PREGAME
Looks like we could be in for an old-fashioned playoff game to start the weekend. It should be a cold night in Cincinnati, and both of these teams thrive on running and playing defense. Can the Bengals turn around last week's 37-0 blowout loss? We'll see. I think the brilliance in the Jets' turning Brad Smith loose last week is that Cincinnati's had to spend extra time preparing for him and the Jets can thrash them now with everything else they do well.
FIRST QUARTER
NBC's very interesting broadcast crew for this game: Tom Hammond, Joe Gibbs and Joe Theismann. Has Gibbs ever done a game? Today's drinking game: take one for every Redskins or Notre Dame reference.
11 degree wind chill in Cincy. You folks who insist St. Louis' future stadium be an outdoor one want to think that over again? If you're going to drive me out of my season tickets with vastly inflated ticket and seat-license prices, at least do it for a dome with a retractable roof.
Didn't take the Bengals long to reverse last week's trend. A 57-yard kick return will fix a lot things for a team. Their left-side linebacker was hurt on the return, though, and they're now down to their #3 on that side. Hmm, who will the Jets be likely to be running at all day?
They don't take advantage of the long kick return AT ALL, though, as Bengal karma kicks in on their 3rd play from scrimmage and Laveurnes Coles fumbles what should have been a first down pass back to his old team. Ominous...
Apparently wanting to humiliate his own wide receiver further on national TV, Marvin Lewis uselessly challenges the call, which only serves to show Coles knocked the ball out with his own knee...
And wastes a timeout...
And a challenge...
The Bengals hold, though, after a pretty dumb sequence by the Jets. They run blitz and stuff a Thomas Jones run on 2nd-and-7, then the Jets roll out the Wildcat with Brad Smith and take a penalty, then try to throw a screen pass to him on third and a mile. If there's one guy the Bengal D is going to be all over today, it's Brad Smith.
And momentum is definitely with the Bengals. They break another long special teams play, returning the punt (by Jay Feely?) to the Jet 45, then Cedric Benson explodes for 20 more off the left side behind big blocks by the LT and the LG getting to the 2nd level. Would be nice if any of Carson Palmer's passes were within six feet of their intended receiver, though. He does scramble out of trouble and hit Coles at the 15 to keep the drive alive. Coles shows he has learned nothing from his fumble by continuing to hold the ball as far away from his body as possible. He may be good for multiple turnovers today.
Andre Caldwell loses the handle on the ball at the 3 after getting flipped head-over-heels by Jim Leonhard, so Rex Ryan's challenging that. Does a player's head equal a foot? His hand landed first (not down), then his head.
I guess not; Ryan wins the challenge and the Bengals are set back to the 15. Cincy recovers from that, though, as Coles beats Dwight Lowry for the game's first score. The Jets were rushing eight on that play, dropping the linebacker back very late, leaving Lowery 1-on-1 and at least six yards off of Coles on the line of scrimmage. That play's in the dictionary next to "doomed to fail".
Bengals 7, Jets 0.
The Jets again idiotically try a Wildcat play at midfield after a good run by Shonn Greene. THE BENGALS ARE GOING TO BE ALL OVER THAT TODAY. Gains squat on 2nd-and-11. Jets get away with two players false-starting on 3rd-and-11 but almost get intercepted and punt again. Feely is still punting because punter Steve Weatherford "is sick". Really? You're going to go with that? I can't play in the playoff game because "I'm sick"? Because, PUSSY.
Benson bounces up off a Jet pulling him down on his own body and turns a 2-yard loss into a 7-yard gain. That's followed by A BRIAN LEONARD SIGHTING. He can catch swing passes for no gain as well in Cincinnati as he could here. Lowry breaks up a short pass to Caldwell to force the punt.
I love Hammond's liberal affectation to pronounce the Jet QB's last name Sanch-EZ. It's part of the liberal media's attempt to show how Latino cool they are, going along with ESPN suddenly putting diacritical marks over the E's in every Latino baseball player's names recently, complete with Jon Miller's affected pronunciation emphasizing the last syllable of every Latino player's name. A sudden change in spelling and pronouncing people's names after decades of doing it one way. See, Latino people? We are liberal and hip and cool and pronounce and spell your names the way you do. Viva la raza!
Except you know how Mark Sanchez pronounces HIS OWN NAME? SAN-chez. No diacritical marks; no stuffy liberal affectations.
The Jets smartly get back to their traditional running game, but for some reason, Greene's getting all the carries and Jones is cooling his heels on the bench. I don't understand that at all, but I haven't followed the Jets closely, either. The seem stymied after a false start, but Jerricho Cotchery's sideline catch keeps the drive going on 3rd-and-long.
Maybe. Marvin Lewis is challenging again. Crowd doesn't like the call, either, but it looks pretty clearly like he dragged his back foot. Gibbs and Theismann have been too friendly to Marvin Lewis in saying that both his challenges have been good ones. They haven't. They both have been poor challenges. It was pretty clear from the first view of each replay that the original call was correct.
Lewis' challenge fails as expected, and he is out of challenges FOR THE GAME. Meanwhile, Braylon Edwards has a PERFECT TD bomb from Sanchez slip right through his hands. How much did the Jets give up to get him? Quarter's over with the Bengals ahead and the Jets facing a third down at the Bengal 40.
End of first quarter: Bengals 7, Jets 0.
SECOND QUARTER
Brandon Johnson, who's made a couple of plays today for Cincy, bats down Sanchez' pass to force another Feely punt. Feely actually gets one to check up at the 6-yard line; beautiful work. Some of the screwing around kickers do all day during training camp paid off right there.
Bryan Thomas stuffs Benson on 3rd-and-2 to force a 3-and-out. Cotchery sets the Jets up just across midfield with the return.
I have seen some gross fast food in my 44-plus years on this earth; for instance, Hardee's fried bologna breakfast biscuit, but that McDonald's Big Mac Snack Wrap takes the urinal cake. It doesn't look a whole lot different than what it would look like to take a piece of paper and pick up some dog poop with it.
Hey, Thomas Jones is finally back, and rips off an 8-yard gain. The Jets follow that with a 90-flip to Greene, and with Dustin Keller getting away with a block in the back out on the wing, he sprints 38 yards for the tying TD. Theismann says Keller made a great block. There was an official looking right at it. HE BLOCKED THE MAN IN THE BACK! That's as illegal on running plays as it is on kickoffs.
Anyway, Jets 7, Bengals 7.
The Jets got back to what they do best that series, and it paid off.
Palmer continues his awful game with an incompletion behind one receiver and a horrible overthrow of Caldwell, but the refs let him off with a bogus call against Darrelle Revis. We have heard squat from Chad JOHNSON today, btw. Palmer does hit Coles with a nice sideline pass to get them out of a hole after a false start. Benson then rumbles for 13 to get them across midfield. The Bengal LT is having a standout game. As good as the Bengal running game is, I wasn't expecting them to run as successfully on the Jets as they have. Benson's averaging a lot per carry. But after a false start, Revis makes a beautiful play on a pass down the sideline for JOHNSON and picks Palmer off. He returns it to near midfield.
Palmer is still having an awful game. Maybe not as awful as the totally-silenced JOHNSON, but pretty damn bad all the same.
I just did an in-game post on the Seahawks hiring Pete Carroll, and, no, I'm not happy about it. The way they went about it, the way the NFL's letting them get away with it, is total and absolute bullshit.
Back to the playoff game. Brandon Johnson's filling in for Rashad Jeanty, who got hurt on the opening kickoff and was filling in for Rey Maualuga, and is doing a hell of a job, stuffing a Jones draw play for a big loss. Sanchez answers with a slant to Cotchery for a first down, then a beautiful play to Dustin Keller for a lead TD. The Jets had Brad Smith out wide, and everybody, including Hammond, overfocused on him, and Keller broke wide open behind Dhani Jones (as overrated as his deodorant commercials are bad), and Sanchez, rolling to right, to the opposite side of the field as Smith, hits him on the deep cross-field flag route for a 45-yard TD. Beauty in strategy and execution.
Jets 14, Bengals 7.
Some details I've been overlooking: 6:14 left in the half. Benson is averaging about 6 yards a run. Coles, by far Cincy's best receiver today, even with the fumble, is out with a thumb injury. And we have another BRIAN LEONARD SIGHTING, returning the ensuing short kickoff out to the 30.
Remember week 3 of preseason when the Rams beat the Bengals and looked pretty good doing it? Which of the two did you think was more likely to make the playoffs back in August?
Palmer scrambles and dives out of bounds for a first down on 3rd-and-2, but Revis would have spared him the effort with another illegal contact penalty. The Bengals use their last timeout for no explicable reason.
Hold on, pizza's here.
Jets bring Leonhard on a dog blitz right up the middle and nearly get a huge turnover on the sack. Cincinnati very lucky not to lose the ball there. Saving the day for the Bengals?
BRIAN LEONARD.
Cotchery returns the punt the next play to the Jet 42, but they punt right back after three ineffective handoffs. That looked like a missed opportunity there. They get the ball back to start the 2nd half, but why not try to at least tack on 3? Very Spagnuolian strategy there.
The Bengals just run out the clock with Benson and we head to halftime.
Halftime score: Jets 14, Bengals 7.
Obviously we're looking for the Jets to try to pound down the clock in the 2nd half. Their problem is, they haven't really run the ball down Cincinnati's throat. They've capitalized on big plays. Cincinnati needs Palmer to get his head out of his ass, and they need Coles back on the field, because he's head-and-shoulders their best receiving threat today. Do they even have a tight end they throw to? Ever? They've got to find some way to make up for Revis pwning JOHNSON, which could be Coles, who pwned Lowery when he was in there. Bengals are certainly still in this, but the Jets are exactly where they want to be at the half.
THIRD QUARTER
The Jets are quickly out to midfield after a bizarre kickoff that appeared to be an onside kick gone bad. Um, booth, you might want to discuss that. Ok, don't. Greene bashes out a couple of close-to-ten-yard carries. Thomas Who? They're down to the 30 on 4 Greene carries and Cincinnati's at risk of being run out of the game. The stupid Wildcat fails again; Smith=decoy today, Jets! That's why you have the lead! Instead, the Wildcat killed the momentum Greene gave them, and then they HAND OFF TO JONES ON THIRD AND SIX. Deservedly, the refs call them for holding on the initial FG attempt, which Feely made from 42, then a false start on the re-kick, which Feely made from 52. Feely stays in, but to punt, and I believe the refs knew the Jets did not deserve to score there.
The Jets have not pressed their advantage either of the last two possessions; look for the Bengals to capitalize on that soon.
Or look for my TiVo to freeze up at the 10:10 mark of the third quarter. I'm getting legendary for this kind of crap happening to me in the postseason. I'm the Marty Schottenheimer of bloggers.
Let's have a race between NFL.com and my TiVo. My browser hung up twice while TiVo was still on the welcome screen. But it's back now, and TiVo's made it to the ironically optimistic "Almost there" screen. I now see I can thank my TiVo for missing the Jets' third TD. Meanwhile, 6 minutes of the third quarter is as unknown to me as the missing 18 minutes of the Nixon White House tapes. TiVo still not up. Neither is NFL.com play-by-play navigation, which I could really freaking use right about now.
OK, NFL.com won. Here's the last quarter of play. The Bengals got a 27-yard run from Benson and a long DPI against Revis before Bart Scott stuffed a run, the Bengals blew a 3rd-and-5 pass and Shayne Graham then blew a chippie FG. Still 14-7, Jets.
As often happens off one team's missed FG, the other team scores. Sanchez makes key completions to Cotchery and Edwards, Greene mixes in a long run and Jones takes it in from 9 and the Jets are ahead 21-7. Game over, right? That's your score heading into the 4th quarter.
End of third quarter: Jets 21, Bengals 7.
FOURTH QUARTER
Not so fast, premature-ending-breath. After the teams trade punts, we're back to the point where my TiVo comes back to life, and not a moment too soon. Benson explodes through a hole on the right side for a 47-yard TD. The key block shows Cincinnati does actually have a tight end, Daniel Coats.
Jets 21, Bengals 14.
Now I have lost another 4 minutes of the game trying to re-program the TiVo 30-second skip. The Jets have added a FG thanks to a long completion to Keller. Which I have no way to break down for this post.
I hate my life.
Jets 24, Bengals 14.
OK, the Jets kicked that FG on 4th-and-1 at the Bengals 2. Looks like SS Ndukwe had a couple of big stops for the Bengals in close. Rex Ryan's offensive approach has been total Spagnuolo today, but he does have a ten-point lead with 5:47 left.
Damn, Chad JOHNSON had an actual catch and I missed that, too.
Huh, Keller's latest long catch was just a screen that Cincinnati covered really, really poorly. Looked like Greene got him a block downfield, then he just ran across the field for 40-some-odd yards before anybody caught up with him.
Bengals have gone to the hurry-up. Coats drops a poor pass as Palmer continues to wear the goat horns today. Coles is out being checked for concussion symptoms but Quan Cosby gets a first-down catch. Bengals at the Jets 40. Jets have been blitzing all day with little impact but flush Palmer and induce an incompletion. Chad Johnson breaks in on a long ball Palmer throws outside. Third down. Cosby can't make a one-handed catch that would have been short of the first down but lobbies successfully for illegal contact on Drew Coleman. Palmer vastly overthrows Cosby and gets booed. How often do you get to see playoff games at home, Bengals fans? And you're booing your star player? What, you're entitled to better postseason performance because of your franchise's long, rich playoff history? The Jets don't back me up, giving Cincy 25 yards on a Cosby catch and a late hit out of bounds. Chad Johnson just misses a diving catch of a fade pass in the end zone against Revis. Fine effort by Chad there; he's certainly not quitting today. The RT shoves Calvin Pace right into Palmer on 2nd down and Carson just barely ditches the ball away and avoids the sack. Poor pass for Caldwell on an out route in the end zone, but Leonhard had him blanketed, too. Spagnuolo, er, Lewis, is settling for the FG here, and Graham MISSES ANOTHER CHIPPIE. BRUTAL performance by the Bengal kicker today, missing from 35 and 28. Cincinnati can legitimately blame him for losing this game.
Jets ball with 3:49 left. Cincy has all 3 timeouts. They stop Jones 3 times, use all 3 timeouts, and get the ball back with 3:27 left.
Bengals start near midfield. Chad Johnson is actually heard from again, for 20, as the Jets. Are. Playing. PREVENT!!!!! Idiots. Now here's FREAKING BRIAN LEONARD crashing for 18 yards inside the 20!!!!! Nope, a hold's calling back the nifty play call. MINI LEONARD LEAP! on a screen pass that nets 6. Bomb to Caldwell misses. Bryan Thomas tops off a terrific game by beating Bobbie Williams, who has had a terrible game, to sack Palmer and force 4th-and-22. Shaun Ellis gets the sack on 4th down, with Lowery complicating Palmer's life with a good blitz off RT, to send the Jets to the next round. And the Bengal fans boo a team that has survived through injury and blood and sweat and the death of a teammate to get as far as they are. Sorry, Cincinnati, but you deserve an 0-16 team next year. If I'm a Bengals player, I'll be damned if you fans will be anything that motivates me.
MVP: Sanchez, Greene and Keller are worthy MVP candidates today, but the key to this game was the Jets shutting down the Bengals' passing game. (They sure didn't stop the run: Benson ran for 169.) I think the Coles injury was critical to the Bengals, but that's just half the factor that made Palmer look so bad today; the other was Revis pwning Chad Johnson for the second straight week, and despite a couple of long penalties, I'm giving Revis, the CB (correction) the Rams passed up in 2007 to draft Adam Carriker, today's game ball.
Looking ahead: the Bengals are more than likely going to suck again next season because, well, they're the Bengals. They need a receiving threat besides Chad, but Caldwell could become that guy. They need a pass-catching TE but will get Mizzou Tiger Chase Coffman back from injury. They got gashed by the run today but played without Maualuga. They don't look like they have severe needs heading into the offseason. Their pass rush was silent today, so I'd say they need to look there, as well as LB depth, speed on offense. And more than likely a kicker.
A Patriots win tomorrow sends the Jets to Indianapolis, where the Colts'll play the starters all 4 quarters this time. That doesn't mean the Jets can't hang with the Colts. They were always one of the very few teams I thought had a chance to beat the Colts when Indy was still undefeated. If Revis takes away Reggie Wayne, Peyton Manning's really going to be pressed to move the Colt offense. I think the Colts are going to be ready for the Jets this time, however, and I'm not sure the Jets will have an answer for Dallas Clark. Indy's my pick in a close one.
Eagles vs. Cowboys in just a sec.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Friday, January 8, 2010
Playoff predictions, round 1
Sure, I'm stupid enough to post my playoff predictions. For gambling purposes, the most important thing you need to know is that I went freaking 3-8 last year, and two of those wins were Pittsburgh. The other one was Philly's first round win at Minnesota. Yes, I went 0-FOR-FOUR last year's divisional playoff weekend.
- Patriots over Ravens. New England's hard not to like at home, even without Wes Welker, since they went 8-0 there this season. This game should look a lot like the second Ravens-Steelers game from a couple of weeks ago.
- Cowboys over Eagles. I'm rooting for the Eagles here so I can keep jabbing my Cowboys fan friends that the Rams have a 6 to 0 edge over Dallas in postseason wins since 1996. But Dallas is just playing too well right now, and the difficulty of beating the same team three times is a busted myth: the team with the first two wins in the regular season gets the third in the playoffs 59% of the time. Andy Reid sure does get to a lot of NFC Championships, though.
- Jets over Bengals; Packers over Big Dead. I grouped the Bengals and Big Dead together for the same reasons; they both got KILLED last week by the same team they'll face in the playoffs. No, Arizona didn't play Kurt Warner. Is he really a 26-point difference? The Bengals didn't play Cedric Benson. Is he a 37-point difference? The Bengals had their starters in early Sunday night, and the Jets just pulled away to a big lead. For all the talk the Dead weren't playing starters, wasn't that Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin I saw in the highlights? Arizona can't paper over that they played a lot of starters and were still getting killed. The Packers and Jets weren't just squeaking by; they both won in romps.
Bill Simmons doesn't trust the Jets. By and large, I get that. But here's what nags me. Despite three Super Bowl appearances between them, the Bengals and the Big Dead are still two of the worst franchises in all of sports, let alone the NFL. Their histories have mainly been filled with futility and incompetence. Where do either of them get off throwing away the game before the playoffs? Think about the history of these teams. Is it a history that inspires you to think they can show up the weekend after a huge blowout and just turn the switch back on?
Some franchises can pull that off. These two? The Bungles and the Big Dead? No. They invited back the bad karma they've always had. Their karmic debts lead to my karmic bets.
- Patriots over Ravens. New England's hard not to like at home, even without Wes Welker, since they went 8-0 there this season. This game should look a lot like the second Ravens-Steelers game from a couple of weeks ago.
- Cowboys over Eagles. I'm rooting for the Eagles here so I can keep jabbing my Cowboys fan friends that the Rams have a 6 to 0 edge over Dallas in postseason wins since 1996. But Dallas is just playing too well right now, and the difficulty of beating the same team three times is a busted myth: the team with the first two wins in the regular season gets the third in the playoffs 59% of the time. Andy Reid sure does get to a lot of NFC Championships, though.
- Jets over Bengals; Packers over Big Dead. I grouped the Bengals and Big Dead together for the same reasons; they both got KILLED last week by the same team they'll face in the playoffs. No, Arizona didn't play Kurt Warner. Is he really a 26-point difference? The Bengals didn't play Cedric Benson. Is he a 37-point difference? The Bengals had their starters in early Sunday night, and the Jets just pulled away to a big lead. For all the talk the Dead weren't playing starters, wasn't that Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin I saw in the highlights? Arizona can't paper over that they played a lot of starters and were still getting killed. The Packers and Jets weren't just squeaking by; they both won in romps.
Bill Simmons doesn't trust the Jets. By and large, I get that. But here's what nags me. Despite three Super Bowl appearances between them, the Bengals and the Big Dead are still two of the worst franchises in all of sports, let alone the NFL. Their histories have mainly been filled with futility and incompetence. Where do either of them get off throwing away the game before the playoffs? Think about the history of these teams. Is it a history that inspires you to think they can show up the weekend after a huge blowout and just turn the switch back on?
Some franchises can pull that off. These two? The Bungles and the Big Dead? No. They invited back the bad karma they've always had. Their karmic debts lead to my karmic bets.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Michael WHAT THE HELL?
Bernie Miklasz is taking a poll right now on his blog, and St. Louis is coming down almost 2-to-1 IN FAVOR of Michael Vick as Rams QB next year?
Honestly, I was expecting about 5-to-1 against when I registered what I thought was an obvious NO vote. Did everyone in St. Louis leave their brains at home this morning, or is this some kind of hacker attack?
2,000-plus total idiots have now given Bernie an excuse to float this as a serious idea. I don't want rumors dancing around the Rams all offseason that they're going to make a play for Michael Vick. But here it comes, you bunch of damn morons. Bernie's got his "why not Vick" column ready and now he's got a poll saying fans would be receptive to the idea. NO WE ARE NOT.
Michael Vick in a Rams uniform would have me seriously considering dropping my season tickets. I have not entertained this thought in 15 years, not until this Vick idea came up today. And I'm a guy, one of many, who just got done sitting through a three-win, then a two-win, and then a one-win season. I just paid over a thousand dollars to see not a single regular season home win in 2009. There are few things the Rams could do to keep me from coming back.
Trading for Michael Vick is one of them. If the Rams are going to have any "pillars", if they're going to go about building this team the right way, they will shrug this seed of an idea off like the idiotic notion it is. The folks out there arguing for him because he's done his time, or because it's the same thing with Leonard Little (which hell no it isn't), make me wonder what kind of community I live in any more. I know Roger Goodell reinstated Vick, and I also don't care. I have higher standards than Goodell's publicity-driven, commercially-expedient morals. The Rams must, too, or Richie Incognito would still be here. He got the character boot without anything remotely close to an off-the-field incident. They'd better not cut back their standards now, or I'm going to have a lot of free Sundays this coming fall.
Honestly, I was expecting about 5-to-1 against when I registered what I thought was an obvious NO vote. Did everyone in St. Louis leave their brains at home this morning, or is this some kind of hacker attack?
2,000-plus total idiots have now given Bernie an excuse to float this as a serious idea. I don't want rumors dancing around the Rams all offseason that they're going to make a play for Michael Vick. But here it comes, you bunch of damn morons. Bernie's got his "why not Vick" column ready and now he's got a poll saying fans would be receptive to the idea. NO WE ARE NOT.
Michael Vick in a Rams uniform would have me seriously considering dropping my season tickets. I have not entertained this thought in 15 years, not until this Vick idea came up today. And I'm a guy, one of many, who just got done sitting through a three-win, then a two-win, and then a one-win season. I just paid over a thousand dollars to see not a single regular season home win in 2009. There are few things the Rams could do to keep me from coming back.
Trading for Michael Vick is one of them. If the Rams are going to have any "pillars", if they're going to go about building this team the right way, they will shrug this seed of an idea off like the idiotic notion it is. The folks out there arguing for him because he's done his time, or because it's the same thing with Leonard Little (which hell no it isn't), make me wonder what kind of community I live in any more. I know Roger Goodell reinstated Vick, and I also don't care. I have higher standards than Goodell's publicity-driven, commercially-expedient morals. The Rams must, too, or Richie Incognito would still be here. He got the character boot without anything remotely close to an off-the-field incident. They'd better not cut back their standards now, or I'm going to have a lot of free Sundays this coming fall.
RamView's NFL MVP ballot
If I got one, that is, it'd look like this:
1. Peyton Manning
2. Chris Johnson
3. Drew Brees
4. Philip Rivers
5. Darrelle Revis
6. Brett Favre
7. Kurt Warner
8. Aaron Rodgers
9. Darren Sharper
10. Miles Austin
Austin's emergence at WR turned the Cowboys' season around. Sharper tied for the league lead in INTs and that big-play Saint defense was the key to their early domination. Rodgers carried the Packers into the playoffs and would have been higher if not for the early-season sack troubles. Warner's the foremost reason the Big Dead have won back-to-back NFC West titles. Favre has had an amazing season, the best of his career, and is the guy who put one of the league's 3 best teams over the top. But his late-season dustup with his head coach was followed by a bad season-ending run. Revis is the NFL's dominant defensive player right now and on a team riding its defense into the playoffs. Rivers' Chargers have won 11 straight and he has had a quietly excellent season. Brees completed over 70% of his passes and is the linchpin to the league's latest imitation of the Greatest Show on Earth. Johnson's 2,006 rushing yards were over 500 yards ahead of the NFL's #2 rusher, Steven Jackson.
Peyton Manning wins it, though. 2nd in the league in yardage (4500), 2nd in TDs (33). His team's undefeated this season when he plays a full game. He's the league's best QB and he leads the league's best team. Hell, since he calls his own plays, he probably ought to be up for the Coach of the Year. And, hype or not, I can't remember another player who makes everyone around him better as much as Manning does.
Most of the guys I left off - Steven Jackson, Ben Roethlisberger, Matt Schaub & Andre Johnson - were left off because their team wasn't in the playoffs. Tom Brady's numbers are better than Rivers' but his 2007 season has me spoiled. Makes his 2009 look run-of-the-mill. Plus the Pats won 11 in 2008 without him anyway. Jared Allen was on my original list but would have to have been the NFL sack leader to stay on it.
Unlike the folks who do the actual balloting in the various sports, I'm a firm believer that postseason performance should be part of what's weighed in determining that season's MVP, so my ballot could change, but I don't suspect it will by very much.
1. Peyton Manning
2. Chris Johnson
3. Drew Brees
4. Philip Rivers
5. Darrelle Revis
6. Brett Favre
7. Kurt Warner
8. Aaron Rodgers
9. Darren Sharper
10. Miles Austin
Austin's emergence at WR turned the Cowboys' season around. Sharper tied for the league lead in INTs and that big-play Saint defense was the key to their early domination. Rodgers carried the Packers into the playoffs and would have been higher if not for the early-season sack troubles. Warner's the foremost reason the Big Dead have won back-to-back NFC West titles. Favre has had an amazing season, the best of his career, and is the guy who put one of the league's 3 best teams over the top. But his late-season dustup with his head coach was followed by a bad season-ending run. Revis is the NFL's dominant defensive player right now and on a team riding its defense into the playoffs. Rivers' Chargers have won 11 straight and he has had a quietly excellent season. Brees completed over 70% of his passes and is the linchpin to the league's latest imitation of the Greatest Show on Earth. Johnson's 2,006 rushing yards were over 500 yards ahead of the NFL's #2 rusher, Steven Jackson.
Peyton Manning wins it, though. 2nd in the league in yardage (4500), 2nd in TDs (33). His team's undefeated this season when he plays a full game. He's the league's best QB and he leads the league's best team. Hell, since he calls his own plays, he probably ought to be up for the Coach of the Year. And, hype or not, I can't remember another player who makes everyone around him better as much as Manning does.
Most of the guys I left off - Steven Jackson, Ben Roethlisberger, Matt Schaub & Andre Johnson - were left off because their team wasn't in the playoffs. Tom Brady's numbers are better than Rivers' but his 2007 season has me spoiled. Makes his 2009 look run-of-the-mill. Plus the Pats won 11 in 2008 without him anyway. Jared Allen was on my original list but would have to have been the NFL sack leader to stay on it.
Unlike the folks who do the actual balloting in the various sports, I'm a firm believer that postseason performance should be part of what's weighed in determining that season's MVP, so my ballot could change, but I don't suspect it will by very much.
Monday, January 4, 2010
2009 team awards announced
The Rams have announced their postseason team awards, voted on by the players. The outcomes of some of these elections were about as pre-ordained as any given Chicago aldermanic race, but here we go.
Daniel F. Reeves Memorial Award (team MVP): Steven Jackson. Duh. That's a vote that even Keith Law could get right.
Carroll Rosenbloom Memorial Award (rookie of the year): James Laurinaitis. Zero surprise.
Walter Payton Man of the Year nominee: Oshiomogho Atogwe. No truth to the rumor that in his
acceptance speech, Atogwe thanked Billy Devaney for cutting Chris Draft.
Carl Ekern Spirit of the Game Award: Leonard Little. The Ekern award represents sportsmanship, work ethic, commitment to teammates and on-field leadership. At first blush, I'm not certain why Jackson wouldn't win this award, too, other than I can't find any recent evidence of it being won by any offensive player. Corey Chavous won it three straight times, so it's not like you have to be any good to win it.
Congratulations to the award-winners.
Daniel F. Reeves Memorial Award (team MVP): Steven Jackson. Duh. That's a vote that even Keith Law could get right.
Carroll Rosenbloom Memorial Award (rookie of the year): James Laurinaitis. Zero surprise.
Walter Payton Man of the Year nominee: Oshiomogho Atogwe. No truth to the rumor that in his
acceptance speech, Atogwe thanked Billy Devaney for cutting Chris Draft.
Carl Ekern Spirit of the Game Award: Leonard Little. The Ekern award represents sportsmanship, work ethic, commitment to teammates and on-field leadership. At first blush, I'm not certain why Jackson wouldn't win this award, too, other than I can't find any recent evidence of it being won by any offensive player. Corey Chavous won it three straight times, so it's not like you have to be any good to win it.
Congratulations to the award-winners.
Happy Suh Year
RamBlog will be coming somewhat to life again now that the regular season is over. Just part of what makes this the worst Rams blog around. Eh, this offseason's going to be far more interesting than the past regular season was, anyway. And I'll have significantly more time.
First programming note of the new year: I am once again planning to "live" blog the playoffs, starting Saturday afternoon with Jets at Bengals. I've even written down the start times and everything so I don't show up late like a damn moron like I did for BOTH conference championships last year.
I "officially" picked Colts over Big Dead in the Super Bowl in the column, though my gut, usually brutally wrong, thinks Colts over Vikings. Which probably means something like the Cowboys beating the Chargers when it's all said and done. I would like to point out that for the first time in a very long time, BOTH my preseason Super Bowl picks made the playoffs: New England and Green Bay. Maybe next year I'll actually be brave enough to publish my preseason Super Bowl picks, then.
First programming note of the new year: I am once again planning to "live" blog the playoffs, starting Saturday afternoon with Jets at Bengals. I've even written down the start times and everything so I don't show up late like a damn moron like I did for BOTH conference championships last year.
I "officially" picked Colts over Big Dead in the Super Bowl in the column, though my gut, usually brutally wrong, thinks Colts over Vikings. Which probably means something like the Cowboys beating the Chargers when it's all said and done. I would like to point out that for the first time in a very long time, BOTH my preseason Super Bowl picks made the playoffs: New England and Green Bay. Maybe next year I'll actually be brave enough to publish my preseason Super Bowl picks, then.
RamView, January 3, 2010
From Row HH
(Report and opinions on and from the game.)
Game #16: 49ers 28, Rams 6
The Rams began the decade as kings of the NFL but ended it the lowest of the low, capping off the worst three-year run in NFL history with another lackluster loss to another division rival. Rags to riches to rags. Dirty, smelly rags.
* QB: It was a day for Keith Null (7-17-57 yards, 50.4 rating) to forget, and thanks to a partial concussion suffered after getting battered for two-quarters-plus, he may not remember this game by the time he gets up Monday morning. And he won't want to, though the really scary thing is, I think Null did about everything he could do today. He didn't commit a turnover despite relentless 49er pressure. He scrambled (or tried) a few times after a few games of being glued to the pocket. He took charge at the line of scrimmage with audibles and did his best to keep the 49ers off balance with hard counts. Null's game is still progressing. Unfortunately, though, if I may try to read Null's mind, the day went a lot like this: “OK, drop back... first option, not open... second option, he's not open, either... third option... GAAAH!” The 49ers stopped Steven Jackson and Null didn't get any help from his receivers or much from his offensive line. He earns the blame for only one of the FIVE times he was sacked (and don't forget his scrambling saved a couple more). He only took about a 3-step drop during a screen play in the 3rd, and when the line turned Justin Smith loose, he was already practically in Null's lap. Deep drop on the screen, rook. Unfortunately, Smith's hit knocked Null out of the game and brought back the uninspiring Kyle Boller (4-11-23, 44.9 rating) one last time. Boller missed a couple of rare open receivers, though in his defense he was also under siege just about every play. Poor blitz recognition was Boller's downfall. Jackson ran smack into a blitz for a five-yard loss in the 3rd and immediately turned around after the play and chewed Boller out. A veteran QB's got to recognize that coming and check to something else. Boller missed it again late in the 4th when Dashon Goldson blitzed in for the SEVENTH of San Francisco's EIGHT sacks. Boller came in cold, and also avoided committing a turnover, but comparing how the veteran handled the 49er pass rush today to how the rookie did, I can't make much of a case for keeping Null behind Boller any more, or, to shorten the sentence, keeping Boller any more. The Rams didn't gain anything with him on the field this season in any capacity.
* RB: Despite a very quiet afternoon, Steven Jackson (20-63) ended the season the leading rusher in the NFC and with a richly-deserved Pro Bowl berth. Jackson was able to get outside around right end a couple of times for nice gains and got a couple of decent gains off Randy McMichael blocks, but the 49ers dominated the line of scrimmage and Steven usually didn't get any help up front. That resulted in some painful moments. He ran right into a blitz in the 4th for a 5-yard loss. I'll say this: when he turned and screamed at Boller after the play, Jackson had the whole crowd behind him. The Rams blew a crucial 3rd-and-1 at the 49er 10 later in the 4th after Parys Haralson blew up the Ram line and met Jackson for another loss. This is the kind of day Jackson had: he'd try to run up the middle behind Mike Karney and gain nothing after the 49ers backed Karney up in the hole. I trust Steven will have a lot better blocking in front of him in Miami. After all the hard work he's done this season, he deserves a nice opportunity like that to showcase his skills.
* Receivers: A unit that's been a disgusting mess all season ended it with another disgusting performance. Donnie Avery (2-23) was the only receiver to crack 20 total yards but had to leave the game in the 2nd after a hard hit with a possible concussion. No one had more than three catches. Null didn't miss open receivers today and Boller didn't miss them much. They simply weren't there. Any time you looked downfield after the Ram QB got in trouble, everybody was still covered, and San Francisco was doing it with their best guy out injured. This receiving corps was so poorly equipped from the beginning to take on an NFL season, it's truly laughable. Avery's never looked any better than a #3 slot receiver in 2009. He and Laurent Robinson and Keenan Burton all have significant injury histories. Brandon Gibson's (3-18) very raw, though his back-to-back catches late in the 2nd helped set up a FG attempt. Danny Amendola (3-18) and Jordan Kent (1-5) are best suited to exclusive special teams roles. The TEs can block a little, but lack speed, and in Randy McMichael's (1-7) case, hands, though he didn't drop any today. They all lack the speed and skills to get open or create big plays after the catch. It's been a disaster the Rams should have seen coming and one they're going to have to clean up after significantly in the offseason. After you kick the special teams guys over to that unit, I'm not sure anybody other than Gibson's worth keeping. What a disaster.
* Offensive line: Another disaster today was the o-line, which should have been expected, really. Rams season in a nutshell: Season-long practice-squadder Roger Allen started at guard. And got hurt in the second quarter, which moved the paripatetically-out-of-position Adam Goldberg to LG and put another season-long practice squadder, Phil Trautwein, in at RT for his first professional action. Hoo boy. The 49ers were all over that like Joey Chestnut on a platter of franks, and the Rams wound up allowing a dreadful EIGHT sacks, FOUR of them by Justin Freaking Smith, and gave Jackson very little running room. Some of the sack problem was quarterbacking mistakes, but most of it was the Rams being just plain overmatched. Allen was awful in his limited action. He gave Smith a free run at Null for the 2nd 49er sack and got smoked by Demetric Evans for another. Evans didn't even put that much of a move on Allen, who looked like he was just guessing where to try to block. Goldberg had a surprisingly poor game. Haralson beat him at RT for half of the first sack of Null, and Smith just knocked him to the ground at LG en route to the 4th sack of Null. I think Goldberg was also responsible for Smith's fourth sack. He picked up Patrick Willis blitzing on the outside, but his responsibility was probably Smith on the interior rush after Alex Barron let him go. Jackson gave up the eighth and final sack to Dre Bly, his first poor blitz pickup in several weeks. Chemistry, continuity and experience are all vital to having a good offensive line. The Rams have talent on their line but end the season way short on those other qualities. It's easy to see why they've struggled but fair to say they can become better.
* Defensive line / LB: The Ram defense played what might have been its best three-and-a-half quarters of the season but looked for all the world like they'd quit after San Francisco took a 14-6 lead in the 4th. They forced a ton of 3-and-outs or similarly short possessions. James Laurinaitis set one up by blitzing up the middle untouched for the first sack of Alex Smith in the 1st, and got another in the 3rd by breaking up a 3rd-down pass to Vernon Davis with a solid hit. Chris Long got one by swatting down a 3rd-down pass. Craig Dahl helped set up another with a free run at Smith for a sack off a safety blitz. Long and James Hall were solid against the run. Hall stuffed Frank Gore several times as the Rams held him to just 31 first-half yards. Hall got the Rams' 3rd sack, and started another 3-and-out, by pouncing on Smith as he recovered his own extremely lame fumble in the 3rd. The 49ers couldn't put together any offense at all and the Rams had Smith on the run. In the 3rd, though, the 49ers started finding some cracks. Gore went up the middle for 34 after David Baas pulled and engulfed Laurinaitis and James Butler's utter inability to tackle Gore doubled the length of the play. Gore followed that with a 22-yard screen inside the 5, breaking away after Long and Ron Bartell ran into one another. That led to their first TD. The second TD was a lightning bolt from Davis after the Rams had settled for their hundredth FG near the goal line of the season, and after that, I'm pretty sure the defense was mainly thinking about tee times the rest of the way. Except for Long, who had enough fire left to get into a head-butting incident with a 49er lineman late in the game and get ejected. Ejections (usually of the head coach or manager) have been known to fire up basketball and baseball teams but the Rams saw no such effect. Gore chugged through them for a couple of short TDs meeting very little resistance in the middle and an unpleasant lack of pursuit when he bounced outside. It was 28-6 at the end of the game but 14-6 when the game was done, the Ram defense doing itself a brief disservice after at least 50 minutes of excellent effort today and a season where they'd played almost every game hard from start to finish.
* Secondary: The secondary paralleled the front seven, a good first half but a meltdown in the 2nd half. Justin King continued his strong work defending short passes by breaking up a pass to Vernon Davis with Ron Bartell to kill the first 49er threat of the day near midfield. A possession after he sacked Alex Smith, Dahl broke up a 4th-down pass to Michael Crabtree with a good hit to save the Rams another score. The meltdown started on the first 49er TD drive. Bartell inexcusably let Crabtree catch an 8-yard sideline pass right in front of him on 3rd-and-6. Josh Morgan then found a hole in the Ram zone for 17, then Gore took over. The pivotal play of the game came midway through the 4th. Davis split wide and drew single coverage from the lamentable Butler, who he burned badly for a 73-yard go-route TD. Game over, man, game over, but not before Crabtree burned Dahl for 38 to set up the next TD, the rookie turning the veteran inside out with a fake. An interesting development came in the 3rd when an apparently new player – John? Johnny? - Wade got some playing time and made a nice open-field stop on a pass to Gore. Wade may actually have been the nickel back today; I don't remember seeing Danny Gorrer at all. Hard to figure why Wade was the coaching staff's red-headed stepchild all season when Butler's the one who can't play, and for a big price to boot. Can't tackle, can't cover, burned the Rams with both inabilities today. What's it going to take for this franchise to get a decent strong safety?
* Special teams: The Rams weathered a plague of flags on a punt sequence in the 2nd quarter but still managed a decent day on special teams. The highlight of the day was the punting clinic put on by Donnie Jones and Andy Lee. Jones ended the day with a sick 50.1 average on a sicker 11 punts. Josh Brown hit a 54-yard FG to open the scoring but mysteriously missed a 45-yarder at the halftime gun, though I do not believe he missed it by much. Amendola set up Brown's other FG with a 56-yard punt return. He got up the sideline thanks to David Roach's seal block and got by the punter this time. Amendola has been a fine pickup for the Rams and should be their kick and punt returner next season. Let's just hope the offense will someday make it less regretful when Amendola just misses a TD.
* Coaching: I really did not understand Steve Spagnuolo's 4th-down philosophy today. 4th-and-1 at our 42 early in the game, we're going for it. 4th-and-2 at the 49er 11 down 7-3 late in the game, we're kicking the FG. 4th-and-18 from our 27, down 21-6, we're going for it. Hell, we're even burning timeouts. Then 4th-11 at our 25 down 28-6, boom goes the punt. The postgame radio show linked the Rams' quitting in the 4th quarter to the moment Spagnuolo chose to kick down 7-3, and that's hard to refute. There's little reason outside of abiding admiration for Ndamukong Suh not to go for it there. Spagnuolo has to let go of a lot of his conservatism of game management next season. The great ones didn't get there without taking intelligent risks. That conservatism pervades the offensive game plan, where Pat Shurmur's still calling two-yard smoke routes on 3rd-and-6 or running Jackson up the middle three straight times after a big play. The staff reminds me of when you're first starting to drive and you think you're moving along really fast, then Dad tells you to look at the speedometer and you find out you're going 30.
Coaching may be overrated in the estimation of how games are won and lost, but it's fair to demand the coaching staff show a tangible positive effect. Spagnuolo has done that this year as a leader. His team has played hard all season with the exception of about a quarter. They've been in games they probably didn't deserve to be in. They're on the right track motivationally. Pleyer development looks like it's getting there. All of the draft picks improved as the season went on. Special teams have gelled into something, well, special. The team's getting there developmentally, though with the glaring exceptions of WR and RBs to back up Jackson. But they're getting there. They need to get there strategically, too. Step on the gas next season, Coach.
* Upon further review: Mike Carey's already looking ahead to the playoffs, which I assume he'll be working as one of the NFL's top referees, though today's game may have lowered his crew a percentile or two. They threw flags on 49er special teams several times for blocks in the back but picked them all up. That got mind-boggling after a while, because some of them sure looked like illegal blocks. The missed call on Gibson's catch right before halftime, which the replay booth had to correct, was poor. NFL officials shouldn't miss calls I can get from 250 feet away. And Long was ejected from the game for retaliating against a late block that the official was looking right at. Hell, he got caught up in it. For Long to get the only penalty there was WWE-quality officiating, and I guarantee that had that 49er lineman been Richie Incognito instead, every official on the field would have tossed their hankies. D-plus.
* Cheers: The main reason most of the fans filled (half of) the Dome today was to salute Isaac Bruce in what appears to have been the final game of his brilliant career. So it was a shame there wasn't better publicity about how the 49ers planned to use him. Very little of the crowd suspected Isaac was only going to be on the field for the first offensive play, particularly since they didn't throw to him, running away from him instead. Otherwise we would have been on our feet when he came off the field and did a leaping celebration with several 49er receivers the way he used to do with Torry Holt. The crowd also had little idea Isaac had spent the second half in street clothes, trying to call him onto the field late in the game instead. We finally got to pay tribute to the greatest Ram WR thanks to some quick stadium camera work on the Jumbotron around the 2:00 warning. Bruuuuuuuuce. Though they may rely a little too much on pee-wee football for halftime shows, the Rams' P.R./game day people have been one of the franchise's strongest units this season. They marked Fan Appreciation Day today with discounts on concessions and an impressive array of prizes, giving away Super Bowl tickets, 50+ game-worn jerseys, and so many TVs I thought everyone in attendance was going to get one at one point. No, I didn't win anything, but my nephew and I had a blast at his 2nd Rams game, even though it was positively awful on the field. The Rams are getting some things right.
* Fearless postseason prediction: This ought to be one of the most exciting postseasons in many years. Look at the QBs in this year's playoffs: Manning, Rivers, Brees, Favre, Warner, Romo, Brady, Rodgers, McNabb. Look at some of the potential matchups. Patriots-Colts again? Favre vs. Packers, part III? Kurt Warner's postseason return to New Orleans? The Colts, Saints, Vikings will be hard to beat in their home domes. The red-hot Chargers and Cowboys will be hard to beat anywhere. And if the playoffs are really about running and defense, why not the Bengals or Jets or Ravens? OK, now that I've hedged on everybody, how about a prediction? I know the Chargers have the Colts' postseason number, but I'm not betting against Peyton, not this year. Another long Arizona postseason run sure looks unlikely after the Packers mopped the floor with their backups today, but I also hate betting against Kurt Warner. Plus I don't mind jinxing the hell out of Bill Bidwill. Sorry, Kurt. Colts over Cards in the Big One.
* What’s next?: The last time the Rams had the #1 pick in the draft, they drafted the winner of the Outland and Lombardi Trophies, Orlando Pace, and in his third season, they won the Super Bowl. They can try to repeat that history by selecting Nebraska DT Ndamukong Suh in April, but he's only the tip of the iceberg for them to mount a postseason run in the near future. This team heads into next season very short on talent and very long on questions.
The Ram offense had a 1,400-yard rusher and was still historically, hysterically, inept. Ten years after Warner, Bruce and Holt lit up the league, the Ram passing game is a joke. Focus on the QB all you want, but nobody who lines up behind center next season is going to succeed with receivers who can't get open or catch the ball or stay healthy. The Rams paid all season for their decision to try to play the receiver position on the cheap. Upgrading at WR and tight end with competent veterans must be the top offseason priority on offense. QB's surprisingly far down the priority list, absent any thrilling draft or free agent (Jason Campbell? Really?) prospects. The Rams would be better served to build up their offensive line depth to make up for the departures of Incognito and (please God please) Barron. They also need a big play threat to back Jackson up. But the critical need is receivers. They have to be able to stretch the field, make room for Jackson, get that 8th and 9th defender out of the box. And a ball-control offense has to have a reliable TE. Without those, as we've seen all season, the offense is a dreadful joke.
The defense didn't finish 2009 much better. 29th in total defense. 27th against the run. 25th against the pass. 30th overall. The Rams' decisions to dump capable veteran OLBs early in the season were baffling, and long strides need to be made this offseason to surround James Laurinaitis with actual professional-level talent. And with Leonard Little mulling retirement, what's already an anemic pass rush threatens to become Chris Long and little else. Long may be poised for a breakout season in 2010 but not without a legitimate threat on the other end of the line, a threat that does not appear to be on the 2010 roster. For all the Rams' offensive woes, the Rams could open the 2010 draft drafting a DT, a DE and an OLB and fill plenty of needs. If injured players like Oshiomogho Atogwe, Bradley Fletcher and C.J. Ah You all come back strong, all the better, but the Rams mustn't allow returns from injured reserve to represent the biggest part of their upgrade in talent. A supplement, sure, but not the main course.
Steve Spagnuolo's going to be under a lot of pressure next year. The honeymoon's over in 2010. Rams Nation has been patient and let some things slide. But we are sick of losing at home. We are sick of getting blown out by mediocre division opponents. The Rams have got the Lions, Bucs, Redskins, Raiders, Chiefs on next year's schedule, along with the Seahawks twice. They won't win them all, but that's still seven highly winnable games, way up from maybe two this year. It's about time “any given Sunday” started applying to this team again, too. Spagnuolo's established himself as a good leader. Now he needs to show the defensive acumen that got him this far. His game management has to step up a level. His staff's got to show he hired the right guys. His and Billy Devaney's ability to evaluate players has to shine through. In short, while acknowledging that Spagnuolo's lining the Rams up on the right track; in 2010, we want some results. 6-10 won't kick-start any parades in St. Louis, but it's hardly a lot to ask for next season. Not when Cleveland and Oakland and Seattle won 5 this year, or Buffalo won 6.
Make it happen, Coach. Gotta go to work.
--Mike
Game stats from nfl.com
From Row HH
(Report and opinions on and from the game.)
Game #16: 49ers 28, Rams 6
The Rams began the decade as kings of the NFL but ended it the lowest of the low, capping off the worst three-year run in NFL history with another lackluster loss to another division rival. Rags to riches to rags. Dirty, smelly rags.
* QB: It was a day for Keith Null (7-17-57 yards, 50.4 rating) to forget, and thanks to a partial concussion suffered after getting battered for two-quarters-plus, he may not remember this game by the time he gets up Monday morning. And he won't want to, though the really scary thing is, I think Null did about everything he could do today. He didn't commit a turnover despite relentless 49er pressure. He scrambled (or tried) a few times after a few games of being glued to the pocket. He took charge at the line of scrimmage with audibles and did his best to keep the 49ers off balance with hard counts. Null's game is still progressing. Unfortunately, though, if I may try to read Null's mind, the day went a lot like this: “OK, drop back... first option, not open... second option, he's not open, either... third option... GAAAH!” The 49ers stopped Steven Jackson and Null didn't get any help from his receivers or much from his offensive line. He earns the blame for only one of the FIVE times he was sacked (and don't forget his scrambling saved a couple more). He only took about a 3-step drop during a screen play in the 3rd, and when the line turned Justin Smith loose, he was already practically in Null's lap. Deep drop on the screen, rook. Unfortunately, Smith's hit knocked Null out of the game and brought back the uninspiring Kyle Boller (4-11-23, 44.9 rating) one last time. Boller missed a couple of rare open receivers, though in his defense he was also under siege just about every play. Poor blitz recognition was Boller's downfall. Jackson ran smack into a blitz for a five-yard loss in the 3rd and immediately turned around after the play and chewed Boller out. A veteran QB's got to recognize that coming and check to something else. Boller missed it again late in the 4th when Dashon Goldson blitzed in for the SEVENTH of San Francisco's EIGHT sacks. Boller came in cold, and also avoided committing a turnover, but comparing how the veteran handled the 49er pass rush today to how the rookie did, I can't make much of a case for keeping Null behind Boller any more, or, to shorten the sentence, keeping Boller any more. The Rams didn't gain anything with him on the field this season in any capacity.
* RB: Despite a very quiet afternoon, Steven Jackson (20-63) ended the season the leading rusher in the NFC and with a richly-deserved Pro Bowl berth. Jackson was able to get outside around right end a couple of times for nice gains and got a couple of decent gains off Randy McMichael blocks, but the 49ers dominated the line of scrimmage and Steven usually didn't get any help up front. That resulted in some painful moments. He ran right into a blitz in the 4th for a 5-yard loss. I'll say this: when he turned and screamed at Boller after the play, Jackson had the whole crowd behind him. The Rams blew a crucial 3rd-and-1 at the 49er 10 later in the 4th after Parys Haralson blew up the Ram line and met Jackson for another loss. This is the kind of day Jackson had: he'd try to run up the middle behind Mike Karney and gain nothing after the 49ers backed Karney up in the hole. I trust Steven will have a lot better blocking in front of him in Miami. After all the hard work he's done this season, he deserves a nice opportunity like that to showcase his skills.
* Receivers: A unit that's been a disgusting mess all season ended it with another disgusting performance. Donnie Avery (2-23) was the only receiver to crack 20 total yards but had to leave the game in the 2nd after a hard hit with a possible concussion. No one had more than three catches. Null didn't miss open receivers today and Boller didn't miss them much. They simply weren't there. Any time you looked downfield after the Ram QB got in trouble, everybody was still covered, and San Francisco was doing it with their best guy out injured. This receiving corps was so poorly equipped from the beginning to take on an NFL season, it's truly laughable. Avery's never looked any better than a #3 slot receiver in 2009. He and Laurent Robinson and Keenan Burton all have significant injury histories. Brandon Gibson's (3-18) very raw, though his back-to-back catches late in the 2nd helped set up a FG attempt. Danny Amendola (3-18) and Jordan Kent (1-5) are best suited to exclusive special teams roles. The TEs can block a little, but lack speed, and in Randy McMichael's (1-7) case, hands, though he didn't drop any today. They all lack the speed and skills to get open or create big plays after the catch. It's been a disaster the Rams should have seen coming and one they're going to have to clean up after significantly in the offseason. After you kick the special teams guys over to that unit, I'm not sure anybody other than Gibson's worth keeping. What a disaster.
* Offensive line: Another disaster today was the o-line, which should have been expected, really. Rams season in a nutshell: Season-long practice-squadder Roger Allen started at guard. And got hurt in the second quarter, which moved the paripatetically-out-of-position Adam Goldberg to LG and put another season-long practice squadder, Phil Trautwein, in at RT for his first professional action. Hoo boy. The 49ers were all over that like Joey Chestnut on a platter of franks, and the Rams wound up allowing a dreadful EIGHT sacks, FOUR of them by Justin Freaking Smith, and gave Jackson very little running room. Some of the sack problem was quarterbacking mistakes, but most of it was the Rams being just plain overmatched. Allen was awful in his limited action. He gave Smith a free run at Null for the 2nd 49er sack and got smoked by Demetric Evans for another. Evans didn't even put that much of a move on Allen, who looked like he was just guessing where to try to block. Goldberg had a surprisingly poor game. Haralson beat him at RT for half of the first sack of Null, and Smith just knocked him to the ground at LG en route to the 4th sack of Null. I think Goldberg was also responsible for Smith's fourth sack. He picked up Patrick Willis blitzing on the outside, but his responsibility was probably Smith on the interior rush after Alex Barron let him go. Jackson gave up the eighth and final sack to Dre Bly, his first poor blitz pickup in several weeks. Chemistry, continuity and experience are all vital to having a good offensive line. The Rams have talent on their line but end the season way short on those other qualities. It's easy to see why they've struggled but fair to say they can become better.
* Defensive line / LB: The Ram defense played what might have been its best three-and-a-half quarters of the season but looked for all the world like they'd quit after San Francisco took a 14-6 lead in the 4th. They forced a ton of 3-and-outs or similarly short possessions. James Laurinaitis set one up by blitzing up the middle untouched for the first sack of Alex Smith in the 1st, and got another in the 3rd by breaking up a 3rd-down pass to Vernon Davis with a solid hit. Chris Long got one by swatting down a 3rd-down pass. Craig Dahl helped set up another with a free run at Smith for a sack off a safety blitz. Long and James Hall were solid against the run. Hall stuffed Frank Gore several times as the Rams held him to just 31 first-half yards. Hall got the Rams' 3rd sack, and started another 3-and-out, by pouncing on Smith as he recovered his own extremely lame fumble in the 3rd. The 49ers couldn't put together any offense at all and the Rams had Smith on the run. In the 3rd, though, the 49ers started finding some cracks. Gore went up the middle for 34 after David Baas pulled and engulfed Laurinaitis and James Butler's utter inability to tackle Gore doubled the length of the play. Gore followed that with a 22-yard screen inside the 5, breaking away after Long and Ron Bartell ran into one another. That led to their first TD. The second TD was a lightning bolt from Davis after the Rams had settled for their hundredth FG near the goal line of the season, and after that, I'm pretty sure the defense was mainly thinking about tee times the rest of the way. Except for Long, who had enough fire left to get into a head-butting incident with a 49er lineman late in the game and get ejected. Ejections (usually of the head coach or manager) have been known to fire up basketball and baseball teams but the Rams saw no such effect. Gore chugged through them for a couple of short TDs meeting very little resistance in the middle and an unpleasant lack of pursuit when he bounced outside. It was 28-6 at the end of the game but 14-6 when the game was done, the Ram defense doing itself a brief disservice after at least 50 minutes of excellent effort today and a season where they'd played almost every game hard from start to finish.
* Secondary: The secondary paralleled the front seven, a good first half but a meltdown in the 2nd half. Justin King continued his strong work defending short passes by breaking up a pass to Vernon Davis with Ron Bartell to kill the first 49er threat of the day near midfield. A possession after he sacked Alex Smith, Dahl broke up a 4th-down pass to Michael Crabtree with a good hit to save the Rams another score. The meltdown started on the first 49er TD drive. Bartell inexcusably let Crabtree catch an 8-yard sideline pass right in front of him on 3rd-and-6. Josh Morgan then found a hole in the Ram zone for 17, then Gore took over. The pivotal play of the game came midway through the 4th. Davis split wide and drew single coverage from the lamentable Butler, who he burned badly for a 73-yard go-route TD. Game over, man, game over, but not before Crabtree burned Dahl for 38 to set up the next TD, the rookie turning the veteran inside out with a fake. An interesting development came in the 3rd when an apparently new player – John? Johnny? - Wade got some playing time and made a nice open-field stop on a pass to Gore. Wade may actually have been the nickel back today; I don't remember seeing Danny Gorrer at all. Hard to figure why Wade was the coaching staff's red-headed stepchild all season when Butler's the one who can't play, and for a big price to boot. Can't tackle, can't cover, burned the Rams with both inabilities today. What's it going to take for this franchise to get a decent strong safety?
* Special teams: The Rams weathered a plague of flags on a punt sequence in the 2nd quarter but still managed a decent day on special teams. The highlight of the day was the punting clinic put on by Donnie Jones and Andy Lee. Jones ended the day with a sick 50.1 average on a sicker 11 punts. Josh Brown hit a 54-yard FG to open the scoring but mysteriously missed a 45-yarder at the halftime gun, though I do not believe he missed it by much. Amendola set up Brown's other FG with a 56-yard punt return. He got up the sideline thanks to David Roach's seal block and got by the punter this time. Amendola has been a fine pickup for the Rams and should be their kick and punt returner next season. Let's just hope the offense will someday make it less regretful when Amendola just misses a TD.
* Coaching: I really did not understand Steve Spagnuolo's 4th-down philosophy today. 4th-and-1 at our 42 early in the game, we're going for it. 4th-and-2 at the 49er 11 down 7-3 late in the game, we're kicking the FG. 4th-and-18 from our 27, down 21-6, we're going for it. Hell, we're even burning timeouts. Then 4th-11 at our 25 down 28-6, boom goes the punt. The postgame radio show linked the Rams' quitting in the 4th quarter to the moment Spagnuolo chose to kick down 7-3, and that's hard to refute. There's little reason outside of abiding admiration for Ndamukong Suh not to go for it there. Spagnuolo has to let go of a lot of his conservatism of game management next season. The great ones didn't get there without taking intelligent risks. That conservatism pervades the offensive game plan, where Pat Shurmur's still calling two-yard smoke routes on 3rd-and-6 or running Jackson up the middle three straight times after a big play. The staff reminds me of when you're first starting to drive and you think you're moving along really fast, then Dad tells you to look at the speedometer and you find out you're going 30.
Coaching may be overrated in the estimation of how games are won and lost, but it's fair to demand the coaching staff show a tangible positive effect. Spagnuolo has done that this year as a leader. His team has played hard all season with the exception of about a quarter. They've been in games they probably didn't deserve to be in. They're on the right track motivationally. Pleyer development looks like it's getting there. All of the draft picks improved as the season went on. Special teams have gelled into something, well, special. The team's getting there developmentally, though with the glaring exceptions of WR and RBs to back up Jackson. But they're getting there. They need to get there strategically, too. Step on the gas next season, Coach.
* Upon further review: Mike Carey's already looking ahead to the playoffs, which I assume he'll be working as one of the NFL's top referees, though today's game may have lowered his crew a percentile or two. They threw flags on 49er special teams several times for blocks in the back but picked them all up. That got mind-boggling after a while, because some of them sure looked like illegal blocks. The missed call on Gibson's catch right before halftime, which the replay booth had to correct, was poor. NFL officials shouldn't miss calls I can get from 250 feet away. And Long was ejected from the game for retaliating against a late block that the official was looking right at. Hell, he got caught up in it. For Long to get the only penalty there was WWE-quality officiating, and I guarantee that had that 49er lineman been Richie Incognito instead, every official on the field would have tossed their hankies. D-plus.
* Cheers: The main reason most of the fans filled (half of) the Dome today was to salute Isaac Bruce in what appears to have been the final game of his brilliant career. So it was a shame there wasn't better publicity about how the 49ers planned to use him. Very little of the crowd suspected Isaac was only going to be on the field for the first offensive play, particularly since they didn't throw to him, running away from him instead. Otherwise we would have been on our feet when he came off the field and did a leaping celebration with several 49er receivers the way he used to do with Torry Holt. The crowd also had little idea Isaac had spent the second half in street clothes, trying to call him onto the field late in the game instead. We finally got to pay tribute to the greatest Ram WR thanks to some quick stadium camera work on the Jumbotron around the 2:00 warning. Bruuuuuuuuce. Though they may rely a little too much on pee-wee football for halftime shows, the Rams' P.R./game day people have been one of the franchise's strongest units this season. They marked Fan Appreciation Day today with discounts on concessions and an impressive array of prizes, giving away Super Bowl tickets, 50+ game-worn jerseys, and so many TVs I thought everyone in attendance was going to get one at one point. No, I didn't win anything, but my nephew and I had a blast at his 2nd Rams game, even though it was positively awful on the field. The Rams are getting some things right.
* Fearless postseason prediction: This ought to be one of the most exciting postseasons in many years. Look at the QBs in this year's playoffs: Manning, Rivers, Brees, Favre, Warner, Romo, Brady, Rodgers, McNabb. Look at some of the potential matchups. Patriots-Colts again? Favre vs. Packers, part III? Kurt Warner's postseason return to New Orleans? The Colts, Saints, Vikings will be hard to beat in their home domes. The red-hot Chargers and Cowboys will be hard to beat anywhere. And if the playoffs are really about running and defense, why not the Bengals or Jets or Ravens? OK, now that I've hedged on everybody, how about a prediction? I know the Chargers have the Colts' postseason number, but I'm not betting against Peyton, not this year. Another long Arizona postseason run sure looks unlikely after the Packers mopped the floor with their backups today, but I also hate betting against Kurt Warner. Plus I don't mind jinxing the hell out of Bill Bidwill. Sorry, Kurt. Colts over Cards in the Big One.
* What’s next?: The last time the Rams had the #1 pick in the draft, they drafted the winner of the Outland and Lombardi Trophies, Orlando Pace, and in his third season, they won the Super Bowl. They can try to repeat that history by selecting Nebraska DT Ndamukong Suh in April, but he's only the tip of the iceberg for them to mount a postseason run in the near future. This team heads into next season very short on talent and very long on questions.
The Ram offense had a 1,400-yard rusher and was still historically, hysterically, inept. Ten years after Warner, Bruce and Holt lit up the league, the Ram passing game is a joke. Focus on the QB all you want, but nobody who lines up behind center next season is going to succeed with receivers who can't get open or catch the ball or stay healthy. The Rams paid all season for their decision to try to play the receiver position on the cheap. Upgrading at WR and tight end with competent veterans must be the top offseason priority on offense. QB's surprisingly far down the priority list, absent any thrilling draft or free agent (Jason Campbell? Really?) prospects. The Rams would be better served to build up their offensive line depth to make up for the departures of Incognito and (please God please) Barron. They also need a big play threat to back Jackson up. But the critical need is receivers. They have to be able to stretch the field, make room for Jackson, get that 8th and 9th defender out of the box. And a ball-control offense has to have a reliable TE. Without those, as we've seen all season, the offense is a dreadful joke.
The defense didn't finish 2009 much better. 29th in total defense. 27th against the run. 25th against the pass. 30th overall. The Rams' decisions to dump capable veteran OLBs early in the season were baffling, and long strides need to be made this offseason to surround James Laurinaitis with actual professional-level talent. And with Leonard Little mulling retirement, what's already an anemic pass rush threatens to become Chris Long and little else. Long may be poised for a breakout season in 2010 but not without a legitimate threat on the other end of the line, a threat that does not appear to be on the 2010 roster. For all the Rams' offensive woes, the Rams could open the 2010 draft drafting a DT, a DE and an OLB and fill plenty of needs. If injured players like Oshiomogho Atogwe, Bradley Fletcher and C.J. Ah You all come back strong, all the better, but the Rams mustn't allow returns from injured reserve to represent the biggest part of their upgrade in talent. A supplement, sure, but not the main course.
Steve Spagnuolo's going to be under a lot of pressure next year. The honeymoon's over in 2010. Rams Nation has been patient and let some things slide. But we are sick of losing at home. We are sick of getting blown out by mediocre division opponents. The Rams have got the Lions, Bucs, Redskins, Raiders, Chiefs on next year's schedule, along with the Seahawks twice. They won't win them all, but that's still seven highly winnable games, way up from maybe two this year. It's about time “any given Sunday” started applying to this team again, too. Spagnuolo's established himself as a good leader. Now he needs to show the defensive acumen that got him this far. His game management has to step up a level. His staff's got to show he hired the right guys. His and Billy Devaney's ability to evaluate players has to shine through. In short, while acknowledging that Spagnuolo's lining the Rams up on the right track; in 2010, we want some results. 6-10 won't kick-start any parades in St. Louis, but it's hardly a lot to ask for next season. Not when Cleveland and Oakland and Seattle won 5 this year, or Buffalo won 6.
Make it happen, Coach. Gotta go to work.
--Mike
Game stats from nfl.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)