RamView, 11/8/2015: Vikings 21, Rams 18 (OT) (Long)

RamView, November 8, 2015
Game #8: Vikings 21, Rams 18 (OT)

Fisherball’s a hard way to win when the other team plays it better than you do, as the Rams found out in Minnesota. The Vikings outran and outmuscled them, and the Rams couldn’t break character enough to adjust. They’ll have to find more range to be a serious contender.

Position by position:
* QB: Nick Foles’ (18-33-168) wheels may not have been coming off at the start of the game, but it looked like he drove to the stadium with a couple of flats. TV showed he passed on throwing deep to a streaking Kenny Britt on the opening play to toss a sloppy, dangerous near-pick toward Tavon Austin instead. The next drive he missed Brian Quick open near the sideline by 10 feet. Foles got some air back in his tires late in the 1st. He made a rare 3rd-down conversion with a nice 10-yard pass to Austin, then made another with an even nicer 55-yard bomb to Britt to set up a Rams TD. In the 2nd, he barely beat a safety blitz and lofted a 22-yard sideline pass to Britt that set up a Greg Zuerlein FG bomb. The Rams settled for another FG in the 2nd with TV viewers wondering why Foles wouldn’t throw deep again. He cocked for a deep throw and had Quick screamingly open on a deep cross, but checked down instead. On 3rd-4 a little later, Foles underthrew a 4-yard arrow route to Jared Cook that never had a chance, sending Zuerlein back in. Foles led the Rams to another FG and a 15-10 lead before halftime with a 20-yard pass to Lance Kendricks, and despite an ill-advised end zone bomb for a well-covered Britt. In the 3rd, the Rams could not adjust well to the Viking blitz or a strong wind in their face. Foles got sacked to kill one drive, then underthrew a deep ball for Austin that frustratingly ended up as another dropped pass. Foles puts way too much air under some of his deep balls, and did here, but it still should have been caught for a big gain. The Rams were deep in their no-downfield-game funk the rest of the way. Foles got rushed into a grounding penalty. They couldn’t complete a 3-yard pass on 3rd-and-3. On 3rd-and-10 with 2:00 left in the game, they actually handed off to Gurley to set up a FG attempt. Zuerlein missed it. Foles got 1:14 to put the Rams back in range. A pass to Britt and a DPI got the Rams across midfield. A holding penalty seemed to doom them, but Foles hit Cook to get those yards back and set Zuerlein up for a game-tying FG. But again in OT, the Ram passing game couldn’t make the Vikings pay for attacking the LOS aggressively. Foles overthrew Stedman Bailey to end the Rams’ only chance in OT with a 3-and-out. The Rams were not likely to dominate the LOS this week. His receivers have been a problem a lot of the year but Foles missed some opportunities. This was never going to be a game the Rams would win with a game manager at QB. They needed Foles to be more.

* RB: The 1-2 punch of Todd Gurley (24-89) and Tavon Austin (8-66) was again about all the punch the Ram offense had. The first half was mostly rough sledding, though Gurley scored the Rams’ only TD from a yard out, hurdling Corey Harkey and then getting a massive Bush Push from Jamon Brown and Tim Barnes. The Rams got in FG position late in the half off a 10-yard wheel route to Gurley and an 11-yard backward pass to Austin. Austin bedeviled the Vikings right before the half. He took one end-around for 13 and cut another inside and broke a tackle for 22 out to midfield to produce most of the offense of a late FG drive. After a Cigfeld Follies 3rd quarter of 1-2-3-kicks, the runners got rolling in the 4th. Austin squirted off for 20 on yet another end-around. Gurley rolled for 14 off the left side. Gurley appeared to be wearing the Vikings out at the end of regulation. He swept left for 16. He broke a Linval Joseph tackle in the backfield and ran through two more defenders for 9. He bulldozed left for 7. As if to show Gurley really is the whole offense, they even handed off to him on 3rd-and-10 to set up a FG attempt. Which missed. No momentum carried to OT. Gurley got stuffed, tried two different cutbacks and lost six. Minnesota then stuffed a screen to Austin, which was pretty much the ballgame. Another strong 4th quarter for Gurley, but his line didn’t get him much room the other three. The Rams clearly have the runners, but they couldn’t establish the running game.

* Receivers: We’re down to Kenny Britt (3-87) as the only receiving “star” the Rams have. Foles ignored him open deep on the first play of the game, but hit him later in the 1st with a 55-yard bomb. The catch was maybe a little too exciting. The ball slipped through Britt’s arms after Terence Newman smacked him on the helmet, but Britt pinned it to his hip on the way down to set up the Rams’ TD. Britt’s 22-yard sideline catch set up a FG in the 2nd. He wasn’t expecting a back-shoulder throw, but adjusted and neatly pirouetted at the sideline to make the play. Where was everyone else, especially while the Rams went a miserable 2-FOR-16 on 3rd down? Search me. Austin’s (4-15) mainly here for screens and end-arounds. He got open deep for once in his life in the 3rd only to butcher the catch of an underthrown ball. Why do the Rams WRs jump for balls they don’t have to jump for? Foles missing or ignoring Brian Quick (1-minus 1) open downfield a couple of times didn’t help his numbers. Jared Cook’s (1-10) best play, believe it or not, was a block, on a Gurley sweep in the 4th. Arguable DPI on Captain Munnerlyn denied him a big play in the 2nd. Cory Harkey (0-0) blocked well and sprung several Gurley runs. Lance Kendricks (2-25) had a couple of good blocks for Austin, and his 20-yard catch set up a FG before halftime. Foles left some plays on the table, but this offense’s lack of a go-to receiver has been a terrible weakness all season and struck hard again this week.

* Offensive line: The o-line started out behind the eight ball with Rob Havenstein (ankle) on the inactive list, with Garrett Reynolds sliding to RT, Jamon Brown back to RG and rookie Andrew Donnal stepping in at LG. I’m not sure any configuration of Rams linemen would have dealt well with man-mountain Linval Joseph, who was frequently in the middle of stuffed runs. Tim Barnes had the most trouble. Joseph shed him to stuff Tre Mason (3-3) in the 2nd and beat him badly to tackle Gurley for a loss in the 3rd. The very next play, Joseph whipped Barnes and dropped Foles for a big loss and Minnesota’s only sack. Barnes wasn’t the only Ram who had problems with Joseph. He beat Brown a couple of times in the 3rd to stuff Gurley, Reynolds couldn’t budge him in the 3rd on a Mason run that went nowhere, and he beat Donnal to stuff an Austin run in the 2nd. The Rams simply had no answer for the underrated Viking DT, who shouldn’t stay that way much longer. The Rams were occasionally a match for Minnesota up front. Brown and Barnes did some serious mauling to get Gurley into the end zone on two carries in the 1st. Barnes and Donnal led out on a 14-yard Gurley run in the 3rd. Donnal’s problem was ending up on the ground too often. He did it on the 2-point attempt in the 2nd, a play where I think he was supposed to be pulling. Gurley wound up running smack into two Vikings instead. Reynolds wasn’t a lost cause at RT but had some struggles with outside speed and nearly killed the Rams’ late tying FG drive with a hold. About the same for Greg Robinson. Everson Griffen smoked him with a spin move in the 4th to pressure Foles into a grounding penalty. If the Rams were wearing the Vikings down at all, it didn’t show in OT. Brown and Donnal were pushed two yards into the backfield and Gurley had to bail on a sweep right for a big loss. Britt got no block out front on 2nd down as a screen to Austin got stuffed. Foles rushed a bad pass incomplete with a Viking getting a free run at him. The Rams lost the game in the trenches but I wouldn’t call this week a step backward, not with the step up in competition and the last-minute line shuffle.

* Defensive line: Say “next man up” all you want; a Ram defensive line missing Chris Long and now this week, Robert Quinn, is just not going to be as good. And it wasn’t, unless you count jumping offside FIVE times. Second-year QB Teddy Bridgewater (13-21-144) hard-counted Rams veterans offside at least three times. 4-man rushes and soft zone coverage didn’t do much to affect him early. The Rams didn’t set good edges, letting Adrian Peterson (29-125) get his yards and getting them beaten REPEATEDLY by rollout passes. That was Minnesota’s whole first TD drive, rollout passes and offside penalties. Not for the first time this season, the Rams looked like they would get blown out after the 1st quarter. They settled down in the 2nd with healthier doses of blitzing and of rookie free agent Matt Longacre (!), who helped on a run stop and beat Matt Kalil with an inside move to flush Bridgewater to start a 3-and-out. Nick Fairley made a diving stop of Peterson and Michael Brockers stuffed him after knocking the center down to shut down the next drive. Another 3-and-out sparked by a run stop and a pressure by Aaron Donald helped send the Rams to halftime with the lead, but the Vikings struck back with a TD drive that was probably the worst of Donald’s brief career. AP ran through him and Ethan Westbrooks for 4. Bridgewater hit a big play to Stefon Diggs under no pressure. AP burned Donald’s overpursuit with a 13-yard cutback. That’s his move! Try to be ready for it! Bridgewater ran the TD in himself from the 7, with Eugene Sims getting pushed deep and Donald getting flattened by Kalil. Then Westbrooks and Donald whiffed badly as Bridgewater scrambled in with the 2-pointer. The Rams rallied, though, with Longacre, who had a nice NFL debut, stopping AP a couple of times and Donald flushing the QB a couple of times to stop a drive. Heck, Longacre was the 2nd-best lineman this week. After Bridgewater was knocked out of the game in the 4th, here comes Longacre again, pressuring SHAUN HILL into a throwaway. Flawed run D got the Rams in the end. In the Rams’ half of the field, Peterson burst for 10 with Brockers getting manhandled in the hole. AP next swept for 5, and Matt Asiata another 5, as the Rams couldn’t set the edge and Minnesota got into chip-shot FG range to win the game. Despite Longacre’s and Donald’s game efforts, the Rams couldn’t get enough done up front without Quinn. They didn’t get a lot of pressure on the QB. Brockers got blocked or moved out of a lot of plays. Will Hayes didn’t contribute an impact play besides jumping offside. He, Sims, Westbrooks – too much jumping and overpursuing, not enough good edge-setting against the run. Losing without Quinn’s not unforgivable, but penalty mistakes and lapses in fundamentals don’t keep it from being frustrating.

* Linebackers: A big reason behind Minnesota’s success on the ground was that Mark Barron couldn’t do much right. He totaled just 6 tackles and was nowhere near as effective as he has been since becoming a starting LB. He missed tackles, couldn’t get off blocks, couldn’t get to the edge, you name it. Peterson’s 5-yard TD was not hard work; Barron couldn’t get outside to cut him off and pulling guard Mike Harris made a grease spot out of Maurice Alexander. Barron blitzed on the Bridgewater TD, but, obviously, didn’t get there. He blitzed more effectively in the 2nd half, stuffing an AP run in the 3rd and forcing a Hill throwaway in the 4th. James Laurinaitis helped hold Minnesota’s opening drive to a FG with a perfect gap fill that forced AP over to Akeem Ayers for minimal gain. Ayers poked the ball out of AP’s hand on a sweep in the 4th, but Alexander never saw the loose ball and overran it, missing out on a game-changing play. At the end of regulation, the Vikings insanely tried a rollout pass with the lead, but Alexander buried Hill for an 11-yard loss. That was the main reason the Rams got the ball back for the game-tying FG. Unfortunately in OT, Rhett Ellison beat Ayers for 9 on a key play to put them in range for the game-winning FG. Barron has quickly become the catalyst of the linebacking corps, but there wasn’t a lot of explosion this week.

* Secondary: Ah, crap, cancel those tickets to Hawaii for Janoris Jenkins for now; he did not play his strongest game in Minnesota. On the big play of the first Viking TD drive, Charles Johnson got Jenkins lurching around drunkenly with a pretty ordinary cut to the outside and beat him for 25. Jenkins also gave up the big play of Minnesota’s other TD drive, getting double-moved by Stefon Diggs for 35. We’ve come to expect better from Jenkins. Like Trumaine Johnson’s end zone INT in the 3rd, wrestling a long ball away from Diggs. The secondary committed two DPIs and a hold, and then there’s Lamarcus Joyner. With Bridgewater scrambling in the 4th, Joyner didn’t pull up in time when Teddy slid, and clocked him out of the game. I don’t think that was a malicious hit, as Vikings HC Mike Zimmer did while slandering Rams DC Gregg Williams after the game. Joyner dives, Bridgewater slides, it’s very bang-bang. For all the accusations Joyner’s getting for dirty play, which suggest he didn’t try to back off on Bridgewater at all, he sure didn’t get his fine’s worth. The Rams kept Diggs (3-42) and the limited Viking passing game mostly under wraps, but Minnesota got a lot out of the couple of big plays they did hit.

* Special teams: Like I always say, never a dull week on special teams, especially since it’s apparently hurricane season in Minnesota. The Rams were psyched out of even trying a PAT into the wind in the 1st, but with Hurricane Ned at his back, Greg Zuerlein drilled a team-record 61-yard FG in the 2nd. He also hit from 35 and 45 before halftime. Late in the game, the Midwestern nor’easter helped pull a 48-yard Zuerlein attempt wide, and the Rams appeared done, but they got the ball back and Zuerlein hit from 53 to send the game to OT. The wind took 15 yards off his kickoffs, though, and did even worse to Johnny Hekker’s first punt, which I’m guessing got up too high and came down a short 25 yards later. Hekker adjusted, though, and drilled at least 4 punts 50 yards or more, including a 60-yarder in OT, all into the teeth of Typhoon Fran. The only problem with that last one was coverage letting Marcus Sherels scoot about 25 yards up the sideline with it to midfield. Minnesota didn’t have to go far to win the game from there. The Rams had a couple of breakdowns covering returns despite an excellent game by Cameron Lynch, who I have with three tackles, all around the 20. That one last breakdown took a lot of shine off some excellent individual efforts.

* Strategery: Jeff Fisher’s decision to go for two after the first TD rather than attempt a PAT into the wind is understandable but still worthy of healthy second-guessing. The wind was really knocking down punts and kickoffs, and a FG/PAT isn’t something you can get away with line-drive kicking. I still think Zuerlein could have kicked a darn ball 33 yards. At the same time, I don’t think Fisher would have tried the 61-yard kick in the 2nd without the wind factor. Before we say Zuerlein should have been kicking at the end of the game down 17-16 and going for the win, we should consider they really could have been down 17-13.

By the end of the first half, Frank Cignetti’s offense was running circles around Mike Zimmer’s defense. Running two double-play-action bombs set up the Rams’ TD and also made Austin dangerous on a number of end-arounds. Cignetti continued to use Austin well as a decoy on 4th-and-inches in the 2nd, distracting the Vikings with motion while Foles sneaked across. They even pulled out the play-action throwback to Austin from training camp, and it worked for a nice gain. Look at the Rams’ FG drive before the half and tell me Cignetti didn’t have the Vikings dizzy. End-around to Austin for 13. End-around to Austin off counter motion for 22. Double play-action, to Gurley, then to Quick, opens up a 20-yard pass to Kendricks. The question after halftime: how did Brian Schottenheimer get back in the booth? Nothing but 3-and-outs in the 3rd quarter, failure to adjust to increased blitzing that wasn’t hard to see coming… Schotty left, right? Cignetti ended up going to the Austin end-around well once too often and had no answer to the blitzing, with Charles Davis begging on TV the whole second half to run quicker-developing plays. The Rams were a miserable 2-for-16 on 3rd down, where they’ve got to get more aggressive. 3rd-and-4, they’re running a 3-and-a-half-yard out route. They ran bubble screens on 3rd-2, 3rd-8 and 3rd-10. And it doesn’t get much more conservative than 3rd-10 with the game on the line and handing off to Gurley. Since I’m running late this week, I already know the Rams have signed Wes Welker. I sure hope he can teach some people what a damn slant route is, probably starting with Cignetti. Maybe Welker will even remember a trips-formation play or a “pick” play or two. Somebody at Rams Park sure the heck needs to.

Mike Zimmer’s insinuations aside, Gregg Williams didn’t come across as very aggressive this week. Mostly 4-man rushes and soft zones while the Vikings scored their first 10 points. Norv Turner did not invent the rollout pass specifically for the Rams, but they sure made it look that way. I also thought Williams capable of inducing more than one turnover out of Bridgewater with coverage rotations and disguises. He didn’t bring many big blitzes when he did bring them, and Bridgewater still beat a blitz on his TD run. AP and injuries seemed to have the Ram defense playing out of character this week.

* Upon further review: The Rams are 0-3 lifetime in Ron Torbert-refereed games, so, no, not a big fan. Torbert butchered the call on TruJo’s INT about as much as possible. Defensive interference, no, offensive, and Minnesota ball, oops, no, St. Louis’. Charles Davis had it right from the beginning, and minutes faster, saying it should have been a no-call. One of the Rams’ offsides, called on Brockers, was B.S. He’d jumped but gotten completely back onside well before the stupid Viking lineman “flinched” in “reaction”, which was totally a false start, but Torbert foolishly bought the act instead. That was a WWE-quality call. There was a lot of uncalled DPI on both teams, including Cook getting grabbed early on what would have been a big play down the seam in the 2nd. And one of the game’s biggest plays, Sherels’ punt return in OT, should have come back from the start because Harkey had clearly gotten blocked in the back. That’s difficult to let slide in such a close game. Grade: D-minus

* Cheers: Fox announcer Thom Brennaman comes to Rams games with an agenda. Joyner’s late hit on Bridgewater wasn’t even nanoseconds over before he called it a dirty play, and he clung to that narrative the rest of the game like a junkyard dog gnawing a tough steak. He harped on it every chance he could, and with disgust in his voice. It really felt like there’s something more deep-seated going on there than a personal foul. Brennaman was like that calling last year’s Giants game. Did Fisher or Williams steal Brennaman’s wife or something? Charles Davis sat there the whole time without calling it a dirty hit. I tend to think he and I agree it was a stupid hit. The fine will be the same either way. After doing a good job all day of keeping viewers attuned to the wind’s effect on the game, I don’t know why Brennaman and Davis were surprised the Vikings took the wind in OT. The risk of either team opening OT with a TD (on offense) seemed very low. I’d have expected Fisher to do the same thing. Then get criticized by Brennaman for it.

* Who’s next?: The Rams host the 3-5 Chicago Bears next, and though home field advantage won’t exactly prove decisive, they do get a pretty banged-up opponent that had to play Monday night on the west coast. The Rams steam-rolled the Bears with 258 yards rushing in a 42-21 victory the last time the teams met here.

A repeat of that is more possible than you’d think. As a small part of Chicago’s defensive tradition, Jeff Fisher is likely to shed a tear as he reviews the Bears’ current unit. Chicago fans for decades have been accustomed to Hall-of-Fame MLB play leading a D that stuffs the run and sacks the QB, but the current Bears have little of that. Heck, they’re not even a 4-3 any more, which is football sacrilege if you ask me. They’re a top ten defense according to the NFL’s rankings, but that is a mirage. They’re 29th in points allowed (28.9) and 29th against the run (128 ypg). Against Detroit their d-line got pushed around and the Lions repeatedly exploited weird overshifts with cutback runs. Pull that stuff here and Todd Gurley will run for two miles. No penetration up front, their LBs are invisible, they’re not great tacklers in the back, just 12 sacks in 7 games – they’re everything a Bear defense shouldn’t be. They have to blitz to generate any pressure, and it doesn’t look like they like to do that. They rotate their players a lot up front, but the Rams should still see plenty of Pernell McPhee. He’s a speed rusher but can mix in a nice bull rush and has 5 sacks. Jarvis Jenkins (3.5 sacks) is a big, young, ascending DE who will surprise you with his quickness. Not many DT-sized guys can beat OTs on the edge. And no doubt long-time Ram irritant Sam Acho will make a couple of plays. The secondary’s very young (both safeties are rookies) and very inconsistent. Kyle Fuller’s developing into a shutdown corner but is still a work in progress. Shoot, Chicago’s special teams have even given up 2 TDs this season. At this early stage of a complete defensive rebuild, the Bears are the Milquetoasts of the Midway, not the Monsters. That status is both a long time ago and a long time away.

Even when they score a lot of points, the Bears are about as interesting as watching paint dry. If their OT loss at Detroit was any indication, the Rams just need to defend the quick screen and the inside handoff up the middle. Those made up over half the Bears’ plays. Chicago’s issue on offense, though, has been injuries, not lack of creativity. Alshon Jeffery missed several games due to a hamstring injury, but he and Jay Cutler have quickly restored their old chemistry. Jeffery was over 100 yards with a TD in his first two games back. Cutler’s often willing to just put the ball up and hope Jeffery gets it, whether on end zone jump balls or deep back-shoulder throws. Chicago got Jeffery back, though, just in time to lose Eddie Royal and Matt Forte to knee injuries. Forte’s a big loss, a top-ten rusher and one of the league’s best receiving RBs. Replacement Jeremy Langford’s a rookie with rookie impatience setting up his blocks. Royal’s quickness is really needed to make Chicago’s screen game dangerous. Though he has Jared Cook’s hands, TE Martellus Bennett has been Cutler’s main target so far this year, especially in the red zone. The Bears were not productive enough in the red zone in Detroit, though, and get too pass-happy down there. Cutler (8 TDs, 4 INTs) hasn’t set the league on fire, but hasn’t been bad. He plays with more confidence than most credit him for and showed mobility in the pocket against Detroit a lot of us forgot he had. Chris Long’s injury denies us the game’s most compelling story; the Long brothers would have gone head-to-head the whole game with Kyle now at RT. Bennett and guard Matt Slauson are solid blockers for that inside running game, but the line doesn’t get to the second level enough. The Ram LBs should be very active. The Bears run a lot of no-huddle and Cutler gets the ball out quickly, a combination that has given the Rams trouble in the past. But they’ve shown ability to stop the run and blanket short passes. If they can prevent Cutler from turning broken plays into big completions to Jeffery, they’ll have solved most of the Chicago offense.

No need to hit the panic alarm at Rams Park. They didn’t come away with a winnable game this week, but this was not a bad loss like Washington was. Chicago, at home, is a different story. It’ll be harder to excuse continued offensive ineptitude and defensive breakdowns there. Let’s move on and move forward.

— Mike
Game stats from espn.com