STUDS

LT Ereck Flowers
It’s hard to complain about what you’ve seen from Flowers this preseason. He’s a rookie left tackle holding his own, and he did so again on Saturday night against a good Jets defensive line. Mostly, Flowers was matched against Jets outside linebacker Trevor Reilly. He won that matchup, especially up until the final drive. There were two plays in particular on the Giants’ long touchdown drive in the second quarter where Flowers stood out with his run blocking. He also showed some feistiness near the goal line on a play where his helmet came off. The one negative came on a when Flowers found himself against Muhammad Wilkerson and was pushed into the backfield. Wilkerson and Reilly split the sack after running a twist that the Giants left side didn’t handle well. Still another promising performance from the rookie left tackle.

http://www.nj.com/giants/index.ssf/2015/08/giants_studs_and_duds_vs_jets_include_ereck_flower.html

I don’t know how this will play out in the future but I can see it going one of two ways:

1.) Humans become extinct.

2.) A completely redesigned economy. Endless escalating profit will no longer be possible unless there is a sort of consumer robot. Things will have to go through massive change and it will be very painful and long. But it’s inevitable.

nittany ram wrote:

Well, a blind man could see the issues with the oline coming months ago when they failed to sign one of the better vet FA’s. The oline will likely keep this team out of the playoffs.

I remain blissfully optimistic for this year. But it’s going to be tough to make the playoffs. Right now–at this moment–it doesn’t look like a playoff team. It looks like a 5 win team. But we’ll see how Week 1 looks. I’m sure they will give the line help from backs and tight ends whenever they can and maybe when Gurley checks in they find the solid running game they need.

The defense should solve its problems and be good enough if not elite.

But they HAVE to get the running game going. That threat alone should help on pass plays. I expect they will play it “safe” for awhile with what they do.

wv wrote:

Haven’t seen it yet. Um….at the risk of losing
my accreditation…i thought the game was Sunday night.

Luckily i have NFL gameday-replay.

w
v

I have Gamepass and am thinking of keeping it.

I just haven’t had luck with streaming sites this year and don’t feel like fighting them. Yes–I won’t see the games until the next day but I’ll still see them.

I have a few days to decide.

At this point in the preseason, the most logical reason for the move would be that the team intends to move Saffold back to right guard when he returns. Saffold played there in 2013, and going back to that spot would also allow the Rams to breakup the two rookies on the right side.

This makes sense to me.

But why didn’t they do that at the beginning?

But no pressure, Todd.

I can see the Dickerson comparisons. But I’ll wait till he plays a few games before I put him in that lofty category.

The Rams can afford to take it slow with him and I hope they do. I don’t care if he doesn’t play until October. Take your time.

They should be able to manufacture a running game with Mason, Cunningham and Pead(or if later Watts) until he’s ready. I am in no hurry for him to get on the field. It is a long term investment and I’m glad they aren’t rushing him.

I can understand the offense struggling a little bit. I can’t get the defense looking hopeless and lost. They said they didn’t have gap discipline, things like that. Clearly their tackling was sloppy. Do they work on that in camp? The defense has been together–should know their assignments, and should certainly do more than lunge at runners hoping they’ll drop.

I don’t even know for sure how much the Titans and Raiders actually gameplanned specifically for the Rams. I do know that they are not good teams and they looked great against this team.

I do believe the travelling affected some things. I get that.

But this team needs to look a LOT different this week.

We’ll see.

Go UPS!!!!!!!!!

“If you go back a year from now, or two years from now, or three years from now, you guys all asked me the same questions: ‘What’s up with your offense?’” Fisher said. “We keep it basic. Our philosophy is to just play and work on fundamentals during the preseason.”

Why on earth would anyone ever ask that?

This 8-8, 7-9 offense will be just fine. Trust him.

The excuse I keep hearing is that the team was tired. I actually believe that’s possible. They traveled to Oakland and then they go to Oxnard–work out with the Cowboys–have to prepare for Tennessee somehow and travel to Tennessee for a game they weren’t prepared to play.

But why put the team through the whole Oxnard experience to begin with? Did it REALLY help to work out with the Cowboys? Doesn’t show. And forget “gameplanning”. This is about fundamentals. Washington looked lost out there. The line could not open holes for the backs(until the 2nd or 3rd stringers played against the 2nd or 3rd stringers) and the defense could not get close to Mariotta OR shut down the running game even a little bit.

Pre-season or not–there is no excuse for that type of performance and if it WAS being tired, I blame Fisher for the whole Cowboys/Oxnard fiasco. This should not be about displaying your team for L.A. fans–it should be about getting ready for the season and clearly they don’t look ready if they can’t even play on the same field as the 2-14 Titans with a rookie QB.

It was a pathetic performance.

GZ missed a FG right and Palardy misses one left. Hekker punted horribly.

SOMETHING was wrong with this team.

And I’m sorry–but that points to Fisher.

I remember reading how the Cowboys were surprised how the Rams practiced. How slow it was–no flow–how the Cowboy coaches practiced DURING drills while the Rams seemed to stop and THEN coach. That struck me as a bit weird. Maybe it isn’t but it does seem like a less efficient way of coaching.

And yes–I’d like to see the players and coaches embarrassed by that performance–pre-season or not.

Look–ultimately, maybe it’s meaningless. Maybe they start the season with four straight wins and all of the concern goes away and we look back on this and laugh at how bad they looked.

But unless that happens or until I see some professional solid play–I will remain concerned.

Fisher no longer has my confidence just because he’s Jeff Fisher. He has to earn it like every other coach. He hasn’t done that yet.

I thought it was a cheap shot.

Mentally, it may prove good for Sam–knowing that he got up and was okay.

But it was dirty.

I thought Sam wasn’t quite comfortable in that offense yet. He also may have been nervous. We’ll find out this year whether Bradford can really be the QB we hoped he would be because if you can’t do it in that Eagles offense….you ain’t got it.