RamView, 11/22/2015: Ravens 16, Rams 13 (Long)

RamView, November 22, 2015
Game #10: Ravens 16, Rams 13

Stick a fork in the Rams, who found every way to lose they possibly could and lost the worst-played football game of the season against the worst team they’ll see this season until they get home and look in the mirror. This season does not look salvageable at this point, and this coaching regime shouldn’t be.

Position by position:
* QB: Typical fan I am, I was calling for Nick Foles to be removed at halftime last week, and this week, I wanted to pull Case Keenum (12-26-136, 75.2 PR) in the 3rd quarter. Keenum got off to a decent start, hitting Kenny Britt for 16, the kind of downfield timing pass that has fled from Foles’ repertoire. Keenum made the most of his mobility, also an edge he has over Foles, late in the 1st. He rolled right, pump-faked to prevent a sack, pulled it down and fired deep while scrambling across the line of scrimmage (with his back foot just legal) for a long DPI drawn by Jared Cook. That set up a TD, but like any ball Keenum was called upon to throw more than 25 yards downfield, was well underthrown. After a 9-yard hitch to Britt early in the 2nd, Keenum didn’t complete a pass that counted the rest of the half. He threw well short of a well-covered (as always) Tavon Austin and was lucky to avoid an INT. He followed that with a poor sideline throw for Britt on 3rd down that never had a chance. Coming out of halftime, Keenum threw a bomb that came up so short, the refs picked up a flag for DPI because it was uncatchable. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that. Next pass, he misses Austin on an out route with a throw so bad it looked like the ball was tipped. It wasn’t. After an 0-for-7 stretch that made Steve Walsh look like John Elway, it sure looked like Foles Time to me. Or how about the following possession, when Keenum tripped coming out of center, tried a diving handoff to Todd Gurley, which naturally didn’t work and gave Baltimore the ball? Patience with Keenum seemed rewarded when he hit Lance Kendricks for a 30-yard TD to put the Rams up a seemingly insurmountable 13-3. But no lead is safe when Jeff Fisher’s Rams are on a mission to lose. They fumbled the ball away twice and let Baltimore tie the game. Keenum made a clutch play to get out of trouble and put the Rams in FG position late. He rolled left and had nothing, but found Benny Cunningham on the back side for a 20-yard play. So OF COURSE the Rams missed the FG. Baltimore didn’t want to win the game, either, and gave the Rams another late chance to break the tie. Instead it was a chance to break Keenum. Timmy Jernigan drilled his head into the ground on a free play. Keenum clutched his helmet, came up looking like a puppet with its strings cut, but STAYED IN THE GAME long enough to overthrow a pass and give up the game-losing fumble on a sack. Case Keenum was a total joke for about half the game, but was also a gamer who just about made enough plays to win it. Still, when he’s poor at throwing sideline passes, can’t throw much more than 20 yards downfield, doesn’t know how many fingers I’m holding up, and Jeff Fisher STILL considers him the best option at QB, it says a lot about the state of the St. Louis Rams in 2015.

* RB: The Sports Illustrated cover jinx got Todd Gurley (25-66), as the ground game never really got off the ground. He did score the Rams’ first TD on 3 runs inside the 10 behind Cory Harkey’s lead-blocking and Garrett Reynolds’ strong inside work. Todd had a very entertaining 5-yard run in the 2nd. He swept right and shoved down a useless Lance Kendricks and classically leg-pumped his way through several tacklers. That set up a 3rd-and-1, though, where everyone knew Gurley was getting the ball and Baltimore dropped him for a loss. That’s the problem right now, everyone knows Gurley’s getting the ball because the Rams have little else. Gurley found less and less running room, and soon, not even clean handoffs. Keenum tripped and blew one in the 3rd for one turnover. Brandon Williams met Gurley well behind the line early in the 4th and punched out another. Gurley didn’t see much/enough of the ball in the 2nd half until Baltimore tied the game at 13. With the Ravens thinking pass, Gurley knocked out 16 yards on 3 carries to kick off a drive that got the Rams in FG position. Gurley never had a breakaway run; his longest carry was 7 yards, and the Rams did not seem likely to win under those conditions. They seemed even less likely while getting Gurley 6 carries over most of the second half of a game they should have been putting away.

* Receivers: The Rams got a couple of big plays at tight end. Jared Cook (4-31) beat Jimmy Smith deep and drew a 49-yard interference penalty that set up the Rams’ first TD. Lance Kendricks (2-43) got wide open on the backside of a fake rollout play and put the Rams up 13-3 with a 30-yard TD catch. No such impact yet again at WR. Kenny Britt (2-24) was pretty much done after catching the first pass of the game. He and Keenum weren’t in the same book, let alone on the same page, on a couple of blitz adjustments. Tavon Austin’s (1-5) 16-yard end-around set up Kendricks’ TD, but he was mostly a decoy. He wasn’t open for a step, again, on the one deep ball tried his way and he had a drop to start the Rams’ final drive. Wes Welker (2-13) made a couple of nice grabs but was barely a factor in the offense. Keenum’s mobility bought the receivers extra time, but the only time it seemed to matter was on Cook’s long DPI. I doubt any QB short of Russell Wilson has enough mobility to give any of these guys the time they need to get open.

* Offensive line: Last week’s injuries turned the o-line depth chart into an impossible shell game. The plan was to move Garrett Reynolds to LG and give Andrew Donnal and Cody Wichmann their first career starts at RT and RG, respectively. This held up for a quarter thanks to excellent run-blocking by Reynolds and Cory Harkey. From the 10 after Cook’s long DPI, Gurley followed Harkey and Reynolds for 4, then Harkey for 5 more, with Reynolds and Greg Robinson really bending the edge back. Gurley scored behind a strong combo block by Donnal and pulling Reynolds. But Donnal, whom the Rams drafted despite a myriad of injuries in college, lasted barely a quarter before bowing out with a season-ending knee injury. That’s a hidden play of the game. It forced Reynolds to kick out to RT, Wichmann to LG and put Demetrious Rhaney in at RG, and the Rams rarely competed well on the line afterward. Reynolds had been the only thing holding up Tim Barnes’ and Wichmann’s soft play in the middle. He started getting beaten both pass- and run-blocking as soon as he got out to RT. Robinson’s bitterly disappointing play continued with YET ANOTHER holding penalty to start off the 2nd. Gurley couldn’t convert 3rd-and-1 the next drive after Robinson and Wichmann got blown up. The middle line could not handle Brandon Williams. Gurley got stuffed again the following drive after Robinson and Barnes got pushed well back. Then Courtney Upshaw rolled past Robinson off the snap on 3rd down to force Keenum to scramble wildly. Barnes, who created a false start in the 1st half by forgetting the snap count, (note: he is the CENTER) remained a liability in the 2nd, getting blown off the ball and failing to get to his spot in time on pull blocks. After success with Harkey lead-blocking, the Rams got away from that, but Lance Kendricks continues only to be useful as a move blocker. They rely too often on him to make in-line blocks, like when he didn’t block Elvis Dumervil at all as Gurley got stuffed early in the 2nd. Rhaney was also a weak link. Williams smoked him when he forced the critical Gurley fumble in the 4th. Robinson helped get Gurley going to start a drive late in the 4th, but it bogged down into a FG try (that missed) after Rhaney was beaten inside and Barnes pushed back to get Gurley stopped again. Barnes lost a hand-fight with Timmy Jernigan badly on the play where Keenum was concussed, while Robinson idiotically shoved Upshaw RIGHT TO Keenum to force the game-losing fumble. Way to get your QB blindsided, Robinson. The Rams ultimately proved superior at finding ways to lose as a decade-long broken record of o-line injuries and failed high draft picks keeps scratching on.

* Defensive line/LB: As usual, it was up to the Ram defense to carry the sputtering offense, and as has been the case lately, it was up to Aaron Donald to do a lot of the carrying. Justin Forsett (4-26) got off to a strong start. They started out running at Will Hayes, who was getting blocked 10 feet out of plays and not getting much help from Michael Brockers or James Laurinaitis. Forsett had 10- and 18-yard runs before Nick Fairley stopped the opening drive with a 3rd-down pressure on Joe Flacco. Donald brought Forsett’s day to an unfortunate end the next drive. He beat a pull block (ha, someone thought they could block Aaron Donald with a pull block) and slammed Forsett to the ground for a 5-yard loss and a season-ending broken arm. Laurinaitis stopped Jeremy Butler on a 3rd-down pass to force a FG attempt that missed, giving the Rams momentum. Hayes stuffed Buck Allen to start a 3-and-out to end the 1st. Laurinaitis had a run stop and pressured Flacco for a 3-and-out in the 2nd. After Tavon Austin muffed a punt, the D made a heck of a defensive stand to hold the Ravens to a FG. Donald shot past the center to stuff Allen for a loss, along with Mark Barron. Baltimore beat a blitz and got inside the 10, but Barron then made an excellent open-field play to blow up a swing pass to Kyle Juszczyk. Donald then split the LT and the LG to sack Flacco back at the 20 to send in the kicker. The Rams kept momentum into the 2nd half. Eugene Sims drew a hold to move Baltimore out of FG range, Laurinaitis and Brockers played a draw to Allen perfectly, and when the Ravens crazily went for it on 4th-11, Laurinaitis was all over Juszczyk to stop him well short on a dumpoff. More 3-and-outs followed. Fairley stuffed Allen, then Laurinaitis and Sims blew up and strung out a dumb 3rd-and-1 run that made the Ravens look like they were quitting. The Rams only got the one sack by Donald, but pressured Flacco effectively throughout mostly with 4-man rushes. Hayes and Sims, then Fairley on 3rd down, forced bad Flacco throws for another 3-and-out. The Ravens didn’t quit, though, and the Rams started slipping up in the 4th. Allen beat them for 14 on 3rd-and-2 on a simple dumpoff. Crockett Gillmore got open between Laurinaitis and Barron at the Ram 10 and carried them down to the 3 on a 16-yard gain. That led to a TD, but the front 7 prevented another one after a long gain by Gillmore later. Hayes stuffed Allen and Barron tackled Kamar Aiken at the 1 to help force a tying FG. The last fumble by woozy Keenum was a bridge too far, though. Allen ran for 8 as Brockers and Laurinaitis got blocked, and he ran over Brockers and Donald for 5 more to put the Ravens in winning FG range. They weren’t perfect, but even without Robert Quinn and with Chris Long just back from a knee injury, the Rams were more than good enough up front this week. Ultimately there’s only so much bad offense they can cover up for.

* Secondary: The Ram secondary was barely tested downfield at all by Joe Flacco (27-44-299) and the Ravens’ dysfunctional passing game, but they still had their challenges. One was tackling Crockett Gillmore (5-101), who they made look like Mike Ditka crossed with Mark Bavaro. After T.J. McDonald got faked out by play action, Gillmore was wide open for a short pass in the 1st and ran through Janoris Jenkins for 20. The Rams had much more success against old friend Chris Givens (2-25), who tried to talk smack harder than he tried to run routes. Jenkins broke up a pass for Givens to seal a 3-and-out to start the 2nd. The Rams got a couple of INTs off Flacco that were probably easier than any catches they had to make in pregame warmups. Flacco airmailed a terrible pass right to Rodney McLeod in the 2nd. In the 3rd, Trumaine Johnson defended a deep pass to help get another 3-and-out. When the offense gave the ball right back, TruJo took it right back, grabbing a terrible Flacco floater and returning it across midfield to set up a TD. 13-3 seemed like an insurmountable lead, but at the goal line in the 4th, McDonald got caught in a pick and a freed Kamar Aiken (5-50) beat Marcus Roberson for a TD. The Rams started the next drive by leaving Aiken all alone down the seam for 17, then leaving Gillmore wide open in the flat for a painful 46 on the same kind of play Chicago burned them on the week before. After that, Jenkins and McLeod combined with a nice goal line play to stop a rollout pass and force a Raven FG. Flacco rang up a lot of yards on a lot of short passes. The DBs could have tackled better (especially Gillmore), and they got beaten on several blitzes. It’s still fair to say they had a decent amount of control over Baltimore’s dreadful passing game.

* Special teams: Oh, the horror, the kickers had to kick OUTDOORS again this week. What’s the excuse this time? Typhoon Omar? Hurricane Edgar? Johnny Hekker was about as consistent as the St. Louis weather. After a 61-yard punt that was downed at the 1 nicely by Bradley Marquez and Cody Davis, he chunked a 38-yarder, hit a 30-yard goofball to “pin” the Ravens at their 19 and plonked a 40-yarder into the end zone. Then he hit a 63-yarder. Greg Zuerlein’s day was a mess. He had an extra point blocked that I think he shanked, but the official blame’s going to the blocking on the play. With 1:42 left, the best the Ram offense could do was to get him a 52-yard attempt to take the lead; he missed wide right. Tavon Austin’s day was a total bust. He lost five on one return trying to sweep left with it. He brilliantly signaled fair catch on another and still attempted to return it. And, his poorest play of a poor game: misjudging a punt right before halftime, kneeling and reaching out for it instead of letting it bounce, and muffing it back to the Ravens to set up a FG. Special teams cost the Rams 7 points in a game they lost by three. Never a dull day.

* Strategery: The head coach and coordinators all stink at their jobs right now. Jeff Fisher’s approach to concussions suggests he had one himself this week. I’d like to know why anyone on the Ram sideline thought it was a good idea to keep Keenum in the game after he got knocked for a loop. (Or, for that matter, while he was spraying passes around in the 3rd.) And why put the concussion-prone Welker back with Austin on punts? Is that really a great idea, Welker blocking guys with a 50-yard head of steam?

Both coordinators failed when they got away from what was already working. Like he usually does, Frank Cignetti got away from play-action too early. I didn’t see Baltimore ever stop Gurley following lead blocks from Harkey at fullback, but Cignetti got away from those, too. Gurley got stuffed twice on 3rd-and-1’s on very predictable runs right up the middle, and I don’t think either of those or either of the fumbles involving Gurley were plays that had him running behind a fullback. Also, way too many fakes to Austin without ever actually handing him the ball slowed down too many plays. The Rams need to be a lot quicker-hitting, especially behind the o-line they fielded this week. All those fakes set up exactly one handoff to Austin, which did go for 16, but wasn’t worth the number of fakes invested in it. Baltimore quit worrying about him after about the third fake. The TD call to Kendricks was a sweet one I think Josh McDaniels ran a few times here. Fake play-action rollout, come back to the TE on the backside. And it was clever to start the late FG attempt drive with handoffs to Gurley. Cignetti definitely caught them expecting pass and got that drive off to a good start. Despite those moments, this just wasn’t a cohesive gameplan. Don’t get away from plays that work and keep going back to plays that don’t. Seems like that should be Coaching 101.

Gregg Williams also skipped that class. I liked his first-half plan for its simplicity. Baltimore was never much of a threat to get the ball downfield, so Williams blitzed very little. The d-line didn’t get to Flacco with sacks, but got pressure, and that was plenty to thwart their very limited passing game. I would have been happy to just stick an extra man in the box in the 2nd half to shut down the successful runs. Nope, Williams came out of halftime blitzing. Flacco burned an all-LB blitz for 25 with a quick slant on 3rd-7. The Rams went back to failing to stop simple dumpoffs out of the backfield, even though Baltimore couldn’t get anything accomplished downfield. Then Gillmore beat soft zone coverage, which I don’t think Williams had used much, to set up the Aiken TD. Gillmore’s catch to set up the tying TD was a repeat of the Chicago game. Williams got caught blitzing Ayers, who would have normally covered the receiver who’s wide open instead and turning a simple pass in the flat into a 46-yard gain.

This is supposed to be a coaching staff that knows how to win. Instead, they find as many ways to lose as their players do. I really believe they’ve assembled the parts for a winning team here, but these guys are just never going to put it all together.

* Upon further review: Unbelievably, in a season where the Rams have seen Jeff Triplette twice, Tony Corrente’s crew managed to call the worst game of the season. He deserves the dishonor strictly for the play that got Keenum knocked woozy. Dumervil jumps into the neutral zone, stops, but is unabated to the QB. IMO the play should have been blown dead right there. Even if I’m wrong, it’s Corrente’s damn job not to let the QB get killed on a free play, and with Jernigan on top of Keenum, the play should have been getting blown dead. If Corrente’s doing his job, either Keenum’s still intact after the play, or it’s 15 on Jernigan for a late hit. But, no whistle, no late hit, woozy QB fumbles two plays later, Baltimore’s almost immediately in FG position. Wait a minute, woozy QB? How in the hell did Keenum stay on the field after a hit that had him literally holding his head in pain? And when he’s a total rag doll when his lineman initially tries to help him up? What the hell is the league DOCTOR doing while this is going on, eating crab cakes? Earlier, there was Keenum’s “backward” pass, thrown from the 27 but spotted at the 29, and in what universe is that BACKWARD? Will Hill brought Keenum down excessively late when Baltimore blew up a screen late in the 3rd. Marquez’ 30-yard catch-and-run in the 2nd never should have been called back because none of the penalties should have been called. The personal fouls after the play likely would have been avoided had the whistle been properly blown when Marquez was down. At least then the dubious illegal block called on Britt, whose man was going down on his own to tackle Marquez, would have been a spot foul, I think. Corrente did too much else wrong for me to get this recap in before Thanksgiving. Grade: Big fat F-minus

* Cheers: Today’s breaking news: not only did Tre Mason and Isaiah (Claude Wroten 2.0) Battle miss the team bus Saturday (and therefore the team flight), did you know Mason has been missing meetings and skipping treatments all season? How does Moose Johnston know this, when he does maybe two Rams games a year, and none of the regular Rams reporters do? Has anyone checked, maybe Moose talks to Kroenke, too! Moose failed to explain why Mason is still in a Ram uniform, but still, good job on the scoop.

* Who’s next?: Here’s an omen: the Rams’ last two games against the Cincinnati Bengals have been losses behind backup QBs: Kellen Clemens in 2011, Brock Berlin in 2007. Lotsa luck to anybody expecting Case Keenum to reverse that trend, even though Cincy’s lost two straight after an 8-0 start.

The Rams sure as hell aren’t going to beat the Bengals in a shootout like Arizona did; they’ll have to follow the script from Houston’s 10-6 victory last Monday night if they’re going to have any chance at all. Cincinnati’s offensive line has one of the best reputations of any line in the league. Pro Football Focus grades them the most efficient pass-blocking unit going all the way back to 2007. LT Andrew Whitworth is one of the league’s best blindside protectors and didn’t allow a sack all of 2014. Clint Boling and Kevin Zeitler both grade out as 6th-best in the league at their guard positions. Boling hadn’t allowed a sack in his first 360 snaps this season. Sports Illustrated had an in-depth piece on the Bengal line, and, skipping the details, they’re coached to pass-protect differently than any other team does, and it’s something the Ram line will have to adjust to. If they don’t, they’ll just get swept past Andy Dalton for 60 minutes. Dalton is having the best season of his career (and carrying my fantasy team). Cincy’s up at the top of the league in yards per play, yards per pass attempt, and most importantly, points per game. His decision-making and deep accuracy have both come a long way. The Texans solved him by first taking away the deep ball. Johnathan Joseph made A.J. Green pretty invisible. Green has had some games like that this year. They confused Dalton by mixing up their coverages and made him settle for tons of quick screens and checkdowns. Up front, they stunted the daylights out of the Bengals. Cincy acted like they’d never seen one. They even beat the unassailable Whitworth for a sack by my scoring. Houston also took advantage any time Tyler Eifert had to block somebody in pass pro. Eifert is approaching Gronk status as a red zone TE but did not block to his previous reputation against the Texans. They got into the Bengals’ heads with physical play and made Dalton impatient and got him forcing passes downfield into traffic. That’s a blueprint the Rams have the people to execute. They have to be aware of Giovani Bernard out of the backfield. They have to be aware that Dalton is a good enough runner to make read-option credible. They have to be alert to OC Hue Jackson’s array of bizarre line shifts. Jenkins has to prove Pro Bowl-worthy against Green. And they could really use a healthy Robert Quinn to fill the Whitney Mercilus role – he had a field day whipping up on Eifert. The 4-6 Rams can do to the Bengals what the 4-5 Texans did. I don’t expect it, but they can.

The Rams have to get the Bengals into a slugfest because I don’t see them doing much against Cincy’s defense. Their best hope is that injuries to leading sacker Carlos Dunlap (8.5), LB Vontaze Burfict and the surprisingly ageless Pacman Jones make them a little more ordinary. They’re not afraid to blitz, though I doubt they’ll need to much against the tattered Ram o-line. The Rams could be in a ton of trouble if they have to stop 6’6”, long-armed monster Dunlap with Garrett Reynolds. That has to be a 1-on-1 matchup because the Rams have no one in the middle who can compete with Geno Atkins, Aaron Donald’s primary competition for best DT in the league. Atkins is healthy again and already has 7 sacks. He and Domata Peko make up the best interior pass rush in the league, and I just don’t know how the Rams are going to stop them with Barnes, Wichmann and Rhaney. Throw quickly, Keenum. Burfict is a terrific hitter behind that line, and even if he is limited, Vincent Rey has been a tackling machine in his place. The Bengals hoard good cover corners. Dre Kirkpatrick was impressively sticky against DeAndre Hopkins. Pacman still gobbles up ground well at 32. Last year’s 1st-round pick Darqueze Dennard has played well yet has trouble getting on the field. Classic ballhawk Reggie Nelson already has 5 INTs. Front to back, both sides of the ball, the Bengals are a stacked team and a very, very legitimate Super Bowl contender.

This Rams season has been strange enough to perversely believe they’ll beat the Bengals. They beat Seattle and Arizona when no one expected it, didn’t they? But Jeff Fisher is in a spot now where he has to depend on a big upset to turn his season around. He can pull it off. I doubt he will. But he has to.

— Mike
Game stats from espn.com