RamView, 12/21/2014: Giants 37, Rams 27 (Long)

RamView, December 21, 2014
From Row HH
(Report and opinions from the game.)
Game #15: Giants 37, Rams 27

Let’s all wish the Rams happy holidays and a prosperous offseason – THEY SURE GOT AN EARLY START on both this week with a complete garbage performance against the Giants. Let’s end the “better than their record talk” right now. You are what your record says you are. At 6-9, the Rams are what they deserve to be.

Position by position:
* QB: In most ways, this game was nowhere near as close as the final score appears. The Rams did, though, have enough chances to score to potentially win a shootout, if they had a quarterback with a decent deep ball. Shaun Hill (24-32-290, PR 110.2) made it painfully clear this week that’s not his bag. The offense went nowhere until late in the 1st half, mostly through no fault of Hill’s, though. He was sacked to end the 1st drive. A screen pass Hill might have thrown too high and hard clanged off Tavon Austin’s hands for an INT. He got hit again while throwing on 3rd down of the next drive. Hill led the Rams to 10 points in the waning minutes of the half almost despite himself. With all day to throw from the Ram 26, he looked at Austin streaking down the Giants’ sideline uncovered, IGNORED HIM, then rolled the other way and lobbed a ball that Kenny Britt ran under for 28. Never have 50,000 fans been so disappointed with a 28-yard gain. A couple of plays later, Hill did a great job keeping a play alive under pressure, saw Austin open deep this time, and underthrew him, but he drew a long DPI to set up a TD. In the last 2:00, Hill got the Rams moving by fighting off a sack, then hitting Stedman Bailey for 18 and Austin for 15. That got the Rams in the red zone, where the Rams’ game manager lost a ton of efficiency. Hill beat a blitz to dump off to Jared Cook at the 10, but it took an agonizing 23 seconds to get the next play off, and by the time Hill hit Kenny Britt at the 2, just 0:09 remained. Hill was as un-clutch here as he was at the end of the San Diego game, throwing the ball away with Bailey running ALL ALONE in the back of the end zone. Hill had difficulty corralling Scott Wells’ terrible snap, and I think he panicked. The Rams would never get any closer than 7 points. They were down 14 when Hill led a fine 90-yard TD drive in the 3rd. He went 6-for-6, including 3 to Kenny Britt, one a fine sideline catch. From the NY23, Hill finished the drive with a pass down the left seam to Lance Kendricks for a TD. The pass was spot on and thrown immediately, with Hill seeing Kendricks had beaten a bad jam and had a step on the LB almost at the snap. Down 14 again to start the 4th, Hill had Britt open on a deep post for a 70-yard TD but couldn’t get the ball to him. The next drive, Cook broke wide open on a busted coverage of a deep corner route; that’s probably a 60-yard TD but Hill actually overthrew him, the one time in his career Shaun Hill will overthrow anybody downfield. Late in the game, Hill finally did connect with a wide open receiver, a 47-yard TD to a wide-open Chris Givens (!). And Hill underthrew that! Givens had to come back to field it inside the 10 but there was no defender close enough to worry about. This isn’t meant to be a dump on Shaun Hill. He was far from the Rams’ worst problem this week. I think he did fail as a game manager at the end of the half, and a professional starting QB’s got to be able to hit some of the deep throws he’s too limited to hit. Of course, all that’s why Shaun Hill is normally a backup.

* RB: The Ram running game was actually quite effective, but they fell far behind too often to be able to lean on it. Tre Mason (13-76) showed a nice blend of speed, moves and power. His first touch was a nice cutback for 9, moving a big pile (along with Rodger Saffold and Joseph Barksdale) at the end. Later in the 1st he popped off the left side for 15 after Jason Pierre-Paul got suckered in too deep and Cory Harkey landed a thumping block in the hole. Mason scored the Rams’ first TD not long before halftime, a 10-yard run left off a 90-flip where he ran through a facemask penalty at the goal line. He opened the 2nd half with a 12-yard burst off rare great blocks by Greg Robinson and Scott Wells. As on his TD, Mason did an admirable job this week taking on and running through tackles. He turned several stopped runs into 3- or 4-yard gains just by refusing to quit on contact, continually driving his legs. The Rams’ speed running game keyed their 90-yard TD drive in the 3rd. Tavon Austin (3-25) took an end around for 19. Mason then got them in the red zone with a sweet 8-yard run, with a cutback, a spin move and running through a LB’s tackle. That run was Mason’s whole game in a nutshell. Unfortunately, it was also his last meaningful touch. That’s how we know Tre Mason has really arrived as a Rams feature RB. They can’t get him the ball.

* Receivers: Kenny Britt’s biggest game (9-103) this season should have been even bigger. This was the Britt many hoped for when the Rams signed him, a go-to physical 3rd-down receiver making contested catches while posing a deep threat. He made the big play of the first TD drive by tracking down a pass Hill may have been throwing away for a 28-yard gain. He set up a TD in the 3rd with another good sideline catch, dragging his back foot for an 11-yard gain. The TD went to Lance Kendricks (2-35), who beat press coverage, made the catch down the left seam and ran through a DB at the goal line. Oh, but the missed opportunities. Britt opened the 4th by beating the terrible Zach Bowman on a deep post, but Hill couldn’t get him the ball. Austin (1-15) had a similar moment, streaking down the sideline uncovered in the 2nd, but Hill wouldn’t throw to him, hitting Britt for the 28-yard gain instead. Austin can’t complain; his brutal play in the first, letting a quick screen bounce off both his hands, up in the air and down into the hands of Giants DE Kerry Wynn gave away three points. Austin set up the first TD by drawing a long DPI, but the missed opportunities kept coming. Stedman Bailey (2-22) was open in the back of the end zone at the end of the half but Hill didn’t find him. Jared Cook (5-41) was wide open downfield in the 4th but Hill overthrew him. The Rams haven’t had this many wide open receivers the rest of the season combined. And Hill missed most of them. He finally did hit Chris Givens (1-47) for a long TD late in the game. Rams receivers did their job this week and then some, creating opportunities for a number of big plays. The team just failed to cash in on almost all of them.

* Offensive line: The Rams only gave up two sacks but didn’t really distinguish themselves in the trenches. Driving to cut into an early 10-0 deficit, they gave up a clutch early sack when Jason Pierre-Paul stunted and Davin Joseph was too late to catch on. A drive ended at midfield in the 2nd after someone named Jameel McClain steamrolled Joseph Barksdale and Pierre-Paul got a strong edge on Greg Robinson. Hill misfired while the two Giants bounced him around like (DATED REFERENCE ALERT) someone trying to dance with the Roxbury Boys. The line’s inconsistency played out throughout the 2nd. Robinson and Scott Wells made great blocks to spring Mason for 12, but the next play, Wells inexplicably let Cullen Jenkins go right by him to drop Mason for a loss. Two plays later, the Giants nearly got a sack using ONLY TWO DOWN LINEMEN. Robinson double-teamed on Pierre-Paul and let Lawrence Taylor, ER, McClain, blitz free off the same end. Wells’ snapping misadventures bit the Rams in the ass before halftime; at a minimum, his terrible, high shotgun snap at the goal line blew the timing of a pass that should have been a TD to Bailey. Thank goodness Jeff Fisher stuck with the veteran instead of getting a young player some experience for next season. The line pretty much melted down in the 4th. The 2nd sack happened thanks to Barksdale and Joseph butchering a blitz protection. Both took Devon Kennard and nobody took Pierre-Paul. Hill missed the long pass to Cook in part because Barksdale got smoked again. Robinson drew a hold the next play – it wasn’t even a good enough hold to prevent Pierre-Paul from pounding Hill – then there was a false start. CLUTCH! Robinson started the last TD drive with another hold, and Wells put the cherry on the crap sundae late in the game with YET ANOTHER WILD SNAP, and someone named Kerry Wynn smoked Barksdale so badly that he was on the loose ball in a blink to put the Giants in victory formation. Wells’ problems with snaps have become ridiculous. YOU HAVE ONE JOB! The only contract it looked like Barksdale was playing for this week was to put up drywall. Fifteen weeks in and these guys are blowing stunt and blitz pickups like they haven’t played together at all. Please show up better than this next week, or the Rams are going to lose 59-0. I really don’t want to write that up.

* Defensive line: Sack City: closed for the holidays. The Rams got pushed around up front, tackled poorly and worst of all, didn’t often get within shouting distance of Manning, getting rolled for 37 points and over 500 yards of offense, both season worsts. The Giants set the tone early, getting the ball out fast while the Rams put no pressure on Eli. On a bomb to Reuben Randle that set up the first Giant FG, the whole d-line bought play action on the rollout, and Eli had no one WITHIN FIVE YARDS of him when he threw. After a Benny Cunningham fumble, Eli completed two red zone passes, including a TD to Odell Beckham, while the Ram line barely even got off the line of scrimmage. The Rams finally started blitzing late in the 1st, and got a sack out of it after T.J. McDonald put a nice spin move on Andre Williams. They tried a variety of blitzes on New York’s FG drive in the 2nd, but everything they tried washed out. Rookie bowling ball Williams (26-110) had a number of runs where a Ram got to him at the line, but he just ran through him and gained 2 or 3. Then there’s somebody called Orleans Darkwa, who’s been with the Giants about a week and who I would have guessed was a character on True Blood before this game. On a TD drive in the 2nd, he drew for 8 after Michael Brockers got pancaked, and scored later from the 12, cutting back right and running through a weak arm tackle from Aaron Donald while the whole Ram defense got pushed left. The defensive odor intensified after halftime. Williams popped for 45, as Donald got turned, Brockers got walled off, James Laurinaitis got picked off by the center and Williams ran over Rodney McLeod at midfield. Then Eugene Sims stupidly roughed Manning, and upon learning he leads the league in personal fouls this season, it’s past time to give him the Ray Ray Armstrong treatment, isn’t it? What does he do to be worth all the personal fouls? I wish I’d had a reason to mention either starting DE up to now. Injured Chris Long won’t be effective until next year. He got close to Eli once in the 3rd but not close enough to prevent an 80-yard TD bomb. Robert Quinn wasn’t completely ineffective; he did draw three or four holding penalties from Will Beatty. But he didn’t pressure Eli much, either. The defense topped off a lousy day by jumping offside on 4th-and-1 with the Giants punting. Well, I guess they had a better chance of getting at Steve Weatherford than they ever did at Manning. The Giants have a decent offensive line, but if the Rams’ front four actually showed up to play this week, there was little sign of it.

* Linebackers: Impossible to say the LBs had a quiet game, when Alec Ogletree ignited an all-out brawl before halftime by creaming Beckham well out of bounds on the Giants’ sideline. The Rams got the best of the exchange. Two Giants were ejected but just one Ram (William Hayes), and the Giants lost a down and 7 yards’ field position. The fight also seemed to spark the slumbering Rams a bit. Ogletree did well against the run, with a couple of stops, but his most memorable play besides the fight was getting burned by Larry Donnell for 23 on 3rd-and-3 to set up a Giant FG. James Laurinaitis scored several good run stops on Williams, including a nice one for a loss out on the edge early in the game, but he also got mowed aside on Williams’ 45-yard run. The LBs’ biggest weakness this week was their ineffectiveness on blitzes. We’re all going to watch Senior Bowl practices in about a month and see that RBs are not natural at picking up blitzes. McDonald really schooled Williams on the Rams’ ONE sack. Why couldn’t anyone else beat a blitz pickup all day?

* Secondary: What the blue hell happened here? The secondary that expertly shut down Larry Fitzgerald last week went after Odell Beckham like there was a bounty on him, and appeared to lose most of their focus trying to knock him into next week. You know what would have been great? ACTUALLY COVERING HIM OR ANY OTHER GIANT RECEIVER. The Rams played nothing but baby-soft zone all game and never ONCE tried to jam Beckham at the line. Even worse, they not only got burned by the Giants’ A game (Beckham 8-148, 2 TD), they got burned by the B-if-that-game of Reuben F. Randle (6-132). Rodney McLeod started this ludicrous display on the opening series by giving up a 48-yard bomb to Randle that he should have been able to fair-catch himself for an INT. Instead, he inexplicably sat back and let Randle step right up in front of him for the catch. Cunningham’s fumble threw the secondary right back into the fire. Trumaine Johnson’s career game to forget started on 3rd-and-freaking-sixteen. He’s ten yards off Randle, and back-pedaling, and still lets Randle curl in easily past the marker for a first-down catch. Two plays later, TruJo and T.J. McDonald can’t handle a simple square out by Beckham between them. TruJo gives him up at the five-yard line – who else was there to cover? – and McDonald then gets woefully faked out of his woeful jock to let Beckham break wide open for the TD. CLUTCH WORK FELLAS! The Giants’ TD drive in the 2nd looked like a contest by the whole defense to see who could be the most pitiful player. The winner: TruJo. 3rd-and-4, he’s EIGHT yards off Preston Parker, giving up an easy first down and blowing the tackle to give up an extra 7 yards. Later, 2nd-and-10, he’s “covering” Randle in “trail technique”, beaten by two steps, had no idea Eli ever threw the ball and got beat for 19. And McLeod was a mile late like usual. And brilliant McDonald let the Giants in closer with an idiot taunting penalty ten yards out of bounds. The secondary was just as useless in the 2nd half. Randle gets 10 because E.J. Gaines is ten yards off him at the snap. Williams burns a McDonald run blitz for 45, running over worthless McLeod at midfield. 3rd-and-3 at the SEVEN yard line, TruJo has his heels ON THE GOAL LINE, easy completion to Randle in front of him, Randle runs through his worthless tackling for the TD. The Rams’ inexplicable vendetta against Beckham blew up in their faces at the end of the 3rd. Blindly trying to jack Beckham into intensive care, McDonald launched, missed badly and knocked his TEAMMATE Gaines out of the game by nearly snapping his head off. The next play, Lamarcus Joyner, who’s screwed this same coverage up already this season, jumps an inside route and turns Beckham’s deep route over to Mark Barron, who bites horribly on a double move (hey, NOW we know why Tampa traded him so soon) and lets Beckham run free behind the useless secondary for an 80-yard TD. We spent the rest of the game waiting for TruJo to figure out if a pass was coming, ever, if McLeod was ever going to arrive in time to break up a deep pass (has he? Ever?) and watching Eli Manning put up a Peytonesque 391 yards on a secondary so wrapped up in smack talk and schoolyard CRAP that they played like a bunch of clods. Merry F. Christmas.

* Special teams: The Rams’ main chance to have a Pro Bowler, Johnny Hekker, stood out again this week, averaging over 50 a punt and kicking nothing Beckham could return. Greg Zuerlein hit from 51, so his head could indeed be back on straight. Austin returned a punt for 41 in the 1st, stutter-stepping and making two guys miss before hitting up the sideline. He nearly broke another return before halftime thanks Daren Bates’ massive leaping block, but Janoris Jenkins couldn’t seal the corner. Tavon had to settle for 15 on the return and a 15-yard roughing penalty. That wasn’t Bates’ only leaping block. At the end of the game, he timed perfectly the same play he blew badly earlier this season, leaping over the center and blocking a FG attempt. It was a pretty great day on special teams, except for Benny Cunningham’s idiotic fumble that allowed New York to take a 10-0 lead before the Ram offense could even get on the field. He attempted a spin move at the end of a return, got blasted by the immortal Orleans Darkwa and coughed the ball up. Hard to drink the Kool-Aid around here when there’s always something gross floating in it.

* Strategery: No one was more complete garbage in the Rams’ “effort” this week than Gregg Williams. Eli Manning and first-year OC Ben McAdoo made Williams look completely useless. This isn’t the first time a quick-huddle, quick-passing offense has baffled Williams more than (ANOTHER DATED REFERENCE ALERT) Rubik’s Cube baffles a chimpanzee, either. Williams coached as afraid and as stupidly as he probably has in his whole life. The Rams seemed scared to blitz Eli or even attempt to press the Giant receivers. The scheme this week was so feeble Tim Walton would have hurt himself laughing watching it. DBs were CONSTANTLY 8-10 yards off all receivers; small wonder Eli could complete 80% of his passes, or the Giants could go 8-for-17 on 3rd down, when we’re constantly giving away the damn marker. New York’s 3rd-quarter TD was all crap from Williams, all the time. Soft coverage gives up 10. A run blitz gets burned by a delay handoff for 45. Soft coverage gives up an easy TD to Randle. Williams NEVER adjusted a thing, and single-handedly turned Eli Manning into Peyton. Eli won the battle of wits against Williams, not that it was much of a contest. On at least two big plays in the first half, you can see Eli identify the blitz, and tell he’s checking to another play, but the Rams just kept blitzing out of the look Eli had already sniffed out. The blitzing Williams did accomplished very little, though if his coverage “scheme” was meant to give up almost 40 points and give the Rams no chance to win the game, he sure succeeded at that. It was as idiotic and ill-conceived a game plan as any Rams coordinator, including Larry Marmie, has ever attempted.

The shame is, Brian Schottenheimer called close to an excellent game on offense. He was creative and used team speed well with jet sweeps and reverses. He took advantage of the Giants’ overplaying tendencies on the draw to Mason that caught Pierre-Paul upfield and the 90-flip TD, where the Giant D was overshifted to the other side. The Rams didn’t even stink up the third quarter like usual, thanks to an excellently-balanced 90-yard TD drive. Execution, like Hill blowing all the deep chances, was much more the issue this week… unless you want to accuse Schottenheimer of not using his personnel the best way by relying on Hill to hit deep throws in the first place. I’m not. I think he had a good plan in place this week that was shot down by bad execution and turnovers.

Jeff Fisher’s defense was so out of control this week I’m not going to be surprised to hear someday that there was a bounty on Beckham for this game. The number of personal fouls and complete loss of focus was really disgraceful, as was the kind of lousy defensive play-calling that Fisher stepped in and changed himself this time last season. I don’t know why I thought we’d gotten rid of this nonsense after the first few weeks. Under Jeff Fisher, the Rams never will cut out the stupid penalties. Thom Brennaman spent about half the TV broadcast calling the Rams cheap-shot artists. I wish I thought he was wrong. I wish that 47 games into his time here that Jeff Fisher could field (ANOTHER DATED REFERENCE ALERT) a winning team with character we could be proud of.

* Upon further review: Peter Morelli and crew handled the brawl and the game about as well as they could. They called Beckham for taunting after his TD and idiot Josh Brown for kicking Cody Davis in the face. They got obvious DPI and facemask calls right on the Rams’ first TD drive. They called obvious holds against Quinn. The brawl was going to happen no matter what the referees did. To their credit, they took charge of the rest of the game. Preston Parker’s ref bump penalty and fighting ejection were justified, so certainly was the initial personal foul on Ogletree. Beckham, however, should have gotten 15 for throwing the ball at Ogletree and kicking him. On the very next punt return, they flagged Zak DeOssie for a late hit on Austin they could have let go. The flag was needed for Morelli to assert control, though. They missed the initial call on the long ball to Donnell, but you needed replay on that one to see Ogletree had ripped the ball out after the receiver was down. The offside on the punt was a little iffier to me. The Rams jumped with a guard swinging his arm at the same time as the up man flinching pretty good yelling out the count. Those may have been within allowable limits but it sure looks like a simulated snap on replay. Grade: B

* Cheers: The highlight of the day didn’t come until I got home and suffered for my art and re-watched this monstrosity. In the 4th quarter, though, out of nowhere, Fox announcer Thom Brennaman made an impassioned argument for keeping football in St. Louis. This year was the Rams’ highest average attendance since 2008. We filled a sterile stadium with a losing team to 89% capacity. One franchise has lost more games the past decade than the Rams, but St. Louis fans have been supportive anyway, not only to the Rams but throughout 48 years of mostly losing football. Color man David Diehl added it would be “weird and wrong” not to have a team in St. Louis. All throughout their commentary, Fox showed shots of Rams fans in the stands sticking it out through yet another loss. You couldn’t write up a political ad any better than what Fox presented, and somebody needs to put this on a repeating loop and bomb Stan Kroenke with it. Big thumbs up to Fox and Brenneman and Diehl, and thank you.

* Who’s next?: Motivation shouldn’t be a problem for the Seahawks when the Rams close out the regular season there YET AGAIN next week. They’re shooting for the NFC West title and a #1 seed. The Rams’ main goal should be not to get injured, if not the glory of their third straight 7-win season under Fisher. The Rams are going for the season sweep, though I probably don’t need to remind you they haven’t won in Seattle since January 2005.

A big disclaimer to the Rams’ 28-26 win in St. Louis is that it was the first of five games MLB Bobby Wagner missed due to turf toe. They’re a dominating 5-0 since his return, which has so transformed Seattle’s run defense that he deserves to be on the NFL MVP short list, even with the missed games. The Seahawk D kills you with quickness. Wagner, a physical tackling machine with sub-4.5 speed, is the straw that stirs the Seattle speed cocktail. If the Rams don’t keep an eye and a hat on him, they’ll spend the day getting plays blown up in the backfield or getting otherwise-promising plays blown up because Wagner covered up for someone else’s mistake up front. Veteran run-clogger Kevin Williams has stepped up after Brandon Mebane’s season-ending injury week 10, and with him, and Wagner back at top gear, Seattle looks all but impossible to crack on the ground. Kenny Britt’s prospects don’t look any brighter against Richard Sherman, who held him to two catches for four yards in the first game. The Rams could use a big game from Jared Cook, but I’ve been saying he could have a big game against Seattle for two years now, and he never does. Shaun Hill will need as much protection as he can get from Seattle’s impressive speed. Michael Bennett (6 sacks) is playing like his hair is on fire right now and Bruce Irvin (5.5) is playing as well as any Sam ‘backer in the league. They and Cliff Avril have far more speed than Joseph Barksdale can handle. Think NASCAR vs. Smart Car. Brian Schottenheimer will have to break out some of the creative play-action he used against Washington, and consider running LEFT, where the 49ers showed some early success. I don’t see a ton Schottenheimer can or will do. A lot of establishing the offense is going to be will power up front, and that’s tough to project for a meaningless week 17 game. The Rams will need some kind of trend to break in a stadium where they’ve averaged 11 points a game since Cam Cleeland’s playoff-winning TD catch.

I hesitate to mention them together, but Alec Ogletree will be as important to the Ram defense next week as Wagner is to Seattle’s. And while I recognize that the Rams are undefeated in their history giving up 300 yards passing and 100 yards rushing to the same guy, Ogletree had his worst game of the season week 6 against Russell Wilson and has to play far better for the Rams to have a chance in the rematch. The Rams are usually much sounder in containment than they were in October. Seattle’s o-line could be vulnerable. The 49ers beat guard J.R. Sweezy repeatedly inside, especially on blitzes. Russell Okung could be back at LT for this game from a chest injury suffered against the 49ers; if he’s away, that’s a big edge for the Rams up front. And Seattle double-teamed Robert Quinn a ton in St. Louis; a repeat of that would leave shaky rookie RT Justin Britt in a lot of one-on-one matchups. The potential party-poopers? One’s obviously Beast Mode. The Rams held Marshawn Lynch to 53 yards in St. Louis, but he’s much better at home, where he’s gone over 95 yards in four of the past five meetings. The other is Doug F. Baldwin, whom the Rams turn into Jerry F. Rice EVERY time they face him. Even without Golden Tate around to draw attention, Baldwin traipsed through the Ram secondary for 123 yards on seven catches in October. Rookie Paul Richardson is starting to show up in Seattle’s gameplan, but if the Rams get any competent play-calling next week, they’ll press the crap out of the receivers and still feel free to bring the blitz after Wilson. Or, if Gregg Williams is that intent on hitting the golf course, Wilson will pepper them with a lot of wide screens and Baldwin will have me looking for my straitjacket again. The Rams’ special teams escapades in the first game should definitely have them on the lookout for Pete Carroll’s Revenge. Maybe Carroll’s punt coverage team will even start paying attention to where their punts actually go (snicker)!

Ah, we’re having fun here, but there’s little fun in ending the season in Seattle for the 492nd straight year, even less knowing it’s the Rams’ last meaningful action for nine long months, still less coming off a complete dog of a game this week against a much more beatable team. But if the Rams are as eager as I am to see the words “Spoiler Alert!” (thanks to whomever I stole that joke from) in next week’s recap, a 3-3 mark in the division and a season sweep of Seattle would be some nice markers to leave for next season.

— Mike
Game stats from espn.com