RamView, 10/13/2014: 49ers 31, Rams 17 (Long)

RamView, October 13, 2014
From The Couch
(Report and opinions on the game.)
Game #5: 49ers 31, Rams 17

The Rams take a 14-0 lead, then fall on their faces and get outscored 31-3 in their latest embarrassing loss to the 49ers. They can’t hold a lead, they can’t block, they can’t get open, they can’t cover receivers, they sure as hell can’t rush the passer. What does this team do best? Lose. Third year under Jeff Fisher, and all they’re good at is losing.

Position by position:
* QB: Well, Austin Davis’ great run wasn’t going to go on forever, and wasn’t going to this week under the bad conditions he got. Davis (21-42-236, PR 65.2). Davis had smooth sailing at first, beating a blitz to hit Jared Cook for 39, the big play of a 7-minute opening scoring drive. The Rams got the ball back quickly, but almost as quickly, Davis got sacked by Ahmad Brooks, then just managed to throw away a pass after a 49er stunt blew up a screen. Davis started out hot, though, 7-8-103. He hit Lance Kendricks off play-action for a 22-yard TD, the Rams are up 14-0, and Jon Gruden is calling him a young Drew Brees. Brees, er, Austin, pulled a rabbit out of his hat the next drive, scrambling away from pressure on 3rd-and-4 to hit Benny Cunningham for an improv 1st down. But then the 49er rush started finding its mark. Dan Skuta sacked Davis twice in 3 plays. Davis had no chance the first time but missed a chance to get upfield on the second. To his credit, he is not quick and panicky to pull the ball down and run, but this week I’d have liked to see him run more. Before halftime, he hung in strong with a stunt in his face to hit Kenny Britt for 18 on 3rd-and-7, and made a tough throw to Cook on 3rd-and-10 that should have been another big play, but a referee screw job, followed by Janoris Jenkins screw-ups, got the Rams in a 17-14 hole by the 3rd quarter. The Rams’ response was a painful 3-and-out. Davis got sacked by a blitz on 2nd down and got nothing on a 3rd-down throw he had plenty of time to get off. The offense continued to stall while the 49ers pulled away. Davis got pressured into more bad passes and took more sacks. His accuracy was uncharacteristically off, and the deep passing game was not in step. On back-to-back 3-and-outs in the 4th, Davis threw a bad out route for Kendricks, threw deep for Britt with Britt breaking off his route, and threw a deep ball for Brian Quick on a route Quick appeared to be breaking off. That was all part of a 2-for-13 run for Davis where the whole Ram offense totaled 18 yards. Davis got the Rams a late FG that could have been more. Already in FG range, he threw high with Cook wide open on the sideline, then Stedman Bailey didn’t get to his end zone pass on 3rd down. Down 24-17 with 1:00 left, Davis put out the lights for good. Pressured yet again, he telegraphed what would have been a useless short pass, and somebody called Dontae Johnson jumped it for a game-clinching pick-six. Rough game for Davis, but there’s little question it was a total team effort. He didn’t get enough help from his receivers, offensive line or blitz protection. The only St. Louis Ram offense that would have done any better Monday night was only on the field for the halftime show.

* RB: With the addition of Tre Mason (5-40) and return of Tavon Austin (3-16) to the mix, the many-headed Ram running game has gone full Hydra. Mason looked like he was trying to make up for sitting out the first four games. On the opening drive he took a swing pass 11 yards, crashing through 2 DBs for a 1st down at the 5. He kicked off the Rams’ 2nd TD drive with a 24-yard blast off the left side that probably would have been a TD had he not run into Brian Quick trying to block downfield. Mason looked like a long–needed injection of speed and energy into the Ram offense, but his big problem continues to be blitz protection. He got all but ran over by Antoine Bethea for a sack in the 4th. Benny Cunningham (7-21) is by far the best Ram RB against the blitz; he had a couple of epic pickups. He also bounced a run outside for the opening TD. Zac Stacy (8-17) was used for middle power runs and, surprise, didn’t get a lot of running room. The other middle runner, so little he doesn’t need running room, was Austin, with a couple of carries on the 1st TD drive for 10 and a 6-yard end-around later. Two years after the Rams were all Steven Jackson, all the time, it’s funny how the RB position has turned into a Tony LaRussa bullpen now. Everybody gets to pitch. They need to find a closer they can stick with, though.

* WR: Tough week to be a Ram receiver vs. an underrated 49er secondary. Davis had the most trouble finding open receivers he’s had all year. Kenny Britt’s (3-39) catches were few and far between, though he went up and got an 18-yard pass to set up a late FG. Brian Quick (1-10) couldn’t have been open often himself. Davis tried him deep a couple of times; once, Quick was double-blanketed, later, they missed connections by at least a page. Britt had a similar issue in the 4th, stopping to come back with Davis in trouble while Davis tried to throw him open deep. Then you have the guy with the deep speed, Austin (4-35), catching a bunch of short stuff. The Rams settled for that late FG when Stedman Bailey got knocked off his route. Davis threw him open in the end zone but he couldn’t get to the ball. The 49ers earn a lot of credit here, but a lot of the Ram passing game just looked out of sync this week.

* Tight ends: Well, we know it was a weird week at TE when Jared Cook (4-74) was not only the best blocker, he got the honor in a landslide. He sprung Stacy for 6 on an early run and was a rare Ram to make solid pickups on stunts. He also had the big play of the opening TD drive, beating a blitz with a 39-yard catch-and-run on a quick slant. Cook also appeared to make the big play of the Rams’ last drive before halftime, breaking tackles for a 25-yard play into the red zone, but had it called back for a baffling OPI penalty. That turned out to be a killer for Cook’s momentum, and the Rams’. Both were quiet in the 2nd half, maybe not coincidentally. Lance Kendricks put the Rams up 14-0 with a 22-yard TD – play-action got him behind the whole 49er secondary – but also was the Rams’ worst player this week. Ahmad Brooks drove him back like he was nothing to sack Davis in the 1st. Brooks beat him again for a sack in the 3rd, I believe on a dreaded stunt. Part of a 3-and-out the Rams didn’t really need after falling behind 17-14. Bethea’s sack was on Kendricks as much as it was Mason; Kendricks got driven back into the pocket and left Davis nowhere to run. He wasn’t strong run-blocking, either, and as a pending free agent, isn’t going to stick around the league for long with games like this. Consistency continues to elude this unit.

* Offensive line: The good news is that Greg Robinson started, at LG, and got off to enough of a good start that you had to wonder what took so long to get him out there. Justin Smith hasn’t had so quiet a Rams game in a while. Robinson held his own against Smith from the opening snap. On Mason’s 24-yard run, Smith attempted a spin move on the rookie and got pancaked for his trouble. Robinson’s strong blocking sprung Mason and Stacy for a couple of other good runs, but his most impressive play came on 3rd-and-4 in the 2nd. He pancaked one 49er at the snap, then with Davis scrambling his direction, flattened another 49er on the back side to give Davis time to throw for the first down. Two pancakes on one play! Unfortunately, Jake Long got smoked by the immortal Dan Skuta for a sack/fumble the very next play. Luckily, Scott Wells was there to fall on the ball instead of Long this week. Skuta padded his Hall of Fame resume with another sack 2 plays later, but Davis got plenty of time there and probably should have used the big getaway lane that opened. Other than that sequence, I didn’t think Long was terrible. There were many plays where he had lockdown pass pro and Davis had half a solid pocket. The other two sacks were blitz pickup failures. Unfortunately for the Rams, the 49ers apparently invented something called a “stunt” right before the game. The Rams sure played them like they had never seen them before, especially Rodger Saffold and Joseph Barksdale on the right side. Davis had heat in his face from stunts and blitzes all game, especially in the 2nd half. The right side killed a couple of drives, including a 3-and-out in the 4th, with poor protection against stunts, and got a screen pass blown up big-time in the 1st. This week was another letdown up front. It was disappointing that Saffold and Barksdale struggled so much against San Francisco’s bread-and-butter stunts. The 49ers again got to the Rams with many of their biggest names not even on the field. They were pretty much, we’re going to line up and do what we do, and you’re not going to stop us, and they did it. The Rams better have an answer for the rematch.

* Defensive line: Well, it’s official: the Rams are now having the worst pass-rushing season since the NFL started counting sacks. They’re the only team in close to 50 years to score only ONE sack in its first five games. And I think I just heard an Amber alert reporting Robert Quinn missing. The Rams put little pressure on Colin Kaepernick (343 passing yards, 37 rushing) in the 1st half but were bailed out by 49er penalties and drops. The Ram blitz never got to Kaepernick, and Quinn sure didn’t, which led to heaps of trouble. The 49ers started the 2nd half the way they started the 1st, with a TD drive. Kaepernick went around left end for 23 after Quinn blew containment with overpursuit and left him a huge running lane. Michael Brockers stuffed Frank Gore for a loss – the Rams did stop the run well this week – but on 3rd-and-12, it’s a stupid blitz that never gets there, and Kaepernick has time to hit Anquan Boldin for 15. Quinn wasn’t just a non-factor that play, he was on the ground. Across the d-line, the Rams spent way too much time on the ground this week. Alex Boone then manhandled Aaron Donald to spring Gore for 9, and from the 11, the Rams lost containment on Kaepernick again, letting him outside to find Boldin in the back of the end zone. A holding call or two might have been nice that play; likewise, not dropping Quinn into coverage. More themes of the game played out late in the 3rd. Kaepernick peppered the Rams with quick passes. Blocking penalties went uncalled. Another 3rd-down blitz near midfield did nothing but leave Boldin wide open for a 1st. And, an easy TD for Kaepernick to Michael Crabtree under moderate-at-best pressure. The Rams almost gave up another TD in the 4th. William Hayes got flattened at the line and Bruce Miller sneaked out all alone for a 15-yard swing pass. Quinn got pinned inside to leave Kaepernick another open scramble to the Ram 5. Hayes then had a chance to sack Kaepernick – o glorious day! – but not only failed, he got a penalty for horse-collaring. Fortunately, Donald, who started over Kendall Langford, held up strong at the goal line a couple of times to get the Rams the ball back. Donald also stuffed Gore on 4th down to stop the next 49er drive after a couple of excellent plays by Quinn to shut Gore down. So, no, Robert Quinn didn’t forget how to play football. Donald had a super game. I have him for 5 run stuffs and a stuffed shovel pass that appeared to stop a big play before halftime. The Rams held 49er RBs to under 2 yards a carry and I think it’s safe to say the problems they had defending the run to start the season have been fixed. But other than a few pressures by Hayes, pass rush remains AWOL. Blitzes never get there. I don’t think Quinn has touched a QB this season, not recently, anyway. He’s getting manhandled, not always legally, and doesn’t have enough help from the rest of the line to get extra attention off of him. You wouldn’t think Chris Long’s absence would lead to a 50-sack difference (Rams are now on pace for 3 this year), would you?

* Linebackers: Sterling linebacker play kept the Rams in the game while the 49ers went 0-for-3 on 4th down in the 4th quarter. Jo-Lonn Dunbar was in on a 4th-down stuff of Frank Gore. A late goal-line stand kept the Rams in the game. Dunbar finished off Carlos Hyde for no gain on 3rd-and-goal at the 1. On 4th-and-goal, James Laurinaitis stuffed Hyde’s lead blocker, forcing Hyde to run up the blocker’s back while Dunbar slanted in for the tackle. The 49ers failed to run the final minute off the clock after Laurinaitis stuffed Hyde on 3rd down. Laurinaitis (8 tkl) got beaten in coverage a couple of times, but also recovered a fumble in the 1st; that’s a high-impact game from your MLB. The Rams do miss the impact Alec Ogletree had his rookie year. As a “spy”, he was more Edward Snowden letting Kaepernick escape on a couple of scrambles. The Miller screen also looked like a play where an OLB was out of position. The Rams need all their LBs to be much bigger factors blitzing. Laurinaitis doesn’t have the speed to do it, and they all just seem to get washed out. No pressure up front is putting too much pressure on the back.

* Secondary: Janoris Jenkins is in his third NFL season; isn’t it about time he knew what the hell he’s doing? Or at least quit getting beaten for long TD bombs? Jenkins killed the Rams this week with bad plays. 0:20 left in the first half, he lets Brandon Lloyd get ten feet behind him for an 80-yard TD. The worst part of that play wasn’t even Jenkins biting like a bear trap on Lloyd’s double move, when with so little time left, all he had to do was keep Lloyd in front of him. No, it’s that the 25-year-old Jenkins LOST GROUND to the 33-year-old Lloyd after the catch. Jenkins never should have cost the Rams points there, but by all rights he should have been able to save them 4. Age won over incompetence again in the 3rd after Jenkins let Anquan Boldin (7-94) get behind him in the end zone for a TD. The Rams were dominating the game until Jenkins kicked in. And holy cats, don’t get me started on Boldin, once again treated by the Ram secondary like he has Ebola, left wide open time after time. Every time the Rams blitzed, you could count on a) the blitz not to get there and b) Boldin to be wide open for a completion. 27 in the 1st. 9 to start the 2nd. 2 catches for 20 to get the 49ers off their goal line and have room to throw the bomb to Lloyd. 15 on 3rd-and-12 to set up his own TD in the 3rd. 12 on 3rd-and-7 later in the 3rd to set up another TD. I’d say the Rams made Boldin look like Jerry Rice again, but Rice never had it this easy, I think. All Boldin had to do all night was jog downfield 5 yards and wait for the ball. Oh, and of course a healthy Michael Crabtree is going to burn the Rams at least once, turning E.J. Gaines inside out for a 32-yard TD. Gaines is a rookie, of course. That drive started with Jenkins blowing a tackle to give Stevie Johnson 9 yards on a screen and getting beaten by Johnson on a slant for 20 the next play. What’s his excuse? The Rams’ safeties may not be dominant but are more than good enough to get by. T.J. McDonald was solid against the run and Rodney McLeod forced an early fumble with a nice hit on Vance McDonald. The corners, though, can’t get through a single game without making several epic mistakes. And with the Ram pass rush doing less than a tree sloth with a full stomach, this defense is in serious, serious trouble.

* Special teams: An uneventful week, though Johnny Hekker can officially cancel any Pro Bowl plans he had for January after a partially-blocked 13-yard punt in the 2nd. The Rams went to a two-up-man look with Chase Reynolds out injured, but on the right, Cody Davis headed upfield and let Jimmie Ward right in on Hekker for a block that helped set up the 49ers’ first score. Jenkins has replaced Ray Ray Armstrong as the special teams penalty specialist, erasing a 19-yard Austin punt return with a hold. Good games in coverage for Lamarcus Joyner, Stedman Bailey and Daren Bates, but two straight weeks of blown punt protection leaves you wondering just when this team is going to quit looking for fundamental ways to lose games.

* Strategery: Fans talk about “adjustments” all the time when we talk about coaching. Look out, here comes some more. To me, it looks like the league has adjusted (did before this season, actually) to the Rams and Gregg Williams hasn’t counter-adjusted, or hasn’t been able to. QBs are throwing too quickly for the Ram rush to generate much pressure. The Rams want to rely on their front seven to protect their secondary, but the league has forced the secondary to buy the front seven enough time to rush. That hasn’t left Williams with many good options. The Ram secondary right now doesn’t look capable of any coverage scheme that will buy time for the front four. So the option Williams has gone with is to blitz more and more. And that’s where he takes ownership of the worst pass rush in modern NFL history. Gregg Williams’ blitzing, the thing he’s most famous for, (besides getting kicked out of the league) is not getting it done. In five games, we have yet to see opponents have much problem at all picking up the blitz, and it has not led to a single sack. All the Rams are getting out of blitzing is DBs even more exposed than they already are, or Anquan Boldin wide open for an entire game. Gruden said during the game that the Rams blitz the most in the NFL. Roughly half the time. What’s that come to? 100 blitzes this year? 125? And the Rams don’t get anybody home a single time? A lot of people share blame for the failure of the Ram secondary and forcing Williams’ hand, but five weeks of failed blitzing? Tim Walton did better than that. BLAKE Williams did better than that. Gregg Williams’ blitz schemes were supposed to take the Rams to the next level. Instead they’ve sunk to new lows.

No complaints for the offense in the first half. Brian Schottenheimer mixed it up well. He burned a blitz for a big play on the 7-minute opening drive. The whole 2nd TD drive (all 4 plays) was nice. A couple of handoffs to Mason, then a mirror image of the end-around Austin scored on against Chicago last year. After stressing the 49er D with all that speed, on 3rd-and-1, bang! play-action TD to the tight end. The Rams’ first half offense was creative and had the 49ers off-balance. The 49ers turned the tables in the 2nd half with effective blitzing and stunting. As we know from watching the Rams flail, those are susceptible to traps, draws, screens, quick slants. I recall few attempts of those after halftime. Hindsight also has me wondering if the Rams used too many slow-developing routes, including the many deep throws. The Ram offense did what the 49er offense didn’t – gave the pass rush time to get there. It’s disappointing the Ram game plan fell apart because the 49ers stunted a lot. That’s what they do – stunt a lot. It’s like the Rams put on The Walking Dead and wondered, hey, what are all those zombies doing on this show?

Coaches don’t pass-block or cover receivers (though it may be worth a try), and it’s no picnic trying to call an offense with a leaky offensive line or to try to call a defense with a leaky secondary. Yet it’s also not like the 49ers just invented the wheel or rolled out anything they don’t always do. It shouldn’t take five weeks to figure out how to get a blitzer to a QB. An offensive line should know what to do when a stunt comes from a team known for stunting. Williams needs to start calling effective blitzes, and quit blitzing away long-distance downs. I need help telling if he or Schottenheimer adjust well to what the opponent is doing. Minnesota 34-6, Philadelphia 34-7, Dallas 34-10 and San Francisco 31-3 says to me neither coordinator is getting the job done quickly enough.

* Upon further review: Like the Rams, rookie referee Craig Wrolstead and crew got off to a good start and then largely fell all apart. Actually, both declines started with the same play. Up 14-3 near halftime, the Rams appeared to get into position for more points after a big catch and run by Cook, but it was called back for a ludicrous OPI call on Cook, who hadn’t done anything remotely resembling OPI. The puzzling call killed the Rams’ momentum, then the 49ers swung it for good with the Lloyd TD. The Rams still would have had a chance had holding been called properly on the Boldin TD. Alex Boone plainly held Donald in the middle of the field for all to see, except Wrolstead, apparently, and Ogletree was drug down from behind by Hyde. Who gets flagged for holding on the play? Yeah, Quinn. Thanks for that, eagle eyes. The TV broadcast later pointed out a dangerous and illegal high/low block on Donald that wasn’t flagged. There weren’t a lot of bad calls, but there were game-changers. Grade: D

* Cheers: I couldn’t make the game in person; my only regret is missing the halftime Greatest Show reunion, the last decent Rams team we’ll see around here any time soon. Chucky Gruden was a hoot on ESPN, calling Davis a young Drew Brees and going ga-ga over Schottenheimer. He threw Rams fans some raw meat, ripping the refereeing, saying it’s about time the d-line quits making excuses and does something, and the Rams are past due to turn things around for us. That last bit made Gruden sound like a rare media figure whose lips aren’t planted on Jeff Fisher’s butt. By the end of the game, though, same as last year’s ESPN game here, Gruden turned on the fans for leaving early, and Mike Tirico went into a spiel about St. Louis being a baseball town. Well, it was fun for a while.

* Who’s next?: The Rams-hater who makes the NFL schedule thinks it would be fun now for the Rams to play the world champions on a short week. The Rams are TWO AND SIXTEEN against the Seattle Seahawks since beating them in the 2004 playoffs, in part because of games like last year’s in St. Louis: the Rams ran for 200 yards, sacked Russell Wilson seven times and still lost 14-9. Snakebitten much?

The Rams aren’t going to beat Wilson Sunday without a decent pass rush, so I can probably end the preview here. You need good pressure up the middle against Wilson, like Dallas and San Diego had, like the 49ers had on Davis this week, but the Rams haven’t done it all year, why start now? Quinn can’t run himself out of plays and leave Wilson huge escape lanes, but why start now? The Seahawks have poor speed at WR and struggled to stretch the field in their losses, making the main job of the Ram secondary not to make stupid mistakes and hand away big plays, but why start now? Even if he’s limited as a runner, Wilson is still a 70% passer, more like 80% Sunday with the Rams leaving WRs open left, right and middle after blitzes fail to get there. Minnesota was just imitating Seattle and Percy Harvin when Cordarrelle Patterson ran all over the Rams, so expect a big fat bunch of jet sweeps until the Rams prove they can stop it. But why start now? Expect lots of fake jet sweeps, too, to loosen up the D for Marshawn Lynch. Seattle’s offense has gone into cold spells to rival the Rams. It hasn’t been unusual for Wilson to have trouble finding a receiver. Harvin seems limited to jet sweeps and bubble screens. The Rams should be able to defend what they know is coming. That includes Lynch leaking out of the backfield when Seattle is in the red zone. But why start now? The Seahawk o-line can duke it out with the best of them but has been inconsistent. They struggle with edge speed and have been sloppy with penalties. Sound familiar? Any way, it’s an o-line a decent defensive line could pressure into mistakes. Anybody know where the Rams can find a decent defensive line?

A recent NFL Network special put the ’13 Seahawk defense right up there with the ’85 Bears among the top defenses of all time, but the Rams could slug it out with them. With Jake Long and Scott Wells intact for the first game last year, the Rams gashed them for 200 rushing yards. They have to win in the middle of the line. Brandon Mebane destroyed the Rams in Seattle last year almost single-handedly, and offseason addition Kevin Williams makes it that much harder to control the center. Michael Bennett’s (3 sacks) listed as a DT but pass rushes like a DE. They will line him up wide-9, with a DE still outside him, to get the guard who has to block him (likely Greg Robinson) off balance. He can beat a guard 1-on-1 or be a huge factor on stunts around center, you know, the kind of moves the Rams just got done failing to stop for an entire game. Why start now? Seattle’s as hard to run on as anybody the Rams play. MLB Bobby Wagner makes plays all over the place. SS Kam Chancellor is a shut-down run defender. The LBs have great play recognition and discipline. If you’re going to run on Seattle, your TEs are going to have to block well. But why start now? Kenny Britt will probably be the WR who draws Richard Sherman all game, but Byron Maxwell was injured in the Dallas game, so Brian Quick may have a favorable matchup. Tight ends are always open against Seattle. Screens have been effective against their blitz and they’ve been vulnerable to deep speed. Single high safety formations left Seattle open to a lot of underneath stuff from Dallas, especially passes to RBs. A lot of that sounds like a job for Tavon Austin. And San Diego had so much success against Seattle handing off to little Danny Woodhead, I wonder if we’ll see more middle runs with Austin. He should be set up to be a game-changing offensive factor this week. But why start now?

If the Rams have a main mission against the world champs, it’s to avoid killing themselves with mistakes. Dallas nearly did that, getting a punt blocked, fumbling a punt return away and giving another possession away due to a bad snap. They could overcome that, though. The Rams can’t. It’s time for the Rams to play some clean football and for Jeff Fisher and staff to start making a difference.

But hell. Why start now?

— Mike
Game stats from espn.com