RamView, 8/8/2014: Saints 26, Rams 24 (Long)

RamView, August 8, 2014
From Row HH
(Report and opinions from the game.)
Preseason Game #1: Saints 26, Rams 24

Preseason at its bipolar best: the Rams should have won if not for poor penalties late in the game by players who won’t be here in September, deserved to lose for their poor tackling, couldn’t have won in real life because they had to sit almost half their starters.. but it was the best preseason opener they’ve played under Jeff Fisher. Progress? Bad omen? August.

Position by position:
* QB: While the Rams kept Sam Bradford in mothballs, starter Shaun Hill (5-7-84, 2 TD) ran the offense pretty well, leading two TD drives in just under a half of play. Bradford’s not the only Ram QB who looks for Jared Cook when he’s in trouble. Hill and Cook connected for 24 to get the Rams out of an early hole, and Hill, like a veteran QB should, quickly recognized an opportunity and ended the opening drive with a swing pass to Cory Harkey (!) for a 16-yard TD. Hill led the Rams to a quick 2nd TD in the 2nd, a sweet back-shoulder TD pass to Stedman Bailey (!). The night didn’t go nearly as well for the Rams’ other backup QBs. Garrett Gilbert (6-11-53) played like the stage was much too big for him. He brutally missed several open throws on simple routes. He forced at least a couple of throws that should have been picked off. A well-disguised blitz buried him in the 3rd. He’ll have to learn how to diagnose those before the snap, and then do better after the snap than running back 14 yards and eating the ball. Protection was a big part of the problem for Gilbert. He put together a decent 2:00 drive for a FG at the end of the first half, but with the threes in after halftime, the offense sputtered to a halt. Austin Davis (10-16-134, 1 TD) popped on several plays. An underthrown 32-yard pass for Chris Givens drew a DPI that set up a 15-yard TD fastball to Austin Franklin to bring the Rams within two. He hit Emory Blake with a nice back-shoulder pass for 29 to set up a (missed) FG attempt. And thanks to a LB fooled into thinking dumpoff when the Rams had completed one pass to the RBs all night (so much for my brilliant “the Rams are going to throw to the RBs more” theory), he fired to Alex Bayer (!) down the seam for 42 to get the Rams in game-winning FG range. Davis hasn’t looked any better as a Ram. When time came to actually win the game, though, Davis got in the way. After a Saints timeout, I can only imagine Davis got surprised by the game clock quickly restarting and took a bad delay-of-game penalty. He still got the Rams in FG range with 11 seconds left, and all he has to do is properly execute a spike to kill the clock and win the game. Sigh. He botches the snap, and without proper possession of the ball, turns the clock-killing play into a game-killing grounding penalty. Not the veteran-quality kind of play I think he needs to have any chance of getting ahead of Gilbert on the depth chart.

* RB: Several of the Rams’ best runs were 3rd-and-a-mile draw plays, but there was still enough to like. Zac Stacy (4-22) bumped past and ran through tackles like he was in regular-season form. Benny Cunningham (5-24) set up Bailey’s TD in the 2nd by getting out of trouble on 3rd-and-1 with an impressive spin move and darting downfield for 19. Running room got less and less as the game went on, which did not work to Tre Mason’s (15-51) benefit, but he shows so much lateral quickness that you know he’s going to be tough to stop when he does get some blocking. You saw that quickness at work when he cut a run back up the middle for 20 in the 4th, but another nice run the next play was wiped out by a hold. Any ability to block future Hall-of-Famer Tyrunn Walker at all would have helped when Mason couldn’t convert on 3rd-and-1 or 4th-and-1 in the 3rd. Mason’s big rookie issue has been blitz pickup. He has improved to the point he’s not clueless what to do. On the goalline sack of Gilbert, Mason did a good job picking up the middle blitzer. The Saints just brought more people than the Rams could block. The question shifts now to whether Mason is actually strong enough to hold up against a blitz. He really got knocked backwards picking one up in the 2nd half. Stayed enough in the way to let the QB throw, though. If the Rams can couple the RB talent they have now with better, healthier blockers, they’ll be able to do what Jeff Fisher wants to do on offense.

* WR: I don’t know if Kenny Britt has already influenced the WRs this much, or, heaven forbid, Ray Sherman actually coached them up on something, but I don’t recall them winning contested balls as well as they did in this game. Several times, they got late separation with what I’ve been calling a “ward-off” move to make a big catch against tight coverage. It’s a push, but not big enough to be called a push-off. Britt’s been doing it all camp; here, you had Stedman Bailey (1-24) doing it to get open for a nice TD catch on a back-shoulder throw and Emory Blake (3-41) doing it late in the game for a big 29-yard gain on another back-shoulder throw. Britt himself and Brian Quick barely even made cameos. Yeah, not like Quick needs the reps or anything. Hill threw his way once, deep down the sideline, and he was blanketed. Training Camp Quick better show up to at least one of these preseason games. Best route of the night was the post route UDFA Austin Franklin (1-15) ran for his TD. He also got a shot at returning kicks and showed some initial quickness, so don’t rule him out for WR6 yet. That race also involves Austin Pettis (1-21), who made a neat over-the-shoulder basket catch for a 1st down, and Chris Givens, who was 0-0, but returned kicks and drew a long DPI to set up Franklin’s TD. Givens also didn’t play a quick screen very well in the 3rd. It was defended well, but he should have gone to it and tried to cut back inside with it instead of waiting for it and letting the play get broken up. If the next level continues to elude Givens this preseason, chances are it’ll do so for good.

* Tight ends: I’ll try breaking TEs out separately this year, but I’m not sure how long it will last. (Hey, I never had to even think of such a thing during the Mike Martz years.) The receiving star of the game was UDFA Alex Bayer (5-71). He was a favorite checkdown option for Garrett and Davis and struck late in the game with a big 42-yard catch-and-run that should have set up a game-winning FG. The LB who should have covered Bayer switched off to Mason coming out of the backfield instead, leaving Bayer wide open behind the defense. Combined with Justice Cunningham’s (1-5) bad night, I have to call Bayer TE4 right now. Justice tweaked his ankle, limped around the rest of the game and dropped a pass where it looked clear he was thinking about his ankle more than the ball. He also looked woeful getting whipped by Ronald Powell, who would have gotten more resistance from a practice dummy, for the Saints’ 4th sack. Cory Harkey (1-16) opened the scoring with the simple old leak-out-of-the-backfield play that’s always burned the Rams. Nice to be on the other side of that for a change. Curtis Lofton kept his eyes on Stacy in the middle and didn’t get out on Harkey until it was way too late. Jared Cook (1-24) not only had the big play (nice catch, too) to keep the chains moving on the Rams’ first scoring drive, he also delivered the most solid blitz pickup of the night early. I’m hopeful that Cook’s (new-found) interest in blocking so far this summer is a sign that he’s getting the focus he needs to become the sleeping giant we all thought we had last season.

* Offensive line: Mainly general impressions here because I botched recording the game and wanted to get this out before Tuesday. With Long, Wells, Saffold and Barrett Jones all still out, it was still the makeshift camp line of Mike Person at LT, Greg Robinson LG, Tim Barnes C, Davin Joseph RG and Joseph Barksdale RT. Robinson played well, based on the looks I got of him. He blew his assignment to let Brodrick Bunkley walk in and sack Hill in the 1st, but I didn’t see him get beaten physically. In pass pro, he met challenges well at guard and didn’t let anyone by. Had a pancake block on one play but the Rams weren’t running behind him then. D’Marco Farr kept saying on radio that Robinson is still finding his way at guard, but he still looks like he’ll be more than fine there to me. Robinson and Person flipped positions later, and Robinson didn’t look bad at LT, either. If the Rams carry a 4th tackle, Person should be miles ahead of anyone else on the roster for the job. Farr called Sean Hooey out repeatedly for poor protection, and there were times where he just didn’t look physically capable of staying with an NFL pass rusher. R.J. Dill (INCOMING! OBVIOUS JOKE ALERT! INCOMING!) put himself in a real pickle for a roster spot with three dumb 4th-quarter penalties that shot down the Rams’ comeback efforts as much as anything else. He held on the first play of one drive and, showing all the brilliance of Richie Incognito, took a gain away a couple of plays later with a piling-on penalty. A clumsy false start at the beginning of the final 2:00 drive didn’t help his cause any, either. At guard, Travis Bond’s cause was not helped when somebody called Tyrunn Walker whipped past him for a near-goalline sack of Gilbert. Can’t be thrilled with the scrubs for turning Walker into a Pro Bowler for a night, with 6 tackles, a sack and three run stuffs. There wasn’t much running room all night, especially for Mason behind the scrubs. The travails of the scrubs make it all the more important the Rams start getting back the guys I mentioned at the start of this section.

* Defensive line: The d-line played mostly with one hand tied behind its back. Aaron Donald and Alex Carrington started instead of the regular DTs, and Robert Quinn was used very sparingly as a 3rd-down pass-rush specialist. Donald “stayed blocked” against the Saints a lot more than he ever did in camp, but also had a fair share of flashy plays, including a running play where he flashed into the backfield and flushed Travaris Cadet over to Eugene Sims for a huge loss. That was unfortunately an outlier play where run defense was concerned. The back seven was the bigger culprit, but it all starts up front, and the Ram DEs were not very sturdy against the run. Of the non-starters, the best was probably Michael Sam, and that’s not his forte. Sims overran so many plays – I guess he just wanted to pass-rush – he’d have done just as well to stay home, figuratively or literally. First play of the game, he overpursues, gets turned by the tackle, and Mark Ingram (8-84) runs by for a big gain. The Saints ran at, er, by, Sims a lot. Sammy Brown also had a tackle for loss but I can’t even consider him competition for a DE spot when he gets engulfed every time I watch him on run defense. For his part, Sam pressured Ryan Griffin into a couple of throwaways and shot a gap to stuff Khiry Robinson for no gain. I think it’s fair to say Sam has a very good motor, and he continues to fight through traffic well. But Chris Long said it himself (though I didn’t see him as part of the problem) in an in-game interview: the Rams have to do a better job of setting the edge. Long made the defensive play of the game on the opening series, anticipating a quick screen and leaping up and pulling Griffin’s pass down for an INT. The Rams did not record a sack, – New Orleans’ offensive pace doesn’t help there – but appeared to play with good tempo. Stopping the run may not get the d-line in the league headlines, but they’re going to have to step up at it if they want the team to get into league headlines.

* Linebackers: Not that it should be a big surprise with James Laurinaitis (ankle) still out, but linebacking was a bit of a mess. Jo-Lonn Dunbar slid over to Mike and Ray Ray Armstrong took the weak side. Armstrong stayed there with the twos with Daren Bates at Mike and Phillip Steward strong side. One takeaway for me is that Armstrong is no threat yet to Dunbar for the starting Will role. Armstrong’s a fine athlete who can get anywhere on the field he needs to be in time, and I’m thrilled he actually managed to participate in a regulation NFL game without committing a penalty. But now, he needs to finish off the plays he gets there to make. Armstrong had more whiffs this game than Clayton Kershaw; that and not being able to get off some blocks helped Ingram to his big night. Armstrong also blew a sack in just-ugly fashion, but he wasn’t the only LB swinging and missing. Dunbar whiffed on one of Ingram’s carries (all of which were big plays) and got blocked and filled poorly on another. Steward whiffed on Ingram’s first 22-yard run. (Yes, sadly, there was more than one.) Too much arm-tackling. Too many desperation dives at RBs’ ankles. There were also some big coverage breakdowns, with Saints superstar TE… Jeremy Hill? burning them twice for 71 yards and setting up 10 points. Bates missed his assignment on one of those by blitzing instead of dropping back into coverage. Laurinaitis’ injury has really scrambled things up; missed assignments are going to happen. But your linebackers absolutely cannot be bad tacklers, certainly not like the Rams were in this game. On the high side, local boy Aaron Hill made good with a nice pass defense to help 3-and-out the Saints trying to run out the clock, and Johnny Millard, who’s been injured all camp, caught a deflected pass for an INT late in the game to give the Rams a chance to win. Getting Armstrong straightened out will be a key if Laurinaitis is going to miss any regular season action. He tackled a lot better than this last preseason, so we’ll hope that Frank Bush can get him calmed down.

* Secondary: Talk about one hand tied behind your back; the Rams did not play either of their starting corners or Brandon McGee, making starters out of, yes, 6th-round pick E.J. Gaines and 2nd-year UDFA Darren Woodard. But, also using their starters lightly, and Drew Brees not at all, the Saints didn’t attack the green backfield as effectively as you might have feared. Gaines had a make-the-team game, making six tackles, showing willingness to hit and nearly forcing a Saint fumble at the goal line. He was all over the place. Lamarcus Joyner made a superb play to hold the 2nd Saint drive to a FG, closing like lightning from at least 10 yards away on an initially wide-open screen to Rugrats, er, Nick Toon, and stopping him short on a 3rd-and-5. Unfortunately, both Gaines and Joyner got completely embarrassed on Brandin Cooks’ 3rd-quarter 25-yard TD. Cooks cut back inside instantly after the catch, leaving Gaines flapping in the breeze and Joyner flailing to catch up to him. I’d feel better about that play if Cooks weren’t also a rookie and the Rams’ secondary didn’t practice against Tavon Austin every day. I’d also feel better not having to watch Cody Davis attempt to defend against the run a whole lot more. Davis played like little more than a Faster Craig Dahl, with terrible whiffs on both of Ingram’s 22-yard runs. Add a face mask penalty to that, too. Maurice Alexander was a lot better and looked really good stringing out several outside run attempts in the 2nd half. All the shoulder tackling by Jarrid Bryant and Marcus Roberson made it amazing the Rams didn’t miss more tackles than they did. I’m not sure Bryant even knows you’re supposed to use your arms when you tackle. Roberson, though, made a big run stop to help force a 3-and-out to start the 4th. But considering how deep they had to dip into the depth chart, the Rams didn’t fare too badly, and Joyner, Alexander and Gaines give a good feeling that the Rams will have a young and deep secondary for a good while.

* Special teams: OK, who picked Chase Reynolds for star of the game on special teams? Reynolds stopped the opening kickoff inside the 20 and took off with a fake punt (!) for 38 yards in the 3rd. The Rams also well to contain Cooks on punt returns, with Bailey and Joyner combining to stuff him for a loss in the 1st. Several different players auditioned as returners; Chris Givens looked the best on kickoffs (ha! may be the only way he makes the team), while Greg Reid showed interesting elusiveness on kicks and punts. The kicking game itself was a letdown. Johnny Hekker had a boom (52) or bust (36, downed at midfield, helped give the Saints a FG) game. We need Pro Bowl Hekker by September, not Rookie Year Hekker. The game was still in Greg Zuerlein’s power to win, and no, I don’t mean the 59-yarder he just missed at the gun, I mean the 46-yarder he Vanderjagted into the woods earlier in the 4th. Snap and hold were good, that was just an inexcusable kick. What do these guys do all day at training camp, screw around? Oh.

* Strategery: I mocked myself earlier for my thought the Rams would throw to their RBs more this season, which was based on what I saw in training camp. Brian Schottenheimer did use backs very effectively as decoys, though, on Harkey’s TD and Davis’ big completion to Bayer. So that’s cool, even if it was about the trickiest thing he tried all night. Nice use of crossing routes on the Franklin TD, too. Helped freeze the DB. Gregg Williams brought plenty of blitzes, especially of the linebacker variety. Big surprise: Gregg Williams blitzes getting burned by completions to TEs. (Vernon Davis says hello) Another big surprise: a Jeff Fisher Rams team committing a TON of penalties. Try 14 for 118 yards. Even taking Davis and Dill out leaves 9 for 83. Even though the fake punt warmed the cockles of my heart – it’s just not preseason unless Fisher calls one of those – the Rams took exactly one week to get on an awful penalty trend and need to get it under control post-haste. It will undermine the whole season if Fisher doesn’t get that fixed.

* Upon further review: Carl Cheffers and crew seemed to be in much better than regular-season form, highly unusual for referees. Along with most of the fans, Marshall Faulk wanted a grounding call on Ryan Griffin in the 1st; I thought Cheffers got it right that Griffin was out of the tackle box, though it was much closer than I thought. They got a challenged spot (by Fisher) right and were spot on with personal foul calls and pass interference calls, though by Farr’s commentary, the Rams got away with more in pass defense than they should have given the league’s emphasis on defensive holding this year. There were the usual misses: a clear block in the back at the start of one of Greg Reid’s punt returns, and Ray Ray got held pretty good on one of Ingram’s long runs. The intentional grounding on Davis’ blown spike play was interesting; I don’t think I’ve ever seen that call. But by all accounts, Cheffers got it right. Surprising grade: B+

* Cheers: Crowd was about 30,000 and only got even a little loud late in the game to encourage some defensive stops. Other than the sound system works now for the first time in 20 years, I didn’t note much new about the Dome. I will object that we didn’t get the referee’s video feed on replay challenges. Even with a rookie (Joyner) nicknamed “Frisbee Dog,” the halftime show, as always, was pee wee football.

* Waiver bait: Dill left a bad taste, Hooey was phooey, and nobody named Davis showed they have staying power. But let’s talk Isaiah Pead for a second. With Reynolds getting some 4th-quarter carries and starring on special teams, is there any reason to think Pead’s going to beat Reynolds out to “make the club from the tub?” Right now, the only thing that keeps Pead employed in football in 2014 is if that hand injury lands him on the I.R. The Saints’ biggest waiver bait was WR Brandon Coleman, who led the nation in dropped passes last year at Rutgers and had two awful drops in this game, one of which clanged over to Millard for his INT. With such skillets for hands, Coleman really should consider culinary school.

* Who’s next?: A very weird Saturday afternoon game is next for the Rams, who’ll host the Packers for the second straight preseason, and this one may not go well. The Packers schemed for last year’s game like it was the regular season while the Rams served large scoops of vanilla, and the Packers won fairly easily, 19-7. My notes from that game say the Rams also did not tackle well early last preseason, and WOW, shouldn’t Jeff Fisher teams be better at tackling than they are right now? With another big Alabama RB, Eddie Lacy, in the backfield next week, we’re sure going to hope the Rams tackle better. On offense, I would hope to see at least a couple of series out of Bradford, and hope that they can get the big WRs going a little bit. It’s still going to be hard to get a line on this team, though, until they can suit up most of the players they plan to start on either line. At this rate, and to overstate the obvious, we’re on track for the most meaningless preseason in Rams history. Still 67 bucks a game, though.

— Mike
Game stats from nfl.com