RamView, 8/28/2014: Dolphins 14, Rams 13 (Long)

RamView, August 28, 2014
From The Couch
(Report and opinions on the game.)
Preseason Game #4: Dolphins 14, Rams 13

An ideal fourth preseason game: it raised some interesting questions about roster battles while staying mercifully short. And hey, the Rams didn’t lose any more prominent starters for the season! So we’ve got that going for us. Which is nice…

Position by position:
* QB: Austin Davis (12-19-162) didn’t get off to a fast start, but by the time he was done, looked like a QB who could run the offense in a pinch. He missed Stedman Bailey and Austin Pettis badly on the opening drive and missed Chris Givens on the next drive, but settled down and hit Givens on a drag route for 24 to help set up the Rams’ first FG. After settling down his early happy feet, Davis converted an interception into points for the Rams’ first TD by throwing a rope that Pettis snagged at the goal line. A strong and confident throw. He weathered one of many Dolphin blitzes at the goal line to hit Alex Bayer for 17 in the 2nd. The Rams’ 1st-half 2:00 drive looked promising early, as Davis got the Rams quickly across midfield with completions to Pettis and Brad Smelley, but once there, he failed to identify a blitz, which helped contribute to a sack and pushed Greg Zuerlein just barely out of FG range. It took Davis a while to adjust to what Miami had coming at him, and he tended to hold the ball too long, but he also moved well, threw well and looked confident in the pocket. He’s the Austin Davis we were all expecting to see last training camp. Garrett Gilbert (6-14-50) did not get very good protection and his preseason on the whole is pretty hard to evaluate, but he hasn’t done anything to stand out and it wouldn’t be surprising at all if he’s bumped to the practice squad in favor of a veteran. He did as good a job hanging in the pocket as he could. He looked good on the move, and he has a good arm. His stats are sacrificed a little this week because he made several throwaways to avoid sacks. The Rams carried 3 QBs on the roster last year after Sam Bradford got hurt and I think they’ll do so again. I’m not sure Gilbert will be one of the three. He has good qualities for development and it looks like he’s taking coaching well, so I’ll say keep him.

* RB: To his credit, Trey Watts (13-51) has created one of several cutdown conundrums for the Rams to figure out this weekend. On the one hand, I’m not sure Watts didn’t outplay Tre Mason (6-14) this summer. On the other, I’m not sure what he contributes on special teams. The Rams aren’t cutting their third round pick, and Chase Reynolds (4-19) has been too valuable on special teams to cut. On the other other hand, Watts made several nice runs, cut really well on the move and made a bunch of excellent blitz pickups. He had an outstanding pickup on a completion to Alex Bayer that got the Rams out of a hole in the 2nd. Watts ran tough, followed his blockers and no less than Marshall Faulk said he made all the right decisions with the ball. Who do you keep? Reynolds also battled hard for yards late in the game, but failed badly on the edge on a blitz protection to get Gilbert sacked in the 4th, a failure at something Watts specifically did well all night. Who do you keep? Cutdown to 53: sigh, Watts (PS). I just can’t figure out where he fits on special teams.

* WR: Hey, an Austin Pettis (3-28) sighting! Pettis scored the Rams’ lone TD with a full-extension lunge at the goal line in the 2nd. I doubt that was enough noise to set off an otherwise extremely quiet preseason, though. Stedman Bailey (2-26) was open more often than his numbers suggest. Davis was just unable to connect with him a few times he should have. Liked the screen to Austin Franklin (1-10) where he lulled his man to sleep and then darted for 10 and a first down, and he also could have caught a bomb from Gilbert in the 3rd had his jersey not been grabbed from behind. He may not have flashed in camp, but he’s at least flickered. Cutdown to 53: Emory Blake (PS), Franklin (PS), Pettis, Justin Veltung. Seems likelier they’ll keep a 5th receiver (who later gets replaced by Bailey), but who deserves it?

* Tight ends: I think Justice Cunningham (1-6) holds on to TE4 because he was a pretty consistent factor in this game as a blocker. Alex Bayer (1-17) ran a sweet post route to get the Rams off their goal line in the 2nd, getting excellent separation off his break, but muddled his cause with a sloppy drop later and had too many blocking breakdowns during camp to be really comfortable with him. Brad Smelley (4-46) was actually the Rams’ leading receiver but had way too many blocking issues. He gave up a sack of Gilbert when he lost his man badly coming back to the QB and had similar problems sustaining his blocks in the running game. Cutdown to 53: Bayer (PS), Smelley

* Offensive line: So, after getting Sam Bradford splattered for the season Saturday night, Jake Long needed no reps at all in Miami? Awesome. Greg Robinson did see plenty of work. On the downside, he had a hold and a false start, but on the upside, did a lot of good work in pass protection at LT. Davis had solid protection on that side of the line all night. Robinson did some good work against the blitz and got out to the second level effectively on runs. He’ll definitely be an asset at LG and I believe he’ll step right in at LT when the time comes. Got pretty comfortable there in the course of one training camp. For his run-blocking, I thought this was a make-the-team performance for Mike Person. He was strong on just about every running play at guard and didn’t look too bad at center. Person did have a couple of issues in protection. Sean Hooey had issues at everything. He looked useless as a run blocker; Mason got stuffed on a run in the 1st when, not for the first time this preseason, Hooey completely whiffed trying to block the man right in front of him. As the game wore on, Hooey got beaten consistently around the edge, keeping Gilbert running for his life and leading to a sack in the 2nd when Davis had no pocket to step up into. Travis Bond gave up that sack and was part of the problem on the two other sacks the line gave up. Effective run blocker but too much of a liability in pass pro to make this team. Davis was sacked before halftime after Bond and Tim Barnes screwed the pooch picking up a stunt. Barnes is just not a good backup plan if Scott Wells goes down. If? Mitchell Van Dyk had a hold and continued not to be able to handle a pass rush. The biggest disappointment, though, was Brandon Washington, who’d looked promising Saturday night. He had two false starts and got whipped a couple of times to get Gilbert in trouble. Didn’t look like he can handle the tackle job any better than Hooey. This game did its job, though. I think the offensive line’s been shaken out. Cutdown to 53: Bond, Hooey, Washington (PS), Van Dyk (PS) and probably Barrett Jones to IR.

* Defensive line: If Michael Sam’s going to finish making history by making the final roster, he’s not going to do it with a flourish. This game was kind of the exhibit of why teams didn’t draft Sam. He wasn’t much of a factor at all. He was completely blocked on a lot of running plays, and the Rams seemed to have to call overload blitzes on his side for him to apply any pass-rush pressure. He made a couple of run stops, but this was the game where he was supposed to affirm his positive plays from the other games; he didn’t do it. Half the pundits think he’s making the team, half don’t. Ethan Westbrooks has pretty much lapped Sam for the 9th d-line spot. He was much more disruptive, with several run stuffs and a sack, though that was pretty much a gift because the guard in front of him locked in on a blitzer who was never coming. Deantre Harlan had a couple of run stuffs, a sweet one late in the game where he blew up the center and made the tackle in the backfield. He also had a couple of penalties and really got pushed around at times. Got pushed downfield ten yards on one play. Kourtnei Brown was even more of a lightweight, getting completely washed out on some runs. There were plays where he was getting shoved downfield faster than the runner was advancing. Don’t expect him to cross Sack City limits. Cutdown to 53: Brown, Matt Conrath, Harlan (PS), Sam (PS). I’m probably wrong on Sam but he’s not one of this roster’s 53 best players and he has to be if the Rams are to keep him as a tenth d-lineman.

* Linebackers: The LBs did some nice work against the run. Daren Bates and Phillip Steward set up a couple of run stuffs by setting good edges. Ray Ray Armstrong made a big play on 3rd down in the 1st. Miami had called a screen pass that would have burned an ill-advised 3rd-and-15 blitz had Armstrong not grabbed the receiver from behind in the nick of time. James Laurinaitis is supposed to be full-go for Minnesota, but if he couldn’t go, I think Armstrong has come along nicely. Etienne Sabino (!) made several good run stops, and he and Lawrence Wilson both made good coverage plays on tight ends in the flat. Cutdown to 53: Aaron Hill, Sabino, Wilson (PS).

* Secondary: The Ram secondary’s going to be walking a tightrope opening day. They’ll probably be starting two rookies. One, Lamarcus Joyner, had troubles covering and tackling fellow rookie Jarvis Landry, which I don’t take as a good sign for a guy who’ll see a lot of Cordarrelle Patterson just over a week from now. The other starting corner figures to be sixth-round pick E.J. Gaines. (Wow.) But Gaines tackled well and turned a tipped pass into an INT. The kid has had a knack for making plays all camp; may that last well into the regular season. Darren Woodard had 3 or 4 shots at making an INT himself without pulling one off, but his ability to be in the right place at the right time should still pay off for him. Another bad omen was the secondary turning somebody called Matt Hazel (4-77) into a Pro Bowler, though he did all of it by beating soft zone coverage. The worst play was his game-winning TD, a simple screen pass where Christian Bryant failed to take the correct inside angle and let Hazel walk into the end zone with embarrassing ease. Marcus Roberson blew an INT and has not really tackled well this preseason but I have a feeling the Rams are going to need the bodies at corner. Cutdown to 53: Bryant (PS), Avery Cunningham

* Special teams: The Rams’ big legs are getting uncorked in time for the regular season. The Rams quick-punted with Miami failing to drop a man deep in the 4th, and, from the back of his own end zone, Johnny Hekker lashed a 76-yard punt. Greg Zuerlein hit from 49 and 53 and just barely missed from… 63. Yep, I’m happy with his readiness for the regular season. Give Hekker credit for his handling of a bad snap on the 53-yarder, too, and give Zuerlein credit for a textbook farmer tan.

* Strategery: There was idle talk in pregame about some starters playing, especially Hill. Jeff Fisher instead chose to sit every significant starter. Rookies Robinson, Aaron Donald and Joyner got a lot of reps. What about the Cleveland game tells them Jake Long will be ready for Minnesota without any additional game action eludes me completely. I almost hope they’re starting Robinson. Gregg Williams continued not to be shy about blitzing in preseason. It almost looked like a response to Miami calling big blitzes, so that was fun. I only have the Rams for one sack, and it’s another one off a fake blitz. The Miami guard thought the blitz was coming, I think from Sabino, and stayed locked on him even as Westbrooks came through. Lastly, I miss Aggro Preseason Jeff Fisher. Ten years ago, if the Titans had lined up for a 63-yard FG and the opponent called a timeout to freeze the kicker, like Joe Philbin did here, Fisher totally would have switched to a fake FG the next play.

* Upon further review: Bill Leavy, the most veteran of the referees the Rams got this preseason, probably called the worst game of the four. I didn’t like the late hit call they gave Harlan; it was bang-bang with the whistle blowing and wasn’t all that hard of a hit. I don’t know how the officials in New York could have gotten an angle on Thomas’ TD run to know he wasn’t down before he crossed the line. Marshall Faulk was pretty insistent he was down. Franklin got tugged from behind trying to run a deep route in the 3rd. Grade: C

* Cheers: The game didn’t have just a TV booth, it had the Greatest Booth on Earth, as Marshall Faulk and Torry Holt were joined for a while by Isaac Bruce. My favorite part of the broadcast was Faulk making the Hall of Fame argument for Bruce and Holt, noting that they had to compete directly with one another for most of the outstanding career numbers they put up. I hope the folks who will argue the Show’s merits in Canton were listening. My other favorite moment was every time the Dolphins’ doofy inflatable mascot came on screen, Marshall would ask where Snowflake is. Ace Ventura references FTW! Faulk seems to see a lot of himself in Watts, which can’t hurt the rookie’s roster chances at all. Faulk also expected a blitz on the last play of the game; I’m not as sure Brian Schottenheimer did. Can we get Marshall to re-consider that coaching gig question from last week?

* Who’s next?: Opening day is just ten days away, and the Rams will prepare to host the Minnesota Vikings, whose last visit here was quite memorable. Adrian Peterson ran for 212 yards and single-handedly steamrolled the Rams, 36-22. The Rams last beat the Vikings in 2006 and last beat them in St. Louis in 2003, a 48-17 romp featuring three Marshall Faulk TDs, an Isaac Bruce TD and an Aeneas Williams fumble return TD. Ah, those were the days.

The weird thing about the Vikings’ last visit was that Peterson rolled up the mega-yardage despite starting the game with only 8 yards on his first 8 carries. The Rams stuffed AP early because the ends set hard edges, the OLBs kept him funneled inside and the DTs stood up well at the point of attack. Their success only lasted for one quarter that day, though. Minnesota started killing the Rams with play-action, the middle of the Ram line crumbled, and before too long, Peterson had a convoy giving him practically five yards of free room every carry, and poor safety play made long runs even longer. Minnesota still has the blockers who really pushed the Rams around in that game: massive RT Phil Loadholdt, guard Charlie Johnson, center John Sullivan, then-rookie LT Matt Kalil, and fullback Jerome Fulton. They’ve also got a pass-action-loving QB in Matt Cassel, who won his last start in St. Louis with the Chiefs (and without his appendix). Cassel’s an accurate veteran QB, but there’s little question he can be rattled, so, well, go get him, Sack City. Some Vikings reviews call Greg Jennings Cassel’s favorite receiver, but there’s two others he’ll get to like a lot more between now and the time Teddy Bridgewater takes over. This year’s FFL sleeper darling, Cordarrelle Patterson, looks like the real deal in preseason action. He’s looked effective out of the slot, outside the numbers, and he burned the Chiefs deep for a TD last weekend. The blazing WR is also Minnesota’s punt returner and figures to get the ball a couple of times out of the backfield. Unless Janoris Jenkins is 100% off his hamstring troubles, the undermanned Ram secondary is going to have trouble just keeping up with Patterson, let alone covering him. (With Marcus Sherels returning kickoffs, the Rams will also have their hands full on special teams.) Though I hope I’m wrong now because I failed to draft him in my fantasy league, TE Kyle Rudolph should be poised for a big year. Norv Turner is Minnesota’s OC now, and his tight ends always have big seasons. Having to shuffle their LBs around all summer won’t help the Rams keep Rudolph reined here. Peterson’s success here in ’12 and the thinness of the Ram secondary loom large. It’s imperative the Rams gain much better control of the line of scrimmage than they did back then, and they sure can. Robert Quinn is a markedly better run defender than he was two years ago, Michael Brockers has developed into a run-stopper and the Rams Peterson last ran all over had no one like Alec Ogletree or Aaron Donald in the front seven. No one as bad as Craig Dahl behind them, either. The Rams were also hurt in ’12 by unwise zone blitzes and ill-advised fronts called by coach Williams. That would be Blake Williams, who came up with a scheme that day seemingly devised to give Peterson huge gaps to run through. Will the father learn from the son’s mistakes? He’ll need to. The Rams have to win the line of scrimmage to win this game. They can’t afford to get cute.

The early schedule is kind to the Rams in that they face some of the league’s worst defenses from last year. The Vikings, for instance, had the #31 defense overall and against the pass, and lost over 25% of their sacks when Jared Allen defected to Chicago in free agency. Brian Robison, with 9, is the leading returning sacker and has produced consistently the past three seasons. He may not bring elite speed off the edge, but he’s got more than enough to give the Jake Long we saw in Cleveland plenty of problems. First-round draft pick Anthony Barr will also be a pass rush factor, as will the Viking blitz. Their blitzing killed the Rams two years ago, and they were merciless about blitzing when the Rams had backs in the game like Daryl Richardson who were poor at picking them up. Unless you count Trey Watts from this week’s game, the Rams don’t have a back really proven at blitz protection now, either, and unless they produce an answer, they’ll get overrun by Viking blitzes. Yes, I’m talking about a two-year-old game, and the Vikings have a different head coach, Mike Zimmer, but Zimmer’s not going to ignore something that easy to exploit. Minnesota’s pass pressure in preseason has come off blitzes; he’s shown some zone blitzes dropping the left end into coverage and bringing extra pressure over left tackle. Long better give them a reason not to blitz over him all day. The Rams can dampen the Viking blitzing by running well, which their starters haven’t done in preseason. To get the job done in this game, they’ll have to get a hat on Chad Greenway, who’s only well on the way to becoming the leading tackler in Viking history. Scott Wells is going to have to prove able to move free-agent run-stuffer Linval Joseph. If the Rams can get Shaun Hill time, Minnesota was one of the easiest Ds in the league to complete passes on and throw TD passes against last year. They have added the surprisingly physical 5’8” Captain Munnerlyn, who you’ll remember from ruining the Rams’ day in Carolina last year, to a secondary nearly as young as the Rams’ otherwise. Kenny Britt, Brian Quick and Jared Cook will all have size advantages they’ll need to make stand up.

We can talk about Adrian Peterson and the Rams passing game all we want, but this game is acutely going to be about winning at the line of scrimmage. The Ram defensive line is expected to be very good at it, though it wasn’t the last time these teams met. The offensive line has yet to become a finished work and is a much more unknown quantity. They’ll be the key to Jeff Fisher successfully coming up with a solution for W.

— Mike
Game stats from nfl.com