RamView, August 29, 2015
Preseason Game #3: Colts 24, Rams 14

The Rams played better than they have been, but no better than last year, in taking their third loss of preseason. A few strong performances could not overcome the team’s natural tendency to find ways to lose, via protection breakdowns, coverage breakdowns, continued lack of pass rush and the usual blizzard of penalties. With the regular season almost here, the Rams look readier, but still not ready, for prime time.

Position by position:
* QB: The best development from the game was the elevated play by Nick Foles, who made a lot of chicken salad out of, um, substandard ingredients in going 10-11-128 for a passer rating of 145.5. The offense got Foles into more than his fair share of trouble but he mostly got out of it, thanks to his arm, feet and head. Down 10-0, Foles escaped from trouble, usually named Trent Cole, several times to sustain a Rams drive. He scrambled left and hit Kenny Britt for 13, beat a funky Colt formation with a screen to Benny Cunningham for 14 and dropped one off to Tre Mason with Cole bearing down on him again for 17 more. The drive still ended in a sack that Foles could do little about, but all his work was not in vain. The Rams flipped field position, got him the ball back at the Colt 44, and Foles got them into the end zone in one play with his first deep ball of the preseason, a pretty one, too, to reborn deep threat Chris Givens. The Rams quickly got to midfield their next drive before Foles took his second sack, on a perfectly timed blitz that Foles never saw coming. The Rams only put up the one TD behind Foles in the first half, but we still got what we’ve been waiting for from him. He looked like the difference-maker the Rams need and made the kind of plays under pressure I don’t think Sam Bradford made often enough. What we don’t need to see is Foles having to outplay all of his teammates like he had to tonight. He’ll need help. Case Keenum and Austin Davis each got one throw apiece, and while I agree Keenum has won the QB2 job, I have to say that Davis has gotten about as unfair a chance to defend his roster spot as I have ever seen. With little experience, the guy started half the games last year, kept them in just about every one and was the best QB on the roster. This year, he’s Tim Jenkins. Sean Mannion’s (6-13-47) efficient summer took a big hit with a rookie INT in the 3rd. Going for Damian Williams a third time in a row, he stared down his receiver and Jalil Brown jumped the sideline route for a pick and return that set up the Colts’ winning TD. The Colt blitz got to him a little bit, but he hung in the pocket well to make some throws and continued to show good timing, accuracy and arm strength. Mannion was hurt by a couple of drops and a 4th-and-10 sack on his last play. Can’t exactly throw it away on 4th down. Mannion’s still had a good summer, but much more importantly for the Rams’ 2015 prospects, Foles has joined him now on the positive side of the QB ledger.

* RB: Rams RBs gained more yards as receivers (75) than as rushers (67), on a meager 2.5 yards per carry. Tre Mason (6 touches-31 yards) started in a 5-yard hole after poor blocking got him buried on his first carry, but bounced back the next drive by taking a shotgun handoff 10 yards around right end on 3rd-and-short. Benny Cunningham (7 touches-37) then beat a weird pass rush (no DEs, 3 Colts lined up over center) with a screen for 14, and Mason leaked out of the backfield for a 17-yard catch before pulling up with a tweaked hamstring. Cunningham showed cutback ability he didn’t last week on a 6-yard run in the 2nd, and beat the Colts for 16 on a well-set-up screen, followed by Isaiah Pead (7 touches-21) popping for 13 off the left side. Pead also broke a tackle and gained 8 in the 3rd, but also got stuffed about 5 times. Pead’s never been a very instinctive runner, and the knee injury understandably seems to have cost him suddenness. Trey Watts (6 rushes-18) walked in from the 3 for the Rams’ 2nd TD and hit a brilliant spin move to beat LB Matt Overton in the hole to convert a 3rd-and-short in the 4th. Watts simply has more game than Pead, now if not in September. Malcolm Brown (9 touches-35) worked hard for garbage time yards but lost a little favor with a sloppy one-handed drop of another well-set-up screen. Even before Todd Gurley takes the field, the Rams have a physical group of RBs who are effective receivers. They just need more consistent blocking.

* Receivers: The receivers, on the other hand, appear to need more consistent effort. The exception being Chris Givens (2-63), who locked up the WR5 job emphatically with a 44-yard TD bomb. Play-action sucked up a lot of the Colt secondary, and Givens burned safety Mike Adams handily to get behind all of them. It’s the “stars” of the group that could stand to show up better. Kenny Britt (2-21) was a reliable release valve but his route-running has been pretty lackadaisical (or, in Missouri, “laxadaisical”) all preseason. Jared Cook (1-5) has done little through the air, and even less on the ground, as he is useless and clearly uninterested in inline blocking. He did nothing blocking to create at least three losses for the RBs, including getting Mason buried on the opening play. The one time he was any good was on Mason’s shotgun run, but there, Cook was out front and blocking on the move. A double-TE “power” formation is just a joke with Cook involved when he doesn’t have the power to will himself to block. At this moment, if you benched Cook and started Lance Kendricks, I’m not sure I’d notice other than the running game would improve. Welcome back, Schottyball, as Tavon Austin (0-0) was uninvolved in the offense for a 2nd straight week, though things may have been much different had he not drawn a completely wrong OPI penalty on the opening drive to retract a 25-yard catch. Another sloppy drop late by Bradley Marquez probably has him redirecting his sites at the practice squad. Brian Quick got on the field, but with no targets, I have no way of knowing if he did much more. Other than Britt, the only receivers Foles could rely on when he got in trouble were the RBs. Besides Givens, all of the Ram WRs simply have to offer more than they did tonight.

* Offensive line: The work in progress is still very much that, with alarmingly poor pass pro from both tackles at times. Greg Robinson was beaten by Trent Cole on the edge repeatedly and also got smoked on the opening play to help get Mason buried. Robinson recovered and knocked down Cole from behind to give Foles an escape hatch on an early completion, but his problems with speed rushers are a definite issue. His run-blocking was even an issue tonight, with a couple of glaring losses at the point of attack the Rams just can’t afford from who’s supposed to be their leading run-mauler. What Robinson didn’t do, though, was allow a sack; both of those came from Rob Havenstein’s side. Erik Walden sped by him with ease for the first sack and about bull-rushed him over Foles, with D’Qwell Jackson also blitzing in untouched, for the second. Jackson was a failed blitz adjustment by Foles and/or Pead, but Havenstein getting run over would have been enough by itself. He can get caught really flat-footed on the edge, and it leads to very bad things. The Rams started Barrett Jones at C, moved Jamon Brown to LG with Rodger Saffold still out and started Demetrious Rhaney at RG. Rhaney, in less than a week, has probably already beaten Brandon Washington out of a job. He looked quite good at guard, especially getting out front to lead-block on screens, and delivered a key block on a Cunningham lunge on 3rd-and-short. Jones looked much more credible at center than he did in Oakland. He tied up the nose tackle well on run plays, drove a guy about to the sideline on one run, didn’t get beaten in pass pro that I saw and is probably your opening day starter. Brown came up lame after the TD bomb to Givens, but with “only” a low-grade ankle sprain. Rhaney did miss a couple of run blocks, and penalties by the starters were a problem, with both Jones and Rhaney killing a drive with facemask penalties, Rhaney’s after getting whipped inside by the feared Kendall Langford. The Rams got good run-blocking from Corey Harkey and Justice Cunningham, who’s earned TE4 with his consistent work. On the Watts TD, Garrett Reynolds surged out to the 2nd level at guard while Justice prevailed on a move block and Alex Bayer (!) stoned his man at the line. Reynolds also made a couple of good blocks on Pead’s long run. After that, though, the last unit didn’t create much push at all and the RBs were left to make their yardage on their own. As for the starters, the Rams have GOT to get better blocking from the TEs (ahem, JARED), and much more consistent play from Robinson so they can afford to give Havenstein the help he’s going to need early on. The TEs (ahem, JARED) and Robinson have to control the LOS much better than they did in this game to create the ground game the Rams need.

* Defensive line: Slack City held the Colts to 56 rushing yards despite looking like they were going to get run over again early, with Chris Long repeating a disturbing trend of getting handled easily by the TE on the edge to give up nice gains like Daniel “Boom” Herron’s 7-yarder on the opening drive. That and the continued lack of a preseason pass rush got Andrew Luck in scoring range early, though Robert Quinn’s pass knockdown helped hold them to a FG. After the Colts recovered an onside kick, Quinn and Ethan Westbrooks got turned and rendered useless on an 11-yard Herron run, Luck hit Andre Johnson for a TD under little pressure, and the rout appeared to be on. Fortunately, after a punt backed the Colts up inside their 5, Aaron Donald said, “F that,” and put on as dominating a series as you will see, whipping into the backfield to stuff Herron on three straight plays. On the third, he brushed Todd Herremans back like nothing and nearly dropped Herron for a safety. That one-man wrecking crew show turned the tide of the game, with the Rams getting right back in it a couple of plays later with the Givens TD. The defensive tempo continued to increase, and when Long hit Luck to force an INT, it looked like good times were rolling again in -Sack- City, but a penalty took that and the Rams’ momentum away. They still got run stuffs by Ethan Westbrooks and William Hayes to slow the Colts down, but Indy failed to score a TD before halftime mainly because they’d used up their timeouts. Luck was only ever under light pressure at the most. Louis Trinca-Pasat got a decent number of snaps with the starters with Nick Fairley injured and Michael Brockers seeing limited action. He had a run stuff and BLANKET coverage of Dwayne Allen dropping back in coverage near the goal line at the end of the half to show for it. That was fun to watch. None of the other reserves stand out. Marcus Forston usually loses battles at the nose, and Martin Ifedi has shown disappointingly little. He came into camp poised to be Mike Waufle’s next star pupil. That may be Trinca-Pasat this year. I see little good in the stat that the Rams, starters and scrubs alike, have NO sacks in three games, but they did show up against the run (eventually) this week. You have to stop the run before you can pass-rush, right? We’ll have to hope Sack City finds football’s holy grail, the non-existent “switch,” by opening day against Seattle.

* Linebackers: The Rams talked a lot about getting improving their gap fills during the week, but it seems like it was just a lot of talk. Alec Ogletree got fooled by a Herron cutback on an early 7-yard run, then James Laurinaitis got sealed out of a 5-yard run. After the onside kick, Ogletree got blocked out of Herron’s 11-yard run. And Alec apparently committed the crucial holding penalty that took an INT away from Janoris Jenkins (and a probable score by the offense). That was part of Ogletree’s inconsistent coverage of Dwayne Allen; Marshall Faulk thought he was too busy talking trash and not busy enough, well, doing his job. The Colts got a first down inside the 10 before halftime when Ogletree badly blew a tackle on Herron. 10 guys did their jobs on that play. Ogletree’s got too much talent to play like this; he needs to play with better discipline. Bryce Hager got the 2nd half off to a great start by recovering a blown exchange by Josh Robinson, setting up the Rams’ 2nd TD. Jo-Lonn Dunbar had a great possession after that, blowing up a run and defending back-to-back passes in the flat on either side of the field. Hager later stuffed Tyler Varga a couple of times, but also blew a tackle on a Varga reception that allowed a 1st down out of 500-year-old Matt Hasselbeck’s garbage flip throw. Varga also ran through Marshall McFadden at the goal line for the Colts’ winning TD. Once the regular season hits, I think we’ve got to see more out of all the linebackers than we’ve seen so far.

* Secondary: The back of the defense has outplayed the front this preseason but still can’t resist giving up the big play. Janoris Jenkins broke up an early slant route and had (possibly too-) tight deep coverage on T.Y. Hilton to help hold the first Colt drive to a FG. T.J. McDonald made a couple of great pass breakups after the onside kick, but a botched coverage left Andre Johnson all alone out of the slot for a 32-yard TD. Jenkins got over in time to stop him inside the 10, but his laughable no-wrap shoulder tackle was an even more laughable whiff. Also not helping on that drive: Lamarcus Joyner and Trumaine Johnson getting dominated on decent run plays by that feared, mauling, 178-pound blocker Hilton. Come on. TruJo kept the next drive alive with a 3rd-down hold, but Jenkins appeared to end it in style with an INT and long return. No, another holding call took that back. Trovon Reed got beaten twice on deep out routes to allow Indy into FG range before halftime. Marcus Roberson had a couple of nice pass breakups, including a deflection while coming in on a blitz. Imoan Claiborne defended well but just didn’t contest the throw enough on the 2-point completion to Griff Whalen. The talent to succeed is there when these guys get their assignments right.

* Special teams: The unfortunate special teams highlight was the Colts’ recovery of an onside kick after their opening FG. To Cody Davis’ credit, he was not fooled by the play. To his detriment, like a bad infielder, he let the bouncing ball play him instead of the other way around, Zurlon Tipton beat the ball to him, and the Colts wound up with it. Johnny Hekker returned to normalcy with a couple of punts close to 50 yards, but the Rams did little on returns, with Sergeant Dan Rodriguez making the usual rookie mistake of thinking he’s going to make 20 ninja moves on people and score a TD every punt return, but is lucky to gain a yard instead. After last season, the Ram special teams looked poised to be one of the league’s best units, and I’ll stick with that forecast, though the high use of backups hasn’t allowed us to see that in preseason.

* Strategery: I was ready to fire the whole coaching staff on the spot in the 1st quarter with the team getting off to yet another poor, nonchalant start, but Donald’s goal-line eruption made this a much different section. Gregg Williams called a much more conservative game this week, and though the Rams continue to have a sackless summer, the change didn’t hurt. Some of Williams’ gamesmanship in coverage is worth discussing. Dropping the DT and rushing three actually worked a couple of times before halftime, once with Trinca-Pasat, once with Westbrooks. A couple of failed secondary rotations were killers, though. As Marshall Faulk explained on TV, Andre Johnson was supposed to be covered by a LB on his TD, but no one came over when Jenkins dropped deep and the DBs at the line shifted over. More to the point, what the hell is the benefit of that play supposed to be? Who but a simpleton would want to cover Andre Johnson, even at the age of 100, with a LB? We didn’t need help to see why Hilton was wide open for 16 during the Colts’ drive at the end of the 1st half; Joyner left him unguarded at the line to take a mad pre-snap dash all the way back to deep safety! What was the point of that? It’s been a repeat pattern since Williams got here that the only people fooled on these exotic coverages are Williams’ own players. It’s well past time to simplify things.

Frank Cignetti couldn’t get Austin involved (again) but made some likeable play calls. The double play-action, with the fake Austin end-around, made the Givens TD. Most of the Colt secondary bit. I’d seen that play in training camp, but they only ever screened to Austin out of it. Cignetti also fooled the Colts with the shotgun handoff to Mason on 3rd-and-3 early, though I didn’t like the edge run for Cunningham on a later 3rd-and-short despite it working. It didn’t have the element of surprise of the Mason handoff and was too easy to defend. The Rams counterpunched well with screens against Colt blitzes and odd formations. But personnel tipoffs be damned, the Rams have to quit calling run plays that hinge on Jared Cook making a block. Either that or sending Cook a message by making Kendricks the starter has to be on the table.

After three weeks of preseason, we’re ultimately where we didn’t really want to be, hoping Jeff Fisher’s players “find the switch” in time for the regular season. They improved this week, but there’s still a lot they’re doing wrong. (Like 10 of 12 penalties accepted, for 83 yards.) It’s been ten years, if not more, since the Rams have been talented enough to rely on “finding the switch.” If Fisher pulls this one off, he’s Indiana Jones. In that case, throw me the idol. (Yes, I know how that worked out for that character. I’ll be more careful. I’m a patient runner.)

* Upon further review: As a rookie head official, John Hussey is a referee the Rams are likely to see twice this season, and don’t expect either of those games to be well-officiated. The Rams’ opening drive died on a completely bogus OPI call on Austin, who’s the strongest man in the NFL if that was a pushoff, when he barely touched the DB. Most of the other 11 penalty calls on the Rams were legit; I just wish Hussey’d had the courtesy to identify the player on all of them, especially the critical hold that took away the Jenkins INT. No-calls were a bigger problem. Indy converted on 3rd-and-8 and got inside the 10 before halftime after an obvious false start by Allen was missed. They got a long punt return in the 2nd half while the refs ignored Watts getting blatantly shoved in the back in front of the returner and Marquez getting obviously held for about 15 yards. Thanks for missing those but calling everything the Rams did, eagle eyes. Grade: D-plus

* Broadcast news: From TV, it looked like attendance couldn’t have been more than 15,000, and I think we know who to thank for that. Regrettably, I can no longer say “we” when talking about the home crowd, but the brave, hearty few got loud on several first-half 3rd downs and might even have flustered the Colts into one of their timeouts. Marshall Faulk and Torry Holt continue to put on a clinic as Rams analysts. Faulk’s breakdown of the Johnson TD was especially educational. One thing you can say about them is they’re never afraid to criticize the Rams or the referees. If anything, they could take it easier on the Rams. Faulk blamed Damian Williams for Mannion’s TD even though Mannion really stared him down. He blamed Pead for the second sack, but did Foles recognize it? It was very well-disguised. Holt blamed Britt for not converting a hot read into a 1st down, saying he didn’t “net the sticks”, but surely the ball had to come out too fast for Britt to run an 8-yard route. What’s that? Stop calling you Shirley? Anyway, those are quibbles; you rarely come away from a play without Holt or Faulk giving an excellent account of why it worked or didn’t work. We need these guys on regular-season games.

* Waiver bait: With E.J. Gaines headed to injured reserve, by my count, 13 Rams will hear the dreaded words “Coach Fisher wants to see you,” but no sooner than Monday per Les Snead. RamView’s guesses: T Steven Baker, WR Emory Blake, QB Austin Davis, DB Jay Hughes, RB Zach Laskey, LB Keshaun Malone, LS Tyler Ott, K/P Michael Palardy, CB Montell Garner, WR Tyler Slavin, TE Brad Smelley, OL David Wang and T Darrell Williams. Davis, who I stubbornly believe could still start for a half-dozen teams, deserves an early release to try to latch on somewhere. And Sergeant Dan HAS to make it to at least the final cut, doesn’t he?

* Who’s next?: Thursday night could see the final chapter of the most time-honored tradition in sports, and OF COURSE I’m talking about the Missouri Governor’s Cup. There’s a chance the city that wins the trophy will get to keep it forever, though we shouldn’t expect either team to treat the game like forever’s on the line. Nor should we expect the Rams to treat the game like an 0-4 preseason is on the line, not with Fisher recently saying 49 of the final 53 roster spots are already locked up. The main players to watch will probably be backup offensive linemen, backup DBs and Pead/Watts/Brown for the last RB job. I wouldn’t mind the starting o-line getting a lot of work and proving they can protect the QB, though. The Chiefs have vexed the Rams in the regular season for 20 years; whether they know it or not, or care, Fisher and the team owe the hometown fans one here. Maybe, just maybe, the Rams will rally behind Case Keenum and play good football, and St. Louis football fans will always have that glorious grail as a tangible link to the olden days.

— Mike
Game stats from espn.com

Rams still in no rush to choose starting center

Nick Wagoner

http://espn.go.com/blog/st-louis-rams/post/_/id/20753/rams-still-in-no-rush-to-choose-starting-center

EARTH CITY, Mo. — More than halfway through training camp and the preseason, the St. Louis Rams are still in no rush to choose a starting center.

According to coach Jeff Fisher, it’s an ongoing process that might not get clarity until the last possible minute.

“It’s going to be a really good race,” Fisher said. “We probably won’t make a decision until the opener or until kickoff.”

One would think the Rams will probably make a decision before they kick off Sept. 13 against the Seattle Seahawks, but in the three-way competition among Tim Barnes, Barrett Jones and Demetrius Rhaney, none have separated from the pack just yet.

Barnes started the preseason opener against Oakland, and Rhaney started the second against Tennessee. Most likely, Jones will get his chance to run with the first team Saturday night against the Indianapolis Colts.

At that point, all three will have had their chance to work with the starting group and the first round of cuts will be made. But it doesn’t mean the Rams will stop the rotation they have going in the middle.

“The thing is, that’s why we wanted to get guys working with [quarterback Nick Foles] every day,” offensive line coach Paul Boudreau said. “We rotate the centers so one period Timmy is working with him, the next period Barrett is working with him and we have been doing it day to day.

“So it really doesn’t matter who the center is now.”

But while it might not matter much now, it certainly will when the season starts. The Rams have been patient with letting the competition play out. Some would argue that approach isn’t ideal to build chemistry on the line, especially since the center is the guy primarily responsible for making the protection calls at the line of scrimmage.

So while there seems to be a lack of urgency to make a decision and settle in with Barnes, Jones or Rhaney, the counterargument to that is rushing into a decision could lead to choosing the wrong player, and then having to start all over again.

Given the relative lack of playing experience among Barnes, Rhaney and Jones, it’s easier to understand why the Rams don’t want to rush into a choice. Barnes is the only one of the three to start a game (he has got four), Jones has only played in spot duty and Rhaney has never appeared in a regular-season game.

Which is why Boudreau is preaching patience while putting a premium on deciphering which of the three candidates is best equipped to step in and handle all of the mental aspects that go with playing the position. Which is why Jones is probably a slight favorite with a chance to bolster his case by playing well against the Colts.

“I have confidence that whoever wins this job is going to be because of earning it,” Boudreau said. “It’s not because of longevity or we drafted a guy. I don’t give a [darn] about that. It’s one of those deals where you get into the game and you want the best five up there. So who is going to keep it all calm, who is going to make the right call and who is going to make us get in the right protections as far as getting in the game and knowing what to do.”

Until the Rams are sure they have the player who can do all of those things, they’re content to keep watching and waiting to make a decision.

Rams mailbag: Estimating Todd Gurley’s impact

Nick Wagoner, ESPN Staff Writer

http://espn.go.com/blog/st-louis-rams/post/_/id/20592/rams-mailbag-estimating-todd-gurleys-impact

EARTH CITY, Mo. — Slowly but surely, we are inching closer to the start of the NFL regular season and the St. Louis Rams’ Sept. 13 opener against the Seattle Seahawks.

After Sunday’s second preseason game, the Rams will be halfway through their exhibition schedule. There’s plenty of time for things to get sorted out until then, but there’s also plenty of questions on your mind so let’s not waste any more time.

As always, you can find me on Twitter @nwagoner. Please use hashtag #RamsMail to submit questions.

RanGotBeatz @Ran_215beatz
Do you really think TG will have the type of impact he’s supposed to have?

@nwagoner: I suppose the answer to that question starts with what your perspective is on what type of impact you believe Todd Gurley is supposed to have. For me, I don’t think we can expect him to come in and instantly become the game-breaker that he was drafted to be. Some of that is a function of his rehab from the knee injury and some of it is from the likelihood that his offensive line is going to take some time to develop.

I expect Gurley to have a very limited role or potentially even sit the first game or two before he slowly starts working his way into the mix. He probably won’t take on a full workload until a bit later in the season. If he comes in at that pace, then I suppose the answer for this year is no. We all know he brings a lot of talent to the table but as with any rookie — let alone ones coming off major knee injuries — there’s always the possibility he won’t pan out and play to his draft status. Gurley is no exception.

Alex Ramatowski @DJRamification
Hypothetical but do you see a scenario where Rams win Super Bowl and still move to LA?

@nwagoner: No, I don’t. And by no, I mean I don’t see a scenario in which the Rams win the Super Bowl. Yes, crazier things have happened and the Rams even won their title in 1999-2000 as a major surprise,so we know you can never say never, but this is just too far-fetched to me. But to get to the heart of your question, the Rams’ record will have very little to do with whether they stay in St. Louis or go elsewhere. If they win and attendance is high, it won’t hurt St. Louis’ case to keep the team. If they lose and nobody shows up, it won’t help St. Louis’ cause. But neither will be much of a deciding factor. This decision will be made by 32 owners that first and foremost want to make the decision that increases their own bottom lines and offers the best long-term option to keep that bottom line improving.

Seger Mounce @ciggyyy
With EJ Gaines going down, do you think the Rams will keep Brandon McGee or Imoan Claiborne?

@nwagoner: As of right now, I don’t really see how one could make the case to keep McGee. He’s barely played or practiced in nearly a year. Claiborne has flashed some ability in the preseason and camp, and as I wrote back when they signed him, he’s one of the undrafted rookies with the best chances to make the roster. That doesn’t guarantee anything though. He still needs to perform and win the job, and it would help him if he can prove capable on special teams. And the Rams could always surprise and keep just four corners. That’s not many but they’ve done it in the past and they could go heavy at safety. With the many nickel permutations they have available on the roster, that’s not out of the question.

Nicholas Zuckerman @NZuckerman79
Is Isaiah Battle going to see much playing time or start this year? I don’t think he played at Oakland

@nwagoner: He played and had his ups and downs. As you’d expect, he’s a serious work in progress in pass protection, but he shows signs of being a very good run-blocker. He’s not going to start this year, barring some major injury issues, and playing time is probably a similar situation. First things first, he needs to make the roster. I expect that to happen, but the Rams are going to have some tough decisions to make come cut-down days.

Jerseyram1 @Rdvez1
Is this a make or break season for Fisher/Snead, especially with all of the RGIII resources they have had to rebuild?

@nwagoner: As I’ve said and written in this space many times, I don’t believe that’s the case. I understand and even agree with those who believe they should be under a lot of scrutiny going into this year, but the sense I get from Rams Park is that isn’t the case. Of course, things are always subject to change and a really awful season might change some thinking, but with another year left on their deals and the potential for relocation on the table, it seems the Rams are committed to the patient approach.

Baltimore and the Four Pillars of Football Success

How does a team remain good for the long term? The Ravens have undergone a massive makeover since their Super Bowl win in February 2013 but have stayed solid where it matters most—with an owner, GM, coach and QB all committed to the same goal and on the same page

by Peter King

http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2015/08/05/nfl-baltimore-ravens-formula-success

OWINGS MILLS, Md.—Late on a recent practice morning at the Ravens’ training camp, newness was on display. It’s not a one-season makeover here, but a continuing cycling-through the roster while remaining competitive. Rookie wideout Breshad Perriman, with a twisting catching of a Joe Flacco throw deep downfield. Maxx Williams and Crockett Gilmore alternating with the ones at tight end. Timmy Jernigan and Carl Davis starring in the defensive-line rotation. Kyle Arrington, the New England import, starting as the slot corner.

Watching on the sidelines, I began to wonder, Two-and-a-half years since the Ravens won the Super Bowl, and this team looks so different. How different is it?

A little research, with an assist from PR aide Patrick Gleason, revealed that 17 of the 22 Baltimore starters from the Super Bowl 47 victory over San Francisco are not here. Ninety players in camp. Only five current Ravens were on that Super Bowl team: guards Marshal Yanda and Kelechi Osemele, quarterback Joe Flacco, and linebackers Terrell Suggs and Courtney Upshaw.

The secondary, mostly wiped clean. The defensive line, gone. Virtually every skill player—Torrey Smith and Jacoby Jones and Ray Rice and Bernard Pierce—gone.

“Well, San Francisco’s had a lot of change from that game too,” GM Ozzie Newsome said.

True. But not as much—the Niners have seven of 22 starters from the Super Bowl in training camp this summer. And there’s one other big difference: The Ravens are in position to contend for the Super Bowl. The Niners will be hard-pressed to make the Super Bowl this year. San Francisco is a great example of a very good team hitting a bump in the road and struggling to keep the car out of the shop.

Not Baltimore. This is year eight of a run that just might have five or six prime seasons left. That’s what’s so special about what this franchise has built. The Ravens are not afraid to say goodbye to solid contributors via free-agency or trade—Haloti Ngata, Arthur Jones, Pernell McPhee, Torrey Smith, Corey Graham, Dannell Ellerbe—because of the draft picks that come Baltimore’s way either through trade or from the compensatory-pick system. And there are four other reasons:

Steve Bisciotti.
Ozzie Newsome.
John Harbaugh.
Joe Flacco.

What do consistently good teams have in common? An owner who empowers his staff and gives the personnel side and coaches the resources to win. A general manager who can take the slings and arrows of change, who can keep his front-office staff together and who can work well with a strong-minded head coach.

A coach who doesn’t have to buy the groceries, but who wants to at least push the cart down the aisle at the store, and who can keep good assistants together and command a room, year after year. And a quarterback in mid-prime. Flacco is 30, has started every Ravens game since 2008 and looks to be immune to injury. Plus, he laughs at distractions.

“The most important thing I’ve learned about this level of football is to always be open-minded,” Flacco said. “Things change. Coaches change, your receivers change. Have a good attitude about it. Be open to change. I actually don’t mind it. Last year we had [offensive coordinator] Gary Kubiak, and he was great to work with. Now Marc Trestman comes in, and there’s stuff I’ve learned from him that has made me better. So change is really not a bad thing.”

Arrington, the former Patriot, sees the common elements of long-term successful teams now that he’s been a Raven for the preseason. “It starts at the top,” he said, “from the owners and front office and coaches, good leadership and a consistent quarterback. If you have that, and everyone has the same attitude, then you can plug different guys in and still win. It’s proven.”

But there’s something else. It’s something important, and it has torn asunder relationships on teams that looked to have the four important men at the top.

It’s about staying in your lane. One major factor on teams that have a strong coach and quarterback and have remained good for a long time is that people take care of what’s asked of them and don’t worry about other people’s responsibilities. Interesting little anecdote: At a hotel in New England during last year’s playoffs, I saw a sticker on the front door of a hotel with the Flying Elvis logo and the oft-repeated words of Patriots coach Bill Belichick: “Just do your job.” In New England, “Just do your job” has become a pop-culture mantra, and Belichick is the yogi.

Last week at Steelers camp in Latrobe, Pa., I asked coach Mike Tomlin about the Steelers’ perennial success, and about the franchise’s unparalleled coaching stability—if Tomlin finishes his current deal in 2018, it will mean three men will have coached the team over 50 years. Tomlin was clear about why that’s happened. “With the Steelers, we have very few questions organizationally about the division of labor,” Tomlin said. “They just don’t exist. There is total clarity there. And when you have total clarity there, you can focus on the things that matter. We waste very little time creating challenges because of our comfort, our continuity, our clarity.”

I got plenty of hate from western Pennsylvania last winter when I suggested thatJohn Harbaugh reminded me of Chuck Noll. The venom was spewed because Noll won four Super Bowls and coached the Steelers for 23 years. Harbaugh has won one NFL title and coached the Ravens for eight years.

The era is different. Noll fit Pittsburgh perfectly, and there was no question that he would stay with the Steelers for the long haul. He passed endorsement deals off to his players. He had zero interest in fame. There is no reason to think, in this age of egos and multimillion-dollar career advancement, that Harbaugh would be a lifelong Ravens coach. He may well leave at some point, or get fired because teams are more impatient these days.

I cannot say that Harbaugh will be in Baltimore for 23 years. But I can say that he stays in his lane. I have seen him doing so—and I have seen others in Baltimore stay in their lanes when Harbaugh gets bull-headed about something that he feels is important. And ultimately, they all get along well—and seem to genuinely like each other.

Harbaugh is a good coach for this era because of his mindset entering camp each year, which he relays to his players. “Every year it’s the same,” he said after this early-camp practice. “Basically, ‘This is a football.’ That’s how we start camp, how we start every season. That’s the Vince Lombardi way. Don’t assume anyone knows anything. With so many new people every year, that’s the way it has to be.

Harbaugh brought up the famous Bill Parcells quote about coaching—“If they want you to cook the dinner, at least they ought to let you shop for some of the groceries.” He respects that opinion but doesn’t agree. “To me it’s not the best way to do it,” he says. “Ozzie and I, we’re shopping together. We’re buying the groceries together. Two heads are better than one.

The thing I’ve learned is neither guy is going to throw a trump card on the table. The times Ozzie and I have disagreed vehemently on things, I walk in the next day and I say to him he’s probably right, and he says to me that he sees things my way a little bit. You have to have that in this job to succeed.”

Words to live by—and win by—today in the NFL.

Rams notebook: Barron is working his way back slowly

Joe Lyons

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/football/professional/rams-notebook-barron-is-working-his-way-back-slowly/article_8ec0f020-579f-54d8-a9bb-e83ec336978f.html

Rams safety Mark Barron is not ready to push it just yet.

“I’m fine. I’m just trying to be careful, to make sure I don’t back-track,’’ he said following a recent practice at Rams Park. “I had surgery on the same knee a couple of years ago and I’m just trying to be patient. It’s tough not being out there because I love playing this game.

“Training camp is definitely important, but the main thing is making sure you’re ready for the start of the season.’’

Barron, a fourth-year pro out of Alabama, did not take part in organized team activities early this summer and spent the early days of training camp working on the side with team trainers. He has upped his workload in recent days but does not know if he will see action Friday when the Rams open their preseason schedule against the Raiders in Oakland.

“The preseason means different things for different players,’’ the 25-year-old Barron said. “It’s important to get out there because you want to play and try to get better. But you also want to be smart about it, especially if you’re not ready physically.’’

Barron, who was drafted seventh overall by Tampa Bay in 2012, was acquired by the Rams in October in exchange for fourth- and sixth-round draft picks. He made two starts and played in nine games with the Rams last season, finishing with 23 tackles (16 solo), three sacks and a pass defended.

“It was an adjustment, most definitely, but the guys here helped make the transition pretty easy,’’ said Barron, who started all 37 games he played with the Bucs. “Of course, I’m even more comfortable now, but even last year, coming in at midseason, I felt comfortable from the start with these guys.’’

Defensive coordinator Gregg Williams took advantage of Barron’s size (6 feet 2, 213 pounds), strength and versatility to add some interesting wrinkles down the stretch last season and has even more plans for 2015.

“We didn’t ask him to do some of the things last year that we’re asking him to do this year,” Williams said. “We’re trying to learn more about him and, you know, he’s also going from the bottom floor all the way to the top floor, learning the entire defense now. He did a great job in what we asked him to do last year. Now can we do more?”

Barron added: “In some ways I know what to expect, but Coach Williams, he always seems to have something different up his sleeve. Being in my first camp here has been a learning experience, but it’s going good, it’s moving forward.

“It’s a great defensive unit with talent from top to bottom and I think we’re all looking forward to seeing what we can accomplish this year.’’

PRESEASON TV CREW set

Hall of Famer Marshall Faulk and Rams Pro Bowler Torry Holt will again join veteran play-by-play man Andrew Siciliano on the broadcast team for Rams’ exhibition games.Siciliano and Faulk are teaming up for the fifth consecutive year, with Holt as part of the team for the third straight season. The sideline reporters are St. Louis sportscaster Martin Kilcoyne and new StLouisRams.com reporter Dani Klupenger.For the seventh consecutive year, KTVI-FOX 2 will serve as the flagship station for the Rams in the preseason, airing games Friday against the Raiders in Oakland as well as home contests against the Indianapolis Colts on Aug. 29 and the Kansas City Chiefs on Sept. 3. Fox Sports will nationally broadcast the team’s preseason game Aug. 23 against the Tennessee Titans in Nashville.

With the exception of the Tennessee game, the Rams’ preseason games will be re-aired by KPLR 11 at 5 p.m. on the following Sunday.

MINORITY COACHES visit

The Rams had four visiting coaches in Earth City to take part in the Bill Walsh NFL Minority Coaching Fellowship, which provides opportunities for minority coaches to observe, participate and gain coaching experience. The group included Regi Trotter, a secondary coach from Missouri Western, and Southern University wide receivers coach Chris Coleman, who were with the Rams for OTAs.Kenny Holmes, who played for Jeff Fisher at Tennessee from 1997-2000, was here for the start of camp but has returned to the University of Idaho, where he coaches the defensive line. The only coach still in camp is Kade Rannings, an offensive line coach from the University of Montana.RAM-BLINGSEarly-afternoon thunderstorms may have been a factor as the Rams drew 876 for their next-to-last training camp workout in Earth City. Camp will wrap up Tuesday with a practice to start at 5:30 p.m.Another sizable group of players sat out Monday’s practice: DE Chris Long, DT Doug Worthington, CBs Trumaine Johnson, E.J. Gaines and Brandon McGee, RB Isaiah Pead, TE Brad Smelley, LB Kory Toomer and OL Cody Wichmann.

Running back Tre Mason and safety Maurice Alexander dressed out after missing the last couple of workouts because of injury but did not do much.

Marcus Roberson, a second-year cornerback, is getting a lot of work with the starters.

There is no news on Gaines, who left practice after being stepped on late last week; Fisher said that the second-year cornerback from Mizzou is seeing a foot/ankle specialist.

• Visitors at Rams Park on Monday included NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport and USA Today’s Lindsay Jones as well as scouts from the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League.

http://bigthink.com/neurobonkers/the-real-miracle-of-acupuncture-that-anyone-still-believes-in-it

The Real Miracle of Acupuncture: That Anyone Still Believes In It

by SIMON OXENHAM

Unlike plenty of other mystic beliefs, the practical nature of acupuncture has the benefit of making it readily falsifiable through the form of a sham study. In a sham study we can compare genuine acupuncture, in which real acupuncturists provide treatment, to sham acupuncture in which researchers go through the motions, randomly poking or randomly pretending to poke their patients with needles. More research has been done into acupuncture than practically any other kind of alternative medicine, yet the evidence from thousands of studies points conclusively to the fact that acupuncture, at worst, is completely ineffective and, at best, is no more effective than a placebo. Astoundingly, the benefit of acupuncture is so poor that in plenty of studies, even compared to no treatment, the benefits of acupuncture are practically impossible to notice.

In 2013 David Colquhoun wrote a fascinating and damning review of the evidence against acupuncture in the journal Anesthesia & Analgesia. It is often alleged that acupuncture is an ancient medical practice that has been refined and revered for thousands of years. In reality acupuncture is indeed an ancient medical practice, but it has in fact been in decline for thousands of years. In 1822 it was actually banned from the Imperial Medical Academy by Emperor Dao Guang. It wasn’t until 1966 that it was revived by Chairman Mao Zedong, but even he didn’t actually believe in it. Mao stated: “Even though I believe we should promote Chinese medicine, I personally do not believe in it.” Yet despite all these obstacles, acupuncture has resurrected itself in the 21st Century, in a Western world that has (arguably rightly) become fearful and suspicious of mainstream medicine.

“There is now unanimity between acupuncturists and nonacupuncturists that any benefits that may exist are too small to provide any noticeable benefit to patients. That being the case, it is hard to see why acupuncture is still used. Certainly, such an accumulation of negative results would result in the withdrawal of any conventional treatment.” — David Colquhoun

At this point in the conversation, plenty of otherwise perfectly rational people will often say something along the lines of: “Yes, it is clear that any effect is completely due to the placebo effect … but so what? Surely, the benefits of the placebo effect are better than doing nothing at all.” Indeed, as we are only now beginning to understand, the placebo effect is so powerful that it still works even when you are fully aware that an intervention is only a placebo.

Here’s a tip for arguing with people that aren’t entirely rational: If they use the word “surely,” you can be pretty damn sure that whatever they say next is likely to present you with a massive hole in their argument. The simple answer is that all medicines involve a placebo effect. Acupuncture and other alternative medicines are not somehow unique providers of the placebo effect’s wondrous power. This is why for a genuine medicine to be approved, it must not just be better than nothing; it must be shown in a placebo-controlled trial to be more effective than a placebo. This principle is the very foundation of modern medicine. Indeed, any randomized, controlled trial worth its salt will not just test against a placebo, it will test against the next best alternative treatment (but that’s a subject for another post).

Despite the wealth of evidence debunking acupuncture, we continue to see poorly conducted trial after poorly conducted trial popping up, with credulous claims from journalists in otherwise sane publications.

“Almost all trials of alternative medicines seem to end up with the conclusion that more research is needed. After more than 3,000 trials, that is dubious. … Since it has proved impossible to find consistent evidence after more than 3,000 trials, it is time to give up.” — David Colquhoun

Recently, plenty of newspapers fell hook, line, and sinker for an extraordinarily laughable acupuncture study on, wait for it… rats. After I’d finished chortling at the idiocy of trying to test acupuncture’s effect on pain on anything other than a human, I downloaded the paper, which The Guardian breathlessly described as: “the strongest evidence yet that the ancient Chinese therapy has more than a placebo effect when used to treat chronic stress,” almost as if more evidence than no evidence is somehow a claim that deserves some kind of medal.

Before we launch into a full-frontal takedown of this paper (don’t worry, it won’t take long), let’s first consider the fact that any surrogate outcome study designed to support particular claims made by acupuncturists is pretty much entirely pointless before acupuncture can be shown to be effective, i.e., actually reduce symptoms. The fact that the study was conducted on rats takes the study out of the realms of the foolish and into the realms of the downright ludicrous.

The study consisted of bathing rats in ice baths for an hour per day for 14 days and running current through the rats’ with electrified needles, as if this bears any relation to what happens in your high street acupuncture clinic. Surgeon and author of the outstanding Respectful Insolence blog, David Gorski, examined the study in admirable detail before suggesting an alternate explanation for the results:

“Having a needle stuck in the leg and having current run through it hurts less than having a needle stuck in the back and having current run through it. There’s no way of knowing because we can’t ask the rat.”

I don’t have much time for critics of animal trials for life-saving treatments, but this is a trial that animal rights activists might want to take a serious look at. It is inconceivable that bathing rats in ice baths and jabbing them with electrified needles for the purposes of justifying a Chinese medical practice debunked hundreds of years ago could have any possible productive outcome. It certainly doesn’t tell us anything useful about acupuncture, except maybe that certain acupuncture scientists have even less of a clue what they are doing than we ever gave them credit for.

http://www.phillymag.com/birds247/2015/05/26/bradfords-acl-what-are-the-odds/

…

To get a better understanding for the situation, we spoke with Dr. James L. Carey, Director of the Penn Center for Advanced Cartilage Repair and Assistant Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. From Dr. Carey’s vantage point, does the fact that Bradford is coming off two ACL ruptures make it more likely that he will sustain a third?

“No,” he replied. “In my opinion, I don’t think that he’s at an increased risk for a third injury any more so than his other knee or the knees of any other NFL quarterback.”

The odds of re-injuring the same knee are relatively low. According to Carey, studies have shown that the probability of re-tearing a reconstructed ACL is about three to six percent. (Those studies were on the general population, not just football players. But they line up with other findings that suggest the chance of a recurrent injury to the same knee amongst NFL players within two years is about five to six percent.) Meanwhile, the probability of tearing the other knee — or the “native ACL” — is higher, around nine to 12 percent.

“You would think the reconstructed ACL would be more at risk. And it’s really changed our behavior a lot in how we treat these athletes when they return to play,” said Carey. “For example, bracing used to be pretty common after ACL reconstruction. At this point, I guess the question is: which knee do you want to brace? The other knee is actually at a higher risk in general.”

The reason for the lower odds? Part of it, Carey theorizes, is that the tissue used to reconstruct may be a little bit bigger than the native ACL. If the original ACL is seven millimeters, say, it might have been replaced with a nine millimeter graft, so there’s more give. Also, because of all of the attention that leg receives during rehab, it’s not uncommon for patients to feel that the reconstructed side is the stronger of the two.

Bradford turned out to be part of that three-to-six percent group that ruptured the same ACL twice. What to make of it? Carey likened an ACL tear to pulling out a kitchen drawer just hard enough that it jumps off the rails and hits the ground. Oftentimes, you fix the stop, put the drawer back in its grooves and the issue never comes up again. But in some cases, the same elements come together and the drawer pops back out.

“I think it’s just kind of one of those freak deals,” said Bradford at his introductory press conference. “From everyone I’ve talked to – our team doctors in St. Louis, Dr. [James] Andrews, they just thought that it was one of those things where they felt like I got hit a certain way two times and regardless of whether my ACL was an original, a repair, it was going to tear. So I think it just happened.”

“We’ve done our due diligence in terms of talking to Dr. Andrews in terms of what we are getting,” said Chip Kelly. “So we feel very confident in where Sam is.”

While the chances of a re-tear are pretty low, Carey said that athletes that have had multiple ACL ruptures in the same knee are at greater risk for cartilage damage and arthritis. So there could be some long-term effects down the road.

Bradford’s injury history goes beyond ACLs, of course. He missed a chunk of games in 2011 with a high ankle sprain. Was sidelined most of his junior season at Oklahoma with an injury to his throwing shoulder that eventually required surgery.

At some point, don’t you have to say that a player is injury-prone?

“I think it’s mostly the environment that the athletes are in,” Carey opined. “In football, there are a lot of ankle sprains and ACL ruptures. It’s part of the nature of the game. I think all of the athletes are vulnerable to these injuries — it’s part of the game — but I don’t think that any one athlete is systematically more prone to these injuries than any other athlete, really.”

Though there can be contributing factors, from style of play to training. Kelly puts a big focus on the latter, as we know, utilizing sports science and personalized regimens to try and maximize output and reduce the chance of injury.

To that end, Carey cited the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons’ findings that “neuromuscular training programs could reduce ACL injuries.”

“Basically for every 109 patients that they treated, they prevented one ACL,” said Carey, who added that such programs have the best chance of preventing non-contact injuries. “So I think there is a benefit. Between the preseason and training camp, the Eagles probably touch about 109 players, and they can save an ACL. And in a game like the NFL, which is a game of inches and seconds, boy, one player can be a huge thing.”

Especially if that player turns out to be your starting quarterback.

Chip Kelly, football’s most intriguing figure, is also its most unknown

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/redskins/footballs-most-intriguing-figure-chip-kelly-is-also-its-most-unknown/2015/07/24/e65e4b72-3086-11e5-8353-1215475949f4_story.html

On a Monday afternoon nearly two years ago, a woman in her mid-forties settled into a long Metro ride, Dupont Circle to Landover, bound eventually for FedEx Field.

Jennifer Jenkins hadn’t been to an NFL game since she was a little girl, football making so much noise during one part of her life that for a long time she tuned it out. But this day in September 2013 was different: Chip Kelly was coaching his first NFL game, his Philadelphia Eagles playing the Washington Redskins.

Kelly, 51, coaches football in a way that calls attention to himself, but he keeps much of his life off limits. Even the profiles that have been written give little sense of him away from the field, apart from the occasional mention of how he is a lifelong bachelor, seemingly married to the game.

Wearing neither team’s colors, Jenkins reached the stadium that afternoon and an old friend from her native New Hampshire pushed a ticket into her hand. She found her seat near the 50-yard line, behind the Philadelphia bench, surrounded by the hopeful, the jeering and the curious.

A while before the game, she pulled out her cellphone and sent a text message to the Eagles’ rookie head coach, the man who had been her husband for seven years.

‘A different kind of weirdo’

The most interesting man in football walks through the doors at Eagles headquarters, toward an outdoor lectern. It is late May, and more than 100 reporters have gathered under a tent.

During the next 13 or so minutes, Kelly will be asked about the action-packed way he spent his offseason: engaging (and prevailing over) former general manager Howie Roseman in a front-office power struggle, trading away quarterback Nick Foles (who passed for 40 touchdowns the past two seasons) and acquiring Sam Bradford and Tim Tebow (who appeared in a total of seven games the past two years), and dealing with former Eagles running back LeSean McCoy’s suggestion that Kelly has spent the past two years pruning “all the good black players” from Philadelphia’s roster.

“I’m not governed by the fear of what other people say,” Kelly says, and his first 30 months as an NFL coach have shown even more proof of that. Since that debut game at FedEx Field in 2013, the Eagles have parted ways with more than half of the players who suited up — including McCoy, wide receiver DeSean Jackson and guard Evan Mathis, with their combined eight Pro Bowls.

Kelly is sarcastic and dismissive of reporters; he declines most every interview request, including one for this story, and refuses in any forum to answer questions about his personal life. His family has been ordered to keep quiet in public about Kelly, and Mike Zamarchi, the coach’s longtime buddy, says Kelly’s friends are “sworn to silence.” Players, too, are kept at a distance, and so are fellow coaches: Mike Bellotti, the former Oregon coach and athletic director who was Kelly’s boss for three years, knows little more about Kelly than that he hates green vegetables and loves beer. “I’m not sure I would consider that I know Chip,” Bellotti says.

There are holes in the Kelly story, unanswered questions and mystery that have grown his legend as much as anything. His middle name is absent from many public records, and even Mark Saltveit, who has written two biographies of Kelly, has had trouble accounting for a six-year period of Kelly’s life, between his final game as a college player at New Hampshire and his graduation from the school.

After one of his four seasons as Oregon’s head coach, Kelly spent part of one summer by running with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain; later a story circulated that his 6,300-square-foot house in Eugene contained little more than a couch and a television. It was bizarre, but because it was Kelly, it was also believable.

When he took over the Eagles, players saw his quirks and emphases up close. Kelly asked them to supply daily urine samples, to document their sleep and heart rates, to practice while a network of speakers blared drill cadences and favorites from Ricky Martin or “The Lion King.” “There’s plenty of weirdos in the NFL,” one of Kelly’s former players says. “He’s just a different kind of weirdo.”

Who, it should be pointed out, led Philadelphia to the NFC East title that first year. In the time since, Kelly has been called a genius and an innovator, a narcissist and a cowboy, a revolutionary and a racist. It’s possible his act will get him fired, but because it’s Kelly, it’s just as believable he’ll win multiple championships. “Every time I’m talking to him,” the former player says, “I’m standing there wondering what the hell he’s thinking.”

‘He likes to ask why’

Jenkins was a senior at New Hampshire when a friend introduced her to Kelly on Thanksgiving day in 1989. The Manchester city football championship was that day, a reason to celebrate no matter the winner, and so she and Kelly, four years older than Jenkins, talked for a long time.

He was 25 and shy, but when he spoke his words were thoughtful and energetic; football was more than a passion — even then, as Jenkins put it in a recent telephone conversation, the game was a “way of life” for Kelly. He was ambitious and bright, the son of a trial lawyer who believed in challenging the establishment, one of four brothers, a young man determined to leave his mark on the world.

“I don’t know when he became inquisitive, but I know he likes to ask why, and I know he likes to understand why things are happening,” says Bob Leonard, who coached Kelly as a high school player. “Even as a kid he was like that.”

Jenkins and Kelly kept seeing each other, she learning that he was a reader but had no patience for fiction; he read self-improvement books before it was trendy, and his impatient intellect led some people to mistake him for aloof. Jenkins stayed in New Hampshire when Kelly took his first college coaching job in 1990, working with the defense and special teams at Columbia University, but after two seasons he was back home.

A few weeks before Kelly’s first game as New Hampshire’s running backs coach, his name spelled “Chip Kelley” in the school’s 1992 media guide, he and Jenkins stood in front of about 250 guests and married. “A great party,” Jenkins says now, and it is around this time that she wonders if she should continue. She figures Kelly wouldn’t like her sharing all this.

Difficult to define

At Oregon the coaches learned that a good way to kill a conversation with Chip Kelly — in the football offices, on the golf course, over burgers and beers — was to expand the discussion.

“In terms of football, he’s awesome; he’s willing to talk about anything,” Bellotti says. “But beyond that, he does play things very close to the vest.”

Nick Aliotti, who spent six years alongside and under Kelly as the Ducks’ defensive coordinator, can’t remember one conversation in which the men talked about family. When Bellotti elevated Kelly from offensive coordinator to head coach in 2009, Kelly asked Bellotti, who became Oregon’s AD, to continue making public appearances and meeting with boosters because Kelly didn’t like making small talk. Bellotti, who has spent all his life on the West Coast, figured that’s just how people from the Northeast must be; Aliotti assumed the disconnect was because he’s nine years older than Kelly — and that Kelly is acerbic and unyielding. “I like the guy a lot,” Aliotti says, “but he can piss you off.”

There was no doubt, though, that the man knew how to coach, keeping players motivated and challenged. At New Hampshire, he might run the single-wing offense one game and the spread the next; to mix it up, one week the Wildcats attempted six passes, former New Hampshire quarterback Ryan Day says, and the next they threw it 65 times.

Kelly relied on efficiency — more offensive plays means more potential for points — and thought about ways to simplify a complex game. One way was abandoning long and nonsensical play calls; one season at New Hampshire, he nicknamed deep routes after long-distance phone companies: “AT&T” meant the pass was going to the A receiver, “Nextel” bound for the X.

He experimented with concepts and plays, took an interest in sports science, and refused to change. Aliotti once confronted Kelly about running practices too fast; the Ducks’ defensive staff had little opportunity to coach players and make adjustments. Kelly didn’t care. Now Aliotti admits Kelly’s attitude and increased tempo forced the defense to adjust, helping shape Oregon into one of the nation’s most feared all-around programs.

“He was never afraid of what people thought or afraid to fail,” says Day, who’s now the Eagles’s quarterbacks coach.

Players on Kelly’s first Eagles team saw their new coach as a look into the NFL’s future — but also as something of a curiosity. He had seemingly come out of nowhere, having never been a head coach before 2009 and spending most of his career in the relative anonymity of the Atlantic 10 Conference.

Kelly’s first impressions showed a coach who spoke often about being quick and efficient, but also a man unafraid to spend hours cycling through PowerPoint slides about the effects of alcohol, marijuana, sleep and water on an NFL player’s body. It seemed Kelly valued each morning’s urine test — plastic specimen cups waiting in locker stalls, jersey numbers written in black ink — as much as how a player performed during practice or a game.

“He wants guys who care about that stuff,” Eagles tight end Brent Celek said, “because that stuff does matter. A lot of the guys who are in our facility think the same way.”

Kelly backed up his methods with science and commitment, but what some saw as a revolution, others saw as misguided. One NFL player compared Kelly with Elon Musk; another referred to the coach’s methods as “Orwellian.” Regardless, each day players were greeted at the team facility by screens revealing who had completed the morning routine — an iPad soreness and mood survey, the results of a heart-rate monitor, and of course the urine test — showing players’ head shots and a background that turned green when the daily assessment was completed.

“Most people were very receptive to it, [but] some guys were like: ‘What are we doing; why are we doing this?’ ” a former Eagles player says, adding that as quickly as players learned how to cheat the hydration test, adding a splash of water from the urinal, Kelly ordered the system revamped to discourage diluters.

Kelly was approachable and, many times, jovial. But like at Oregon, his emotions and background story were largely out of bounds. Players pondered Internet rumors about their coach and wondered aloud about his psychological chemistry. “I don’t know if he was always the underdog or something or if his parents were always hard on him,” the former player says. “But it’s always like he’s got a chip on his shoulder.”

It had become common to wonder about the truths in Kelly’s life, and when he made those unavailable, the convenient response for anyone in his orbit was to accept legend as fact.

Why such a secret?

In 2011, Jenkins read an article in the New York Times that described bachelor coaches and how, even in the image-conscious and political world of college football, Kelly had never been married.

“Why does everything say that you weren’t married?” Jenkins said a friend recently asked her. “I just roll my eyes.”

It used to hurt, she says, as if seven years of her life had been washed away. But now she finds the humor in it. Jenkins’s former co-workers knew the real story, and a friend joked about calling a sports radio show to reveal that the friend had been in Kelly’s wedding party. After enough strangers told Jenkins they didn’t believe her, she began carrying a wedding photograph on her iPhone. “Nobody talks about it,” she said. “But everybody knows.”

Why, Jenkins sometimes asked herself, was this considered a secret? It didn’t seem like one to her, and if it was, the artificial intrigue was either the most NFL thing ever or the most boring secret of all time. The truth was no more scandalous than Kelly’s middle name (Edward) or how he spent those six years between playing at New Hampshire and graduating (coaching junior varsity football, Jenkins said, and working as a gym teacher as he slowly completed his degree requirements).

As for the marriage, the years had simply come and gone in New Hampshire, Kelly an assistant on his mentor Bill Bowes’s staff and Jenkins working at the university. They lived in Durham for a while, and then Kelly took a coaching job at Johns Hopkins, moving to Baltimore for one year while Jenkins remained in New Hampshire.

Kelly rejoined Bowes’s staff yet again in 1994, and four years later he and Jenkins had begun to drift apart. They were no longer living together, and in 1999 they divorced.

Football, as the most important thing in Kelly’s life, was a strain, Jenkins admits. But the game cannot be blamed for the demise of their marriage. Like many other things in Kelly’s seemingly complicated life, reality was simple: For a long time they were happy, and then after a while, they weren’t.

“It wasn’t his fault because he was focused on football,” she said. “That’s just not the way we’ve ever — that’s not it. That’s not what happened.”

She took a breath.

“We were just young,” she said, preferring to keep the details to herself.

Back into the breach

A few days from now, a quiet patch of land near the corner of South Broad Street and Pattison Avenue will come to life. Ninety players will file into the Eagles’s training complex, equipment will be moved onto the practice fields, and the results of a dramatic offseason — led mostly by the actions of a private man and daring coach — will soon begin to reveal themselves.

Will Foles and McCoy be remembered as foundation blocks or expendable pawns? Was it wise or foolish to cut ties with Mathis, the guard named to the last two Pro Bowls, and sign John Moffitt, who spent the past two years retired from the NFL and facing criminal charges? Has Kelly, who now possesses full control over Philadelphia’s football operation, taken on too much responsibility?

“You start chasing perception,” Kelly said during that standing-room-only news conference in late May, “and you’ve got a long life ahead of you, son.”

For a few weeks, Kelly disappeared into the silence, returning to New Hampshire and his summer home — a football man passing the days until it was time to return to work. One day in July, a text message popped into Kelly’s phone. Jenkins does this sometimes, a joke she thought Kelly might like or, because she’s superstitious, the same note of encouragement she sent the last time the Eagles won. Even at the end of their marriage, she said, they have remained friends.

Jenkins is 47 now, living most of the year in Washington; she started a care package business called MommaLu Remedies, and like Kelly, she has never remarried. These last two years or so, Jenkins has, for one identifiable reason, found herself supporting the Eagles.

“I want him to win. I want him to be successful,” she says. “It’s everything that he has worked for.”

Sometimes Kelly texts back immediately; other times days or weeks come and go. Jenkins knows he’s a busy and complicated man, probably off somewhere trying to answer the most glaring question: Can he make the leap from football’s most interesting man to one of its most successful?

Next Sunday, after seven months of intermittent noise, hopeful and curious players will push through the doors and flood the practice fields. Kelly will jog onto the turf behind them. Then the speakers will fire up, the football season beginning, music and instructions so loud nothing else can be heard.

Earl Thomas unsure he’ll be ready for Week One

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.co…arl-thomas-unsure-hell-be-ready-for-week-one/

After Seahawks safety Earl Thomas had surgery to repair a torn labrum in his shoulder in February, word was that there was “no doubt” he’d be ready to play when the Seahawks open the regular season.

The lack of doubt was a bit surprising given the six-to-eight month timeline given for a full recovery from the surgery and it seems that the passage of time has allowed some doubt to creep into Thomas’s head. Thomas told Ed Werder of ESPN reports that while he is making steady progress in his rehab from the surgery, he’s not expecting to be cleared for the early portion of training camp and that he’s uncertain about his status for the season opener against the Rams in St. Louis.

“I’m unsure about everything at this point,” Thomas said. “I will find out more when I get back to Seattle on [July] 30th when I take my physical.”

That’s obviously not ideal for the Seahawks given Thomas’s importance to the team’s defense, but it would be far worse to rush in hopes of getting back for Week One if taking a more patient approach makes it likelier that Thomas will be 100 percent for a greater number of games.

With almost two months to go before the Seahawks take the field for the first time in the 2015 season, there’s plenty of time for Thomas’s status to become more certain and it will surely be something they’re watching closely in Seattle.

Key Rams for 2015: Offensive tackle Greg Robinson

Nick Wagoner

http://espn.go.com/blog/st-louis-rams/post/_/id/19610/key-rams-for-2015-offensive-tackle-greg-robinson

EARTH CITY, Mo. — Before the St. Louis Rams report for training camp next week, we’re taking a look at five players returning to the team who will need to provide more if the team is going to be a playoff contender in 2015.

We continue with offensive tackle Greg Robinson.

Why more is needed: It’s probably not fair to Robinson to expect him to become one of the primary bedrocks of the offensive line in just his second season, especially given how much of a learning curve he had when he entered the league. But he was the No. 2 overall pick in the 2014 NFL draft and many would argue that draft position alone should bring expectations for production right away. No matter where you come in on that discussion, though, there’s no doubt that the Rams need Robinson to take a big step forward this season. That’s because, despite starting just 12 NFL games, Robinson is the second-most experienced projected starter on the team’s offensive line going into the year. Adding more pressure to the job is the fact that Robinson plays the most important position on the line and will be responsible for new quarterback Nick Foles’ blind side. Robinson flashed potential as a rookie but was better at guard than he was at tackle after moving to the outside. There’s no denying the size and ability that Robinson has but the Rams simply don’t have the time to be patient with him. Robinson had offseason toe surgery but should be at full strength and ready to go when the season starts.

What the Rams need from him: Left guard Rodger Saffold is the only starter on the line with more starting experience than Robinson but Robinson is already in a position where he needs to become a leader for a young line. Beyond that, the Rams need him to play and produce like a former No. 2 overall pick. For Robinson, that means showing rapid improvement, particularly as a pass blocker. Robinson had a tendency to get lost in pass protection, particularly when defensive lines ran stunts and games at him and was also occasionally over aggressive in the run game. The Rams need Robinson to handle talented pass-rushers without having to offer much help and be a hammer in the run game. If he can do that, it would allow rookies Jamon Brown (right guard) and Rob Havenstein (right tackle) and whoever starts at center a little more leeway to get help from tight ends and running backs in pass protection.

Outlook: The good news is that none of the issues Robinson had as a rookie seemed to be physical and were correctable simply by gaining more experience and learning the nuances of the position. Robinson earned praise from the coaching staff during the offseason for his commitment to sharpening up that aspect of his game and Robinson said he and Saffold spent a lot of time together studying film and ironing out details. Likewise, Robinson can settle in at left tackle and devote himself to the position rather than bouncing between guard and tackle like he did as a rookie. It seems unlikely Robinson will make the leap to a Pro Bowl level or better but there are plenty of reasons to believe he’ll be markedly better in 2015.

How Do Court Reporters Keep Straight Faces?

These are from a book called Disorder in the Courts and are things people actually said in court, word for word, taken down and published by court reporters that had the torment of staying calm while the exchanges were taking place.

ATTORNEY: What was the first thing your husband said to you that morning?
WITNESS: He said, ‘Where am I, Cathy?’
ATTORNEY: And why did that upset you?
WITNESS: My name is Susan!
_______________________________
ATTORNEY: What gear were you in at the moment of the impact?
WITNESS: Gucci sweats and Reeboks.
____________________________________________
ATTORNEY: Are you sexually active?
WITNESS: No, I just lie there.
____________________________________________
ATTORNEY: What is your date of birth?
WITNESS: July 18th.
ATTORNEY: What year?
WITNESS: Every year.
_____________________________________
ATTORNEY: How old is your son, the one living with you?
WITNESS: Thirty-eight or thirty-five, I can’t remember which.
ATTORNEY: How long has he lived with you?
WITNESS: Forty-five years.
_________________________________
ATTORNEY: This myasthenia gravis, does it affect your memory at all?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: And in what ways does it affect your memory?
WITNESS: I forget..
ATTORNEY: You forget? Can you give us an example of something you forgot?
___________________________________________
ATTORNEY: Now doctor, isn’t it true that when a person dies in his sleep, he doesn’t know about it until the next morning?
WITNESS: Did you actually pass the bar exam?
____________________________________

ATTORNEY: The youngest son, the 20-year-old, how old is he?
WITNESS: He’s 20, much like your IQ.
___________________________________________
ATTORNEY: Were you present when your picture was taken?
WITNESS: Are you shitting me?
_________________________________________
ATTORNEY: So the date of conception (of the baby) was August 8th?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: And what were you doing at that time?
WITNESS: Getting laid
____________________________________________

ATTORNEY: She had three children , right?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: How many were boys?
WITNESS: None.
ATTORNEY: Were there any girls?
WITNESS: Your Honor, I think I need a different attorney. Can I get a new attorney?
____________________________________________
ATTORNEY: How was your first marriage terminated?
WITNESS: By death..
ATTORNEY: And by whose death was it terminated?
WITNESS: Take a guess.
___________________________________________

ATTORNEY: Can you describe the individual?
WITNESS: He was about medium height and had a beard
ATTORNEY: Was this a male or a female?
WITNESS: Unless the Circus was in town I’m going with male.
_____________________________________
ATTORNEY: Is your appearance here this morning pursuant to a deposition notice which I sent to your attorney?
WITNESS: No, this is how I dress when I go to work.
______________________________________
ATTORNEY: Doctor , how many of your autopsies have you performed on dead people?
WITNESS: All of them. The live ones put up too much of a fight.
_________________________________________
ATTORNEY: ALL your responses MUST be oral, OK? What school did you go to?
WITNESS: Oral…
_________________________________________
ATTORNEY: Do you recall the time that you examined the body?
WITNESS: The autopsy started around 8:30 PM
ATTORNEY: And Mr. Denton was dead at the time?
WITNESS: If not, he was by the time I finished.
____________________________________________
ATTORNEY: Are you qualified to give a urine sample?
WITNESS: Are you qualified to ask that question?

______________________________________
And last:

ATTORNEY: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for blood pressure?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for breathing?
WITNESS: No..
ATTORNEY: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: How can you be so sure, Doctor?
WITNESS: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.
ATTORNEY: I see, but could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless?
WITNESS: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law.

http://www.rams-news.com/rams-2015-training-camp-profile-wr-tavon-austin/%5DRams 2015 Training Camp Profile: WR Tavon Austin
The offense for the St. Louis Rams sure is shaping up nicely, but will the third-year wide receiver Tavon Austin have anything to do with it?

http://www.rams-news.com/ranking-the-top-20-coordinators-across-the-nfl-williams-14-nfl-com/%5DRanking the top 20 coordinators across the NFL: Williams #14 –NFL.com
This week, I’ve been examining the guys behind the guys — spotlighting the finest coordinators across the NFL landscape.

http://www.rams-news.com/nick-foles-feeling-at-home-with-rams-simmons/%5DNick Foles Feeling at Home with Rams –Simmons
Though he’s been a member of the Rams for only a short time, quarterback Nick Foles has already made enough of a positive impact to trigger talk of a contract extension.

http://www.rams-news.com/todd-gurley-return-for-rams-camp-looking-realistic-nfl-com/%5DTodd Gurley: Return for Rams camp ‘looking realistic’ –NFL.com
Todd Gurley’s rehab from an ACL tear is progressing to the point where the St. Louis Rams running back is eyeing next month’s training camp for his return to the field.

http://www.rams-news.com/why-are-the-rams-the-most-feared-team-by-the-seahawks-fans-audio/%5DWhy are the Rams the Most-Feared team by the Seahawks Fans –Audio

http://www.rams-news.com/after-initial-shock-of-rams-drafting-gurley-tre-mason-back-to-chasing-greatness/%5DAfter Initial Shock of Rams Drafting Gurley, Tre Mason Back to ‘Chasing Greatness’
When the St. Louis Rams used the 10th choice of the 2015 NFL Draft on Georgia running back Todd Gurley on April 30, it might have been the surprise pick of the first round.

http://www.rams-news.com/rams-should-stay-patient-wait-on-nick-foles-extension/%5DRams Should Stay Patient, Wait on Nick Foles Extension
NFL general managers who don’t have a franchise quarterback in their stable are constantly on a quest to find one.

http://www.rams-news.com/which-non-nfc-west-team-will-give-the-rams-problems-in-2015/%5DWhich Non NFC West team will give the Rams Problems in 2015?
There is no question that the St. Louis Rams have an extremely tough schedule in 2015.

http://www.rams-news.com/rams-back-up-plan-austin-davis/%5DRams’ Back Up Plan: Austin Davis
If Nick Foles were to ever go down, Austin Davis would once again have to come in and try to save the Rams’ season.

http://www.rams-news.com/james-laurinaitis-talks-rams-roster-growth-audio/%5DJames Laurinaitis Talks Rams Roster Growth –Audio

http://www.rams-news.com/change-to-nick-foles-gives-rams-average-offseason-grade-video/%5DChange to Nick Foles Gives Rams Average Offseason Grade –Video

http://www.rams-news.com/who-will-be-the-rams-offensive-mvp-in-2015/%5DWho Will Be the Rams’ Offensive MVP in 2015? –Video

http://www.rams-news.com/rams-mcsafety-highlights-2014-video/%5DRams McSafety Highlights 2014 –Video