RamView, 9/3/2015: Chiefs 24, Rams 17 (Long)

RamView, September 3, 2015
Preseason Game #4: Chiefs 24, Rams 17

St. Louis bids the Governor’s Cup adieu as the Rams finish their first winless preseason since 2002. The starting offense did manage to put a second TD on the board for the summer, but the defense went the entire preseason without a sack. So, yeah, Rams Nation really hopes that preseason really doesn’t matter.

Position by position:
* QB: Jeff Fisher foolishly had Nick Foles (2-3-49, 70.1 PR) play the opening two series, and the results were barely worth his time. He led the Rams to a TD on their 2nd drive, largely on the strength of Tavon Austin gaining 43 on a screen pass. Opposite result the opening drive, though, with a perfectly good pass clanging off Jared Cook’s hands for an INT. Still, with the TD drive, Foles hits the regular season with a little momentum. Case Keenum’s (1-2, 1 yard) action was limited even more than Foles’, and when Austin Davis entered the game in the 2nd quarter, it looked like he was finally going to get to show what he could do. Instead, the Rams had him hand off EIGHT STRAIGHT TIMES and brought in Sean Mannion (11-24-107, 58.9 PR) for the rest of the game. What was the point of keeping Davis around for this game? Fisher announced Keenum as QB2 during the week, and Davis gets one drive and doesn’t even get to throw a pass? Just when you thought Davis couldn’t get a less fair chance of making the team, the Rams topped themselves, and then topped that. Who did Davis tick off to get the complete brush-off this summer? Did his dog crap on Kroenke’s lawn? After Davis got no throws in eight plays, Mannion immediately got three in three plays. This was a pretty ragged outing for him. He was inaccurate on sideline throws like he was at the Senior Bowl and probably should have had a couple picked off. Both deep balls he threw came up woefully short. He missed a wide-open TD opportunity to Alex Bayer in the 4th and tried to dump off to Trey Watts instead. His passes have nice zip, he avoided pressure well for a rookie and he was the victim of several dropped passes, but this game was definitely a learning experience for young Mannion.
Cutdown to 54: Austin Davis. Sigh. Remember when Jon Gruden called him “young Drew Brees?”

* RB: One of the most difficult roster decisions to make by Saturday afternoon will be whether to go with Isaiah Pead (12-52, TD) or Malcolm Brown (5-14) at running back. I would pick Brown because he’s made plays on special teams, and this is Pead’s walk year anyway, but Pead made a strong case for the job tonight. He showed nice cutback ability, ability to bounce plays outside and some determination breaking tackles. He also showed good discipline following his blocks and hitting the hole. Pead also threw a key block on Tavon Austin’s 43-yard reception. That’s a pretty good all-around game, and then Brown (5-14) didn’t get in until the 4th and still had to split time with Trey Watts (5-11), who was a pretty hot mess, dropping two passes and falling down to make a 4th-and-10 attempt incomplete. The division of labor seems to point toward Pead having the job.
Cutdown to 54: Malcolm Brown (PS), Zach Laskey.

* Receivers: The Ram receiving corps is NOT hitting the regular season with a head of steam. Kenny Britt and Jared Cook have half-assed all four preseason games and the Rams might have been better off with neither on the field tonight. On the opening drive, Cook topped off a preseason to forget by letting a ball clang right off his hands to Daniel Sorenson for an INT. Cook absolutely alligator-armed that catch, in traffic and with a LB right there to unload on him. Later in the 1st, Britt whiffed his block badly on an Austin bubble screen that lost 5, and the next drive, pulled up short on a drag route that Keenum threw into a place where Britt would have gotten some contact. That wasn’t alligator arms, it was alligator body. Not to be completely clueless – this is the most meaningless game of a meaningless (WE HOPE) preseason, and vets like Cook and Britt have to think about self-preservation. That mission was accomplished, but it leads to pretty disgusting football, and to crossing our fingers that two of the Rams’ key veterans “find the switch” for the regular season. Cook and Britt sure didn’t go full-speed in preseason. That having been said, Cook actually blocked well the whole TD drive in the 1st, and a play after failing to block, Britt got his man blocked to help spring Austin (2-49) for 43 on another bubble screen, helping set up that TD. Austin came to play, opening with a really sharp out route and dancing away from two LBs and sweeping back across the field to turn a 2-yard screen into a major gain. I think a big problem with the bubble screens that fail, though, is that Austin is tipping them off. On the 5-yard loss on the first bubble screen attempt, Tyvon Branch knew it was coming before the snap. Much respect to Chris Givens (2-27) and Stedman Bailey (0-0) for sticking their noses in traffic and taking big shots trying to make plays. Givens made a sweet play to hang on to one of those in the 3rd. Unfortunately, the game ended with drops by Alex Bayer (1-3), Bradley Marquez (3-30), Givens and Brown, a nauseating sequence that had Torry Holt yelling at people to go sit down from the TV booth. Marquez may have bobbled his way all the way off the practice squad. I don’t believe Brian Quick was targeted, but he did contribute an illegal formation penalty by lining up wrong, something he’s done before. This group has a lot of focusing to get done in ten days.
Cutdown to 54: Alex Bayer (PS), Emory Blake, Bradley Marquez (PS), Dan Rodriguez.

* Offensive line: Tim Barnes started at center, Demetrius Rhaney at LG, keeping the o-line position races as confusing as ever. Barrett Jones got in pretty quickly, though, and though he screwed up one play with a bad snap, I think the job is his. He looked good getting out in front on a couple of screens and even had a nice wedge block on a kickoff return. Barnes vs. Rhaney is a difficult call. Barnes looks more physical in the middle but I’m not sure he offers a lot more. Rhaney’s lack of anchor continues to be a problem. On 3rd-and-1 and 4th-and-1 of Davis’ only drive, Rhaney got knocked back off the snap twice to give Pead nowhere to run. Rhaney’s shown more versatility and upside but also has practice squad eligibility. Discuss. I thought a big story was Corey Harkey’s and Justice Cunningham’s stellar run-blocking. Pead scored his TD off a trainwreck of an interior block by Harkey, who sprung good gains all night. I’d consider it an injustice if Justice doesn’t make the roster as TE4. Greg Robinson looked good, with a pancake block and also a strip of Sorenson on the INT return where Robinson even fell on the ball, but not in a way he ever could have recovered it. Garrett Reynolds blocked well on most of Davis’ drive and looks like he’ll be good enough as the swing tackle. Brandon Washington had a pancake block early but whiffed a couple of blocks in the 4th that ought to have sealed his deal. Cody Wichmann did some nice run-blocking but also got called for a hold. He’s looked good in limited action.
Cutdown to 54: If you can figure out the o-line situation, you’re doing better than me. I’m predicting the Rams cut Tim Barnes and Brandon Washington and PS Cody Wichmann and Darrell Williams. But they could easily PS Rhaney and keep Barnes. They could keep Wichmann and PS or IR Andrew Donnal (though the IR idea seems doubtful). If they thought enough of Isaiah Battle to use a supplemental pick on him, they should think it too risky to try to move him to the PS. Maybe they’ll keep 11 o-linemen and make a surprise cut on defense. Who knows?

* Defensive line: The Rams used veterans very sparingly, and it wasn’t a big surprise they didn’t score a sack in this game, but no sacks by anyone for four games is at the minimum a head-scratcher, and also a big reason I’d advocate for keeping just 8 d-linemen. If the subs were so great, where were the sacks head-up against other subs? I enjoy watching Aaron Donald Mini-Me, Louis Trinca-Pasat, but with him and Ethan Westbrooks manning the middle, the Rams were extremely light at DT and got run over all night. LTP got moved with ease out of a lot of run plays. Westbrooks got shoved two yards into the end zone on Ware’s TD run. Westbrooks is safe; he used his quickness to stuff several runs and should also contribute at DE. The Rams could use some contributions there; Chase Daniel had nothing but solid pockets the whole first half. Eugene Sims did contribute his weekly stupid personal foul. He made a nice play to bat a ball right back at Daniel, then jacked him, thinking he’d caught it, but a) he didn’t and b) the whistle had blown. You HAVE to pay attention to that, Sims. Before halftime, LTP did get a QB hit that SHOULD have resulted in an INT, and blew up a run the next play. Matt Longacre looked like Chris Long Extra Lite in the 2nd half, with several pressures, QB hits and runs tracked down from behind. But again, no sacks. In the defense’s, um, defense, there was almost no blitzing, and Daniel and Aaron Murray consistently got the ball out quickly. Longacre and LTP proved capable of making plays. But they also have significant limitations, and I just didn’t see enough plays made to justify rostering them.
Cutdown to 54: Martin Ifedi (PS), Matt Longacre (PS), Louis Trinca-Pasat (PS).

* Linebackers: Playing starters at LB didn’t bail the offense out of their opening turnover. Somebody named Spencer Ware immediately charged for 7 down to the 1 with, surprise, James Laurinaitis failing to fill his gap. Ware opened the next drive with a 6-yard gain. Surprise, Chris Long got tied up easily; surprise, Jo-Lonn Dunbar was blocked out of the gap. Alec Ogletree, though, blitzed and dropped Ware for a big loss to stall that drive out. Cameron Lynch’s excellent recognition on a questionable read-option run attempt by Daniel near the goal line helped hold KC to a FG before halftime. Lynch shows plenty of quickness to make plays in the backfield, and he made plays on special teams, but again, I have to doubt someone because of their size. He gets flattened or knocked out of as many plays as he makes and misses too many tackles. Bryce Hager has an excellent knack for being in the right place at the right time. He was right there when Montell Garner popped the ball out of Darrin Reaves’ hand in the 2nd for the recovery on the fly, and he or Roberson should have picked off a wayward Daniel throw two plays earlier. Hager also lit up Reaves at the goal line on his TD run, but too late, after Reaves had already broken several shoddy tackles, including Marshall McFadden’s high and poor whiff. Hager also did a fine job limiting the gains of short passes, and though he missed a lot of tackles this preseason, he only missed one I saw in this game. He’s earned and gotten too much playing time to think he won’t make the roster.
Cutdown to 54: Jo-Lonn Dunbar, Cameron Lynch (PS), Marshall McFadden. Gotta pick a surprise, right? My big question with Dunbar is how much he’ll contribute on special teams. Without that, he’s just not on the field enough to justify going short at other positions or risking losing prospects on waivers. Could be a big miss, but at least I’m swinging hard.

* Secondary: Cody Davis had the secondary’s highlight of the night with a pick-six in the 2nd to give the Rams a fleeting lead. With Daniel staring down a comeback route, Davis read it perfectly, jumped the route, made a nice leaping catch and walked in. Lamarcus Joyner made a couple of good coverage plays but also got run over on Ware’s opening carry and got beat by Chris Conley for KC’s 2nd TD. Marcus Roberson made a nice pass breakup in the 2nd but also blew a couple of tackles and completely blew a gift INT in the 2nd. Montell Garner forced a Darrin Reaves fumble for a turnover in the 2nd, but Reaves got revenge on a TD run later, as Garner pathetically blew a no-wrap shoulder tackle and Christian Bryant’s woeful dragdown attempt failed. Garner’s still made enough plays to pencil in at fifth corner and looks as good as Joyner at times shutting down short routes. Maurice Alexander brought the lumber in the 2nd half, detonating a RB head over heels to break up a swing pass and blowing up TE Ryan Taylor a little later to break up a 2nd-down pass. Alexander and Bryant both made big hits before halftime to kill KC’s last possession. More, usually meaning any, pass rush would have helped the DBs out a lot, as the Chief QBs settled for a lot of checkdowns with the Rams taking all the deeper stuff away.
Cutdown to 54: Christian Bryant (PS), Jacob Hagen, Brandon McGee, Trovon Reed.

* Special teams: Well, at least the kickers are peaking at the right time. Greg Zuerlein blasted a 57-yard FG before halftime that looked like it would have been good from 70. Johnny Hekker drilled a couple of beautiful 50-yard sideline punts. The downside was Sergeant Daniel Rodriguez getting clocked helmet-to-helmet on a 1st–half kick return that concussed him out of the game. I doubt we’ll see any more of Sgt. Dan in a Rams uniform, but thank you for your service in a much more important uniform.

* Strategery: Eight straight handoffs by Davis is still sticking in my craw, especially when 3rd-and-short or 4th-and-short would have been perfect opportunities for a play-action pass to Harkey or Justice. That wasn’t a vanilla gameplan; it was pabulum. I think they’ve done a good job trying to get Mannion ready, though it came at Davis’ expense. I can’t parse risking Foles by putting him out there but keeping Benny Cunningham in bubble wrap in case they need him to start opening day. Benny hasn’t even played that well this summer; he probably could have used the reps. I’m not sure Gregg Williams even blitzed at all, making this a barely-scrimmage-quality event a lot of folks got to pay 70 bucks to witness in person. Not even any fights to spice things up! Nine penalties, though. (In Fisher’s defense, only one in the 1st.) Viva preseason.

* Upon further review: Bill Vinovich’s crew’s interpretation of defensive holding was laughable; the Rams secondary yanked Chief receivers around by the jersey almost every play without ever drawing a call. And there was the weird sequence where Vinovich left the field, apparently to test the crew’s ability to run a game if he got hurt. This mainly confused the audience, since for a while penalties were not announced. But, most penalties called looked good, the call on Reaves’ TD dive was good, and Vinovich correctly overrode a bad call against Bryant for hitting a defenseless receiver when he’d made a legal hit. And, yes, I am grading referees more leniently this season. Grade: B-minus

* Cheers: Looked like about the same crowd as for last week’s game, no more than 15-20,000, and this week the only time I heard the crowd on TV was the obnoxious Chief war chant in the final minutes. Wasn’t the crispest TV broadcast, either; Andrew Siciliano and Torry Holt mis-identified a number of Rams players, and Torry took to downright stammering at times. On Austin’s long reception, it sounded like Porky Pig or Max Headroom was in the booth doing color. Marshall Faulk called the Chiefs QB “Chase Daniels” all night, even during shots that clearly showed the back of Daniel’s (not Daniels’) jersey. I think the TV team is as glad preseason is over as the rest of us are.

* Who’s next?: Ready or not, here comes the regular season, opening Sept. 13 in St. Louis against the NFC champ Seahawks. The half of this rivalry played in Seattle has been little to write home about for a decade, but St. Louis has hosted some humdingers, including last year’s epic 28-26 Rams win that featured Stedman Bailey’s trick punt return of the century and Johnny Hekker s(t)ealing the game by completing a pass off a fake punt from his own goal line. The Rams have not been fast starters on Jeff Fisher’s watch: 1-2 in opening weeks, 4-7 in September, but they’re also 2-1 in home openers and 2-1 at home against the Seahawks.

Defending the Seahawk offense demands discipline from front to back. That was not in evidence in St. Louis last year when the Rams, largely Alec Ogletree, let Russell Wilson run wild for over 100 yards, to go with 300 yards passing. It’s no secret to anybody that the Rams have to keep Wilson in the pocket, and they’ve done it well in the past. Sack City can control the LOS, provided they can “find the switch” after a sackless August. Like the Rams, Seattle has renovated its offensive line, with only Russell Okung and J.R. Sweezy returning to the spots they held last year, and Okung, as usual, is hurt, though expected to play week 1. Seattle seems to have settled on Drew Nowak as their starting center, and seeing all the pressure San Diego got right up the gut in the third preseason game, they’re not as well off as even the Rams are there. By all rights, Aaron Donald should spend all day in the Seahawk backfield. Robert Quinn has had success against Okung and Chris Long should not run into the kind of blocking TE that (too) often dominates him. And San Diego showed little trouble getting after Wilson with a safety spying him right at the line. Look for Mark Barron, Akeem Ayers and Ogletree in that role. All the pieces are there for a very strong opening day pass rush. Of course, the heart of the Seattle offense is still the Marshawn Lynch-led running game. I expect a lot of running behind Okung and LG Justin Britt. That will be running through the Ram secondary if the LBs don’t get their act together. LBs failing to get to their gap assignments was a problem throughout preseason, and if that continues, Lynch could turn the game into a comedy reel of Ram DBs blowing shoulder tackles. Donald and Quinn will no doubt make some stops at the line, but they sure can’t make them all. The LBs need to be where they’re supposed to be, when they’re supposed to be. I will add that Beast Mode hasn’t really played in St. Louis lately; he had just 53 and 23 rushing yards his last two visits. (Ram DBs were a big part of slowing him down last year.) Wilson’s Staubach-like ability to keep plays alive with his feet and hit crazy throws demands the Ram DBs cover to the whistle, which hasn’t always happened in the past, allowing otherwise unthreatening WRs like Doug Baldwin to go crazy. Seattle added a couple of twists in the offseason. The big one is TE Jimmy Graham, whose matchup with T.J. McDonald may be the matchup of the game. McDonald has been stellar in previous matchups against Graham; the big question will be how much Graham can take McDonald out of the running game. Another Seahawk to watch is rookie Tyler Lockett. He already has two return TDs in preseason and has the potential to be a Percy Harvin-type threat for them. And we all know how well the Rams handled those Percy Harvin-type plays LAST opening day. But again, that’s all about defensive discipline. If the Rams show it, they’ll be in the game. If not, it’ll be a long day.

If we had drawn up the 2015 schedule for the Rams and their new-look offensive line, we probably wouldn’t have handed them a Seattle defense already considered among the NFL’s best ever the first week. They’re built on speed, exactly what the Rams’ tackles have struggled with throughout preseason. New DC Kris Richard isn’t afraid to blitz, either, and was sure more effective with it in preseason than the Rams were. Funny thing, though: the Rams didn’t give up a sack in last year’s game here. The offense accomplished that mainly by throwing quickly. That’s a big part of the league’s “blueprint” to getting anywhere against the Seahawks, and also happens to be Nick Foles’ bread and butter. Fair to ask, though, who Foles is going to throw to. I think they have to scheme to keep Kenny Britt the heck away from Richard Sherman, because I don’t see Brian Quick carrying the passing game just yet. And Jared Cook has yet to show up against Seattle. This is as good a time as ever to catch the Seahawk secondary, though. Byron Maxwell’s in Philadelphia. Jeremy Lane’s on PUP, still coming back from that awful arm injury he got in the Super Bowl. Kam Chancellor’s holding out. Chancellor’s absence also helps the Ram running game. They ran well against Seattle here last year, but Bobby Wagner was out of that game, and if the speedy Seattle D is a bottle of diet Coke, Wagner is a Mentos, which we saw last December when the Rams got nowhere on the ground in Seattle. Wagner’s the best LB in the league and as big a reason as any that the Seahawk defense is so effective. His and his teammates’ speed will make running outside difficult, especially with Tre Mason less than 100%. The Rams will have to be able to sustain a power running game. Keys to that will be Jamon Brown and Barrett Jones winning battles inside with Brandon Mebane and the Ram TEs getting a hat on Wagner. Power run, throw quick, make the Seattle secondary tackle. Like the Rams, it’s not pretty, but it can be effective.

From the minute the 2014 season ended, there’s been one demand on Jeff Fisher for 2015: Start faster. The past years’ excuses are gone. You’re not new here. You’ve got “your guys”. The starting QB is healthy. The defense has had time to adjust to the new DC and plays have been simplified on both sides of the ball. There’s nothing left except to say 1-3 or 1-4 will not cut it this year. Your hand-picked GM famously has a motto of “Wake up sprinting”. Well, how about it?

— Mike
Game stats from espn.com