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February 15, 2015 at 9:01 am #18485

In reply to: What American Sniper did is much, much worse than rewrite history

zn
Moderator

PA Ram wrote:

I disagree about the lie being central to that movie.

His views of the war were valid to HIM. That’s all that mattered in this film, IMO.

‘

The film completely allows the lie to dictate the narrative. It does not question it and in fact does everything to support it. Again, if it DIDN’T, his whole story would look different. Like, COMPLETELY different.

And it is honestly really easy to have put his ideas in context and show that they were not true. A 30 second scene would do it. Also, NOT having the enemy be Al qaida in Falluja would do it too.

Speaking of info being all around us, people should read the real story of Fallujah. Once you do that you realize the film is a complete and total collaborator in the revisionist take on the war. For one thing, the insurgents there had nothing bloody to do with Al Qaida — they were Iraqi sunni insurgents associated with the old regime.

There was no bloody way on earth that film was going to show a realistic version of Fallujah. It was revisionist in every single frame. And badly so. Like way out of its way from the truth and deep into falsehoods.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallujah_during_the_Iraq_War
2003 invasion of Iraq
Downtown Fallujah, December 2003

Although the majority of the residents were Sunni and had supported Saddam Hussein’s rule, Fallujah lacked military presence just after his fall. There was little looting and the new mayor of the city—Taha Bidaywi Hamed, was selected by local tribal leaders—was pro-United States.[4] When the U.S. Army’s 1st Battalion / 2nd Brigade 82nd Airborne entered the town on April 23, 2003, they positioned themselves at the vacated Ba’ath Party headquarters, a local school house, and the Ba’ath party resort just outside town (Dreamland)—the US bases inside the town erased some goodwill, especially when many in the city had been hoping the US Army would stay outside of the relatively calm city.

Instability, April 2003 – March 2004
Main article: Fallujah killings of April 2003

On the evening of April 28, 2003, several hundred residents defied the US curfew and marched down the streets of Fallujah, past the soldiers positioned in the Ba’ath party (which did not exist any more at that point) headquarters, to protest the military presence inside the local school. The protest remained peaceful but US soldiers fired upon the crowd, killing as many as 17 and wounding more than 70 of the protesters. US soldiers alleged that they were returning fire, but protesters stated they were unarmed.[5][6][7] Independent observers from human rights group found no evidence that US forces had come under attack.[1] The US suffered no casualties from the incident.

Two days later, on April 30, the 82d Airborne was replaced in the city by 2nd Troop (Fox) / U.S. 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment. The 3rd Cavalry was significantly smaller in number and chose not to occupy the same schoolhouse where the shooting had occurred two days earlier. However, on the same day a daytime protest in front of the Ba’ath party headquarters and mayor’s office (which are adjacent to one another) led to the death of three more protesters. At this point in time the 3rd Cavalry was in control of the entire Al Anbar province, and it quickly became evident that a larger force was needed. The now battalion-sized element of the 3rd Cavalry (2nd squadron) in Fallujah was replaced by the 2nd Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division.[citation needed]

During the summer, the US army decided to close down its last remaining base inside the city (the Ba’ath party headquarters; FOB Laurie). At this point the 3d ACR had all of its forces stationed outside Fallujah in the former Baathist resort, Dreamland. After the May 11 surrender of the Mujahedin-e-Khalq, the incoming 3d Infantry Division also began using the large MEK compound adjacent to Dreamland to accommodate its larger troop presence in Fallujah. Under its control, the 3d Infantry Division maintained no bases inside the city of Fallujah.

On 30 June a “huge explosion” occurred in a mosque in which the imam, Sheikh Laith Khalil, and eight other people were killed. Residents of the city claim the army fired a missile at the mosque while the army displayed evidence that a terrorist bomb training class had gone wrong.[8] Just a couple of days earlier things had been much quieter, although US troops had been confiscating motorbikes as a preventive measure against terrorist attacks.[9]
Timeline showing the sequence of units in control of Fallujah in just the first year of the war

Just 2 months after the 3rd Infantry had taken control of Fallujah from the 3rd Cavalry, the entire 3rd Infantry Division was redeployed home. The 3d Cavalry was once again put in control of Fallujah, and again was only able to devote one squadron to Fallujah. Attached to that Squadron was the 115th MP Company from Rhode Island. Unarmored and ill-equipped the 115th MPs kept order with routine patrols and frequent house raids searching for insurgents and weapons caches. In September 2003, the 3rd Brigade of the 82nd Airborne was deployed to replace the 3d Cavalry in Ramadi and Fallujah. The 3rd Cavalry was then left to control all of the al-Anbar province except for these two cities.

Approximately one year after the invasion, the city’s Iraqi police and Iraqi Civil Defense Corps were unable to establish law and order. Insurgents launched many indiscriminate attacks and some on police stations in the city, killing at least 20 police officers. Beginning in early March 2004, the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division commanded by Major-General Charles H. Swannack Jr. gave a transfer of authority of the al-Anbar province to the I Marine Expeditionary Force commanded by Lt. General Conway. The 3rd Cavalry and the 3rd Brigade of the 82nd Airborne were then sent home.
Attack on contractors

Main article: 2004 Fallujah ambush

On March 31, 2004 – Iraqi insurgents from the Brigades of Martyr Ahmed Yassin in Fallujah ambushed a convoy containing four American private military contractors (mercenaries) employed by Blackwater USA, who were at the time guarding a convoy carrying kitchen supplies to a military base, for the catering company Eurest Support Services[10]

The four contractors, Scott Helvenston, Jerko Zovko, Wesley Batalona and Michael Teague, were dragged from their cars, beaten, and set ablaze. Their burned corpses were then dragged through the streets before being hung over a bridge crossing the Euphrates.[11]
Siege, April 2004
Main article: First Battle of Fallujah

In response to the killing of the four US citizens, and intense political pressure, the US Marines commenced Operation Vigilant Resolve. They surrounded the city and attempted to capture the individuals responsible as well as others in the region who might have been involved in insurgencies. One out of every two mosques in Fallujah were used to hide fighters or weapons.[12] The Iraqi National Guard was supposed to work alongside with the US Marines in the operation, but on the dawn of the invasion they discarded their uniforms and deserted.[13] Under pressure from the Iraqi Governing Council, the US aborted its attempt to regain control of Fallujah. The US Marines suffered 40 deaths in the siege. Estimates of the number of Iraqi deaths (both fighters and civilians) in the attack range from 271 (according to Iraqi Ministry of Health officials[14][15]) to 731 (according to Rafie al-Issawi, the head of the local hospital[16]).

The occupying force on April 9 allowed more than 70,000 women, children and elderly residents to leave the besieged city. On April 10, the US military declared a unilateral truce to allow for humanitarian supplies to enter Fallujah. US troops pulled back to the outskirts of the city. An Iraqi mediation team entered the city in an attempt to set up negotiations between US forces and local leaders, but as of April 12 had not been successful. At least one US battalion had orders to shoot any male of military age on the streets after dark, armed or not.[17] In violation of the Geneva Convention, the city’s main hospital was closed by Marines, negating its use, and a US sniper was placed on top of the hospital’s water tower.[18]

There were also reports of the use of cluster bombs by US forces in Fallujah during this time, including reports from Al Jazeera on April 9 and 15, which US State Department spokesperson Richard Boucher later described as “totally false.”[19][unreliable source?] Similar reports came from several other sources who reported on 26 April 2004: “A spokesman for an Iraqi delegation from the violence-gripped city of Fallujah on Monday accused U.S. troops of using cluster bombs against the city and said they had asked the United Nations to mediate the conflict.[citation needed] Mohammed Tareq, a spokesman for the governing council of Fallujah and a member of the four-person delegation, said U.S. military snipers were also responsible for the deaths of many children, women and elderly people.” And the Economic Press Review reported on 17 April 2004: “American F-16 warplanes are blitzing the Al-Julan residential area in Al Fallujah 50 kilometers west from Baghdad with cluster bombs.”[citation needed]

The ceasefire followed a wave of insurgency activity across southern Iraq, which included the capture of two US soldiers, seven employees of US military contractor Kellogg, Brown and Root, and more than 50 other workers in Iraq. Several of the prisoners were released within days of their capture, while the majority were executed.[citation needed]

The US forces ostensibly sought to negotiate a settlement but promised to restart its offensive to retake the city if one was not reached. Military commanders said their goal in the siege was to capture those responsible for the numerous deaths of US and Iraqi security personnel. As the siege continued, insurgents conducted hit-and-run attacks on US Marine positions. The Marines had announced a unilateral ceasefire.[citation needed]
Truce, May 2004

At the beginning of May 2004, the US Marine Corps announced a ceasefire due to intense political pressure. Most of the fighting was limited to the southern industrial district, which, had the lowest population density inside the city limits and the northwest corner of the city in the Jolan district. There were also Marine battalions in the northeast and southern portion of the city. While both sides began preparations to resume offensives, General Conway took a risk and handed control of the city to a former Iraqi general with roughly 1,000 men who then formed the Fallujah Brigade, while acknowledging that many of the people under control of the general were probably insurgents themselves (no verification was provided). The general, Major General Muhammed Latif, replaced a US choice, Jasim Mohammed Saleh, who was alleged to have been involved in the earlier atrocities against Kurds during the Iran-Iraq war.[20] The ceasefire terms were to give control of Fallujah to General Latif on condition that Fallujah becomes a secure region for coalition forces and halt incoming mortar and rocket attacks on the nearby US bases. Latif’s militia wore Iraqi military uniforms from the Hussein era. Another tenet of the cease-fire was the establishment of a Traffic Control Point (TCP) on the eastern side of the city just west of the “cloverleaf”. This TCP was constantly manned by a platoon of Marines and a platoon from the Iraqi National Guard and saw almost daily firefights for the rest of the summer.

Inside the city, mosques proclaimed the victory of the insurgents over the United States.[citation needed] Celebratory banners appeared around the city, and the fighters paraded through the town on trucks. Iraqi governing council member Ahmed Chalabi, after a bombing that killed fellow IGC member Izzadine Saleem, blamed the US military’s decisions in Fallujah for the attack, stating “The garage is open and car bombs are coming repeatedly.”[21]

Fallujah, according to reporters who have visited in mid-summer, had since become a sort of Islamist mini-state, with Sharia law enforced by mujahedin.[citation needed] Owners of shops that sold US-style magazine and barbers who offered “Western-style” haircuts were beaten and publicly humiliated. Inter-faction fighting was also rampant.[22] The Fallujah Brigade was soon marginalized and ceased to be more than another faction in what had effectively become a no-go area for coalition troops.
Counter-insurgency, May – November 2004

Throughout the summer and fall of 2004, the U.S. military conducted sporadic airstrikes on Fallujah. U.S. forces reported that all were confirmed targeted, intelligence-based strikes against houses used by the group of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, an insurgency leader linked to al-Qaida.

In October and early November, 2004, the U.S. military prepared for a major offensive against the rebel stronghold with stepped up daily aerial attacks using precision-guided munitions[23] against militant “safe houses,” restaurants and meeting places in the city. U.S. Marines also engaged in firefights on a daily and nightly basis along the perimeter of the city. There were again conflicting reports of civilian casualties.[24]:256–267

CNN incorrectly reported on October 14, 2004, that the US offensive assault on Fallujah had begun and broadcast a report from a young Marine outside Fallujah, 1st Lt. Lyle Gilbert, who announced that “troops have crossed the line of departure.” Hours later, CNN reported their Pentagon reporters had determined that the assault had not, in fact, begun. The Los Angeles Times reported on December 1, 2004, that, according to several unnamed Pentagon officials, the Marine’s announcement was a feint—part of an elaborate “psychological operation” (PSYOP) to determine the Fallujah rebels’ reactions if they believed attack was imminent.

On November 7, 2004, the U.S.-appointed Iraq interim government declared a 60 day state of emergency in preparation for the assault, as insurgents carried out several car bomb attacks in the Fallujah area which killed Iraqi army and police, U.S. Marines and Iraqi civilians. The next day Prime Minister Iyad Allawi publicly authorized an offensive in Fallujah and Ramadi to “liberate the people” and “clean Fallujah from the terrorists”. Marines, U.S. Army soldiers and allied Iraqi soldiers stormed into Fallujah’s western outskirts, secured two bridges across the Euphrates, seized a hospital on the outskirts of the city and arrested about 50 men in the hospital. About half the arrested men were later released. A hospital doctor reported that 15 Iraqis were killed and 20 wounded during the overnight incursions. The US armed forces have designated the offensive as Operation Phantom Fury.

In the first week of Operation Phantom Fury, government spokesman Thair al-Naqeeb said that many of the remaining fighters have asked to surrender and that Iraqi authorities “will extend amnesty” to those who have not committed major crimes.[25] At the same time, US forces prevented male refugees from leaving the combat zone, and the city was placed under a strict night-time shoot-to-kill curfew with anyone spotted in the Marines’ night vision sights shot.[26][27]
U.S.–Iraqi offensive of November 7, 2004
Main article: Second Battle of Fallujah

Journalists embedded with U.S. military units, although limited in what they may report, have reported the following:

On November 8, 2004, a force of around 2,000 U.S. and 600 Iraqi troops began a concentrated assault on Fallujah with air strikes, artillery, armor, and infantry. The New York Times reported that within an hour of the start of the ground attack, troops seized the Fallujah General Hospital. “Patients and hospital employees were rushed out of rooms by armed soldiers and ordered to sit or lie on the floor while troops tied their hands behind their backs”.[28] Noam Chomsky in his book Failed States commented that according to the Geneva Conventions, medical establishments “may in no circumstance be attacked, but shall at all times be respected and protected by the Parties to the conflict.” [29] Troops seized the rail yards North of the city, and pushed into the city simultaneously from the North and West taking control of the volatile Jolan and Askari districts. Rebel resistance was as strong as expected[citation needed], rebels fought very hard as they fell back. By nightfall on November 9, 2004, the U.S. troops had almost reached the heart of the city. U.S. military officials stated that 1,000 to 6,000 insurgents were believed to be in the city, they appear to be organized, and fought in small groups, of three to 25. Many insurgents were believed to have slipped away amid widespread reports that the U.S. offensive was coming. During the assault, Marines and Iraqi soldiers endured sniper fire and destroyed booby traps, much more than anticipated. Ten U.S. troops were killed in the fighting and 22 wounded in the first two days of fighting. Insurgent casualty numbers were estimated at 85 to 90 killed or wounded. Several more days of fighting were anticipated as U.S. and Iraqi troops conducted house-to-house searches for weapons, booby traps, and insurgents.
On 9 November, CNN Correspondent Karl Penhaul reported the use of cluster bombs in the offensive: “The sky over Falluja seems to explode as U.S. Marines launch their much-trumpeted ground assault. War planes drop cluster bombs on insurgent positions and artillery batteries fire smoke rounds to conceal a Marine advance.”[30]
November 10, 2004 reports by the Washington Post suggest that U.S. armed forces used white phosphorus grenades and/or artillery shells, creating walls of fire in the city. Doctors working inside Fallujah report seeing melted corpses of suspected insurgents.[31] The use of WP ammunition was confirmed from various independent sources, including U.S. troops who had suffered WP burns due to friendly fire. On November 16, 2005 The Independent reported that Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Barry Venable “disclosed that (white phosphorus) had been used to dislodge enemy fighters from entrenched positions in the city”…”We use them primarily as obscurants, for smokescreens or target marking in some cases. However, it is an incendiary weapon and may be used against enemy combatants.”[32] But a day before, Robert Tuttle, the U.S. ambassador to London, denied that white phosphorus was deployed as a weapon: “US forces do not use napalm or white phosphorus as weapons.”[33][34]
On November 13, 2004 a Red Crescent convoy containing humanitarian aid was delayed from entering Fallujah by the U.S. army.[35][36]
On November 13, 2004, a U.S. Marine with 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines was videotaped killing a wounded and unarmed prisoner in a mosque. The incident, which came under investigation, created controversy throughout the world. The man was shot at close range after he and several other badly wounded Iraqi prisoners had previously been left behind overnight in the mosque by the U.S. Marines. The Marine shooting the man had been mildly injured by insurgents in the same mosque the day before.[37][38] In May 2005, it was announced that the Marine would not face a court-martial. In a statement, Maj. Gen. Richard F. Natonski, commanding general of the I Marine Expeditionary Force, said that a review of the evidence had shown that the shooting was “consistent with the established rules of engagement and the law of armed conflict.” [39]
On November 16, 2004, a Red Cross official told Inter Press Service that “at least 800 civilians” had been killed in Fallujah and indicated that “they had received several reports from refugees that the military had dropped cluster bombs in Fallujah, and used a phosphorus weapon that caused severe burns.”[40]
As of November 18, 2004, the U.S. military reported 1200 insurgents killed and 1000 captured. U.S. casualties were 51 killed and 425 wounded, and the Iraqi forces lost 8 killed and 43 wounded.[41]
On December 2, 2004, the U.S. death toll in Fallujah operation reached 71 killed.[42]
Some of the tactics said to be used by the insurgents included playing dead and attacking, surrendering and attacking, and rigging dead or wounded with bombs. In the November 13th incident mentioned above, the U.S. Marine alleged the insurgent was playing dead.[43]
Of the 100 mosques in the city, about 60 were used as fighting positions by the insurgents.[citation needed] The U.S. and Iraqi military swept through all mosques used as fighting positions, destroying them, leading to great resentment from local residents.
In 2005, the U.S. military admitted that it used white phosphorus as an anti-personnel weapon in Fallujah.[44]

On 17 May 2011, AFP reported that 21 bodies, in black body-bags marked with letters and numbers in Roman script had been recovered from a mass grave in al-Maadhidi cemetery in the centre of the city. Fallujah police chief Brigadier General Mahmud al-Essawi said that they had been blindfolded, their legs had been tied and they had suffered gunshot wounds. The Mayor, Adnan Husseini said that the manner of their killing, as well as the body bags, indicated that US forces had been responsible. Both al-Essawi and Husseini agreed that the dead had been killed in 2004. The US Military declined to comment.[45]
Aftermath

Residents were allowed to return to the city in mid-December after undergoing biometric identification, provided they carry their ID cards all the time. US officials report that “more than half of Fallujah’s 39,000 homes were damaged, and about 10,000 of those were destroyed.” Compensation amounts to 20 percent of the value of damaged houses, with an estimated 32,000 homeowners eligible, according to Marine Lt. Col. William Brown.[46] According to the NBC,[47] 9,000 homes were destroyed, thousands more were damaged and of the 32,000 compensation claims only 2,500 had been paid as of April 14, 2005. According to Mike Marqusee of Iraq Occupation Focus writing in The Guardian,[48] “Falluja’s compensation commissioner has reported that 36,000 of the city’s 50,000 homes were destroyed, along with 60 schools and 65 mosques and shrines”. Reconstruction is only progressing slowly and mainly consists of clearing rubble from heavily-damaged areas and reestablishing basic utility services. This is also due to the fact that only 10% of the pre-offensive inhabitants had returned as of mid-January, and only 30% as of the end of March 2005.[49]

Health effects

Research by Chris Busby, Malak Hamdan and Entesar Ariabi published in 2010 lent credibility to anecdotal news reports of increases in birth defects and cancer after the fighting in 2004.[51] Results from a survey of 711 households in Fallujah on cancer, birth defects and infant mortality suggested that large increases in cancer and infant mortality had occurred. Responses to the questionnaire also suggested an anomalous mean birth sex ratio in children born a year after the fighting, indicating that environmental contamination occurred in 2004. Although the authors noted the use of depleted uranium as one possible source of relevant exposure, they emphasized that there could be other possibilities and that their results did not identify the agent(s) responsible for the increased levels of illness.

January 26, 2015 at 11:32 am #17409

In reply to: Foxcatcher

PA Ram
Participant

I get the feeling that Dupont video was edited to put him in the best light possible. I bet he said a lot of weird stuff during filming that had to be edited out or shot again.

I think he probably made for an interesting subject for the psychiatrists. Apparently while in prison he was diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic.

http://www.courierpostonline.com/story/news/2014/08/03/foxcatcher-fodder-john-du-ponts-bizarre-downfall/13556321/

In the months before John E. du Pont shot and killed Olympic gold medal wrestler Dave Schultz in 1996, signs of his worsening mental illness were on display, according to court testimony and interviews by Wilmington News Journal reporters following the killing. (The News Journal is a sister paper of the Courier-Post.)

The du Pont story is being told in the newly released film “Foxcatcher.” The movie, starring Steve Carell and Channing Tatum, is generating early Oscar buzz

Long before du Pont shot Schultz at his 880-acre estate in Newtown Square, Pa., the heir was unraveling.

The founder of the Delaware Museum of Natural History, du Pont had held a loaded machine gun to the chest of another wrestler, removed treadmills and bicycles from his estate because he thought their clocks were sending him backward in time and shot a group of nesting geese because he believed they were casting spells on him.

I don’t mean to belittle any of this. Mental illness is a serious subject and it seems that a lot of patients do not get the care they need. This guy had tons of money and yet they really could not help him in the end. Perhaps he should have been in a facility somewhere, for his safety and for others.

I suspect, because he had money, people tolerated him, tip-toed around his odd behavior or even fed into his fantasies.

It’s a shame, really.

"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. " Philip K. Dick

January 10, 2015 at 9:03 am #16072

In reply to: Rams granted permission to speak with Greg Roman and Kyle Shanahan

wv
Participant

…I’m just gonna finish putting up that whole article
cause its good writing and interesting stuff.
w
v

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nfl–offensive-guru-and-coaching-candidate-greg-roman-a-victim-of-his–niners–success-022509392.html
…Adds 49ers running backs coach Tom Rathman: “I was surprised he didn’t get a job this year, because I think he has everything. Not only does he have the X’s and O’s down, but he motivates his players. He’s a real leader. Players love him. He fits the mold of some really good coaches. We were really lucky we got him back again next year. When he gets a shot, I think he’s gonna open a lot of eyes.”

Long before his current colleagues could conjure visions of a Roman Empire, the Jersey Shore native was showing his initiative in the shadow of the Boardwalk Empire.

Greg Roman talks with Colin Kaepernick prior to the Patriots game. (Getty)

Growing up in Atlantic City, Roman spent his summers shuttling ice-cream containers to beachside vendors, probably making less in July and August than the price of prying one’s F-150 from a San Francisco impound lot.

Roman, the youngest of three boys raised by a single mother, was already volunteering with the Special Olympics by the time he was eight. His older brother, Matthew, has Down’s Syndrome, and their close relationship has clearly impacted him on both personal and professional levels.

“That’s my buddy,” Roman says of Matthew. “He’s a huge part of my life.”

When Roman played at John Carroll, a Division III school near Cleveland, Matthew was a frequent visitor. He’d hang out, go to parties and pretty much get treated like the coolest kid at school. The guy has plenty of personality: Once, after being introduced to Panthers owner Jerry Richardson when Greg was a low-level member of Carolina’s coaching staff, Matthew said, “You’re Greg’s boss? You need to pay him more.”

Greg, while at John Carroll, established Project H.O.P.E., a program that brought developmentally disabled kids onto campus to participate in a variety of sports. Says Roman of the event, which still occurs annually at the school: “It was the first time I took the reins over something and brought it up from the ground floor.”

On the football field, Roman was far less altruistic. A 5-foot-8 nose guard, Roman made up for his lack of size with a disproportionate share of attitude.

“On the field he was nasty,” Caldwell recalls. “He was competitive. He was our team leader. He self-proclaimed our defensive line the ‘Legion of Doom.’ The younger guys were probably more intimidated by him than anything. But people gravitated toward him because he was easy to talk to.”

In 1995 Roman hooked on with the expansion Panthers, serving as an unpaid assistant strength and conditioning coach. He segued into a simultaneous gig as Capers’ defensive quality control coach, later switching over to a similar role on the offensive side.

“He came in and was an energetic young guy, anxious to learn as much as he could,” Capers recalls. “Greg’s a loyal guy, a hard worker and has a very good mind. It’s a good combination. He’s earned everything that he’s gotten.”

Recalls Caldwell, who rented a room from Roman after coming to the Panthers as a scouting assistant in ’96: “I remember I’d come home, it’d be May or June, and Greg would be in the kitchen, diagramming plays and studying the playbook. It was our off time. I was like, ‘What are you doing?’ ”

Capers was fired following the ’98 season and replaced by George Seifert, who’d coached the Niners to a pair of Super Bowl victories. Seifert kept Roman on as an offensive assistant assigned to the team’s tight ends — and began noticing similarities to another highly motivated young staffer who’d started off in San Francisco handling player ticket requests for road games.

“He kind of reminded me of [Jon] Gruden,” Seifert recalls. “Gruden would always sit and watch [veteran offensive line coach] Bobb McKittrick’s meetings and delve into all aspects of the game. Basically, Greg was the same kind of guy. It wasn’t like he was just gonna work with the tight ends. He was gonna know every facet of the offense. He knew it, in some ways, better than some of the coaches on the staff.

“He asked a lot of questions. He was very specific and he was a sponge. He wanted to know everything. He was bright. He had a smirk. He could tell a joke, and if it didn’t go over, he could take the abuse.”

Roman’s strong sense of self served him well in subsequent stints with the Texans (where he coached tight ends and quarterbacks from 2002-05) and Ravens (where he was an assistant offensive line coach from 2006-07). When he arrived in San Francisco with Harbaugh, he remembered his roots, making the team’s position coaches feel invested in the product and creating an inclusive environment. Roman not only delegates game-planning responsibilities to Rathman, quarterbacks coach Geep Chryst, offensive line coach Mike Solari and receivers coach John Morton, but he also solicits their play-calling suggestions in the heat of battle.

“We sit in the room and he’ll put his thoughts up on the board and ask what we think, and we’ll collectively discuss things,” Rathman says of Roman. “It’s not just him. He’s looking for input from all the coaches he works with. And he listens.”

[More: Near-death experience doesn’t deter prospect Dion Jordan]

Says Roman: “I’ve been in that position — the frustrated assistant who wants to voice his opinion. It’s frustrating. I used to throw out insane stuff, just to get people going.”

Roman may not be a dictator, but he has no problem dictating to opposing defenses. “He knows how to take that defense apart,” Rathman says. “He breaks ’em down. He definitely has [swagger]. He’s got a lot of confidence. But he should have a lot of confidence.”

“I’m a riveter in the morning and a poet at night,” Roman says, twirling some cellophane noodles with Dungeness crab on his fork. He is sitting at a bayside table at the Slanted Door, a trendy Vietnamese restaurant, with a crystal-clear view of Alcatraz Island.

While providing insight into the way he crafts and executes a game plan — a lengthy explanation that will ultimately lead us to the impound lot — Roman manages to make a brutally violent sport with 22 simultaneous moving parts seem suspiciously like a chess match.

“Play-calling, it’s week to week, but sometimes it goes beyond that, too,” Roman says. “I don’t want to sound too melodramatic. But here’s what it is: I orchestrate sequences of events. I don’t just grab plays. Everything I do has a purpose. I’m thinking big picture.”

And as Roman suggests, many of those thoughts come at odd hours. “A lot of my [expletive] happens at night — late at night,” he says. “I’m nocturnal. I’ll be in bed, asleep, and I’ll get up and walk into the other room and start writing things down. It’s hard to turn it off.”

To turn it back on the next day, Roman employs a strategy familiar to many working Americans.

“He drinks a lot of coffee in the morning,” Staley says. “He’s like a mad scientist in his room, scheming up plays. He comes down to our install meetings on Wednesdays just pouring sweat. He looks like a nervous high school student. We ask him, ‘Are you all right? You just sweat profusely.’ I’m in the front row, too. There are times when he’s dripping sweat on the overhead projector.”

The plays Roman unveils on the screen, of course, are far more aesthetically pleasing. “He’s a genius when it comes to football,” Staley says. “He comes up with crazy stuff you don’t see anywhere else — and he calls it at the perfect time.”

Except, of course, when he intentionally doesn’t. In mid-December, after the Niners pulled out a 41-34 victory over the New England Patriots to improve to 10-3-1, Roman consciously decided to dial back the offense in order to keep potential playoff opponents off balance.

That approach seemed dubious the following Sunday night in Seattle, when the 49ers absorbed a 42-13 thrashing at the hands of the Seahawks, but Roman took solace in the fight Kaepernick displayed in leading San Francisco to a late touchdown. The next week, though Roman kept things relatively conservative, the 49ers defeated the Arizona Cardinals to clinch the NFC West title and a first-round bye.

Two weeks later against the Packers, Roman unleashed the fury.

“My post-New England mindset was to hold back and try to save things for the playoffs,” Roman says. “We did a bunch of [read-option plays] against New England, but you run into that question of exposure. The reality is that you’ve got to win playoff games. That was definitely part of the plan. Because NFL teams are too good — you start showing something and having success, they’re gonna find a way to stop it.

“You don’t want to make a living on it. If you can win a game and hold that back, why not? I coached defense. I know what it’s like when you have to prepare for something like that. It’s all hands on deck. It’s mayhem.”

The Niners faced some chaos of their own in each of their final two games of 2012. Against the Falcons in the NFC championship game, they trailed 17-0 before rallying to win 28-24. In the Super Bowl, the Ravens took a 28-6 lead early in the second half before the lights went out in the Superdome and the light went on for San Francisco’s offense. In both crises, Roman kept his cool.

“We’re down in the NFC championship game, and he stays calm and sticks to his game plan, and we launch that comeback,” Gore recalls. “In the Super Bowl, same thing: We don’t panic. When we started clicking, the [Ravens’] defense, they didn’t have a clue.”

And then, seven yards from a potential go-ahead touchdown, the Niners’ offense mysteriously stalled. In the weeks since, Roman has been questioned by armchair coordinators for everything from not calling more running plays to not staying exclusively with the read option to trying to force the ball to Crabtree at the expense of other targets. If it makes them feel any better, he has broken it down thousands of times in his mind — and, of course, in his sleep.

Roman knows what he called, and knows how close he was to riding in a parade down Market Street while being lauded by the same people as the second coming of Bill Walsh. And now, as he stands on Bryant Street underneath a raised portion of the interstate, preparing to reclaim his ride, the riveter/poet is being asked to relive the maddening sequence yet again.

First-and-goal from the 7, 2:39 remaining: Gore, who’d just busted off a 33-yard run, was on the sidelines as backup running back LaMichael James lined up behind Kaepernick in a full-house Pistol formation. James took a handoff and slipped through a hole to his immediate right; Ravens linebacker Dannell Ellerbee plugged the gap and nailed him after a two-yard gain. In retrospect, Roman’s cool with his decision — a little more room and James could have made a cut and cruised into the end zone.

Second-and-goal from the 5, following the two-minute warning: Kaepernick, lined up in the shotgun, rolled right and threw short and off target to Crabtree, who’d been bumped by cornerback Corey Graham. Many observers later wondered whether Kaepernick should have instead tried to thread a high pass over the middle to Randy Moss, who appeared to be open on the play. In the Niners’ coaching box, they were yelling for a pass interference call on Graham.

Third-and-goal from the 5, 1:55 remaining: This one was the killer. Kaepernick lined up in the Pistol, with Gore to his immediate right. It was a read-option play, in theory, but it essentially was a quarterback counter. Kaepernick, after a step backward, was going to run behind right guard Alex Boone and Gore, each of whom was pulling left.

Roman was sure the quarterback was going to score. He was sure the Ravens’ coaches were sure a touchdown was imminent. Yet with the play clock nearing zero, Harbaugh called timeout. Chalk it up to the downside of having turned over an offense to a tantalizingly talented but inexperienced quarterback in November. Harbaugh and Roman took a calculated risk, and it was a split-second away from paying off.

At that point, with the Ravens’ coaches having just watched their season flash before their eyes, Roman was convinced of one thing: There’s no way Baltimore would stay passive. Sure enough, two “Cover 0” blitzes were coming. And Roman, playing the percentages, dialed up plays that called for Crabtree — Kaepernick’s favorite target — to be the “hot” receiver. “Wouldn’t you rather give your guys a chance to make a play?” Roman asks rhetorically.

[Related: Michael Crabtree said he was momentarily blinded on last play]

Third-and-goal, Part II: Kaepernick lined up under center, took a conventional snap, dropped back and made a quick pass to Crabtree, who had gone in motion to the right and cut hard to the sideline. Cornerback Jimmy Smith got there quickly and dislodged the ball from the receiver’s hand, setting up the final play.

Fourth-and-goal from the 5, 1:50 remaining: Kaepernick, from the Pistol, had little time to throw as Ellerbee came in hard and unblocked on the blitz. Crabtree and Smith did some back-and-forth pushing before Kaepernick threw for the receiver and the ball fell incomplete. On the sideline, Harbaugh went crazy, gesturing for defensive holding. No call. No Super Bowl triumph. No satisfaction.

View gallery
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Michael Crabtree reaches for the ball on fourth down in the fourth quarter against the Ravens. (USA TODAY Spor …
Suffice it to say that Roman is highly motivated to end next season under a stream of red-and-gold confetti — ideally, with another franchise waiting impatiently to hire him as its head coach. Surely, that inconvenient timing issue could hamstring him the way it did this past season, though the buzz about Roman in league circles will likely be louder in 2013. Says Caldwell: “I would envision him being one of the top (head-coaching candidates), with his track record of success, his experiences both at the college and pro level, and his offensive IQ and his defensive IQ.”

Conveniently, the Niners remain loaded, with the prospect for improvement, having added to their already large pool of draft picks by trading Smith to the Kansas City Chiefs. And Roman has a new toy in ex-Ravens wideout Anquan Boldin, stolen for a sixth-round selection earlier this month.

On paper, the 49ers look like preseason Super Bowl favorites. Yet, as Roman knows all too well, nothing is promised in the NFL. For one thing, Capers and his fellow defensive coordinators will devote much of their offseason to devising ways to combat the read option.

“Oh yeah, they’re gonna find ways to stop it,” Roman says as he gets behind the wheel of his truck and prepares to head south into rush-hour traffic, with a stop to pick up some Febreze on his immediate agenda. “It’s gonna go back and forth. And we’ve gotta predict what they will do and figure out how to counter that.

“But the reality is, if you’ve got a guy who can throw the ball like [Kaepernick] can and run it like he can, it eventually becomes a numbers game. What do you want to stop? Then we turn to something we call play-action, and it’s a huge advantage.

“So yeah, they’re gonna be spending a lot of time on this. They should. This is real. And we’re just getting started.”

More from Michael Silver on the NFC West:

January 7, 2015 at 9:20 pm #15803

In reply to: Offensive Coordinator possibilities.

zn
Moderator

Rams likely won’t rush into new offensive coordinator hire

By Nick Wagoner | ESPN.com

http://espn.go.com/blog/st-louis-rams/

EARTH CITY, Mo. — As of late Wednesday afternoon, there wasn’t much to know about the St. Louis Rams’ now vacant offensive coordinator position.

We know that Brian Schottenheimer has taken the same position (with added quarterback coach responsibilities) at the University of Georgia. We know the Rams now have an opening. But we don’t know who will be next in line to take Schottenheimer’s place.

The one thing we do know, however, is that Rams coach Jeff Fisher probably won’t rush into any hire unless he decides to hire from within.

Jeff Fisher typically takes his time hiring new assistant coaches.”I think there’s always a list,” general manager Les Snead said Wednesday. “Jeff’s philosophy is always, ‘Hey, be patient, don’t rush into it.’ But it’s like anything. what’s the pool like? This is all happening. You’ll see the philosophy with Jeff is let’s be patient, let’s go through. I think that’s what you’ll see.”

That’s what we’ve seen from Fisher when the defensive coordinator job has popped up in each of the past two offseasons.

In 2013, Fisher fired Blake Williams, the de facto defensive coordinator and linebackers coach, on Jan. 2. From there, Fisher deliberately went through the interview process, spending time with the likes of Dick Jauron and Mike Singletary before he hired then-Detroit Lions defensive backs coach Tim Walton on Feb. 15.

Last year, Fisher appeared to be committed to keeping Walton, but after taking some time to go through his options and, most importantly, repair his relationship with Gregg Williams, he fired Walton on Jan. 29. It was quickly apparent that Gregg Williams would be the new defensive coordinator, but Fisher didn’t even make that official for another two weeks.

In this case, Schottenheimer’s departure doesn’t come at the behest of Fisher. At Fisher’s end-of-season news conference, he was asked what he thought of Schottenheimer’s performance. To the chagrin of many Rams fans, Fisher offered an enthusiastic endorsement.

“I think Brian is an outstanding playcaller,” Fisher said. “He’s very organized. He’s an excellent teacher. You can’t put the record on his shoulders. That’d be very, very unfair.”

That endorsement followed another underwhelming performance from a Rams offense that regularly forced the defense to play almost perfect football just to have a chance. The Rams finished 28th in yards per game, 20th in rushing yards, 23rd in passing yards and 23rd in points per game in 2014.

That effort wasn’t much of an upgrade over his previous two seasons in charge. In 2013, the Rams were 30th in yards per game, 19th in rushing yards per game, 27th in passing yards per game and 22nd in points per game. In 2012, the Rams ranked 23rd, 19th, 18th and 28th in those respective categories.

Of course, Schottenheimer had his share of challenges along the way, including the repeated loss of starting quarterback Sam Bradford, several injuries along the offensive line and a big injury this season to receiver Brian Quick. And it’s also important to remember that Schottenheimer coached for Fisher, and much of the conservative approach falls in line with what Fisher prefers.

Nonetheless, the Rams offense regularly struggled to find ways to use Tavon Austin in the offense and the team’s inability to make adjustments at halftime repeatedly put the Rams behind the eight ball on offense in the final 30 minutes of games.

The Rams offense averaged a feeble 2.6 points in the third quarter of games this season, which ranked 30th in the NFL. They weren’t much better in the fourth quarter, either, posting 4.8 points per game in the final 15 minutes, which was tied for 24th in the league.

As for possible replacements, there are many former head coaches with offensive backgrounds who could be appealing. That list includes former Bears coach Marc Trestman, former Browns coach Rob Chudzinski and in-limbo Niners coordinator Greg Roman. If Fisher decides to stay in house, one name to remember is current tight ends coach Rob Boras.

No matter the ultimate decision, Fisher’s history would indicate two things: He won’t be looking to turn the offense in a drastically different direction and we won’t get an answer in the immediate future.

January 7, 2015 at 5:33 pm #15768

In reply to: Reports out of Georgia that Schottenheimer is the new offensive coordinator

bnw
Blocked

zn wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>bnw wrote:</div>
I’m not automated and such mantra about Schotty is deserved. Whether TA was worth a first round pick is on others.

Yeah that “automated” phrase came off wrong. But I also really don’t buy the “creativity” thing on Schott. How “creative” were Bevell and Roman? Heck one of the reasons Seattle let Harvin go–according to them–is that there is only so much you can do to fit a guy like that in. And IMO there’s no problem with Tavon or with picking him, it’s just that he should never be thought of as a (pure) receiver. And when he was a slow learner in 2013, I didn’t see any reason why that would change overnight in 2014. Heck it took Dante Hall 3 years before he caught more than 30 something passes. I just think that as a receiver, Tavon is in the same boat. I think he will learn a lot more than he knows, if people are patient, but so far he is more or less what many thought he would be–a multi-purpose, combined yards guy.

Harvin was a cancer in the locker room. That is why he had to go. Good move by Carrol. Harvin was also injured too much and at the end refused to play. I wish the best for TA but in real progress I like what his WV teammate Bailey has shown this year in what shortened season he had.

The upside to being a Rams fan is heartbreak.

Sprinkles are for winners.

January 7, 2015 at 4:54 pm #15762

In reply to: Reports out of Georgia that Schottenheimer is the new offensive coordinator

zn
Moderator

bnw wrote:

I’m not automated and such mantra about Schotty is deserved. Whether TA was worth a first round pick is on others.

Yeah that “automated” phrase came off wrong. But I also really don’t buy the “creativity” thing on Schott. How “creative” were Bevell and Roman? Heck one of the reasons Seattle let Harvin go–according to them–is that there is only so much you can do to fit a guy like that in. And IMO there’s no problem with Tavon or with picking him, it’s just that he should never be thought of as a (pure) receiver. And when he was a slow learner in 2013, I didn’t see any reason why that would change overnight in 2014. Heck it took Dante Hall 3 years before he caught more than 30 something passes. I just think that as a receiver, Tavon is in the same boat. I think he will learn a lot more than he knows, if people are patient, but so far he is more or less what many thought he would be–a multi-purpose, combined yards guy.

December 29, 2014 at 9:46 pm #14984

In reply to: Rams currently scheduled to pick 10th in NFL draft
Agamemnon
Participant
OURLADS’ 2015 BIG BOARD TOP 50 3.0
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Updated: 12/29/2014 11:23AM ET

Pick Player Pos. School HT WT 40 Time
1
Marcus Mariota* QB
Oregon
6040 224 4.55
2
Leonard Williams* DT/DE
USC
6050 300 4.85
3
Jameis Winston* QB
Florida State
6040 235 4.85
4
Amari Cooper* WR
Alabama
6010 204 4.49
5
Shane Ray* DE
Missouri
6034 255 4.60
6
Randy Gregory* DE/OB
Nebraska
6060 240 4.65
7
Ronnie Stanley* LOT
Notre Dame
6054 318 5.00
We don’t know if he’s coming out but he’ll be high on next years radar. Stanley is a long armed,good technique player with excellent lateral movement. He features an explosive punch in pass pro and an aggressive attitude in the run game.
8
DeForest Buckner* DE/DT
Oregon
6060 286 5.00
Junior entry.
9
Cedric Ogbuehi LOT
Texas A&M
6050 300 4.95
Three-and-a-half year starter with experience at left and right tackle plus guard. A long torso athlete with a thick lower body and long arms. Exceptional feet and is smooth athletically in pass protection. Sits down in pass protection with good knee bend. Keeps his hands inside on the breastplate. Powerful enough to club a pass rushing defensive end. Good initial quickness and is athletic on pulls. Sudden to gain position on his blocking target. One of the few tackles in the 2015 Draft who can handle edge speed consistently. Good lateral quickness. Gets depth quickly on kick step when protecting the passer. Would like to see more urgency as a pass protector and finish his run blocking better.
10
Andrus Peat* LOT
Stanford
6070 312 5.25
11
Mario Edwards* DE
Florida State
6030 280 4.85
12
Melvin Gordon* RB
Wisconsin
6010 212 4.45
A difference maker with rare ability who changes the outcomes of games. Plays with a top effort and consistency versus all competition. Possesses rare and exceptional critical factors and production to win games. Improved as a pass catcher in 2014.

A patient and explosive runner with exceptional vision and cutting ability. A downhill runner from the I or off set I- formation with a burst to and through the hole between the tackles. He runs with his eyes. Follows and cuts off his blockers. Has Eric Dickerson’s slide and glide ability. A smooth runner who can slash and break tackles when he is running the Badger’s power “O” play. Generates power in his lower body with strong leg drive. Always going forward with a low pad level and his eyes up. Drives his legs on contact. Not easy to tackle. Has the ability to see the cut back lanes and jump cut in the hole. Gordon also lines up in the slot and runs the Jet sweep wide picking up speed as he goes then turns the corner to burst up the field. A coveted North-South runner who sees the hole and hits it. A strong runner at the point of attack. Collided head on with a free linebacker blitzer, bounced off, spun outside, and accelerated down the sideline. He possesses a third gear open field burst where he can outrun secondary pursuit angles. A strong runner with good contact balance. Gordon is particularly impressive as a runner because opponents had no respect for the Wisconsin passing game and dropped their safeties down to 7-8 yards off the line of scrimmage. Gordon ran through heavy traffic and made himself small through the hole. One fourth of the cold weather back’s carries have gone for over 10 yards in his career. Only player in FBS to have three 70+ yard runs in 2013. He also has 10 runs of 40+ yards over the past two years. Gordon combined with James White to rush for 3053 yards to set a single season FBS rushing record for two teammates in a year. Over the past two years he has rushed for 2328 yards in 288 carries as a rotation back. The elusive runner is the NCAA’s active career leader in yards per carry at 8.1 yards. This season he will share carries with Corey Clement. He lowers his pad level in short yardage, 1st down, and goal-line carries.
Caught only 1 pass for 10 yards in 2013. James White was generally in on pass downs and Gordon was on the sideline. He did run a few check down routes and a nine route from a wide receiver position. He needs to improve as a complete back catching the ball out of the backfield. Improve his release and his routes. Gordon caught passes with receivers during the winter drills to improve his hands. He will also need to elevate his game as a blocker and pass protector. Has the courage and willingness to excel, just needs to do it on game day.

In the Capital One Bowl game against South Carolina, Gordon rushed for 146 yards and carried Jadeveon Clowney on his back five yards to pick up a first down on one carry. Versus Penn State Gordon was out on a pass route and the ball was batted and intercepted by a defensive lineman. Gordon chased the tackle 40 yards and stripped the ball out to stop a touchdown. Penn State had to settle for a field goal. In the Big 10 championship game in 2012, Gordon rushed for 216 yards in 9 carries versus Nebraska. He flashes Walter Payton’s high step over a tackler ability and demonstrates Chris Johnson’s explosive running skills. He is not a fumbler. Secures the ball. The well built back rushed for 1609 yards averaging 7.8 yards per carry. He scored 12 TDs and rushed for over 140 yards per game in 6 of his first 7 games in 2013.

13
Ifo Ekpre-Olomu CB
Oregon
5092v 185v 4.45
Tore ACL in practice late in season. Three-year starter who played in all 14 games as a true freshman. A first-team All-Pac 12 performer his sophomore and junior seasons. Name is pronounced ee-fo eck-pray-olo moo. A very instinctive and aware corner who is able to make a mental adjustment on his feet with sudden reactions. An explosive player with suddenness in his body despite his size. Blessed with extreme recovery speed which helps him arrive before the ball gets to the receiver. Smooth and fluid. Good body control. No wasted movement in his transition. Plays as fast as he needs to. Sudden closing burst. Tough and aggressive in run support. Very competitive. Slips the block and makes a play. Doesn’t shy away from tackling contact. Doesn’t lunge or overextend in press coverage. Has the talent to be a Pro Bowl slot corner with his quick feet, plant and drive, stop and go quickness, burst to close on the ball, timing, and leaping ability. He can also play outside. A tough-minded corner who accepts a challenge. Through 4 games he has 20 tackles, 1 tackle for loss, 1 interception, and 2 pass breakups. Had a hiccup vs Washington St. by being on the short end of two touchdown passes. Got picked on one TD & was beaten by a perfect throw on another.
14
Kevin White WR
West Virginia
6027 211 4.50
15
Danny Shelton NT/DT
Washington
6020 330 5.25
Three-year starter who is active and explosive in his play. An ideal 3-4 scheme nose tackle but will fit in as a five technique 4-3 defender. Opened the 2014 season with 12 tackles versus Hawaii. Leads the Huskies in total tackles and entering the Stanford game he leads the nation in sacks with 7 and is tied for the NCAA lead in tackles for loss with 9.5. Bottom line, Shelton is a high motor, great effort interior player who is tough to block and occupy. The massive and stout inside defender stacks double teams and has a quick get off on the snap. Feels and reads interior blocking schemes. A run stuffer who can press the pocket in the passing game. Doesn’t stay blocked. Quick to disengage. Earned 1st team All-Academic Pac-12 honors in 2012 and 2013. Threw the shot put over 60 feet in high school and was a standout prep wrestler. Changed his jersey number from 71 in 2013 to 55 in 2014.
16
Trae Waynes* CB
Michigan State
6010 183 4.49
Plays field corner in a press man-to-man secondary scheme. Has a slender and wiry build with long arms and quick feet. Redshirt in 2011. Played mostly special teams’ coverage in 2012. Started all 14 games as a sophomore as a field corner. Recorded 50 tackles, 1.5 TFL, 8 passes defended, and 3 INTS.

A cover corner with good hip flexibility and body control. Hard to shake. Jams a receiver then can turn and run with no separation. Good press-bail technique. Always in position to make a play on the ball. Top end quickness, agility, and balance. Easy and athletic back pedal and lateral movement. Good change of direction. Tight in man-to-man coverage. Can reroute wide receiver and keep position on him. Active and disciplined in his play. Quick reactions on every throw in his area. A lockdown college corner who is smooth in transition. Nose to nose with wide receiver. Good two arm extension to jam and reroute pass catchers. Waynes can get on top of a receiver and make a play. Even on a perfect throw he’s there competing for the ball then makes the tackle. Good ball skills and production. Has good eye/hand coordination. Not asked to force and contain often, but will not turn down a hit or allow an outside release. Disciplined in coverage. Mentally and physically tough. An NFL caliber competitor. Nickel specialist.
Waynes is a tough and aggressive tackler who relishes hitting. More of a cut tackler than a wrap up guy. He will slip off a tackle on a big receiver (Cody Latimer, Indiana). The Spartan field corner will shed a block quickly and push a ball carrier out-of-bounds. He does not lack tackling courage. In the Big 10 championship game, Waynes drove on 230-pound runningback Carlos Hyde in the flat and cut him down for no gain.

Trae Waynes is a very good and confident athlete with a high level of energy and intensity. He appears to have a bouncy and eager personality who loves competition with the urge to dominate a receiver. He takes pride in his ability. Waynes is alert and has good field awareness. Has the positive coverage traits of Lardarius Webb (Ravens), Sam Shields (Green Bay), Tim Jennings (Chicago), and Alterraun Verner (Tampa Bay) when they were coming out of college. Excels on the kickoff and punt return special teams. A late 1st round or early second round talent if he runs in the 4.40-4.45/forty range.

17
Landon Collins* SS
Alabama
6000 212 4.55

18
Brandon Scherff OT/OG
Iowa
6045v 320v 5.0
Three-year starter at left tackle, less the last five games of his sophomore year missed due to injury. A powerful run blocker who will get a shot at right tackle on the next level, but has the talent to be a Pro Bowl guard like former Hawkeye Marshal Yanda of the Ravens. Moves equally as well out of a three or two point stance. A competitor who plays with a good shoulder width base and mirrors the pass rusher up the field. Plays with a good two arm extension in pass pro. Has the feet to run over a blitzing safety. Plays square with good knee bend. Physical when he gets his hands on a defensive end. Sets the edge as a zone blocking tackle.

19
Eddie Goldman* DT
Florida State
6040 314 5.00
20
Jake Fisher ROT
Oregon
6064v 300v 5.10
Three-year starter. Starter at right tackle but moved to left after Tyler Johnstone was injured in 2014. Played as a true freshman. Creates seams for the explosive Duck backs. Was a tight end and defensive lineman at Traverse City (MI) West High School. Two year recipient of Oregon’s “Pancake Club Award”. Gave Shilique Calhoun of Michigan State a workout in the Duck-Spartan matchup early in the 2014 season. Physical on down blocks, double teams, and combo blocks in the running game. Sustains and finishes his blocks with functional play strength and balance. Demonstrates a focused attitude and aggression to engage initial contact with base, balance, and knee bend. Stays square with the ability to shadow the pass rusher. Good hand quickness, punch, and placement to control his opponent. Suffered an undisclosed knee injury in the Wyoming game. Returned for the UCLA game and played left tackle.
21
DeVante Parker WR
Louisville
6025 207 4.55
22
Vic Beasley OB
Clemson
6027v 220v 4.55
Two-year starter who is an upfield pressure player. Appears to have matured in 2014. He had a productive season last year but was undisciplined, selfish, and unsportsmanlike in his play and had a 15 yard slashing-his-throat penalty. There were several plays where he was out of control and missed sacks or tackles. It appears the dumb plays are behind him and he can concentrate on his assignments and technique. Was one of the country’s top pass rushers in 2013 and one of Clemson’s most athletic players. Can run laterally as well as dip and lean around the corner. Explosive first step quickness from stance to opponent. Has quick hands, quick feet, and a closing burst to the quarterback. Gives effort as a pass rusher. Flexible to bend and play low. Will change up his moves from arm over, rip, and spin. Flashes a sudden jolt and explosion to the offensive tackle. Slender lower body. Can be single blocked at times by a tight end. Has trouble with big tackles. So far in three games he has 9 tackles, 5 tackles for loss, 4 sacks (39 yards), and 1 pass broken up.
23
Marcus Peters* CB
Washington
6000 195 4.50
24
Jaelen Strong* WR
Arizona State
6030 205 4.50

25
Cameron Erving LOT
Florida State
6052v 298v 5.20
Moved to center to solidify offensive line play. Three-year starter at left tackle after a move from defensive tackle. Awarded the Jacobs’ Blocking Trophy as the best offensive lineman in the Athletic Coast Conference in 2013. Appears to enjoy playing the game. A good athlete who is enthusiastic and plays under control. A zone blocker who competes on a consistent basis. Long arms and a good base. Very good on his redirect versus a two-move defender. Good lateral quickness and pulling ability. Light feet with the ability to bend and punch. Creates lanes in the run game.

26
Alvin “Bud” Dupree DE/OB
Kentucky
6035v 268v 4.59
Three-year productive starter as both a defensive end and outside linebacker. Has an athletic skill set that combines his size, strength, and football intelligence to create big plays for the Wildcats. Listed in the SEC’s top 10 for the past two years in sacks (13.5) and tackles for loss (22). Moves easily for a big man. A fast twitch athlete who plays well on his feet or with his hand in the dirt. Explosive first step quickness to get off on the snap and lateral quickness to contain the outside run. Can bend the edge of a defense and come flat down the line. Has good hand quickness and a closing burst to the quarterback. Good pass rush effort. An edge pass rusher who looks the part including his 40.5 inch vertical jump to get into the passing lanes. Collected 91 total tackles as a sophomore and 61 tackles as a junior.
27
Maxx Williams TE
Minnesota
6050 250 4.65
Red-shirt sophomore. A chainmover in the Gopher run oriented offense. If he were in a pass oriented offense he would put receiving records out of sight.Son of former NY Giant guard Brian Williams. Mother Rochelle was a Big 10 Medal of Honor winner in volleyball. Caught 29 passes for 471 yds. averaged 16.2 yds per reception

28
La’el Collins OT
LSU
6044v 324v 5.10
Three-year starter on the left side of the line. As a sophomore was the starting left guard and at left tackle the past two years. Heading into the fall, Collins played 1,690 snaps on offense with 134.5 knockdowns. A competitor who looks lean at 324 pounds. A good athlete who can adjust on the run to block or run over corner support. Good arm length and body control to redirect and shift weight quickly to defeat an opponent. Generally plays with a stout base and knee bend but has a tendency to narrow his base at times in pass protection. A powerful run blocker who can use more anchor strength as a pass protector.

http://www.ourlads.com/top-32-college-senior-prospects/nfl-draft/2015/2592129
- This reply was modified 11 years, 2 months ago by Agamemnon.
Agamemnon
December 27, 2014 at 10:12 pm #14779

Topic: Don Banks: Black Monday Primer

in forum The Rams Huddle

zn
Moderator

Black Monday Primer: A definitive guide to the 2015 coaching carousel

BY DON BANKS/SI.com

http://www.si.com/nfl/2014/12/24/2015-nfl-black-monday-coaches-fired-jim-harbaugh-rex-ryan

Those seasonal winds of change are getting ready to blow on the coaching staffs and front offices of the NFL, but from all indications, there isn’t going to be quite as much activity in the league’s firing/hiring season as we first anticipated. Believe it or not, Black Monday — the day of bloodletting after the close of the NFL’s regular season — might not be quite so bleak this year, with several undecided team owners showing signs that they are starting to lean toward a sense of patience and continuity in regard to their staffing.

Fancy that. With seven or eight coaching changes made in the NFL in each of the past four seasons, this year’s coaching carousel has a chance to feature the least amount of turnover since only three teams changed coaches in 2010. Look around the league as we approach Week 17 and you’ll see several teams where coaching or general manager changes were once projected, but now look much more unlikely:

Miami owner Stephen Ross has come out in recent days and assured the continued employment of both coach Joe Philbin and general manager Dennis Hickey. Washington’s uptick in performance the past two weeks has removed whatever doubt there might have been regarding coach Jay Gruden’s status for next season. The Giants are finishing strong offensively, with three consecutive victories, and that has buoyed the chances that New York will not feel forced to move on from either coach Tom Coughlin or GM Jerry Reese.

The signs point toward stability in Jacksonville with coach Gus Bradley getting a third season in that massive rebuilding job, and Carolina miraculously being in position to defend its NFC South title this Sunday in Atlanta probably means coach Ron Rivera survives into a fourth season in Charlotte. In Buffalo, though there’s the unpredictability of new ownership with Terry and Kim Pegula, head coach Doug Marrone is thought to have secured his job for next year by getting the Bills to the eight-win mark, their best record in 10 years.

And in St. Louis, while the record is again last-place material at 6-9, Jeff Fisher’s club has posted several impressive upsets from midseason on, and has the makings of one of the league’s best defenses. In short, no changes are expected in St. Louis.

Who does that leave on the firing line? Glad you asked. It appears to be shaping up as a year that will include four or five changes among the head coaching ranks, with perhaps a similar number of moves, or slightly less, made at the general manager level.

After speaking with league executives, personnel men, team sources and agents, here’s an around-the-league encapsulation of what we think we know about the changes that are about to unfold.

Going, going, gone

• San Francisco — This just in: 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh will be coaching the final game of his interesting four-year tenure in San Francisco when the Cardinals visit Levi’s Stadium on Sunday afternoon. And my biggest question is: Can Harbaugh continue to rock his now-familiar black-and-khaki combination no matter whose sideline he lands on in 2015? I’d say at Michigan no, and Oakland yes, because the Raiders would be so happy to hire him they’d let him wear a pink tutu if he so desired.

A few things I’m hearing in regard to where San Francisco may turn in the search for its next coach: With all the time the 49ers have had to contemplate life after Harbaugh, the thinking is owner Jed York and GM Trent Baalke already know exactly who they want to hire. Their coaching search will be short and sweet and is likely to produce a hire who is seen as someone Baalke can work with seamlessly and fairly well control. After the drama of the Harbaugh era, the 49ers are not looking for another big ego or ultra-demanding personality on the sideline.

Two names that make a lot of sense: Seattle defensive coordinator Dan Quinn, who I’m told the 49ers front office has already spent a lot of time studying, and Arizona defensive coordinator Todd Bowles. Both have been very successful in the NFC West, and thus would theoretically help San Francisco while also hopefully weakening one of the two rivals that finished above the 49ers in the division this season. That’s a double whammy San Francisco might like to inflict on either the Seahawks or Cardinals. Bowles is probably the “hot coordinator’’ most likely to get a head coaching job this offseason, after the superb job he did scotch-taping the depleted Arizona defense together this year.

If the priority is to fix the issues that have surfaced with franchise quarterback Colin Keapernick’s game this season, the offensive-minded candidates who figure to get the first and longest looks include highly respected Denver offensive coordinator Adam Gase, New England offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels and Indianapolis offensive coordinator Pep Hamilton.

If management wants an internal candidate, defensive line coach Jim Tomsula has long been considered the in-house favorite, but it’d be somewhat curious if the team elevated him over its successful defensive coordinator Vic Fangio, who is very well liked in the locker room. Tight ends coach Eric Mangini is also a potentially viable choice, but I don’t think the former Jets’ and Browns’ head coach would be a well-received selection.

One wild-card candidate who could surface if the 49ers surprise us and seek a bigger name with a Super Bowl résumé: former Packers and Seahawks head coach Mike Holmgren, who has the itch to coach again and has let it be known he wants back on the sideline. Holmgren would certainly not fit the lower profile-type coach Baalke is said to be seeking, but the former 49ers’ offensive coordinator does have Bay Area credibility galore, and he’d help diffuse some of the heat coming from a fan base that still doesn’t understand how the franchise could run off the coach who took the team to three consecutive NFC title games in his first three years on the job.

• New York Jets — Head coach Rex Ryan and embattled second-year general manager John Idzik were both almost assured of being fired after this season’s three-win disaster, but the news Monday that team owner Woody “Bullet Proof’’ Johnson is preparing to bring in former Houston and Washington general manager Charley Casserly as a hiring consultant seemingly guarantees a house-cleaning is on tap in Gotham. Idzik was hired two years under the agreement that he would retain Ryan as his head coach, and now he’ll never get the chance to handpick his own guy for that job. And that’s the way that story ends.

On the GM front first, that job was difficult to fill the last time it was vacant, after the firing of Mike Tannenbaum, and I don’t think the search will be any easier this time around for Johnson, who is not seen as someone candidates are eager to tie the future of their careers to. I expect the Jets to go hard after promising Ravens assistant general manager Eric DeCosta, especially since Casserly and DeCosta have history together dating to DeCosta’s days as a personnel intern in Washington. But DeCosta has been hesitant to leave Baltimore in the past, where he has been groomed as GM Ozzie Newsome’s eventual replacement, and I don’t see much changing on that front on behalf of the always chaotic Jets.

Former Bucs general manager turned ESPN analyst Mark Dominik could be in line for an interview in New York, but if there’s a coaching-GM tandem to keep on the radar screen it’s Baltimore offensive coordinator Gary Kubiak and Texans director of college scouting Mike Maccagnan. Kubiak, the former Houston head coach, was hired by Casserly as the Texans’ coach in 2006 and is known for his strong work with quarterbacks — a skill that could come in handy for the Jets if they choose to continue the team’s Geno Smith era or start over at the game’s most pivotal position.

Two other candidates who likely will be on the Jets’ wish list include Seattle’s Quinn, who would continue the club’s bent toward head coaches with a defensive background (see Ryan, Herm Edwards, Al Groh, Bill Parcells, Pete Carroll, etc.), and New England’s McDaniels, a hire that would strike a blow against the Jets’ archrivals, those Beasts of the East to the North. I don’t think McDaniels would touch the job — I know he wouldn’t get a thumbs-up from onetime would-be Jets head coach Bill Belichick — but I suppose you never know. Once upon a time Eric Mangini made that trek from Foxboro to New Jersey, and look at how well that turned out. Never mind.

• Oakland — Did you know on a clear day you can see Santa Clara from Oakland? Actually I have no idea if that’s true, but I’m guessing the Raiders hope Jim Harbaugh buys it, if only because it might help buttress their case to land the biggest fish in this year’s coaching market. Staying in the Bay Area and being in position to exact revenge on the 49ers might be the two best selling points Oakland has in wooing Harbaugh. I mean, other than the $8-million-plus per season compensation that he seems likely to require.

Most league sources I talked to believe it’s down to either Oakland or Michigan for Harbaugh, and while his preference is to stay in the NFL, the lure of Ann Arbor and being able to resurrect the struggling program at his alma mater might be too tempting an opportunity to say no to. If there’s a possession arrow at the moment, indications are it has begun to slightly point in the direction of the Wolverines. Remember, the Harbaugh family quotes Bo Schembechler on a near-daily basis, and considers the ex-Michigan coach in their own personal pantheon of heroes. To have Jim ascend to that throne would be close to a dream-come-true material.

Or as one source told me: “He can go there and be God, and never get fired. That’s a home he can live in and stay at. It’ll be like [Nick] Saban in Alabama. He’ll do whatever he wants there. I’d call that the logical place for him.’’

That said, Raiders owner Mark Davis has already swung and missed on Jon Gruden — who said no thanks and signed a new extension with ESPN — and he’ll throw his best sales job at Harbaugh in an effort to finally restore Oakland to the level of playoff contender. It just may work, if Harbaugh can’t overcome his hesitancy to go back to the college coaching ranks. With the promising Derek Carr at quarterback, a couple of productive drafts in a row, and some late-season progress made with three home wins, the Raiders have more to offer right now than they’ve had in quite some time.

If Harbaugh does say yes to the Raiders, it’s bad news for Oakland GM Reggie McKenzie, who will lose his job to the personnel man of Harbaugh’s choosing, perhaps ex-Browns GM Mike Lombardi or current Eagles personnel VP Tom Gamble. Both are believed to be on his short list for requested personnel chiefs if he stays in the NFL.

But where do the Raiders go if Harbaugh spurns them? It’s not out of the question that Davis will turn back to the tandem of interim head coach Tony Sparano and McKenzie in the short term. That option might make as much sense as any if Davis can’t land a game-changing headline name. Sparano did have the team improving down the stretch and has some vocal support from his locker room. He wouldn’t cost much to sign as the fulltime coach, and with the Raiders still paying off the fired Dennis Allen, money could be one of the deciding factors if Harbaugh isn’t coming.

If there’s a previous NFL head coach with a chance to surface in Oakland, Denver defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio makes some sense. He has ties in the area, and the Broncos’ defense, at least before Monday night’s meltdown in Cincinnati, has played exceptionally well this season. Del Rio is an experienced and proven commodity who won 70 games in his almost nine-season tenure in Jacksonville, and that’s nothing to sneeze at in a place like Oakland. The Jaguars have won exactly 11 games since Del Rio was fired with five games remaining in 2011, so his work there is looking better and better all the time.

On very shaky ground

• Chicago — The Bears have been a disaster on the field and a soap opera off it this season, and that’s a combination that can rarely be survived. It’s almost hard to keep track of who has thrown whom under the bus at this point. But while it looks likely that head coach Marc Trestman won’t see a third season in the Windy City, few sources believe his firing is a 100 percent eventuality. At least not yet. Bears GM Phil Emery is believed to be in big trouble himself, with Trestman’s hiring and that Jay Cutler mega-extension on his record, but he is said to still retain the confidence of Bears president Ted Phillips. If the usually patient Bears grant Emery another season, it’s not out of the question he might be loyal enough to impart the same last-chance leniency to his head coach.

The problem is, Bears fans are in an uproar and want sweeping change. If you let Emery stay and fire Trestman, you’re letting the GM who made the mistake on the coach hire the next coach. That’s not going to be easy to sell to the natives. It’s a combustible environment in Chicago, and the idea of keeping things completely status quo and expecting different results in 2015 seems ludicrous.

Jim Harbaugh, of course, was a first-round pick of the Bears in 1985 and played quarterback for Mike Ditka. He would check a ton of boxes for what ails Chicago, including leadership in the locker room, a potential quarterback guru for Cutler and a wildly popular hire to feed to the fans and the media. But nobody seems to think Harbaugh wants to head back to the Bears, so their attention is likely to be unrequited. If he’s going to live and work in a cold-weather state, chances are Harbaugh is bound for Michigan and cult-like status with the Wolverines.

If Trestman leaves and Harbaugh isn’t an option, you could make a case for soon-to-be-ex-Jets-head-coach Rex Ryan in Chicago. The Bears’ defense has become completely toothless the past two seasons, and Ryan’s father, Buddy, was the successful and iconic defensive coordinator of those beloved Super Bowl-winning ’85 Bears (just as he was with the ’68 Jets, come to think of it). Ryan would be a hit with the fans and has the bravado and bluster that Chicagoans love.

After Emery chose Trestman over eventual Cardinals coach Bruce Arians two years ago, going with Ryan would be something of a make-up move for that blunder. But saddling Ryan with a team with quarterback issues would be all-too-familiar, and almost cruel. Would Ryan pick Chicago over an easy-money TV gig? The answer to that question is not known, and may not matter in the long run.

I could see Gase surfacing in a Chicago coaching search as well. He briefly worked with Cutler on McDaniels’ staff in early 2009, but that didn’t go too well. Still, having the Peyton Manning seal of approval will probably carry a lot of weight, given the Bears’ current quarterback predicament. And lastly, don’t forget about Mike Shanahan, the only coach seemingly to ever have a great relationship with Cutler, after drafting him for Denver out of Vanderbilt in 2006. Shanahan says he’s open to coaching again in the right situation, and who would be shocked if Chicago turned to him out of desperation with Cutler’s regression and high-salaried status?

• Atlanta — The Falcons’ situation didn’t look complicated for much of this season, but now it’s a little tricky. With Atlanta capable of winning the NFC South at 7-9 if it beats the visiting 6-8-1 Panthers on Sunday, is Falcons head coach Mike Smith safe if he delivers a playoff berth, no matter if it makes his club the best team in the worst division in NFL history? Or will it take more than just another one-and-done playoff trip — something the Falcons unfortunately know plenty about — to bring Smith back in 2015?

And what of general manager Thomas Dimitroff’s fate? Most observers seem to think he’s close to owner Arthur Blank and will survive a second consecutive disappointing season in Atlanta, but there’s no consensus on that front and some still believe he’s vulnerable. There’s been plenty of talk this season that the Falcons front office is a tense, volatile place to work, with something less than complete teamwork being exhibited. Blank could be angry enough to clean house, especially since he feels the pressure of negative fan reaction with a new $1.4 billion stadium under construction and some early cost overruns to the tune of $400 million.

“There have been some fireworks there this year,’’ one league source said. “You’ve got people paddling in a lot of different directions in Atlanta.’’

Unless Atlanta stages a deep playoff run — which seems wholly unlikely in a stacked NFC field — the well-liked and successful Smith is probably going to be out of a job at some point soon. Dimitroff is a respected general manager and Blank probably isn’t ready to sever that relationship. I would put McDaniels and Gase near the top of the Atlanta coaching search and leave them there, especially if former Patriots top personnel man Scott Pioli continues as the Falcons assistant general manager. With quarterback Matt Ryan and receiver Julio Jones on the roster, the Falcons will own one of the most attractive openings on the coaching market.

What else we’re hearing as Black Monday looms …

• New York Giants — As the Giants continued what became a seven-game losing streak, Tom Coughlin’s job security looked worse by the minute. But now that New York has won three in a row to get to 6-9, and showed signs of offensive prowess with rookie receiver Odell Beckham Jr. emerging as a clear-cut star, Coughlin will likely be given another chance in 2015 to break the franchise’s three-year playoff drought. Probably. The caveat is that Giants owners John Mara and Steve Tisch will meet to discuss the state of the team a day or two after the season ends. Until that confab occurs, nothing is set in stone.

General manager Jerry Reese is thought to be safe as well, and with Eli Manning again playing like a franchise quarterback, chances are the Giants will keep things status quo and frame 2015 as a win-or-else type of season. The hope is that a second year under offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo, and an NFC East that is still devoid of a dominant team, will do the trick.

• Carolina — As strange as the season has been in Carolina — a 2-0 start, a 1-8-1 middle, and a 3-0 finish so far — you can’t rule anything out in terms of potential fallout. But the reality is the Panthers had no business contending for a second straight NFC South title this year, but here they are. If they win at Atlanta, they’ll have a home playoff game in the postseason’s first round, and that will be an improbable enough victory for a team that has endured a series of setbacks, challenges and obstacles this year.

If the Panthers don’t go to the playoffs and finish a dismal 6-9-1, head coach Ron Rivera may have to sweat out a few days of limbo and a year-end-review meeting with owner Jerry Richardson, who may make him squirm a bit in dissecting what went wrong. But I think Rivera has done enough to warrant further employment, and getting his players to finish strong with three December victories after sinking to 3-8-1 speaks well for him.

• Buffalo — Even with a disappointing loss at Oakland on Sunday, which might cost the Bills (8-7) a shot at their first winning season since 2004, head coach Doug Marrone has made progress this year and is not thought to be in danger of losing his job. But new ownership does tend to make changes upon assuming control, and Buffalo’s Terry Pegula had something of a reputation for shaking up the NHL Sabres’ front office fairly often.

Most sources I spoke with think Pegula will give Marrone and general manager Doug Whaley a full season of evaluation and learn more about the entire organization before contemplating any top-level moves. But there are those who believe Whaley could be vulnerable to be replaced this offseason, with the team’s overdrafting of quarterback EJ Manuel in 2013 and the steep cost of the first-round deal for receiver Sammy Watkins in a receiver-rich 2014 draft hurting Whaley’s cause dramatically. The Bills gave up their 2015 first-round pick to move up five spots and select Watkins, who has had a strong rookie season. But they could have stayed put and taken Odell Beckham Jr. or other standout rookie receivers, while retaining their No. 1 pick next season.

• Washington — While Jay Gruden won’t fall victim to the one-and-done treatment that the likes of Marty Schottenheimer received in Washington in 2001, the bigger question in D.C. is if the team will consider conducting a search for a top-level personnel executive to bring into the fold to work with team president/general manager Bruce Allen.

Some believe that move would give Gruden the best possible chance to succeed, adding a talented personnel evaluator to the mix, helping upgrade Washington’s front office and adding another strong voice in the room.

But Washington currently has former Chargers GM A.J. Smith in a senior executive advisory role on the personnel side, and if there are any changes to come, sources say it’ll be to promote Smith to general manager and let Allen retain his team presidency. Allen assumed personnel final authority after the firing of Mike Shanahan last year.

• Tennessee — Titans president/CEO Tommy Smith at midseason declared first-year head coach Ken Whisenhunt and third-year GM Ruston Webster both safe. And they most likely are. But the Titans’ record at that point was 2-6, and they’re now 2-13, with a galling nine-game losing streak that has remarkably come against teams that entered each of those games coming off a loss. The lack of competitiveness in the season’s second half might well induce Smith to rethink his vote of confidence, and even more concerning has been the total silence coming from Smith’s office in recent weeks. Whisenhunt’s standing after just one season is probably fairly secure, but if there is a change forthcoming in Nashville, it would likely be to Webster’s status.

• Cincinnati — With the big win at home over Denver on Monday — in prime time, no less — the Bengals have clinched their fourth consecutive trip to the playoffs at 10-4-1. A win at Pittsburgh on Sunday will bring a second straight AFC North title, and when you consider that Cincinnati had never gone to the postseason even two years in a row until 2011-12, the Marvin Lewis era has set the standard for success in the Queen City.

But what if the Bengals for the fourth year in a row go one-and-done in the playoffs? Would that affect Lewis’ job security? Wasn’t that the mantra in Cincinnati this season from the start, that just making the playoffs wouldn’t be enough in 2014?

I guess we’ll see if owner Mike Brown is out of patience, if the Bengals lose their playoff-opener, dropping Lewis to 0-6 in the postseason in his 12-year career in Cincy. Most expect that Lewis would have to explain to Brown how 2015 will be a different story, but would survive yet another early playoff exit. But Lewis’ 196 career games without a playoff win are the most in NFL history for any coach serving with one team. And that glaring statistic gets more difficult to explain by the year.

• Dallas — All is hiccups and giggles in Dallas, where Jason Garrett’s surprising Cowboys (11-4) have won the NFC East and made the playoffs for the first time since 2009. The only rumbling I’ve heard is in regard to offensive coordinator/offensive line coach Bill Callahan, who, according to a league source, might be leaving Dallas by his own choice after the season.

Callahan had his playcalling duties taken away by Garrett last offseason, when Dallas hired Scott Linehan and gave him that responsibility as the team’s passing game coordinator. Under Callahan, the Cowboys offensive line and running game has blossomed into one of the NFL’s best, but Linehan has also received a good deal of credit for the unexpected success in Dallas this season.

December 17, 2014 at 8:02 pm #14088

In reply to: Time to Mock: McShay's Mock
wv
Participant
Agamemnon wrote:

1. La’el Collins OT
2. Cameron Erving OT

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft/players/1824825/lael-collins
STRENGTHS: Collins possesses a square-ish build that makes him appear better suited to guard. His frame belies his quick feet, an attribute that when combined with his long arms, impressive strength and aggression make him a devastating run blocker. Collins is often the quickest of LSU’s offensive linemen off the snap and he routinely drives his assignment off the line of scrimmage with pure power, creating easy running lanes for LSU’s backs. He’s surprisingly quick to the second level and has good body control to adjust to moving targets.

As a pass blocker, Collins shows good initial quickness in his kick-slide and uses his long reach to maintain the arc. When he gets his hands on opponents and remains square, it is generally lights out for the defender.

WEAKNESSES: He does not possess elite balance and can be challenged by speed-rushers. He’ll over-compensate occasionally and leave the inside open for counters.

Collins’ aggression is admirable but also leads to mistakes. Rather than patiently waiting for defenders to come to him, Collins will occasionally lunge, making himself top-heavy and prone to slipping down the body of his opponent. This can lead to his hands getting too low or slipping onto the side and/or back of defenders, which invites them to swim over the top of him to disengage.

–Rob Rang (8/18/14)
————————-
STRENGTHS: Versatile athlete who has transitioned from the defensive side of the ball to start at both left tackle and center. Boasts a pretty remarkable combination of size (6-feet-5, 309 pounds) and athleticism, and blends length with surprisingly light feet and flexibility.

As a run-blocker, displays the toughness and aggression that made him an impact performer on the other side of the football as he works to finish opponents with strong hands and impressive natural power in his lower half. Frequently asked to block at the second level. He pulls smoothly, showing impressive initial quickness and acceleration for a man of his size.

Possesses the light feet and fluidity to thwart some of the nation’s best edge rushers at tackle, while also showing the ability to seal off defensive tackles at center.

Shows smooth athleticism in his kick-step to handle speed off the edge as well as the strong hands to latch on and control his opponent. Perhaps most impressive, Erving plays with good knee bend, which helps him win the leverage battle and generally anchor well against bull rushes.

WEAKNESSES: Simply needs to become a more consistent technician. Footwork gets a bit sloppy in pass protection at times and he’ll bend at the waist to catch the rush rather than absorbing with his lower half. Tendency to rely too heavily on his upper body when battling, often stopping his feet when engaged.

Aggression sometimes works against Erving. He’ll drop his head on contact, providing defenders opportunities to wash through him. Fails to adjust when blocking on the move, at times. While he’s quick to the second level, Erving too often loses track of his target, winding up where he thought the play was going to go only to have his assignment run past him. Each is a correctable skill that the athletic big man should improve upon as he gains experience.

–Rob Rang & Derek Stephens (11/20/14)
Player Overview
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w
v
- This reply was modified 11 years, 2 months ago by wv.
- This reply was modified 11 years, 2 months ago by wv.
December 13, 2014 at 11:02 pm #13823

Topic: RamView, 12/11/2014: Cardinals 12, Rams 6 (Long)

in forum The Rams Huddle

mfranke
Participant

RamView, December 11, 2014
From Row HH
(Report and opinions from the game.)
Game #14: Cardinals 12, Rams 6

The Ram offense and pass rush take Thursday night off, and guarantee they’ll get the postseason off, again. In a discouraging loss to Arizona, they seemed to remember nothing of what had made them effective in recent weeks. That’s not a sign of progress.

Position by position:
* Strategery: This week’s headline: another rough week for Brian Schottenheimer. The bad trends the Ram offense appeared to have shaken the past few weeks all came flooding back. This isn’t the first time Schottenheimer has struggled against a blitz-heavy defense. A tactic that failed for almost three quarters was sending the running backs out into the pattern. If you’re going to do that, you need to throw to those backs, but the Rams hardly did. Benny Cunningham popped a screen for 20 early and should have popped another but screwed it up. Those were about all the tries the RBs got as receivers. That wasn’t enough to get press coverage off the WRs, and the amount of zero protect Shaun Hill got exposed to wasn’t worth the investment. Would have been best had Schottenheimer just kept the RBs back in blitz protect all of the time, where they did strong work, especially Cunningham, who was terrific.

Schottenheimer adjusted for that in the 3rd, but for probably the 13th time in 14 games this season, the Ram offense was dreadful out of halftime, with five ugly three-and-outs. Schottenheimer’s inability to counter the blitz otherwise demanded the Rams establish the run, but here, he continued his nagging pattern of not letting his players do what they do best. Three times in the quarter, Tre Mason ran left for 6 or 7 yards behind Greg Robinson, and yet, the Rams still did not manage a first down, as Schottenheimer continues to insist on running the small Mason into the teeth of the defense behind Davin Joseph and Scott Wells, the line’s worst blockers. Early in the 3rd he even shifted Joseph Barksdale into a jumbo left formation outside Robinson… and ran right behind Joseph. A big loss there should have surprised no one. Greg Robinson was born to run block. Feel free to run behind him!

That wasn’t Schottenheimer’s only failure to exercise the Rams’ speed, another old pattern he slipped back into. Austin got a touch on the Rams’ opening play and didn’t get another on offense until the fourth quarter. You need to get him and Mason out to the edge to spread the Arizona defense out. A nice play sequence in the 4th helped set up the Rams’ 2nd FG. Austin ran an end-around that set up a reverse to Bailey the next play. 20 yards, just like that. As good as those plays were, the Rams needed significantly more of them, significantly earlier.

Rams Nation is livid about the 3rd-and-goal play from the 1 at the end of that drive. On its own, the call is actually pretty likeable. Both teams have all 11 men in the box. The Rams have a fullback and three tight ends, including Barnes eligible; it’s obviously a run, right? If Hill had rolled out of this formation like he did and hit a TE for a TD, we’d have all been jumping in glee. This play always works! It’s everything they didn’t do on the game-losing play in San Diego. They ran play-action, they had a blocker back for Hill, they were deceptive, they didn’t force a bad throw into the middle of the field. But Arizona was all over it. They went into the play thinking, stop the run but don’t forget they might pass. Todd Bowles has got a heck of a well-coached defense. Feel free to blame Schottenheimer if you feel Arizona was all over the play because the Rams run it down on the goal line too often. I’m not sure any run was going to work down there. Maybe if they had gone behind Robinson. Which they rarely do.

Bottom line is that the Rams lost to a better-coached team forced into playing a lot of second- and third-stringers. As deep as we are into the Fisher era, Bruce Arians has been in Arizona two years and they have passed us up like we’re a Ford Fiesta on the Autobahn, even though they’ve had a rash of injuries that would excuse any team having a bad season, let alone a bad night. Jeff Fisher has made a big difference over what the Rams had with Linehan and Spagnuolo, no doubt whatsoever. But the Ram coaches need to be a difference against the coaches they actually compete against. Schottenheimer’s been failing at the same kind of things as an OC for a long time now. He’s more of a hurdle than a help. The Rams don’t need to change their system. They need to call plays better. They can keep trying to jump the hurdle, and racking themselves, or they can remove the hurdle.

* QB: OK, I promise to be shorter with the other sections. Shaun Hill’s play wasn’t great, but it was better than his numbers (20-39-229, PR 58.6) may look. Despite heavy pressure in his face most of the game, he made a number of nice throws. He came out beating the Cardinal blitz with a lob over a LB to Tavon Austin and a screen to Benny Cunningham for 20. He made a nice pass to Corey Harkey down the left seam between two defenders for 20 to set up the opening FG. The only problem: Lance Kendricks had several steps on his man down the right seam and would have had a TD. That didn’t seem like a game-changer at the time, but the Rams struggled with the Arizona pass rush the rest of the game. Hill finally got them back to midfield before halftime with a nice sideline pass to Kendricks, 15 more to Stedman Bailey on a crossing route and then scrambling for 9 himself. The last two plays of the half, though, he probably held the ball too long, got sacked once and pummeled from behind another. Timing problems in the passing game really flared up in the 2nd half. Hill and Kenny Britt missed connections a number of times. Hill would have to try to beat a blitz by throwing deep but Britt either couldn’t get there because of coverage or didn’t get there because he’d broken off his route. That and Hill having to throw passes away under pressure hurt his numbers. There was a little bit of a deep game. In the 4th, Hill got a duck of a pass off to Bailey for 38 to set up the Rams’ 2nd FG. He got the Rams back out to midfield in the final 2:00 with a 22-yarder to Britt. The one time all night Hill had an open receiver and made a bad throw was the wrong time. From the Arizona 43, he had Bailey wide open in the slot. Hit him in stride and he is going a long way. No, Hill’s throw was high and behind Bailey and he couldn’t haul it in. Hill’s Hail Mary pass at the end of the game was laughable. Fisher should have put Johnny Hekker in; he would neither punt nor throw a ball that ugly. It looked end over end as Patrick Peterson fair-caught it to damage Hill’s passer rating. So no, it’s not like the Rams’ poor protection and play-calling is holding back the next Aaron Rodgers here or anything. We’d like it if he moved better in the pocket, showed better awareness, didn’t get so many passes knocked down for a man of 6’3” and didn’t throw deep passes that look like they’ve been shot right after they come out of his hand. But except for the two big missed plays with Bailey and Kendricks, Hill took what he could get without turning the ball over. I won’t hang much of this loss on him.

* RB: The Ram RBs had a more difficult night. Lousy blocking got Tre Mason (13-33) buried for a loss of 5 on his first carry, and it was an uphill climb even from there. He had a nice gain going on a wrap play in the 1st until future Hall of Famer Frostee Rucker dived and hacked him on the arm to force a fumble deep in Ram territory. That gave away a FG in a game where every scoring opportunity was big. This may remind Mason to carry the ball tighter to his body. The RBs also need a reminder that they’re not Barry Sanders. Benny Cunningham (2-4, 3-23 recv) took off with a well-setup screen for 20 early in the game, but given a similar splendid opportunity late in the half, he danced, tried to cut it inside instead of taking the easy 10+ he would have gotten outside and got two. Mason got some good gains behind Greg Robinson and Rodger Saffold in the 2nd half but the Ram staff seems to much prefer futile slams into backed-up blocking in the middle of the field. The Rams only ran twice near the goal line but neither time went well. Cunningham got stuffed on 3rd-and-1 in the 1st when, yep, Joseph and Wells got pushed backward on an off-tackle dive. Calais Campbell blew up a Mason run at the 7 late in the game. While Zac Stacy stayed quarantined on the bench, the Rams showed no power running game, to the point they wouldn’t even run needing a yard to score at the end of the game and settled for FGs. The Rams don’t field a RB who can move a pile right now but they sure call a lot of plays thinking they have one. It’s as bad a fit as hiring Adriana Lima to model biohazard suits. The results just aren’t that sexy.

* Receivers: Wish I had more to say here. I was surprised to see either Kenny Britt (5-65) or Stedman Bailey (5-74) had as many as five catches. Britt had a couple of catches over 20 yards, including a tough one while getting thumped by two guys late in the game, but it felt like he spent most of the night unable to get to deep balls Hill threw because Patrick Peterson had jammed him at the line. I like Britt and that he’ll make some tough, physical catches, but the Rams need a better deep threat than he is. Bailey helped spark them to their 2nd FG; he got behind Jarraud Powers and caught a 38-yard duck from Hill, then zipped down inside the 10 later on a reverse. A couple of plays later from the AZ7, though, it’s a Jeff Fisher WR playing Kevin Dyson, as Bailey caught a slant on 2nd-and-goal but got twisted down inside the 1. Barely a factor, Tavon Austin’s game (2-14, 1-8 rush) was disappointing compared to his last two. Same for Jared Cook, 3-22. Oh, Cook’s been able to get some separation lately; unfortunately it’s with two-handed shoves that draw flags from 40 yards away. Missed opportunities, one early for Kendricks, one for Bailey late, loom big. This receiving corps doesn’t have the talent to make up for those.

* Offensive line: The Rams need significant upgrades at right tackle and center and they’re welcome to start looking right now if they want to. Davin Joseph does not get the job done in any aspect of the blocking game, and Wells doesn’t appear to have it any more as a run-blocker. On the first run of the damn game, Joseph’s beaten badly by Frostee Rucker to dump Mason for a huge loss. In the red zone they tried to run behind him again. Nothing. 3rd-and-1 at the 7, they tried to run behind Rodger Saffold but Wells and Joseph got pushed into the hole faster than Cunningham could hit it. Send in the FG unit. The issue became almost comical in the 3rd. Greg Robinson and Saffold would lead Mason out for a nice gain one play, then the next, the Rams would run behind Joseph, who’d get knocked backward and get Mason stuffed. The ugliness spread into the passing game and across the line. In the 2nd, Joseph and Wells double-teamed Dan Williams and he still knocked down a pass. In the 3rd, with the Ram left side double-teaming Calais Campbell, Larry Foote looped around an unsuspecting Robinson for Arizona’s first sack. On 3rd-and-3 the next drive, they couldn’t even handle a 3-man rush; Wells got beat to flush Hill, who only picked up 2 on the scramble. Later, Joseph completely whiffed on Reggie White, ER, Frostee Rucker, and Mason failed in blitz pickup, to get Hill dropped for an especially ugly 13-yard loss. That was it for sacks but not giving up ground. Wells got beat by Tommy Kelly to get Hill creamed. The Rams used reverses and warded off rare straight-up rushes to get down to the 7 in the 4th, but run-blocking failed epically again. Mason immediately ended up with a lot of traffic at his feet in the form of Joseph Barksdale diving at Campbell blowing up the play. Two plays later, they decided they couldn’t trust their run blocking from a yard out. If they were thinking about running right, they were more than likely correct. Send in the FG unit. In full pass mode at the end of the game, what’s the first thing Wells does? Turn around, look at Hill lined up in shotgun, and still snap the ball halfway to him. Hill still got them to midfield, then had to fire incomplete after Joseph again completely whiffed a block. The Rams’ last three plays, Arizona blitzed a DB off RT THREE PLAYS IN A ROW and he was not blocked a single time, leading to Powers’ pass deflection that essentially ended the game. Fortunately for Hill, Arizona’s game-long blitz pressure is reflected much more in incomplete passes than it is in sacks. But Davin Joseph does nothing that helps this team, and if he’s still starting the last two meaningless weeks of the season, if the Rams don’t have another guard who’s even worth a look as opposed to this failure of a RG, they should cut all their guards except Saffold after the season and start over. Wells still gets out well ahead of screens, but he’s also starting to look like he’s on his last legs. Time to get Barrett Jones in there. The Rams cannot get worse play out of that part of the line than they got this week. Time for an extreme makeover.

* Defensive line: The Rams may not have allowed a TD for three games now, but this wasn’t a satisfying performance up front. It’s a battle to decide what was more disappointing: pass rush (only 1 sack) or run defense (143 yards to complete scrubs). Somebody named Stepfan Taylor gashed them for 17 on the opening play after Michael Brockers got double-teamed out of the hole and Mark Barron couldn’t fill it after getting crunched by Larry Fitzgerald. They held Arizona to 3 after the Mason fumble, but Robert Quinn started badly overpursuing at this point, giving up a couple of big holes, one that who? Ask Kerwynn Williams took for 10. A good run stop by Kendall Langford at the 5 helped save the Rams points. Pass rush died off in the 2nd. No one got close to Drew Stanton to prevent a 49-yard bomb to set up the 2nd Arizona FG. Quinn got pushed five yards past him. Stanton threw three times from the Ram 26 and wasn’t pressured at all on two of them, but the Rams got help from John Brown dropping a wide open pass. The front four continued to accomplish little in the 2nd while the secondary got the Cardinals off the field. They did prove able to get gashed by who? Ask Kerwynn Williams some more, though, once for 8 through a huge gap they left on purpose so Chris Long could get wide-9 leverage. No amount of leverage was helping the very quiet Long in this one. Lack of pass rush continued to kill the Rams in the 3rd. No one close to Stanton again as Michael Floyd drew a long DPI. They did sack Arizona out of FG range there. Aaron Donald and Eugene Sims stunted, and Donald not only got there for the sack, for the second time this season, the Rams knocked out Arizona’s starting QB. So what happens the next play? No rush at all, and somebody named Ryan Lindley hits Floyd to get Arizona back in FG range and then up 9-3. The Rams needed to stop the run to win the field position battle in the 2nd half but lost badly. Arizona opened one drive by trucking William Hayes and Alec Ogletree inside to blow open a 19-yard run for who? Ask Kerwynn Williams again. He opened the next drive with a 12-yard run. This consistently let Arizona get far enough downfield to pin the Ram offense deep with punts. Ottis Anderson, ER, Taylor, set up Arizona’s last FG with a 21-yard run. A stunt took Quinn right to him and he still whiffed. It was as bad a game as Quinn’s had all year. He got close to the QB maybe twice and overran a lot of plays. Long, who’ll I’ll grant is coming off a long-term injury, contributed little. Donald had several nice run-stuffs but Arizona still ran successfully double-teaming Brockers. The Rams lost this game big on both sides of the line.

* Linebackers: The LBs made some good plays but not enough to help the struggling front four. The Ram blitz was not especially effective, and that’s mostly James Laurinaitis, Alec Ogletree and Mark Barron, who we might as well call a LB for this game. Barron blitzed and Fitzgerald wiped him out in the hole to spring Williams for 19 on the opening play, but Laurinaitis flushed Stanton on an A-gap blitz to shut down that drive. With Williams on the verge of catching a pass near the goal line in the 2nd, little doubt that Laurinaitis’ footsteps prevented the completion and forced a FG. Laurinaitis had some iffy run plays. Rob Housler deked him on a gimmicky pitch to keep a FG drive alive, and Williams ran through him (and T.J. McDonald and Rodney McLeod) for 6 to burn precious time off the clock at the end of the game. Alec Ogletree had some run fails of his own, getting blocked out of three of Arizona’s big second half runs, Williams’ 19 and 12 and Taylor’s 21. He did kill a drive in the 2nd with a good open-field stop of Fitzgerald and a play that should just be called an “Ogletree” because he does it so often, batting a pass down on a blitz. Ogletree was in on the Rams’ only sack, and run-blitzed Taylor for a big loss right before that, but it wasn’t enough to save the Rams another FG. Barron probably pressured Lindley when Jenkins nearly picked him off in the 3rd, but the bottom line is the LBs didn’t produce enough on the blitz and gave up too many big runs.

* Secondary: Where have we heard this before? Janoris Jenkins gets burned deep twice and the Rams lose the game. In the 2nd, Michael Floyd just ran by him, and Rodney McLeod was well late to show up as usual, to burn the Rams for 49 and set up a precious FG. Jenkins helped give up another FG in the 3rd, getting beaten deep again by Floyd and contacting him well before looking back for the ball for a 36-yard penalty. Jenkins getting burned deep has become one of this season’s themes. I’ll just say I’m in no hurry to re-up his contract. Sadly for Jenkins, he had several near-misses trying to make up for those plays. In the 2nd, Stanton stared down Larry Fitzgerald and Jenkins jumped the route perfectly. A catch would have been a pick-six but he couldn’t make it. He nearly made a diving pick of a terrible Lindley overthrow in the 3rd but the ball came out ever so briefly. Late in the 4th, Jenkins even forced a Williams fumble that would have teed the Rams up for the winning TD but he whiffed on the recovery. The shame is that if you could take away the big plays, Jenkins had an excellent game and the Ram secondary had a brilliant game. They were all over every quick screen to Fitzgerald and held the admittedly-injured WR to a harmless 30 yards, probably the best game they’ve ever had against him. E.J. Gaines, Trumaine Johnson and Jenkins stuffed him on various plays. TruJo also tipped away a TD pass attempt in the 4th. Gaines did some hitting: he flipped Jaron Brown head over heels on an early crossing route and back body-dropped Taylor after a short gain in the 3rd. My favorite play of the night might have been when Stanton went into the end zone for Fitzgerald but he was stymied by not one, not two but THREE defenders. For once the Rams had a plan to stop Larry Fitzgerald, and executed it, and it was a major reason Arizona threw for only 139 yards and couldn’t dent the end zone. They got everything right but two plays. It’s a shame the rest of the team couldn’t provide them a larger margin of error.

* Special teams: The punters were the stars of this show. Johnny Hekker (50.5) launched a bunch of near-60-yard blasts but tended to outkick coverage, which hurt when Ted Ginn returned one 41 yards in the 3rd. Will Herring saved a TD after Chase Reynolds and Daren Bates got wiped out by ONE blocker and Ginn embarrassed Cunningham in the open field. The good news is Arizona didn’t score off that. Drew Butler’s average was meager (36.5) in comparison, but he got so much hang time on his punts that he rendered Austin useless as a returner and repeatedly pinned the Rams deep in their end. I think Greg Zuerlein has his head (and leg) screwed back on straight, though the FGs he hit were glorified extra points. Keep crossing your fingers when he’s kicking from beyond 30.

* Upon further review: Walt Coleman and crew got several calls right that the crowd booed very hard, but that doesn’t mean we got a well-called game. They called Barron offside on the opening series when he’d clearly gotten back, so the crowd went nuts in the 2nd when a Cardinal appeared to jump into the neutral zone without a call. We weren’t alone – Hill thought he had a free play and chucked a deep ball on 3rd down. I’ll be darned, though, if TV didn’t show the Cardinal stopping a fraction short of the line. Downfield OPI calls against Britt and Cook were unpopular but right, as was the long DPI on Jenkins. But Coleman let Arizona slide on a couple of calls you KNOW the Rams would get hammered on. They wasted time before the half reviewing whether Hill had thrown or fumble after getting whacked by Powers on 3rd down, but the detail of Powers striking Hill on the helmet went completely by everyone. Put the Rams in long FG range at the end of the half and this game feels a lot different. On the final punt return, Austin got CLOBBERED on the ground WELL after he was down with no call. That’s another 15 yards that would have made a big difference in the end game. Grade: C-minus

* Cheers: The crowd was not bad for a stupid Thursday night game, around 50,000, and for once, I didn’t notice a ton of fans of the road team in the stands. We came across good and loud on TV but couldn’t draw more than one false start. The crowd’s hottest reactions were to some of Coleman’s calls, which turned out to be right, so that may not have left us looking like the world’s savviest fans. Phil Simms’ playing experience really shone through analyzing Hill’s play. I’m not a big fan, but we rarely if ever hear him do a Rams game, and it sounded like he really knew what he was talking about. And I beat Jim Nantz to the Kevin Dyson reference on Bailey’s goal line catch, so I’m keeping it. I think I may have mentioned before that I hate Thursday night games, but it was great to watch the Rams game again (artist suffering for art, remember?) with prime time production values like great camera angles and plentiful replays. I wonder how much prime time exposure we should expect for the Rams next year.

* Who’s next?: Can it really be here already? Time has flown, and the next game up is the final home game of the season, and the Rams’ lease agreement, a throwback game against the New York Giants. You have to throw back a ways to the last time the Rams beat the Giants, too – 2001. The Rams may be 2-2 lifetime against Peyton Manning, but they’re 0-3 against brother Eli, who’s thrown 9 TDs in those games. The Giants have won the last five meetings.

Rams fans still having nightmares of Plaxico Burress cruising through the Ram secondary may be forced to re-live them in the form of rookie wideout Odell Beckham Jr. Beckham has gone nuts the past six weeks, with 4 100-yard games and none under 90. The Giants are doing everything possible to get the ball in Beckham’s hands: end-arounds, quick screens, quick outs, comebacks, deep balls, punt returns, letting him throw… the Giant offense is bending for Beckham. Beckham has almost all the Giants’ offensive speed. That’s not to say they’re not balanced; Rashad Jennings gives them a good running game. 29 but without heavy mileage, Jennings is a smart, patient runner who will break a lot of tackles. The offensive line has struggled with injuries and inexperience all season, but may have gotten its act together the past couple of games. They look like a well-coached unit right now and they run-block well. They established Jennings early against Jacksonville, and with the Jagwires playing very vanilla soft zone defense in the first half, Eli Manning pitch-and-catched and play-actioned them to death on the way to a 21-3 lead. The Giants played like that for all four quarters in a blowout win at Tennessee, where the o-line was fantastic run-blocking and pass-protecting. The Giants convert 70% of their 3rd-and-short situations; this is an offense that can sustain drives. Eli’s still as accurate a passer as ever, he’s clicking with Beckham as well as he has clicked with any receiver and he is running things quite efficiently. The Giants will use a lot of no-huddle and quick, short-range passing, just the kind of attack that gives the Rams fits. Eli’s bugaboo has been turnovers; he has 20 this season. It will be imperative for the Rams to get in his face or get him running, which shoots the likelihood of a dumb play by Eli way up. Jacksonville got to him in the 2nd half of their game, which the Jagwires won, by press-covering Beckham and getting creative up front with stunts, twists, blitzes and unusual alignments. The Ram defense will be a big step up in competition, especially with Gregg Williams plotting schemes to confuse the Giants up front.

The Giants have EIGHTEEN players on I.R., including two defensive ends, but that hasn’t kept them from getting after the passer; they’ve still got team sack leader Jason Pierre-Paul (7) and Damontre Moore (5), a very thunder-and-lightning combination. The Quinn-like Pierre-Paul has elite cornering speed and lean. He’ll line up just about anywhere and is a bad matchup for either Ram tackle. He’s hard enough to get hands on, then the Giants will line him up wide-nine and also make him hard to find with stunts. Moore plays like a force at times. He’s a strong bull-rusher and is good at knocking down passes. The Rams also need to keep a hat on LB Devon Kennard. He has four sacks the past two weeks, two of them coming completely unblocked on blitzes. Safety Stevie Brown is also an effective blitzer from out of a very hard-hitting secondary, though there’s a big drop-off at corner after Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie. The Giants’ weakness is run D, where they’re 30th in the NFL. Their LBs don’t make a ton of plays. Watching Denard Robinson run on them a couple of weeks ago makes me think they will be very worried about the speed of Tre Mason and Tavon Austin. At the same time, Pierre-Paul and budding star DT Jonathan Hankins have been solid on their side of the line, and Moore has been a pretty undisciplined run defender, which means the Rams will want to run… right. If that continues to mean Davin Joseph, so help me…

So, welcome to the Better Than Their Record Bowl. The Giants have looked a lot better than 4-9 lately. The Rams looked better than 6-8 up to Thursday night. Concerns about Joseph aside, it’s up to Sack City to prove they’re better than 6-8 after this week. Will they run over the Giant o-line like they should, or will they let Eli pick them apart? The Rams are built around their pass rush winning them games. This one’s up to them to win.

— Mike
Game stats from espn.com

December 11, 2014 at 5:54 pm #13655

In reply to: Sam Bradford remains in Rams' plans for 2015

wv
Participant

rfl wrote:

I have never had any trouble with the idea of the Rams having Bradford in their plans
…But I repeat… You can’t COUNT ON HIM as a starter. What do I mean by that?…
…So, I come back to the real challenge. Keep Sam? OK. I have little problem with that in itself,
though you simply have to EXPECT that he goes down…

Well, from what little I’ve read, it seems
that there aren’t a lot of examples of an NFL QB
going down with 2 straight ACL tears. So, I’m
not sure any Doctor is going to be able to predict
what Sam’s future is likely to look like. How do
teams make decisions when the medical experts
are unsure?

One wonders, at what point does a QB start
looking like the old broken down Joe Namath.
I dunno.

I do know this about Fisher — he will be patient
with Bradford, if the Rams do indeed keep him.
I mean, i could see Fisher not even playing Sam
until halfway through the season next year.

Lots of possibilities. Big decisions coming
for this franchise. Lots of unknowns.
Obviously, the QB-issue will be the story
of the offseason.

The team should be complete after the draft
and free agency next year — all the ‘other’ pieces
should be in place.

w
v

December 9, 2014 at 3:00 pm #13496

In reply to: An early look at the NFL Draft – Bob McGinn
Dak
Participant
I think back on all of the drafts, and there are so few sure things at QB. There is a Peyton Manning or Andrew Luck every few decades, and the rest is up to fate. So many first-rounders over the years have flamed out. Then, there are those QB picks that take years to “get it” at the NFL level. Today, people say, you’re a QB who gets drafted high, you have to produce now, not later. I have never bought into that. Just because people are less patient these days doesn’t mean that today’s QB is ready to head an NFL offense any sooner. Unless you’re Peyton or Luck. And, apparently, the Colts cornered the market on that type of QB.

I say, don’t draft a QB in the 1st round just because you need one. Same thing in the 2nd round. You pick a QB high if you have a really good feeling that he will develop into an NFL starting QB, not just because, what the heck, we’ll see what this rookie can do. I know the QB position goes at a premium, so you have to reach some. But, how many reaches actually work? Hell, I’d rather go with a salty old veteran who is a known commodity with known strengths and weaknesses at the NFL level. ESPECIALLY if you’ve got a good team around him. I don’t want a good supporting cast having to suffer through the rookie’s learning curve.

Looking at this year’s QB class, I’d go Bradford, Hill and a mid-rounder at the earliest who will be there for development. If there is nobody there who makes sense, then bring back Austin Davis as the 3rd QB if you can.
- This reply was modified 11 years, 3 months ago by Dak.
December 4, 2014 at 3:19 pm #13009

In reply to: Bryan Burwell RIP

wv
Participant

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/columns/bernie-miklasz/bernie-bryan-burwell-will-always-live-in-our-hearts/article_729ce51b-92b1-5394-995d-72f1a8a4819a.html
Bernie on Burwell

===

Bernie: Bryan Burwell will always live in our hearts

The first time I met Bryan Burwell, we were both kids in the newspaper business, working for competing newspapers in Baltimore. This was the late 1970s, and I was blown away by him. When Burwell walked into the room, he owned it. The man had presence. He was handsome, charismatic, engaging and had a way to put everyone at ease. His laughter could part the clouds and summon the sunshine to the spot where he stood. And he loved to talk. Goodness, did he love to talk. And I already miss that voice, and that epic laughter.

Back in the early days, I remember thinking: I want to be Burwell.

I wanted to be Burwell because he was such an immense, superior talent. He viewed writing as a craft, polishing every sentence in an attempt to turn his words into diamonds. I wanted to be Burwell because he was the coolest dude in the press box. Sportswriters circled around him. If Bryan didn’t initiate a conversation, it always found him, and soon enough he’d be at the center of it. The hub.

It always happened that way, because when you take someone that has so much love for sports, and so much love for other people, and so much love for his chosen profession – then the result is pure, irresistible magnetism. So you’d find Burwell in the middle of the crowd, where the energy swirled, dispensing his old-school wisdom and lathering that epic laughter on top of the conversation.

Day in and day out, Bryan Burwell was the happiest person you could find in any press box, or in a media work room. In a profession of notorious grumps, he was good for morale. You’d show up, and grouse about something, and Burwell would turn and smile, offer support, and then get to work on repairing your mood.

And you didn’t have to be a media star, or a colleague, or a longterm friend to get Burwell’s attention or empathy. He always treated nervous young journalists with respect and caring, giving them so much of his time you’d think these kids were Pulitzer Prize winners. Burwell didn’t care about your status, or where you ranked on the ladder of journalism. If you shared a press box with Burwell, you were his equal. And if you needed his advice, he would patiently and generously offer it. There was no time limit on his kindness.

Until the end of his life, Bryan maintained the kind of enthusiasm that often wanes when sportswriters and broadcasters have been in the industry for a decade or two. Well, it was impossible to diminish his joy or take away his laughter. Not until Thursday, when this great man and cherished friend and colleague died too soon at age 59, succumbing to the evil cancer that he couldn’t conquer.

We’re all in a daze now. Bryan’s special wife Dawn and their beautiful daughter Victoria are devastated by his death, and we ask that you please keep them in your prayers.

The last few months have been agonizing. Bryan had been diagnosed in October, suddenly and without much warning. It was cruel. And it was hopeless. But oh man, how he tried to fight it.

When I received the stunning news of the cancer, the Cardinals were playing the Giants in the National League championship series. I was at AT&T Park in San Francisco. I headed out to the McCovey Cove area above right field. The park wasn’t open to the public; the first pitch was several hours away. And I cried like a blubbering-baby fool as I wrote a heartfelt email to him.

Burwell’s response: “Stay positive. I’m going to kick this thing’s butt,” he told told me in a text message.

You see, this is how it worked with Bryan. He went out of his way to provide comfort and good cheer to others, even as he coped with the horrific, unavoidable reality of a terminal illness.

Sports columnists can be rivals, and the relationships can turn sour, but this was never the case with Burwell. No chance; he wouldn’t let it happen. We worked alongside each other at the Post-Dispatch since 2002, and we had two disagreements – and needless to say, I was at fault both times. But Bryan always forgave me … with a hug.

In his final weeks, members of the Post-Dispatch sports department became Team Burwell and made visits to his home, usually carrying food to help Dawn through such an excruciating time. On some days, Bryan felt well enough to greet visitors, and it was special to hang out with him for a few hours. At other times, he was too weak to welcome company.

As a staff, as friends, we did what we could. We peppered him with text messages during games. We asked him for advice on what to write. We told him how much we missed his voice on our sports page. We prayed that he’d soon return, to grace his profession and our lives.

The last time I saw Burwell, I brought him some Maryland-style crab cakes that I’d prepared (a mutual love of ours) and Bryan was full of energy and spirit. It renewed our hope, if only briefly. We knew this sad day was coming. But we weren’t ready.

How can you be ready for something like this?

Burwell saw the best in everyone, but he had the courage to take a stand and express a strong and unpopular opinion. And as you probably can understand, it wasn’t always easy being an outspoken African American sports columnist who didn’t hesitate to take a stand. I cringe at the memory of some of the emails he received; you can only imagine. He would show a few to me every now and then and it made me crazy with anger. But you know what? The nastiness couldn’t take Burwell down. The viciousness probably stung him more than he’d let on, but he’d brush it off and continue being Burwell. A first-class man, all the way.

Astounded by his relentless civility, I once asked him: Why do you respond to people who are so vile and hateful? I’ll never forget Bryan’s answer. “Because they took the time to write,” Burwell said. “That’s the first thing. The other thing is, I can’t change the world we live in. But by having a conversation, I can try to change one heart at a time.”

And he meant it. Burwell put that into practice, every single day.

Burwell never lost sight of something important: He was doing exactly what he wanted to do, and he savored every moment, and he never stopped appreciating the experience — all of it, the good and the bad.

Bryan gave an interview to a young journalist a few years ago, and summed it up perfectly.

“The funny thing is I’ve had all my dream jobs,” he said. “I’ve been really fortunate. I’ve done a lot of stuff in my thirty some-odd years in the business. I’ve covered countless Olympic games. I’ve been to the NBA Finals. I’ve been to every Super Bowl since Super Bowl XVIII. I’ve been a columnist. I’ve worked for Real Sports. I’ve worked for Inside the NFL, CNN and TNT. I’ve been very, very, very lucky. I’ve truly been blessed. I’m enjoying everything. When I look back, I’ll be able to say no regrets, man. I did OK.”

I’ll have to disagree with my dear friend one last time.

You did OK?

Please.

No, Bryan Burwell.

You did a lot more than “OK.”

As a journalist in newspapers, TV and radio, you were a giant in your chosen field, and you were the kindest person that we ever encountered in this ornery, complex, ego-overloaded business.

And that is why so many people are aching inside today. Your reach expanded from coast to coast, and touched more people than we could possibly quantify. You made our corner of the sports world a much better place.

Thursday morning, after the sad news of Bryan’s death made its way onto Twitter, the immediate outpouring of love from media colleagues, sports executives and athletes from New York to Los Angeles — and all places in between — was amazing. But not surprising. This was one helluva human being.

Now that Bryan is gone, the press box will never be as warm again. It will be a much quieter place. I’m headed to Atlanta for the SEC Championship, and I’d give anything to sit next to him one more time. During Saturday’s game I’ll probably close my eyes, and hope to hear that famous, wondrous Burwell laughter. This is impossible, and this is cruel, and this is crushing. But I do know this: The familiar echo of that sweet, soul-replenishing laughter will always live in our hearts. He’ll never really leave us.

December 3, 2014 at 4:23 pm #12930

In reply to: defensive numbers last 5 games (this is amazing)

wv
Participant

Dak wrote:

I agree that was a bad game, and I wonder if that was a scheme issue or just an example of not being able to beat the Chargers’ offensive line consistently. I think this D will have trouble with any team that has a quality, healthy, stable offensive line. Add a veteran QB to that mix, and it’s even bigger trouble.

Yeah, the D has definitely improved dramatically
and the “light has gone on” and all…and its great
to see…but there’s still somethin not quite right
about this D. GW seems to have trouble with QBs
that can manage the game, patiently, with short
zingers.

w
v

December 2, 2014 at 3:24 pm #12862

Topic: The Best Offensive Minds

in forum The Rams Huddle

Agamemnon
Participant

http://mmqb.si.com/2014/12/02/nfl-mike-martz-adam-gase-mike-mccoy-mike-mccarthy-best-offensive-minds/
The MMQB with Peter King
The Best Offensive Minds
December 2, 2014 by Robert Klemko

SAN DIEGO — Football always seemed like war to Mike Martz. Not the carnage and loss—those don’t compare—but the strategy. Calling shots with the big-picture view of a general, he loved the way offensive football felt like moving 18th century battalions into the right position to stun the opposition. Attack and counterattack.

Fitting then, that his favorite book isn’t one of the Lombardi biographies or the spiritual tome My Utmost for His Highest, sitting within arm’s reach on the auburn desk inside the basement office of his San Diego home. It’s 1776, David McCullough’s telling of the bloody birth of the United States. Of particular interest to Martz are the military exploits of the Revolutionary War’s most famous general.

“I kind of thought I knew George Washington and his career,” he says. “But the author wrote this book so personally. Washington never buckled, and if he did, nobody ever knew about it.

“The thing I really admire, he was always a step ahead. Even though it might have hurt him, the emotion of losing New York, you have to find a way to get back in the fight. That’s a lot like football: Take the emotion out of it and fix the problem.”

Three years removed from his last coaching gig as the Bears’ offensive coordinator, Martz, 63, spends most of his days in his three-story home, which sits on a hill in a cul-de-sac neighborhood overlooking the coast. His office is just big enough for a desk and a few dozen mementos that tell the story of a football life.
Mike Martz, best known for overseeing The Greatest Show on Turf, in the basement office of his San Diego home, where he watched game tape with The MMQB. (Robert Klemko)

There’s a framed photo of his grandfather’s 1902 Yankton High School football team, which won South Dakota’s state championship. (Martz keeps a vacation home in South Dakota, where he was born, and has made a hobby of photographing its cascading mountains and snowscapes.) There’s a game ball from a 2002 win over the Raiders, the Rams’ first victory after losing Kurt Warner and five straight games to start the season. There’s a signed bat from Stan Musial, the baseball Hall of Famer who lunched with Martz when he was the head coach in St. Louis. Authentic NFL helmets, gifted by an equipment manager friend in 2000, line the ceiling. There’s a sun-stained Super Bowl XXXIV replica trophy from 1999, Martz’s first season as the Rams’ coordinator.

After 38 years of coaching, Martz’s legacy boils down to the Greatest Show on Turf, the record-setting offense he engineered with head coach Dick Vermeil and quarterback Kurt Warner in St. Louis. They were innovators who introduced the new concepts they dreamed up on napkins and notepads, picking apart defenses with the likes of Marshall Faulk, Isaac Bruce and Torry Holt.

I’m meeting with him in his basement seeking the answer to a broad-sweeping question: Who are the NFL’s new offensive pioneers?

“There was a time in the league when people were really creative, but that’s gone,” says Martz, picking through a pile of game-film DVDs that coaching friends and former protégés have mailed him. “There are a few guys who really know what they’re doing and are trying new things—or just putting a twist on old things.”

Martz entered the NFL in the early 1990’s as Buddy Ryan’s zone blitz or “zone dog” concepts were giving offenses fits. Watch any VHS tape of an NFL game from that decade and you’ll see two receivers releasing on third down, sometimes with tight ends and running backs being held back to block—an unthinkable and downright boring tactic by today’s standards.

“At the time, defense dominated football,” Martz says. “Offense didn’t have an answer for zone dog, so they just brought in more guys to block. It was frustrating. Defense dictated the game. We tried to flop that.”

“Playing defense is about rules,” Martz says. “If you understand their rules, you can put them in bad positions … when you know the defensive rules and you don’t take advantage of them, you ought to be fired.”

Martz’s answer was to vary personnel groups, creating mismatches by running the same play out of five different formations. He and his offensive contemporaries began emphasizing pre-snap motion to identify coverages and defensive plans. Soon enough, offenses began dictating the game. The 2000 Rams set an NFL record with 7,335 yards from scrimmage, surpassing the 1984 Dolphins’ mark by nearly 300 yards. (The Rams’ mark has since been surpassed by the 2013 Broncos and 2011 Saints.)

Using the numbers system for offensive play-calling handed down by Don Coryell, which is still in vogue with a handful of coaches, Martz came into his own as a game-planner and a play-caller just as the Rams accidentally discovered Warner, a former Arena league quarterback who turned out to be one of the greatest passers in a generation.

Twelve years and two Super Bowl appearances later, Martz resigned from his coordinator job in Chicago after the 2011 season, citing philosophical differences. Bears quarterback Jay Cutler later suggested the game had passed him by. Martz, who declined to speak about Cutler, says the opposite. Part of him wants another shot. A larger part of him is happy just watching the occasional game tape.

As he loads up the first DVD, Martz takes one look at the Broncos’ offense and the Colts’ defense and sighs.

“You know what’s funny?” he says. “I just realized I don’t know half these guys’ names anymore.”

What he recognizes these days is great coaching.

The three names Martz wants you to know—Adam Gase, the Bronco’s offensive coordinator; Mike McCoy, the Chargers’ head coach; and Mike McCarthy, the Packers head coach—are the types of game-planners and play-callers that make him long for the action on Sunday afternoons.
Adam Gase — Matchup Nightmares

Martz uses a clicker to skip through Denver’s season-opening win over the Colts. We watch every play two or three times, an old habit for the coach. On Mondays after games he might have watched the tape four times—by himself, with the coaches, with the quarterback, and, finally, with the offense.

We’re on a hunt for the coaching identity of Adam Gase, the Broncos’ 36-year-old coordinator. He began as a scouting assistant in Detroit in 2003 under Steve Marriucci and worked his way up to quarterbacks coach by 2007, the last of Martz’s two years as offensive coordinator with the Lions. After two seasons in Denver, Gase is arguably No. 1 on the unofficial list of head coaching candidates for 2015.

Martz hones in on one particular run. With 9:28 left in the first quarter, Montee Ball runs off tackle for four yards. No big deal, right? Watch again. There’s motion on the bottom of the screen. Gase knows from his film study that it’s de facto policy for the Colts to drop the strongside safety into the box when the offense is in a bunch formation, and to retreat the weakside safety. So he motions a receiver into bunch and Manning immediately calls for the snap.

martz-1

martz-2

Ball takes the handoff with both safeties out of their ideal positions; one is even retreating away from the play. If Ball could have made it beyond the first level, he had nothing but open field.

“This is big,” Martz says. “Playing defense is about rules. If you understand their rules, you can put them in bad positions.”

The Broncos have had problems running the ball, ranking 27th in the NFL in yards per game. Some of that falls on Manning as a play-caller. But Martz also sees it as a symptom of inexperience. Gase only sprinkles in the occasional zone-blocking run. Three years removed from his last coaching gig as the Bears’ offensive coordinator, Martz, 63, spends most of his days in his three-story home, which sits on a hill in a cul-de-sac neighborhood overlooking the coast. His office is just big enough for a desk and a few dozen mementos that tell the story of a football life. Three years removed from his last coaching gig as the Bears’ offensive coordinator, Martz, 63, spends most of his days in his three-story home, which sits on a hill in a cul-de-sac neighborhood overlooking the coast. His office is just big enough for a desk and a few dozen mementos that tell the story of a football life. “If you want to run zone-running plays, you have to do it over and over again. You have to have reps,” Martz says. “Twenty years ago it was difficult to evaluate quarterbacks because they might have thrown 120 times a year. Now it’s 450. You used to be able to evaluate running backs. Now that’s switched.”

Where Gase thrives, though, is in the passing game.

Second quarter, 6:50 remaining. Martz recognizes an old standby: 288 special, so named by Coryell. Two receivers run identical posts on the left side of the field, hence ‘88’.

martz-3

On their way to winning Super Bowl XXXIV, Martz ran this exact play on the Rams’ first play of their divisional-round victory over the Vikings in January 2000. Isaac Bruce took the inside post route 78 yards for a touchdown. On the Fox broadcast, John Madden exclaimed, “He did it!” So confident was Dick Vermeil that he told the broadcast crew they’d run 288 on the first play. In the aftermath, Madden drew it up as only he can.

martz-4

The Rams got the play from Norv Turner, who at the time “used to run the heck out of it,” Martz says. But Gase runs his own tweaked version of 288, which demonstrates his ability to create mismatches. On this play against Indianapolis, Gase positions his best pass-catching tight end, Julius Thomas, in a three-point stance, and a blocking tight end as the wing. Thomas will cross the field and the face of the defense.

martz-5

Consider these contingencies:

A) If the Colts are in man defense, Gase and Manning know the linebacker will cover the tight end on the inside while the better-qualified safety will check the wing, because most offenses position the more agile player as the wing. Julius Thomas would then be covered by linebacker D’Qwell Jackson. No-brainer.

B) If the Colts are in a Cover 2, Manning will try to look off one of the safeties and throw the open post.

C) If it’s Cover 3, Thomas might still be open underneath, and you can always check down to the running back.

The Colts were in man coverage, and Thomas beat Jackson (of course) for a 35-yard touchdown.

martz-6

“As a coach,” Martz says, “you have to have an answer for the quarterback so he knows where he’s supposed to go with the ball against every coverage. If Thomas was the wing, the safety would cover him. But by sticking him inside, now that linebacker has him. The safety wants to cover, and it’s logical for the safety to cover him, but he’s told not to.

“That, by design, is outstanding. It’d be easy to put him on the wing, but Adam knows the defense’s rules. All the little details work out really well. Very few people do this.

“They’ve got good players, and he knows what to do with them. He puts guys in position to have success. It would be easy to do the same stuff over and over, but each week he’s going to create.”
Mike McCoy — Deciphering Defenses

My trip to San Diego included a conversation with Mike McCoy on the progress of Philip Rivers. It was McCoy who had impressed upon Rivers in 2013 the value of what some call the dink-and-dunk: As a quarterback, read almost everything in the passing game from low to high, rather than from high to low. Asked how many quarterbacks would be better in that sort of offense, McCoy said, “All 32 of them.”

Martz’s offenses were never so patient, but in the Chargers head coach he sees football’s best offensive mind, saying, “I think right now he might be the best head coach in the league.”

Martz pulls up San Diego’s signature win of the season, a dethroning of sorts of the Seahawks in Week 2.

“Here’s how they won this game, and it wasn’t a fluke,” Martz says. “Real low risk, didn’t ask Rivers to hold the ball long or throw it down the field. Just run downhill on these guys. A team like Seattle that does a lot of stuff on defense, they can stunt themselves right out of the running game.”

During their opening drive, which resulted in a field goal, the Chargers lined up in a left-heavy formation, got set, and then abruptly shifted to the right, sending Seattle’s defense into disarray. The result: a four-yard gain off tackle.

Here’s what the Seahawks’ defense looked like just before the ball was snapped:

martz-7

“Whether it’s a good play or a bad play, he’s got them on their heels,” Martz says. “To get three yards on these guys is tough in the running game. No. 93 doesn’t even have his hand on the ground and he’s getting ear-holed at the snap.

“Anytime you can get a defense just a half a step off, you’ve got a leg up on them.”

A testament to Seattle’s defense, the Chargers managed less than 70 rushing yards in their 30-21 win. Most of the offensive production rested on Rivers and the passing game. At the beginning of the next drive, the Chargers’ formation caused Seattle’s linebackers to betray a careful disguise.

martz-8

Antonio Gates motioned inside from the right, and nobody on defense moved a muscle. That’s by design: Carroll and Quinn want the passer to think he’s playing against a zone, but it’s really a man defense with rules that say the strongside linebacker covers the slot receiver and the safety covers the second receiver from the sideline.

“Seattle’s whole thing is disguising the coverage and beating you at the line of scrimmage before you recuperate,” Martz says. “That’s how they won the Super Bowl.”

The hope is that a five-man rush can get there before Rivers figures it out.

But the Chargers’ pre-snap alignment gives Rivers a glimpse of Seattle’s scheme. Because the running back is to the right of the quarterback on the three-receiver side, linebacker Malcolm Smith lines up over the center. Though he doesn’t want to betray Seattle’s ruse, Smith also doesn’t want to get beaten on a route to the strongside flats. “Rivers recognizes this,” Martz says, “and you don’t figure that out without being prepared and having a very specific understanding of how the defense will react to your sets.”

Rivers knows it’s man coverage, and he also knows linebacker Bobby Wagner is responsible for Antonio Gates, who catches the ball 15 yards downfield.

“Know the man coverage beater on every play,” Martz says. “The first thing he’s looking at is the linebackers. If they’re out of position, he’s not even looking downfield. He’s checking down. That’s too easy.”
Mike McCarthy — Understanding Tendencies

Great football tickles Mike Martz. Outstanding audibles make him squeal. Well-drawn-up plays send him into man-crush mode.

“You want to talk about a great coach?” he asks. “Check out Mike McCarthy.”

His level of preparation is what stands out the most. We watch only 30 seconds of Green Bay’s Week 5 victory over Minnesota before identifying something special.

martz-9

On first-and-10 near midfield, Rodgers recognizes a defensive alignment and checks to a run off the left guard. Eddie Lacy takes the handoff for 29 yards, setting up a Packers touchdown.

“This is a run check. See the two tackles, outside shade on the guards? You never have that unless it’s third-and-long. It’s probably going to be a double plug up the middle by the backers. So you check to this run, and if he gets through there, there’s no scraping linebacker. You’ve got to look at a lot of tape and really understand the defense to know that’s going to happen.”

The ensuing touchdown was an eight-yard flip to Randall Cobb, who has 922 receiving yards and 10 touchdowns through 12 games. Says Martz, “I tried to get Chicago to draft him, but they said, ‘No. Too little, not really a receiver.’ ”

We skip ahead to Rodgers’ 66-yard touchdown bomb to Jordy Nelson, who beats safety Harrison Smith with a double move to the post. The play appears to be a masterful combination of ability, planning and execution. Martz explains the concept of boundary coverage. When the offense is on a particular hash mark, the wider side of the field is known as ‘field.’ Some coordinators will ask one safety to cover the short half, and two other players to split the larger ‘field’ in half.

martz-10

“This cracks me up. McCarthy knows that when he’s in a certain personnel, [Vikings head coach Mike] Zimmer will leave the safety on the short side of the field responsible for half the field with the safety and the other cornerback responsible for the other half. His stat guy is telling him that.

martz-11

“He runs play-action to give Jordy Nelson time to execute the double-move,” Martz says. “The receiver on the bottom runs a dig, because McCarthy knows the safety will bite on it. That leaves Jordy Nelson and No. 22 [Smith] all alone back there. Any safety back there might not be able to cover that.

“This is what it’s all about. When you know the defensive rules and you don’t take advantage of them, you ought to be fired.”

* * *

martz-800

Retired NFL players talk about struggling to find what comes next. After his last coaching gig, Martz got an immediate answer: television. He worked as an analyst for Fox for a year, but found the work impersonal and the workplace fractured by politics.

The idea of getting back into coaching is enticing, and he has no shortage of friends still in the business. Of the 22 players who started during his senior year at Fresno State, 17 went into coaching. (Martz was a tight end.) There are consulting offers to be had, similar to Al Saunders’ role in Oakland. But being the experienced voice that chimes in with advice doesn’t appeal to Martz. Eventually, he’d want to run the show.

“I think about going back all the time,” he says. “But you can’t just kind of go back. You’ve got to go back and do it right.”

For him, that would mean going to a team that values innovation around a traditional drop-back quarterback.

“Personnel guys fall in love with a guy who can make plays with his legs,” Martz says of quarterbacks such as Robert Griffin III and Michael Vick. “You tell a personnel guy, ‘OK, your job depends on whether he can win games for us, and if you’re telling me he’s going to win us games by running the football, you’re nuts.’ Then they start having second thoughts.

“Your quarterback has to be a terrific passer first. See the field, make good decisions, and then throw it straight. That’s where RG3 fails. He wants to hold onto the ball when he should let it loose. You can’t cloud up the fact that this game is still played by passers.”

It’s something that Gase, McCoy and McCarthy know better than anyone else.
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Agamemnon

November 28, 2014 at 8:33 am #12609

Topic: Ray-Ray

in forum The Rams Huddle
wv
Participant
Ray-Ray plays for the Raiders,
you know.

w
v

http://www.contracostatimes.com/raiders/ci_27024468/raiders-prepping-rams-special-special-teams

“…Ray-Ray Armstrong, a Raiders linebacker and special teams player who was cut by the Rams on Oct. 6 and claimed by Oakland the next day, said, “We know if they’ve got the chance they’re going to run a couple of fakes. We’ll be ready.”… see link

====================

[www.sfgate.com]

Raiders’ Murray uncertain for Sunday’s game

Raiders running back Latavius Murray had done his share of waiting patiently this season before his opportunity arose last week, so he is not going to rush back now — even after breaking through with a two-touchdown game.

Murray, who left the Nov. 20 win over the Chiefs with a concussion, was limited again in practice Thursday. He hasn’t passed the league’s battery of concussion tests, and he is questionable for Sunday’s game in St. Louis.

“He still has one step to go, we’re not there yet,” Raiders interim coach Tony Sparano said.

Murray, who has been behind Darren McFadden and Maurice Jones-Drew on the depth chart, had 112 yards and two touchdowns on four carries, but sustained the concussion on a helmet-to-helmet hit on the last one.

Murray said he doesn’t have any lingering effects from the concussion.

“I’ve felt fine, and I’m feeling better each day,” Murray said. “With these kind of things you have to take it one day at a time and follow the right procedures. I’m making sure to do that and listen to what the trainers have me doing.”

Murray tweeted to fans that he was doing well the day after the game, and said he is flattered that he is looked at as a bright spot in a dismal 1-10 season.

“It’s a great feeling for people to want to see you out there,” Murray said. “Obviously I’ve always wanted to be out there and play and be able to get the ball in my hands, so it feels good.”

He fumbled on the play where he was injured, which is something Sparano brought up when asked whether Murray, who had only 10 carries on the season before his big game, moves to the front of the running back line.

“I still have room for improvement,” Murray said. “Again, the ball was on the ground out there, so I have to clean that up. I think I just have to continue to get better and when I’m up, I need to just be ready to go.”

Teammates were surprised at how fast Murray was going on his 90-yard touchdown run. James Jones and Charles Woodson both told the 6-foot-3, 230-pound second-year back that they had no idea he had that in him.

“I think I might confuse a lot of people, just me being so tall and they might not know I have that kind of speed,” Murray said. Woodson “didn’t know I was that fast, but again, I know what I’m capable of, and it was definitely nice to pull a big one off like that.”

Tight end Mychal Rivera keyed the big run with a nice block inside.

“I saw that backside cut and just hit it,” Murray said. “Just took off and didn’t look back until I crossed that goal line.”

Meanwhile, guard Gabe Jackson (knee) practiced for a second straight day, but Sparano sounded skeptical about his chances of playing against the Rams.
- This topic was modified 11 years, 3 months ago by wv.
November 26, 2014 at 11:47 am #12558

In reply to: This Sunday in San Diego Lot P3

GreatRamNTheSky
Participant

Agamemnon wrote:

<SPAN style=”COLOR: blue” class=d4pbbc-font-color>Looks like you had a good time, GRITS.</SPAN>

It was a wonderful day. It was great being with all those Rams fans pour their hearts out for that team.
So sad the officiating was so subpar. We didn’t deserve that. Seems like we always get weird stuff happen to the Rams during these games in San Diego.

Hill throwing that INT as we are so close to winning that game was a dagger in the heart. I’m sorry, I understand the point about no player loses a game by himself, but, this time I think fits. He had no excuse for throwing that ball and even he would tell you that. This team is so close to being good that we cannot afford screw ups like that.

Hill actually overcame a good deal of adversity to lead the team to the brink of winning. His passes to Bailey and then the clutch pass to Britt was amazing. Rams deserved a better fate than that damn interception at the end. The Chargers did not deserve to win that game and the Rams did.

I can see this team is finally turning the corner. If they go 9-7 they probably will not make the playoffs but, its all there, it really is. I think Fisher has this team on the right track, we just have to remain patient and stay the course with Fisher.

Again, meeting Dickerson and seeing Ferragamo again, as I have met him many times before was wonderful. Meeting Jim Thomas was great even if I often do not agree with his pro keep the Rams in STL viewpoint. He was very nice and showed a lot of class.

Its getting better folks it really is. And I whether the Rams are in LA, which I believe they will be or where ever, I think good times are ahead for Rams fans.

Grits

November 26, 2014 at 10:23 am #12552

Topic: JT: Bailey finally resurfaces

in forum The Rams Huddle

wv
Participant

Bailey finally resurfaces as option in passing game
By Jim Thomas jthomas

[www.stltoday.com]

When the NFL revised it drug policy in September, it meant Stedman Bailey’s four-game league suspension was cut in half.

After sitting out the opener against Minnesota as well as Game 2 against Tampa Bay, Bailey made his season debut two games early — against Dallas in Game 3. Based on how he closed his rookie season in 2013, plus his impressive play during spring practices and training camp, the Rams offense would be the better for it.

It was only natural to expect a brief adjustment period when Bailey returned, maybe a couple of weeks before he really got going. But in one of this season’s bigger mysteries, those couple weeks turned into half a season.

Bailey must’ve been on a milk carton somewhere, because he wasn’t on the field. In his first four games post-suspension, he participated in an average of nine offensive plays.

During that stretch, he was on the field nearly twice as much on special teams (66 plays) than at wide receiver (37). Of course, one of those special teams plays did result in arguably the most exciting play of the Rams’ season — Bailey’s 90-yard punt return for a TD on the “Mountaineer” play, with Tavon Austin serving as a decoy for Seattle’s punt coverage team.

As for wide receiver, almost every week coach Jeff Fisher would say the team wanted to get Bailey more involved. But Bailey was targeted only five times in his first four games, catching two passes for 20 yards.

Offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer pointed out that there was only one football to go around. And as trite as that sounded, there was some truth to it.

Once Bailey’s suspension was lifted — and when Austin returned Oct. 5 against Philly after missing one and a half games with a knee injury — the Rams were trying to work six wide receivers into their rotation.

“I just know that this is a game of patience,” Bailey said. “Sometimes you’ve got to be patient. And whenever your number’s called, make sure you’re there to make the play.”

But the herd was thinned in late October. After being a surprise pre-game inactive against Seattle, Austin Pettis was released Oct. 20. Six days later in Kansas City, the Rams’ most productive wide receiver — Brian Quick — suffered a season-ending shoulder injury.

At that point, the Rams really didn’t have a choice. They had to play Bailey. He was in for 64 percent of the offensive plays Nov. 2 at San Francisco and 74 percent the following week at Arizona, but the ball still wasn’t coming his way. He was thrown to just three times in those two games, with just a seven-yard catch to show for it.

Bailey showed a pulse two Sundays ago in the upset of Denver with three catches for 26 yards. Then — finally — came the breakout game in San Diego. Bailey had a team-high seven catches for 89 yards and a touchdown in the Ram’s 27-24 loss. He was targeted nine times, which tied for the team-high total with tight end Jared Cook.

Those were the kinds of numbers expected from Bailey on a regular basis based on his play last summer.

“Stedman’s been great all camp, all spring,” QB Sam Bradford had said after the team’s Aug. 2 scrimmage at the Edward Jones Dome. “I think he’s gonna be a big part of what we do when he gets back.”

Better late than never.

Why it took until the Sunday before Thanksgiving to see Bailey play a meaningful role in the offense remains a puzzle.

“It’s just games and situations and opportunities,” Fisher said. “We’re settling in right now to a really good group.”

Meaning Kenny Britt, Austin, and Bailey.

When asked if anything had held back Bailey before the San Diego game, Fisher replied: “No, he’s been obviously doing really good things for us on special teams. But it’s Shaun (Hill) throwing the ball where the ball’s supposed to go.

“I was really disappointed in the call that brought back Sted’s big play that got us inside the 10. They called a hold on Greg (Robinson).”

The flag wiped out what would’ve been a 23-yard gain by Bailey to the San Diego 8 late in the first quarter. The Rams settled for a field goal and their first points of the game. Otherwise, Bailey would’ve posted only the second 100-yard game receiving game of the season for the Rams.

As it was, the seven catches and 89 yards were career highs for Bailey, a third-round pick out of West Virginia.

“It was very exciting for me to finally get involved in the game plan, to be able to make some plays out there,” he said. “But overall, we didn’t win the game. We’ve just got to keep fighting and hope for the next one.”

These final five games of 2014 could be very important for Bailey in terms of staking a claim to a starting spot, or at the very least a significant role in the receiver corps in 2015.

“I feel like things will get better from here on out with me being more involved in the offense and being able to catch passes,” Bailey said. “So I look forward to that, and I’m just gonna continue to keep working.”

ROSTER MOVES

The Rams released WR Damian Williams, who has been bothered recently by a hamstring injury, and replaced him with TE Justice Cunningham, who was brought up from their practice squad. Another NFL team was interested in signing Cunningham to its active roster; the Rams liked him enough to promote him to their 53-man roster.

THANKSGIVING

For the 20th consecutive year in St. Louis, Rams players teamed up with the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis to distribute Thanksgiving meals to 2,000 needy families on Tuesday. Rams players contributed $35,000 for the project, with every player on the squad donating

November 24, 2014 at 9:32 am #12427

Topic: SD game reactions from around the net

in forum The Rams Huddle

zn
Moderator

thehammer

Rams need to find their own Phillips Rivers…he won the chess match between himself and Gregg Williams…Rivers has his highest qbr when blitzed 121.9

very tough road game…to me looked like a playoff game between 2 good teams…good teams make plays against each other..real slugfest and fun to watch…IF the rams play as well as they did yesterday they will win their next 4 games

still some things to fix

Rams 12 missed tackles SD 3….3rd worst of the season 18 vs Minn 13 vs KC..miss tackles/lose the game..they go hand in hand

no team plays for tie on the road…running on 1st down to take some time off the clock then passing was the right call…

Robinson had a brutal game…-6 now ranked 70-79 ot’s. His allowing the strip by Luiget was a killer…

Jenkins int was cool but the hustle play he made to strip Allen of the ball running 15+ yards after being beaten was very very cool…

people need to realize Hill is a solid qb with a long resume…he will play to his career numbers 43-26 td/int ratio with solid sack rate/int rate..overhyping him when he does well or going all ape shit when he plays bad is pointless and stupid…

Hill has started 26 games in his career with 1910 snaps…basically 2 full years as a starter…his career passer rating is 85.8..last weeks passer rating was 102.7….anyone ever study stats? Odds are very good he will move to his career stats the longer he plays

Watched him enough at camp to know Davis never should of been starting BUT also know Hill isn’t the most accurate qb in the world either…those slightly misthrown balls were expected…

fun watching a qb throwing deep outs…and actually throwing passes to his wr’s again

Future? Hill and the team will be fine

====

leoram44

Here’s what I posted last week:

I realized earlier this week that I was drunk on Bronco Spiked Kool-Aid so I actually watched some Charger games to see what we can expect.

I don’t like this matchup at all. They have the kind of offense that can negate our pass rush. They are very good at the screen game. Their running game when they use Oliver looks like ours did last year with Stacy. Floyd and Allen are no joke and Rivers is an F’in warrior! Gates still uses his body like Karl Malone did getting entry passes from Stockton. I believe they will be patient and not expose Rivers to much abuse.

They also run a high risk/reward defense and will load up to negate our running game. They frequently use overload blitzes and are smart about how they take away the hot routes on the other side. Other than Weddle, they don’t have any dominant defenders but the sum of their parts is pretty darned solid. They are well coached and don’t have glaring weaknesses.

I’m not saying the Rams won’t win this game but we will need the following to happen:

1) Jenkins needs to keep Allen and Floyd in front of him.
2) Donald needs to blow up their interior line on a regular basis.
3) Alert, play action over and over and over.
4) More mistake free football from Hill.
5) Mason must have at least 80 yards and Cunningham 3 catches.
6) Keep the penalties down. .

Back to today: Hill didn’t play mistake free ball and penalties cost us again. The rest of it happened which is encouraging.

November 12, 2014 at 2:44 am #11651

In reply to: anyone here ever hurt their knee?

Eternal Ramnation
Participant

zn wrote:

I keep reading around how some fans think with the knee thing, Bradford can’t take a hit.

Means they don’t understand knee injuries.

Now this does not mean he can come back or can’t. It has nothing to do with that. It just has to do with how you can hurt a knee.

Those who know all this, know that hyper-extended knees do not need to be hit.

They come from planting the leg awkwardly with the weight and pressure working the wrong direction.

If that sounds abstract, believe me, it ain’t. I have hyper-extended my knees several times, just fortunately not severely enough to tear an ACL doing it.

One time, I was 17, driving along on a weathery day, and I saw this car had gone off a country road near my house so I stopped to help others who had also stopped. We were going to push him out of a muddy field back on to the road. I was 17. I turned my leg wrong while pushing and the pain was like nothing I had ever gone through (though I have had it again a couple of times since). My knee swole up, I could barely walk. I’ve had kidney stones and if I had to choose between the 2, I would take the stones again, not the knee. If you have never gone through it, you have no idea.

Nothing hit my knee. It didn’t hit anything.

That’s what happened to Bradford. Awkward angle, hyper-extension, a tear, and those who know about knees know, it has nothing to do with being hit. It’s just a freak thing.

This idea that someone who hyper-extends a knee can’t take a hit is a complete crock and is just based on not understanding anything about this.

You bend it a certain way awkwardly and the body twists wrong in relation to it, and zap–your knee goes. And it hurts like you would not believe. The 2nd time the lineman was hanging on him, the leg just bent wrong.

Most recent knee for me was in the spring. I was sawing wood with a chainsaw. I had heavy protective boots on, gloves, goggles, and just turned wrong at one point. My leg turned, the boot was sunk in the mud and didn’t turn. This time it didn’t hurt till later. Doctor said I had a bruised meniscus. I was on a cane for a couple of weeks and had to pick my angles in a choosy way to sleep. It felt bad moving around but this time it was nothing like the times when I was young and twisted it wrong followed immediately by “you don’t want to go there” level pain.

So I get very impatient with the types who say “well he didn’t get hit hard.” Cause. It. Has. Nothing. To. Do. With. Being. Hit.

…

He didn’t get hit at all on the first tear. That said, it doesn’t mean he can take a hit either,he had a concussion shoulder twice finger ankle and now the knee twice. That kind of history doesn’t exactly scream durability. He’s played in 49 games out of what is a possible 80 at the end of this season. Is not being able to run out of bounds on your own really better? If he can’t get on the field what difference does it make

November 11, 2014 at 9:10 pm #11640

Topic: anyone here ever hurt their knee?

in forum The Rams Huddle

zn
Moderator

I keep reading around how some fans think with the knee thing, Bradford can’t take a hit.

Means they don’t understand knee injuries.

Now this does not mean he can come back or can’t. It has nothing to do with that. It just has to do with how you can hurt a knee.

Those who know all this, know that hyper-extended knees do not need to be hit.

They come from planting the leg awkwardly with the weight and pressure working the wrong direction.

If that sounds abstract, believe me, it ain’t. I have hyper-extended my knees several times, just fortunately not severely enough to tear an ACL doing it.

One time, I was 17, driving along on a weathery day, and I saw this car had gone off a country road near my house so I stopped to help others who had also stopped. We were going to push him out of a muddy field back on to the road. I was 17. I turned my leg wrong while pushing and the pain was like nothing I had ever gone through (though I have had it again a couple of times since). My knee swole up, I could barely walk. I’ve had kidney stones and if I had to choose between the 2, I would take the stones again, not the knee. If you have never gone through it, you have no idea.

Nothing hit my knee. It didn’t hit anything.

That’s what happened to Bradford. Awkward angle, hyper-extension, a tear, and those who know about knees know, it has nothing to do with being hit. It’s just a freak thing.

This idea that someone who hyper-extends a knee can’t take a hit is a complete crock and is just based on not understanding anything about this.

You bend it a certain way awkwardly and the body twists wrong in relation to it, and zap–your knee goes. And it hurts like you would not believe. The 2nd time the lineman was hanging on him, the leg just bent wrong.

Most recent knee for me was in the spring. I was sawing wood with a chainsaw. I had heavy protective boots on, gloves, goggles, and just turned wrong at one point. My leg turned, the boot was sunk in the mud and didn’t turn. This time it didn’t hurt till later. Doctor said I had a bruised meniscus. I was on a cane for a couple of weeks and had to pick my angles in a choosy way to sleep. It felt bad moving around but this time it was nothing like the times when I was young and twisted it wrong followed immediately by “you don’t want to go there” level pain.

So I get very impatient with the types who say “well he didn’t get hit hard.” Cause. It. Has. Nothing. To. Do. With. Being. Hit.

…

November 6, 2014 at 2:18 pm #11333

In reply to: Can Davis rebound

cgsuddeath
Participant

If he is patient,Yes.

November 4, 2014 at 1:02 am #11157

Topic: RamView, 11/2/2014: Rams 13, 49ers 10 (Long)

in forum The Rams Huddle

mfranke
Participant

RamView, November 2, 2014
From The Couch
(Report and opinions on the game.)
Game #8: Rams 13, 49ers 10

Sack City has officially opened for business, as the Ram defense dominated with EIGHT sacks and carried the sputtering offense to a huge upset over the 49ers. The Rams may finally be who we thought they were.

Position by position:
* QB: Grace under fire wasn’t always a strength for Austin Davis (13-24-105, 44.6 PR) this week. The 49er rush had him running around like a chicken with its head cut off and he also threw like one at times. In the 1st, he rolled out and tried to feather a pass over Antoine Bethea and to Tavon Austin; rookie mistake, the ball was never getting over Bethea. The INT set up a quick 49er TD. Next possession, Davis made up for that with an even worse throw. Running for his life but spotting Kenny Britt breaking deep for what should have been a long TD, he launched a throw well short and picked off easily by Perrish Cox. Davis had to run around like a madman at times just to be able to throw the ball away, though he preserved a FG by doing so in the 1st. When he got overwhelmed and sacked late in the 2nd, the TV announcers actually started calling for Shaun Hill, but Sack City forced a fumble and Davis rallied a little. He beat a blitz with a screen to Benny Cunningham for 17 and got Britt wide open in the flat for a 21-yard TD to tie the game at 10 at halftime. By avoiding disaster in the 2nd half, Davis allowed the Rams to stay in the game. His main job in the 2nd half was to hand off to Tre Mason and make short, quick passes, but that helped keep the Rams ahead in the field position game. We wish he would have thrown a screen pass away that instead lost the Rams 8 yards in the 3rd. On 3rd-and-1 with about 3:00 to go, we wish he could have seen Lance Kendricks cruising all alone downfield, maybe even tossed the ball out there anyway, since the play was designed to go to him and would have put the game away. But he threw the ball away, saving the chance to pin the 49ers deep, and the Rams needed every inch of that long field over those final minutes. And who knows how big this play was – after the 49ers shanked a punt to put the Rams in gift scoring range in the 4th, on 3rd down, Davis avoided a big rush by Aaron Lynch and hit Cunningham up the left flat for 8 yards. Not a first down, but after Greg Zuerlein barely scraped in a 39-yard FG, it felt like that little screen pass saved the Rams 3 points, and maybe the game to boot. It was by no means pretty. Austin Davis has elevated the Ram offense some weeks and this clearly wasn’t one of them. Once the offense put him in game manager mode, though, he hung in there and got them the W.

* RB: After a weird continuity break last week, the Rams are back to Tre Mason (19-65) as their feature back, at the expense of Zac Stacy (0-0). Mason earns this role as the more complete back. There is more power in his speed game than there is speed in Stacy’s power game. Benny Cunningham (4-10) started, but Mason brought the goods on the Rams’ 1st FG drive. He banged out 4- and 5-yard runs behind Greg Robinson, then made a big blitz pickup. Then another 6-yard run he finished by running OVER Michael Wilhoite, and another 4-yarder he finished by taking on 2 49ers downfield. That’s physical play worthy of any RB. Mason opened the 2nd half with a 22-yard burst off the right side, running through another Wilhoite tackle attempt. He then pounded out a 5-yard run and cut back for another 6. The kid shows a lot toward being a complete runner. He goes hard and does not go down on first contact. He builds up speed quickly and can get outside. Good ball security this week. Where Mason did not succeed was as the back who chews up the clock at the end of the game. He got stuffed going up the middle on most of his late carries, and on a 3rd-and-1 to seal the game, the Rams felt better throwing instead of running. Perhaps a fresh Stacy should have played a role in there somewhere? It was Cunningham who made the big play by a RB anyway, back in the 2nd, beating a blitz on a bubble screen for 17 (he was 3-38 as a receiver) to set up the Rams’ lone TD. The final division of labor at RB is still settling into place, but this game looked pretty close to where it’s going to need to be.

* Receivers: Might as well combine all the receivers, almost no one’s doing anything. This week’s possible exception: Kenny Britt (2-32), who scored the Rams’ only TD and missed out on another when Davis badly underthrew him after he broke open deep in the 1st. Both were simple coverage breakdowns – the TD came because the MLB failed to pick him up over the middle – but Britt at least made a couple of plays. Who else did? Jared Cook (2-12) had his second straight quiet week. I don’t think he was even targeted after the 1st quarter. Lance Kendricks (1-7) contributed well as a run-blocker and could have had a long TD at the end of the game had Davis gotten more than a second to throw. Cory Harkey (0-0) missed a couple of run blitz pickups that helped stall out drives. The small WRs contributed next to nothing: Tavon Austin 2-11, Stedman Bailey 1-7, Chris Givens 0-0. That golden moment where Davis has time to throw AND a receiver gets open just isn’t coming in this passing game these days.

* Offensive line: Neither offensive line won on their side of the trenches this week. The Rams just lost by a lot less. Davis was under so much pressure, it’s hard to believe he was sacked only once. His linemen can thank him for his mobility that it wasn’t at least half a dozen. And the funny thing is, after a hiccup by Joseph Barksdale and Davin Joseph on an opening 3-and-out, they did a good job picking up the stunts they had been helpless against in the first game. Both tackles continue to struggle against edge speed, though. Davis had to run for his life on his 2nd INT in the first place because Barksdale got beaten badly outside. Greg Robinson’s struggles with speed at LT may be the line’s biggest issue. He’s getting knocked off-balance by much-smaller DEs; it has to be technique. Though Joseph “officially” gave up the only sack, to Aaron Lynch, that play broke down when Robinson got bull-rushed by the much smaller Ahmad Brooks. Brooks beat him again in the 3rd to force a wild Davis throwaway. The Rams went nowhere on their final FG drive after Scott Wells, wearing the largest arm brace I’ve ever seen, got beaten off the snap on a 2nd down run and Robinson was beaten by Lynch to blow up the 3rd down play. With a chance to seal the game and Kendricks breaking all alone downfield on 3rd-and-1, Robinson again got beaten badly and Davis never really got to see what had developed. The Rams ran well when they ran to the edge. Mason got a couple of good gains behind Robinson on the 1st FG drive and another behind Joseph. Barksdale helped open the hole for Mason’s long run of 22 in the 3rd. Middle runs were more of a problem, between run blitzes not getting picked up and Wells losing off the snap a couple of times. He also killed a drive with a holding penalty. Robinson’s shown he can maul; he absolutely flattened a guy on the edge on the Britt TD, so not only was Britt wide open, Davis had a nice, wide throwing lane. The whole Ram passing game, though, is hanging quite a lot on Robinson’s learning curve.

* Defensive line: A little NFL Films “voice of God” music, if you please. The Rams laid siege to Colin Kaepernick with the fury of eight weeks of frustration. William Hayes sacked him on the 49ers’ 2nd drive, whipping Anthony Davis on the edge while Aaron Donald beat Alex Boone and kept Kaepernick from running. Hayes and a blitz flushed Kaepernick again on 3rd down to polish off that drive. James Laurinaitis (!) blitzed past Frank Gore to drop Kaepernick early in the 2nd. Sack City picked up Davis after his bad INT later in the 2nd. Hayes, completely unblocked, fired in to take down Kaepernick. Then, after the Rams were gypped out of a fumble return TD, Laurinaitis fired up the middle and blew a sack, but Robert Quinn cleaned up on the play. Four sacks before halftime? Sack City wasn’t done, either. With just 3 down linemen, but two LBs blitzing, Eugene Sims pushed Boone into Kaepernick, and Quinn hammered him from behind for a sack/fumble. Sims recovered that, and it set up the Rams’ only TD. And the halftime show could still wait. 0:19 left, on just a 4-man rush, Donald trucked the hapless Boone into Kaepernick, flushing him to Sims for the Rams’ SIXTH sack of the half. The 49ers tried to adjust to this onslaught in the 2nd half but crumbled instead. They made it to FG range in the 3rd before Donald burned the center and tripped Kaepernick up for sack number SEVEN. If that didn’t put the 49ers out of FG range, the dropped shotgun snap between the shaky QB and his shaky backup center surely did, with Michael Brockers getting a tackle-for-loss. (Not a SACK? Darn.) Backed up at their goal line in the 4th and the Rams looming over them like an Imperial Star Destroyer, the 49ers got twitchier than a Wookiee with a bad case of sand fleas. Mike Iupati jumped. Frank Gore jumped. On 3rd down, as he’d been doing all day, Quinn whipped Joe Staley, forcing Kaepernick to step up… into Brockers, who dropped him just past the goal line for the Rams’ EIGHTH sack. That and a shanked punt set up the game-winning FG. The Rams couldn’t quite run out the clock and let the 49ers get down to the 1-yard line with time running out. But Sims, who played out of his mind this week, pressured Kaepernick into throwing a pass away on 2nd-and-goal, and the nervous Niners couldn’t push across on 3rd-and-goal without messing up the snap and losing the ball. This is the pass rush dominance we’ve waited for all season. This is what won the game for the Rams this week almost single-handedly. This is how we do things in Sack City.

* Linebackers: Big bounceback week for all three Rams LBs, though there was an early Gore run where they all stunk – Alec Ogletree got wiped out by the RT Davis, Laurinaitis got cleared aside by fullback Bruce Miller and Jo-Lonn Dunbar made an embarrassing whiff – but that did not last long. The three were blitzing forces unlike anything they’d been all year. Laurinaitis got home for a sack early in the 2nd and just missed on Quinn’s first sack later in the quarter. Pressure by Laurinaitis and Ogletree set the table for Quinn’s sack/fumble after that. The two also combined for a strip (Ogletree) of Gore and a fumble return TD (Laurinaitis) that SHOULD have counted. Ogletree was everywhere, in easily his best game of the year. He stuffed Gore a couple of times, nearly picked off a pass intended for Vernon Davis, and blew up a screen on a blitz in addition to all those other plays he made. Laurinaitis made the play of the game, though. With the 49ers at the 1 with 0:10 left, Kaepernick and his center essentially pulled off Butt Fumble II. Kaepernick completely lost control of the ball trying to lunge across the goal line, and who better to win a game-deciding battle royale than the son of a Road Warrior? Laurinaitis came out of the pile holding the ball high, sealing a hard-earned victory for the Rams in what’s been a hard first half to the season.

* Secondary: The Rams looked determined from the outset to make this game much different from the timid soft zone coverage of the first meeting. On the opening drive, with a 3rd down blitz on the way, Lamarcus Joyner jumped Anquan Boldin’s slant route and broke up the pass. Three weeks ago that would have been a big gain because Joyner would still have been ten yards away. Marcus Roberson jumped Vernon Davis’ 3rd down route the next drive but missed out on a pick-six when Ogletree broke up the pass in front of him. The Rams didn’t let themselves get burned deep. E.J. Gaines nicely broke up a bomb for Michael Crabtree before halftime. Unfortunately, the Rams had already given up a TD to the dreaded Boldin by then, as Roberson got sucked into Kaepernick’s gravitational pull when he scrambled, letting Boldin sneak behind everyone. Boldin’s stats (6-93) were similar to the first game but the Rams made Kaepernick work much harder to find open receivers when they blitzed. The final drive was still a real roller coaster ride. Back after a long injury break, Trumaine Johnson blew a tackle and let Steve Johnson get away for 25. But Joyner blanketed S. Johnson the next play and Rodney McLeod made a big open-field tackle to hold Boldin to 8. But then Joyner got called for holding and McLeod blew a tackle to give S.Johnson another 20. But then Gaines broke up a long pass, saved the game, with a diving play. But then TruJo interfered with Crabtree to set the 49ers up inside the 5, then held him again to set them up at the 3. But the D hung on, and this time around, the Rams won in part because the Ram secondary got aggressive. The attitude looks good on them.

* Special teams: Johnny Hekker (46.8 avg) was very much part of the reason the Rams won. Tavon Austin was not. Hekker pinned the 49ers around their 10 twice in the 4th. The first time it set up the game winning FG (which Greg Zuerlein BARELY squeezed through) after a shanked punt by Andy Lee. The second helped keep the 49ers out of FG position until there was 1:00 left, though I’m probably overblowing that. Austin averaged over 8 yards a return and had what should have been a TD called back, but he’s regressed into way too much of an adventure back there. He’s back to stupidly standing around and waiting for coverage to get to him. When has that EVER worked, Tavon? Pee wee ball? It came within inches of costing the Rams a safety before halftime, as he goofed around in the end zone with a caught field goal for about half an hour and then IDIOTICALLY tried to bring it out, avoiding one of the season’s most boneheaded plays by mere inches. Quit dancing. Quit goofing around. Catch the ball and run FORWARD with it. What Austin’s thinking is as hard to explain as what Daren Bates was thinking when he jumped approximately five yards offsides on the 49ers’ first FG attempt.

* Strategery: Alert the media! Brian Schottenheimer’s adjustments helped save the game for the Rams. And he didn’t wait until halftime, either. With the Rams still in the game but coping poorly with the 49er rush, he called some plays to help Davis get his confidence back. He dialed the passing game back and put a lot of the offensive burden on Mason’s shoulders. He got the ball out of Davis’ hand faster and beat 49er blitzes several times with screens to Cunningham, including one that may have saved the Rams the winning points. Two second-half calls looked very wrong without a second look. 3rd-and-10 in the 3rd, a goofy pitch play to Cunningham loses 4 more, but if he’d followed Robinson around end like he should have, the 49er D looked caught flat-footed. 3rd-and-1 with just over 3:00 to play and a chance to burn the last 49er timeout, the decision to pass just looked foolhardy, especially after Davis killed the clock with a throwaway, but as they showed on TV, the rest of the play worked – Kendricks was all alone downfield for a TD had Davis seen it. Eh, that still should have been a run. Schottenheimer still earns credit for tweaking the offense enough during the game to keep the Rams from going under.

I think I’ve spent every week this season complaining about Gregg Williams’ game plans; he can complain about me this week. I don’t have a great idea what was so different from the game in St. Louis to snap this pass rush to life. John Lynch said on the broadcast that the Rams disguised their blitzes too well for Kaepernick to figure them out. That makes two of us, I guess, so credit to Williams there. It looked like the Rams blitzed DBs off the edge more than they have this season, which had the side benefit of keeping Kaepernick in the pocket, which they did very well this time around. It looked like coverage behind the blitz was much more man instead of soft zones that left Boldin open by 10 yards every time the Rams blitzed the first game. That’s my guess for the key adjustment. Otherwise, Williams still took big blitz gambles on 3rd-and-longs he didn’t need to. But they worked. He still blitzed Laurinaitis. But it worked. He brought the house a couple of times with the 49ers driving at the end of the game and put a DB who hadn’t played since August out on an island. Well, it worked out. I’m not even sure it was Williams this week as much as it was players like Quinn, Hayes, Sims and Laurinaitis just playing better, or the 49ers really struggling to make up for the loss of Daniel Kilgore at center. But if this week represents the game plan and the players finally meshing, look out, league, and who gives a flip if I can figure it out or not.

And, sometimes it’s what you don’t do that works. About 3:00 left, 4th-and-1 near midfield, it was easy to think Jeff Fisher would consider going for it or deploying some Seattle-style special teams trickery. Instead, the very safe move to pin the 49ers deep with the punt. But unlike the Seattle game, the Rams had some success stopping the 49er offense, and they only had one timeout left to drive 55-60 yards. A failure on 4th down would have left them one completion from tying the game and in very good shape to take the lead at the end. The fact that they almost did made the decision to punt very much the right move. Coaching win for the Rams this week all the way around.

* Upon further review: Must referees constantly use Rams games to compete with one another to see who can be the NFL’s worst? Jerome Boger has always been in the running for that dishonor and made an especially powerful argument this week. Was Boger hung over, or still drunk? Two of the first three Ram penalties, he didn’t even call the right number. Boger made a call in the 2nd that smacked of the game being rigged. Ogletree stripped Gore at midfield, and Laurinaitis scooped and scored, but Boger said the play was blown dead because Gore’s forward progress had stopped. For one, no one whistles a play dead that quickly. For another, no whistle can be heard on TV until Laurinaitis has the ball! All Boger did was was blow the play dead so the Rams couldn’t score! And though it would have been called back by penalty, they called Austin out of bounds on a punt return in the 4th when replay showed he was in, it wasn’t even that close and should have been ruled a TD. Mason got bodyslammed by Chris Borland on a 4th quarter tackle, a move that is now a personal foul. No call. Boger and crew butchered basic procedures, basic rules interpretations, simple visual judgments and player safety calls. Their saving graces: they called penalties pretty evenly on both sides and didn’t blow the call on Kaepernick’s goal-line fumble. That’s all that kept Boger out of the Don Denkinger wing of the St. Louis Hall of Hated Sports Officials. For now. Grade: F-plus

* Cheers: Kevin Burkhardt and John Lynch were such 49er homers when they did this game last year, it did not look promising that they got the call again this week. Instead, this was the best game I’ve heard Lynch call. He made solid observations about the shifting strategies of both teams. He recommended changes the Rams actually adopted. They broke plays down well; Burkhardt saw Britt would have had a TD on Davis’ 2nd INT, and Lynch pointed out the TD Kendricks could have had on 3rd-and-1 of the Rams’ final drive. Lynch’s analysis made that play call look a lot less questionable. Speaking of questionable, they did both call for Shaun Hill to take over as starter, but they stayed on Rams Nation’s good side by being all over the awful officiating, from the denied fumble return TD to the bodyslam tackle personal foul that wasn’t called. There wasn’t a lot of thinking time at the end of the game. In the excitement, they said the clock stopped after Crabtree’s catch inside the 1 when it actually correctly kept running, and there was no mention of when or whether Harbaugh should have considered kicking the FG. I imagine he probably never would have. It was still the strongest broadcast we’ve seen from a Fox “B” team in a while.

* Who’s next?: You know you’re in an insanely difficult stretch of your schedule when the Seahawks and 49ers were the soft spots. Up next on the Rams’ Schedule From Hell: the 7-1 Cardinals. The Rams have, surprisingly, won three of the last four in this series, but the desert has been the setting for many a Rams horror show, such as last year’s uninspired 30-10 loss in which Carson Palmer completed 84% of his passes, 12 to Larry Fitzgerald.

Slowing down either of those two would be a start toward a much more competitive game than the Rams have tended to play in Arizona in recent seasons. They say teams that blitz hate to be blitzed, which showed some in Arizona’s 28-17 win at Dallas, but Palmer’s numbers have been strong: 11 TDs vs. 2 INTs. And the 34-year-old has been surprisingly nimble in the pocket this season. He’s climbing and sliding in the pocket well and it often gives him time to hit something big downfield. The Cardinals are a distinctly downfield passing game, but they’re also still predominantly Fitzgerald. You have to be able to stop and prevent plays like screens and quick slants that let him get a dangerous head of steam. Their best big-play threat is blazing rookie John Brown, but I’d be willing to do whatever’s necessary to take Fitzgerald out of play and make someone else beat me. Palmer spreads the ball around, but their tight ends are not reliable receivers, and along with Michael Floyd, who’s been maybe half as productive as Fitzgerald this season on the same number of targets, have been drop machines. LT Jared Veldheer anchors an offensive line that has improved but is attackable. LG Ted Larsen will be very vulnerable to Aaron Donald’s quickness. RT Bobby Massie is improving but still doesn’t read defenses well and will get fooled by blitzes and switches. Where they’ve really gotten better is run-blocking; you rarely see Andre Ellington without a hole to hit or taking a loss. He’s a tough little back, a smart, patient runner. He runs plays where they’re supposed to go and is a constant threat to break one. Bruce Arians’ team is very good fundamentally. They average less than a turnover a game, and rookie free agent (ahem) Chandler Catanzaro hasn’t missed a kick all season. Unlike their great tradition as the Big Dead in St. Louis, this Cardinal team doesn’t beat itself.

Two of the blitz-happiest DCs in the league, Gregg Williams and Todd Bowles, will square off in this week’s coaching main event. Bowles has the Cardinals blitzing more than any team in the league, a little over half the time, but funny thing: they’ve only averaged a sack a game, and they’re last in the league in pass defense. The Rams’ eight sacks this week matched Arizona’s season total. The Arizona front doesn’t have a lot to apologize for, though. Led by 6’8” Calais Campbell, who will be very hard for Austin Davis to see over, they get good enough pressure when they rush straight up that it looks like they’re blitzing. The Rams will be better off getting the ball out quickly on 1st down, Bowles’ favorite blitz down. It’s time to get a couple of guys going in the passing game. Jared Cook should be able to get open. The Eagles got their TEs matched up on LBs a lot last week. It’s also Tavon Time if it’s ever going to be. Or Central Stedman Time, whatever works, but Jeremy Maclin (11 catches, 2 TDs) killed the Cardinals out of the slot. As the #3 run D in the league (which has to be part of the reason for the low pass D ranking), they’re not going to be easy to move against on the ground. The Rams will want to use Arizona’s aggression against them. They’ll be better off attacking the edges than the middle. This isn’t the first time RamView has insisted the Rams run at Sam Acho. The Cardinals do get great run support from safeties Tony Jefferson and rookie Deone Bucannon, so cool them off with some play action. Davis shouldn’t come into to the Cactus Dome like he’s flying blind. How Jefferson’s lined up has been a tipoff to whether Bowles is blitzing. Patrick Peterson, for all his hype, has been pretty beatable at corner because he’ll often get caught peeking into the backfield trying to play for flashy interceptions. Eye discipline will be a key for Davis; so will finding his checkdowns be. The Eagles beat the Cardinal blitz repeatedly late in last week’s game with play-action dumpoffs. The flat opposite the blitz was always open. The 49ers left that open this week and Davis pounced on it a couple of times, so it should already be on his mind. No chance it’ll be easy, but the Ram offense can adjust to the Arizona attack. They won’t win if they can’t.

Last week, the Rams looked like Napoleon’s army marching back from Moscow. Fortunately, they made a stopover in Sack City and found themselves. The Rams will need Sack City and a smart game from Davis to hang against the best-coached, most fundamentally sound team in the NFC.

— Mike
Game stats from espn.com

November 3, 2014 at 8:08 pm #11130

Topic: Fisher, 11/3 … transcript

in forum The Rams Huddle

zn
Moderator

Rams Head Coach Jeff Fisher – November 03, 2014

(Opening remarks)
“I’ll kind of follow up with the things I talked about after the ball game. It was just a great effort. It was a bounce-back effort all week long. We could have played better in the game than we did, but we found a way to win it and that speaks volumes of these guys. Things didn’t look good early in the week. We got their legs back, we get them back. We got them on the field. We told them, ‘You’re not going to be thinking about Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday at Sunday at 1 o’clock, at kickoff. So, go play hard.’ And that’s what they did.

“Pleased with the defensive line, the defense as a whole. The defense played well. We tackled. We got the turnovers. We improved on third down – we needed to improve in that area – I think, the third down stops were key in this game. Special teams-wise, we bounced back. I’m disappointed in the result on the punt return, but the overall effort was outstanding as far as the ‘teams’ was concerned. Offensively, we had a rough day and you’re going to have a rough day. In the last three weeks we’ve played the fifth ranked and second-ranked defense in the National Football League. The 49ers have an outstanding defensive scheme and they’re hard to attack, but we were patient. We had a couple turnovers. The first one was…he should have gone to the crossing route. The second one, he was trying to make a big play and under threw it. But, as I said, he bounced back. (QB) Austin (Davis) bounces back. He shakes it off and he keeps playing and that gives us a chance offensively. I thought (T) Greg (Robinson) did a nice job out there at left tackle. We struggled at times with some pass-rush games, but most of those things took place on the other side. But, Greg for the most part was what we expected out of him against that defense and he’s shown that he’s an outstanding open field tackler now unfortunately for two weeks in a row. I may put him on kickoff cover team.

“Injury-wise, we came out OK. We’re looking at (CB) Marcus Roberson’s ankle. We have some normal bumps and bruises. We’re going to have to rest some guys like we did last week, but we should be fine. Optimistic about (CB) Janoris Jenkins’ return.”

(On what happened when Austin Davis came out of the game)
“We require a brace on the front leg, the left leg of right-handed passers for our quarterbacks. As he slid, the brace got caught in the grass and the brace twisted, so he had the brace re-adjusted.”

(On if he had a feeling that the team energy level was up during pregame warm-up or early in the game)
“We had that sense on Thursday. Thursday here at practice, they were fine. They came back. I didn’t have any concern about them being focused and ready to play. We had a good week and great warm-ups and they were ready to come out and play. We had been talking about the importance of playing three hours and 10 minutes, as opposed to a first half of a football game. Fortunately, we won the toss. I talked about, if we win the toss we’ll defer. We’ll try to finish up with a possession at the end of the first half, but we’ll take possession – we know we’ll take possession the second half and try to make some plays. The mindset was just to keep playing and keep playing and keep playing.”

(On why the ‘finish’ message seemed to click this week)
“It’s been something we try to do every game. It just happened. It was a combination of their play selection, their game plan. We forced some drops. We put some pressure on their center. He had some bad snaps. Then we got rolling as far as our front four.”

(On why he gave game balls to the offensive line Sunday to reward their performance)
“Just because of what they endured last week. With the changes that took place in the Kansas City game, the fact that we weren’t quite sure as to who was going to be able to come back because there was a question mark with respect to (C) Scott (Wells) and (G) Rodger (Saffold) and (G) Davin (Joseph) going back in. (C) Barrett (Jones) came in and played and I just thought they all bounced back from last week. I just thought it was a great effort during the week. For Rodger to come back after subluxing the shoulder and playing the way he played and then going from whatever number sack total we had at Kansas City to just one yesterday, I thought it was a great effort.”

(On the decision to throw the ball on the team’s final offensive third down)
“There was 3:30 left and they had two timeouts left and the two-minute warning and I needed a first down. That’s a good defense. I’d do it again. (TE) Lance (Kendricks) was wide open. Austin couldn’t see him. Complete the pass, we kneel on it. The game is over. So, I was trying to win the game.”

(On if Wells and Saffold were game-time decisions)
“Had a pretty good sense on Friday after practice that Rodger was going to be okay. Scott didn’t even snap in the walk-thru on Wednesday. The first day he snapped was Friday. I think by Friday we had a pretty good sense. Then when we traveled and we got treatments at the hotel done, we had a pretty good sense that they were going to be able to go.”

(On the play of CB Trumaine Johnson in his first action of the season)
“We expect him to play. He wanted to play. I thought he did a nice job. He also had some special teams reps, which were good. He’s back. The injury’s behind him now. He’ll most likely start this week. We may have to move some people around. I also was pleased to see (S) Mark (Barron). I went to Mark before the game as we were trying to sort out the inactives. The way it went, I talked to Mark about playing some special teams and I think he told someone he hadn’t played special teams since peewee football. He did a really nice job on our kickoff return and kickoff coverage. We’re going to work, like we said, to see if we can get him into some packages on defense to get him on the field.”

(On why the whistle was blown on Tavon Austin’s fourth-quarter punt return)
“They thought he stepped out of bounds. I didn’t see it. It doesn’t appear that he stepped out. He was close, but he didn’t. So at that point…there were a couple of other blocks in the game, I think (49ers S) Craig Dahl had one on (LB) Will Herring that was identical to (LB Darren Bates) Batesy’s block and was not called. This is a side block in my opinion. It was just unusual because it came from the sideline into the field and that’s unfortunate that it took points off the board. My option at that point, because of offsetting, was to take the ball, they enforce our penalty and I get the ball, and still it was good field position. But I figured with Tavon, his big-play potential, the re-kick was a good decision. It ended up being a good decision because he shanked it.”

(On if DT Aaron Donald was key to the stop on the final play)
“Both (DT) Kendall (Langford) and Aaron were involved in that play, yeah. It’s designed when you anticipate a sneak.”

(On if it’s a timing issue on that play)
“No, it’s not a timing thing. It’s just disruptive. If you can lift the center, his seat goes down and it affects the snap. That’s what we were trying to do.”

(On if RB Tre Mason has been named the starting running back)
“No, we’re going to continue with the same thing. I can’t tell you who’s starting this week. (RB) Zac (Stacy) has handled things professionally. Unfortunately, he didn’t get to play. He will get to play. He will get his reps. We’ve not lost faith or confidence in him, but it’s hard to spread the ball around. We felt going into this game that Tre, some of the things he was doing and some of the ways that we were trying to attack the defense, gave us the best chance.”

(On Mason’s performance yesterday)
“He missed a couple holes but he ran real hard. He overcame some things. His ball security’s good, pass protection is good. He needed get out in the routes. I thought he played pretty well.”

(On if the starting running back will be decided on a week-to-week basis)
“Yeah. You guys come out to Arizona and watch the first play to figure out who’s going to start.”

(On if the decision to start a certain back depends on how they practice)
“It’s not based on practice. It’s based on scheme and approach and those kinds of things. We’ve got good backs, just can’t play them all.”

(On how the receiving core performed without WR Brian Quick)
“We got production out of (WR) Kenny (Britt). I think seven or eight guys caught passes. They’re there. (WR Stedman Bailey) ‘Sted’ had a good week of practice. We just didn’t have a lot of opportunities. The guys will step up. (WR) Tavon’s (Austin) involved, had some opportunities. (WR) Chris Givens understands what he’s doing. He even covered kicks yesterday. It was good to get him involved on the teams’ side.”

(On what DT Aaron Donald has brought to the team)
“I think his statistics reflect the season that he’s having. The tackles for losses, the consistency, the big plays. We’re just going to have to watch him because the season’s getting longer and longer. First year players have difficulty with the length of the season. We’ll watch his reps, but he’s playing good football right now. He made a pretty good offensive guard there miss a couple times, which is hard to do in the National Football League.”

(On if he saw anything on the coach’s film to explain the play where RB Frank Gore’s forward progressed was deemed stopped and prevented a defensive touchdown)
“I feel the same way. I’ll just say this it’s nice to have won this game because that is a game-changing call. That’s a defensive touchdown and it’s the wrong call, the incorrect call. It was not progress. The ball was out. He should’ve thrown the bean bag, ruled it a fumble. Then you go back to replay and replay shows it’s fumble. It’s a defensive touchdown. In essence they took a defensive touchdown away from us because he blew the whistle. The forward progress…there were a number of other instances in that game where you could say, ‘OK.’ When they picked up Tre and dropped him on his head, that’s forward progress. Whistles didn’t blow there. I was disappointed in the call and I will be. It’s the incorrect call, the wrong call.”

(On if they should’ve called an unnecessary roughness penalty when they dropped Mason on his head)
“Unnecessary roughness, yes.”

(On if he agrees that referees normally have let the plays go on and if yesterday they were quick to blow the whistle)
“I think they’re fairly consistent as far as when they’re blowing the play dead. This was highly inconsistent, however. This play was not dead. The ball came out. They made a mistake. Again, glad we won this game because that would be the major topic of discussion right now because that was a defensive score.”

(On how close Austin’s return of the field goal was to a safety)
“Well I saw it extensively yesterday before we went into the locker room at halftime and saw it again. It was ruled a touchback. It was a touchback.”

(On what he would have Austin do in a punt return situation like yesterdays)
“I think when he catches the ball and he sees there’s opposing players that close to him, that he just needs to stay in. We talked about that. What we have going, in that instance, which most teams do is they’re going to put a return man under the goal post. You got a little wind, you got a real long kick-bring it out. You’ve seen it. (S) Ed Reed’s done it, everybody’s done it. This wasn’t as long a kick but I had a sense that it was going to be low, that we may get a hand on it and there was wind. I had a sense that it might be short, we might have a chance to return it, so we called that play. In Tavon’s defense, when we work it, we have not discussed staying in the end zone. Its always bring it out because you have a group of offensive linemen on the field that aren’t necessarily cover guys. So, bringing it out’s not a problem. That’s something that we just didn’t completely cover, but glad it came up and it didn’t hurt us.”

(On his thoughts on Levi’s Stadium)
“It was great. It’s a great stadium. I was very, very impressed with the manner in which this organization was treated there by everybody. From the guards outside the gate, to the employees, the people that helped in the locker room and everything. It was just an outstanding environment.”

(On if a part of him misses Candlestick Park)
“There’s great tradition there. I had some of my better memories being on the home side at Candlestick, as opposed to on the visiting side. It’s a hard place to work on Sundays at Candlestick with the visiting side.”

November 3, 2014 at 12:21 pm #11095

In reply to: We need a QB.

zn
Moderator

PA Ram wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>zn wrote:</div>

PA Ram wrote:
The Austin Davis experiment has begun. May as well finish it. We know that Hill is NOT the future. We know(realistically) he won’t get them to a Superbowl this year.

I get that argument but I don’t think it’s realistic. I am much more of a “win now” guy and I think off-season determinations are for the off-season. I think the best thing for Davis’s improvement is to sit and watch for a while and work on sharpening the aspects of his game that he CAN work on, in the off-season.

I am going to tease you.

If they do it your way? I can see the pep speeches now: “Team, give it your best and give it your all. Scoff at injuries, play in pain, throw yourself into it heart body and soul. Give it all of your blood sweat and tears. And here’s why–the staff is in the process of determining whether or not the qb is a future back-up. So…go Rams!”

The stuff dreams are made of.

They didn’t throw a first-round pick at Davis and they aren’t in this awkward position where they have to stick by him or admit that the pick was wasted.

I prefer win-now stuff.

Then again, twice now Davis was making the same kinds of mistakes and not running the offense the way it should be–which btw a lot of the sacks are on HIM not the OL–and twice now they straightened him out for at least a game or 2.

So I don’t know what the reality is.

I just prefer win now. I think “win now” has a way of taking care of things.

But they DID win–even with his worst performance. And I don’t think you’d pin their 5 losses on Austin Davis.

Winning is always the most important thing, but who has any idea that Hill gives the Rams the better shot of winning? And if Hill comes in and stinks? How is a QB carousel good for anything?

Also–there is short and long term thinking, and while players may be invested in the here and now–coaches are long term thinkers as well as short term thinkers.

Look–even if they win two more games this year because of Hill–how does that help them next year?

This team shows no carryover from one year to the next. Next year is a whole new thing. There will be changes.

I’m just suggesting that staying with Davis right now(short of him having a big regression or complete meltdown) offers more long term benefits than tossing in Hill to win a game or two and I’m only saying that because, as I asked in my last post: What is his ceiling?

That’s where I sit in all of this.

If the coaching staff believes he has hit his ceiling and this is it, fine–move on.

If not–continue the experiment a while longer.

I believe that the things Davis needs to learn are probably best learned in starting reps during practice and game experience.

And if you pull the plug too soon and Hill does no better, that tells the team you’re lost.

So–while I am critical of Davis–I would be patient for now.

Believe me, the thought of pulling him crossed my mind yesterday. Looking back, I’m glad they didn’t.

Going forward, we’ll see.

None of this is carved in stone. Everything is subject to change.

When just looking at qb play my assessment is that they can and absolutely need to do better. Rams can’t keep depending on ref’s calls on last minute fumbles to win. They should have been up by at least 7-10 in that game. Moderately decent, unpanicked qb could have done that.

November 3, 2014 at 12:14 pm #11094

In reply to: We need a QB.

PA Ram
Participant

zn wrote:

PA Ram wrote:
The Austin Davis experiment has begun. May as well finish it. We know that Hill is NOT the future. We know(realistically) he won’t get them to a Superbowl this year.

I get that argument but I don’t think it’s realistic. I am much more of a “win now” guy and I think off-season determinations are for the off-season. I think the best thing for Davis’s improvement is to sit and watch for a while and work on sharpening the aspects of his game that he CAN work on, in the off-season.

I am going to tease you.

If they do it your way? I can see the pep speeches now: “Team, give it your best and give it your all. Scoff at injuries, play in pain, throw yourself into it heart body and soul. Give it all of your blood sweat and tears. And here’s why–the staff is in the process of determining whether or not the qb is a future back-up. So…go Rams!”

The stuff dreams are made of.

They didn’t throw a first-round pick at Davis and they aren’t in this awkward position where they have to stick by him or admit that the pick was wasted.

I prefer win-now stuff.

Then again, twice now Davis was making the same kinds of mistakes and not running the offense the way it should be–which btw a lot of the sacks are on HIM not the OL–and twice now they straightened him out for at least a game or 2.

So I don’t know what the reality is.

I just prefer win now. I think “win now” has a way of taking care of things.

But they DID win–even with his worst performance. And I don’t think you’d pin their 5 losses on Austin Davis.

Winning is always the most important thing, but who has any idea that Hill gives the Rams the better shot of winning? And if Hill comes in and stinks? How is a QB carousel good for anything?

Also–there is short and long term thinking, and while players may be invested in the here and now–coaches are long term thinkers as well as short term thinkers.

Look–even if they win two more games this year because of Hill–how does that help them next year?

This team shows no carryover from one year to the next. Next year is a whole new thing. There will be changes.

I’m just suggesting that staying with Davis right now(short of him having a big regression or complete meltdown) offers more long term benefits than tossing in Hill to win a game or two and I’m only saying that because, as I asked in my last post: What is his ceiling?

That’s where I sit in all of this.

If the coaching staff believes he has hit his ceiling and this is it, fine–move on.

If not–continue the experiment a while longer.

I believe that the things Davis needs to learn are probably best learned in starting reps during practice and game experience.

And if you pull the plug too soon and Hill does no better, that tells the team you’re lost.

So–while I am critical of Davis–I would be patient for now.

Believe me, the thought of pulling him crossed my mind yesterday. Looking back, I’m glad they didn’t.

Going forward, we’ll see.

None of this is carved in stone. Everything is subject to change.

"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. " Philip K. Dick

October 30, 2014 at 2:06 am #10817

Topic: 9ers week & the saga of Rams injury recoveries

in forum The Rams Huddle

RamBill
Participant

Rams notebook: Fisher opts for shortened workout for battered squad
• By Joe Lyons

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/football/professional/rams-notebook-fisher-opts-for-shortened-workout-for-battered-squad/article_650025d8-8065-585d-8d3a-7b816277f5c1.html

In what has already been an unusual week, the Rams had a one-hour walk-through in place of their regular practice Wednesday afternoon.

That’s what happens when you spend a couple of days reworking the 53-man roster and 10-man practice squad while dealing with multiple injuries.

“I had 13 people on the injury report and I felt like we needed to back down,’’ Rams coach Jeff Fisher said, adding that the Rams are facing a familiar foe this week in the NFC West rival San Francisco. “Our focus is having them ready (for) Sunday.’’

When the Rams (2-5) take on the 49ers (4-3) Sunday at 3:05 p.m. in their first trip to new Levi’s Stadium, they will definitely be without starting left tackle Jake Long (knee) and No. 1 wide receiver Brian Quick (shoulder).

On Wednesday, the Rams made it official as Quick joined Long on injured reserve.

Chosen by the Rams with the initial pick of the second round in 2012, Quick was in the midst of a breakout season with career bests in starts (seven), catches (25), receiving yards (375) and touchdowns (three).

He was replaced on the 53-man roster by offensive lineman Brandon Washington, a 6-2, 318-pounder from the University of Miami who was promoted from the practice squad. A sixth-round draft pick by the Philadelphia Eagles in 2012, Washington was signed by the Rams shortly after being cut that fall and has spent almost all of the last two-plus seasons on the practice squad. He made his NFL debut in last season’s finale at Seattle.

Veteran receiver and kick returner Damian Williams was also added to the active roster Wednesday. Williams, 26, played in college at Arkansas and Southern California and was drafted in the third round of the 2010 draft by Fisher’s Tennessee Titans. He spent the next four seasons there, enjoying a career year in 2011 with 45 catches for 592 yards and five touchdowns in 13 starts. In one game this season with the Miami Dolphins, the 6-foot-1, 200-pound Williams had one 14-yard reception.

“I was surprised he was available; (Miami) released him on Saturday,’’ Fisher said. “Losing Brian, it feels like Damian is a perfect fit for us as a back-up returner and as a fifth receiver right now. He’s smart. He’ll learn real quickly and obviously has a chance to be active this week.’’

To open a spot, the Rams cut defensive back Jemea Thomas, a rookie from Georgia Tech who made his Rams debut Sunday.

In moves involving the practice squad Wednesday, the Rams released wide receiver Kadron Boone and added tackle Steven Baker, wide receiver Emory Blake, tight end Justice Cunningham and offensive lineman Travis Bond.

Baker, a 6-foot-8, 310-pounder from East Carolina, signed as an undrafted free agent with Indianapolis in 2012 and has also been with Arizona, Kansas City, the New York Giants and Miami.

Blake, Bond and Cunningham have all been with the Rams during the last couple of seasons.

Quarterback Case Keenum cleared waivers and will be added to the practice squad.

“Just took a day off,’’ he kidded.

INJURY REPORT

Because Wednesday was just a walk-through and not a full practice, Fisher had to estimate player participation. Eight of the 13 players on the injury report — defensive end William Hayes (foot), guard Rodger Saffold (shoulder), cornerback Janoris Jenkins (knee), defensive tackle Aaron Donald (shoulder), safety Rodney McLeod (knee), linebacker Jo-Lonn Dunbar (toe), center Scott Wells (elbow) and safety Cody Davis (concussion) — were listed as not practicing.

In addition, cornerback Trumaine Johnson (knee), center Tim Barnes (shoulder), wide receiver Kenny Britt (hip), cornerback Marcus Roberson (ankle) and defensive back Lamarcus Joyner (hip) were limited.

“We’ll get some players back tomorrow and then more and more players back on Friday,’’ said Fisher, whose team fell 31-17 to the visiting 49ers on Oct. 13.

Coming off its bye week, San Francisco had just four players on its Wednesday injury list. Cornerback Chris Culliver (hamstring) was a full participant, with linebacker Patrick Willis (toe), cornerback Tramaine Brock (toe) and safety Jimmie Ward (quadriceps) limited.

EARLY HALLOWEEN

On Tuesday, safety Rodney McLeod hosted a “Halloween Huddle’’ for a group of patients from Shriners Hospital for Children at Kokomo Joe’s in St. Peters.

“We had probably 10 kids, plus their brothers and sisters, and I think everybody really enjoyed themselves. Including me,’’ he said. “We played laser tag, bowled, played a bunch of different arcade games. Those kids are so brave, so courageous. I’m just glad to be able to help out and try to put a smile on their faces.’’

McLeod said he was introduced to Shriners in the week before playing in the 2012 East-West Shrine Game following his senior season at the University of Virginia.

“It was kind of a life-changing experience,’’ the third-year pro explained. “Once I realized the hospital was here, I decided to reach out to them and I thought we did a great job of putting the event together. The kids were excited and they enjoyed themselves a lot.’’

October 27, 2014 at 3:39 pm #10609

Topic: KC game reactions from around the net (expanding thread, 1 so far)

in forum The Rams Huddle

zn
Moderator

from off the net…

===

alyoshamucci

Got a bunch of ornery Rams fans . . including me. If you want to be argumentative or negative, you’re not going to find that here, and I would ask that if that’s your thing, do it on another thread.
This DOES NOT mean don’t disagree with me, I value everyone’s opinion. But if right now, you’re thinking to yourself “I bet he’s gonna say this and I can’t wait to tell him where he’s wrong” . . I’ll get it out of the way now.
I SUPPORT FISHER. I SUPPORT OUR PLAYERS. I SUPPORT THE COLORS. I HATE THE REFS. WE ARE DIGGING OURSELVES OUT OF A HOLE AS A FRANCHISE, AND IM REALLLLY PATIENT. We are rehabilitating a destroyed franchise. Go ahead and disagree in your heads right now if you’re going to, and we can get on with the analysis of the actual game, as my patience has about another 5 years on it.

The Good

1) Quinn showed his physical superiority. I’m betting the Eric Fisher hate in KC is palpable.

2) Our run Defense was solid most of the game.

3) Gaines and Roberson and Joyner. I don’t know that any team, EVER has played a game with 3 rookies at CB, much less with a UDFA and 6th rounder manning the outside. Roberson was tackling pretty well (my worry with him coming out of college). Joyner seems to be getting more under control every game.

4) Aaron Donald.

5) The TALENT of our RBs (NOT their usage)

6) Loved seeing G Rob on the edge.

That’s all I got there.

Places where we flat out lost.

7) Barksdale vs Houston. Just an above average player vs. a beast. We needed to prepare ourselves better for that.

8) We had no #1 WR behind Quick. There was a drastic change in our offensive abilities immediately. I am getting back on the “draft a WR” boat until Stedman or Britt shows up.

9) Injuries. We signed two injury prone players on the O line and filled the spots behind them. That’s fine. Its time to NOT DO THAT ANYMORE.

The Bad

10) Gaines . . fall on the fumble.

11) 4 player Committee at RB. I’m guessing they’re trying this because they don’t have the necessary resources to find out how people, in general, work best. I am really frustrated here, because as coaches I expect them to have access to Google.
Every person has a rhythm. This is not something imaginary . . it is testable through their mental state. For a player to have access to a “certain type of speed” of cognition, he needs to have had a certain amount of experience of that . . recently. 1 minute is processing. 17 minutes is habit. Coscious focus is 45 minutes (hence average class length) 66 minutes is when it leaves the system. 2 weeks is recall memory. these are rough estimates and the descriptions go by many names, but this info is out there.
If you have a player that hasn’t played in two weeks, they have rust. If you have a player who hasn’t played in 66 minutes, you have a player who has to relearn the entire speed of the game. If you have a player who hasn’t played in 45 minutes . . you have a player who has to struggle to consciously pick up where he left off. 17 minutes, and rhythm is lost . . this is why long drives by the opposing teams are so bad. The minute between plays allows players the opportunity to forget their recent mistakes, if they are smooth about it.
4 players at RB doesn’t work unless they are on the field sooner than 45 minutes, and definitely not longer than an hour. If you want to ride the hot hand boys, you better figure out who that is faster, and keep them in longer. Once you put a guy in, its best to keep him in for a bit until he gets fatigued.

12) Missed tackles. Missed assignments. Gah.

13) Run blocking. Gah.

14) The deep ball to Britt . . . why did he throw that? And not throwing the ball away and taking a sack before the missed FG? Again, why?

15) GZ missing . . ummmm . . what’s the deal dude?

16) KO return?

the Ugly . .

17) Triplett’s staff leads my list for “Most likely to be paid by Vegas” . . . all it takes is a few calls going the wrong way at the wrong time to completely change a game. Football is a game of inches, and those inches can easily be influenced by morale. Morale can be easily swayed by unjust calls because ALL LIVING THINGS ARE EMOTIONALLY AFFECTED BY INJUSTICE. Professional athletes or not, these guys are still human, and bad calls affect them. we can argue about whether it should or shouldn’t be the case, and it doesn’t matter, it won’t change anything. It matters. We have seen it matter a lot this year.

October 27, 2014 at 2:11 pm #10606

In reply to: Where do you stand on Austin Davis?

zn
Moderator

Sometimes I’m not sure what the game plan is for him. He can throw the occasional deep ball but he needs to know when that isn’t there and have the proper check downs–and if he has that but isn’t doing it then he needs better coaching.

That;s just him. He has the coaching. Every time he himself says “the coaches stressed this” he comes through for a game.

Some players just fall back on old instincts when the pressure is on.

No coach in the universe can change that.

He is SUPPOSED TO BE checking down. The fact that he isn’t is on him.

You know…the Rams main issues this year are all execution. Getting down on the weary patient coaches is just a misread of the situation. And the problem with most “coordinator” discussions is that they end up really just confusing execution issues with coaching issues.

This is execution. A young player, who has not learned yet, and might never learn.

October 27, 2014 at 12:06 am #10543

In reply to: the media post-mortem on the KC game … Gordon, Wagoner, Thomas, etc.

zn
Moderator

Rams crushed in Kansas City 34-7

By Jim Thomas

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/foot…cle_c3d8917b-dbf9-50f6-8297-121f30f833df.html

KANSAS CITY • After a promising start, the Kansas City nightmare continued for the Rams. A 34-7 loss to the Chiefs made the Rams 0-3 against their NFL cousins on the western edge of the state since the move to St. Louis in 1995.

The composite score in those three contests: Kansas City 137, Rams 51.

Since that buzz-kill of a season-opening 34-6 loss to Minnesota, the Rams had played everyone tough over the next five games. But not this Sunday.

While the Chiefs were piling up points in the second half, the Rams were piling up penalties, missed tackles, and injuries. It was an embarrassing afternoon to say the least.

Injuries to center Scott Wells (elbow), left tackle Jake Long (knee), right guard Rodger Saffold (shoulder), wide receiver Brian Quick (arm), cornerback Rodney McLeod (knee), and safety Cody Davis (concussion symptoms) added injury to insult.

There couldn’t have been a better start for the Rams in the Sea of Red. For starters there was a 41-yard kickoff return by Benny Cunningham, who entered the day as the NFL’s leader in kickoff return average.

On third-and-1 from the St. Louis 44, Austin Davis found Kenny Britt open deep down the left sideline for a 43-yard gain to the Kansas City 1. Three plays later, a patient Davis found tight end Lance Kendricks open in the middle of the end zone for a 1-yard touchdown.

It marked the third game in a row that Kendricks has hauled in a TD catch, with two of the grabs coming in the red zone.

End of highlight reel. Things went downhill from there on out for the Rams, who dropped to 2-5 on the season and face road games at NFC West rivals San Francisco and Arizona in the next two Sundays.

On the Rams’ second possession, Davis forced a deep ball into double coverage that was intended for Britt. Fourth-year defensive back Ron Parker hauled in the overthrown pass for a Kansas City interception.

Starting late in the first quarter, the Chiefs (4-3) took advantage of good field position to even the score on a 53-yard touchdown drive. It was a tough drive for Rams rookie cornerback E.J. Gaines, the Missouri product playing in his hometown.

First off, he tried to pick up an Alex Smith fumble forced by Robert Quinn instead of falling on the ball. It rolled out of bounds and the Chiefs retained possession. On third-and-7, an illegal contact penalty on Gaines gave KC a first down.

Then, on third-and-6 from the St. Louis 18, Gaines missed a tackle near the line of scrimmage on a quick sideline toss to tight end Travis Kelce. Kelce wasn’t brought down until he reached the 1-yard line. On the next play, Jamaal Charles was in the end zone running off left guard to tie the score 7-7 early in the second quarter.

Later in the quarter, the Rams missed a golden opportunity to take the lead when a botched handoff to Charles from Smith resulted in a fumble deep in Kansas City territory. Defensive end William Hayes recovered the loose ball and returned it six yards to the Kansas City 8. But two running plays produced no gain, and then Davis foolishly held onto the ball instead of throwing it away and was sacked for a 14-yard loss.

Wait — it gets worse. Out trotted Greg Zuerlein, who promptly missed a 38-yard field goal, wide right.

The Chiefs took over at their 28 and even with back-to-back sacks by Quinn in the final 80 seconds of the half, they were able to tack on a Cairo Santos 53-yard field goal with 1 second left.

It took Kansas City only 12 seconds to tack onto the lead to start the second half. For some reason, Zuerlein sent a line-drive kick that bounced to Knile Davis at the 1. Davis returned the ball 99 yards for a TD, with only Zuerlein having any kind of a shot at a tackle. Zuerlein whiffed.

That play seemed to break the Rams’ back. They were never the same afterward.

It became 20-7 Kansas City on the Chiefs’ next possession on a 28-yard field goal by Santos. The drive started at the KC 6, but the Rams helped the Chiefs downfield with a late hit by linebacker Alec Ogletree and a spearing penalty by Rodney McLeod that led to 30 yards in penalties.

Also, a missed tackle near the first-marker by Jo-Lonn Dunbar helped Charles turn a short reception into a 30-yard gain to the St. Louis 14 on third-and-6.

Charles hammered the nail into the coffin early in the fourth quarter with a 36-yard TD run to give the Chiefs a 27-7 lead.
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