Saturday’s joint practice between the Rams and the Cowboys

Aaron Donald doing what he does best… Dismantling pic.twitter.com/0Zc2RSYsZc

— RAMS ON FILM (@RamsOnFilm) August 7, 2021

10 Observations from Rams’ joint practice with Cowboys

Stu Jackson

https://www.therams.com/news/10-observations-joint-practice-cowboys

OXNARD, Calif. – Saturday marked the first time since 2019 the Rams were able to get competitive reps and snaps in the preseason against someone other than themselves thanks to a scripted joint practice with the Cowboys.

As Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy and Rams head coach Sean McVay indicated on Friday, the majority of the practice featured team drills and mostly each team’s first-team offense and defense going against their respective counterparts.

Staff writer Stu Jackson shares 10 Observations from the session.

1) Special teams, then team work: As mentioned above, most of the segments were team drills. Things kicked off with special teams drills, which allowed each team to get punt and punt return reps in – Rams punters Johnny Hekker, Corey Bojorquez and Brandon Wright punted to the Cowboys’ punt return team, while the Rams’ punt return team – which included rookie wide receiver Tutu Atwell in its rotation at returner – fielded punts from the Cowboys’ punters. A variety of 7-on-7 and 11-on-11 work followed.

2) Quality reps for the defense: While Cowboys starting quarterback Dak Prescott (shoulder) and wide receiver Amari Cooper (Active/Physically Unable to Perform list, offseason ankle surgery) did not participate in team drills, the Rams still got good work in with second-year wide receiver CeeDee Lamb, tight end Blake Jarwin, wide receiver Michael Gallup and running back Ezekiel Elliott all available and in the mix.

3) Jordan Fuller active: The second-year safety had a couple of nice pass breakups during 11-on-11 work, including one on a short pass by Cowboys quarterback Garrett Gilbert intended for Lamb, as well as a deep pass by Gilbert over the middle targeting Lamb.

4) Swim move: Defensive lineman Aaron Donald received his fair share of double-teams from the Cowboys offensive line, as one might expect, but he also made an impressive play agains the run where he beat his defender with a swim move to reach the running back as the ball was being handed off to him.

5) PBs for the DBs: Aside from Fuller, Darious Williams and Davig Long Jr. each had a nice pass breakup in the corner of the endzone during redzone team drills. In regular team drills, Kareem Orr had a pass breakup and nearly made a diving interception. Dont’e Deayon also made an impressive pass breakup where he ripped the ball from Cowboys wide receiver Osirus Mitchell’s hands after Mitchell came down with a pass from quarterback Ben DiNucci.

6) Stafford to Jackson (again): In what has become a regular occurrence, quarterback Matthew Stafford connected with wide receiver DeSean Jackson for another long touchdown. On Saturday, it went for 60 yards, with Jackson using his speed to finish the rest of the play after having a couple steps on two defenders.

7) More explosiveness from Darrell Henderson Jr.: The third-year running back had a a couple of explosive plays in 11-on-11 drills, including a long run up the right sideline. While Rams head coach McVay said the running back position is most difficult to evaluate in terms of what constitutes a broken tackle when the emphasis is on “thud” tackling – as in, making solid contact but players still staying on their feet – he did praise the awareness Henderson showed on Saturday.

8) Second team offense led by Bryce Perkins and Devlin Hodges: As expected with backup John Wolford (appendectomy) sidelined, the second-team offense reps were handled by Perkins and Hodges.

9) Kenny Young with the thud: The fourth-year linebacker delivered a hit on a Cowboys running back audible enough to garner a reaction from the crowd.

10) Lively atmosphere: A full house of Rams and Cowboys fans were on hand at the the Cowboys’ practice field in Oxnard, as well as its perimeter, with fans also perching themselves atop the gates and fences surrounding the field and watching from porches attached to nearby apartments.

Rams-Cowboys practice features some chippy back-and-forth and lots to observe on offense, defense

Jourdan Rodrigue

https://theathletic.com/2758176/2021/08/08/rams-cowboys-practice-features-some-chippy-back-and-forth-and-lots-to-observe-on-offense-defense/

OXNARD, Calif. — Some of the tension started during one-on-ones, in the bright heat of the Rams’ sold-out joint practice against the Dallas Cowboys on Saturday.

Offensive and defensive linemen squared off, and depending on whom you ask (and what color shirt or jersey they were wearing), guard Connor Williams fared pretty well in both reps against three-time Defensive Player of the Year Aaron Donald (or, from what I saw, Donald pushed him back about 5 feet on one of the two reps, which would mean, because Williams is a guard, a push into the pocket itself — but again, depends on whom you ask, and nobody asked me).

But the two reps those players took against each other were plenty aggressive, and this translated onto the field when the Cowboys’ first-team offense (minus star quarterback Dak Prescott) faced the Rams’ first-team defense in their first 11-on-11 red-zone period of the day. After a play was whistled dead, Williams and Donald stayed locked together and the wrestling and twisting began. Both players hit the sparse grass, and teammates rushed in — safety Taylor Rapp got to Williams first and tried to pull him off Donald before the sidelines emptied and others stepped in.

More tension bubbled over near the end of the day, after inside linebacker Kenny Young had gotten to running back Tony Pollard in the backfield several plays prior. Young and Pollard appeared to stay with the more recent play even after the whistle (Young appeared to have a hold on Pollard’s jersey), and this escalated into someone throwing a punch (I couldn’t see who), and head coach Sean McVay flying onto the field and in between the two to separate them.

For what it’s worth, McVay didn’t seem at all displeased or even concerned about either extracurricular activity.

“That’s just kind of guys talking,” McVay said. “I didn’t think it got too much. I didn’t see the first one (Donald and Williams), I just kind of got there late. I didn’t think it affected our ability to get the work in that we wanted.”

There was plenty to see during Saturday’s joint practice, the first of two for the Rams this preseason (they’ll host the Raiders next week in Thousand Oaks, Calif.).

Here are some basic facts, before we get to observations: The fields were split the entire time, so I hustled between watching the first- and second-team defense against the same groups on the Dallas offense, and the first- and second-team Rams offense against the same groups on the Dallas defense. I certainly didn’t catch everything — in fact, I probably didn’t even come close! So I’ll try to provide context to what I did see.

Also, this was a “thud” practice, meaning there was no tackling to the ground allowed, and of course, no hitting the quarterback. This makes a big difference especially on some of the red-zone plays in which the Rams struggled (usually well into the play progression), so I might be a little kinder now than I was on a first look because there’s a small chance the defensive backs will need to be covering for as long as they were in those situations.

• The Rams’ first-team shorter-field defense, whether in the seven-on-seven and 11-on-11 periods, surprised me — not in a good way. They gave up a couple of touchdowns in the back or back corner of the end zone during red-zone seven-on-sevens. In the periods that followed, Michael Gallup caught a pass in the corner of the end zone over the top of Darious Williams, and David Long Jr. gave up a touchdown on the other side. The first seven-on-seven red-zone period, in particular, felt very one-sided in Dallas’ favor.

• That’s not to say it was all bad from the first team. The group did recover, including via a Williams pass breakup, a lateral stop by Young, a run-stop by both Young and Troy Reeder (both times the inside linebackers got into the backfield), and Long did rally through the team periods and recorded two pass breakups (one that prevented a touchdown). Safety Jordan Fuller also had two pass breakups, one against CeeDee Lamb. Meanwhile, on the second team, safety Nick Scott had a big stop (and then brushed some imaginary dirt off his shoulder), defensive back Kareem Orr broke up a pass in the end zone (and then wagged his finger), safety Terrell Burgess drew a push-off by a receiver that got a flag (and the receiver dropped the pass), linebacker Ernest Jones moved across the field well with his man to help force a throw too far outside, and undrafted free-agent cornerback Brontae Harris helped, via his coverage, force a fade too far out of reach for the receiver.

• On a longer field, Long faced Lamb on the outside quite a bit and gave up at least two catches (one for a touchdown). A Gallup touchdown came on Long’s side, but I’m not willing to commit to that one being on Long, because of how far behind the coverage Gallup got (indicating something else happened along the way). Cornerback Jalen Ramsey mostly played in the nickel, which we know as their “base sub package” called the “star.” The Rams statistically were in nickel most often in 2020, which is why we nickname it their “base sub package.” It was pretty clear the Rams weren’t going to rotate through the other sub packages we have seen in camp or move Ramsey as they did when the situation dictated it in 2020 (and as they’ll probably do again this year). That left Long facing one tall task after another, as the Cowboys at times put their more prolific receivers on his side. McVay didn’t get a real chance to watch this unfold because he was on the other field for that portion with quarterback Matthew Stafford and the first-team offense, but he indicated he’ll break down Long’s reps later during film sessions.

“What a good practice opportunity, like this, it gives you really a chance to evaluate David Long against one of the premier players, an up-and-coming guy who did a lot of great stuff as a rookie,” McVay said. “What a great opportunity for David to go against that kind of guy.”

Long did give it back here and there, however, including with a pass breakup against Noah Brown and one against Cedrick Wilson that prevented a score. It might have just been because the Rams weren’t willing to show more of their playbook that Long’s long day (for better and for worse) was inevitable.

• Ramsey broke up back-to-back passes from his position, meanwhile, and drew praise from McVay on his efforts near the line of scrimmage.

“There was a play over there today where Jalen took on a guard,” he said, “and it was like a premier teaching clip of how to be able to do it within the new rules, not being able to go low on people outside of the tight end box. That’s why he’s a man.”

• I asked McVay: How do you balance wanting those big-time plays and Ramsey closer to the ball on every snap, with moving him in accordance to a “best on best” situation? The simple answer, of course, is that it’s going to go by opponent when the games actually start (*clears throat* just like it did last season).

“It’s situational,” he said. “We do want to be smart with the type of matchups and making sure we’re aware of that. But Jalen’s versatile skill set is something that we have to make sure that we take advantage of. That’s our job as coaches. There will be some opportunities, where — hey, David’s a really good football player and we have a lot of confidence in him.”

• It’s probably a good thing that these practices don’t have live contact or full tackling, because Donald found himself in the backfield a couple of times — including on a slick play where he timed the snap, slipped guard Connor McGovern and hit the running back nearly at the handoff point for a loss.

• The Rams’ top three inside linebackers look night-and-day different to me from when they opened camp last year. Of course, Micah Kiser, Reeder and Young had a bit of a baptism by fire in 2020, but all three are playing with confidence so far into camp — and getting into the backfield. Each of the three linebackers had a stop for a loss Saturday, and each made the correct read and navigated some traffic to make it. Young’s lateral movement has especially stood out so far in camp. McVay also said he loves the group’s depth this year (remember, last year they at times activated only two guys on game days), which includes Jones, Travin Howard, Christian Rozeboom and now Jake Gervase, who is listed as a safety on the roster but was working out with the inside linebackers during position-specific drills.

• On the offensive side, it’s obvious the Rams are still getting some of the small details worked out and turned into routine. One area where this isn’t a concern is Stafford’s connection with Cooper Kupp — he hit Kupp on a couple of nice midrange balls across the middle and upfield — but the offense is still synching all of its moving parts. Stafford did unfurl a couple of deep passes downfield to DeSean Jackson, and though the two players were just off on the first two, Jackson got a few steps on two Cowboys defenders to snag the third try for a touchdown (about 60 yards in the air). Jackson isn’t only running post routes, of course — in fact, he got into it a bit with cornerback Jourdan Lewis on a short crosser after a little extra contact.

• Again, he couldn’t get tackled to the ground — but running back Darrell Henderson broke off a really nice, long run near the end of the day, and the key to it was his vision through his gaps and his explosiveness once he hit the open field.

• Punt, punt return and coverage drills were on live legs from both teams Saturday, which was exciting. One gunner tandem especially interested me, though perhaps they got a little carried away at the end of the play and knocked into each other: rookies Jake Funk and Jacob Harris.

So far, it seems the first-team long snapper/punter tandem is still Matt Orzech snapping to Johnny Hekker. Raymond Calais, Landen Akers and Tutu Atwell got the reps on punt returns, and though Akers dropped his first try, he made a really nice inside cut on his second. Atwell seems a lot more comfortable out there than in the spring, though Calais might be making a case for himself in the role and because the Rams might need more running back depth.

• To me, this is how the outside linebackers opposite Leonard Floyd are shaking out: Justin Hollins, then Obo Okoronkwo and Terrell Lewis. My sense is the Rams will manage Lewis’ knee and create a rush plan that will use him efficiently while trying to keep him healthy (last season, he showed he could be very productive even in limited snaps). That means they can start Hollins and rotate in Lewis with Okoronkwo depending on the situation, with Hollins possessing more of the traditional length and Okoronkwo able to mix in some speed-rush.

• Atwell went for a catch toward the sideline and his momentum carried him right into the pads at the base of one of the pole cameras, and both the angle and sound of the collision were scary at first. Atwell, though, got back up and got a quick checkup by vice president of sports medicine/performance Reggie Scott and was able to rejoin the team. McVay and Kupp said it seemed like Atwell was OK after the practice.

• Rams general manager Les Snead spent a lot of time watching the two backup quarterbacks, Bryce Perkins and Devlin “Duck” Hodges, during practice, especially with backup quarterback John Wolford recovering from his appendectomy. Wolford can feel secure in his position as the No. 2, but the Rams will likely keep only three quarterbacks in the fall (two on the active roster and one on the practice squad). Things are heating up for Perkins and Hodges.

• As usual, Dont’e Deayon had more fun than anybody else on the field — whether he was playing on a coverage unit on special teams, finding the “Hard Knocks” camera or breaking up a pass, which he did near the end of the day against Osirus Mitchell.