FAST EDDIE’S NOTES ON THE DETROIT GAME (Sept 3, 1999)
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Kurt Warner should have given everyone some hope last night. He did an excellent job of doing just what Mike Martz said he needed to do, staying within the scheme, managing the team, and taking what the defense gave him to put his playmakers in positions to make plays. He threw the ball very accurately throughout and he didn’t get rattled when his receivers dropped some balls and he showed that he does have some good scrambling ability and pocket awareness. He threw the slants right where they needed to be and with more zip than I’ve seen Trent Green put on the ball.
He is not where Trent was obviously. If you watch him closely, you do not see his eyes moving from side to side while he’s dropping back seeing the whole field the way Trent was doing. He’s going to his primary option with the ball the overwhelming majority of the time. But to his credit, the ability to do that has at least something to do with making the right reads at the line. The presnap motion is perhaps the most important part of reading the defensive schemes if you believe Mike Martz when he talks and Warner must be doing something right to find the open man such a high percentage of the time. Throw Ike Bruce in there all game long and he probably doesn’t have to look at anyone else most of the time!
Some other random thoughts…
I really liked what I saw of London Fletcher at middle linebacker in this game. I had been critical of him for not having the size and strength to fight through blocks and make tackles up near the line of scrimmage. But if you watch him closely, you realize that this is a moot criticism of this player to a large extent. What Fletcher does very well is make it very hard for a blocker to lock him up when he’s one on one—many times they don’t even get a hand on him. He has such quick feet, excellent balance and body control, that he jukes them like a running back and gets down the line to the ballcarrier. His only weakness may be when they run right at him, otherwise, he gets to the play and he gets in on the tackle. He never misses a tackle in the open field. We won’t see any embarrassing Lamar Smith like runs with him in the middle.
The Rams had a lot of success in the first half running right behind Fred Miller and Adam Timmerman. Miller has been criticized a lot by fans throughout the preseason, but I think most of it has been unfounded. You watch how often #73 gets his man pushed to the outside and then turns and hustles upfield to get a body on a linebacker as well. You put that kind of effort beside Adam Timmerman who has the strength to maul the inside guys and the quickness to pull out and lead the sweeps downfield and I think Marshall should have alot of success to the right side. Jackie Slater loves Fred Miller as well.
On the left side, Pace has stepped up his game and looks poised to be an all pro. He’s sustaining his blocks and finishing them off like we’ve never seen him before.
On the second drive, for some reason Andy McCollum was playing left guard and I do not think much of him at all. McCollum gets manhandled in pass protection and he doesn’t have any success drive blocking either. Derrick Harris is doing an excellent job picking up the linebackers when he’s first through the hole, but when a guy like McCollum doesn’t get his hole cleared to the inside, Harris has to match up with a lineman and the play is bottled up at the line. Nutten returned for the final drive and he was much better.
It is very important I think that Ray Agnew comes back quickly. He may be the most underrated player on this Rams defense. Ray gets off the blocks and he gets down the line to make plays against the run all over the field and ends up in places where you would not expect him. He showed some flashes of quickness at the line as well and got into the backfield, especially on the play in which he was injured when he leveled Batch. I thought Sears and Hyder played decently in that first half, but they are not Ray Agnews.
The Rams got good pass rush in the two minute drill when they knew the pass was coming and the linemen and backers got the opportunity to pin their ears back. I think we’re going to see some imaginative line stunts and blitz packages from Giunta once the regular season starts and our pass rush will be more than adequate. I like the way they use Charlie Clemons as a situational pass rusher. Having him free to terrorize the QB is another benefit of Fletcher starting at MLB. Finally… the Rams corner play is just excellent. Dexter was out this game and Taje Allen left some big cushions that we’re not used to seeing since McNeil left, but he did not get beat. On the other side, Lyght did not see a single ball come his way all half by my count until the very end and he made a great play to break that one up in the endzone. Dre Bly had a similar play and showed off his great ball awareness on the play just before that in the corner of the endzone. We will not see these corners give up 29 TD passes this year:-)
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