RamView, 9/28: Friday practice notes

Photo: AOL/Sporting News

* Friday's injury list:
- Steven Jackson (groin), limited, didn't do much, starting to look like a game-time decision again this week
- Michael Brockers (ankle), limited, seems to have a good chance of playing Sunday
- Wayne Hunter (knee, ankle), did not participate but says he's good to go Sunday
- Matt Daniels (hamstring), out
- Matt Conrath (knee), out but reportedly getting close
- Rodger Saffold (knee), out

* Transactions: the Rams signed offensive lineman Joe Barksdale, last with the Raiders, and cut Ty Nsekhe. Barksdale was the Raiders' third-round pick last year, but they cut him to make room for Andre Carter. He's a 6'5", 330-lb tackle who played for LSU. He played in every game as a rookie in Oakland but spent the first three games of Dennis Allen's regime on the inactive list. Scouts Inc. grades him as "a good backup." Has good initial quickness and agility, but plays too high and has poor knee bend. Long arms allow him to steer rushers past the pocket and make up for poor footwork on the edge.

Per Howard Balzer, Quinn Ojinnaka, Lord help us, will be the Rams' third tackle on Sunday.

Ex-Rams on the move: the Chiefs signed Bryan Mattison after losing Rodney Hudson for the season last week. Man, Hudson, Marvin Austin, David DeCastro, Prince Amukamara... I sure have a bad record for mock-drafting players to the Rams and getting them hurt lately. Also, the Dolphins cut Ray Feinga.

* Referee nonsense: I'm happy the regular referees are back. The first thing we should see is better control of the games and better flow created by, oh, about a million fewer conferences. Standing ovations like Gene Steratore's got Thursday night, though, are silly, even though they are a good crew. Jerome Boger, Ron Winter and Jeff Triplett are all going to be calling games somewhere Sunday too, you know. Ed Hochuli once blew a game for the Chargers even worse than the scabs blew Monday night's game for the Packers. Also, Super. Bowl. XXXVI. Officiating should be better this weekend, but let's all get a grip here. This is a lot more like Steve Bono coming in for Tony Banks than it is Kurt Warner coming in for Trent Green. When I heard Mike Carey was getting the call for the Rams-Seahawks game Sunday, the first thing I thought wasn't standing ovation, it was one of the worst officiating jobs I've ever seen was Mike Carey doing a Rams-Seahawks game in Seattle. Hopefully, since he'll be in St. Louis this time, he'll know enough not to call the Rams "Los Angeles".

* Kickoff vs. Seattle noon Sunday. The game will air on KTVI. The Seahawks are surprisingly just 2.5-point favorites. Since I'd more than likely be 0-3 betting Rams games this season, I'll go ahead and pick Seattle to cover.


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RamView, 9/25

RamView for the Rams' 23-6 loss in Chicago is up now at ramview.com... Report

* Pluses: the defense generally played well. Cortland Finnegan picked off another pass and Chris Long scored his first two sacks of the season. Greg Zuerlein hit 56- and 46-yard FGs.

* Negatives: Sam Bradford threw a pick-six, was sacked six times, and had a passer rating of 39.2. Offensive line badly outmatched by the Bears. Running game got nowhere. No receiver besides Danny Amendola could get open, except when Brandon Gibson dropped a bomb in the 2nd. Stupid penalties by Mario Haggan and Darian Stewart kept Bears scoring drives alive.

* More bad news: the 2-1 Seahawks, coming off one of the most controversial finishes in NFL history (refereed by the incompetent crew that did the Rams' home opener), are next, and they sacked Aaron Rodgers EIGHT times Monday night. In the first half. No line on the game yet, but the Rams have to be getting four at the least, maybe as much as six. (EIGHT sacks in the first half?)

* Injuries: no new injuries for the Rams after the Bears game, and Michael Brockers could be back for Seattle. I'm thinking Arizona is more likely; I don't know that I'd want him to play twice in five days off his ankle injury.

* Ex-Rams watch: after being waived, Greg Salas has been added to the Patriots' practice squad.

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RamView, 9/20: Wednesday practice notes

* Wednesday injury list:
- Steven Jackson did not participate (groin)
- Wayne Hunter did not participate (ankle)
- Same for Matt Daniels (hamstring), Brit Miller (quad/calf), Michael Brockers (ankle), Matt Conrath (knee or ankle), Rodger Saffold (knee).

Neither Matt Forte nor Julius Peppers practiced for the Bears Wednesday.

* Transactions: Brandyn Harvey has been dropped from the practice squad and replaced by center Chase Beeler. Beeler, out of Stanford, was on the 49ers' practice squad last season and was recently released from Philadelphia's PS. Undersized at 6'3", 285, he had 33 starts at Stanford, 7 at LG, and is assuredly the only Ram who has interviewed Condoleezza Rice.

* Ex-Rams watch: the Lions picked up Jerome Murphy; the Jagwires cut Stephen Spach.

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RamView, 9/19

Ramview.com is up to date now with the report for the first win of the Jeff Fisher era: Report

* Positives from Sunday: Sam Bradford not just outplaying RG3 but exceeding his rookie form; a million receptions for Danny Amendola; another pretty, long TD catch by Brandon Gibson; lightning off the bench from Daryl Richardson; offensive line holding together somehow; flawless special teams; excellent pass pressure in the clutch; Janoris Jenkins when he's very good; another pick for Cortland Finnegan.

* Negatives: more offensive line injuries; Janoris Jenkins when he's very bad; idiot reporters who think Steven Jackson is being benched when he's actually injured; Jeff Fisher's inconsistent trigger finger on challenges; the worst NFL officiating crew of all time. Bar none. Jerome Boger drunk working with 6 Elbonian goat herders would have called a better game.

* The Rams are 7-and-a-half point underdogs to a Chicago team that probably won't have Matt Forte and can't protect its quarterback, who's notably already berating his linemen on national TV.

* Injuries:
- Steven Jackson tweaked a groin muscle during the 2nd quarter Sunday. Nothing bad showed on the MRI; we'll see how things proceed on Wednesday.

- More offensive line madness. Rodger Saffold sprained an MCL returning a fumble and will be out at least 4 weeks. Wayne Hunter steps in at LT, though he missed part of Sunday's game with an injured ankle. Rokevious Watkins has been placed on injured reserve so the Rams could re-activate Austin Pettis. With a now-guaranteed season of inactivity, I'm predicting Watkins weighs 420 by next year's OTAs.

- Matt Daniels injured a hamstring covering a kick late in the game. Darian Stewart was inactive; no idea whether that was a healthy scratch. Or just chillin'. Michael Brockers and Matt Conrath remain out.

* Transactions:
Besides re-activating Pettis, the Rams have also re-added Quinton Pointer to the practice squad, where they had an opening after calling up Tim Barnes late last week.

* Ex-Rams watch:
- Danny Gorrer signs with the Seahawks.
- The Saints cut Jerome Murphy.
- Adam Carriker tore a quad early in Sunday's game and is out for the rest of the season.
- Ron Bartell's season is also over. He didn't even last one game with the Raiders, breaking a shoulder blade (ouch) in last Monday night's loss to San Diego.
- The Patriots have already cut Greg Salas, which is awesome, because it means the Rams are getting a future late-round draft pick from them for free.

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RamView, 9/14: Rams re-sign Clemens

* Surprise! The Rams were never "really" getting rid of Kellen Clemens in the first place. Sure, he hasn't been on the official roster since the cutdown to 53, but he never cleaned out his locker, either, and it wasn't given to anybody else. Stupid me, I should have guessed the Rams, when they originally cut Clemens, could have been just maneuvering so they didn't have to guarantee his contract. Though I'd disagree, Clemens is apparently in as QB2 now and Austin Davis drops to QB3.

Darell Dorell Scott was cut to make room for Clemens.

* In additional transactions, the Rams added Sammy Brown back to the practice squad. He was destined to go there after the final cutdown but Miami snagged him off waivers instead. Seventh-round pick Aaron Brown was dropped from the PS to make room for Sammy. They both looked like good special teams players in camp but Sammy looks like he has more potential to contribute on defense.

With Scott Wells down for half the season, the Rams promoted Tim Barnes from the practice squad to be the backup center behind Robert Turner. Quinton Pointer was released to make this move. Pointer must be headed to the practice squad, or the Rams wouldn't have cut Aaron Brown.

* Injury report. Short injury report for Sunday's game:
Out: Michael Brockers (ankle), Matt Conrath (knee), Rokevious Watkins (ankle).
Questionable: Rodger Saffold (neck). This means Rodger has gone from being stretchered out of last week's game to having a 50/50 chance to play Sunday. He was listed as a full participant in Thursday's and Friday's practices. I believe both of those were no-contact, Thursday's for sure. Still expecting Wayne Hunter at LT Sunday.

An important injury for Washington is Pierre Garcon (foot). He has been limited in practice so far this week. It has looked pretty obvious so far that Garcon is RG3's favorite receiver; he'd be a pretty big absence from their lineup.

* Lions WR Titus Young was penalized last week for headbutting Janoris Jenkins, but he was not fined by the league.

* Sunday's game has been declared a sellout. The game will air on Fox at 3:05.

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RamView, 9/13: Watkins injured

* More turmoil for the Rams offensive line, as purported starting LG Rokevious Watkins went down in practice Tuesday with a sprained ankle, and was on crutches Wednesday. Quinn Ojinnaka appears to be in line to be the Rams' third left guard of the season, though we've been told to keep an eye on Shelley Smith. So, here's Shelley, then.

* Interestingly enough, Rodger Saffold practiced Wednesday, on a limited basis. He's still not expected to play against the Redskins Sunday, but at least he's getting some really good injury luck. This team hasn't had a lot of that the last couple of years.

* Besides Watkins, Michael Brockers and Matt Conrath were listed as DNP's on Wednesday's practice report. Darell Dorell Scott was listed as limited. Darian Stewart was not listed. Not sure if he's full-go, since the NFL doesn't require teams to list players when they're "chillin'". Sam Bradford's unofficially probable after spraining his ankle 48 weeks ago.

* Too late now if you missed it, but NFL Network actually bypassed the opportunity to re-show a Cowboys, Giants or Packers game and actually had the Rams on Wednesday night's NFL Replay. I can't imagine the Rams have been picked more than a couple of times since that show started in 2006.

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RamView, 9/12: Midweek report

Ramview.com is now up to date with the report on Sunday's 27-23 heartbreaker against the Lions...  Report

A quick re-cap:
* Positives: Cortland Finnegan's pick-six highlights a three-INT game by the defense; Sam Bradford led the team to two 4th-quarter scoring drives to give the Rams leads; Greg Zuerlein's still kicking the heck out of the ball; offensive line, though not a wall, held up ok.

* Negatives: No pass rush whatsoever, Steven Jackson held to 2.5 a carry, Danny Amendola and Brandon Gibson were basically the only receivers, two starters lost on the offensive line, defense gave up two EASY 80-yard TD drives in the 4th to lose the game.

* The replacement referees might have lost the game for the Rams anyway, though the Rams made plenty of mistakes on their own. A mistake by the stadium clock operator that the officials did not correct allowed the Lions to save their last timeout for their final possession. And on the winning TD play, center Dominic Raiola was ineligible downfield.

The Rams are three-point underdogs to the Redskins for this Sunday's home opener. Don't look for RamView to be out very quickly; it's a late start and I'm stuck with early meetings Monday morning.

* Injuries:
- Rodger Saffold's scary-looking 4th-quarter injury has been diagnosed as a "significant" neck strain. Head coach Jeff Fisher has remained tight-lipped about Saffold's status up to this point. Since there has been no move to the injured reserve for Saffold, I think it's fair to believe he'll be back relatively soon, when it looked like his season was over when he got carted off the field Sunday. I'd expect Wayne Hunter (yeesh) back at left tackle against the Redskins.
- And Robert Turner at center, because Scott Wells broke his foot in the first half Sunday. He has been put on I.R. with the return designation. He could return to the active roster in eight weeks.
- Figure on Michael Brockers, Matt Conrath and Darell Dorell Scott to all be out for Washington as well.
- Darian Stewart is still chillin' at last word. Chilled on the sideline the whole Detroit game. I assume that's still a hamstring injury from camp.

* Transactions:
The Rams re-signed Quinn Ojinnaka, who'll take Wells' roster spot for the time being, and has potential to start Sunday, as bad as Rok Watkins looked in his first game as a pro. Watkins appears to be penciled in to start.

* Ex-Rams watch:
- The Eagles signed Mardy Gilyard.
- For reasons known only to them, the Jagwires signed Stephen Spach.
- The Dolphins cut Sammy Brown.

Finally, Richie Incognito claims to Fox Sports Florida that he's changed his ways, though the Houston Texans beg to differ.

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