Rams versus Steelers: postgame thoughts?

This team just needs a major shake up. A team ” built to run the ball” that cannot run the ball. It was pathetic and the Steelers are not a good Defense at all. When you hold the number one Offense in the NFL to 12 pts.
you need to win.

wv wrote:

Well, why do you think they can’t run the ball? Any ideas?
Why cant they execute long drives using a balanced offensive attack?

I’m going to go with a young offensive line that needs time to jell, or gel, or whatever. Maybe in the second half of the season things pick up.

Seems like a lot of the breakdowns in the run game are happening between the tackles. I’d have to rewatch the game, but I don’t recall seeing any Rams blockers running picking up guys at the second level. LBs and DBs are making plays at the LOS too. I would have thought that Robinson or Havenstein would show some flashes as road graters, but they haven’t yet. Maybe the Rams running game is easy for defenses to read. All guesses on my part, obviously.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 7 months ago by canadaram.

that kendricks dropped td pass was a real heartbreaker.

wv wrote:

Anybody have anything to say about Gurley?

Didn’t look very explosive from
what little i saw.

w
v

Washington vs. Rams, Rookie Matt Jones

 RUSHING ATT, YDS, TD, AVG
M. Jones 19, 123, 2, 6.5

Rams vs Steelers, Rookie Todd Gurley

RUSHING ATT, YDS, TD, AVG
T. Gurley 6, 9, 0, 1.5

I am anxiously awaiting next week.

A few thoughts:

The defense came out slow once again–but adjusted much more quickly than the Washington game and they played an outstanding game holding a great offense to 12 points. It was a good game plan and I’m very impressed. Yes–you should win if you hold that team to 12 points–unfortunately they would have had to hold onto the interceptions and probably run them back because….

There was no offense on the field today for the Rams. Oh there was offensive play–as in their play was offensive but just a terrible embarrassing display against a not so great defense. I kept thinking that our offense looked ….slow somehow. Pittsburgh’s defense seemed to be playing at twice the speed.

This team–at least some players–I’m looking at you Jared Cook, Greg Robinson…just seems to have mental lapses where it seems like they aren’t really there. No focus. Gurley wasn’t ready for the speed of the game. That’s what it looked like–despite the fact that he had no holes. Mason actually made something out of nothing on some of his runs. Gurley can’t do that yet. But he needs to play. This is his pre-season, really.

It looks like Nick Foles pre-season too, by the way. Maybe someone should tell him these games count because he hasn’t been playing like it the last two games. In all fairness though he is throwing to guys with bricks for hands.

The offense is just a mess right now.

The defense is playoff caliber.

Add it up you may get to 7-9 or 8-8.

Gurley will get better. But right now our most consistent threat is Tavon. He’s the one guy defenses have to worry about.

Arizona is next.

Not expecting a W there.

Tavon has actually shut me up this year so far. He has been a very good complementary player.

The problem is that so far there has been no one to complement.

wv wrote:

Anybody have anything to say about Gurley?

Didn’t look very explosive from
what little i saw.

w
v

I agree. The O line didn’t look good too.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 7 months ago by bnw.

wv wrote:

Anybody have anything to say about Gurley?

Didn’t look very explosive from
what little i saw.

w
v

I think that is how he runs. He accelerates through the hole with his eyes down field. He just kind of trusts that the first guy won’t bring enough to get him down. Today they got him at the ankles. I think he can adjust a bit or it simply won’t happen as often.

It is frustrating to think we could be 3-0. But the Washington lose upset me, this one, not near as much.

I would prefer if they full on tanked and Fisher is sent packing.4 years is enough of this for me. The window on this defense won’t last forever and Fisher to me anyway seems like he’s got all the time in the world ,zero urgency.

We saw last week how much this offense is going to struggle.

We saw this week how good the defense can be.

So this week shows a lot more promise than last week.

Heck most people had written off the Pitt. game in advance as a blow-out.

Cigz and Boras are new at this, the OL is far more inexperienced than most anyone can name and I mean in NFL history, and I said before the season that Foles would need at least decent OL play and a running game to play well. That means a struggling offense.

(Actually what I said was that Foles would need a relatively healthy OL and a running threat. But the point is that a line with multiple simultaneous injuries cannot play effectively, and since a young OL with 2 rookies and a green LOT can’t play effectively … at first … either, it’s 6 of one and half a dozen of the other.)

So the defensive play was encouraging. The offense in the redzone when they could have taken the game? Annoying. (Especially since redzone offense was previously a strength with this team, except when Hill was qb.)

When I see a mix of encouraging and disappointing things, I just ask which one looks structural and longterm. Are the disappointing things incurable? My answer is no. Are the encouraging things ephemeral or real? I say real.

Unless some key injuries de-rail them I still see a winning season.

c) when will Kendricks learn to consistently catch a friggin ball?

One small disagreement. Kendricks has led them in catch percentage for a couple of years. (That’s if memory serves. I do know that in 2014 he had the highest catch percentage among Rams TEs and WRs with more than 20 targets. That’s not memory, that;s just fact. But beyond that, I think…based just on memory…that’s true of 2013, too.) He learned to catch the ball a while back. His catch against Seattle sealed a win.

It was one bad play by a player who has been catching the ball well for a few years now.