Sloppy Rams lose preseason debut…reporters on the Oakland pre-season game

Five Takeaways: Rams at Raiders

Myles Simmons

http://www.stlouisrams.com/news-and-events/article-1/Five-Takeaways-Rams-at-Raiders/35dfaa7f-89bd-457f-babf-8f5c19c57325

The first preseason game is in the books, with the Rams getting good work in against the Raiders. The final score was 18-3. Here are five takeaways from the first exhibition matchup.

1. Tavon Austin is really fast

The wide receiver was electrifying on the Rams’ second snap, as he took a screen play 35 yards to set up a field goal. Head coach Jeff Fisher and offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti have both stated that they would like to increase the number of times Austin has the ball in space, and this play was a prime example of that coming to fruition.

The wideout made the catch on the left side of the field, got a good block from fellow receiver Kenny Britt, and then juked his way past a few black jerseys to get to the middle of the gridiron. From there, it was Austin’s speed and quickness that sprung him for the big gain.

Keep in mind that the Rams will not be featuring their full package of offensive plays until the regular season starts. But at least from the first few plays of this one, the future looks pretty bright for Tavon Austin.

2. Foles getting in sync

While Austin’s shiftiness may have set up that field goal, the drive began with an impressive down-field pass from quarterback Nick Foles to tight end Lance Kendricks. The QB floated the ball right to the bread basket, and it ended up going for a 26-yard gain.

“He’s just in sync with the whole offense — a great rhythm, great timing with everybody, easy to work with,” Kendricks said. “It’s going to be a fun season”

Foles finished 3-of-5 passing for 69 yards in his Rams preseason debut. Kendricks said he was pleased with how the first offensive unit performed.

“I think we played pretty good, a couple mistakes here and there, but we’ve got to get better and we will,” Kendricks said.

3. Don’t test Trumaine Johnson

Johnson made a couple of key plays in the first quarter to keep the Raiders from putting up six points. The first came on Oakland’s first drive, when the corner deflected a pass intended for Michael Crabtree close to the front corner of the end zone. And while he committed a facemask penalty on the home team’s second possession, he recovered by ending it with an interception in the end zone.

“I just read the quarterback’s eyes and was able to make a play,” Johnson said of the pick.

While he missed significant time with a knee injury last season, Johnson quietly finished 2014 leading the Rams in interceptions. So far through training camp and limited preseason action, the corner’s ball skills are strong as ever.

4. Target No. 12 and No. 19

Wide receivers Stedman Bailey and Chris Givens led the way for the Rams in targets and receptions. Bailey caught three passes for 24 yards, and Givens caught four for 36. The wideout also took an end around 16 yards, displaying his considerable speed.

But if you noticed in the headline to the section, Givens is no longer wearing No. 13. This week, the receiver switched his number for a great reason, as Tweeted by Rams’ preseason play-by-play broadcaster Andrew Siciliano.

Rams WR Chris Givens will now wear #19 to honor former Wake Forest teammate Kevin Smith-Franklin who died last December in a car accident.
— Andrew Siciliano (@AndrewSiciliano) August 15, 2015

5. A few too many penalties

In the first half alone, the Rams were flagged six times for 50 yards. Yes, it’s preseason and it’s the first time St. Louis has faced off against an opponent with referees. But holding, facemask, and delay-of-game penalties can be particularly detrimental to a team’s cause. Again, it’s only the first exhibition game, so it’s not reason for alarm. But the Rams will likely look to correct some of those issues over the next week practicing with the Cowboys in Oxnard, Calif.[/quote]

Trumaine Johnson shows he’s capable of reclaiming starting job

Nick Wagoner

http://espn.go.com/blog/nflnation/post/_/id/174613/trumaine-johnson-shows-hes-capable-of-reclaiming-starting-job

It was the third preseason game last season when St. Louis Rams cornerback Trumaine Johnson suffered a knee injury that essentially cost him his starting job. It was an injury to another corner, this time E.J. Gaines, that might have given it back to Johnson.

“I don’t look at it like that,” Johnson said on the team’s broadcast. “I pray for the best for him for a speedy recovery. We always say it’s always next man up.”
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Last year, Gaines was the next man up when Johnson went down. Gaines never looked back on his way to an impressive rookie season in which he held on to the job almost the entire season.

Now, with Gaines battling a foot injury that looks like it will keep him out a while, the roles are reversed. And Johnson showed Friday night that if indeed he has to step back into his former role, he’s more than ready to do so.

Johnson played only two series in the Rams’ 18-3 loss Friday night to the Oakland Raiders, but nevertheless he made his presence felt early and often. Playing in front of about 50 to 60 friends and family members from nearby Stockton, California, Johnson finished with a tackle, an interception and two passes defended. He did have a facemask penalty that cost the Rams 15 yards but immediately redeemed himself by coming up with the interception. He jumped an inside slant route at the goal line to kill a potential scoring drive.

It was a tantalizing reminder of Johnson’s physical talent. At 6-foot-2, 208 pounds, Johnson is the closest thing the Rams have to the bigger, more physical corner preferred by teams around the league. Despite that size, Johnson seemed to get lost in the shuffle after his injury in 2014.

By the end of the season, Johnson had 36 tackles and three interceptions in nine games. He played mostly on the outside with Gaines moving into the slot when the Rams went to nickel formations. But Johnson was also never really back to full strength until this offseason. He said Friday night that he’s no longer thinking about the knee issue.

“No, not at all,” Johnson said. “You can’t. It was feeling 100 [percent] on our first break, when we got those four months off after the season. I stayed in St. Louis for the most part, not because I was injured but because I wanted to.”

Whether Johnson will get the chance to stay in St. Louis beyond this season remains to be seen. He’s scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent after the year. But with Gaines ailing, Johnson figures to get a shot to regain his job in the short term. And if he can carry over Friday’s performance into consistent production in the regular season, maybe even longer.

Rams vs. Oakland Raiders: Postgame Thoughts and Observations

by Patrick Karraker

http://archauthority.com/2015/08/15/st-louis-rams-vs-oakland-raiders-postgame-thoughts-and-observations/

The St. Louis Rams won’t be able to go undefeated this preseason, as they were dealt an 18-3 loss by the Oakland Raiders on Friday night. Coach Jeff Fisher and his staff definitely played it conservatively on Friday, as the projected starters who saw action (including rookies Rob Havenstein and Jamon Brown) played just a couple series before coming out for the night. Thus, not a whole lot can be taken away from the kickoff to the preseason, as a large chunk of the players who determined the outcome of Friday’s game either won’t be on the Rams’ roster come September or will never see action from scrimmage. In fact, it seems that the Rams may place more emphasis on their organized practice and scrimmage against the Dallas Cowboys this week in Oxnard, California, as defensive end Chris Long was rested on Friday night, but is expected to participate when facing Dallas this week.

Here are a few thoughts and observations from Friday’s preseason opener:

At this point, the thought of beginning a new season must give Rams left guard Rodger Saffold nightmares. Saffold was carted off the field with a neck injury 2012 regular season opener at Detroit, sustained a shoulder injury in the 2013 preseason opener at Cleveland, suffered a leg injury in his personal preseason opener last season at Cleveland (after missing the first two exhibition games with an achy shoulder), and left last year’s regular season opener against Minnesota with a neck stinger. Friday was no exception, as Saffold left the game after just three plays with a wrist injury. He did not return, though Jeff Fisher said in his postgame press conference that Saffold would probably be fine. Saffold is one of the Rams’ best players when healthy, but hopefully they’ve realized by now that they need a quality backup behind him for all the time that he misses while dealing with injuries.

Saffold’s injury did create an opportunity for Brandon Washington, who’s been with the Rams for four seasons, to showcase himself at left guard. Washington has been in a constant battle to make (and then stay on) the roster during his Rams career, and that’s perhaps true in this year more than any other, as he has to fight off the five linemen the Rams drafted, among others, in order to have a shot at the 53-man roster. Washington showed some nice physicality in the early going, though he did allow Oakland defensive lineman Shelby Harris to get past him for a sack and later missed several plays with an injury of his own.

Rookie right tackle Rob Havenstein wasn’t terrible on Friday night, but it’s clear that he needs to make adjustments to his pass blocking technique, which is far from a surprise considering his monstrous height and the run-based offense he played in at Wisconsin. The 6-foot-8 Havenstein wasn’t getting enough knee bend coming out of his pass set, which left him susceptible to getting overpowered and pushed back. If he can get his weight under him just a bit more, he’ll become much more successful as a pass blocker.

Supplemental draft pick Isaiah Battle had a very rough night, which wasn’t the most surprising thing in the world considering that he was Clemson’s projected starting left tackle for this season just six weeks ago. The Rams are in no rush to make him a contributor; they have no less than three tackles that are firmly slotted ahead of him on the depth chart, and GM Les Snead was upfront after taking Battle in saying that he would need at least a year before he’d be ready to get on the field for meaningful snaps. With that said, Battle is going to have an uphill battle (no pun intended) to make himself a successful pro. By NFL tackle standards, he’s a toothpick at 6-foot-7 and 290 pounds, and it wasn’t a massive exaggeration when TV analyst and Rams legend Torry Holt remarked on Friday that Battle “has no strength at all”. With NFL strength and conditioning programs having been hugely limited by the new CBA, Battle is going to need to have an incredible desire to build his body and craft his game independently, which may be a challenge considering the apparent lack of motivation that got him in trouble at Clemson.

Seeing as the Rams drafted five offensive linemen and have several veteran backup types like Washington, Garrett Reynolds, and Travis Bond, it was quite surprising to see undrafted rookie Darrell Williams working as the Rams’ second-team left tackle on Friday. Williams, a 6-foot-5, 300-pounder, delivered a pretty impressive performance and actually seemed more comfortable than guys like Havenstein and Battle. It should be interesting to see if Williams can make himself a practice squad candidate, or perhaps even make a good enough impression to push a player like Reynolds or fourth-rounder Andrew Donnal out of the mix when the Rams cut to 53.

Tavon Austin had only one reception on Friday night, but he made the most of it, gaining 35 yards on the play after accumulating some extremely impressive yards after the catch. Austin seemed to gain confidence over the second half of last season, but his catch and subsequent movement down the field was just about the most comfortable he’s looked in open space since becoming a Ram in 2013. After two seasons of primarily disappointing results from the former seventh-overall pick, it was so uplifting to see Austin do something productive, even if it was just in a preseason game.

I wrote earlier this week about how Marshall McFadden seemed to have worked his way back into the mix for the Rams at linebacker. The special teams ace, who was released and demoted to the practice squad during the middle of the 2014 season, continued his battle to get back on the Rams’ 53-man roster with three tackles and some impressive moxie on Friday. McFadden could make himself particularly indispensable if Daren Bates, who left Friday’s game, is seriously injured, but he already seems to have the edge for the sixth linebacker job over rookie Bryce Hager and the injured Korey Toomer.

Speaking of Hager, he had some brutal moments in coverage–most notably a blown assignment that allowed Oakland receiver Andre Holmes to score a touchdown in the second quarter–and he didn’t exactly make a great impression despite leading the team with seven tackles. Considering the Rams’ general disregard of seventh-round picks under the Fisher/Snead administration, the odds were already against Hager in his battle to make the 53-man roster, so Friday’s performance didn’t help his cause.

It was quite odd to see newly-signed linebacker Akeem Ayers being pressed into coverage against Oakland receivers early on in Friday’s game. The 6-foot-3, 255-pound Ayers, who remarked during an in-game interview that he has to “get used to playing linebacker again”, was mainly used as a blitzing specialist after being traded to the Patriots early last season, and many have anticipated that he’ll fill a similar role with the Rams. Defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, who seems to be comfortable dropping literally any of his defenders back into coverage, might as well get the hefty linebacker re-acclimated to handling receivers and tight ends while the games don’t count.

In his first NFL action, third-rounder Sean Mannion was more than solid at quarterback, completing 8 of 13 passes for 53 yards. Considering that pocket presence was one of his most pressing issues at Oregon State, it was quite a feat for Mannion to be the only Rams quarterback who wasn’t sacked on Friday, especially since he was playing behind an extremely inexperienced line.

Cornerback Trumaine Johnson, who had an interception against Oakland, is a guy to really watch in the early part of this season, as he may be a candidate for a major breakout season. Johnson began intently studying tape for the first time this offseason, and if the 6-foot-2, 208-pounder can develop a superior level of intellect to go along with his elite size, there’s no reason that he can’t be one of the better cornerbacks in the league. He’s had issues with consistency through his first three seasons, but if he can sort those out, look for him to make major improvements.

Agamemnon wrote:

. They have kept all the players I thought they should keep. So far.

Did you get to see Mannion? I forget if you had the game or not.