RamView, 10/4/2015: Rams 24, Cardinals 22 (Long)

RamView, October 4, 2015
Game #4: Rams 24, Arizona 22

The NFL’s most unpredictable team was at it again this week, walking into Arizona, punching their division rivals in the mouth and getting away with it, pulling off a big upset with gritty, physical football. They played Fisherball at its finest, and this week, it really was fantastic. Also Gurley-tastic.

Position by position:
* QB: Nick Foles (16-24-171, PR 126.9) played a heck of a clutch game. 3rd-and-5 from the Arizona 12 early in the game, Foles hit Tavon Austin for a TD, which was a big play because the Ram offense sputtered for a LONG time after that. Foles didn’t get a lot of help. He got buried by three Cardinals on one sack. In the 1st, Arizona jumped offside and Foles tried to make like Aaron Rodgers and throw deep, only to see none of his receivers farther than five yards downfield. Good thing the penalty call was correct. But about the time the TV announcers were saying how ugly the Ram offense looked, Foles started unloading throws that were anything but. A perfect bomb to Austin on a deep corner route for 47 set up a FG. 3rd-and-5 from the Arizona 17 in the 3rd, another perfect throw to Stedman Bailey in the back corner of the end zone to put the Rams up 17-9. Arizona chipped away, the Rams did their best to fumble the game away, and the lead closed to 17-15 in the 4th. The Rams came up with an urgently-needed answer, though. Shortly after a long Todd Gurley run, Foles faced 3rd-and-5 from the 12, and outdid himself. With an all-out blitz coming, he initially pulled the ball down but still fired from a collapsing pocket, a bullet that Austin took at the goal line with a diving catch. Foles played a smart, tough game. He threw the ball away when it needed to be, took the dumpoff pass when he had to. He’s been taking a beating all season and somehow holding up. But the one word for Foles’ play this week absolutely is clutch. Look at the red zone 3rd-down situations Foles and the Rams converted, and that Carson Palmer and the Cardinals didn’t. That’s the ball game right there.

* RB: The Rams’ season may yet ride on the shoulders of young Todd Gurley (19-146), who arrived on the scene in Arizona with a big splash, all of it in the second half, yet. The first half was thirty more minutes of running game dysfunction, with neither Gurley nor Tre Pipp (2-minus 1) finding any running room behind a mistake-riddled line losing every battle up front. When Gurley lost 5 on the opening run of the 2nd half, the Rams had run for FOUR YARDS ALL DAY. But that all changed. Austin’s speed created some room for the running game, which also benefited from getting the blocking TEs involved on the move. Gurley popped for 24 on a counter right off a key block by Lance Kendricks. He ran through a tackle for another 13 to set up the Rams’ 2nd TD. Gurley and Benny Cunningham got away with fumbles near their own goal line late in the 3rd. After dodging those bullets, the Rams overran Arizona in the 4th. Austin hit a jet sweep for 12, then Gurley took a left sweep for 52 behind outstanding blocking. That set up the Rams’ 3rd TD, which would not have been possible without Benny’s key blitz pickup. (Gurley didn’t look bad at blitz pickup himself.) The Rams clung on to a 2-point lead with 1:44 left, at which point Gurley didn’t just chew up the clock, he smashed it against the wall and stomped on the pieces. He galloped off for 20 through a right-side running lane. A couple of runs later, he got strung out to the Ram sideline but kept his head and went down in bounds to force Arizona to spend their last timeout. Checkmate from the Cardinal 37 the next play. Off a fake end-around to Austin, Gurley got a perfect left-side edge and took off for another 30. He could have tried to beat the deep safety for a TD, but Gurley made the shocking move to cover up the ball and slide down inside the 10 instead, an impressively veteran-quality play for a rookie in his second career game. My only prediction for the Rams before the season was that they’d make the playoffs if they were no worse than .500 by the time Gurley became the starting RB. Looks like I might have to own that one.

* Receivers: With Kenny Britt (0-0) rendered useless under the watchful eye of Patrick Peterson, the Rams got clutch performances from the smaller receivers. Tavon Austin (6-96) scored a TD on his first catch. He ran an in route out of trips formation and ran through the Arizona D for a 12-yard score. He set up a FG by beating Rashad Johnson on a deep corner for 47. In the 4th, he started the final TD drive with a jet sweep for 12, then finished it with a diving goal line catch that gave the Rams all the points they’d need. Austin was a clutch receiver this week, and he hasn’t been getting enough credit for his toughness after the catch. He’s broken a lot of tackles for someone his size this year, including several this week. Stedman Bailey (2-30) still isn’t getting the ball as much as we’d like, which could change after his 3rd-down, red zone TD in the 3rd. Again out of trips formation, Bailey lost Jerraud Powers on a corner route for a 17-yard score. With 3 TDs, it was HUGE that the Mountaineers stepped up their games with every other receiver a no-show.

* Tight ends: As many balls OFF his hands as in them? Just another day at the office for Jared Cook (3-22). 3rd-and-6 of the Rams’ 2nd drive, Cook gets both hands on a pass he doesn’t catch. Yes, Justin Bethel got his arm in there. But he got no piece of the ball, and Cook had both hands on it. That ball HAS to be his, but somehow, it never is. Same story on an end zone pass in the 2nd. Tyrann Matthieu never knows the ball’s coming until Cook starts to pull it down, and gets up an arm and knocks it out. The Rams settle for a FG while we wonder if Cook is ever going to come up with one of these. 2nd-8 in the 3rd, with no defender in the way, Cook lets the ball go through his hands. The good news is that Lance Kendricks and Cory Harkey had good second halves as run blockers, with Kendricks springing a couple of Gurley’s big runs. But the Rams need much better production from this position than they’re getting.

* Offensive line: The o-line showed signs of getting its act together in the 2nd half, but the 1st half was as bad as any of their play we’ve seen this season. Actually, Foles was sacked in the 1st on what might have been this line’s worst play of the season. Greg Robinson and Jamon Brown got beaten by BOTH guys running a switch. Tim Barnes lost badly. Benny stayed in the pocket a long time but didn’t block anybody. THREE Cardinals buried Foles on a play where FOUR Rams blew their assignments. We now return you to your regularly scheduled program, The Calais Campbell Show. I think he again beat every Rams lineman at some point of the game. He blew up Brown to stuff Pipp, er, Tre Mason, for a big loss in the 1st. Campbell made another big play in the 3rd, completely beating Barnes to drop Gurley for a huge loss, and I am baffled that any Ram lineman ever takes their focus off the guy when he’s right in front of him. Barnes got the snap count wrong a little later; luckily, Foles was not in shotgun, where that easily could have been a turnover. But later in the 3rd, The Campbell Show, was, um, Gurley interrupted. With the TEs in the backfield more and leading Gurley out, the run game became effective and the o-line caught a spark. Lance Kendricks got Gurley a key block on a 24-yard run. The line about drove all the Cardinals back to their sideline to get Gurley another 13. That work set up Bailey’s TD. Gurley’s 52-yard run set up the Rams’ last TD. Brown got him the edge with a trainwreck of a block, and Barnes made his block in the nick of time to give Gurley plenty of room to run. And the o-line took over the LOS to burn off the last 1:44 of the game. Barnes and Rodger Saffold opened the lane for Gurley’s 20-yard run, and he took off a couple of plays later for 30 around a perfect edge set by Brown and Barnes. The Rams still made a lot of mistakes, and had a lot of difficulty getting the running game going. Foles only took the one sack but is still getting hit a lot. But once the Rams got the ground game working, they took over the LOS. That should be something to build on.

Defensive line: The Rams played their butts off this week and did everything you could want a defense to do. They came to play, set the early tone, hit hard, rattled the opposing QB and made a ton of clutch plays. Two sacks on the opening drive made for an impressive start. Chris Long beat a confused-looking RT and RG to the inside and dropped Carson Palmer (29-46-352) for the 2nd. Even more impressive, though, was the Rams’ clutch play in the red zone. Arizona had 1st-and-goal at the 1 in the 1st and had to settle for a FG. Aaron Donald blew up one run and Janoris Jenkins and Alec Ogletree blew up another. The much-less-clutch Cardinals dropped a TD pass and sent in the kicker. 3rd-and-2 early in the red zone in the 2nd, the Rams have just 3 men on the line, but you only need one when you have Aaron Donald. He bullied the LG to blow up a handoff to David Johnson. Alec Ogletree and Mark Barron blitzed in to hold him to a loss and force another FG. The Rams’ blitzing and hitting would limit Arizona to three more FGs, but the Cardinals still had a chance to win in the final 2:00 after crossing midfield. But Robert Quinn batted down a pass on 2nd down. Donald pressured Palmer into a bad throw for an open receiver on 3rd down. On 4th down, Palmer, who’d been getting rocked all day and looked pretty jumpy, simply missed an open quick slant with a poor throw. I can’t call the line’s play dominant overall. Arizona ripped off several big runs. Long (and Joyner) missed Chris Johnson (16-83) badly in the hole on a 21-yard run in the 3rd. David Johnson took off for 12 after Donald whiffed on him in the backfield, with Quinn vacating the area on a stunt. CJ ripped off another 19 late in the 3rd after Michael Brockers and Ogletree couldn’t get off blocks. Quinn’s game may have seemed quiet, but he got a couple of pressures, drew a hold, stuffed a couple of runs and had the big pass deflection. Where the Rams dominated was in the red zone, and it was impressive that they often did so with just a 3-man line. Just when teams think they have the answer, the Rams change the question.

* Linebackers: The Rams came out hitting, but needed to concentrate a little more early on tackling. Chris Johnson gained 12 in the 1st off a bad missed tackle by James Laurinaitis and another by T.J. McDonald. David Johnson then went into mini-Beast mode on 3rd-7, bouncing off Trumaine Johnson’s hard-but-no-wrap shoulder tackle, running through another bad Laurinaitis tackle and plowing Alec Ogletree and Mark Barron for about 20. Arizona drove on to their first FG. Arizona kept moving the ball well until a hidden key play, a 4-yard CJ run in the 2nd. After the play, Laurinaitis spotted Jenkins and Nick Fairley both loafing, and let them have it. That seemed to re-stoke Jenkins’ fire. The next play, he and McDonald blew up a pitch left for a loss, setting up the 3rd-and-3 run stuff by Donald that forced another FG. Jenkins made a huge INT the next drive, and I would like to think that sequence re-sparked the whole defense. An end-of-half hit parade made Arizona settle for a 3rd FG in the red zone. McDonald drilled Palmer on 2nd down and Laurinaitis drilled him on 3rd down to force incomplete passes. They settled again in the 4th after Barron held Fitzgerald to a couple on a screen and Akeem Ayers’ footsteps kept Gresham from making a catch. Laurinaitis spent a lot of time in Palmer’s face after a slow start, swinging past the LG late in the game for the Rams’ 4th sack, which forced a fumble, but Arizona recovered. I wondered last week if Jeff Fisher could push the right buttons to get the Rams turned around. James Laurinaitis might have been in charge of the button this week. The hitting and intensity of the Rams’ back seven (or eight) was key to this win.

* Secondary: The secondary unmistakably came to play, and especially to hit. Janoris Jenkins laid the wood to Jermaine Gresham to break up an early pass. Trumaine Johnson delivered a huge hit to David Johnson on a dumpoff, though the RB won the collision. The safeties were Gregg Williams’ ultimate pass rush weapon this week. Lamarcus Joyner led off by sacking Palmer on Arizona’s first drive. Jenkins made up for loafing on a play in the 2nd by blowing up the next run. The next possession, he closed on an end zone bomb for John Brown (7-75), undercut the route and trapped the ball against his helmet for a monster INT and a 10-point swing, with the Rams scoring a FG off it. Rodney McLeod made an equally big play in the 3rd, coming from a mile deep in center field to pop Larry Fitzgerald (7-99) and force a fumble, recovered by TruJo. T.J. McDonald made Arizona settle for a FG for the 4th time with a blitz and sack of Palmer later in the 3rd. Unfortunately a hit he made earlier in the drive will have longer-lasting effects. While blowing a diving tackle on a 19-yard Chris Johnson run, he wiped out Ogletree with a hit below the knees and broke his ankle. “See what you hit” is one of the most basic instructions football players receive, but for the second straight year, McDonald has taken out one of his own teammates with a reckless play. The Rams fell asleep with a 9-point lead in the 4th. Michael Floyd beat zone coverage for 22. D. Johnson beat Jenkins for 19. Fitzgerald got 19 more, beating a blitz out of trips formation on 4th-4. McDonald salted that drive off by giving up D. Johnson to a deep defender who wasn’t there, making for an easy TD lob. That and the deflating injury to Ogletree aside, the secondary was still just as important and as clutch as the rest of the Ram defense this week. It was a complete defensive effort.

* Special teams: Nothing beats striking big on the first play of the game, which Mark Barron did by stripping David Johnson on the opening kickoff return, with Daren Bates recovering, to set up a Ram TD. Special teams didn’t impress after that. It was idiotic to punt right to Patrick Peterson all game, but they got away with it, in part because Joyner, Cody Davis and Bradley Marquez made up for outkicked coverage. Kickoff returns were very inconsistent. Benny got out to the 40 a couple of times thanks to wedge blocking by Demetrius Rhaney and Christian Bryant, but more often got stopped around the 15, and one of those long returns came back because of a Harkey hold, costing the Rams 26 yards of field position. The big opening play saved the day for a special teams unit that wasn’t sharp strategically or in execution.

* Strategery: Gregg Williams called his best game as Rams DC. He won so many plays for the Rams he has to be considered one of the game’s MVPs. 3rd-16 in the 1st, Palmer sees a 4-man rush and wants to dump off, but Ogletree peeled off in coverage instead of rushing and Palmer ate the sack. 3rd-3 in the red zone in the 2nd, Williams went to a widely-spaced 3-man line with Donald at the nose, which I bet lured Palmer into checking to a run, but Donald blew up the RG instead and Williams had two blitzers coming to polish off the run stop. Williams called a lot of that formation this week. He kept Arizona out of the end zone at the end of the half with a double-safety blitz and a middle LB blitz that got Palmer hit twice and induced incomplete passes. And even blitzing two DBs, he still had Fitzgerald doubled in the end zone on the first blitz. Hooray. Arizona struggled with those double-safety blitzes all game, to the point it didn’t look like they knew the Rams even ran them. Not Bruce Arians’ best work. Everything worked for Williams this week. Palmer burned 10-in-the-box on 3rd-and-2 in the 3rd with a long pass to Fitzgerald, but McLeod, the one man not in the box, flew in and forced a big turnover. A safety blitz killed another Arizona drive in the red zone late in the 3rd. Williams was as good in the red zone this week as his players.

At halftime, the Ram running game looked broken to the point of being beyond fixing, and in my game notes, I commented that things had gotten so bad I couldn’t see any way out other than running Gurley behind Harkey in I-formation. Dingdingdingding! (Cue The Price Is Right winner’s music) Frank Cignetti put the blocking TEs in the backfield more in the 2nd half, and run-blocking was more effective with them on the move. The Rams also kept the Arizona front off balance with bubble screens and jet sweeps to Austin, and didn’t give up on play-action, which was effective even while the Rams weren’t running well. These are all things you’re supposed to do against aggressive defenses, darned if they didn’t work. The Rams scored at least 2 of their TDs on routes run out of trips formation, something else for defenses to worry about. This isn’t to say Cignetti’s found all the answers moving forward. The running game needs more than just dropping in an H-back, I’m sure. He’s still made good in-game adjustments this season.

When Jeff Fisher has his team ready for a game, they’re hard to beat. Gestures like his “they have to play us, too” comment in the press set the tone for the week. The Rams beat the Cardinals to the punch and played with aggression and confidence. They put Arizona on their heels right away and turned them into a team finding ways to lose. The Rams fed off of that and found ways to win. One of the most important tasks a coach has is knowing the pulse of his team and getting them in the right mindset for a game. I think Fisher nailed that this week. Now keep it coming.

* Upon further review: John Parry will surely get a Jeff Triplette F-minus-minus from Arizona fans. Rarely, especially on the road, has a crew called a game that went so much in the Rams’ favor. The big call was saying that Benny did not fumble near his own goal line in the 4th by claiming his forward progress had stopped. Well, it did, because he’d been hit by a tackle that forced the ball loose. The ruling prevented Arizona from challenging the play and was probably the biggest gift the Rams will get all season, but it was a wretchedly bad call. Arizona fans probably wanted roughing the passer on Laurinaitis and DPI on Barron on the same red-zone play right before halftime, but that was a clean shoulder hit by James and clean blanket coverage by Mark. But… McDonald got away with tripping on Arizona’s first play from scrimmage. On a quick screen to Brown in the 3rd, Ogletree’s tackle on the sideline was fine, but McDonald hit him clearly late. TruJo got away with body-slamming Brown later. The play was in bounds, but picking the man up and throwing him down is generally roughing. Bailey got away with using the football as a prop when celebrating his TD. I’d say Parry and crew were “letting ‘em play”, but the Rams couldn’t as much as breathe on Michael Floyd without drawing DPI. Can’t argue with the results, but I’d have had a stroke had it been the Rams who got shafted by a lot of these calls. Grade: sorry, F

* Cheers: The Fox broadcast team had some really great calls. Midway through the first quarter, Thom Brennaman observed “the Cardinals look surprisingly mortal.” Charles Davis noted not only Jenkins’ helmet catch, but immediately added that David Tyree made his Super Bowl helmet catch in the same stadium. This was the Davis I expected to hear in past broadcasts. His football knowledge is deep, he got into the nitty-gritty breaking down blitzes and route combinations and he predicted what plays would be run as the teams ran them. He’s the personification of show prep and I look forward to hearing him on more games.

* Who’s next?: The Rams’ schedule doesn’t let up next week, with a second straight road game against a top NFC contender, the undefeated Packers, who have won four straight in the series. The Rams are 2-3 in Lambeau since 1995, winning there last in 2006, but more memorably in ’95 in their first game as the St. Louis Rams, behind a blocked punt and a TD catch by an up-and-coming young WR named Isaac Bruce.

The immediate problem for the Rams, though, is Aaron Rodgers, the reigning best QB in the league, who’s beaten them three straight times. Short of kidnapping Olivia Munn, I can’t imagine how to get the guy off his game. If you come after him, you better get there. No QB is better at buying time in the pocket and getting away from pressure. If you flush him, he’s still the best thrower in the league on the run. Rodgers has a sixth sense for where everyone is; the Packers’ DBs coach says he throws more no-look passes than NBA point guards. If you sit back and try to contain-rush, you’ll get picked apart. I doubt any QB reads the field more quickly or has a quicker release. He’s also the league’s most accurate thrower and hasn’t thrown an INT at home since 2012. Seattle had success slowing him down with a defense very similar to what the Rams ran 3/4 of the Pittsburgh game. Soft zones will be no challenge to Rodgers and would give the Ram DBs less respect than they deserve. Tighter zones should keep Randall Cobb, the Packers’ biggest after-the-catch threat, from running wild, while Jenkins will have to be up to the task against James Jones as the big deep threat and favorite end zone target of Rodgers. The DBs have to stay alert and maintain coverage when Rodgers extends plays. Rodgers covers up for the play of his tackles, David Bakhtiari and Don Barclay, who rank toward the bottom of the league for allowing hits and pressures. Barclay is tenacious but can be beaten with speed, and Robert Quinn should bust out his bull rush against Bakhtiari, who has struggled with that. Green Bay makes up for edge issues by being as strong up the middle as anyone in the NFL. Look for Josh Sitton to lead runs for either Marshawn Lynch-like Eddie Lacy, playing through an ankle injury at last word, or James Starks, a very elusive inside runner. Excellent offensive balance, like Arizona, except with a QB much less likely to get rattled or miss throws like Palmer missed this week.

Todd Gurley’s big day should give the Packers a lot to think about, but the Rams still have to get their front blocked, which doesn’t look so easy. B.J. Raji is back after missing all of last year due to injury and looks very good. He’s huge but quick and disruptive and gets down the line well. Seattle couldn’t block him or DT Mike Daniels. The DTs will make it hard to create running room for Gurley, as will OLB Nick Perry, who set a lot of good edges when the Seahawks tried wrap runs, one of the Rams’ favorite run calls. Green Bay’s defensive speed is reminiscent of Seattle’s. They pursue the ball with gusto and are likely to be all over the short stuff the Rams will want to run. Hasean Clinton-Dix and Sam Shields look very good in run and short pass support. Green Bay’s been speeding their way to a lot of sacks lately, too: a team-record 13 the past two weeks. Perry has 3; the DTs have at least 6, making control of the middle of the line crucial. Making that difficult will be Clay Matthews, who has taken to MLB like a duck to water. The Rams will have to get a hat on him, which they might be able to do by exploiting some of Dom Capers’ weird alignments. They use a lot of a look that double-teams the tackles while lining no one up over an interior lineman. That seems to be a call for Gurley up the middle. Leaking the RB out on passing downs worked well for Seattle, and though Micah Hyde did a nice job neutralizing Jimmy Graham and would seem very likely to repeat that success against Jared Cook, Seattle got their other TEs open down the seam any time they looked for it. Lance Kendricks could get a chance to redeem himself for that awful drop against Pittsburgh. Green Bay’s a good, underrated defense, though not impossible to solve.

Poker player that I’m certain he is, Jeff Fisher played the lack-of-respect card this week and won a big pot with it, just in time to save the Rams’ season from busting. And Green Bay is not the place for the Rams to act like they’re playing with house money, like they did in Washington. They have to play like they’re small-stacked, go all-in, and make the other guys worry about their big moves. We’ll find out a lot about the heart of this franchise if they can pull off a big bluff next week.

— Mike
Game stats from espn.com