Tipsheet: Rams make strides while RG III stumbles
By Jeff Gordon
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/columns/jeff-gordon/tipsheet-rams-make-strides-while-rg-iii-stumbles/article_46accdec-5bde-5e2f-b38b-ed494ac7ec61.html
The RG III Trade looks better for the Rams with each passing week.
The Rams collected a mother lode of draft picks from the Washington You Know Whos for the rights to draft Baylor quarterback Robert Griffin III. And while the RG III situation gets worse by the week with that dysfunctional team, the Rams are finally making real progress with all their young players.
The Broncos game was a great example of that. Outside linebacker Alec Ogletree got back to making big plays instead of big mistakes, flying all over the field to make Peyton Manning’s job difficult.
Wide receiver Stedman Bailey made tough catches for critical first-down conversions. Cornerback Trumaine Johnson made a critical interception.
These were just some of the guys the Rams got for RG III. Left tackle Greg Robinson and Janoris Jenkins, two other pieces of the bounty, had some big mishaps in the game.
But mostly they held up while playing a Super Bowl-caliber team. The resulting 22-7 victory didn’t save another difficult season for the Rams, but it did add another quality victory to the list — proving that this still-maturing team is learning to play with the NFL’s best.
Aaron Donald, T.J. McDonald, Tre Mason, Brian Quick, E.J. Gaines . . . a lot of guys have taken big steps this season. Give this team steady quarterback play next season and the Rams will contend for the playoffs.
That brings us to the Washington Redskins. They are not getting steady QB play from RG III.
SI.com’s Andy Benoit reviewed some Griffin game tape and came away unimpressed:
Locker room leadership can be overrated. How a quarterback really loses his team is by leaving receivers open on the field. This is Robert Griffin’s biggest problem, and has been throughout his career. What’s most concerning is that he’s leaving receivers on the field out of a variety of formations and against a variety of coverages. The common thread is bad mechanics and a poor sense of timing . . .
Griffin, who has good arm strength, must play smarter from the pocket and protect the football. It’s especially important because the film shows that he can’t run anymore. There’s an underlying heaviness to his movements that could be attributed to the ankle injury. The quickness and acceleration with which he mesmerized crowds during his rookie season is gone. Maybe it’s only temporary, or maybe not. Given how Griffin played last year, this change could be linked to post knee-surgery rust, which, now nearly two years old, likely wouldn’t shake off.
Former Redskins tight end Chris Cooley offered a harsh assessment of Griffin for ESPN 980 in Washington D.C., with the Washington Post listening in.
Here were some highlights:
“I can’t grade the pass game. Our quarterback does not allow a proper grading of the pass game, because there was something I’ve never seen go on on a football field before.”
And . . .
“There was a game plan initially installed, which was not run or operated in any way shape or form the way it should have been. There was a quarterback not reading the field when he should have been, there was a quarterback scrambling when he (shouldn’t have been) . . . You can’t grade anyone else around Robert because of the way Robert played.”
And . . .
“And I want this to be really clear as we move forward with this breakdown. I’m not making fun of Robert. I like Robert. I like him as a person. This is not a personal attack. I am not going to make fun of him. I think he handled the media afterward improperly; we’ve discussed that. And I think he played poorly. And because of that, I’m going to now walk you through the game.”
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