nittany ram wrote:

Nittany is an anti-Clownite.

With good reason…

Clown’s gotta eat, too.

I wish you and your family the best, zn.

Kellen Clemens was way more limited than Hill. The defense didn’t respect his arm past 20 yards. They have to respect that Hill can throw the ball downfield, and pretty accurately. He makes more mistakes than Clemens, but Clemens also couldn’t produce many points.

TackleDummy wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>wv wrote:</div>
I personally dont even want AustinD back.
I dont think his flaws are correctable.

If the Rams think they are a QB away from
the playoffs, then I’d bring back Bradford
and just take the salary-hit.

I’d like to bring Hill back, too.

In 8 and a half games Austin Davis has completed 63.4% of his passes, he has thrown for over 2000 yards. He has an 85.1 qbr and has passed for 12 TDs against 9 interceptions. (Most 1st year qbs throw for more interceptions than TDs.) And you are ready to toss him in the trash heap! Really? I have words for that kind of logic, but they would get me banned.

BTW — Sam Bradford as a rookie completed 60.0% of his passes, had a 76.5 qbr, threw for 18 TDs against 15 ints. These numbers are a little worse than those of Davis and Bradford won offensive rookie of the year. And you are going to get rid of Davis?

Austin Davis has had some good moments, but I don’t want him to be anything more than a 3rd string QB, and if that means you can’t have Bradford, Hill and a rookie to develop, yes, I say goodbye to Austin Davis. When pressured, Austin Davis crumbles. Those statistics don’t reflect that he also holds onto the ball too long, contributing to sacks. And, his turnovers often lead to TDs. I think that’s because he has poor pocket awareness and makes some questionable choices when pressured. Plus, I don’t think he’s much of a leader. I think the league’s caught up to Davis, and I don’t think we’ll see too many gaudy stats from him again.

• This reply was modified 10 years, 1 month ago by Dak.

Eternal Ramnation wrote:

zn wrote:
Emmanuel Sanders: Was a legal hit

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/1…-denver-broncos-says-hit-was-legal-ready-play

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. – Denver Broncos wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders said Friday he’s ready to play Sunday against the Miami Dolphins and that St. Louis Rams safety Rodney McLeod made “a legal hit” on the tackle that resulted in Sanders’ concussion.

Sanders did add, however, he believed McLeod could have made more of an attempt to go for the ball rather than the hit.

“I think it was a legal hit,” Sanders said after Friday’s practice. “Obviously, [McLeod] didn’t hit me in the head or lead with the head. He hit me with the shoulder. But in terms of the intentions of targeting, I feel like the guy could have had an opportunity to go for the ball, but I think his intentions the whole time were to come over and deliver a blow. That’s the only thing that I’m not too happy about.

“I feel like the National Football League, although it is a violent game, you’re also supposed to protect your brother. And most free safeties, they like interceptions. Obviously, his intent was to try and make a statement, and I guess he did.”

Sanders was knocked out of last Sunday’s 22-7 Broncos loss on the fourth play of the second half. Peyton Manning threw a ball deep up the right sideline and McLeod arrived, with shoulder to shoulder contact, asSanders was diving to try to make the catch.

Friday was also the first time Sanders had spoken extensively about the play.

“Yeah, I remember the play,” Sanders said. “I remember everything. I had a go ball, I had the corner one-on-one, and I had beat the corner, and I was actually open, and I was running, and I laid out for the ball, and he came over and he didn’t even look at the ball the entire time, he was just looking at me and ready to hit me.”

<span class=”d4pbbc-font-color” style=”color: blue”><span class=”d4pbbc-font-size” style=”font-size: 14px”>Well Sanders was definitely not a defenseless player. I don’t want my FS going for picks ,I want him doing his job as the last line of defense and saving a TD. McCleod took a lot of care in hitting a very quickly moving small target within the rules which is not an easy task in todays NFL.He did protect his brother not hitting with his helmet not hitting Sanders in the head or knees.That said I could understand that hit scaring the crap out of him but this is the NFL and the Rams D is going to hit as hard and often as they can,it’s what great D’s do. </span></span>

I wonder what former players like Ronnie Lott and Toby Wright think about a quote like this:

“But in terms of the intentions of targeting, I feel like the guy could have had an opportunity to go for the ball, but I think his intentions the whole time were to come over and deliver a blow. That’s the only thing that I’m not too happy about.

“I feel like the National Football League, although it is a violent game, you’re also supposed to protect your brother. And most free safeties, they like interceptions. Obviously, his intent was to try and make a statement, and I guess he did.”

Winnbrad wrote:

Magnificent. I am loving this D. If they can continue to understand their roles, and snot knock people (without the flags) we could be on to something.

I’ll tell you what. They put on a clinic on how to hit wide receivers legally, and still make an impact in the defensive backfield. The McCleod penalty was just a ref thinking, “Boy, that hit was way too hard not to be a penalty. I better throw this flag or expect hell from the league office.”

Wow, those were fun to watch. Truly, it was a great team effort with a lot of really good individual plays. That’s a great defensive effort. Hope to see the same in San Diego.

The one guy we need to stop doing stupid things: Jenkins. He just needs to play smart. He doesn’t need to cheat on the ball, or get personal fouls. It looks to me that TruJo is our best CB now. His injury likely had something to do with the defense’s regression earlier this year.

I’m calling 9-7 right now. They will lose another game, no doubt. Probably something stupid, like to Oakland at home. But, this team will kill with Hill, win with Quinn, give spankin’s with Jenkins, spring free with ‘Tree, get cray-cray with Tre Tre, give a shit with Britt, cook with Cook, and so forth.

But, yeah, the postseason remains a dream.

If they can eliminate mistakes in the defensive secondary, this defense can be dominant, simple as that.

fearsomefour

A couple of huge plays early in the third quarter.

Denver’s first possession they ran a well executed WR screen to Sanders. There were two well executed blocks and Sanders had a big play, likely a TD in front of him. Brockers ran the play down from behind and tackled him around the ankles. The Rams went on to get a D stop and remain ahead 13-7. Brockers has been a bit unsung this season but that play showed great hustle and “want”. Starting a pass rush, getting off the block and out of the traffic of the middle of the line and running down a WR on the outside to save a TD….big, big play.

Also, on the Rams possession that started at 12:29 in the third quarter Hill made two very good plays. First on the 3rd and 3 and under pressure from the pass rush Hill did not panic, he slid out to the his left (not a sprint….eyes downfield) and made a nice back shoulder throw to Cunningham to convert a third down.

Later in the same possession under major pressure, again on third down, Hill slid in the pocket and stepped up making an accurate throw to Cunningham before getting hit by two Broncos….again, Cunningham picking up the first down.

These are not big plays on the stat sheet, but, these kinds of plays that a vet QB can give you hold so much value for a team, especially for one that is playing very good D. The ability to remain calm under the pass rush, keep they eyes downfield and keep possession is huge. Instead of a three and out the Rams ended up punting at 8:19 of the third quarter. No points on the drive, but, changing field position (something not done in recent weeks) and holding the ball for 4:10 effectively took a possession away from Denver’s dangerous offense.

Also, Kendricks played a role in limiting the Bronco pass rush. He was schemed in a lot and helped block those quick outside rushers.

A great team win with a lot of contributors. We may look back and say this was the game that started the upward swing in the Fisher era.

Yes, I remember all of those plays he mentions here. And, they were all huge. Making a play here and there adds up big time. In past weeks, seems like the Rams were missing plays here and there, instead. So, we go from negative plays to positive plays, and voila, a great team win.

• This reply was modified 10 years, 1 month ago by Dak.

Strauss’s piece was a good read.

Instead of the usual two or three checks that Laurinaitis can make out of certain offensive looks, the Rams had six or seven. On defensive tackle Aaron Donald’s fourth-down sack in the fourth quarter, Laurinaitis got called out as the MIC linebacker by Broncos rookie center Will Montgomery. Laurinaitis had shown blitz but offered a subtle change at the line of scrimmage, switching the side where he lined up in an effort to create enough confusion to throw the Broncos off.

At the snap, Montgomery took the bait and end Robert Quinn peeled around the inside to Manning. Quinn was unable to bring Manning down, but Donald cleaned it up for a sack.

And the tweaks weren’t just based out of blitz looks, either. On cornerback Trumaine Johnson’s fourth-quarter interception, the Rams showed a normal Cover 3 look before the snap, something Manning had probably seen plenty of times in his tape study. But Williams had installed a different coverage from the same look earlier in the week and Manning threw down the right sideline where Johnson made an acrobatic interception.

“As long as all 11 are on the same page, we’ll be all right,” Laurinaitis said. “That’s a great job by the defensive coaching staff knowing it would come to that and the best part about Gregg Williams is he gives me the freedom to call stuff if I don’t want to check and the feeling of the play just isn’t right, we play the call. A couple of times it happened and a couple of times he checked. It was the combination of a great game plan and just executing.”

That’s all very interesting stuff. This D is finally getting to a place where it can cause havoc through subtle changes, and JL’s play calls are making a difference. This should be fun the rest of the season.

Nick Wagoner @nwagoner
Three wins against 2013 conference finalists.

Wow. And, gave Arizona everything could handle until the late offensive meltdown.

I take it back. I hit saved again and saw all of my picks.

Here’s the thing that keeps tripping me up. I keep thinking the second team is the home team, but it’s the opposite.