RamView, 9/7/2014: Vikings 34, Rams 6 (Long)

RamView, September 7, 2014
From Row HH
(Report and opinions from the game.)
Game #1: Vikings 34, Rams 6

We waited nine months. We waited through 12 other teams’ playoff runs, through a division rival’s Super Bowl win. We waited through all-star games and the Combine. Through free agency and the draft. We waited through OTAs and training camp and preseason games for this week to come. Nine months we waited. And we got garbage. Absolute. Garbage. This sure wasn’t a fun season while it didn’t last.

Position by position:
* QB: The Rams don’t need Sam Bradford to be successful this season, or so we heard. Shaun Hill’s better than Kellen Clemens, more accurate, won’t make stupid throws. I actually pushed that last argument myself. Took one week for it to push back. Hill (8-13-81, PR 47.3) was all right most of the first half. He started 5-for-5 and hit Brian Quick (!) on a couple of intermediate routes, so his game wasn’t just a bunch of checkdowns. He had drives killed by penalties, receiver mistakes and deteriorating line play. The end of the opening drive looked like Hill’s fault for failing to detect a fairly easy-to-identify blitz. He ultimately failed in his assignment right before halftime with a game-changing mistake. Hill rolled out under pressure and tried to hit Jared Cook on the sideline, but Cook was double-covered, and the only wise throw in that direction would have been a throwaway. Maybe that’s what Hill was trying, but his throw was snagged by Josh Robinson for an INT and shortly turned into a 13-0 hammerlock on the game for the Vikings. Hill gave way at halftime due to a quad injury, so, yes, the Rams’ franchise QB couldn’t make it to the regular season, and his backup couldn’t even make it to halftime of the first game. In the 2nd half, the offensive line gave way on Austin Davis (16-23-192, PR 76.7), who must have had a hard time telling this game from a preseason game. Davis threaded an early pass over Cook’s shoulder for 26, but got sacked later, also failing to recognize a blitz, to make the Rams settle for a long FG. That was the tale of the game for Davis, who struggled to find open receivers and, lacking enough time to throw, was sacked four times and had other drives end on dumpoffs because that was all he could find. He led the Rams to a 2nd FG, but not before Minnesota hit him for a pick-six, with Harrison Smith stepping in front of a route Cook didn’t look real interested in running out to peg the Rams’ embarrassment meter at 11. Failing to identify blitzes pre-snap, only throwing one legitimate deep ball, forcing throws, poor decisions under pressure, Davis’ slowness reading the field – quarterbacking may not be the biggest of the Rams’ problems, but it’s a problem.

* RB: The Ram passing game doesn’t stretch the field vertically; the running game doesn’t stretch the field horizontally. Zac Stacy (11-43) had a couple of decent runs and showed more cutback ability than usual, but didn’t look like his usual tackle-breaking, pile-moving self, and, per usual, didn’t get much room to run up the middle anyway. He also dropped an open screen pass on what looked like a pivotal play early in the game. Benny Cunningham (5-21) was an effective change of pace when he first entered the game in the 2nd, getting 14 yards on 3 carries, but the Rams made sure to get away from that. Cunningham added 4 catches for 30 yards, mainly during trash time, when he was next heard from. Might as well talk about Tavon Austin (3-5 rush, 3-34 recv) here, since the Rams apparently think he is also a between-the-tackles running back now. I saw it in training camp, but didn’t truly appreciate the lunacy of having the tiny Austin run up the middle until I saw guys twice his size landing on him this week. And though Austin has some moves as an interior runner, the real lunacy is the Rams’ continued refusal to get the ball to him while he’s on the move. More on that later. The Rams are supposed to be a running team, but between their inability to block for it and their inability to call a coherent game plan for it, they ran nowhere this week.

* WR: First of all, hooray for Brian Quick (7-99), who had easily the best game of his pro career. Quick hit the Vikings for 22- and 19-yard crossing routes during the Rams’ first two drives. Simple routes against soft zone coverage, but Quick ran the routes well and played the ball like a go-to receiver. He made a couple of significant errors that we’ll hope are growing pains. He nullified one of his own big plays in the 2nd with what looked like an accidental grab of a facemask while putting out a stiffarm, and the Rams settled for a FG in the 1st when he ran a comeback route about a step short on 3rd down. Quick’s one of about three Rams who didn’t completely embarrass themselves this week; this was a good game for a not-finished product. I’ll guess I’m breaking news here that Kenny Britt (0-0) has already thrown 2 or 3 tantrums on the Ram sideline. I spotted him yelling at coaches a couple of times. There was also a third down where he was wide open deep, but Davis never had a chance of seeing him; send in the punt team while Britt rips his helmet off and fumes his way to the sideline. With everything else the Rams have going wrong, a Britt meltdown is close to the last thing they need, but I think I’ve gotta sound a yellow alert there. I don’t think Chris Givens (2-30) really did anything until garbage time. Quick was basically the only WR this week.

* Tight ends: Jared Cook’s (4-56) 2014 opener was much like a lot of his 2013 season. He was MIA until garbage time, where he could flash enough to look useful while still making a play that made him look useless. His over-the-shoulder catch for 26 from Davis, with a man draped all over him, was as nice a catch as you’re going to see. But Cook was no help to Davis in the 4th on Harrison Smith’s pick-six. Nothing wrong with Davis’ throw; Cook didn’t come strong out of his break (a known habit of his), allowing Smith to jump the throw. Davis put the ball where Cook should have been. Lance Kendricks (2-12) and Corey Harkey (1-4) weren’t significant factors other than a handful of decent run blocks.

* Offensive line: Offensive line was the Rams’ biggest worry throughout training camp. Even rank amateurs like me knew it. And this week they were all-but dominated by a Minnesota defensive line that no one really believed was all that good coming in. Rank amateurs pointed out last week that Scott Wells vs. Linval Joseph would be a decisive matchup. And Wells lost it decisively. Linval didn’t spend the game in the Rams’ backfield, but Wells could never budge him, either, leaving the Rams’ middle running lanes clogged. Wells was beaten by a quick swim move for a sack in the 4th, with Linval taking down Davis while Wells appeared to wander around lost. Wells also sprayed shotgun snaps around like Rick Ankiel throwing batting practice. How many years has this guy been in the league again? The Rams benched the #2 pick in the draft so they could start the esteemed Davin Joseph at RG. We can’t have Greg Robinson out there, you know, because he might get consistently beat in pass protection, get Hill hit and presumably injured on a sack/fumble before halftime or get manhandled so badly on a sweep to Austin in the 2nd that he practically made the tackle himself. And, news flash, Rodger Saffold got hurt! The guards were poor in pass protection and had a handful of good run blocks between them. They did each have a false start, though. Things went no better on the edges. Joseph Barksdale gave up at least a half-dozen pressures, including one that panicked Hill into his bad INT before halftime. The cherry on this Hall of Shame performance was Everson Griffen beating Jake Long for sacks on back-to-back plays in the 4th. Long may not have wrecked a QB’s season this week, but he and Barksdale got beat to their outside shoulder frequently, and the Rams’ pass protection looked more like a funnel designed to divert all the traffic to the QB. There’s a lot invested in this offensive line that just lost soundly at the line of scrimmage to the #31 defense from last year, minus Jared Allen, at that. They’ll be a lot better off when they’ve had enough snaps together to gel, we’re told. Of course, if they’re all rubbish like they were this week, what’s that supposed to gel into?

* Defensive line: The Ram defensive line has be dominant to win the team games, and though they contained Adrian Peterson (21-75) well enough, they were nowhere near dominant, thanks to quick passing and to flanker Cordarrelle Patterson (3-102) jet-sweeping them to death. They didn’t start well – Chris Long got pinned inside by the tight end to trigger a 13-yard Patterson run, and Robert Quinn kept the opening drive alive with a dubious roughing penalty, but the secondary shut the drive down late to force a FG. Long got pinned inside again when Peterson started the next drive with a 17-yard run, but Quinn got a hit on Matt Cassel later to force a bad throw and stall out the drive. Cassel, though, by getting the ball out quickly all game, turned Sack City into more of a sleepy bedroom community. His quick throws led Minnesota to a FG in the 2nd, helped by a 23-yard Patterson sweep that William Hayes started with a missed tackle. The only Rams sack was created by a wild shotgun snap just before halftime. Unfortunately, Hill followed that with an interception, and the Vikings made the Rams’ aggression work against them with quick short passes and play-action to move out to a 13-point halftime lead. Long continued to struggle to get off blocks in the running game in the 3rd until a teammate stepped on his ankle, ending his day. Then Patterson stuck a 67-yard TD dagger in them. Hayes and others were blocked at the point of attack to turn Patterson loose. Quinn chased him for 40 yards only to blow a tackle. Michael Brockers chased him for 60 yards only to blow a tackle. A for effort. F for results. With Minnesota sitting on a big lead in the 4th, Aaron Donald started flashing the speed that got him drafted, flashing into the backfield three different times to bust up handoffs to Peterson. A stupid special teams penalty gave the Vikings the ball back, though, and they again foiled Ram aggression with a dumpoff to the backup TE that sealed their 3rd TD and turned a game that was toast into burned toast. It’s not a good sign that it took the league exactly one week to figure out how to escape from Sack City. Get the ball out quickly, let Gregg Williams blitz the D out of plays, run right at Long and Hayes and the rookie corner. Sack City’s going to have to find a way to get the streets back open quickly.

* Linebackers: LB play was also a letdown. Peterson took off for 17 to start Minnesota’s 2nd drive thanks to Alec Ogletree’s poor fill and James Laurinaitis getting blocked well before he could get into the play. Patterson jetted off for 23 the next drive with the help of whiffs by Laurinaitis and Jo-Lonn Dunbar. 1st-and-20 in the 3rd, AP takes off for 15 as Laurinaitis again can’t get off a block and Ogletree can’t get enough of a drop back from his initial blitzing position on the line. On Patterson’s TD run, Ogletree was blocked easily by Kyle Rudolph and Dunbar failed attempting to grab him at midfield. Dunbar was in on several stuffs of Peterson, but other than that, the LB corps just wasn’t effective. Ogletree got a gift half-sack, split with Dunbar, for falling on Cassel after the QB fell on a loose ball, but he wasn’t effective as a blitzer. The secondary had more impact in run defense than the LBs did. That’s partly a scheme that maybe should have held Ogletree back a little more, but it’s also some bad tackling and inability to get off blocks. Discouraging.

* Secondary: The secondary had a couple of standouts in run defense and a sore thumb. T.J. McDonald was effective on run blitzes, stuffing AP for a big loss on the opening drive and stuffing a draw at the end of the drive to force a FG. Janoris Jenkins in run support was a rare pleasant surprise for the Rams. He made six tackles, one being a nice open-field stop on AP bouncing a run outside dangerously in the 3rd. Rookie E.J. Gaines was a big problem on all three of Patterson’s big runs, though, well-blocked out of all three plays when he was supposed to be the main corner providing support. Gaines was far from the only problem on Patterson runs, though, especially the TD, where McDonald got pancaked on the edge, Rodney McLeod blew a diving tackle and Jenkins got woefully turned inside out about 50 yards downfield. Gaines also bit on play-action to give up the 1st TD to Greg Jennings. A lot of passes completed in front of his coverage ten yards off the line, too, though he also nearly had a pick-six early. McDonald made an acrobatic play to break up a pass for Kyle Rudolph, and Jenkins blanketed Patterson on a rare Viking deep route in the 2nd. Take away the Patterson runs and the secondary, though not tested much, had a decent game.

* Special teams: Like most every other unit, not a lot to like on special teams. Austin looked like a basket case returning punts, muffing two and running around like a chicken with his head cut off for a big loss on another. Greg Zuerlein did all the Rams’ scoring with 56- and 46-yard FGs, but missed a 50-yarder by about a foot in the 1st (what’s wrong with kicking the ball down the middle, anyway?). Special teams also did not distinguish themselves on the penalty front, with Chase Reynolds roughing the punter to keep a Viking TD drive alive and Daren Bates getting a personal foul for taunting on a kickoff. One of the few bright spots on the team was the Pro Bowl-quality work of Johnny Hekker. Only one of his booming punts was even returnable; Hekker did more to take a weapon away from the Vikings than any of his teammates.

* Strategery: Hiring Brian Schottenheimer has to be right up there on the list of worst moves Jeff Fisher has made with the Rams. I’ve gone out of my way to praise Schotty for having the sense to stick with things that are working during a game. Twice in this game, when the Rams finally got Stacy or Cunningham rolling with three decent carries, Schotty then stopped running and the drives crashed and burned on failed passing plays. We were all assured Shaun Hill would throw deep well enough to keep defenses honest. Rams QBs threw one deep pass in the game. Remember last year when Schotty started the season thinking he was Josh McDaniels? Let’s have a real warm Rams Nation welcome back for Pat Shurmur!

And drafting Tavon Austin for Schottenheimer has turned out to have made about as much sense as hiring a hooker for the Pope. Schotty doesn’t know what to do with Austin and never will. Seriously, inside handoffs? True, the only run play Schotty seems to know is to go up the middle, but what is his objection to getting the ball to Austin on the move? Does he watch other teams’ games? Like, say, Seattle with Percy Harvin opening night? OR THE TEAM RIGHT ACROSS THE FIELD FROM HIM? Run the friggin’ jet sweep, you goof. Run an end-around. Put him in motion like you did in preseason and he’s open before the snap because DBs already can’t keep up. This is not rocket science. Offensive coordinators all over the league turn fast players into dangerous offensive weapons. Not ours.

The Rams lost the battle of the blitz decisively. The offense couldn’t handle Minnesota’s blitzing, not the first time Schotty’s failed at that, either, while Gregg Williams’ blitzing had little effect at all on Cassel, who usually just had to toss to the receiver Gaines was ten yards off of to relieve the pressure. Turning the jet sweep to Patterson into the riddle of the Sphinx, when it’s a play Minnesota showed in preseason that even rank amateurs knew to expect, makes me wonder if Williams and Schotty weren’t actually watching the Simpsons marathon last week instead of watching game tapes. Williams did call some successful run blitzes, and if their main objective was to contain AP, they got there. We’re expecting much more success than we saw from Williams this week, though.

Jeff Fisher tried to rally the troops after halftime with a big, showy powwow on the sideline. He’s done it before. The players have still never responded to it. They lost the 2nd half worse than they lost the 1st. So yeah, I’m kind of over Jeff Fisher as a master motivator at this point. He is of course a lost cause as any kind of disciplinarian, as his team racked up another 13 stupid penalties for 121 yards. Not all were good calls, but in there were still false starts by veteran offensive linemen at a home game, offsides by veteran defensive linemen, and roughing the punter and taunting on special teams. Fisher has done nothing effective to fix this for two years, so here’s my proposed solution: somebody make HIM run laps for all the penalties his team commits. Maybe that’ll draw his attention.

Meanwhile, the Rams did not start either of their first round picks, their 3rd and 4th round picks were inactive, and none of their last five draft picks made the final roster. So, we’ve got draft picks wasted and wasting away, we’ve got motivational speeches coming up flat, we’re timidly kicking the long figgie instead of going for it on 4th and less than a yard – who’s in charge here? Steve Spagnuolo? Scott Linehan? Jeff Fisher, you do not want to be drawing those comparisons in your third season. But here we are.

* Upon further review: Ed Hochuli didn’t work a Rams game last season, and as it turns out this week, not much reason to miss him. Minnesota got a FG out of Quinn getting a roughing-the-passer call for touching Cassel on his shoulder pad. Chris Long got an offside though TV showed Kyle Rudolph flinching first. They tried to call Bates for interfering with the returner when he leveled Marcus Sherels in the 2nd, then correctly picked up the flag, but ignored the whole time that Bates had been blocked in the back. Jenkins was blocked in the back blatantly on the long completion to Rhett Ellison that set up Rudolph’s TD, but was somehow called for holding himself. Huh? I also don’t understand all the OPI calls the Rams drew, when it looked like the same thing they did all preseason. A bad mix of ticky-tack calls and ignored calls much worse than other plays they did flag didn’t help matters. Grade: D+

* Cheers: A crowd in the mid-50,000s brought the noise early, and earned credit for 2-3 false starts and a Vikings panic timeout. The Fox commentators not only gave us credit for that, we got credit for both of Minnesota’s wild shotgun snaps by making it impossible for Cassel to communicate with his center. The highlight of the day was the wacky end zone race between the giant-headed Kurt Warner, Marshall Faulk and Isaac Bruce mascots, won by Isaac. Then the interview babe talked with the real Isaac Bruce while the fake Isaac Bruce looked in over his shoulder. The crowd turned hard on the home team, booing it off the field at halftime, and deservedly so, but still deserves credit for sticking around as long as it did. The place didn’t really start emptying out till it got to 27-3. Of course, I thought we also deserved a lot better than the Rams’ worst opening day effort since the Scott Linehan era in 2008, but what do I know.

* Who’s next?: If but briefly, the Rams have turned the tide in their rivalry with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, winning late-season affairs away, where they’ll be next week, and home the past two seasons. Robert Quinn made himself Mike Glennon’s worst nightmare in the Rams’ 23-13 victory here last season, landing three sacks of the rookie QB on his way to setting the (nod to Deacon Jones) St. Louis-era sack record. For the Rams to continue their success against Tampa, though, they’re going to have to beat Tampa’s new head coach, Lovie Smith, for the first time. They’re 0-4 lifetime against the former Rams DC.

Besides the Lovie challenge, Tampa’s offense could be a much tougher nut for the Rams to crack in 2014. Glennon has been supplanted by Josh McCown, who proved much harder to sack when he visited St. Louis last season with the Bears. The operating theory on defending McCown hinges on his habit of holding the ball too long behind an average-at-best, no-name offensive line. Yet, McCown didn’t do too poorly under similar conditions here last year, squirming out of trouble at least a dozen times to make plays downfield to his big receivers. We could be in for a replay next week, with McCown throwing to Vincent Jackson and rookie Mike Evans. One of E.J. Gaines’ pre-draft selling points was the game against Texas A&M where he shut down Evans; well, here you go. The Buc o-line did not play very well in the preseason action I scouted. Doug Martin’s a hard-working, physical RB with outside speed; I’d hate to see how he looks if they ever block for him. There’s still some impatience to his game, but a lot of his bounces to the outside are also because he didn’t have anywhere to go inside. Right tackle Demar Dotson looks like a liability in pass pro, they demoted their right guard during camp, and their left side, especially LG, got little to no push in the running game. That last problem, though, should be well fixed by their trade for Logan Mankins, who gives them much more freedom to double-team, especially if he’s 1-on-1 with Kendall Langford, who’s got to hold his own in that matchup to prevent McCown from stepping up in the pocket all day. The toughest thing about the Tampa offense for the Rams will be their pace. They’re patient to a fault; McCown hardly ever looks to stretch the field. But Tampa has been running most of their offense in no-huddle. If you thought the Rams looked like gassed middle-aged basketball players in their Saturday morning rec league at the “Y” against Green Bay in August, throw in Florida’s September heat and humidity and enjoy the lactic acid. Defensive conditioning could be as big a deal in this game as defensive scheme.

You have to be strong up the middle to succeed in just about any sport; Tampa’s defense really seems to take that to heart: Gerald McCoy, Clinton McDonald, Lavonte David, Mason Foster, Dashon Goldson and Mark Barron make up a solid defensive core. McCoy is the straw that stirs the drink up front; the Rams will have to double-team him most downs. He’s their quickest lineman, Aaron Donald-quick, at that, and has impressive power. Against Buffalo he was blocking-sledding guys back into the backfield before the Bills could even get their play going. The Rams have to get McCoy blocked. Yes, that’s like telling Tokyo Civil Defense, “You have to stop that giant dinosaur over there.” Doesn’t mean it doesn’t need to be done. McCoy’s ability to dominate means somebody’s going to have to step up and be able to handle the deceptively-quick and relentless McDonald 1-on-1. The excellent closing speed of the Buc d-line dictates that the Ram o-line do a much better job of finishing their blocks. The ends have some success with stunts but there’s not a lot of edge speed to fear. The speed to fear is at ILB with David and Foster, extremely athletic players who are all over the place, and they’re terrific pass defenders. They get really good drops, read the QB well and have good ball skills. The Rams are going to have to be able to establish the run early and make play-action credible, or they’re not going to have a solution for all that middle speed, and we’ll be treated to another week of slogging offense.

The good news: Tampa managed to lose to Carolina minus Cam Newton, so the Rams aren’t alone in their rapidly-sinking boat of a season. Both teams are going to have to do their best to forget this week ever happened and get back at it like it’s the start of the new season. Good luck to us in Rams Nation trying to do the same.

— Mike
Game stats from nfl.com