Reaction to the Eagles game thread

[wv]

I couldnt watch the second half
so all i saw was the first half
which was awful.

Did the Rams really fight back,
or were those points
‘garbage time points’ ?

w
v

[wv]

let us be thankful…

…Jeff Fisher did not have
THREE weeks to prepare
this team.

Halftime:
20 Eagles
7 Rams

[cgsuddeath]

To all the people who keep saying get rid of Bradford,Today’s game marks the proof that if the rest of the team play’s horribly it doesn’t matter who plays at quarterback.

• This reply was modified 10 years, 1 month ago by cgsuddeath.
• This reply was modified 10 years, 1 month ago by zn.

[JackPMiller]

Blown out in three of four games. I know the Cowboy game read 34-31, but after we went up 21-0, after that it was 34-10 Dallas. Hence, three blowout losses. I’d be shocked if Fisher is not on the hot seat by now.

[zn]

No they fought back. They had the ball and a chance to win inside the final 2 minutes.

[Eternal Ramnation]

Yeah the comeback was great Quick is really going off this year but sloppy undisciplined play dug a massive hole

[zn]

We were talking about this in the chat.

I don’t see issues with preparation. I see issues with execution.

I see a team that keeps making critical mistakes, and that (to me) is in the collective heads of the players. That’s a team that’s pressing

You make this team confident with a big win and I bet they settle down.

[PA Ram]

I had to pick up my wife during the last four minutes–missed the end.

But I am not feeling great about the game. Yeah–okay–they came back–to lose again. I’m sure Philly was playing a little soft too and that allowed the Rams to do somethings. Great. But that doesn’t erase the awful performance on special teams, the miserable offensive line performance, the bewildering inability of the defense to bring down a quarterback, or the penalties galore.

I just don’t care about close losses. They aren’t wins. They don’t mean much to me.

My bright spots?

Austin Davis. Yeah–he had some shaky moments but he also made some good plays.

You know what? That might be it for this game. They really disappointed in every other aspect of the game.

The secondary had screw ups–the DTs were non-existent and for awhile Philly ran through the middle as they pleased. The DEs can’t figure out how to tackle a QB when they do get their hands on him. Stacy had a turnover.

I don’t see a good football team.

The best I see for this year is inconsistent performances. They’ll lose some blowouts, lose some close ones, win some close ones.

Maybe they’ll get 5 or 6 wins tops.

I don’t know where they go from here. How do they get better? How do they become an elite team?

I have no answers. And I’m not sure that Fisher does either.

"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. " Philip K. Dick

[nittany ram]

zn wrote:

We were talking about this in the chat.

I don’t see issues with preparation. I see issues with execution.

I see a team that keeps making critical mistakes, and that (to me) is in the collective heads of the players. That’s a team that’s pressing

You make this team confident with a big win and I bet they settle down.

I partially agree that some of the fault for poor execution is on the players. However, it’s the coach’s job to fix that. In three years it hasn’t been fixed. Same with the lack of discipline and the stupid mistakes.

This isn’t new, it’s been going on for three years and it’s not getting any better.

Watching the Rams is like being trapped in the movie, “Groundhog Day”.

[sdram]

I have to thank the St Louis Rams for helping expand my emotional repertoire.

In a little over three hours I went from hopefull optimism to anger to angst to shame to needing a Snickers bar to disinterest to surprise to hope to glee to confidence to utter disgust. It was a good day.

Rams play like a bunch of wankers sometimes.

Anyway, the pseudo blowout and almost historic comeback was entertaining to say the least. Offensive line pass blocking or blocking plan sucked sometimes. Wells sucks sometimes.

Who ever the nimrod was – Bates I think – that got the 15 yard penalty for pushing a guy after the tackle on the punt needs to be cut tonight to send a message to the other nimrods to stop being nimrods.

[wv]

I agree with Darryl Johnston, the announcer:
How does the punt protection team allow
a punt block after what the saw on film
of the eagles last week? How does
that happen?

w
v

[nittany ram]

Greg Williams’ defense is known as a high risk, high reward defense, meaning it will give up some big plays but they should be more than compensated for by the defense generating big plays of its own.

That means getting sacks, creating turnovers, scoring on interception and fumble returns, etc.

So far we’re only seeing the high risk part. No reward.

And I don’t know how he turned the most feared d-line in the NFL into a bunch of cute, furry bunnies but somehow Williams managed to do it.

• This reply was modified 10 years, 1 month ago by nittany ram.
• This reply was modified 10 years, 1 month ago by zn.

[zn]

wv wrote:

I agree with Darryl Johnston, the announcer:
How does the punt protection team allow
a punt block after what the saw on film
of the eagles last week? How does
that happen?

w
v

Who knows.

But then, do you expect more blocked punts by the Rams this year?

And on the other hand, do you think that’s the last punt Phil blocks this year?

[zn]

PA Ram wrote:

I don’t see a good football team.

I do. Believe it or not.

I see a good, unestablished team making incredible strings of errors.

Some of that is coaching. That is, I think it’s true that Wms re-complicated the defense and they are not playing instinctively and making mistakes. It was the same with the McD offense in the first few games in 2011, IMO.

But I think a lot of it is the team “psyche.” Now I ain’t trying to name some kind of indefinite, mystical thing. But I do think confidence is a real thing, and I think this team just does not have basic team confidence in itself. In a lot of ways, I think that’s what one should expect from a team that’s on its 4th starting qb within the span of 14 games. Anyway, teams that actually have enough talent to win but aren’t confident press.

But I have been saying, give this year’s team a real confidence boosting win, and, I think they look completely different.

[PA Ram]

Here’s the worst part—he can’t even get there with blitzes.

4 games–0 sacks.

His blitzes don’t even work.

Something is very very wrong here. Today Quinn pretty much got handled by one guy–when I watched him anyway. William Hayes seemed more concerned with McCoy getting the edge than rushing the passer but I didn’t watch him that much.

The two DTs were awful–they aren’t credited with ONE tackle on NFL.Com. Not one.

I don’t know what it is–scheme, effort(Langford had an obvious whiff on a tackle attempt)or some combination of both but Fisher is no closer to fixing the problems this week than he was the game before the bye.

"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. " Philip K. Dick

[PA Ram]

I do. Believe it or not.

I see a good, unestablished team making incredible strings of errors.

We just look at this a little differently. I see a team with talent.

But good teams don’t make the same sort of mistakes over and over. Good teams win these games.

Talent is meaningless if the team isn’t using it the right way or it doesn’t show up when needed the most.

To me–that’s a bad team–not an untalented team–but a bad team.

"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. " Philip K. Dick

[nittany ram]

The frustrating thing is, the Rams defense will stop the run and keep receivers in front of them for the most part. But whenever the opposing offense needs a big play they always seem to be able to get one. Third and short or third and twenty…it doesn’t matter. They’ll pick it up with ease.

But they aren’t creating big plays of their own and that’s mainly because they can’t get to the QB. I mean, even the worst d-line in the league stumbles into a sack once in awhile. But not this bunch.

• This reply was modified 10 years, 1 month ago by nittany ram.
• This reply was modified 10 years, 1 month ago by zn.

[zn]

PA Ram wrote:

I do. Believe it or not.

I see a good, unestablished team making incredible strings of errors.

We just look at this a little differently. I see a team with talent.

But good teams don’t make the same sort of mistakes over and over. Good teams win these games.

Talent is meaningless if the team isn’t using it the right way or it doesn’t show up when needed the most.

To me–that’s a bad team–not an untalented team–but a bad team.

Well, in a classic sense, this is all semantics. Cause I see a team with talent and some real things they’re good at collectively. So if you don’t want to use the word “good” for that, okay. Yes they make big crazy mistakes, and have done so for 3 games now. (IMO mistakes cost them the Vikes game too.) When I see that, I see a team that’s pressing, and sometimes thinking too much, and so on. Like I said, lacking confidence.

To me, “bad team” means lacks talent. It isn’t capable of winning, no matter what.

So to me, “bad teams” can’t turn it around. In contrast, I think this one can.

[PA Ram]

Jim Thomas ‏@jthom1 8m8 minutes ago
Fisher said next time Rams player gets a stupid penaltym such as Ray Ray Armstrong’s unnecessary roughness call, he’s sending them off field

Absolutely. There is NO reason for this kind of knuckleheaded crap. It’s time to make them pay for stupidity.

"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. " Philip K. Dick

[zn]

nittany ram wrote:

zn wrote:
We were talking about this in the chat.

I don’t see issues with preparation. I see issues with execution.

I see a team that keeps making critical mistakes, and that (to me) is in the collective heads of the players. That’s a team that’s pressing

You make this team confident with a big win and I bet they settle down.

I partially agree that some of the fault for poor execution is on the players. However, it’s the coach’s job to fix that. In three years it hasn’t been fixed. Same with the lack of discipline and the stupid mistakes.

This isn’t new, it’s been going on for three years and it’s not getting any better.

Watching the Rams is like being trapped in the movie, “Groundhog Day”.

But see, N, to me, when I was pointing at execution, AND beyond that putting execution issues on things like pressing and thinking too much, I was naming something coaches CAN’T fix. In my mind that’s not a coaching issue. In fact, when a team struggles that way, for those reasons, I have generally seen coaches realize there’s nothing they can do. The team just needs to crawl out from under its own doubts and believe in itself. I don’t think coaches can provide that.

[nittany ram]

PA Ram wrote:

Jim Thomas ‏@jthom1 8m8 minutes ago
Fisher said next time Rams player gets a stupid penaltym such as Ray Ray Armstrong’s unnecessary roughness call, he’s sending them off field

Absolutely. There is NO reason for this kind of knuckleheaded crap. It’s time to make them pay for stupidity.

And it only took nearly 3 years for Fisher to take this approach. It’s hard to blame a player for lacking discipline when his head coach doesn’t demand it.

[zn]

nittany ram wrote:

PA Ram wrote:

Jim Thomas ‏@jthom1 8m8 minutes ago
Fisher said next time Rams player gets a stupid penaltym such as Ray Ray Armstrong’s unnecessary roughness call, he’s sending them off field

Absolutely. There is NO reason for this kind of knuckleheaded crap. It’s time to make them pay for stupidity.

And it only took nearly 3 years for Fisher to take this approach. It’s hard to blame a player for lacking discipline when his head coach doesn’t demand it.

He has demanded it, and it has worked. Last year they cleaned that up, in fact. Ray Ray was getting virtually a penalty a game in the first few games last year, but that stopped.

So they have fixed this. And the spate of special teams penalties we saw early last year did not return earlier this year. Now it’s back.

.

[nittany ram]

zn wrote:

nittany ram wrote:

zn wrote:
We were talking about this in the chat.

I don’t see issues with preparation. I see issues with execution.

I see a team that keeps making critical mistakes, and that (to me) is in the collective heads of the players. That’s a team that’s pressing

You make this team confident with a big win and I bet they settle down.

I partially agree that some of the fault for poor execution is on the players. However, it’s the coach’s job to fix that. In three years it hasn’t been fixed. Same with the lack of discipline and the stupid mistakes.

This isn’t new, it’s been going on for three years and it’s not getting any better.

Watching the Rams is like being trapped in the movie, “Groundhog Day”.

But see, N, to me, when I was pointing at execution, AND beyond that putting execution issues on things like pressing and thinking too much, I was naming something coaches CAN’T fix. In my mind that’s not a coaching issue. In fact, when a team struggles that way, for those reasons, I have generally seen coaches realize there’s nothing they can do. The team just needs to crawl out from under its own doubts and believe in itself. I don’t think coaches can provide that.

Why are the players still thinking too much three years under Fisher’s regime? I can see why the defensive players might be, because they are running a new complicated defense under Greg Guinta and they probably aren’t comfortable with their new responsibilities yet. However, given how vanilla the defense was during preseason, I can see why they may not have a good handle on it yet. All that’s on the coaches, one for installing a new complicated defense and two, for not giving the players enough experience in that defense back when the games didn’t count. Now, that doesn’t mean Fisher shouldn’t have hired Greg Williams or that being vanilla in the preseason wasn’t the right thing to do, but it lead to the inability to execute as a result of decisions made by Fisher and his staff.

Coaches are responsible for their team’s execution. Mike Singletary coached a really talented 9’ers team that couldn’t win because they couldn’t execute. So they fired him and hired Jim Harbaugh and all of a sudden the same players executed all the way to the NFC Championship. Harbaugh made the necessary changes that allowed his team to execute.

[wv]

zn wrote:

I see a good, unestablished team making incredible strings of errors.

To me, “bad team” means lacks talent. It isn’t capable of winning, no matter what.

So to me, “bad teams” can’t turn it around. In contrast, I think this one can.

I tend to agree, but i dunno.
I tend to think, what I am seeing
is not a lack of talent. In
fact sometimes i think they
are quite talented. But
they just seem…discombobulated.
Something is just…off.

I do think they can turn it
around.

Though, I am not sure about
the Oline. Just not sure about it.

I think I’m confused.

w
v

• This reply was modified 10 years, 1 month ago by wv.

[nittany ram]

wv wrote:

zn wrote:

I see a good, unestablished team making incredible strings of errors.

To me, “bad team” means lacks talent. It isn’t capable of winning, no matter what.

So to me, “bad teams” can’t turn it around. In contrast, I think this one can.

I tend to agree, but i dunno.
I tend to think, what I am seeing
is not a lack of talent. In
fact sometimes i think they
are quite talented. But
they just seem…discombobulated.
Something is just…off.

I do think they can turn it
around.

Though, I am not sure about
the Oline. Just not sure about it.

I think I’m confused.

w
v

This team is definitely talented. But it isn’t cohesive. But the offense is getting better and Davis is fun to watch.

He’s got confidence out the yingyang and is certainly not afraid to throw it to a covered receiver. But when he does that, he puts the ball in a good place to minimize the risk.

I can understand why the defense might be struggling given the new complicated scheme and the players’ lack of experience with it. My biggest question about this team is about the pass rush. As in, where is it?

And of course the mistakes and penalties in all phases of the game continue.

[cgsuddeath]

Yeah but what bothers me the most is how a couple of veterans(Long,Wells) continuously play like first year players

• This reply was modified 10 years, 1 month ago by cgsuddeath.

[zn]

nittany ram wrote:

Why are the players still thinking too much three years under Fisher’s regime?

Well first remember that this same defense, last year, after it righted itself, was the best run defense in the league. They were also at the top in sacks. They obviously werent’ thinking too much THEN.

So one season later, why are the DEFENSIVE PLAYERS thinking too much (I don’t think that’s true of the offense).

Well, because, they have a new defensive coordinator who is putting more on them.

It has nothing to do with 3 years. They don’t know what WILLIAMS is asking of them at an instinctive level yet.

Why no pass rush? IMO? The front 7 bought their own press in the off-season and did not work as hard to get it. But because they WERE so good, entire gameplans are devoted to containing them–at precisely the point where they aren’t on the same “edge” they were last year. It’s also possible they are being asked to do new things they’re not used to doing.

If I had to guess what the coach’s part of this is? IMO it’s the same flaw we always see with Fisher. He overestimates his teams. I don’t know what effects that has, but we’ve seen it before. It could be that he thought you COULD put more and different things on them, and they would come through.

[nittany ram]

zn wrote:

nittany ram wrote:
Why are the players still thinking too much three years under Fisher’s regime?

Well first remember that this same defense, last year, after it righted itself, was the best run defense in the league. They were also at the top in sacks. They obviously werent’ thinking too much THEN.

So one season later, why are the DEFENSIVE PLAYERS thinking too much (I don’t think that’s true of the offense).

Well, because, they have a new defensive coordinator who is putting more on them.

It has nothing to do with 3 years. They don’t know what WILLIAMS is asking of them at an instinctive level yet.

Why no pass rush? IMO? The front 7 bought their own press in the off-season and did not work as hard to get it. But because they WERE so good, entire gameplans are devoted to containing them–at precisely the point where they aren’t on the same “edge” they were last year.

Well I agree with that and pretty much said the same thing in the post you quoted. However, I think maybe the offense is still thinking too much also because of all the presnap penalties (false starts, etc) they seem to commit. But I could be thinking too much. 😉

• This reply was modified 10 years, 1 month ago by nittany ram.

[zn]

from off the net

===

Speed_Kills

Jim Thomas ‏@jthom1
On the Rams’ last offensive play of game, Brian Quick was running right play _ a post route. Davis didn’t throw to right spot.

He rushes his throws when that pressure is coming right at him. They are going to have to work on that. Obviously I’m not blaming Davis….he’s why the Rams got back in it. He made some gutsy throws staging that come back

What I am saying is I noticed that when that pressure is coming at him up the middle his mechanics breakdown. The Pettis drop on 2nd down is an example. Recall Pettis dropped a similar pass in that Tampa game. Now IMO he should have caught both but what I noticed is that Austin does not follow through well when he sees that kind of pressure. He does not have that problem when he is moving left or right to avoid pressure

The kid threw some great passes today….threw some bad ones too. The last pass to Quick was a miscommunication obviously. This time the QB throws to the wrong spot and it’s on 4th down no less. That gives your team no chance. So I won’t let Davis off the hook for that. I do know he’s young though and we are going to have to live with these kinds of mistakes unfortunately

I don’t know why people are commenting on Davis’ passes. I really don’t get it. Davis’ passes look like Drew Bree’s passes. What did the guy do to keep the Rams in the game? The answer a ton…. I don’t care about how wobbly his passes are

I mean seriously the guy is among the leaders in yards per pass attempt in the NFL.

Do I think he is the answer long term right now? No…and neither does anyone else. I think a lot of us are hoping he’s good but nobody is banking on it. Doesn’t mean people aren’t rooting for him to do it though’

========

SunTzu_vs_Camus

I was [saying during the game] that if we just hit Foles/knock him down on every pass play….he’ll start throwin junk and make mistakes.

He looked very skittish compared to our intrepid Davis in just his 3rd start.
In fact, Davis’ play is starting to make me think he’s got staying power than I thot.

I’ve been waiting for the crazy mistakes I saw Davis make in the PS his first 2 yrs here… but it was Foles throwing up those ducks……….and NOT Davis!! Davis is playing some stellar football at the hardest position.
I’ve been waiting for him to come back to earth only because I have rarely seen such growth happen so fast for a QB. It’s hard for me to believe what I’m seeing…honestly!! Davis is NOT the same QB he has been for 2 years!!

WE had like 4 drops today, that if caught, might have been enough to win it!! Again, we are falling 1-4 plays away from WINNING these games….and that matters!!!! Cuz, it’s not like we’re missing by 20 plays or are being outclassed in talent. Hardly!!!

His pocket presence and mobility are getting to be very good!! Schotty called another great game. imo With all the mistakes….we still were right there in the end to WIN IT!!!!

I really enjoyed the progress and see some real hope as our 4 rookie defensive PT starters(Gaines, Joyner, Donald, Westbrooks) getting valuable experience that will bode well later in the season. Fun game to watch!! I love how Fisher had these guys fighting all the way to the end….and not give up down by 27pts. I don’t want to hear it was garbage time either…..cuz it wasn’t…it was EARNED!

If anyone has played the game of football and been in a huddle down by 27 pts….I’d be curious if you’d like to play with folks who pack it in too. I just know who I’d like to be in the huddle with being down and who would fight and who would just go thru the motions cuz the game is already decided by half-time.

The defense coulda helped more….once again! So funny how the defense is foundering!! I don’t know why! The truth may just be comfort level. The offense has been the same for 3 yrs and the defense – while being much the same – has had 3 diffrerent DCs for each of the last 3 yrs. Maybe there’s some discomfort there. I dunno. But the offense has been playing well enough to win….which is an amazing statement to make after playing a very young QB that was formerly a 3rd stringer and having only his 3rd start.

Once again, just a few plays away from winning….instead of 10-20 plays or just a huge lack of talent. The players that are making mistakes are relativley young and learning
(cept Reynolds & RayRay….those were just penalties that put you on the bench for a Qtr or two imo)

[HighPlainsDrifter]

I know what some others think, but I just don’t think that this is a good team. I’m not sure this is even a team. I don’t think they know how to play with each other and for each other. I don’t think that good teams make the kinds of mistakes that the Rams make over and over again. Sure, there seems to be some individual talent. Maybe lots of it. But that isn’t what makes a good team. Individual talent won’t take a team very far if they can’t find a way to mesh all of that individual talent into cohesive units. Sometimes I marvel over just how incredibly awful the Rams can look at just about any given time. How unbelievably chaotic they can look. I think the coaching staff is failing them to some extent, but I think that they are failing themselves more. These players know what they’re supposed to do. Sometimes I wonder if they really understand the value of winning. Is it truly important to them to win football games? There doesn’t seem to be any leaders out there on the field who will hold their teammates’ feet to the fire for bonehead moves and lapses of judgement or concentration. They’re just rudderless. They’re clueless about what it takes. While it might not be a popular opinion, a guy like Ray Lewis would do wonders this group. They’re desperate for mentoring and there is none to be had. A lot of precious football-playing days are going to waste on wandering in the desert. It’s sad and very difficult to watch as a fan.

[Author]

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