spikecpi@yahoo.com
08-29-2008, 06:40 PM
RamView, August 28, 2008
From The Couch
(Report and opinions on the game.)
Preseason Game #4: Chiefs 21, Rams 17
This year’s Governor’s Cup game didn’t even prove as interesting as
the weather delay that preceded it. The Rams lost 21-17 to a team that
completed FIVE passes all night. Long story short, in the hands of the
Ram backups, offensive and defensive line play went south, so the Cup
went west.
Position by position:
* QB: Brock Berlin (13-21-107) and Bruce Gradkowski (11-18-105)
probably battled the elements more than they did one another in the
final push for QB3. A driving rainstorm isn’t a great forum for
holding a QB debate, and the two turned in similar statistics, which
would suggest Berlin will hold the job. Berlin led the Rams to a TD in
the last 2:00 of the first half, topping it off with a fine 20-yard
throw to Dane Looker over the middle at the goal line for the score.
He nearly hit on a bomb to Keenan Burton early in the game and has a
nice-looking long ball. Berlin was sacked twice, once because he held
the ball too long, but otherwise, offensive line contributed to a lot
of the trouble he had. Gradkowski couldn’t have felt good that his
first drive was two passes and seven Lance Ball runs. He had the long
completion of the night – 30 yards to Nick Cleaver, helping set up the
Rams’ second TD. Gradkowski was also picked off in the 4th, though,
and didn’t have any plays that showcased his mobility. Consensus was
that he had to do a lot better than fight Berlin to a draw tonight,
and he didn’t get there. Trent Green started; I’ll suppose the weather
made a joke out of the idea he was going to get some work, when all he
did was throw one bad screen pass before getting the night off after
one series.
* RB: Lance Ball was the Rams’ big rusher, with 70 yards and a TD. He
got about half of it in the third on a couple of runs behind Dustin
Fry. Ball shows nice patience and good change of direction, but may
have written his pink slip on special teams by letting Bernard Pollard
by him to block a punt in the 2nd. He wasn’t the only Ram RB vexed by
Pollard; the Chiefs safety pretty much held Travis Minor off the
ground and ripped the ball out of his hands for the first of two Ram
turnovers. Minor (8-21) still brings pretty decent speed off the
bench. One thing I will say about all the Ram RBs this preseason,
including Antonio Pittman (2-7), who got off early tonight: they
didn’t do any *COUGH* Steven *COUGH* dancing *COUGH* Jackson *COUGH*
around in the backfield. They took the ball and got upfield. That
would be a good trend to keep into the regular season. Ahem.
* WR: Ten different receivers had receptions, but it’s highly doubtful
anyone caught Dane Looker (3-32), who scored the Rams’ first TD on a
crossing route. He’s been the leader of the WR6 pack the whole way.
Marcus Hagans led the team with 4 catches and set up Looker’s TD with
a third-down catch, but it seems too little and too late for him. The
rookies started along with Looker but had only a catch apiece. Keenan
Burton nearly hauled in a sideline bomb, with a step on his defender.
Donnie Avery disturbingly left the game due to a sprained knee and
appears to be taking durability lessons from Drew Bennett. Or Dante
Hall. Derek Stanley did not have a catch, which surely doesn’t improve
any case he’d have for passing Looker. Weather and protection issues
mostly prevented the offense from getting into a rhythm anything like
the one it enjoyed last week, except for possibly the first-half 2:00
drive, and that had a lot of dinking and dunking.
* Offensive line: If you were worried about how the Rams would fare if
they lose starters on the offensive line before tonight, you’re still
worried today. There was a lot of misfiring out there. On the opening
series, Pat Thomas dropped Antonio Pittman for a big loss after Nick
Leckey couldn’t even get to him on the pull. A screen pass blew up the
next play because John Greco didn’t hold his block long enough. Not at
all, actually. The Chiefs ate Dustin Fry and Richard Owens alive on a
Travis Minor sweep in the 2nd which allowed Bernard Pollard to
literally rip the ball out of Minor’s hands. Greco didn’t appear to
block anyone on the play. Later in the 2nd, on 3rd-and-10, both Chief
DTs beat all three Ram interior linemen to sack Berlin. T.J. Jackson
got almost completely inside Fry and flushed Berlin into Ron Edwards,
who beat Roy Schuening cleanly for the sack on a play rife with poor
guard play. Greco allowed a couple more hits on Berlin, as his
audition at RT continues to be a struggle. The tight ends blocked
well, with Anthony Becht getting some early work. Fry bounced back
some in the second half and made a couple of blocks to spring Ball for
big gains. Berlin was safe when the Rams used a quicker-tempo passing
game. And Russ Weil might have won the fullback job tonight. I think
he threw at least half-a-dozen solid run blocks. But comparing the
Rams’ offensive line depth to last year’s, about all you can say right
now is that they’re younger and they have a healthy Adam Goldberg. If
I’m hanging a hat on that, it’s not a very big one.
* Defensive line/LB: The front seven struggled a lot of the game and
just appeared to lack the speed necessary to make plays a lot of the
time. A common theme was of a Chief runner getting outside to the
corner while a Ram DE, usually C.J. Ah You, was blocked inside and a
Ram LB, usually Tim McGarigle, was too late or just too slow to get
out there. For the first time, Victor Adeyanju suffered from having to
play essentially one-armed. A lot of plays went by him that he would
have made if he could have gotten both hands on his blocker or the
runner. Victor stops that 2nd TD run by Kolby Smith, for instance, if
not for “The Club”. Ah You made a couple of plays late in the game but
was mostly a disaster, giving up a lot of those corners by getting
manhandled easily inside. He blew a tackle-for-loss of Jamaal Charles
after the Minor turnover, a major missed opportunity since Jerome
Carter took Charles down with a late hit, and K.C. scored the next
play from the 11 instead of being stuck back out at their 40. D’Marco
Farr, who ought to know, didn’t have much good to say about the tackle
play throughout the TV broadcast. Cliff Ryan did stuff Charles once.
The linebackers mostly struggled similarly to their poor performance
in Tennessee. McGarigle missed a gaggle of tackles. He looks much too
slow to be an NFL LB, which he attempts to make up for with bad diving
tackles that miss. Kolby Smith’s first “TD run” went around Marc
Magro. The only bright spot in the whole front seven was Chris
Chamberlain, who has had a preseason something like Quinton
Culberson’s last year. Chamberlain got some good penetration and made
a pretty play late in the second to stuff a screen pass to Jackie
Battle for a big loss. What we’ve learned about the Rams’ depth in the
front seven is they’re not deep enough. They looked pretty far from
deep enough tonight.
* Secondary: The Rams secondary wasn’t really tested previously this
preseason, and Kansas City was the most ridiculous “test” of all, as
the Chiefs threw on 12 out of 51 total plays, for 42 freaking yards.
Half their passing yards came on one naked bootleg screen from Brodie
Croyle to the FB. I’ve seen that play fail 1,000 times this preseason,
but here, the Rams allow a big play with the same failure to cover the
fullback out of the backfield they’ve had forever. Sigh. Bobby Sippio
beat David Macklin in the back corner of the end zone for the Chiefs’
third TD. Macklin didn’t even look like he was capable of making a
play there. And he didn’t. Tanard Davis did defend an end zone route
to Sippio late in the game. Jerome Carter was a mess, missing a lot of
tackles and committing a really dumb late, out-of-bounds hit to extend
KC’s third TD drive. Chief QBs were forced to scramble a few times, so
downfield coverage overall was likely pretty solid. At least guys
weren’t getting beaten right off the snap. But preseason for this unit
has been like preparing for Jeopardy! by watching a Jerry Springer
marathon. They won’t be truly tested for the first time until
September 7th.
* Special teams: Special teams got off to a great start when Classy
Eric Bassey clocked Dantrell Macho Man Savage and forced a fumble on
the opening kickoff, setting up a Rams FG. And it was allllllll
downhill from there. Donnie Jones outpunted coverage badly for the
umpteenth time in the 1st. There was no Ram within 20 yards of B.J.
Sams when he fielded it, and he returned it 34 yards. Derek Stanley
played the coverage almost as if he was trying to avoid Sams. And
neither Stanley nor Brandon Williams were significant threats as
returners. In the 2nd, the Rams gave up their second blocked punt in
two weeks, Lance Ball letting Bernard Pollard get by him for the
block. In the 3rd, Mr. Clutch $14 million kicker Josh Brown pushed a
40-yard FG attempt no good to the right. Seattle has basically
replaced him with a seventh-rounder at league minimum, btw. Brown
needs to nail a bunch of FGs in a row soon and shut me up. Given these
are the Rams’ special teams, I don’t know how much comfort to take in
the thought that mostly on display tonight were players who won’t be
with the team on Monday.
* Coaching/discipline: I can’t believe this was anything other than a
“let’s just get out of here” game in the eyes of the coaching staff.
In a regular season game, the Smith TD run that was actually short has
to be challenged. When it wasn’t, it was natural to assume Scott
Linehan just wanted to get the game over with. But if that was true,
he wouldn’t have made the challenge he did on the Savage run late in
the 3rd. Maybe that was a motivational tactic; the defense forced a
punt the next series. The defense played with noticeable pride the
series right after the blocked punt, making me think a few ears got
chewed on the sideline. I don’t know why Linehan even put Green out
there. The pregame talk was that he’d get at least enough work to get
warmed up; instead, he got one pass. Again, I’m guessing the weather
messed with plans. Game plan-wise, I’m not sure Jim Haslett called a
blitz at all, and the offensive plan was pure vanilla with the end-
around threat tossed in a couple of times in the 4th. The Chiefs
played some starters on both sides of the ball, including Brodie
Croyle, Dwayne Bowe, Tamba Hali and Donnie Edwards, and they were
motivated to atone for a crappy 24-0 loss to MIAMI last week, so they
had an edge the Rams couldn’t really have been trying to get, as nice
as it might have been to see if Linehan and crew are actually capable
of motivating football players into playing better. Between the
motivational deficit, the weather, the quality of the players on the
field and the generic game plans, if the coaching staff learned much
of anything from last night’s game, my hat’s off to them.
* Waiver bait: The Rams have just a couple of days to cut 23 players
and get down to the league roster limit. These are my nominees: QB –
Gradkowski; RB – Ball; WR – Stanley, B. Williams, Caldwell, Hagans,
Caddell; TE/FB – Cleaver, Kreider, Owens; OL – Fry, Wilson, Raiola,
LeVoir; DL – Ah You, Smith, W. Williams, Moore; LB – Magro, Riley; DB
– Grixby, T. Davis, Carter. Ball, Stanley and W. Williams seem the
likeliest practice squad candidates. TE/FB was the hardest position to
decide. Weil played well tonight, and I think he’s outplayed Kreider.
And Owens, much though I rip on him, hasn’t been terrible. Stanley and
B. Williams never looked electrifying enough on returns to merit
keeping a 7th receiver. I personally would keep Stanley and cut Drew
Bennett, but there’s no way Linehan is thinking of doing that. Fry’s
just bad; time to cut bait. Injury problems at LB and CB have me
keeping questionable players like Macklin and McGarigle and going with
seven defensive linemen, which cost Moore his spot. That also helped
cost Carter his spot. As well, Bassey’s a better hitter, tackler and
special teams player, and more durable. David Vobora could slide to
the practice squad but Chamberlain should have the roster made. He’s a
player and looks like a shrewd draft pick.
* Upon further review: I know, it was raining cats and dogs, and they
were running around in slop and muck, and it was the fourth game of
preseason so who cares, but Bill Leavy’s crew really blew some calls.
They missed a couple of calls good crews make look easy. Kolby Smith’s
first TD run actually came up half a yard short. Refs don’t usually
blow that call. Linehan didn’t challenge that, but challenged the spot
on a Dantrell Savage run late in the 3rd that the crew blew by a yard.
The personal foul on Carter was appropriate, and the call on LaRue
Rumph hitting Berlin late and head-first was certainly good, and one
the Rams too frequently don’t get. They also made a fine call on the
play where Pollard stripped Minor, which Linehan challenged (and I
would’ve). It was sloppy work on their parts, though, to blow spots as
badly as they did. Thumbs down.
* Cheers: They admittedly had challenging material to work with, but
Martin Kilcoyne and D’Marco Farr’s call of tonight’s game for local TV
was as dry and lifeless as the game itself. To their credit, Farr had
some good observations about the defensive line’s play, and Kilcoyne
played it up well that K.C. was taking the game much more seriously
than the Rams, attitude-wise and personnel-wise (using some starters).
The sideline features were useful, though they don’t exactly
demonstrate “commitment to excellence” on the part of a couple of
players. We found out Dante Hall played 18 holes of golf yesterday on
his bad ankle, and that Chris Long now has more spreads in GQ than
plays made behind the line of scrimmage. So yeah, I was doing some
Marc Bulger eye-rolls last night. Given the crap they had to work
with, Kilcoyne and Farr deserve at least a B for tonight’s effort.
* Who’s next?: We go from glorified scrimmage for the not-ready-for-
prime-time players to the real thing in 10 days, with the Rams
beginning their death march of a schedule right away next Sunday in
Philadelphia. What's the big deal about an 8-8 team that had a losing
record at home, you ask? Well, they were a heck of a good 8-8 team.
They had the sixth-ranked offense and were top 10 in passing and
rushing, where they placed second in yards per carry (4.7). The
defense was top ten in sacks, total yards, total rushing yards and
total points surrendered. Why didn't a team with all this going for it
make the playoffs? Their schedule didn't help. All three of their
division rivals made the playoffs, and four of their home losses were
to playoff teams. Having to play at New England and Green Bay didn't
help much, either.
The Eggles' problems ran deeper than their schedule, but are the Rams
in a place to exploit them? A big issue in Philly last year was pass
defense. A big reason the team was 25th in turnover ratio (-8) in 2007
was that they were dead last in interceptions with 11. They were also
third-worst in allowing plays over 40 yards. Woo-hoo, let's crank
Bulger up and fire deep, right? If you can protect him. The Eggles can
get to the quarterback, thanks to Jim Johnson's challenging blitz-mad
scheme and a defensive line that goes eight deep. Orlando Pace's
hands, and injured shoulder, will be full right off the bat with Trent
Cole, the only player in the NFL last year with double-digit sacks
(12) and tackles for loss (11). Pro Bowler Cole has been especially
strong early in seasons. Pace is a future Hall-of-Famer, but unless
he's 100%, which he surely won't be, the Rams likely have to double-
team Cole. Juqua Parker is another fast, strong pass-rusher the line
has to manage to keep out of the Rams' backfield. Even if Bulger has
time, the Eggles dealt with their secondary's big-play problems by
signing Assante Samuel away from the Patriots in the offseason. On
passing downs, you're looking at Samuel, Sheldon Brown, Lito Sheppard
at nickel, and two heavy hitting safeties in Quintin Mikell and Brian
Dawkins. Dawkins is banged up and not very fast, a weak link to go
after. If Pace can keep up with Cole, if Steven Jackson can run
effectively early in the game and pull Mikell into the box, the Rams
can send Randy McMichael at Dawkins, and the Rams have got something
going.
Philadelphia's biggest problem last year was the red zone. Their
offense ranked 6th in yards, but only 17th in points, in part because
they settled for ten more field goal attempts than they did in 2006,
when they went 10-6. Andy Reid gets pass-wacky once the Eggles get
into scoring range, a strategy that broke down at key times for him
last season, even though Donovan McNabb had one of his best seasons
and Brian Westbrook had his best, entering Marshall Faulk territory
with 1,333 rushing yards and 771 receiving yards on 90 catches. The
Eggles may not have a scoring threat outside of Westbrook. Kevin
Curtis was the second-leading scorer and Philly's top receiver; he'll
be out of this game due to a hernia. Their tight ends combined for
just 3 TDs, probably another reason for their red zone woes. The
message seems simple: if the Rams stop Westbrook inside the 20,
they'll likely force Philly to kick field goals. It's hard to see the
Rams doing that, though, if they don't have Will Witherspoon, whose
groin injury has Rams Park very concerned right now. Chris Draft ought
to be able to keep Westbrook from running through the Rams like he's
Quinton Ganther or Omar Cuff or something, but Will's far better in
pass coverage and his absence would kill the pass rush. That last bit
would be a shame, because even if you norm down the Giants' ridiculous
12-sack game against them last September, the Eggles don't protect
their QB that well, and now, McNabb's a year older, and that line
didn't appear to get any offseason upgrades. The Rams should be able
to get after McNabb on Opening Day, but especially if they have
Witherspoon. Philly's X-factor will be rookie WR DeShaun Jackson, who
could give Rams Nation an early excuse to complain about the Donnie
Avery pick. It looks like Jackson has become an immediate contributor
with the starting offense and on special teams. The Eggles may not
have to worry about red zone problems next Sunday if the Rams let them
make it up on returns.
I see this contest boiling down to: how quickly Pace and Jackson can
find their sea legs; whether Witherspoon is healthy; and whether the
Rams special teams allow DeShaun Jackson to go nuts. The Rams under
Scott Linehan haven't been known for their quick starts, their injury
luck or their special teams. Those things are going to have to change
for the Rams to win next Sunday. They're going to have to change to
avoid another disaster like last year. And by and large, they're in
the coach's control to change. So there's no time like the present for
Linehan to make his own luck. His team's going to need it.
-- Mike
Game stats from nfl.com
From The Couch
(Report and opinions on the game.)
Preseason Game #4: Chiefs 21, Rams 17
This year’s Governor’s Cup game didn’t even prove as interesting as
the weather delay that preceded it. The Rams lost 21-17 to a team that
completed FIVE passes all night. Long story short, in the hands of the
Ram backups, offensive and defensive line play went south, so the Cup
went west.
Position by position:
* QB: Brock Berlin (13-21-107) and Bruce Gradkowski (11-18-105)
probably battled the elements more than they did one another in the
final push for QB3. A driving rainstorm isn’t a great forum for
holding a QB debate, and the two turned in similar statistics, which
would suggest Berlin will hold the job. Berlin led the Rams to a TD in
the last 2:00 of the first half, topping it off with a fine 20-yard
throw to Dane Looker over the middle at the goal line for the score.
He nearly hit on a bomb to Keenan Burton early in the game and has a
nice-looking long ball. Berlin was sacked twice, once because he held
the ball too long, but otherwise, offensive line contributed to a lot
of the trouble he had. Gradkowski couldn’t have felt good that his
first drive was two passes and seven Lance Ball runs. He had the long
completion of the night – 30 yards to Nick Cleaver, helping set up the
Rams’ second TD. Gradkowski was also picked off in the 4th, though,
and didn’t have any plays that showcased his mobility. Consensus was
that he had to do a lot better than fight Berlin to a draw tonight,
and he didn’t get there. Trent Green started; I’ll suppose the weather
made a joke out of the idea he was going to get some work, when all he
did was throw one bad screen pass before getting the night off after
one series.
* RB: Lance Ball was the Rams’ big rusher, with 70 yards and a TD. He
got about half of it in the third on a couple of runs behind Dustin
Fry. Ball shows nice patience and good change of direction, but may
have written his pink slip on special teams by letting Bernard Pollard
by him to block a punt in the 2nd. He wasn’t the only Ram RB vexed by
Pollard; the Chiefs safety pretty much held Travis Minor off the
ground and ripped the ball out of his hands for the first of two Ram
turnovers. Minor (8-21) still brings pretty decent speed off the
bench. One thing I will say about all the Ram RBs this preseason,
including Antonio Pittman (2-7), who got off early tonight: they
didn’t do any *COUGH* Steven *COUGH* dancing *COUGH* Jackson *COUGH*
around in the backfield. They took the ball and got upfield. That
would be a good trend to keep into the regular season. Ahem.
* WR: Ten different receivers had receptions, but it’s highly doubtful
anyone caught Dane Looker (3-32), who scored the Rams’ first TD on a
crossing route. He’s been the leader of the WR6 pack the whole way.
Marcus Hagans led the team with 4 catches and set up Looker’s TD with
a third-down catch, but it seems too little and too late for him. The
rookies started along with Looker but had only a catch apiece. Keenan
Burton nearly hauled in a sideline bomb, with a step on his defender.
Donnie Avery disturbingly left the game due to a sprained knee and
appears to be taking durability lessons from Drew Bennett. Or Dante
Hall. Derek Stanley did not have a catch, which surely doesn’t improve
any case he’d have for passing Looker. Weather and protection issues
mostly prevented the offense from getting into a rhythm anything like
the one it enjoyed last week, except for possibly the first-half 2:00
drive, and that had a lot of dinking and dunking.
* Offensive line: If you were worried about how the Rams would fare if
they lose starters on the offensive line before tonight, you’re still
worried today. There was a lot of misfiring out there. On the opening
series, Pat Thomas dropped Antonio Pittman for a big loss after Nick
Leckey couldn’t even get to him on the pull. A screen pass blew up the
next play because John Greco didn’t hold his block long enough. Not at
all, actually. The Chiefs ate Dustin Fry and Richard Owens alive on a
Travis Minor sweep in the 2nd which allowed Bernard Pollard to
literally rip the ball out of Minor’s hands. Greco didn’t appear to
block anyone on the play. Later in the 2nd, on 3rd-and-10, both Chief
DTs beat all three Ram interior linemen to sack Berlin. T.J. Jackson
got almost completely inside Fry and flushed Berlin into Ron Edwards,
who beat Roy Schuening cleanly for the sack on a play rife with poor
guard play. Greco allowed a couple more hits on Berlin, as his
audition at RT continues to be a struggle. The tight ends blocked
well, with Anthony Becht getting some early work. Fry bounced back
some in the second half and made a couple of blocks to spring Ball for
big gains. Berlin was safe when the Rams used a quicker-tempo passing
game. And Russ Weil might have won the fullback job tonight. I think
he threw at least half-a-dozen solid run blocks. But comparing the
Rams’ offensive line depth to last year’s, about all you can say right
now is that they’re younger and they have a healthy Adam Goldberg. If
I’m hanging a hat on that, it’s not a very big one.
* Defensive line/LB: The front seven struggled a lot of the game and
just appeared to lack the speed necessary to make plays a lot of the
time. A common theme was of a Chief runner getting outside to the
corner while a Ram DE, usually C.J. Ah You, was blocked inside and a
Ram LB, usually Tim McGarigle, was too late or just too slow to get
out there. For the first time, Victor Adeyanju suffered from having to
play essentially one-armed. A lot of plays went by him that he would
have made if he could have gotten both hands on his blocker or the
runner. Victor stops that 2nd TD run by Kolby Smith, for instance, if
not for “The Club”. Ah You made a couple of plays late in the game but
was mostly a disaster, giving up a lot of those corners by getting
manhandled easily inside. He blew a tackle-for-loss of Jamaal Charles
after the Minor turnover, a major missed opportunity since Jerome
Carter took Charles down with a late hit, and K.C. scored the next
play from the 11 instead of being stuck back out at their 40. D’Marco
Farr, who ought to know, didn’t have much good to say about the tackle
play throughout the TV broadcast. Cliff Ryan did stuff Charles once.
The linebackers mostly struggled similarly to their poor performance
in Tennessee. McGarigle missed a gaggle of tackles. He looks much too
slow to be an NFL LB, which he attempts to make up for with bad diving
tackles that miss. Kolby Smith’s first “TD run” went around Marc
Magro. The only bright spot in the whole front seven was Chris
Chamberlain, who has had a preseason something like Quinton
Culberson’s last year. Chamberlain got some good penetration and made
a pretty play late in the second to stuff a screen pass to Jackie
Battle for a big loss. What we’ve learned about the Rams’ depth in the
front seven is they’re not deep enough. They looked pretty far from
deep enough tonight.
* Secondary: The Rams secondary wasn’t really tested previously this
preseason, and Kansas City was the most ridiculous “test” of all, as
the Chiefs threw on 12 out of 51 total plays, for 42 freaking yards.
Half their passing yards came on one naked bootleg screen from Brodie
Croyle to the FB. I’ve seen that play fail 1,000 times this preseason,
but here, the Rams allow a big play with the same failure to cover the
fullback out of the backfield they’ve had forever. Sigh. Bobby Sippio
beat David Macklin in the back corner of the end zone for the Chiefs’
third TD. Macklin didn’t even look like he was capable of making a
play there. And he didn’t. Tanard Davis did defend an end zone route
to Sippio late in the game. Jerome Carter was a mess, missing a lot of
tackles and committing a really dumb late, out-of-bounds hit to extend
KC’s third TD drive. Chief QBs were forced to scramble a few times, so
downfield coverage overall was likely pretty solid. At least guys
weren’t getting beaten right off the snap. But preseason for this unit
has been like preparing for Jeopardy! by watching a Jerry Springer
marathon. They won’t be truly tested for the first time until
September 7th.
* Special teams: Special teams got off to a great start when Classy
Eric Bassey clocked Dantrell Macho Man Savage and forced a fumble on
the opening kickoff, setting up a Rams FG. And it was allllllll
downhill from there. Donnie Jones outpunted coverage badly for the
umpteenth time in the 1st. There was no Ram within 20 yards of B.J.
Sams when he fielded it, and he returned it 34 yards. Derek Stanley
played the coverage almost as if he was trying to avoid Sams. And
neither Stanley nor Brandon Williams were significant threats as
returners. In the 2nd, the Rams gave up their second blocked punt in
two weeks, Lance Ball letting Bernard Pollard get by him for the
block. In the 3rd, Mr. Clutch $14 million kicker Josh Brown pushed a
40-yard FG attempt no good to the right. Seattle has basically
replaced him with a seventh-rounder at league minimum, btw. Brown
needs to nail a bunch of FGs in a row soon and shut me up. Given these
are the Rams’ special teams, I don’t know how much comfort to take in
the thought that mostly on display tonight were players who won’t be
with the team on Monday.
* Coaching/discipline: I can’t believe this was anything other than a
“let’s just get out of here” game in the eyes of the coaching staff.
In a regular season game, the Smith TD run that was actually short has
to be challenged. When it wasn’t, it was natural to assume Scott
Linehan just wanted to get the game over with. But if that was true,
he wouldn’t have made the challenge he did on the Savage run late in
the 3rd. Maybe that was a motivational tactic; the defense forced a
punt the next series. The defense played with noticeable pride the
series right after the blocked punt, making me think a few ears got
chewed on the sideline. I don’t know why Linehan even put Green out
there. The pregame talk was that he’d get at least enough work to get
warmed up; instead, he got one pass. Again, I’m guessing the weather
messed with plans. Game plan-wise, I’m not sure Jim Haslett called a
blitz at all, and the offensive plan was pure vanilla with the end-
around threat tossed in a couple of times in the 4th. The Chiefs
played some starters on both sides of the ball, including Brodie
Croyle, Dwayne Bowe, Tamba Hali and Donnie Edwards, and they were
motivated to atone for a crappy 24-0 loss to MIAMI last week, so they
had an edge the Rams couldn’t really have been trying to get, as nice
as it might have been to see if Linehan and crew are actually capable
of motivating football players into playing better. Between the
motivational deficit, the weather, the quality of the players on the
field and the generic game plans, if the coaching staff learned much
of anything from last night’s game, my hat’s off to them.
* Waiver bait: The Rams have just a couple of days to cut 23 players
and get down to the league roster limit. These are my nominees: QB –
Gradkowski; RB – Ball; WR – Stanley, B. Williams, Caldwell, Hagans,
Caddell; TE/FB – Cleaver, Kreider, Owens; OL – Fry, Wilson, Raiola,
LeVoir; DL – Ah You, Smith, W. Williams, Moore; LB – Magro, Riley; DB
– Grixby, T. Davis, Carter. Ball, Stanley and W. Williams seem the
likeliest practice squad candidates. TE/FB was the hardest position to
decide. Weil played well tonight, and I think he’s outplayed Kreider.
And Owens, much though I rip on him, hasn’t been terrible. Stanley and
B. Williams never looked electrifying enough on returns to merit
keeping a 7th receiver. I personally would keep Stanley and cut Drew
Bennett, but there’s no way Linehan is thinking of doing that. Fry’s
just bad; time to cut bait. Injury problems at LB and CB have me
keeping questionable players like Macklin and McGarigle and going with
seven defensive linemen, which cost Moore his spot. That also helped
cost Carter his spot. As well, Bassey’s a better hitter, tackler and
special teams player, and more durable. David Vobora could slide to
the practice squad but Chamberlain should have the roster made. He’s a
player and looks like a shrewd draft pick.
* Upon further review: I know, it was raining cats and dogs, and they
were running around in slop and muck, and it was the fourth game of
preseason so who cares, but Bill Leavy’s crew really blew some calls.
They missed a couple of calls good crews make look easy. Kolby Smith’s
first TD run actually came up half a yard short. Refs don’t usually
blow that call. Linehan didn’t challenge that, but challenged the spot
on a Dantrell Savage run late in the 3rd that the crew blew by a yard.
The personal foul on Carter was appropriate, and the call on LaRue
Rumph hitting Berlin late and head-first was certainly good, and one
the Rams too frequently don’t get. They also made a fine call on the
play where Pollard stripped Minor, which Linehan challenged (and I
would’ve). It was sloppy work on their parts, though, to blow spots as
badly as they did. Thumbs down.
* Cheers: They admittedly had challenging material to work with, but
Martin Kilcoyne and D’Marco Farr’s call of tonight’s game for local TV
was as dry and lifeless as the game itself. To their credit, Farr had
some good observations about the defensive line’s play, and Kilcoyne
played it up well that K.C. was taking the game much more seriously
than the Rams, attitude-wise and personnel-wise (using some starters).
The sideline features were useful, though they don’t exactly
demonstrate “commitment to excellence” on the part of a couple of
players. We found out Dante Hall played 18 holes of golf yesterday on
his bad ankle, and that Chris Long now has more spreads in GQ than
plays made behind the line of scrimmage. So yeah, I was doing some
Marc Bulger eye-rolls last night. Given the crap they had to work
with, Kilcoyne and Farr deserve at least a B for tonight’s effort.
* Who’s next?: We go from glorified scrimmage for the not-ready-for-
prime-time players to the real thing in 10 days, with the Rams
beginning their death march of a schedule right away next Sunday in
Philadelphia. What's the big deal about an 8-8 team that had a losing
record at home, you ask? Well, they were a heck of a good 8-8 team.
They had the sixth-ranked offense and were top 10 in passing and
rushing, where they placed second in yards per carry (4.7). The
defense was top ten in sacks, total yards, total rushing yards and
total points surrendered. Why didn't a team with all this going for it
make the playoffs? Their schedule didn't help. All three of their
division rivals made the playoffs, and four of their home losses were
to playoff teams. Having to play at New England and Green Bay didn't
help much, either.
The Eggles' problems ran deeper than their schedule, but are the Rams
in a place to exploit them? A big issue in Philly last year was pass
defense. A big reason the team was 25th in turnover ratio (-8) in 2007
was that they were dead last in interceptions with 11. They were also
third-worst in allowing plays over 40 yards. Woo-hoo, let's crank
Bulger up and fire deep, right? If you can protect him. The Eggles can
get to the quarterback, thanks to Jim Johnson's challenging blitz-mad
scheme and a defensive line that goes eight deep. Orlando Pace's
hands, and injured shoulder, will be full right off the bat with Trent
Cole, the only player in the NFL last year with double-digit sacks
(12) and tackles for loss (11). Pro Bowler Cole has been especially
strong early in seasons. Pace is a future Hall-of-Famer, but unless
he's 100%, which he surely won't be, the Rams likely have to double-
team Cole. Juqua Parker is another fast, strong pass-rusher the line
has to manage to keep out of the Rams' backfield. Even if Bulger has
time, the Eggles dealt with their secondary's big-play problems by
signing Assante Samuel away from the Patriots in the offseason. On
passing downs, you're looking at Samuel, Sheldon Brown, Lito Sheppard
at nickel, and two heavy hitting safeties in Quintin Mikell and Brian
Dawkins. Dawkins is banged up and not very fast, a weak link to go
after. If Pace can keep up with Cole, if Steven Jackson can run
effectively early in the game and pull Mikell into the box, the Rams
can send Randy McMichael at Dawkins, and the Rams have got something
going.
Philadelphia's biggest problem last year was the red zone. Their
offense ranked 6th in yards, but only 17th in points, in part because
they settled for ten more field goal attempts than they did in 2006,
when they went 10-6. Andy Reid gets pass-wacky once the Eggles get
into scoring range, a strategy that broke down at key times for him
last season, even though Donovan McNabb had one of his best seasons
and Brian Westbrook had his best, entering Marshall Faulk territory
with 1,333 rushing yards and 771 receiving yards on 90 catches. The
Eggles may not have a scoring threat outside of Westbrook. Kevin
Curtis was the second-leading scorer and Philly's top receiver; he'll
be out of this game due to a hernia. Their tight ends combined for
just 3 TDs, probably another reason for their red zone woes. The
message seems simple: if the Rams stop Westbrook inside the 20,
they'll likely force Philly to kick field goals. It's hard to see the
Rams doing that, though, if they don't have Will Witherspoon, whose
groin injury has Rams Park very concerned right now. Chris Draft ought
to be able to keep Westbrook from running through the Rams like he's
Quinton Ganther or Omar Cuff or something, but Will's far better in
pass coverage and his absence would kill the pass rush. That last bit
would be a shame, because even if you norm down the Giants' ridiculous
12-sack game against them last September, the Eggles don't protect
their QB that well, and now, McNabb's a year older, and that line
didn't appear to get any offseason upgrades. The Rams should be able
to get after McNabb on Opening Day, but especially if they have
Witherspoon. Philly's X-factor will be rookie WR DeShaun Jackson, who
could give Rams Nation an early excuse to complain about the Donnie
Avery pick. It looks like Jackson has become an immediate contributor
with the starting offense and on special teams. The Eggles may not
have to worry about red zone problems next Sunday if the Rams let them
make it up on returns.
I see this contest boiling down to: how quickly Pace and Jackson can
find their sea legs; whether Witherspoon is healthy; and whether the
Rams special teams allow DeShaun Jackson to go nuts. The Rams under
Scott Linehan haven't been known for their quick starts, their injury
luck or their special teams. Those things are going to have to change
for the Rams to win next Sunday. They're going to have to change to
avoid another disaster like last year. And by and large, they're in
the coach's control to change. So there's no time like the present for
Linehan to make his own luck. His team's going to need it.
-- Mike
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