to miss 2-3 weeks, and the Rams won't have to go long without one of their best special teams players.

(Update) Now for the bad news: E.J. Gaines' season is over. He has had season-ending surgery to fix a Lisfranc injury in his foot.

There isn't a lot of definition yet on Rodger Saffold's shoulder injury. Jeff Fisher so far is only saying he's doing better and the team is still doing tests on him.

-$-

RamView, 8/14/2015: Raiders 18, Rams 3

RamView, August 14, 2015

Preseason Game #1: Raiders 18, Rams 3

If the Rams achieved any goals they set for their first preseason game of 2015, they must have been awfully modest ones. They didn't cross the goal line on offense, didn't dictate much of anything up front on defense, committed their usual scad of penalties and got a couple of important players injured. History won't care because it's preseason, but this game was a pretty big zero.

Position by position:

* QB: After two plays, it looked like Nick Foles (3-5-69) was on his way to a great night. He started the game by hitting Lance Kendricks on that deep corner he was missing at the scrimmage for 26. Tavon Austin then took off with a smoke route for 35. After that, though, no open receivers, and after the opening FG drive, declining pass protection for Foles, taking a sack on his last play though he had enough time to throw the ball away. Case Keenum (12-17-83) caused consternation here at Austin Davis World Fan Club HQ by coming out as QB2. And he may stay there. His deeper passes look like adventures, and he didn't lead the offense to a TD, but he was still solid. He showed nice accuracy and rhythm in the short passing game, good pocket presence, and read the field well. My favorite play was the out pass he threw to Chris Givens on 3rd-and-6 in the 3^rd, lobbing it over the head of a dog blitzer coming unblocked at him. Factor in a couple of big gains nullified by penalty, and a couple of receivers running bad routes to deny good plays, and Keenum made a strong case for the backup job. Davis (1-2-12) didn't have much of a chance behind the 3rd-string line; of his three dropbacks, he got sacked once and hit on another. He'll need to make a much better case to have a shot at QB2. Unless he's already been surpassed as QB3, that is. Sean Mannion (8-13-53) didn't look bad at all leading the Rams' final, up-tempo drive across midfield. Out routes had not appeared to be a strength of his game, but he threw a bunch of good ones, standing tall in the pocket and dealing. Watching him run the offense, he looks well ahead of where Davis was as a rookie in reading the field and making adjustments. Heck, he may be ahead of where Davis is now.

* RB: Tre Mason (2-6) did play but not a lot happened for the Rams on the ground. Like Mason, Benny Cunningham (3-15) played for one drive. His failed blitz pickup helped Foles get sacked in the 2^nd, though a false start let him off the hook. Isaiah Pead (4 touches-21) had the best lead blocking. He didn't look as explosive as, forgetting the torn ACL last year, I'd thought he would. Though Trey Watts (7-16) and Malcolm Brown (2-18) both had 12-yard runs, little about the Ram running game looked that explosive. Most of Watts' night was spent getting blown up in the backfield behind really poor blocking. Justice Cunningham's lead blocking was a bright spot; he sprung several nice gains with good blocks, especially Pead's nullified 8-yarder in the 3^rd. The Rams passed nearly twice as much as they ran, so it's fair to say establishing the run wasn't high on their list for the game, and even fairer to say that won't be their offensive personality in the regular season once Todd Gurley's ready to be sprung on the league.

* Receivers: The heart of the WR action tonight was the start of what looks like a very competitive race between Chris Givens (5 touches-52) and Bradley Marquez (4-23) for WR5. Givens turned what looked like a blown-up end-around into a 16-yard gain by cutting it up inside and was a pretty reliable target for Keenum with comebacks and out routes. Marquez' hands were inconsistent – he had a drop that cost a first down – but I like the football smarts he shows. He tended to be the one getting the rest of his fellow receivers lined up right, and he made a fine play coming back to Mannion to save a sack on the final drive. Damian Williams, who had a 25-yard catch nullified by penalty, should be heard from in this race as well. Lance Kendricks (1-26) opened the festivities with a catch on a deep corner route, then Tavon Austin (1-35) broke away on a play that was exciting and disappointing at the same time. He caught a smoke pass behind a strong block by Kenny Britt (1-8), got half the Oakland defense leaning the wrong way by cutting back inside, but then geared down dramatically while switching the ball to his outside hand and coasted out of bounds in front of what appeared to be the only Raider DB he had left to beat for a TD. On the TV broadcast, Torry Holt, who should know about these things, was a pretty consistent critic of the receivers' route-running and inability to separate. A pass to Austin failed because he didn't explode out of his break. A pass to Givens failed because he didn't run the route full out because he wasn't expecting the ball. Emory Blake (1-12) didn't break off a route he was supposed to break off. Isiah Ferguson (1-15) looks hard to bring down but doesn't look like he can separate from anyone. Not unexpectedly, there's still a lot of cleaning up to get done here.

* Offensive line: Remember how the main goal of a preseason game is to not get anyone injured? Yeah, maybe just forget that goal when you have Rodger Saffold on your team. Saffold lasted an entire four plays before having to check out with a shoulder injury. Early reports said it's not serious, though I doubt that lessens the great schadenfreude the Raiders front office gets every time there's Rodger Saffold injury news. After that, the big news item was at center, where I'd be willing to declare the race over after just one game, with Tim Barnes the winner in a rout. The first reason is that Barnes played with the starting unit and looked good. Mason's first run went for 5 despite there being only one good block up front, by Barnes, who turned the nose tackle. Cunningham later gained 5 on 3rd-and-short off Barnes throwing an awesome one-armed block, showing he's gotten stronger like I've been begging for him to do here. I haven't been his biggest fan, but Barnes looked like NFL starting material tonight. Helping Barnes' cause was the totally rancid egg Barrett Jones laid with the second string. He got whipped off what seemed like every snap, especially in the second half by ham-and-eggers like RICKEY F. LUMPKIN. Half a dozen times, and every time Watts got buried for a loss in the 2^nd half, you could point right at Jones getting whipped immediately off the snap as the reason the play blew up (and Watts actually turned one of those fails into a 12-yard gain by bouncing out behind an Andrew Donnal drive block). Jones even got Watts blown up on a screen pass by failing badly on the lead block. I don't know if it was conditioning, or if Jones ill-advisedly turned his intensity way down against the scrubs, but he looked awful after halftime against people against whom he ideally should have looked a lot better. He did appear to hold up well in pass protection. Rookie starters Rob Havenstein and Jamon Brown appeared to do well, though the Ram offense was pretty left-handed and didn't test them a lot. Brown looked good in the run game, though Cunningham needed a better pull block from him on his first run. Pass protection problems came more from the left side, especially from Brandon Washington, who replaced Saffold at LG. He gave up the sack of Foles that counted, finding Shelby Harris on a loop but still losing him pretty badly. On that same drive, a play earlier, Greg Robinson, getting eaten up by a speed rush, would have given up a sack AND gotten flagged for a hold, but the Raiders bailed him out with an offsetting hold. He also nearly gave up a sack on the first play of the drive. At the same time, Robinson can definitely maul; on the sack Washington gave up, he had his man pinned to the ground. Andrew Donnal should get called out by the coaches for several good run mauls, though he also committed a hold. I hoped Garrett Reynolds would step up at guard with Saffold out, but he stayed with the twos and nullified a big gain to Damian Williams with a hold. Farther down the depth chart, Isaiah Battle's run-blocking is well ahead of his pass-blocking. He gave up a sack in the 4^th with a lazy reach-block attempt, and he and David Wang got beaten a couple of other times to give up pressures on Mannion. For a first preseason game, I'd say the run blocking was good enough minus the bad work by Jones, and pass protection was solid enough in the first half, with the ones and twos picking up blitzes much better than they did in either practice I saw. The potential and likely absence of Saffold up front is going to prove a problem, though.

* Defensive line: Given the slow start they got off to last regular season, I was all in favor of a preseason preview of the dominating Sack City's supposedly going to do in 2015, but we got one of their run-of-the-mill, ho-hum, we're-just-warming-up preseason performances instead. No sacks, not really any pressures, and the first quarter was nearly over before anyone made a play behind the LOS. Robert Quinn nearly got there a couple of times, and Aaron Donald disrupted a couple of plays with his ninja quickness, but Oakland still put together roughly 50, 50 and 80-yard drives their first three possessions. A big problem was Michael Brockers getting pwned by Rodney Hudson. Latavius Murray (6-35) beat a blitz for 16 on a 1st-quarter draw, with Brockers unable to get off his block. Oakland drove deep into Ram territory late in the 1^st. Murray drew for 8, with the whole line overrunning it except Brockers, not because he was disciplined, but because he couldn't budge a double-team. Murray got another 1^st down inside the 10 after Quinn misread the play and overran it, and Brockers couldn't get off a Hudson block. I don't believe Brockers got off a block all night. William Hayes finally dropped Murray for a loss with about a minute left in the quarter to make Sack City's first impact play. VERY well-timed, as it was inside the 10 and helped the Rams prevent a score. With the Rams' twos in, and Matt Longacre accomplishing nothing in run D, I believe Trent Richardson (5-18) matched his yardage total from last season. Oakland schooled the Rams with the ol' Student Body Right for 16 in the 2^nd, with Martin Ifedi getting run over and Nick Fairley overrunning it. Poor tackling and lack of pass rush allowed the feared Matt McGloin to put together a 60-yard FG drive out of halftime to make it 12-3. More of the same to start the 4^th, a 62-yard TD drive with no pass rush at all. This was the drive where I went, wait a minute, Ethan Westbrooks has been on the field all this time? Where was the unblockable guy I watched last Friday night? And with the undersized Louis Trinca-Pasat drawing double-teams he isn't going to beat in a million years, there was no penetration at all up the middle. Now, Westbrooks did blow up three running plays the next time Oakland had the ball. Trinca-Pasat broke one up as well, and I still like his quickness off the ball a lot. Fairley made a couple of plays, including a nifty coverage out of a zone blitz in the 2^nd. And Chris Long, though I'm honestly starting to wonder about him, did not play at all. Still, there was little that was “Sack City” about tonight's defensive performance. At best it was “Mild Skin Irritation City”. If the Rams intend to be more threatening than prickly heat in September, they didn't build up to it on the field in Oakland tonight, and some momentum in August is in order to revoke the trademark on the Jeff Fisher Slow Start.

* Linebackers: The LBs did little to outshine the front four, with the exception of Akeem Ayers, whom I'm really starting to warm up to. He was the best Ram defender with the ones. He closed nicely to hold Amari Cooper to 3 on a quick hitch. He helped end the drive later by getting in Derek Carr's face on a blitz and forcing him to rush a screen pass incomplete that probably would have been a TD had Carr had an extra beat. James Laurinaitis didn't accomplish much on an edge blitz and got stuffed by the fullback on Murray's 16-yard run. Daren Bates flew in all alone and then completely blew the Rams' best opportunity for a sack in the 2^nd. (Jo-Lonn Dunbar would have cost him the sack with a holding penalty anyway.) On the next play, Bates got DESTROYED in the hole by a block on a Trent Richardson run that may have ended his season. Bryce Hager had several “teaching moments”. He had Clive Walford blanketed down the middle in the 2^nd, but was never aware the ball was coming and still gave up a big 22-yard catch. That set up a TD the next play, where Hager screened Lamarcus Joyner while trying to pick up a back in motion. He also blew tackles on quick screens a couple of times to give up big gains and make that a MUCH too lethal weapon for the Raider offense. If Bates' season is indeed already over, it may be incumbent upon Hager to learn quickly.

* Secondary: The good news out of the game: my map is starting to show a suburb developing on the outskirts of Sack City. It's called Pick City, and Trumaine Johnson is the mayor. TruJo's rarely played better in a Rams uniform, and I very much hope tonight was more than a “playing in my hometown” (which he was) occasion. He made a pretty pass breakup in deep man coverage to end Oakland's opening drive. On the 2^nd drive, after Janoris Jenkins blew a tackle to let Michael F. Crabtree get away for 16, TruJo ruined his own excellent play on a pass to Amari Cooper with a facemask penalty that put the Raiders in the red zone. He more than atoned for that with a goal-line interception of Carr a few plays later, perfectly jumping Cooper's route. Lamarcus Joyner gave up a short Andre Holmes TD from Christian Ponder, but Hager getting in the way had something to do with that. If any DB struggled this week, it was Maurice Alexander. He blew a tackle on a 21-yard quick screen to Chris Durham and fell in coverage when Brice Butler pivoted back on his TD-scoring route in the 4^th. Starters like T.J. McDonald and Mark Barron did a good job of keeping Oakland's many short throws in front of them and holding them to short gains. Cody Davis also did that on a quick pass to Roberts, and he bailed out Trovon Reed in the 3^rd by breaking up a pass at the goal line after Reed had gotten undressed by the WR off the line. THAT is safety help. Top to bottom, the Ram secondary has started 2015 playing with a lot of confidence, and is showing nice improvement so far.

* Special teams: It happened while he was at linebacker, but the other key injury of the game may have taken away one of the Rams' very best players on special teams, Daren Bates. Initial reports about his knee injury did not sound encouraging; I think we're bracing for ACL news over the weekend. Maybe rookie free agent Cameron Lynch will step up; he made a sweet strip/tackle that nearly got the Rams the ball off the 2^nd-half kickoff. Punt coverage was much too slow getting downfield. Trindon Holliday had ten yards of free space when he returned a punt for 22 in the 1^st. Johnny Hekker put a punt inside the 10 in the 2^nd, and though it hit very hard anyway, there was still no Ram in the vicinity to stop it from barreling into the end zone. Hekker also shanked a punt for 28; well, let's get those out of the way in August. Greg Zuerlein did all the Rams' scoring with a 31-yard FG in the 1^st; Michael Palardy missed from 47 in the 3^rd kicking from the infield dirt in Oakland's detestable dump of a stadium. With the kicking mistakes, punt coverage that didn't get downfield and the possible loss of a leader for the season, this was not the start the Rams wanted to have on special teams.

* Strategery: Well, guess what's not going to change again this season? Marshall Faulk put the not-too-fine point on it during the broadcast by mentioning, Wait a minute, the Rams are out-penaltying the Raiders! And they did, and then some, 10-75 to just 2-22. Of the Rams' 14 total penalties, seven were by starters or veterans who are locks to make the team. Four were pre-snap offensive penalties, three delays of game and a false start. This Fisher garbage is simply never going to end.

Many more three-point games may end his OC career quickly, but Frank Cignetti's game plan had plenty to like. The Rams aren't likely to pass twice as much as they run in the regular season (well, they better not be), but I didn't mind the departure from the usual bland preseason gameplan. It took two plays to get the ball to Austin in space, not the two months it used to take. Givens got a couple of what should be Austin plays, an end-around for 15 and an against-the-grain quick hitch for 8 that went for 20 at the scrimmage Friday. The confidence-building drive for Mannion at the end of the game was an excellent move. There wasn't much done to stretch the field but there also weren't any why-the-hell-did-he-call-that? plays. The very best call was the play-action pass to Zach Laskey on 4th-and-1 in the 3^rd. If Cignetti keeps pulling off calls like that, he'll have a fan for life.

Gregg Williams also showed good rhythm calling plays at DC that I hope he'll carry into the regular season. Other than Murray's long run of 16, he didn't really get burned on a blitz. And though those blitzes once again produced zero sacks, a red zone run blitz in the 3^rd was perfectly timed and forced Oakland to take a FG. I wish soft coverage were always as uncommon as it was this game, but that probably had a lot to do with Oakland's short-passing attack. As the Sack City planner, Williams has to get much better pass rush generated than the Rams did here, and he also needs to get to enforcing the old “you have to stop the run before you can pass rush” rule up front. Targets to meet this preseason and definitely beyond.

* Upon further review: The Tony Corrente crew didn't bring their A game. They missed an easy-to-spot false start on Cory Harkey at fullback. They called a hold on Rodney McLeod on the first punt, but not the obvious hold of Cody Davis during the return. A drive died at midfield in the 2^nd because they didn't call DPI when Damian Williams got grabbed before the ball arrived. Westbrooks got his helmet ripped off during Oakland's 2^nd 2-point attempt without a flag. Cliche Alert: it's preseason for the referees, too. Grade: C

* Cheers: A bizarre decision by NFL Network to use the Oakland broadcast for this game, when St. Louis' had two of its employees, Andrew Siciliano and Marshall Faulk, along with Torry Holt. Marshall was always considered the smartest member of the Greatest Show, but here, Torry was the one breaking down how routes were run and linemen's footwork and generally giving a football clinic from the booth. In the course of the Rams' 20 years here, their preseason games have gone from all-but unwatchable to, thanks to Faulk and Holt's knowledge and enthusiasm and Siciliano's eye for detail, the best broadcast team you'll hear this preseason. NFL needs to find a way to put this crew on regular-season games.

* Waiver bait: You'd think differently, but this game didn't produce any candidates for easy cuts. Snead/Fisher will have many difficult decisions ahead. Jacob Hagen blew a tackle badly to turn a dumpoff into a big gain in the 4^th. Not to be confused with Bryce Hager, who had a couple of bad misses. Recent pickup Marcus Forston was a non-factor at DT to the point that Oakland didn't pay for double-teaming Louis Trinca-Pasat. Longacre looks neither like a run defender nor a legitimate second-unit player on this defense (not that he couldn't be on other teams). The Turk doesn't have much of a list yet.

* Who’s next?: For some reason, CBS and the NFL have decided Jeff Fisher's return to Tennessee is worthy of a national broadcast, so the Rams will be in Nashville next Sunday night to play Marcus Mariota and the Titans. The Ram offense should have an opportunity to break loose against a Titan defense that gave up 24 first-half points in a 31-24 loss to Atlanta. With a tweak in intensity, Sack City can entice the rookie Titan QB into turnovers; he had two against the Falcons. Much like the Ram d-line, though, Tennessee has invested highly in its offensive line, with both dollars and high draft picks. National TV, coach's old team, pretty flat performance so far this summer... it's time for a statement game from the Rams. I will hope that statement will be something besides “we don't care about preseason games”.

-- Mike

Game stats from espn.com

Photos from espn.com and stlouisrams.com

Rams news, 8/9

NBC Sports

* The Rams announced prior to Saturday night's practice that they have extended QB Nick Foles' contract for two seasons, making him a Ram through 2017. The $24 million contract includes $14 million guaranteed. This seems like a bit of a rushed move, since Foles has yet to throw a pass for the Rams, and I can't say he has an established track record. If the Rams signed 2013 Foles, then awesome; if they signed 2014 Foles, well, in three years they'll be back in the QB market, though that should also be enough time for Sean Mannion to prove if he can be an NFL starter. See how that "QB of the future" thing works, Fisher and Snead?

I think the Rams have their bases covered here. As long as Foles is average at worse this year and doesn't get hurt, they're better off having him locked up for a little bit than having to start all over again next season with who-knows-who at QB. They don't need great quarterbacking to win in their philosophy, but they need competence. Competent QBs have gotten pretty hard to find in the NFL these days.

And, if Foles plays like he did in 2013, they can consider extending him again. If he's just average the next three years, that's plenty of time to have Mannion ready as a credible option. If Foles is just average and Mannion doesn't develop on schedule, they'll be back in the draft market. And at QB salary-wise, they'll still be much better off than they were when they had Sam Bradford.

* Congratulations to former Ram Jerome Bettis and the rest of the 2015 class on their induction yesterday into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. I'm in no hurry to put Bettis in the St. Louis Ring of Fame; his brief run here was pretty poor before he got traded to Pittsburgh, started trying again and became The Bus. But he did score the first Rams TD in the now-Edward Jones Dome. Sadly, we could see the historical bookend to that TD come the end of this season.

* The Rams made a roster move over the weekend, cutting RB Terrence Franks and signing DT Marcus Forston. I don't remember Franks, a rookie free agent, getting any reps in the two Rams practices I attended. He'll have to hope he can land somewhere he can get some action. Forston's a two-year veteran who's appeared in four games for the Patriots. He's 6'3" 305, 25, and shockingly, not from Auburn, but from The U. He's spent most of his career to date on the Patriots' practice squad. His scouting report calls him a quick-off-the-ball run stopper. Due to injuries in college and lack of NFL playing time, there really isn't a lot of tape on him. I assume the move was to limit the number of snaps the top three DTs have to take in preseason since Doug Worthington's injured.

-$-