Rewind – Rams v Vikings

TJ McDonald knifed through to get AP a coupla times in the early series.
Looked like he did at USC.

EJ Gaines dropped an INT in the first series, looked like.

Sure looked like the Vikes knew they couldn’t really be aggressive
In the air against the Ram pass-rush, so they were aggressive on the
Ground and mixed in safe short passes.

I thought S.Hill looked good on the Rams first series. Decisive, quick.
Big strike to Quick on the first play, and nice pass to Cook under duress.
The first series died cause the Oline couldn’t hold up on third down.

Second Viking series ruined by Quinn pressure on third down. Quinn was a millisecond away from causing a strip-fumble. Coulda changed the whole game right there.
Viking plan was to not let Q beat them and he almost beat them on that play. A millisecond away.

Second ram series S.Hill hits Harkey to pick up a third down and then nice twenty yarder to Cook. 5 for 5 at that point.
Big drop by Stacy on a play that might have gone somewhere. Quick then runs a route one yard too short to get a first down on third and long. Then Z misses the field goal.

End of First Quarter – 3 – 0. Rams defense looked fine to me. They looked more dangerous to me than the Viking Offense. Ram offense looked like they were not able to
Push around the Viking Dline and so they had to pass – But a drop by Stacy, and a miscalculated route by Quick and a Knock-down of Hill by a pass-rusher – and so zero points in the first Quarter.

2nd Quarter – First series of second quarter failed for the rams cause the Oline was beat on a running play and Saffold committed a penalty and the Oline couldn’t protect on third and long. I would have liked to see Shotty attack downfield on first or second down, but they went conservative.

Classless action by Mr Bates to be jumping around celebrating while the Viking punt returner is on the ground.

Kalil second false start in front of Quinn. Rams Defense playing very well.

Beautiful pass by S.Hill to Quick on Rams second series of second Qtr. Penalty on Quick but the pass was very nice. I started wondering where K.Britt was at this point.

Nother beautiful pass by S.Hill, rolling out, hitting Givens – called back. Huge penalty on Givens. Game changing penalty.

Seemed like the short passing game for the Rams was lame and a bit out of sync. The medium passing game was where Hill excelled. It was just penalties that killed em. And the fact BS didn’t call as many medium passes as I woulda liked. Maybe cause the Oline wasn’t up to it.

5 minutes left in the second quarter. Rams have Vikes backed up. Langford stuffs AP on first down – But Quinn is offsides. Really big, dum, mistake. Now a first and five for the Vikes. Totally changes things. Bonehead mistake.

Less than two minutes to play. Rams ball. First down Hill pressured and has ball knocked loose. Second down, Hill forces the terrible, horrible pass. INT.
My guess is, before the Rams got the ball, BS told Hill “Just don’t throw an INT – we are only down Six. The D is playing well.”

Ah well.

I stopped watchin at that point.

The D was playing well, I thought. Looked to me like the Vikes were scared of the Rams D. They only called runs and safe short passes.

On Offense the Rams Oline could not hold off the Vikings Dline consistently.
And the dropped pass, and penalty on Quick and penalty on Givens and missed field goal by Z, and failed pass protection on the play just before the terrible-horrible pass – did them in.

I thought Hill played well though. Cept for that last pass.

If the two teams played again, I might very well take the Rams. I dunno.

TJ McDonald was a bright spot. Quinn made a bonehead mistake, but in general Q was Q.

I think BS should call some plays to tavon down the field. He caught tons
of medium and long passes at WVU. He’s not just a short-pass guy.

w
v

• This topic was modified 9 years, 8 months ago by wv.