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Disappointment. But not bitter disappointment.
Forget the defense. That was second teamers and I don’t really count that last night. Although I am a bit worried about how this will all suddenly come together on week 1 when they haven’t been really playing together. But we’ll see.
Special teams. My main gripe here was some poor decisions on bringing the ball out of the endzone. The ball is spotted at the 25 yard line now. In most cases it’s just better to take that–unless you see a huge opportunity.
Offense.
I went to GamePass and slowed things down. First of all–Brown was not great at RG. He was inconsistent at best. He worries me a bit there. On the sack/fumble Brown is literally blocking NO ONE. Yes–Havenstein got beat but Brown is staring into empty space. He had other poor results earlier in the drive. Not impressed. By the way–Whitworth chased that defender who had the ball all the way to the endzomne. Great effort–even if he had no shot. Also–I originally thought Goff did not feel the pressure at all but he is sliding a bit to his left as Bosa approaches and he was just a second slow on throwing it. One note: on the play before when he overthrew Higbee in the endzone he could have had a wide open Robert Woods who was cutting across the middle toward the goal line. Goff never saw him.
On the second series after the fumble The Rams start out fine. A quick pass to Cooper for about 6 yards and Brown up the middle for the first down. After that Goff fakes the handoff and the pressure comes from the left side as #93 for the Chargers spins away from Saffold and has a clean line to Goff. Still, Goff has plenty of time to set and throw. It’s just a bad throw. Period. Two Rams receivers were in the area Woods was deep and Watkins(was wide open) shorter. I’m not sure who he was trying to hit because it ended up between them. Either way. Just a bad throw.
On the next drive–the Malcolm Brown drive–other than Havenstein–it was a second unit offensive line. For the record it was Williams, Havenstein, Blythe, Eldenkamp and Wichmann. Chargers were still playing starters. I have to give a high five to Watkins. Sammy is a really good downfield blocker as a receiver. A lot of receivers don’t do that but he blocking alone is an asset.
On the drive Goff throws high to a wide open Higbee, He had time. Bad throw. On a 3rd and 9 Goff hits Wood short of the sticks and takes a good hit to the turf in the process. Goff is done for the night. He finishes 5-8 for 56 yards and an int.
I wish that McVay would have sent Goff back with the first unit on the Malcolm Brown drive and let him throw. Sending him out there to hand off was a waste, IMO. Yeah–it’s great work for the run game but Mannion could have handed the ball to Brown.
It looked to me like Goff threw about 3 bad balls. The high endzone pass to Higbee(not sure if the threw it away or not but he had Woods open)the interception, and a high pass to Higbee on the last drive. Those were his three incompletions. Like I said–I would have liked to see one more drive where he got to throw the ball. I’m not sure if he’s ready for the season. I just don’t know.
Clearly McVay didn’t care about the game itself–and that’s fine–it’s pre-season. So hopefully he was able to see what he wanted to see. The Chargers certainly played more starters and longer. I do think that teams will believe that if you hit Goff you can rattle him and so I expect he will see a lot of exotic blitzes this year–until he burns teams on them. Or he shows the hits don’t matter.
That’s all I got for now.
I do think that Fouts is on to something about the Rams quarterbacks needing to get a better feel for the pressure(although I believe Mannion is better than Goff at that right now). That should come with time.
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. " Philip K. Dick
I think this was a very silly episode.
I never liked the whole, “let’s go grab a dead guy and bring it back for proof” scheme and now we know that this may have mostly been about giving the Night King a dragon of his own. I mean–I’m not sure the dead guy convinces Cersi or that she even cares and if it doesn’t…it was all sort of pointless. Beyond two things—bringing a dragon to the Night King and hooking up Jon and Dany.
But there had to be a better way.
There they are–stuck on a rock while this weird timeline(is it an hour, a day, a week.)
I’m sorry–it was just silly.
Also annoying–the Sansa, Arya spat. Sansa is so easily manipulated, it seems. And where was Bran during all of this goings on? He only reveals things when he feels like it? He knows all about Littlefinger and his schemes.
Still—an ice dragon is REALLY cool. So I’m glad they did it.
But this hurried, rushed season has some flaws and doesn’t measure up to previous seasons.
I thought the Night King and his gang would break through the wall this season but now I think it’ll be next year.
Next week is the big pow wow. I’m expecting a Lannister deception of some sort because–it’s the Lannisters.
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. " Philip K. Dick
