RamView, 11/30/2014: Rams 52, Raiders 0 (Long)

RamView, November 30, 2014
From Row HH
(Report and opinions from the game.)
Game #12: Rams 52, Raiders 0

Ever had one of those days where you can do no wrong? That was the Rams this week, playing their most dominating game in years, a 52-0 (!) ransacking of the Raiders, who had one of those days where nothing goes right. The Rams have been where Oakland is, but they showed they’ve come a long way from those old lows.

Position by position:
* QB: Now here’s the Shaun Hill we thought we were getting after the Denver game. Hill (13-22-183, PR 116.3) buried Oakland in the first half under a blizzard of quick throws, and most importantly, committed no turnovers. Oakland was snowed under by halftime and would never dig out. Often throwing within a second of getting the snap, Hill fired quick screens, quick slants, quick outs, dumpoffs and downfield throws. A variety of throws that all had one thing in common – they came out quickly. Hill was a machine-like 10-12-167 just in the first quarter and didn’t have to do much after those fifteen minutes of fame. The Rams’ first drive ended: quick screen left, quick screen right, fake quick screen left and screen right to Tre Mason for a clinically-set-up 36-yard TD. Next drive: smoke pass, quick slant, quick dig, beat a blitz with a back-shoulder pass to Stedman Bailey for 15, deep post to Bailey for 33, goal line handoff to Mason, then a fake to Mason and the ol’ bootleg for the wily Hill himself for the Rams’ second TD. Hill had the Raiders more off-balance than a baby giraffe with an inner ear infection. The quick screens kept coming to set up the Rams’ 4th TD, and Hill went on to hit Cory Harkey for the Rams’ 5th TD and put this game very quickly in the books. Hill lost a lot of his edge in the 3rd quarter, and the Rams could not stay on their ridiculous 1st-half roll. He didn’t have good touch on a 3rd-down quick out for Trey Watts, and probably fired too hard on a 3rd-down quick screen Tavon Austin dropped. On another 3-and-out, Hill overthrew Bailey deep when he had Jared Cook wide open for the first down underneath. Little matter; Hill opened the 4th with a long ball for Kenny Britt that drew an obvious DPI and set up another TD for Mason, and having staked the Rams to a 45-point lead, Hill got the last 9:00 of the game off, replaced by Austin Davis, who didn’t throw a pass. Hill’s day was basically won in the first quarter. He was impressively quick with his reads and ran the Ram offense expertly and with excellent tempo. This is why Shaun Hill got the starting QB job back a couple of weeks ago. Let’s keep this up.

* RB: If there was any lingering doubt over turning the feature RB role over to Tre Mason, he erased it but good with another breakout (14-117, 3-47 recv, 3 TD) performance. It’s going to be a good day when your first touch is a 36-yard TD reception. Mason outran Antonio Smith around the corner with a screen pass, shot up the sideline and got downfield blocks from Jared Cook and Stedman Bailey before forging his way in with the first score. That was just the appetizer. Early in the 2nd, Mason put the game away with an 89-yard lightning bolt of a TD. Provided a gaping running lane on the right side, Mason cut back that direction in a blink, got a massive block from Cory Harkey at the 27 and was gone. Mason plays with speed and game-breaking ability the Ram backfield hasn’t had in a long time. And while I’ve said middle running isn’t Mason’s forte, that doesn’t mean he lacks any toughness in the trenches. He scored an 8-yard TD, the Rams’ sixth, in the 4th by running through a couple of tackles inside the 5. He’s also picking up blitzes pretty well, though it looks like he could use a brick or two in his shoes. Zac Stacy (7-25) got his first action in weeks. His highlight was one of his typical banging middle runs for 13 to close out the 3rd, running over Charles Woodson at the end. Rest assured Woodson doesn’t want to see any more of the Rams’ RBs between now and a likely trip to the Hall of Fame. Also rest assured, if Torry Holt will allow us to borrow the phrase, that we’re going to see much, much more of Big Play Tre.

* Receivers: Between Mason, Stedman Bailey (5-100) and Tavon Austin (4 touches, 34 yards), the Rams are making opponents feel their speed. Bailey has ascended to the level of WR play we saw from him in training camp. He had a career day just in the first quarter, starting with a key block at the goal line on Mason’s first TD. Next drive, he and Hill beat a blitz with a 15-yard back-shoulder the defense never could have seen coming because Bailey’s cut back to the ball was so sudden and so good. Next play, Bailey tried out his Odell Beckham impression, making a leaping one-handed grab on a deep post to gain another 33 and set up another TD. Bailey got a third TD drive rolling on a simple screen, running around a late-arriving Woodson and jetting off for 26. Speaking of jet, Austin scored that TD on an 18-yard jet sweep, simply outrunning Justin Tuck to get the corner and then working off a block outside by Kenny Britt. Austin’s shining moment was on Mason’s 89-yard TD. He took out two Raiders. One tripped on him at midfield, then Austin, one of the few people alive who can do so, caught up with Mason and got him a last block at the Oakland 30. Speaking of blocks, Cory Harkey (2-12) laid down a crunching block to really spring Mason on the long TD, and was rewarded for it later with a TD pass that put the Rams up 35-0. He beat Miles Burris out to the flat and ran through Sio Moore at the goal line. Harkey also threw a strong block upfield on Stacy’s long run and has to be considered the star TE of the game. The star receiver, though, was Bailey, whose route-running, elusiveness, quickness and sticky hands are quickly putting him on the NFL map as a go-to receiver.

* Offensive line: Hill got the ball out so fast the Rams almost didn’t need an offensive line in the 1st quarter. When they needed run-blocking, though, they got it. Joseph Barksdale had one of his best run-blocking games. On Mason’s 89-yard TD, he pushed his man all the way over to LT, an Exodus-worthy parting of the Raider D. More powerful down-blocking from Barksdale sprung Stacy for 13 at the end of the 3rd. Quick passing also helped Greg Robinson have a much less shaky game than last week, though he did whiff on Justin Tuck to give up a huge loss on a Mason sweep in the 3rd. Tuck also beat Davin Joseph before halftime for the Raiders’ only sack, whipping around the RG like he was a blocking dummy. The Rams had difficulty doing much of anything in the 3rd. The Raider LBs got a lot more assignment-sound and Rodger Saffold left the game due to a shoulder injury, which was the concern Oakland expressed when they failed him on a physical this spring after signing him (briefly) to a big contract. Saffold’s replacement, Mike Person, had all kinds of trouble. He got pushed around by Oakland’s planet-sized DTs and was beaten off the line on pass attempts. The Ram o-line wasn’t really tested this week, and it probably wasn’t a bad thing. It looks like they’ve reached about as far into their depth there as they can and still field a playable unit.

* Defensive line: One of the best games of the season for the Rams up front. Derek Carr did well early on to get the ball out quickly, but the Rams still got good pressure on him, and shut down Oakland’s excuse for a running game, holding the Raiders to 61 yards and the not-so-dangerous Darren McFadden to 27. Robert Quinn stuffed him early on the edge for no gain, Alec Ogletree stuffed him up the middle, Michael Brockers stuffed Maurice Jones-Drew on another carry, and the Raiders were 1-2-3-kicking more than the Rams cheerleaders. Aaron Donald stopped Oakland’s best drive of the game in the 2nd by hitting McFadden right after the handoff on 3rd-and-1. Epically behind at halftime, and with no running game to fall back on, Carr had to throw more and hold the ball for longer routes, and, ruh-roh, Derek. Donald helped kill their first drive after halftime with a pass deflection. The next drive, Brockers’ penetration set up William Hayes for the Rams’ first sack. Two plays later, who better to get on the Sack City scoreboard than the returning Chris Long (!). While the tackle across from him barely did anything, Long ripped inside and bore straight down on Carr. Hayes hit Marcel Reece with the ol’ punchout move to force a fumble the next drive. Quinn ended the 3rd in style with the Rams’ third sack. The line got great middle push from Brockers and Donald, and Carr had nowhere to go while Quinn swooped in from behind after getting pushed past the pocket initially. Matt Schaub came in to mop up in the 4th and lived to regret it. He was in just a few plays before Quinn burned him for a sack/fumble. Quinn smoked Donald Penn around the edge after putting an inside fake on him. And of course, with the band back together, Long was the one who recovered the loose ball. Donald joined in on the fun a little later, bull-rushing Austin Howard and getting a big late push on him to get by and stump Schaub. The next play, two players did what they’re best at. Quinn flushed Schaub, and Schaub threw a pick-six. Quinn wasn’t done with Schaub, either, in garbage-squared time, he overwhelmed Penn again and hit Schaub for another sack/fumble. That’s six sacks for Sack City, three for Quinn, who’s suddenly up to nine, in just seven games, too, after that mysterious drought the first month of the season. Whatever was wrong then, it’s safe to say Sack City is back now.

* Linebackers: After a lapse in San Diego, Alec Ogletree resumed his recent run of red-hot play at LB. The LBs scored the Rams’ 2nd 3-and-out, with Ogletree stuffing McFadden on 1st down and Jo-Lonn Dunbar (!) blitzing and spooking Carr into a throwaway on 3rd-and-short. Ogletree delivered one of his specialties in the 2nd, deflecting a pass while coming on a blitz. He was a definite weapon as a blitzer. His blitz helped Hayes score the Rams’ first sack, and on 4th-and-5 in the 3rd, his huge pressure up the middle had Carr madly backpedaling and throwing a wild pass up for grabs. Everyone’s favorite Ogletree play this week, though, came just before halftime when he BLEW UP Marcel Reece on a screen pass, sending the ball flying ten feet in the air for a lineman to retrieve for a loss. The Ram defense is on when Alec Ogletree is on. Let’s keep that up a while.

* Secondary: This was one of the best games the Rams secondary has played in ages. And it should have been; Oakland has the worst group of receivers in the league. Coverage was outstanding almost all of the game. Carr would repeatedly get flushed by the rush and still have nowhere to go with the ball. E.J. Gaines had one of his best games yet. He made a nice play to break up a pass in the flat to force a 3-and-out in the 1st. In the 2nd, he made a good tackle to stop James Jones a yard short on 3rd-and-1. When the Rams weirdly accepted a penalty and made it 3rd-and-11, Gaines made that pay off with an interception of a very wayward Carr dumpoff attempt, setting up the Rams’ FIFTH TD. Similar ending the next drive: Carr’s receiver bumbled his way into Gaines while Carr threw to a spot, and Trumaine Johnson was on the spot to set up a Rams FG. Gaines flipped Andre Holmes heels over head (which he landed on) to punctuate an amazing first half for the whole team. The offense took their foot way off the gas in the 2nd half, but the defense kept its lead foot. Rodney McLeod recovered a fumble forced by Hayes. With the game winding down, and Matt Schaub realizing he hadn’t thrown a pick six yet, the last pieces of a near-perfect game fell into place. Schaub got flushed and tried to feather an awful pass over TruJo, but TruJo leaped and snagged it instead for his second INT and the Rams’ final score. I can’t describe it and do it justice, but Ram pass coverage, when they weren’t running out the clock in prevent, was a sight to behold. Carr would get in trouble, you’d look back at the secondary and every option was covered, time and time again. Sure, that’s how things should have gone this week. The level of difficulty wasn’t exactly high. Doesn’t mean the Rams didn’t look good doing it, though.

* Special teams: The Rams won the field position battle decisively thanks to Greg Zuerlein’s kickoffs and bungled Raider returns. The Raiders also got nothing going on punt returns. The two best special teams plays this week: Zuerlein hammering one kickoff into the end zone on a bounce, for a touchback, even though a celebration penalty had him kicking off from the 20; and Ray Ray Armstrong (of the Raiders) crashing into his own man attempting to return a punt in the 3rd. Austin continues to flirt way too much with disaster on punt returns. He made bad decisions and muffed two punts (McLeod really bailed him out by recovering the first one), and made a crazy scramble out of every punt he did field, usually starting by running sideways and/or backward. John Fassel must be done drawing up fake punts for the foreseeable future, maybe it’s time to get your punt returner set right.

* Strategery: This is the trouble I run into as a fan trying to analyze play-calling: I was going to salute Brian Schottenheimer for going all Mad Mike and throwing on the first nine plays, then I read that Hill checked out of runs on about a half-dozen of them. Oh well. Schottenheimer has done an excellent job deploying the Rams’ speed assets the past couple of weeks. Whoever called it, the Mason screen TD off a fake screen was a sweet play, as was the Austin jet sweep TD, as was the Mason 89-yard run, with an underneath receiver luring one of the Raider LBs out of the play. One thing I will ask is that someday, EVER, Schottenheimer have the offense look like it’s remotely ready to play coming out of halftime. What does he do during the break, go out and get a hot dog? Say hi to Terrence Wilkins for me.

Gregg Williams won the coaching week anyway with the simple move to play tight man coverage behind his blitzing. There is no need to lay way off of Oakland’s receivers. They pose little to no big-play threat. Yet Tim Walton would have had his DBs ten yards off them all game anyway, and many weeks, Williams also would have a lot of the time. This week, though, he let his DBs play, and Carr had fits trying to find an open receiver. Whether or not the Ram offense went into the stratosphere, that’s where this game was won.

* Upon further review: Not a challenging game for Gene Steratore and crew. It’s ridiculous Mason got a penalty for doing the Nestea plunge after his long TD. That seems far from taunting to me. Oakland got away with obvious false starts in the 2nd half, but Steratore obviously had a plane to catch. Also, I see no way McLeod was brought down legally on his fumble return, but much like the Raiders, that came and went with little impact. Grade: B

* Cheers: Official attendance this week was in the mid-50s, though I’d put the Dome at around half-full, 35-40K. And even with the 1-10 Raiders in town the visiting team managed to have a sizable, vocal contingent in the lower bowl. That’s pretty hardcore if you’re going to travel for that team; I tip my cap to Raider Nation. Rams Nation, too; crowd noise drew three false starts and didn’t let up much throughout the game, with many of us rooting hard to get the shutout. Chris Long got a big welcome back after his sack, and Zac Stacy got a nice reaction after his first carry. On TV, CBS gave St. Louis the rebuttal time it didn’t seem to get last week when Fox spotlighted all the Rams fans in L.A., with Steve Buerlein piling on negative comments made by Jim Rome about L.A. as a sports market. St. Louis waged a positive campaign; fans behind one end zone held up letters spelling “Keep the Rams in St Louis” after every kick. A fan with a sign reading “It’s clear, the Rams should stay here” got on the big video screen to a big reaction, but mysteriously wasn’t on it for long. Speaking of symbolic gestures, the receivers all did the “hands up, don’t shoot” pose, showing solidarity with the Ferguson protestors, before they came out during player intros. Kenny Britt participating in that makes you think, since he’s been charged with resisting arrest in the past.

* Who’s next?: They say the best sports trades are the ones that help both teams, and when the Rams and Redskins made the trade in March 2012 that let Washington draft Robert Griffin III in exchange for three years’ worth of 1st-round picks and a 2nd-round pick, both teams thought they’d become perennial contenders. The Redskins even made the playoffs Griffin’s rookie year. This matchup next Sunday would have been a marquee late-season clash, had all gone as planned. Instead, we’ve got the 5-7 Rams and the 3-9 Redskins playing out the string at FedEx Field.

Mind you, the Rams have “won” the RGIII trade, even if not decisively. They have five starters to show for it: Brockers, Jenkins, Ogletree, Bailey and Robinson. Griffin has never been the same after getting his knee blown out in that 2013 playoff loss, and not even two years later is likely to get run out of town after the season. Head coach Jay “Brother of Chucky” Gruden has benched him in favor of Colt McCoy, who led Washington to two wins in October while completing a ridiculous 85.7% of his passes. Another big reason McCoy’s starting is – go figure – he’s a better and more willing runner than Griffin has proved to be this season. Gruden moves him around in the pocket, and he’s been excellent at keeping plays alive with his feet. McCoy’s enough of a threat as a runner that the Rams should seriously consider more contain rushing than usual. All this fits with McCoy’s reputation as a WCO QB without an exceptional arm, but he hit a couple of perfect bombs in their upset of Dallas. He also made a dumb deep throw into double coverage that was picked off, which both he and Gruden blamed on “rust”. The Ram secondary, which has had more than its share of critical breakdowns this season, better have its act together for DeSean Jackson, who may be the premier deep threat in the league. To be remembered forever as the WR the Rams should have drafted in 2008 instead of Donnie Avery, Jackson’s much tougher than he gets credit for and is one of the league’s best receivers after the catch. The Rams cannot afford blown tackles or blown assignments against Jackson, but have been spotty enough this season that it’s hard not to see him dancing off with a long TD. Tackling is also at a premium dealing with RB Alfred Morris, who is on a tear lately, with over 300 yards and 3 TDs in three games before this week. Morris’ physical running demands gang-tackling, and he’s been very effective lately getting outside. They’ve done damage behind Chris Chester and Tom Compton on the right side, and the Ram LBs will have to shed lead blocks from fullback Darrel Young. Washington’s power game should be helped further by the return of all-pro LT Trent Williams. The Redskins have a lot of talent on offense to be down as far as they are. It’s been all about their play at QB. If the Rams can keep McCoy from getting comfortable, it’ll be more than half the battle.

As a battle of brains, it’s hardly Fischer vs. Spassky, Bryan vs. Darrow or Jennings vs. Rutter, but the game could hinge on the play-calling duel between Brian Schottenheimer and Jim Haslett. The Washington Post says the Redskin DC is “under siege,” but his D is top ten against the run and the pass, and they lead the league in sacks on 3rd down. I would expect to see a lot of formations where Haslett’s got multiple men stacked at RDE across from Greg Robinson. The Ram blitz protection will have to be on point. They have to be ready for everything: dog blitzes, middle blitzes and stunts, often all on the same play. Ryan Kerrigan leads Washington in sacks with 8, and he can be a big speed problem for Robinson or Joseph Barksdale, but he’s also overaggressive. Haslett wants that in his D, but they run themselves into a lot of trouble. Dallas carved them up with screens and draws. Haslett’s favorite player is probably safety Brandon Meriweather. He’s a big hitter and blitzer and a real ball-hawk. He forced two turnovers against Dallas and the Rams have to be extra careful with ball security around him. The best way to deal with Meriweather is to make him cover. The Redskins have a couple of coverage assets; Perry Riley is a good cover LB who can disrupt short stuff and rookie corner Bashaud Breeland is very capable man-up. He was about inside Dez Bryant’s jersey in the Dallas game. That secondary’s their Achilles heel, though. Key veterans are injured, so they’ve got practice squad guys getting significant snaps, and they may have a safety playing nickel. The young group’s prone to blowing assignments, then Haslett puts extra pressure on them with blitzes that leave big mismatches. If Schottenheimer’s counterpunching well, the Rams should move the ball through the air. And he may not have to; with Mason exploding onto the scene, the Rams can, and if the shaky offensive line doesn’t have Rodger Saffold, should, just down-block the Redskins all day like Dallas and Minnesota did, something Haslett’s many funky formations leaves them vulnerable to.

And here we are again, where we just were last week. Can the Rams put together two wins in a row? Will this blowout lead to something bigger, or be just another hilltop of this season’s roller coaster ride? Hold on tight again, Rams Nation.

— Mike
Game stats from espn.com