summarize the 2014 Rams in a sentence or 2

The Rams are an extremely talented young team that appears to be coming together. If they can get the QB position sorted out in the next six months, they should be able to become a regular contender for the Lombardi.

The Rams are a pain in my ass.

The Rams season is like a pizza that was half baked, missing some ingredients, and got dropped on delivery – but it’s still a pizza.

A massive failure to take a golden opportunity.

Before the season, everyone assumed SEA, SF, and AZ would be major powers. Many of us on this board predicted that SEA or SF or both would fade. They have. And AZ is a very shaky division leader.

We had a chance to step up this year. And we failed to do that. Coaches and players were not ready for the start of the season and dug a deep hole. A lost opportunity.

Losing Sam was part of it. But given what we have seen without him, we could have easily been 7-5 rather 5-7. Discipline would have done that. We didn’t have the discipline.

We really underestimated how complicated the Gregg Williams’ D is and how long it would take for our young D to pick it up.

Even with losing our starting QB, we’ve discovered even more outstanding young talent and the D is really starting to GET William’s D showing it with quality wins over 3 of the 4 Conference Champions from last year in the span of 5 weeks which shows we have a star bright future.

Mackeyser wrote:

We really underestimated how complicated the Gregg Williams’ D is and how long it would take for our young D to pick it up.

Even with losing our starting QB, we’ve discovered even more outstanding young talent and the D is really starting to GET William’s D showing it with quality wins over 3 of the 4 Conference Champions from last year in the span of 5 weeks which shows we have a star bright future.

I am very skeptical about this matter of learning Williams’ defense.

I mean, it’s almost certainly true to some extent. But all NFL defenses are complex, and I believe the one we ran is closely related to the Williams scheme.

Most importantly, it isn’t WE who underestimated anything. We’re just fans. Nor, IMO, is it a matter of seeing the players as being in some sense slow to adjust.

Greg Williams is responsible for what he does with a highly talented group. Even if it were the case that the players struggled to learn, then he had the responsibility to bring them along slowly. There was nothing forcing him to dig deeply and quickly into the depths of complexity. He could easily have run relatively simple sets as the players learned.

To me, the complexity is a far lesser point than the question of trusting the DL. Williams said before the season that he had never had such a good D front, one less in need of blitzing.

Then he went out and blitzed hell out of teams while pulling a good bunch of DBs back and conceding quick reads and routes. We’ve seen the results. Our best games have come when he blitzed less, challenged opposing WRs, and trusted the DL to get pressure as it can do. So what does he do against SD? He reverts to blitzes and soft coverage and lets Rivers destroy us.

Then there is the matter of Aaron DOnald. Why wasn’t he starting from Week 1? In pre-season it was clear what a difference he made to the whole D. Why was he played so sparingly for a month or more? Why did it take so long for us to hear coaches suddenly confessing that they needed to get him on the field more?

I think this year has been a lot more about Williams learning to adjust to the players than it has been about the players adjusting to his system.

rfl wrote:

Then there is the matter of Aaron DOnald. Why wasn’t he starting from Week 1? In pre-season it was clear what a difference he made to the whole D. Why was he played so sparingly for a month or more? Why did it take so long for us to hear coaches suddenly confessing that they needed to get him on the field more?

Donald did not start week one because he wasn’t ready week one. That was the coaches’ judgement. They were on the field coaching him. And I am quite sure that they know much more about it than anyone posting on this board.

TackleDummy wrote:

IMO, the Rams OL is not as bad as some people seem to think. I look at Wells and Joseph as both being average. But I would not term them as “seriously below standard”. Saffold’s shoulder is certainly giving him problems. However he is playing through it pretty well. I think his off season surgery has a good chance of fixing it. And Person does not stink. In fact, I see him as moving into a starter’s role next year. Person is the kind of lineman that Fisher has had in the past. He was a seventh rounder who has spent three years developing. This is not unlike Barksdale, who was a castoff and developed with the Rams. Robinson, on the otherhand, is the first 1st round OL draft choice by a Fisher team. He is coming along well given that he is a raw talent with little pass protection experience. My guess is that by next season he will be stout in all phases of the game at LT.

Having said all of that, I also would like to see the Rams to draft an OL fairly early in the coming draft. As well as a QB and an LB. I doubt that all three positions will be addressed, however, since it is unlikely that a player of value will be there at those positions just when the Rams need them.

Well, we’re not that far apart. I like RObinson a lot and feel he is on track. Happy me.

I have always liked Saffold. The shoulder is a problem, however. I have no idea if surgery can solve it. Hope so. But certainly we have to take significant steps to back him up next year, ’cause I don’t see how we can count on him.

Barksdale is fine. Hope we re-sign him. I think we will.

Which leaves OC and ROG. And here we differ.

I liked both Wells and Joseph … in theory.

But I think they are playing poorly. A good OL rarely gives up pass-rushing pressure up the middle. We give it up a lot. And both guys are very inconsistent in run blocking.

I look at the OAK game and see a big play off tackle right … and then a lot of futility. In the 2nd half, our interior OL did nothing. Against a distinctly average OAK D front. We got whipped up front. A lot. I do NOT see average level blocking there.

And Person? Lord. The fact that his draft status and years in the league match Barksdale does not say that he can match Barksdale in quality of play. It doesn’t work that way.

Plus, we have no idea whether Jones can play at all. No idea. Anytime someone has tried to inquire, the answer is a non-answer. I doubt he is showing much, or we would have heard and he would have gotten some snaps.

And if he can’t go, then we desperately need an OC to go with an OG. And depth to support Saffold. We must get stronger up the middle. That’s one reason I can’t see us being genuine contenders this year, even if we had the record to allow us to try.

rfl wrote:

I don’t have any reason to believe that A) was true. What I do know argues against it. It’s a judgment call, and I don’t buy it.

In the first four games of the season Donald played about 40 to 45 percent of the defensive snaps. That means that he played in all of the passing downs. His role was limited to what he did best.

To make the judgment that limit his role early in the season, the Williams, etc., had a lot of information at their disposial.

The coaches were able to watch film of every snap he took in training camp, in preseason games, and in regular season games once the season started.

The coaches worked with him in the classroom, in the film room, and on the practice field.

The coaches were able to know how much the rookie was absorbing. They were aware he was seeing something new every week. They knew just how much his head was swiming with the speed of the NFL.

The coaches could observe the extent to which Donald was thinking too much instead of playing on instinct.

It was the coaches collective judgment that beginning week 1 that Donald could be effective playing almost half the defensive snaps but that it would be best not to overload him until he was ready to handle the whole load.

It was also their judgment in week 5 he was ready to handle the whole load. So he begain to play about 3/4 of the defensive snaps.

Williams, etc, had a very large amount of information about Donald. They also have a very large amount of high level experience to process this information and to make very informed judgements with the information.

rfl, I really don’t know what you do know that argues against their judgment (you didn’t say) nor do I know what your level of expertise is. But I am quite sure that what the coaches know and their ability to make this kind of decision correctly is infinitely greater than mine, yours or any other poster on this board. What I do buy is that the coaches were right.