RamView, 12/7/2014: Rams 24, Redskins 0 (Long)

RamView, December 7, 2014
From The Couch
(Report and opinions on the game.)
Game #13: Rams 24, Redskins 0

Matching a feat they haven’t pulled off in 69 years, the Ram defense and special teams dominate Washington for their second straight shutout (!). The Rams are winning games now the way they intended to all season long. That vision took a long time to get here, but now that it is here, it is a sight to behold.

Position by position:
* Defensive line: Another superb, dominating game up front led the Rams to their second straight shutout, something they haven’t accomplished since 1945, when they were the CLEVELAND Rams. The pass rush didn’t get to Colt McCoy early, but the front took Alfred Morris, a strong runner, completely away (8 rushes, 6 yards). After a 12-yard run that Alec Ogletree misread, the Rams slammed the door. Eugene Sims caught Morris for no gain, then Aaron Donald blew up a sweep right at the snap, then Chris Long stuffed him for a 3-yard loss. Long made another outstanding run stop in the 2nd, turning Niles Paul into a blocking sled from a wide-9 set and blowing up another Morris sweep for a 7-yard loss. When Mark Barron followed that by getting the Rams’ first sack on a blitz, the pump was primed. The Rams rounded out the half with another sack and Robert Quinn drawing a hold. Washington had 93 total yards in the 1st half. Morris had one yard rushing. On a 3-and-out after halftime, Donald stuffed him again, then Quinn pressured McCoy into a dumpoff. After a laughable Redskin fake punt attempt, another 3-and-out, punctuated by Eugene Sims getting a sack unimpeded after Morris slipped trying to block him. McCoy couldn’t even throw over the line anymore by the end of the 3rd. Long penetrated and turned a simple screen into a wild throw, then Quinn tipped a pass incomplete. The Rams then opened the 4th with Donald and William Hayes collapsing the pocket to create the game’s 4th sack. Washington actually found their way to the red zone later, but a missed snap count and a bad snap gave Quinn a golden opportunity to bolt clean around Trent Williams and knock the crap out of McCoy for his tenth sack. The Redskins were trying to run with the bulls but were getting the horns. By the end of the game, their line didn’t look like they even wanted to block any more. So Hayes swam past RT Tom Compton with ease for the Rams’ sixth sack, putting McCoy down hard enough he may have gotten whiplash and knocking him out for the game. Send in… RGIII! Who got the better end of that trade? The Rams, with their SEVENTH sack. EVERY Ram lineman pushed his blocker back a good five yards, and things collapsed on Griffin like he was a crash test dummy in a collision test. The race to the QB was won by Donald to send the Rams home with eight of the most dominating quarters of defense played by this franchise since the Deacon retired. They’re completely taking away opposing running games and decimating offenses with a withering pass rush. Sack City is a city of nothing but scary dark alleys right now, and no one in their right mind wants to go there if they don’t have to.

* Linebackers: Nothing makes us in Rams Nation happier than James Laurinaitis having his best game of the season. He got the Rams’ 2nd sack to help 3-and-out the Redskins in the 2nd, blitzing up the middle much too fast for Compton to come off a double-team in time to get him. Laurinaitis scored the Rams a 3-and-out in the 3rd with a very nice pass breakup on an attempted dumpoff to Reed, and added another sack in the 4th, tracking McCoy down from behind after the pocket had collapsed on him. He also had a couple of run stuffs, including Morris’ 7-yard loss after Long teed him up. Alec Ogletree was also a blitzing weapon. He had another of his classic blitz-and-batdowns in the 2nd. He didn’t get a sack but was blitzing on the Rams’ first two sacks, and he pressured McCoy into a dumpoff late in the game. Ogletree had a couple of hiccups when not blitzing. He misread Morris’ first run, thinking sweep and leaving a wide-open running lane for 12, and he missed a couple of tackles. But he also clobbered Andre Roberts on 3rd-and-11 to stop a Redskin drive in the 1st and had a solid overall game. This was just a rare week where he was eclipsed by dominating play by the Rams’ veteran MLB. Nothing wrong with that.

* Secondary: Playing zones soft enough to have Tim Walton yelling at his TV, the Ram secondary did not have an impressive-looking game. Pierre Garcon (9-95), who they basically refused to cover all game, beat them for 10, 13 and 13 more out of the gate. Then, at the Ram 35, Ryan Clark ran wide open down the seam, but McCoy made a hideous overthrow to Rodney McLeod instead. The Rams didn’t just dodge a bullet there, the gun misfired and blew up in Washington’s hands. Mark Barron then became the guy to slow the Redskins down. He stuffed Morris on a blitz and pressured McCoy on another blitz to mire the next drive. In the 2nd, after another wide open pass to Garcon, Barron blitzed and got the Rams’ first sack, unaffected by Roy Helu’s horrible pickup effort. Barron next got the Rams a 3-and-out with a clutch downfield stop of Jordan Reed, just short on 3rd-and-12. The Rams’ soft coverage was more justifiable with a big lead in the 4th, but Garcon and Silas Redd carved it up for a near TD drive. Then from the Ram 21, McCoy had Reed open in the end zone, but even though McLeod whiffed on him on a blitz, it distracted McCoy into another awful pass, this one underthrown and picked off by T.J. McDonald. McDonald also blanketed Reed on Washington’s last desperate attempt to wipe the goose egg off their faces at the end of the game. The secondary’s job was to tackle well, not let anyone behind them, not give up any big plays, and let Sack City do the work. They’ll never look like the Legion of Boom doing that, but they nailed it all the same.

* Special teams: Since the Rams won, we can start with the great news: Tavon Austin is on fire. With Redskin punter Tress Way pretty consistently outkicking his coverage, Austin gouged them for a surefire Special Teams Player of the Week performance. He returned a punt for 37 in the 2nd, sweeping right (and, yes, backwards), catching a HUGE and LEGAL block by Daren Bates and bolting up the sideline. He brought one back for 28 just before halftime, nearly the same thing but getting key blocks by Bates and Chase Reynolds out on the edge. Unconvinced, or possibly, very, very stupid, the Redskins punted to Austin again in the 3rd and finally got the 78-yard TD burning they deserved. Austin deked the gunner coming from his left and swept right again, this time off a very good block by, of all people, Janoris Jenkins. Reynolds and Will Herring picked up a late flier, and Maurice Alexander got a key chip upfield as Austin outran a LB around the corner, crossed midfield and put an inside fake on a DB that made him slip to the ground and wave good-bye. Bates made a strong case for STPOTW himself. Besides all the good blocking on punt returns, he saved the Rams a touchback with a diving play to keep a punt away from the goal line in the 1st, and when Washington had the temerity to attempt a fake punt in the 3rd, Bates tackled Way way short, helped by Trey Watts (!) blowing up a double-team. The Rams scored a TD off of that, and showed the Redskin special teams what’s what on the PAT, a FAKE, as Johnny Hekker sprung out of his holder’s crouch and hit Harkey for the deuce. But now for the bad news: Greg Zuerlein has lost his ever-loving mind. The point-after-touchdown kick is arguably easier to make than it is to miss, but Zuerlein tainted the Rams’ opening TD with a poor wide-right effort. Well, the snap was pretty off; maybe it was a timing issue. NO, Zuerlein’s next kick, a FG barely longer than a PAT, ALSO sailed wide right despite a perfect snap and hold. The Rams set Gagatron up at the end of the half with a 38-yard attempt, easy for any competent kicker, but his kick took off right and then sliced even further and went wide. Gagatron nearly gagged from 34 right after halftime; this one started wide and then barely hooked back in. Nearly all of his kickoffs were short, too, and though Hekker just received a megadollar 6-year contract extension this week, I’m compelled to remind Gagatron that you can find kickers anywhere. Maybe sooner than you think.

* QB: Another very efficient game (16-22-213, 2 TD, PR 133.3) by Shaun Hill. He’s 3-1 since returning as the starter and I think we can leave the Austin Davis bandwagon in the barn to gather a lot of dust. With the defense playing at its highest level, Hill’s job is to run the offense and not mess up. Mission accomplished. Hill seems to need a little warmup time most weeks, though. Early on, he blew a snap, hung out Jared Cook to get clobbered with a rushed throw, threw wild for Tre Mason in the flat despite having no pressure on him, and to start the 2nd, overthrew what would have been a sure TD bomb for Kenny Britt. Hill made it up to his receivers, though. He got the Rams on the board with a 36-yard TD down the middle to a wide-open Cook, and late in the half, rolled out and hit Britt with an effortless 41-yard bomb. In the 3rd, it was Stedman Bailey wide open over the middle for a 36-yard gain down to the 1, then Hill finished it off by getting back with a wide-open Cook in the back of the end zone. The Rams ran away and hid from there. Hill was sacked four times, and gamely tried to scramble out of some of them, but that’s really not his strength. Besides the blown snap, he had another fumble bounce the right way, to Mason, to preserve a (missed) FG attempt. So we do need Hill to hold on to the ball better. His scrambling and some of the throwaways looked pretty goofy, but those are all opportunities where big mistakes can be made, and for the most part, Hill didn’t commit them. And throughout the game, the offense and his offensive line gave him opportunities to convert big, wide open plays, and he didn’t blow many of those. Shaun Hill earned his paycheck this week.

* RB: Tre Mason (20-66) didn’t get much room to run up the middle and got off to a slow start. Benny Cunningham (3-20, 5-28 recv) actually got the running game rolling in the 2nd with a 20-yard run on 3rd-and-2, hitting off great blocks by Joseph Barksdale and Davin Joseph, juking one DB out of his jock and running through a weak arm tackle. That set up Cook’s first TD. Mason got going the next drive, gaining 10 off a 90-flip and 13 off a cutback run to put the Rams at the 6. His missed block in pass pro on 2nd-and-goal, though, helped force the Rams to settle for a (missed) FG attempt. Cunningham made another clutch play before halftime, catching a dumpoff pass and turning a LB inside out for 15 on 3rd-and-9 to set up another (missed!) FG attempt. Full props to Cunningham as a clutch receiver this week. Mason and Tavon Austin had the Redskins off-balance like a bunch of punch-drunk boxers in the 3rd. Austin (5-46) ripped them for 22 yards on two jet sweeps, then Mason gashed them for 15 on what we’re now calling the “wrap” play, cutting back left behind strong down-blocking right and picking up big blocks from both blocking TEs. That helped set up a (made) (!) FG. Washington didn’t catch on to the Austin handoff game until the 4th, even then, not until he’d burned them for another 18 on an end-around. The Rams continue to vex me by trying to slam Mason into the line like he’s Steven Jackson or something. All his best rushes this week involved him getting outside his blockers. The sum of the Rams rushing game, though, was too much for Washington to handle. Between the Rams’ speed, receiving ability and first-class play-calling, the Redskins rarely knew what hit them.

* Receivers: The Rams have no receiver who can take over a game, but they got big plays from a variety of sources. From the WR corps, Kenny Britt (2-52) got behind the secondary early in the 2nd but was denied a certain TD by a bad throw. He rebounded and got behind the secondary again in the 2nd, though, beating Bashaud Breeland with a double move for 41. Britt also kept a FG drive alive after halftime with a 3rd-and-8 sideline catch for 11. Stedman Bailey (2-47) set up a FG attempt in the 2nd with an 11-yard catch and set up a TD in the 3rd with a 36-yard catch. Wide open in the middle of the zone, Bailey stiffarmed Philip Thomas, making him slip off, and ran through another tackle before getting spun down at the 1. Beside his work as a runner, Austin (2-14) was also effective on bubble screens when the Rams went his way. Not a fearsome passing attack, but nicely balanced.

* Tight ends: A hearty welcome-back to the Ram offense to Jared Cook (4-61), who rebounded from getting splattered by Ryan Clark on the opening drive to score 2 TDs. Neither one looked very hard, though. The Redskin LB corps all bit on play-action and gave Cook a free run down the middle of the field, and he surged past a couple of DBs at the goal line, for a 35-yard TD in the 2nd . Cook added a 9-yard catch to set up a (made!) FG in the 3rd, and a 1-yard TD the next drive. He lined up on the right as a blocker, released and ran across the back of the end zone. No one but Hill even looked at him. Lance Kendricks (1-11) got off to a poor start run-blocking. On the opening drive, his failures to block Will Compton and Ryan Kerrigan got Mason stuffed a couple of times. Kendricks rallied big-time in the 2nd half, though. He was out front on both of Austin’s jet sweeps in the 3rd; Austin cut inside him once, outside the 2nd time. He and Corey Harkey had big blocks on Mason’s 15-yard dash the next play. Harkey committed a couple of penalties but caught a 2-point conversion. The Rams need play-making from Cook and solid blocking from the other TEs. The position was another one this week where they got what they needed.

* Offensive line: The Rams allowed four sacks but the line still might have had its best pass-blocking game of the season. Hill threw from a lot of solid pockets, with all five linemen doing fine work in pass pro. You could argue the first two sacks, down on the Redskin goal line in the 2nd, were coverage sacks. Hill needed to get the ball out quickly on both but his first options were blanketed. The 1st sack wasn’t the line’s fault anyway, it was Mason’s poor diving missed pickup of Ryan Kerrigan. Trent Murphy and Jason Hatcher split the 2nd sack, mostly by Hill running to Hatcher. He couldn’t step up because Davin Joseph gave up penetration, then Murphy peeled off otherwise good blocking by Greg Robinson. Joseph Barksdale melted down right before halftime, getting whipped twice by Kerrigan, once for a sack and once for a wild near-INT, and with the Rams up only 6-0 at the break, the game looked very much in doubt. The Rams weren’t running well, either, particularly up the middle, with Joseph getting beaten or not getting much push, and Scott Wells committing a couple of penalties. They settled down a lot after halftime, though. 3rd-and-1 on the Rams’ first series in the 3rd, Robinson pancaked his man to give Hill a very clear and easy throwing lane to Cunningham in the flat. He pancaked his man again a few plays later on Mason’s 15-yard run. Robinson has really rebounded from his implosion a couple of weeks ago. There were a lot of passes where he and Rodger Saffold didn’t even allow their men to cross the line of scrimmage. Barksdale’s continued struggle with Kerrigan’s speed made them settle for a FG out of halftime. He got beat by Kerrigan AGAIN for a pressure that set up somebody called Chris Baker for a sack. But the next trip out, even after a hold by Harkey, it was clear sailing to a quick TD. Hill threw four passes and had four outstanding pockets, with all five linemen doing textbook work and the Redskins looking like they were mired in quicksand. There were warts. Barksdale’s got to get a lot better against speed, and Joseph and Wells have to do better work than they’re doing in the running game. Jim Haslett’s attack was surprisingly vanilla, too, I think out of fear of the Rams’ speed and/or his very green secondary. But so much was so good about the Rams’ pass protection that this was a very good game. Maybe we’ll call the warts beauty marks.

* Strategery: With well-designed plays and play sequences alike, this had to be Brian Schottenheimer’s best-called game of the season, if not his entire term on the Ram sideline. Getting Austin going early with bubble screens may have influenced Jim Haslett’s surprisingly passive play-calling. Cook’s first TD was a beauty of a play. They were so committed to faking the run they had Joseph pull-blocking. Every Redskin LB bit on it, leaving Cook wide, wide open. Schottenheimer unleashed his inner Mad Mike with a 90-flip later. Then – it’s a Christmas miracle – the Ram offense finally looked competent coming out of halftime. It was Schottenheimer’s best play-calling sequence all year. Draw to Mason off a fake screen. Quick out to Cunningham. Then, very Chip Kelly, back-to-back identical jet sweep calls to Austin for 22. Then a wrap run for Mason. It ended up being a 7-minute FG drive and was close to being the point where the Rams really took over the game.

That point actually came on special teams. How DARE someone try to fool the Rams with a fake punt? And after that failed miserably for Washington, Jeff Fisher, who stuck a thumb in Washington’s eye before the game by making his kickoff captains six of the players the Rams drafted with picks from the RGIII trade, stuck a thumb in their good eye with a fake PAT after the TD the failed fake punt set up. Fisher was telling Jay Gruden, hey, leave the fakes to the professionals, buddy. That TD was also a sweet call by Schottenheimer, a pretty classic play where the TE decoys as a blocker and then takes off and drags across the back of the end zone. Schottenheimer did well at getting the ball into Austin’s hands, stretched the field well in the passing game, and I liked almost everything about the offensive plan this week. Almost. Mason’s still being run straight up the middle way too much. They also need to get him outside. Looked like Washington was all over the Ram receivers at the goal line on those back-to-back sacks in the 2nd, too. Maybe that second Cook TD got Schottenheimer his red zone mojo back, though.

Gregg Williams had just as fine a game. Complaining about soft zone coverage is pointless whining because SCOREBOARD! THE RAMS HAVE WON TWO STRAIGHT SHUTOUTS!, but I sure hope there’s a better plan in place for Larry Fitzgerald Thursday night, or I will need a straitjacket. Still an outstanding game by Williams. His blitzing was as potent as it was merciless. They dodged a bullet the opening drive, but at a minimum, blitzing produced three sacks, a deflected pass and an INT, and the Rams blitzed very effectively on 3rd down, where Washington started the game converting only 1 of its first 8, ending 3-for-12. A young QB behind blockers who are not good at blitz protection is heaven for Gregg Williams and Sack City.

* Upon further review: Having called two Rams victories this season now, rookie referee Brad Allen is a surefire lock for RamView’s Best Referee award. He started out by butchering the review of McLeod’s INT return, and I would sure like to know what the HELL the precedent is for reviewing a review, but the right call was made eventually. On Austin’s first long punt return, they made an excellent call that Bates’ big block was indeed legal, a call I bet 90% of NFL crews botch. The ball came out on Bailey’s long catch in the 3rd, but they correctly called it was caused by the ground. They also got safety calls right of Cook getting pounded while defenseless in the 1st and Hill getting taken down by a facemask in the 3rd. This is also the one crew I’ve seen all year that calls holds when the Rams get held. I don’t think rookie referees get to work playoff games, but Allen deserves the honor. Grade: A-

* Cheers: I’m a Sam Rosen fan, and Kirk Morrison was good in analysis, but this was a pretty sloppy Fox broadcast. Rosen misidentified players, including mistaking 6’3” Britt for 5’8” Austin. Down and distance on-screen was wrong several times. There were PA problems, but a couple of penalties came and went with the booth barely mentioning them. Also, this was fantasy football playoff weekend and there were nowhere near enough player updates on the crawl. (Too late, the Couch Potatoes got LeVeon Belled.) Morrison’s all that keeps me from wanting to cut Zuerlein Monday morning, because he mentioned footing issues on the field a number of times. I didn’t notice Gagatron slip on any kicks, but Morrison thought the footing might have gotten into his head. Morrison’s also the one who revealed what the wrap play is, so you know who to blame. I hope to mention that play a lot in the future.

* Who’s next?: When the Rams last saw Arizona, the Cardinals had the best record in the NFL and used a blizzard of 4th-quarter turnovers to bury them 31-14 in one of the season’s more disappointing results. The weather’s changed a bit on Arizona since then; a blizzard of injuries has caught up with them since, and they’ll come here Thursday night (oh boy) looking and playing very differently than they did a month ago.

Arizona’s had a hard time finding the end zone since they played the Rams, with 52 points in 4 games. The Rams can take credit for some of that as the opponent that ended Carson Palmer’s season. Fill-in Drew Stanton has thrown 5 INTs since Palmer’s most recent ACL injury. Against Atlanta, he gifted the Falcons with a couple of ugly, what-the-heck-are-you-doing overthrows. He shows serious issues with accuracy under pressure or on the move, and honestly, has only looked really good in hurry-up mode, so I wonder if Bruce Arians won’t mix some of that in. Sack City hasn’t been Arizona’s favorite place to visit – they’ve given up 13 sacks in their past two trips, and if the Rams maintain that pace, they’ll put plenty of stress on Stanton. The Cardinal line is having trouble with stunts and blitzes, and they’re not winning in the middle in the running game near as well as they did early in the season. That running game has been a problem. Andre Ellington hadn’t cracked 42 yards in his last four games (the Rams held him to 23) and couldn’t go this week because of a hip injury, leaving the Cardinal backfield without a speed threat (though the Chiefs somehow let someone called Kerwynn Williams just hang 100 on them). Like the Oakland game, this should clear the Ram secondary to play tight on the Cardinal receivers, and PLEASE don’t everyone bite on play-action like the first game. Arizona seriously missed Larry Fitzgerald (sprained MCL) while he was out for two weeks. Everybody, including me, wanted the Rams to draft Michael Floyd a couple of years ago, but the Cardinal passing game was nothing with him as the #1 WR. He’s been fairly awful. He’s not fast, he doesn’t get open and he doesn’t have good hands. Not knowing how well Fitzgerald’s knee will respond to two games in five days, if Fitzgerald’s playing (he did this week), the Rams need to focus first and foremost on stopping him, unlike the game in Arizona, where they seemed determined not to cover him at all. Nine catches and 112 yards later, they had lost again. Whether by the Rams or by injury, if Fitzgerald can be stopped, Arizona’s offense will be seriously hurting.

Arizona’s offensive troubles have bled over into their D a little bit. They haven’t controlled the line of scrimmage on either side of the ball anything like they did early in the season. Now, their doldrums haven’t applied to Calais Campbell, who strafed Seattle for three sacks and beat the Rams for two in the first meeting, as the Rams didn’t appear to have a plan to stop the best Cardinal player on that side of the ball, either. If Campbell’s in the backfield Thursday, he better at least have beaten a double-team to get there. Arizona’s still stopping the run well, especially if you attack them up the middle. Atlanta, though, attacked successfully on the edge, and that was one of Tre Mason’s strengths in the first meeting. Let’s keep working the ball outside. The Cardinal secondary sprung some serious leaks in Atlanta. One was losing Tyrann Matthieu due to a thumb injury. He may be out until the playoffs. The other was the confirmation that Patrick Peterson is the most overrated DB in the league, as he got absolutely pwned by Julio Jones. Kenny Britt’s no Julio Jones, but he’s due for a big game against Peterson if Patrick continues to attempt to press-cover big WRs while playing afraid to jam them and giving them a free run off the line. Having said that, Arizona’s DBs are exceptional at reading the QB and jumping routes for picks, so Shaun Hill has to be on top of his game, playing smart and looking off coverage. It’s good that Jared Cook broke loose this week; he could be in for a big game, because Arizona, especially on the goal line, shows little idea they know how to cover the TE. On one goal line play against Atlanta, the Falcons got TWO TEs wide open in the end zone. DC Todd Bowles will be less reluctant to blitz the Rams than he was Atlanta, though, or than Jim Haslett was this week. That’s Arizona’s best chance to force Ram mistakes and take the game over like the first meeting.

Now that the Rams have won two games in a row, a new challenge: can they win two games in five days? They’re playing their best football of the season, and the Thursday road appointment isn’t at all to the advantage of a banged-up Cardinal team that’s still struggling on offense. Can the Rams get to (gasp) .500? Have they hit a new plateau? My advice: keep hanging on tight and be ready for anything.

— Mike
Game stats from espn.com