RamView, August 7, 2015
Training Camp Report
from Lindenwood University
Pretty typical Rams “scrimmage” of the past seven years, with the defense way ahead of an out-of-sync offense that has work to do in just about every phase. Let’s hope this is the year the Rams prove it really is too early right now to judge how the offense is going to play, because there’s getting to be kind of a track record.
* QB: Nick Foles attempted some throws I’d better not see him try again this preseason, let alone the regular season. He threw some nice short passes into tight coverage, usually to Jared Cook, but threw several into coverage downfield that never should have left his hand. The qualifier – he probably would have gotten sacked on most of those throws and probably was just giving a receiver a chance to make a play. Hard to tell. Foles did not get many strong pockets. At least one of those seemed to be his own fault for not adjusting protection to the side of the formation the blitz was (obviously) coming from. From one rare solid pocket Foles did get, he tried to force a short ball to a well-covered Cook and got it broken up and intercepted. He also missed Cook and Stedman Bailey on corner routes. Too many throws he shouldn’t have made, and should have made, to give Foles a high grade tonight. And I never got to see him take a shot deep. On the plus side, Foles made a terrific play-fake to set up a slant to Stedman Bailey for a big gain to open 11-on-11. I was looking right at it and would swear he gave the ball to Benny Cunningham and then took it back from him. I have an established bias, but Austin Davis looked like the best of the backups, which goes hand-in-hand with him getting the most solid pockets to throw from. At the same time, he hung in well and delivered from collapsing pockets several times, including a red zone TD to Isaiah Pead. Case Keenum’s first 11-on-11 throw was a one-hopper on a two-yard quick hitch, and I kind of tuned him out after that. Davis and Keenum aren’t supposedly that different in size but Keenum seems to play much smaller. I would say they both had some accuracy issues in 7-on-7. Disappointingly, Sean Mannion only got to work with the rookies and only got to rush a couple of bad throws, one of which should have been picked off. If Foles (and the rest of the offense) are still getting dialed in at this point, fine. But there can’t be many performances like this one for the Rams to go anywhere in the regular season. I don’t think any of the 11-on-11 “drives” led to a TD.
* RB: The offense ran almost nothing but pass plays (which could have been part of their problem), so not a lot of action here. Especially with Tre Mason out due to hamstring tightness and Todd Gurley glued to the sideline running 60-yard shuttles. That made Benny Cunningham RB1, with Pead and Trey Watts taking turns at RB2, which sure looks like an elevation for Pead to me. Watts had the best run of the night, a 20-yard TD run where he read the defense perfectly, bounced the run outside and had no one left on his side of the field who could catch him. He did drop an easy dumpoff pass in 11-on-11, though. Pead seemed to get the most carries but didn’t appear to break off anything big, usually running wide. Nobody got anywhere up the middle. No fullback section this week but Justice Cunningham looked a lot better blocking 1-on-1 than I thought he looked last week. I think he was the only guy who blocked Ethan Westbrooks all night.
* Receivers: Kenny Britt got the night off. Stedman Bailey got Britt’s starter’s reps and flashed some of his form from last training camp. He is yet to return to that level, though. Jared Cook is clearly Foles’ #1 target, and this scrimmage was like a typical game for Cook. Enough short catches to make you think he’s got something going, then an annoying drop. Tavon Austin didn’t have a really productive scrimmage personally, but more on that later. He got stripped after a red zone catch near the goal line but fell on the ball. Brian Quick had another groan-inducing drop. His drops I’ve seen have come in the middle of the field where contact would be waiting for him. He looks confident and catches well at the sideline. I hope he can lose the no-contact beanie pretty soon, I think the idea that he can’t go all out is affecting his game mentally. The longer the dropped passes continue, the more it looks like he’s had a setback compared to last year’s near-breakout. The sleeper receiver of this pretty-sleepy group could be Lance Kendricks. He’s quietly playing well, running good, smooth routes and catching well. There’s not much pressure from the bottom of the depth chart. Chris Givens showed nice acceleration taking a quick route for 20. Bradley Marquez made a nice sliding catch. The last play of 11-on-11, I hoped they would put something up for Isiah Ferguson, who’s 6’5” with a 40-something vertical, and Davis did put one up deep… and Ferguson broke off his route. They don’t drop anything in warmups, but I’m ready to get consistently sharper play out of this unit.
* O-line: The struggle was real tonight for the offensive line, which had a lot of trouble with the d-line’s speed and committed at least five false starts. I thought Rob Havenstein got called for 1 or 2. Garrett Reynolds got one for sure, because he got pulled. Havenstein and Jamon Brown and Greg Robinson all had difficulty with speed rushes 1-on-1. Robinson’s difficulty continued in 11-on-11; I figure Robert Quinn for 3 sacks. Not only was Foles was under persistent pressure from the front four, at least a couple of blitzers would have gotten to him completely unblocked. The night in a nutshell: Foles drops back. Quinn would have sacked him. Foles scrambles over to Quinn’s side. William Hayes would have tracked him down. Foles fires a pass into downfield coverage, nearly picked off. It’ll be a long season for Rams fans, though a short one for Foles, if these struggles continue. You know how they say, if you have two starting QBs, you don’t have one? What does that make three centers? Negative one? Demetrius Rhaney was actually with the ones tonight, which to me is a pretty big stretch. Michael Brockers just ran over him in 1-on-1, the middle run game got nowhere, and there were blitz protection and timing problems all night. Tim Barnes was C2, Barrett Jones C3, with some action as the goal line TE. Jones got driven back to the QB by Westbrooks on a late pass but held up much better in the run game. The second line did the best job pass-protecting and picking up blitzes. So, yeah, of course I can’t remember that unit, other than Barnes and Reynolds, listed as a guard but playing RT. Andrew Donnal’s listed as a T but played guard. The line highlight of the night was probably Rodger Saffold holding his own against Aaron Donald 1-on-1. Beyond that, though, gotta go to work. I’m sure a much more even run-pass balance than tonight’s will help.
* Defensive line: The star backup of the night was Ethan Westbrooks; nearly every single rep he had was good. He was nearly unblockable, spent a lot of the practice in the backfield, and he was doing it all from defensive tackle, often right over the nose. He looked so good at DT (granted, he didn’t have to stop many runs) I don’t see why the Rams couldn’t go with 8 on the d-line on the final roster and just use him all over. Robert Quinn had a dominating night pass-rushing. Aaron Donald nearly beat Pead to a handoff to blow up one run. Chris Long sat out again, but Sack City looks like it’s open for business.
* Linebackers: A strong outing for the LB unit as well. Akeem Ayers really “flashed” here as an all-around LB. He was very effective blitzing, and made an excellent play in coverage in the red zone. He ended up with zone responsibility for Tavon, and Foles tried to exploit it, but Ayers not only stuck to his man, he stripped the ball loose. Ayers’ athleticism is really showing for me now. Alec Ogletree had skin-tight coverage and broke up a pass for Cook that resulted in a Janoris Jenkins INT. Marshall McFadden picked off a pass in 7-on-7. Jo-Lonn Dunbar, though, got beat for the Pead red zone TD. Daren Bates continued to look good as an edge run defender. Bryce Hager blew up a run in the rookie session and continues to look good with that group. You’re going to have to fight him and me to keep him off this team somewhere.
* Secondary: Tonight’s practice has me gaining confidence in this group, even with E.J. Gaines out due to a foot injury. Maurice Alexander was also out. Janoris Jenkins, though, seems to be at the top of his game. He had an interception off a deflection, a nice pass breakup in 7-on-7, solid coverage all night and Foles basically wouldn’t throw at him. Trumaine Johnson also had a nice 7-on-7 breakup. The smaller receivers made catches in front of him in soft coverage, which is pretty much what you’re going to get from TruJo. Lamarcus Joyner looked very sticky in coverage; I believe he had coverage on the deep corner to Bailey that just missed. Cody Davis did a nice job bringing deep help on that play. Speaking of bringing it, Mark Barron delivered the biggest pop of the night on a run play. Jacob Hagen looked good in run support with the rookies, but Montell Garner completely muffed a very catchable interception opportunity.
* Special teams: The special teams highlights were a Brandon Washington “kickoff return TD” and the return of Legatron. Greg Zuerlein hit everything once again, which included squeaking a 64-yard FG over the crossbar. Also, Johnny Hekker throwing 40-yard passes in warmups. He was the Rams’ most clutch QB last season, after all.
* Strategery: A lot of work on the passing game tonight, probably tilted three-to-one. There weren’t many plays run for Tavon, but there were several Tavon plays run. There’s a too-cute-by-half fake flanker end-around that turns into a pass to the flanker in the flat. I guess the idea is the defense takes their eyes off him when they recognize the fake. There was a quick hitch thrown against the grain that gave Givens room to take off for 20. Foles exploited soft coverage by TruJo and hit Tavon with a quick slant for a nice gain. He had Tavon iso’ed on Ayers another time but Ayers made a fine play. The play-action to Bailey out of the slot that opened 11-on-11 is a play Tavon easily could take to the house. Foles was definitely looking for Tavon, and the Rams definitely have plays drawn up to take advantage of Tavon, though he wasn’t always the one running them tonight. The best bit of trickery was Barrett Jones running a route in the end zone out of the goal line jumbo package, but Davis hesitated to pull the trigger on that and hit Bailey for the TD instead.
* Cheers: This looked pretty easily like the lowest-attended of the Lindenwood scrimmages, thanks in part to the inconvenient Friday-at-5:00 starting time. Lucky for me my boss is a big Rams fan and let me knock off a little early. The shady press-box side of the stadium was packed, but the other three sections were pretty sparsely populated. I’d guess 4,000-4,500. I’m pretty sure it’s been over 7,000 in the past when it was held later and on a Saturday. Unlike past times here, I had little trouble getting a good parking spot or getting out afterward. I saw no “Keep the Rams” signs, which I understand were banned from Rams Park while NFL Network was there this week. I couldn’t say whether they were banned tonight. Not banned tonight: DRONES. There was a quadcopter hovering over the field, though I don’t know who was operating it. Either the Rams or Bill Belichick.
* What’s next?: That’ll do it for RamView’s training camp coverage. Heck, that about does it for training camp in St. Louis; the last one fans here can attend is Tuesday, then the Rams go to play Oakland Friday, and then on to, well, you know. The Rams shellacked the Raiders 52-0 last regular season, and the Silver and Black has not likely forgotten that, which could make for some interesting moments. (OMG, I just remembered they have Ray-Ray Armstrong. Get your penalty flags ready.) The main thing to watch for the Rams is how well the offensive line is coming together and that there aren’t any major injuries. With starters likely to go a quarter at the most, I doubt anything else out of this game will be important. Let’s get the 2015 season off to an effective, healthy start.
— Mike
.
Agamemnon
