RamView, 10/4/2014: Eagles 34, Rams 28 (Long)

RamView, October 5, 2014
From The Couch
(Report and opinions on the game.)
Game #4: Eagles 34, Rams 28

Another tale of two games, another miserable finish for Rams fans, as the Rams dig far too big a hole (34-7) to get back out of in Philadelphia. Should we be happy the Rams nearly made the miracle comeback, or mad that they needed to in the first place when they had an extra week off to “prepare”?

Position by position:
* QB: Appropriately for the Philadelphia setting, Austin Davis (29-49-375, 3 TD, 103.7 PR) replayed the Rocky story, taking a world-class beating early and coming up just short in the end. Davis started with some overthrows that made it look like he’d been drinking too much coffee, then the Eagles started landing blows. He got sacked to end the Rams’ second drive. The next, he got hit on 2nd down and slid a couple of yards short on a 3rd-down scramble. Davis really squeezed a throw in to Lance Kendricks at the end of the 1st to help get the Rams into FG range, but a line penalty and Jared Cook’s inability to pull in a tough 3rd-down catch took care of that. Often with an unblocked blitzer in his face, Davis completed only one of his first six passes and 3 of his first 10. On the Eagle goal line in the 2nd, Vinny Curry came in unblocked and hammered Davis for a sack/fumble. Scott Wells let Davis get drilled to open the ensuing drive, but he hit Brian Quick to convert a 3rd-and-5, and a few plays later, hit Kenny Britt with a bold back-shoulder throw for 33. Why does it feel like Davis has already gone deep more this year than Sam Bradford did the last three? Davis made a nifty play to get the Rams’ first TD, backpedaling from inside pressure, turning the wrong way, then back, and with three Eagles in his face, planting and firing to Quick for an 8-yard TD. With the game 13-7, first the defense let the Rams down, then Jake Long did, letting Davis get hammered by Trent Cole for a sack/fumble/bumble/TD that made it 27-7. More bungling put the Rams down 34-7. But here comes Davis. A 25-yarder to Quick, a 15-yard scramble and a 15-yarder to Cook with a blitz in his face set up a TD. 34-14. Next drive, he stepped up in the pocket to hit Tavon Austin on 3rd down, then scrambled around and threw up a Hail Mary that Britt answered with a 30-yard TD catch. 34-21. Davis isn’t done. With 6:50 left, he drove the Rams 75 yards in 2 minutes and hit Quick for a 5-yard TD to make it 34-28. Seemed like Davis knew where he was throwing before the snap on that play, with Quick drawing man coverage. More non-clutch defense left Davis at his own 7 with 2:00 and no timeouts left. So what does he do? Fire a 43-yard bomb to Quick at midfield! The fun ended there, though, with Austin Pettis unable to bring in a couple of pressured throws and Davis’ desperation 4th-and-long lob going outside while Quick broke inside. Still, there’s little question left now that Austin Davis has “it”. He’s fearless in the pocket. He’s confident throwing downfield and trusts his receivers. His mobility (3 runs, 30 yards) is an asset. He just plays smart. He throws receivers open. He spreads the ball around (TEN different receivers this week). He’s well-versed enough in the offense to audible to successful plays, doing it a couple of times this week that I could pick out. When Bradford was lost for the season in August, it looked like QB was going to be a big problem for the Rams in 2014. Austin Davis has made it the least of their problems.

* RB: When thinking of the Rams’ three-headed running attack, I can’t help thinking of the three-headed giant in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which lets Sir Robin bravely run away while the heads argue over who gets to kill him. I don’t know what Zac Stacy (11-42, 4-36 recv) did to merit getting only 11 carries or taking the bench in just the second series of the game in favor of Trey Watts (2-6, 2-12 recv). Stacy’s playing as well as he has as a Ram. He’s improved significantly as a receiver. The Rams’ first decent drive was keyed by Stacy’s 6-yard cutback run and a studly 13-yard carry where he dragged Cary Williams along for 5 yards. He was effective as a middle runner and on screens. Disaster struck in the 3rd, though, when Stacy fumbled and pulled a calf muscle on the same play, setting up the last Eagle TD and setting Benny Cunningham (7-47. 3-24 recv) up for the leading RB role. Cunningham’s ready for his closeup. He popped a draw for 13 to kick off the Rams’ first TD drive and popped another for 14 for the Rams’ 2nd TD. A nice jump-cut in the hole and a broken tackle got him 12 during the Rams’ 3rd TD drive and he had 10- and 12-yard catches off underneath routes during the last TD drive. I may think Stacy’s more than qualified to be the feature back, but as the lightning to Zac’s thunder, Cunningham could Wally Pipp him, too.

* WR: You could have bet me a ton of money last year I would never say this in 2014, but Brian Quick (5-87, 2 TD) has been a rare bright spot for the Rams this season. He’s playing like every ball is his. With Davis under a ton of heat in the 1st, Quick worked his way to the open spot in the end zone Davis threw to for the Rams’ first TD. Quick had kept that drive alive with a clutch 3rd-down catch-and-run. He kicked off the 2nd TD drive with a long sideline catch and, perhaps using a “veteran move”, ran a nice route for the 4th TD, breaking out and away from Williams to grab a well-timed Davis throw. Quick basically took a bomb away from two Eagle DBs to put the Rams at midfield in the last 2:00. He doesn’t make every play, and this whole unit needs to be much better at catching balls above their heads, but Quick is so many light-years ahead of his first two seasons it’s worth getting fired up about. Kenny Britt (3-68) has found his niche, grabbing a couple of clutch back-shoulder throws and outmaneuvering Bradley Fletcher for the Rams’ third TD, a 30-yarder. Tavon Austin (2-33) had a key catch-and-run to keep that drive alive but he and Stedman Bailey (2-20) didn’t factor in much. With the game on the line, the key receiver somehow became Austin Pettis (3-29), who couldn’t hang on to one tough pass and had another knocked out of his hands in the final minute. I’d take one more play here and there, but the receiving corps is keeping the Rams in games.

* Tight ends: Quieter game for the tight ends. Jared Cook (4-44) was targeted 8-10 times and continues to be reliable on out routes. I don’t know why he got so animated over a Ram false start in the 2nd, where he again appeared to jump Davis’ case. I’d suggest Jared start reliably catching passes that are IN HIS HANDS before jumping on his teammates. Cook could be scored with a couple of drops, including a very tough sideline play inside the Eagle 20 where he made the initial catch but couldn’t “complete the process”. Cory Harkey and Lance Kendricks had poor blocking games, particularly in pass pro, and Kendricks had more false starts (2) than catches (1 for 22). This unit has to improve its consistency both blocking and catching.

* Offensive line: After appearing to turn a corner against Dallas, in Philadelphia, the Ram offensive line ran back into a brick wall. Protection issues were a major reason the Rams, caught flat-footed by Eagle blitzing, fell into a 4-TD hole. Unblocked Eagles flew at Davis throughout the first half. After a blocked punt TD, the Rams turned Casey Matthews into Clay. Davin Joseph whiffed on him to stuff Stacy, and he forced a bad throw from Davis while blitzing untouched. On 3rd down, after Rodger Saffold got beaten inside and forced Davis to step up, Jake Long stopped blocking Connor Barwin, who got the Eagles’ first sack. Next drive: a Kendricks false start, poor blocking by Harkey got Davis hit by Brandon Graham for an incomplete, Fletcher Cox beat Scott Wells to flush Davis on 3rd down. Down 13-0, the Rams got into FG position, but Joseph Barksdale moved them back out with a false start. FOCUS! After a fumble got the Rams a golden opportunity, Barksdale whiffed on Cedric Thornton to get Stacy stuffed on 1st-and-goal. On 3rd-and-goal, Vinny Curry blitzed in unblocked, sack, fumble, no soup for the Rams. The line didn’t even help much on the Rams’ 1st TD drive. Saffold had a good block on a draw play and a good blitz pickup, but Davis had to survive getting creamed by a nobody swimming around Wells like he was nothing on the first snap, a later holding penalty on Joseph, and THREE Eagles coming at him on the TD play. The Ram o-line couldn’t even get in the Eagles’ way in the first half, and it painfully continued after halftime. With the Rams pinned deep, Long got whipped inside by Trent Cole, who hammered Davis for a sack/fumble, and with the loose ball at his feet, Long couldn’t even fall on it successfully and let it wobble free for a Thornton TD. Long shared the blame for the Rams’ next turnover. A poor downblock by Saffold got Stacy bottled up, and, apparently classic Jake Long, he stopped blocking his man, Graham, who closed on Stacy and popped the ball out. Block to the whistle! Turns out Jake Long is no more “back” than 8-tracks. Barksdale was strong on the Rams’ 2nd TD drive, springing Davis for a scramble and Cunningham for the TD. Protection was strong on Britt’s TD, though Wells and Long got beaten to give up a 2nd sack to Barwin the play before. Most of the Rams’ run-blocking was good enough to win, but the Rams were overwhelmed in pass protection early and often, and by the time they caught up, it was much too little, much too late.

* Defensive line: Two of the league’s most disappointing players appeared in this game. There’s fantasy football team killer LeSean McCoy, who the Rams held to 86 total yards. He may be topped, though, by Robert Quinn, who still does not have a sack in 2014. It’s like he’s forgotten how. He actually got to Nick Foles on the Eagles’ first series, but whiffed and slid down his leg while Foles hit Zach Ertz for 19. Darren Sproles popped for 10 the next play thanks to poor overpursuit by Quinn, and this is becoming a trend. Quinn had become one of the league’s best run-defending ends last season but has regressed. Several big Eagle runs went through a gap Quinn didn’t maintain, including a 3rd-and-6 draw to Sproles before halftime that probably cost the Rams four points. William Hayes held up his end. He blew up McCoy’s first two carries by setting a strong edge, and he did that throughout the game. Until a crucial 3rd down with about 3:40 left, when Sproles blew through a gap Hayes opened for 25 yards and a precious 90 seconds off the clock. Kendall Langford got blown away up front to open that play up, and, hey, another trend. McCoy runs for 19 in the 2nd after Langford blew a tackle that would have held him to 2. In the 3rd, even though Hayes and Langford sealed the edge, McCoy still got away for 11 after Langford blew the tackle. Might be time for more of Aaron Donald, who blew up three different handoffs to McCoy and got a couple of pressures on Foles. Michael Brockers clogged the middle well and recovered a Foles fumble in the 4th. Ethan Westbrooks had a solid game and pressured Foles into a couple of bad throws. #SackCity may be as bankrupt as #Detroit, but the Rams didn’t lose this game for lack of pressure on Foles, who was usually pretty uncomfortable in the pocket. And even with the breakdowns, the run defense is rounding into form. The big question that’s left, though: (when) is Quinn going to break out? The Rams’ season depends on it.

* Linebackers: Alec Ogletree (8 tkl) might have had his best game of the season. In the 1st, he finished off McCoy’s first carry after Hayes shut it down and held the Eagles to a FG at the end of that drive with an excellent play to break off his called blitz and cover McCoy out of the backfield. That blanket job took away Foles’ primary and forced a throw out the back of the end zone. Ogletree got the better of McCoy again in the 2nd. After E.J. Gaines got McCoy running inside out on an attempted screen, Ogletree cut off McCoy’s second move and swatted the ball out of his hand. Some classic Ogletree from last year is a welcome development. He might have saved the Rams some points, though, had he held up better on the Sproles draw before halftime instead of getting driven five yards off the ball. Jo-Lonn Dunbar (6 tkl) benefited from improved run D up front and stuffed McCoy a couple of times. I still don’t think this group is playing as well as last year, but there’s progress, and they played well enough to win this week.

* Secondary: For three quarters, E.J. Gaines looked like the only Ram who came to play. He closed on McCoy from well downfield to blow up a run in the 2nd and set up Ogletree for the forced fumble, which Gaines then recovered. Whenever Gaines had to cover Jeremy Maclin, he was usually in the WR’s hip pocket, especially on his perfectly-played INT later in the 2nd. Foles threw a bomb too far inside, and Gaines cut Maclin off perfectly and ran his route for him. Gaines was the Rams’ best DB this week. Too bad he wasn’t on Maclin every play. Also too bad Lamarcus Joyner hasn’t played nearly as well as Gaines. He does well against the run, but klutzed his way offside on a blitz to keep an Eagle TD drive moving before halftime. His worst play came in the 3rd, as the rookie’s playing zone while the rest of the secondary is playing man, and he passed Maclin off to… absolutely no one, for the Eagles’ last TD. But he can make rookie goofs like that every week while the #2 pick overall is glued to the bench and the 3rd- and 4th-round picks are mired on the inactive list. Riley Cooper made a tough play to beat Janoris Jenkins for a TD. Tim McDonald led the team in tackles but his clumsy play helped the Eagles get a FG in the 1st, as he ran into Zach Ertz attempting to fair catch a lob from Foles and never looked for the ball himself. It’s an improving secondary, but it’s too young to win games for the Rams. They have to get the job done up front.

* Special teams: The key moment on special teams came a whole 23 seconds into the game when James Casey blocked a Johnny Hekker punt the Eagles recovered for a TD. Hard to fault Chase Reynolds for this when he could only block one of the two men who came pouring through the middle of the line, but it seems like part of his job as the up man should be to get the protection adjusted before the snap if the Eagles did something unexpected. Somebody didn’t get the word, and the Rams paid dearly. Too much east-west and not enough north-south from Austin on punt returns (3.5 ypa), but with Chris Givens inactive, Cunningham was a little spark on kick returns, getting a couple across the 25. That won’t help Givens stay on the roster.

* Strategery: I hope the Rams enjoyed their bye week; judging from the first three quarters, it sure didn’t look like they spent much time working. The team looked like it lacked composure and preparation. The punt block was supposedly just like the one the Eagles got against the 49ers last week. The team remained sloppy in the number and stupidity of their penalties (10-82). Besides the three drive-killing false starts you had Ray Ray Armstrong’s latest brilliant special teams dead ball foul. After Barksdale’s false start helped put the Rams out of FG range in the 2nd, it was hard to feel otherwise than the Rams simply did not look competitive, which is impossible to excuse when they had a week off that the Eagles spent getting beaten up. The offensive line should not have played like they just got out of bed. There should not have been an epidemic of Eagle blitzers getting free runs at Davis. You had Joyner saving a punt from… going out of bounds? You had Jeff Fisher accepting an illegal motion penalty that may have turned an Eagle FG drive into their 2nd TD. This team had an extra week but did not look ready for this game physically or mentally. Yeah, hooray, they almost caught up. You know a good rule for winning games in the NFL? DON’T FALL BEHIND 34 TO 7. I don’t know what Fisher is accomplishing this year that Steve Spagnuolo couldn’t have. It’s frustrating, because you see the rise of young players like Davis, Stacy, Quick, Gaines and others, and you know this staff can coach. How does a staff that can coach field a team that falls behind 34-7?

All that said, the Rams weren’t bad X’s and O’s-wise. The Eagles’ X’s and O’s were better. Brian Schottenheimer’s approach to the start of the game, come out firing, was odd given the opponent and fair to question. If he believed he could trade scores with the Eagles, I think that was too aggressive a call for this offense. At the same time, a lot of the Rams’ first-half passing was forced by penalties. Schottenheimer tried to start aggressively, it backfired, then he went to as much balance as he could. (Last season in a nutshell.) The big problem was the Eagle blitz. The Rams mixed in draws and screens but couldn’t catch the Eagles with their blitz pants down, while Davis got pummeled. Maybe there could have been more max protect, but a lot of it’s on protection breakdowns and probably some was on Davis. Schottenheimer may have called an OK game; the Rams ended up needing better than OK, though.

Other than the continued failure to sack the QB, Gregg Williams’ D had a decent game. They pressured Foles well and forced him into several wacky throws that he shouldn’t have gotten away with. Run defense has improved since the Bobby Rainey Fiasco to the point it’s not much of a liability. It looked like Williams cut way back on the stupid zone blitzes, which would be a welcome development. Williams’ #1 job right now has to be “fixing” Quinn; when he can get that done, his D will largely be back on track.

If all of this is to add up to wins, however, this staff has to be ready, and have its players ready, much more so than this week. It’s hard to excuse and earns coaches the right to get fired if it continues.

* Upon further review: Welcome Jeff Triplette back to the mantel of NFL’s Worst Referee, as the previous titleholder, Bill Vinovich, called a pretty clean game this week. Curious how the Rams have been the road team the last three times Vinovich has called one of their games, and the Rams had a ton more penalties each time, but most of these calls looked proper, and getting the McCoy fumble in the 2nd right the first time was pretty impressive. Given the awful officiating the Rams have gotten this year, and got from Vinovich last year, a competently-called game was a major surprise. Grade: A

* Cheers: Another week home viewers might have wondered why the announcers aren’t on the Rams coaching staff instead. Moose Johnston was all over the Rams’ early offensive game plan and for their seeming lack of preparation for the Eagle punt block. Analysis, and certainly the camera angle, of that play could have been better, though. Moose and Tony Siragusa even called the Rams’ comeback, or at least, alerted that the Eagles might not adjust their tempo well enough to protect their big lead. Pretty good broadcast, called competently and right down the middle.

* Who’s next?: For Rams Nation, next week’s game may be little more than Monday Night Nostalgia for the Greatest Show halftime ceremony, but the 49ers have been the most schizo team in the NFL in 2014. Which 49er team will show up? The one that dominated Dallas, or lost to Chicago? The pass-wacky team that lost in Arizona? The team that beat up the Eagles? The 49ers did all the beating up in this rivalry last year, including a thorough 35-11 embarrassment of the Rams in primetime here in St. Louis. Bad omen.

The absences of NaVarro Bowman (knee) and Aldon Smith (suspension) sound like they should be good omens for the Rams, but the 49ers didn’t have Smith or Patrick Willis last year. The 49ers are still among the best run defenses in the NFL and have not allowed a rushing TD this season. Ahmad Brooks is still as good as there is at setting the edge. Vic Fangio’s D is fundamentally strong; they don’t blow gap assignments and they cover the field sideline to sideline. The 49ers have done a decent job of filling in for Aldon Smith, with Dan Skuta and rookie 5th-round pick Aaron Lynch – where did they find him? – who has shown impressive speed and made big plays against the Eagles to blow up screens and QB rollouts. If the Rams move the pocket Monday night, they’d better do it away from Lynch. The glue guy up front is ageless Justin Smith, who’s still key to Fangio’s steady diet of stunting and still a guy you always have to block to the whistle, JAKE LONG. Fangio has the 49ers blitzing much more than in recent seasons, so we’ll see how much attention the Rams paid in the film room. The 49ers can blitz more because their secondary is better than it gets credit for, with all-pro Eric Reid and rising rookie Jimmie Ward at safety and Perrish Cox and Chris Culliver at the corners. They had a lot of trouble with the slot receivers against Arizona, which might bode well for Tavon Austin, though he did nothing against the 49ers last year. Arizona surprised with their ability to push the 49ers around up front, so if the Ram o-line gets its act together, they can do that, which will establish the run and set up downfield passes and speed plays. A balanced attack and consistent blitz pickup will be needed to get the Rams back to their competitive ways in this rivalry.

Injuries and an early-season identity crisis make the 49er offense difficult to scout. Jim Harbaugh’s team got where it is by slugging it out on the ground, but against Arizona, they’re suddenly the Eagles, running no-huddle, throwing all the time and rarely giving the ball to their RBs. With Vernon Davis out and Michael Crabtree hurting, though, Kaepernick had trouble finding open receivers, and since he doesn’t get past his first read a lot anyway, the passing game struggled. Crabtree always burns the Rams, so if he’s slowed by his injured foot, it would help, but so would covering Anquan Boldin, ever. The lack of receiver speed should lead to some successful blitzing. The 49ers have had injuries across their o-line and Frank Gore has not been his reliable self on blitz pickup. The Eagles had Kaepernick running for his life most every play, and would have had double-digit sacks had they paid attention to the fundamental need to contain him in the pocket. They allowed him to run and freelance enough to beat them instead. With lots of experience defending Kaepernick, the Rams should not make that mistake. It’s also time for Robert Quinn to step up against Joe Staley, the league’s most overrated tackle, who’s struggled against speed rushers in the 49ers games I’ve watched. Hell, it’s time for Quinn to step up against anybody. The Eagles got consistent pass rush up the middle against the 49ers; that’s something we haven’t seen from the Rams this season. No time like the present. Like most o-lines, the 49ers prefer run-blocking to pass-blocking, and Gore and rookie Carlos Hyde give them a strong 1-2 power-running gut punch. If the 49ers are who we think they are, and Harbaugh remembers them the same way, this should be much more a slugfest than an arcade game.

Monday night might be Jeff Fisher’s last chance to salvage the 2014 season. If he and his staff will do the job this week that they didn’t do the past two weeks, Harbaugh’s Niners are beatable. They’re not the smartest-playing team in the league, either. Amazingly, they lead a league with Fisher’s Rams in it in penalties, and you can see that reputation preceding them in their games. And Harbaugh’s blowing timeouts this season like he’s Mike Martz. Brad Seely’s special teams have played poorly, giving up a blocked punt, a blocked FG and a punt return TD in recent weeks. This game is very likely to be “won ugly”, by the team that makes the fewest mistakes. It’s time for Fisher and staff to make a positive difference and make sure the Rams are that team. If they’re not next Monday night, I’m not sure what difference they will make in 2014.

— Mike
Game stats from espn.com