tweets n other bits … 12/19 & 12/20 (including Gurley updates)

David J. Chao, MD@ProFootballDoc
Like I said yesterday on #ToddGurley
Good news: nothing major or structural
Bad news: could linge

Vincent Bonsignore@VinnyBonsignore
#Rams Wade Phillips begins his weekly press conference by mentioning the #Broncos Super Bowl team he was a coach for lost a couple of games in December. Message: No reason to panic

Rich Hammond@Rich_Hammond
Wade Phillips starts his media session with, “First of all, the sky is not falling.”

Which is weird, because Wade is on Twitter, and I thought he would have heard the news by now…

Rich Hammond@Rich_Hammond
Wade Phillips, on whether he ever got into it with people in the stands: “I say hello to my wife.” Said he thinks the incident with Marcus Peters has been dealt with.

Cameron DaSilva@camdasilva
“He’s one of the reasons I’ve got a Super Bowl ring.” – Wade Phillips on C.J. Anderson, the newest Ram

Wade Phillips says Aaron Donald reminds him of John Randle, which is some seriously high praise.

==

Best pass defenses when blitzing this season.

If your team is on the bottom, when they blitz, they better get home for the sack or they're having some problems.#Skol #FightForEachOther #DallasCowboys #TitanUp #BeRedSeeRed #RavensFlock #ChiefsKingdom #Browns #DaBears pic.twitter.com/GWqpYhuZYH

— NFL Matchup on ESPN (@NFLMatchup) December 19, 2018

Warren Sharp@SharpFootball
LAC, while fighting to make the playoffs, sat Melvin Gordon till he was healthy
PIT, fighting to make the playoffs, are sitting James Conner till he is healthy
It’s odd that the Rams, who already locked up the NFCW, aren’t resting a clearly not 100% Todd Gurley till he is healthy

nittany ram wrote:

it would be nice if they developed a quick passing game like teams often use against them to mitigate Donald.

I keep saying this, but here goes again. They DID do that against the Eagles. They had that short passing game (which they didn’t against the Bears). They used it well in the first half of that game then had to ditch it when they got behind in the 3rd quarter.

But it was there, and it was working (all things considered), and was so visible in fact that Collinsworth made it a repeat big theme in his commentary (he saw they were doing it and knew enough from film to see that it was a new development and said so).

Usually quick crossing patterns. I just don’t see the Rams doing this, though, yes, Goff/McVay have tried shorter passes, and faster drop backs at times.

I am repeating this point so often that when I repeat it I now say I have said this before, but here goes again.

Here goes again.

THEY DID DO THAT AGAINST THE EAGLES.

They DID build in a quick short ball control passing game to exploit the coverages they were seeing.

That was a big part of the Eagles game. They had to abandon it after getting behind in the 3rd quarter, but in the first half, while using that attack to good effect, they were leading 10-6.

Driving that point home with some (again reposted again) numbers:

Here are the first 2 Rams scoring drives. I don’t include every play. Just Goff’s pass attempts.

quarter time down distance
1 7:21 3 1 RAM 29 Jared Goff pass complete short right to Todd Gurley for 6 yards (tackle by Avonte Maddox)
1 6:43 1 20 RAM 25 Jared Goff pass complete short middle to Todd Gurley for 8 yards (tackle by Kamu Grugier-Hill)
1 6:02 2 12 RAM 33 Jared Goff pass complete short right to Robert Woods for 18 yards (tackle by Malcolm Jenkins)
1 5:04 2 6 PHI 45 Jared Goff for 7 yards (tackle by Nigel Bradham)
1 3:56 2 7 PHI 35 Jared Goff pass complete short left to Tyler Higbee for 11 yards (tackle by Rasul Douglas and Cre’von LeBlanc)
1 3:25 1 10 PHI 24 Jared Goff pass complete short left to Josh Reynolds for 6 yards (tackle by Malcolm Jenkins and Nathan Gerry)
1 2:38 2 4 PHI 18 Jared Goff pass complete short left to Robert Woods for 4 yards (tackle by Cre’von LeBlanc)
1 2:01 1 10 PHI 14 Jared Goff pass complete short middle to Todd Gurley for 9 yards (tackle by Malcolm Jenkins)

2 7:49 3 1 PHI 21 Jared Goff pass complete short left to Brandin Cooks for 7 yards (tackle by Rasul Douglas)
2 6:10 2 21 PHI 25 Jared Goff pass complete short left to Todd Gurley for 10 yards (tackle by Rasul Douglas)
2 5:26 3 11 PHI 15 Jared Goff sacked by Fletcher Cox for -8 yards

That’s 2 key series in the first half. After the 2nd one they were up 10-6.

On those 2 series Goff is 9 of 9 for 75 yards. It’s basically a designed short ball control passing game…something they did NOT use against the Bears (let alone ever before).

If I remember correctly, the 18 yarder to Woods which I did not red-bold (at 6:02 in the 1st) was actually a receiver screen thrown behind the LOS, and Woods got all the yards from that on his own. That’s from memory though.

There are a lot of other problems—with the offense and with the OL and with Goff—but they did address the whole issue of the underneath passing game, or at least in the Eagles game they did.

nittany ram wrote:

They may have used a quick, short passing game against the Eagles. I’m not disputing that. I just don’t think it was as effective as you do.

Rams 1st half possessions
3 plays for 4 yds punt
13 for 80 TD
2 for 19 INT
8 for 28 FG
10 for 57 FG
Half/game tied 13 – 13
1st drive of second half Philly goes 3 and out
Next four Rams possessions:
3 for 4 Punt
3 for 8 Punt
3 for 9 Int
4 for 5 Downs.
At this point the Rams offense starts to improve and they start to catch up, but how much of that is due to the Eagles playing soft?

Regardless, scoring on 3 of 9 possessions including 2 INTs is not what I would consider playing well.

They were tied at the half. Before the Eagles scored at 1:07 left in the half they were leading.

They had to abandon that short attack in the 3rd quarter when they got behind. Before the end of the 4th, they scored only once in 5 straight possessions…until they revived at the end with the TD that nearly got them back in it.

The first half, there was the one INT, but they scored 3 times on 5 possessions.

I would say they came through like troopers at the end except for stupid things like JoJo fumbling and Everett not knowing you are supposed to get out of bounds in the final minute.

But they were much more consistent in the first half, scoring as I said 3 times on 5 possessions. That was the half where they were playing ball control.

….