7 PD articles + 4 Wagoners on the Saints game

Hill sharp in Rams debut at quarterback
• By Jim Thomas

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/football/professional/hill-sharp-in-rams-debut-at-quarterback/article_767968d8-932c-5211-9ce6-af468835570f.html

As openers go, things couldn’t have gone much better for quarterback Shaun Hill in his Rams debut Friday at the Edward Jones Dome.

A perfect passer rating in the NFL is 158.3, and the 34-year-old from Parsons, Kan., was close to perfect. With Sam Bradford sitting this one out, Hill stepped into the starting spot and completed five of seven passes for 84 yards playing most of the first half.

Throw in a pair of touchdown passes, one to Cory Harkey and another to Stedman Bailey, and Hill ended his night with a 151.2 passer rating.

Fourth-string quarterback Austin Davis almost rallied the Rams back from a nine-point deficit, but the Saints pulled out a 26-24 victory when Greg Zuerlein’s 59-yard field goal sailed wide left as time expired.

Hill is replacing Kellen Clemens as the Rams’ No. 2 quarterback this year, and Friday’s outing had to be a confidence builder.

Defensive end Chris Long gave the Rams the ball for their first possession when he intercepted a bubble screen intended for Saints rookie wide receiver Brandin Cooks near midfield.

After a short return by Long, the Rams took over on the Saints’ 47 with 11 minutes 46 seconds to go in the first quarter. The Rams escaped a second-and-17 dilemma when Hill found tight end Jared Cook open over the middle for a 24-yard gain.

“It was a good drive starter,” Cook said. “And Cory finished it off with a nice touchdown.”

That he did. Two plays later, Hill threw to a wide-open Harkey in the left flat. Harkey, who has caught only 13 regular-season passes in two NFL campaigns, rumbled 16 yards for a touchdown and a 7-0 Rams lead.

Midway through the second quarter, Hill engineered a five-play, 71-yard TD drive with some help from tight end Lance Kendricks, running back Benny Cunningham, and then Bailey.

Kendricks got the drive jump-started with a 14-yard reception to the St. Louis 48. Cunningham responded in a third-and-1 situation from the Saints 43, breaking a tackle near the line of scrimmage then breaking outside for a 19-yard gain.

On the next play, Bailey ran a streak pattern, then beat defender Stanley Jean-Baptiste with a back-shoulder catch for a 24-yard TD and a 14-9 Rams lead.

“I feel pretty good overall,” Cook said. “We had a few 3-and-outs; I feel like we could’ve capitalized better. It’s the first day on the job. We’ve got three more preseason games I’m looking forward to.”

All told, only five of the Rams’ normal defensive starters opened the game: Long, linebackers Jo-Lonn Dunbar and Alec Ogletree, and safeties T.J. McDonald and Rodney McLeod.

It was more of the same on offense: fullback Harkey; running back Zac Stacy, left guard Greg Robinson and right tackle Joe Barksdale were among the normal starters to open the game. Kendricks was at tight end for the first instead of Cook, but sometimes the tight end and wide receivers that start the game are decided according to play-call and formation.

At wide receiver, the Rams opened with their “bigs” — 6-3 Kenny Britt and 6-3 Brian Quick.

Bradford was in sweats during pregame warmups as coach Jeff Fisher chose to sit him. Others not playing included left tackle Jake Long, center Scott Wells, guard tackle Rodger Saffold and running back Isaiah Pead on offense.

Among those sitting on defense were cornerbacks Janoris Jenkins and Trumaine Johnson, defensive tackles Michael Brockers and Kendall Langford, and linebacker James Laurinaitis.

Defensive end Michael Sam played, and a couple of quarterback hurries and a nice tackle at the line of scrimmage drew cheers from a half-filled Edward Jones Dome.

There were some bumps defensively, even in the first half when the Rams were mostly using players who will be on the 53-man roster in September. There were too many missed tackles, including one by linebacker Ray Ray Armstrong that led to a 46-yard gain by tight end Josh Hill, setting up the Saints’ first TD.

On the final Saints possession of the first half, safety Cody Davis missed a tackle on a cutback run by Mark Ingram that resulted in a 22-yard TD.

In the first half alone, the Saints gained 99 yards on the ground, at 7.1 yards a crack.

“We have a lot to work on — we knew that coming into the game,” Chris Long said. “The game just reaffirmed it. I’m sure there were some encouraging things, but definitely for our first game we should ratchet down the run game a little better.

“They hit the perimeter a little bit too much, but that’s what these preseason games are for.”

In a see-saw game, the Rams trailed by as much as nine points— 26-17 — after three quarters, after the Saints tacked on a field goal and touchdown following intermission. But Davis, following Hill and Garrett Gilbert into the game at quarterback got the Rams back into it when he fired a strike to rookie free agent Austin Franklin for a 15-yard TD with 11:07 to play.

Zuerlein’s extra point narrowed the Saints’ lead to 26-24, but the Rams missed a chance to take the lead on their next possession when Zuerlein uncharacteristically hooked a 46-yard field goal attempt way wide left with 5:02 to play.

After a defensive stop, the Rams had another chance for the win. But Zuerlein’s 59-yard attempt sailed wide left as time expired.

Observation Deck: St. Louis Rams
By Nick Wagoner

http://espn.go.com/blog/st-louis-rams/post/_/id/10314/observation-deck-st-louis-rams

ST. LOUIS –While St. Louis Rams defensive end Michael Sam is the late-round draft pick from Missouri garnering most of the attention, it was the one taken a round before him that found himself around the ball for most of the night.

Of course, cornerback E.J. Gaines was also the one on the wrong end of Brandin Cooks’ touchdown catch and run that ultimately gave the New Orleans Saints a 26-24 victory Friday night at the Edward Jones Dome.

With cornerbacks Janoris Jenkins, Trumaine Johnson and Brandon McGee not playing, sixth-round pick Gaines got the start at corner and acquitted himself well with that one notable exception. He was a solid tackler and mostly sticky in coverage before Cooks juked him in the open field for a 25-yard touchdown in the third quarter.

Here are some other thoughts on the Rams’ first preseason game:

With a little more than five minutes to go in the first quarter, Sam got his first taste of an NFL game. Sam replaced Chris Long at left defensive end and played the rest of the first half and part of the second. Along the way, Sam had some good moments including a tackle on Saints running back Khiry Robinson for no gain and a pressure that forced an incompletion in the second quarter. Beyond his defensive duties, Sam also worked on the kick block and kick return units on special teams.

Without the services of quarterback Sam Bradford, left tackle Jake Long and center Scott Wells, all of whom didn’t play as expected, the Rams starting offense, such as it was, got off to a strong start and staked the Rams to a halftime lead. Shaun Hill, starting in place of Bradford, showed why the Rams coveted him in free agency with a nearly flawless outing. Hill played the bulk of the first half and finished his evening 5-of-7 for 84 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions for a rating of 151.2.

Gaines was one of the few Rams defenders who was consistently solid as a tackler Friday night. Like most teams in the preseason, tackling is an issue but the Rams appeared particularly shoddy, especially in the first half. Linebackers Ray-Ray Armstrong, Jo-Lonn Dunbar and Phillip Steward and safety Cody Davis had clear misses that resulted in big gains for Saints running backs. New Orleans back Mark Ingram scored on a 22-yard touchdown run after a clear Davis miss in the second quarter.

Neither team used many of their starters so the majority of the game was played by backups. Beyond Bradford, Long, Wells, Jenkins and Johnson the Rams also were missing projected starter at linebacker in James Laurinaitis, the offensive line in Rodger Saffold and defensive tackle in Michael Brockers and Kendall Langford. The good news is the few starters who did play didn’t seem to have any noticeable injury issues though tight end Cory Harkey did come off with an apparent hand injury.

Rams rally falls short
• By Jim Thomas

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/football/professional/rams-rally-falls-short/article_e187a8a0-e089-5fe1-8635-6b5149f0289a.html

As openers go, things couldn’t have gone much better for quarterback Shaun Hill in his Rams debut Friday at the Edward Jones Dome.

A perfect passer rating in the NFL is 158.3, and the 34-year-old from Parsons, Kan., was close to perfect. With Sam Bradford sitting this one out, Hill stepped into the starting spot and completed five of seven passes for 84 yards playing most of the first half.

Throw in a pair of touchdown passes, one to Cory Harkey and another to Stedman Bailey, and Hill ended his night with a 151.2 passer rating in a preseason game the Rams eventually lost 26-24 to New Orleans.

Hill is replacing Kellen Clemens as the Rams’ No. 2 quarterback this year, and Friday’s outing had to be a confidence builder. Even with the strong performance, Hill saw room for improvement.

“The two 3-and-outs we’d like to have back,” Hill said, referring to his second and third series of the night.

At the very least, Hill said he would’ve liked to at least flip field position with a couple of first downs on those series.

“Give our defense a little break,” Hill said. “But yeah, other than that, the guys made some great plays out there. The drives we did get going, we capped off with touchdowns instead of 3’s, so that helped.”

He also slightly overthrew wide receiver Brian Quick on a deep ball for one of his two incompletions, but other than that there wasn’t much to quibble about.

“Shaun was in complete control,” coach Jeff Fisher said. “He can win games for you.”

One of only a handful of defensive starters seeing action Friday, end Chris Long gave the Rams the ball for their offensive first possession when he intercepted a bubble screen intended for Saints rookie wide receiver Brandin Cooks near midfield.

The Rams took over on the Saints’ 47 and then escaped a second-and-17 situation when Hill found tight end Jared Cook open over the middle for a 24-yard gain.

“It was a good drive starter,” Cook said. “And Cory finished it off with a nice touchdown.”

That he did. Two plays after Cook’s catch, Hill threw to a wide-open Harkey in the left flat. Harkey, who has caught only 13 regular-season passes in two NFL campaigns, rumbled 16 yards for a touchdown and a 7-0 Rams lead.

“It was just a simple run-action play,” said Harkey, who has shown improved pass-catching skills during training camp and during the OTAs in June. “I was just looking to make sure my guy wasn’t coming on a blitz, and I ended up being wide open.”

Midway through the second quarter, Hill engineered a five-play, 71-yard TD drive with some help from tight end Lance Kendricks, running back Benny Cunningham, and then Bailey.

Kendricks got the drive jump-started with a 14-yard reception to the St. Louis 48. Cunningham responded in a third-and-1 situation from the Saints’ 43, breaking a tackle near the line of scrimmage, then breaking outside for a 19-yard gain.

On the next play, Bailey ran a streak pattern, then beat defender Stanley Jean-Baptiste with a back-shoulder catch for a 24-yard TD and a 14-9 Rams lead.

All told, only five of the Rams’ normal defensive starters opened the game: Long, linebackers Jo-Lonn Dunbar and Alec Ogletree, and safeties T.J. McDonald and Rodney McLeod.

It was more of the same on offense: fullback Harkey; running back Zac Stacy, left guard Greg Robinson and right tackle Joe Barksdale were among the only usual starters to open the game. Lance Kendricks was at tight end for the first play instead of Cook, but sometimes the tight end and wide receivers that start the game are decided according to play-call and formation.

At wide receiver, the Rams opened with their “bigs” — 6-3 Kenny Britt and 6-3 Brian Quick.

Bradford was in sweats during pregame warmups as coach Jeff Fisher chose to sit him. Others not playing included left tackle Jake Long, center Scott Wells, guard and tackle Rodger Saffold, and running back Isaiah Pead (bruised hand) on offense.

Among those sitting on defense were cornerbacks Janoris Jenkins (hamstring) and Trumaine Johnson, defensive tackles Michael Brockers (ankle) and Kendall Langford, and linebacker James Laurinaitis (ankle).

Defensive end Michael Sam played a lot. And a couple of quarterback hurries and a nice tackle at the line of scrimmage drew cheers from a half-filled dome.

There were some bumps defensively, even in the first half when the Rams were primarily using players who will be on the 53-man roster in September. There were too many missed tackles, including one by linebacker Ray Ray Armstrong that led to a 46-yard gain by tight end Josh Hill, setting up the Saints’ first TD.

On the final Saints possession of the first half, safety Cody Davis missed a tackle on a cutback run by Mark Ingram that resulted in a 22-yard TD.

In the first half alone, the Saints gained 99 yards on the ground, at 7.1 yards a crack.

“I’m sure there were some encouraging things, but definitely for our first game we should rachet down the run game a little better,” Chris Long said. “They hit the perimeter a little bit too much, but that’s what these preseason games are for.”

In a see-saw game, the Rams trailed by as much as nine points — 26-17 — after three quarters. But Austin Davis, following Hill and Garrett Gilbert into the game at quarterback, got the Rams back into it when he fired a strike to rookie free agent Austin Franklin for a 15-yard TD with 11:07 to play.

Greg Zuerlein’s extra point narrowed the Saints’ lead to 26-24, but the Rams missed a chance to take the lead on their next possession when Zuerlein uncharacteristically hooked a 46-yard field goal attempt way wide left with 5:02 to play. He missed again as time expired from 59 yards.

Burwell: It’s a low-key but solid step for Sam
By BRYAN BURWELL

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/columns/bryan-burwell/burwell-it-s-a-low-key-but-solid-step-for/article_2f0438d5-68b7-5edd-90ed-10c7046b1a75.html

By the middle of the third quarter of the first exhibition game of his NFL career, Michael Sam stood on the sidelines with his helmet tilted on the top of his head, waiting for another chance to get back on the field.

For months, this was the moment he’d been waiting for and now here it was. How good it felt to be standing there with sweat and eye black streaming down his face, with a St. Louis Rams game uniform on his back.

It was Friday night at the Edward Jones Dome, and Sam was in a pro football game — albeit a preseason opener — and everything seemed so normal. He wasn’t fighting for a cause, he was battling for a job.

He wasn’t a symbol of social progress, he was a rookie trying to prove his worth. He wasn’t a distraction, he was an excitable defensive lineman flying all over the football field trying to make a play.

Many in the smallish crowd inside the Edward Jones Dome politely acknowledged his presence when they finally realized the most celebrated seventh-round draft pick the St. Louis Rams have ever known had entered the game in the second quarter of a 26-24 loss to the New Orleans Saints.

He had come into the game with 5 minutes and 13 seconds remaining in the second quarter, but no one actually noticed that the first openly gay player to playon an NFL field had made his historic entrance until a play later when the PA announcer mentioned his name as part of the play.

It wasn’t a rousing ovation or some gushing recognition for a ground-breaking social pioneer. It wasn’t a gasp-and-swoon salutation for a man who was creating the sort of history that seemed unimaginable less than 12 months ago.

What Sam received from the home crowd simply was the polite recognition accorded a favorite son of Mizzou; it was not much different from the applause heard when another former Tiger, rookie E.J. Gaines, was mentioned after a play he made.

The small crowd in the Dome wasn’t all that interested in the greater sense of the historic story of the evening, because here in St. Louis the Michael Sam story is not quite the same as it is everywhere else.

We know Sam and his story as well as anybody in the land. We watched him grow into a special player at Mizzou. We knew — or at least had an inkling — of his personal back story for a while. And surprisingly it didn’t seem to matter when we found out that he is gay, which is somewhat of a surprise when you consider the bright-red conservative leanings and politics of this state.

We’ve long ago settled into the notion that the Michael Sam story is that of a football player trying to earn a job. That doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing that the rest of the world sees things a bit differently.

“Everywhere else in the country, they’re watching this game because of Michael,” said Cyd Zeigler, founder and columnist for Outsports.com and Sbnation.com. “He’s the story to everyone else because of what it means.”

And what it means to everyone else is the monumental moment when an openly gay athlete stepped onto an NFL field for the first time and played in a football game. Whatever your politics, you have to understand why so many people beyond the local borders think this merits heavy media attention.

That’s why on Friday night, the Dome press box did have a surprisingly large presence of national media for such a meaningless contest. Zeigler was part of a contingent that included USA Today, ESPN, NFL Network and Yahoo Sports.

To them, everything Sam did Friday night was landmark stuff.

Yet to most of the spectators in the Dome — and by and large the local media contingent — the documentation of his every movement simply was part of a less historically significant depth-chart obsession.

“Here in St. Louis, the story is their football team,” Zeigler said. “They just want to know how the Rams are doing. To them, the story is the team and Michael is just a small part of that story.”

And with so many of the starting players for both teams on the sidelines in sweat suits or T-shirts and shorts, this was a game that was being played for the benefit of bottom-of-the-roster dreamers such as Sam.

This was the first opportunity to get substantial playing time, to put something on game film for the coaches and personnel people to see. After a few weeks in training camp, the reps for Sam had begun to dwindle — and quite frankly, so had his play over the last week of practice.

After so many practices against the same teammates, it starts to get difficult to fool the guy across the line of scrimmage with your moves. So a game against new competition was a decidedly important change of pace.

According to several NFL scouts who were in attendance, what they saw out of Sam was impressive.

He had some explosion off the line of scrimmage. You could see a different, higher energy from him from the start. He had several quarterback pressures, showed some excellent bursts of speed off the line of scrimmage on pass plays, chased down Saints backup quarterback Ryan Griffin a couple of times in the backfield and did a decent job on the few running plays that came in his direction.

His first tackle came with 11:57 left in the second quarter, when he split through two blockers and nearly tackled running back Khiry Robinson in the backfield then dragged him down for no gain.

As Rams coach Jeff Fisher said after the game, Sam needs to get more game action with his hand in the dirt because he is a pure pass-rushing defensive end, and it’s quite rare to find a pass-rushing DE who ends up as special-teams demon racing down on kick or punt coverage.

By the end of Friday’s game, as he walked off the field with a TV camera trailing him, Sam didn’t look like a social pioneer. He just looked like a very happy and satisfied football player pleased with a good night’s work.

If he can keep this sort of activity up in the next three exhibition games — and make some impact on special teams — by September Sam really will be able to make NFL history by stepping on the field for a regular-season game.

That would be the sort of history that really would matter.

W2W4 revisited: St. Louis Rams
By Nick Wagoner

http://espn.go.com/blog/st-louis-rams/post/_/id/10346/w2w4-revisited-st-louis-rams

EARTH CITY, Mo. — Looking back at three things to watch from the St. Louis Rams’ 26-24 loss to the New Orleans Saints on Friday night.

1. An aggressive defensive approach?

Much was made of Rams defensive coordinator Gregg Williams taking on his former team but, as could be expected in the preseason, that anticipation fell flat. Despite talk all week about Williams dialing up exotic blitzes to get after his old squad, the Rams were every bit as vanilla as coach Jeff Fisher promised during the week.

Williams didn’t completely shut off the blitz faucet but chose his spots here and there and ultimately stuck to basic coverages and schemes. Perhaps the most intriguing thing the defense did was use end Robert Quinn exclusively on obvious third-down (and one fourth down) passing situation. That resulted in about five snaps worth of work for Quinn, who did manage to generate pressure on a couple of them.

2. Sorting out the running backs

After getting nicked up earlier in the week, Zac Stacy did handle the starting running back duties. And yes, the job still appears to be his as he got the bulk of the work with the starting offense Friday night. Stacy was solid, too, carrying four times for 22 yards before calling it a night.

The Rams followed their practice script in divvying up the rest of the carries with Benny Cunningham coming in second followed by rookie Tre Mason and Chase Reynolds. Isaiah Pead spent the evening in street clothes, perhaps because of the hand injury that has cost him time in camp. Cunningham also had some good moments, carrying five times for 24 yards.

Mason was the busiest of the backs, getting 15 carries for 51 yards. He struggled to get much going early but he was also working behind the third-team offensive line. He had a couple of long runs late, including one called back for holding and actually had a couple of strong moments picking up the blitz. Chase Reynolds got work in Pead’s absence with six carries for 46 yards, though 38 of those came on a well-designed and executed fake punt. He also had a catch for 10 yards and showed up on special teams. Pead looks to be falling further behind.

3. First glance at Sam

Defensive end Michael Sam found himself on the field early and often, entering the game with a little more than five minutes to go in the first quarter. He had a couple of moments that caused Fisher to take notice, namely a quarterback hurry and a run stop and earned some time on special teams as well. He played through the first half and into the third quarter before calling it a night. It was a solid if unspectacular first step for Sam though some of his competition for a potential roster spot also offered some positives. End Ethan Westbrooks posted three tackles and Sammy Brown had two tackles for loss and a quarterback hit.

Rams get plenty of lessons in opener
By Nick Wagoner

http://espn.go.com/blog/st-louis-rams/post/_/id/10337/rams-get-plenty-of-lessons-in-opener

EARTH CITY, Mo. — Aside from attempting to stay healthy for four consecutive games, perhaps the primary goal of preseason football is to put your team through as much situational football as possible.

The idea being that the more different situations the team goes through, the more valuable lessons you can learn before the real games start. While the St. Louis Rams’ preseason opener against the New Orleans Saints was strange in many ways, it also offered plenty of learning experiences for coach Jeff Fisher’s team.

“I hope that when you get in preseason games that there’s enough things that take place there that you can learn from and learn lessons and teach from, and we got our share today,” Fisher said. “I’ll tell you, that was something.”

The fourth quarter alone could serve as a crash course on some of the league’s lesser-known rules as well as an instruction book on how not to run a two-minute drill.

Twice, the Rams found themselves in position to score the go-ahead points and each time they failed to convert in part because of some silly mistakes. The offense at the time was comprised mostly of third- and fourth-stringers but the mistakes made could be used by anyone as lessons for the future.

Kicker Greg Zuerlein missed a 46-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter and then missed a 59-yarder as time expired to give New Orleans a 26-24 victory.

It was the final sequence that raised the most eyebrows. After starting their final drive with a couple of conservative run calls, quarterback Austin Davis hit tight end Alex Bayer down the middle for a 42-yard gain to the Saints 42.

Things went haywire from there as there was some clear confusion about when the two-minute warning was. Davis hit receiver T.J. Moe for a gain of 4 yards but nobody, officials included, seemed to know whether they had hit the two-minute warning, and the Saints ended up using a timeout. Davis promptly was flagged for delay of game coming out of the timeout but it seemed mostly because of the confusion over the timeout and clock.

After a couple of completions got the Rams in field goal range, they went back to the conservative approach with two runs for no gain. Out of timeouts, Davis let the clock run down and then attempted to spike the ball to stop the clock to set up a 49-yard field goal attempt.

But Davis mishandled the snap before he could spike it. According to league rules, a mishandled snap that touches the ground that is then spiked is intentional grounding. The flag came out, the Rams moved back 10 yards and there was a 10-second runoff which suddenly left Zuerlein attempting a 59-yard field goal and the Rams having to snap the ball as soon as the whistle blew.

Zuerlein had the distance but missed it left.

“I didn’t see it hit the ground, I saw him mishandle it, but I didn’t see it hit the ground,” Fisher said. “But it’s correct. It’s the right call, kind of unusual with four seconds left in a preseason game to see that, and then you got a 10-second runoff.”

That’s just one glaring example of something the Rams will have to work on this week, not including the bigger issues such as tackling and eliminating silly penalties.