JT chat, 9/13

Jim Thomas – NFL Chat

http://sports.live.stltoday.com/Event/NFL_chat_with_Jim_Thomas_27?Page=0

The LA trolls have been telling us since January that the Rams will be winners now that they’re “back home where they belong.” How’d that work out last night? it wasn’t STL fans who made the Rams losers. Check with kroenke, Demoff, Snead and Fisher if you want to see the real losers

JT: One game does not a season make. When San Francisco won its last Super Bowl, the 49ers lost an early season game 40-8. Obviously, the Rams aren’t winning the Super Bowl this year. And obviously there are lots of issues with the team. Including lack of linebackers, a lack of talent at wide receiver, and lack of overall depth. Its amazing to me that the Rams thought coming back without major changes to the WR corps was a good idea.

What do the Rams need to fix between now and Sunday to make it a close game?

JT: 1.) Sign or trade for a veteran linebacker. 2.) Put some vertical plays in next week’s game play. 3) Put in some jet sweeps and runs with Tavon Austin. 4.) Cut penalties in half.

I’m not one to overreact to one game but rams in all phases look awful. Oline, receivers, and qb play is a mess. Hard to see them winning more then 4 games.

JT: It’s the NFL. You’re allowed to overreact. It’s part of the fun of the game. This Seattle game is huge, because after that the Rams are at Tampa Bay _ which looks like an emerging team _ and at Arizona. Lose to Seattle, and you could very well be staring at 0-4.

Just a reminder for next Sunday, we have seen this before out of Fisher teams and just when we think they have no chance of ever winning again, they pull out a great game. The upcoming Seattle game qualifies as one of their upset specials. Remember, they did that here in STL too when we gave them no chance.

JT: No doubt. Agreed.

What is a typical shelf-life of an NFL coach in terms of:

1. How long do they stay at a team before the players get bored and stop listening?
2. Their ideas and methods become outdated an they stop getting hired?

JT: Realistically, five years is a pretty good run. It takes sustained success for a coach to last 10 years, which is pretty rare. Usually as long as a team has some success, the players listen to the message. And Fisher remains popular with most of his players. As for question No. 2, teams that rely on the running game and strong defense can still win and win big in this league. Seattle is a great example of that. But the Rams have never really been that under Fisher.

The coaching staff will probably view last night’s embarrassment as a failure to execute on the offensive side – but isn’t it really because of a lack of a vertical game, as Steve Young kept saying, in between his laughter?

JT: That’s part of it. But there are other factors, such as, not using Tavon Austin in the running game at all. It wasn’t a good night for the offensive line. And well, the receivers are the receivers.

The defense was, as I feared, not very good last night, and the middle was wide open for Gabbert to run through. What happened there?

JT: Yeah, those early runs were huge by Gabbert, who’s more athletic than generally given credit for. He kept some early drives alive, and avoided sliding to get the necessary yardage. It’s hard to say why the middle was wide open without (sorry, coach-speak alert) looking at game tape.

Perhaps the D-tackles had some kind of stunt going where they both went outside instead of inside. Also, there’s often running room when the defense is in man coverage, because the defenders backs are to the QB. But it was strange how often the middle was open on those plays.

I heard that Snead and Fisher were negotiating extensions of their contracts. Is $ilent $tan really thinking about retaining them despite their ineptitude? They have a free pass this season. LA is ecstatic to have their team back, but at some point $tan will have to sell tickets for his new football palace on 7-9 records and We’ll get that fixed replies by Fisher to debacles like last night may have worked in St. Louis, but not in LA with all the recreation options available there?

JT: Yes, I believe this extension talk is serious. Here’s the thing. Stan really won’t have to worry about selling tickets until the new stadium is open. Does that mean two or three more years of Fisher?

How much difference do you think not having laurenitis as the captain of that defense calling the signals make last night? 49ers are not a good team and should have been held to well under 28 points. Of course, if you cant score any points, it doesn’t really matter I guess.

JT: The Rams coaching staff didn’t think much of Laurinaitis at the end. I’ll just leave it at that.

They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result. That’s year five of the Fisher Regime on offensive philosophy. Doesn’t matter who the OC is. So my question is, since you were at Rams park everyday, does Fisher influence the game planning on offense? This game, to me, had his fingerprints all over it.

JT: It’s not like Fisher was calling the plays. And on game days, he’s generally not a meddler. But the overall philosophy of the offense _ of any offense _ comes from the head coach.

I’m having misgivings about Jeff Fisher. He’s obviously clueless about the offensive side of the ball. I think the Rams need an O-wizard and Fisher should just let him handle it. Do you think Rob Boras is that guy?

JT: I think Fisher gives his coordinators a lot of leeway. If you hire someone to do a certain job, you let them do their job. I think Boras is a smart guy, a good coach. His background is the running game, and O-line play, however. And the players he has to work with are the players he has to work with. If you catch my drift.

How bad does the Rams record need to be before they start Goff at QB?

JT: I’d say 0-1. But I’d also say that judging by what I saw in the preseason, he doesn’t look ready.

Will Donald face a suspension?

JT: Don’t think so. But he can expect about $40,000 in fines.

Did Chris Berman make some pro stlouis comments?

JT: Yes, he did. I’m paraphrasing here, but it was just kind of shout out to St. Louis fans, realizing they’re hurting over the loss of the team. And also realizing that many who were watching from the StL may be rooting for the team to lose.

Chris Long had a good game!!! Good things happen to good people! Hope he gets a Superbowl win!!!

JT: Yeah, it was good to see Chris Long getting after it. Hope he stays healthy.

Any thoughts on what Martz thinks about this Rams regime and ownership? You and him should get together and write a book! I don’t miss the Rams, but I miss that era in the early 2000s. Even when the team wasn’t great, his press conferences were pretty entertaining sometimes.

JT: Mike was always great copy, and he had a true appreciation for the local media and what our jobs were. He took the time to try to get to know us. I’ll just put it this way: He’s not a huge fan of John Shaw and Jay Zygmunt. Don’t think that’s a big secret. But he was long gone by the time Demoff arrived, and I could be wrong, but I don’t think he had much of a relationship with Kroenke. It was interesting to see him shake Jay’s hand at the Pace induction ceremonies in Canton.

What is your opinion on Gurly? I don’t remember where I read about it this morning but I saw some stats that showed Gurly’s last 9 games have been remarkably worse than his first 4 games. To steal a baseball reference are we still in “too small a sample size” phase with him?

JT: There’s no doubt he’s a very talented back. He just wasn’t breaking off the long runs late last season like he did earlier in the year. The great backs, like Barry Sanders, could be held in check for most of the game, and then rip off a big run or two that helped changed the balance of a game. There’s no doubt that Gurley isn’t being helped by the fact that the Rams have a non-existent passing game.

Can you give a brief update on how the ex-ram players are doing? The ones from last year?

JT: Glad you asked. We will try to provide of rundown of how the ex-St. Louis Rams are doing from time to time on line. We did an update of all St. Louis area players (who played their high school ball here or are from StL) that’s currently onlilne now, and will follow that up with Mizzou players next week. And all ex-StL Rams in a couple weeks.

Laurinaitis is starting and is a team captain in New Orleans. You probably saw that Long had a good game against Arizona. Talked to McLeod a couple of weeks ago when the Eagles played in Indy and he’s starting and seems to be doing well.

Is Carson Wentz that much more “NFL Ready” than Jared Goff? To be fair, I doubt Wentz would be able to make it behind the offensive line and with the receivers of the Rams, but would Goff have been as good as Wentz if he were wearing an Eagles uniform?

JT: Out front, I’ll tell you that I liked Wentz better as a prospect coming out than Goff. But let’s not get too carried away on Wentz. He did it against Cleveland.