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wvParticipantWhat High School was it?
I have always liked high school marching bands.
Despite all the hierarchical and military-industrial implications,
I like’em 🙂
I live next to Morgantown High School and the band
marches down my street every other week or so.
I enjoy it.w
vAugust 30, 2015 at 2:45 pm in reply to: an annual treat: "my report from the sideline" & some follow-up #29575wvParticipantThat was a fun read. Excellent, just excellent.
If the Oline comes together, things will click.
If it don’t, everything will sink.
We’ve all prettymuch repeated that
a gazillion times this offseason.w
vwvParticipantHaven’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
vwvParticipantDid Brockers and Long both lose weight?
I know Long said he did.Just curious.
w
vwvParticipantThis may sound wishy-washy but its how i see it — i agree
with both zn and rfl, in general.I mean, I think i see what zack is saying and it makes
sense, but i also have a stream of thoughts/feelings in wv-brain
that watch the play of the offense and defense so far, and
that stream is going…”Its Year FOUR, WTF?!..”w
vThe trick will be how they look across the next 4 weeks.
Venturi predicted they will come out strong, at least tomorrow.
I see signs of that already. When you get guys like Quinn talking in public about how the team has to step up, to me, that means he’s echoing the coaches.
And this is of course about the defense. We know an offense with a new coordinator, a new qb, and a new OL is going to struggle.
BTW I think it is completely telling that even Hekker and GZ looked bad against Tenn, and then you read that Dallas had the exact same issues last weekend, also in all 3 phases—offense, defense, special teams.
I don;t think they played well against the Titans but I just took that as a one-time thing.
..
I look for that to happen too. I expect them to
play much better at home, and much better
since they should be pretty riled up, etc.But is this the kind of team that is going to be
“Up and down” — AGAIN. Win a couple, look great,
lose a couple look awful. Etc, etc ?
Are they ever gonna be consistently excellent?…I dunno. The defense aint proved
it can consistently stop the run,
and consistently rush the passer against a good OLine,
etc.
And the offense has just looked abysmal.So…I dunno.
Thus, consequently, my contribution
to this thread is “I dunno.”I think.
Therefore,
I dunno.w
v
There are things known and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception.”
― Aldous HuxleyAugust 28, 2015 at 4:01 pm in reply to: The Lawrence Philips mini-series (not literally, just a metaphor) #29465wvParticipantI dunno how they iz gonna get a conviction
when one witness is dead and one
can claim self-defense.Its always extremely
frustrating for people to deal
with humans like Phillips. Because its always
SOOO obvious when you are around people like that,
that something is very wrong with their brains, and
very bad shit is ‘going’ to happen in the future.
They desperately need help to stop that from happening
but all kinds of factors will prevent that help
from arriving. Its like those twilight zone episodes
where someone sees the future but is unable to
prevent the bad dreams from happening.Phillips was a time-bomb just like Mike Tyson,
and a gazillion others. I see people like that
every week, and every week they go out into the world…
without getting the help they need. Blah blah blah.w
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This reply was modified 10 years, 6 months ago by
wv.
wvParticipantThis may sound wishy-washy but its how i see it — i agree
with both zn and rfl, in general.I mean, I think i see what zack is saying and it makes
sense, but i also have a stream of thoughts/feelings in wv-brain
that watch the play of the offense and defense so far, and
that stream is going…”Its Year FOUR, WTF?!..”w
vwvParticipantI dunno.
That all sounds reasonable.
But, I dunno.w
v
Leo O’Bannion: “Oh, come on, Tommy. You know I don’t like to think.”wvParticipanti would take rgiii over mannion. i don’t know about foles. they’re both young. although rgiii clearly has more potential.
or not. i don’t know. that’d be tempting. i’m anxious about foles. i really hope the offense can show something against indy.I haven’t seen enough of Foles to say much, but I’ll say this:
the guy sure don’t look graceful back there in the pocket.Foles has more leadership skills in his little finger
than RG3 has in his whole body, though. Fwiw.w
vwvParticipantVery interesting better than the reporting by the sports media.
I dunno. I really didnt learn anything significant that i
didnt already know. I mean…it could go either way.
So thats where we are at.What does this mean, btw:
“He said “none of this is happening in St. Louis if they had done things any differently with L.A.”w
vAugust 26, 2015 at 7:40 am in reply to: Sasser hired by Rams after he was unable to pass physical #29312wvParticipant“…Sasser is one of seven new hires announced by the Rams Tuesday. The others: Preston Black (business intelligence coordinator), Vitto Gonella (scouting assistant), Rebecca Lally (football information analyst), Michael Pierce (scouting assistant), Matt Segal (website coordinator) and Erica Sherman (player involvement and community outreach coordinator).”
Vitto Gonella?
w
v
wvParticipantThis is most likely a 6 – 8 win team. Maybe they’ll do better but there’s nothing about this team that would suggest that they will be better than that. There’s no evidence they will be better. All we have is hope.
Well, I am still expecting to see a playoff team.
There’s just too much talent overall for this to be a six win team.Granted, the first two preseason games have been
about as bad as I’ve ever seen.On to practice-game-Three.
w
vwvParticipant====================
http://mmqb.si.com/monday-morning-qb-cris-carter-jordy-nelson-navorro-bowman-nfl
Peter King…• You are kidding me, Cris Carter—and you are kidding me, NFL. My first reaction to the story of Carter telling NFL rookies at the 2014 Rookie Symposium that they have to find a “fall guy” in a player’s “crew” who will take the blame when the player commits a crime: My jaw dropped.
Precisely. Carter apologized, and though the NFL tried to distance itself from Carter’s idiotic remarks, how could the league have placed the offending video of his talk on NFL.com until yanking it Sunday? This is so offensive it boggles the mind that some person with the NFL would say, Let’s show the world this great advice about obstructing justice from a Hall of Fame hero to impressionable rookies. Also: How could NFL VP Troy Vincent, who is in charge of the symposium, have allowed Carter to spew such venom? Carter, by the way, was in his yellow Pro Football Hall of Fame blazer. In all ways, this is the biggest example of inmates running the NFL asylum that I’ve seen in years.
…
5. There are offensive line concerns in front of Manning—major ones. When has this happened: All three starters on the left side of the line have never played an NFL regular-season or playoff snap. “We’re still working on it,” Elway said. “We’re looking at all options. If we can find a player who can help us there as the season approaches, we’ll look at it.” Rookie left tackle Ty Sambrailo (second round), left guard Max Garcia (fourth round), and center Matt Paradis (sixth round, 2014, practice squad all last year) are the men under the microscope. Expect the Broncos to deal a low-round pick for someone’s line depth, or to pick up a lineman—probably a guard—on waivers.
6. The Broncos will likely do the Romo thing this year, and give Manning every Wednesday off. Just for insurance—and so the Broncos can see a little more of Brock Osweiler getting quality time with the first unit. “I think that’s the plan right now,” Elway said. “I think he’d feel better right now if he takes Wednesday off. His health is not a concern. His freshness is a concern.”
———
I think if you wanted to tell me that San Diego pass-rusher Melvin Ingram will lead the NFL in sacks this year, I would not argue with you. What a get-off—as coaches say—Ingram has. He showed it Saturday night with two sacks early against Arizona. Ingram’s had a star-crossed injury history since being the Chargers’ top pick in 2012, missing 19 games, but he looked like Justin Houston around the edge on one sack Saturday night.
————–
I think it feels very much like you can see the end for Robert Griffin III in Washington. It started last year, with the blunt criticism of Griffin from his head coach, and it continues with subpar play this summer, and another mini-controversy last week, when he said he thought he was the best quarterback in the NFL. Which would be hilarious if it wasn’t so ridiculous. Then, former Washington return man Brian Mitchell, now with CSN Mid-Atlantic, went off in an epic rant addressed to Griffin.“You need to shut the hell up and start playing football,” Mitchell said on air, via Pro Football Talk. “That will make you important. Win football games in this city, and you would have this city at the palm of your hands. You had it, and you’re starting to lose it because you talk. And there a lot of people that were supporting him that are now starting to turn their back, because they see a guy who seems to be so full of himself and not doing what he’s supposed to be doing. You came here to be a football player, not a damn philosopher.”
Mitchell capped it by saying the team has enabled Griffin too much, and not told him the harsh truth when he needs to hear it: “He does a lot of stupid stuff, and it’s about time he hears it instead of people kissing his tail all the damn time.” It’s compounded by the fact that Colt McCoy has had a good camp and is highly respected by the coaching staff. Especially after Griffin was knocked out of the team’s second preseason game. Seems like this has been said a lot, at the beginning of many weeks in the past year, but this is a big week for Griffin’s immediate and long-term future in Washington.
wvParticipantThis is nice. I think its a Fisher thing.
“We have good guys, whether it’s somebody in competition with me trying to take my spot or somebody who you don’t even think is going to get on the team, you want to build those relationships because they’re going to help you out in the long run. So I just want to make sure these rookies get a good experience when they’re in the league, so I do my best to eliminate the kind of hazing aspects and try and be that mentor; be somebody to help them so they can say they had a great experience with this team even if don’t even make it one year in the league.”
w
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This reply was modified 10 years, 7 months ago by wv.
wvParticipantI think “cover-ups” should be taught in schools
beginning in first grade.
So that by the time kids
grow into corporate CEO’s and NFL Players
they aren’t confused about how to handle
these situations.w
vwvParticipantRam43 reposting and bowdlerizing DCH
w
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==================================
Ram43
Ahem, some editing was required due to language.Here’s DCH…
Positives:
– We have RB depth up the “wazoo”.
– Pead and Watts both looked like they should be playing over Cunningham.
– Our backup QBs are looking better than they have in years – both Keenum and Mannion look like gamers.
– Joyner flew around the field like his hair was on fire and rather than wanting to put it out, he wanted to take some “bleeping” Titans down in flames with him
– We seem to have a legit starting LT, RG and RT, as Robinson, Brown and Havenstein all played reasonably well
– Barrett Jones (my boy!) didn’t get his name called much when he took his turn at C, and that was in a good way – dude played solid.
– Barron looked good back on the field, was relatively disruptive and got his hands on what should have been an INT
– Rhaney looked OK… inconsistent, but flashing talent.
– I don’t think they threw at Jenkins once, which I take as a testament to his threat.
– They didn’t have nearly as many penalties, and the roughing the passer calls were both total @#$%&.
– Stedman catches everything close to him and makes plays out of it.
– Givens can still take the top off of a defense.Negatives:
– The D-line is not looking good… if swapping Brockers out for Westbrooks means we’re gashed for 5 yards per carry and can’t generate consistent pressure on the QB, then what the hell are we paying the other 3 starters so much for?
– Aaron Donald is, so far, invisible to me
– Foles… yeesh. What I see is a guy who is very good when his first read is open, and very bad afterwords. His footwork has not been good. He’s not shifted around in what little pocket he’s had. He’s forced bad throws. He doesn’t seem to check down to the safety valve effectively when his primary read is open and the pocket is collapsing. One thing NFL radio noted this morning: they said he looks slow taking his drops, like he’s getting back to step 5 when he should have already released the ball.
– Brandon Washington seems to have spent 2014 watching Davin Joseph and now thinks that’s what a starting NFL guard should look like. He’s played awful.
– JL looks a step slower and a bit weaker than he did last year. Not sure what’s up with him, but he just looks like a guy who’s made his name on a consistent motor who’s cruising through preseason. High-motor guys playing with the motor on idle don’t look good… and he doesn’t look good.
– Barron flashed hands of stone on the aforementioned dropped INT.
– Austin was invisible.
– Still no creativity on the offensive scheming. Not even vanilla… more like unflavored ice chips.
– Williams blitzing seems to leave a lot of holes for offenses to exploit. Why can’t our D-line collapse pockets without guys coming out of the secondary or from the LB corps?
– Middle of the field pass defense is… we’ll say porous.
– Austin Davis does not belong on an NFL field. Bad in the pocket, no arm strength, no vision, no idea how he had a stretch of success last year.
– There seems to be way too much “We’re missing X player from the unit, therefore the unit as a whole is failing.” Saffold on the O-line. Brockers on the D-line. Is this not a team sport? The team seems to internalize excuses, like “We’re tired from playing the Cowboys,” and “We’re missing one of our starters on this group,” and playing down to lowered expectations.wvParticipantI also remember thinking Cignetti is not even
trying to call medium passing plays. He’s not
threatening the middle, he’s not calling for 20 yard zingers.
He’s just dinking and dunking and it looked like the defenseI have one word for you. “Link.”
Well it would be nice to see Mr Foles do some of that
in the third game. Then again, I dont suppose they
want to risk having him stand in the pocket too long.w
vwvParticipantthere is no face of the franchise other than Fisher…… unless you live in the past….
currently, the Rams have no face of the franchise.
you want something current or in the future, put the Inglewood stadium up there….
You may be right. I cant really think
of a player thats the “Face of the franchise” right now.Other than Hekker. O dear. A punter. Sigh.
Well, who needs a face anyway.
w
vwvParticipantWell we all agree i think that
that was a total fiasco on offense
and defense.It was bad. I was expecting better
in game two. So, I’m not happy about it.I did see a play by Foles that made me smile though.
That play where he danced a bit and hit Britt in
a very tight window. That one made me go…hmmmmm.On the other hand, there was the INT where Foles just
looked like he was Helen Keller. I mean WTF.So, i dunno what we have in Foles. I dunno.
I also remember thinking Cignetti is not even
trying to call medium passing plays. He’s not
threatening the middle, he’s not calling for 20 yard zingers.
He’s just dinking and dunking and it looked like the defense
knew that was all they were gonna have to defend. (I only watched
the first half) So, I dunno what that means. I’m hoping
the playcalling gets more sophisticated in the regular season.
I assume it will.Obviously the disappointment on defense was the gaping holes
the RBs were running through. I dunno what to make of that.
Disappointing is all i can say at this point.For me personally, Its way too early to say this team
cant be a 10-6 team. Ten wins is not anywhere near ‘elite’.
Its just a bit better than mediocre. I still expect
this team to win that many. Yes. I do. Still.w
vwvParticipantHe probly coulda fed a lot more poor people if
he’d made that extra 35 million.Life’s all postmodern and complexified,
maybe.w
v
“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not
money, I am become as a sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And
though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries,
and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could
remove mountains, and have not money, I am nothing. And though I
bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to
be burned, and have not money, it profiteth me nothing. Money
suffereth long, and is kind; money envieth not; money vaunteth not
itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave unseemly, seeketh not her
own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in
iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth
all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. . . . And now
abideth faith, hope, money, these three; but the greatest of these
is money.I Corinthians xiii (adapted) ”
― George Orwell, Keep the Aspidistra FlyingwvParticipantI think that teams use the strength of this defense(quick defensive line–aggressive D) against us. They hit short quick passes or run through a blitz and set up their longer strikes. There isn’t a lot of TIME to hit the QB. And this defense is mostly about getting to that QB. When it happens–brilliant. Chaos strikes–good things happen. But teams know this and they’ll “sucker” this defense in sometimes…while knowing where the opening is for that quick pass. The Rams run out of position to defend, in a sense.
This is exactly correct.
I’ll just say that this has been the response of every competent offense to good pass rushes since Deacon and Merle’s time. And any decent DC knows it. If you’re going to get value from a great natural pass rush, you MUST have ways to challenge the quick passing game.
Williams, however, simply concedes the short passing game most of the time. So it isn’t just offenses using our strength against us. It’s Williams inviting them to do so.
I’ll say that I deeply resent the unsoundness of the deployments Williams seems inexplicably to love. As long as he keeps playing his secondary in the first row of the stands, our pass rush will accomplish little. For the reasons you note.
Well, we have all seen ‘some’ games where ‘that’ happened.
Ie, the opposing offense just dinked and dunked all the way
down the field, repeatedly, or at critical times.But we know, Fisher and GW are not idiots, right? We know that.
So, we know there must be some reason why the Rams secondary,
“seemingly” has played too soft too much of the time, in the past.RFL’s view seems to be “GW deploys his players in unsound ways”.
I just dunno if thats the truth, or a partial truth or what.
I just dunno. Perhaps there are other explanations or
perhaps the secondary is not playing as soft as it looks
most of the time. I dunno.Its interesting that if RFL is right, then GW is totally reckless
with his front Seven and totally timid with his back four.w
vwvParticipantThe lone ram was Laurinaitis was it not?
w
vAugust 21, 2015 at 3:20 pm in reply to: Earl Thomas unsure he’ll be ready for Week One…and other issues in Seattle #29082wvParticipantSuch a big game for both teams, early on.
It kinda feels like a playoff game to me,
as a Ram fan.w
vFrom the perspective of starting the season quickly, as opposed to waitng until game 6 to turn the jets on, yes, agreed, playoff game emotions.
However, the Rams have played them pretty well at home, so theres kind of an expectation that this should continue. For me, anyways.
The real coup will be getting a “W” in Seattle, on 12/27. I might be inclined to forego all rights to my Christmas presents if that could be arranged…
I have less patience now then I’ve had in a Long time.
It’s year four for Fisher. Lots of high draft picks.
Everyone is healthy. They are playing at home.I am a tired, old, fed-up fan who will not be satisfied
with any moral victories or “they played Seattle tough” stuff.
Seattle is almost invincible in Seattle but on the road they
can be taken by good teams.Anything less than a Win over a vulnerable Seattle team
is going to really vex my ass. Fwiw.w
vAugust 21, 2015 at 2:39 pm in reply to: Earl Thomas unsure he’ll be ready for Week One…and other issues in Seattle #29074wvParticipantI dunno about Seattle. Those secondary
players coming off injuries might not
hit the ground running. Ya know.
They might hit the ground and fall down.Such a big game for both teams, early on.
It kinda feels like a playoff game to me,
as a Ram fan.w
vwvParticipant
“Doubting Nittany”Ah, Caravaggio! This is actually one of my favorite painters and paintings.
How about the self-portrait as Goliath’s severed head, a confession to the Pope for his guilt as a murderer? Meg and I actually saw that one in Rome. Amazing.
I think we, possibly, might agree, tentatively,
that we do indeed see some evidence
that suggests Caravaggio did show flashes of
elite talent.Granted he was no Jackson Pollock. 🙂
w
vwvParticipantGaines was a solid, reliable player. I sure hope
he can come back from that injury next year.w
vwvParticipantI will not believe this defense can dominate until it actually does.
You know, Jesus just wants you to
Believe.
w
v
“Doubting Nittany”wvParticipantthis has probly been posted but i didnt see it:
Brockers Mik’d up vs Dallas:
http://www.rams-news.com/oxnard-wired-michael-brockers-wears-the-gopro-helmet-cam-video/wvParticipantI am pretty amazed, though, at the apparently universal agreement that one really shouldn’t look for any indicators whatsoever in the pre-season games….
By the way, please note that I did not refer to the loss. Or even the Offense. I was distinctly referring to some sign of elite qualities…
Well i for one, didnt say i dont look for any indicators “in the preseason games” — I said, i dont look for anything in the FIRST preseason game. I mean the starters just don’t play very much in game one, blah blah blah.
I do agree with you about not paying much attention to “losses” etc, but instead to “elite qualities” etc. Its an important distinction and veteran, hardcore, longtime fans can discern salient qualities in preseason games. That of course is different than just looking at the score…
RFL-posts are often as much about “how fans interpret things” as much as the Rams play. I happen to like that myself, LoL.
w
vwvParticipantI also think its
fair to “expect” a top ten (or better) defense, given
the totality of the circumstances (talent, experience, etc)
that weve all talked about over and over.Absolutely. We absolutely should expect it.
The question is … do we see it emerging? Will it become a reality?
I get what you’re saying about P/S games. But you know, I think they show you a lot. You see who the team is emerging to be.
Way, way back in time, the 80s, I think, I was looking idly at a Viking P/S game. They had been poor, but they had some new pieces on defense. I think John Randle was a key part of the package.
Anyway, they looked awesome in that P/S game. The defense did. They just dominated. I remember thinking, “Aw, don’t worry. This is P/S. It won’t mean much.” But you know, a completely mediocre team emerged that year as a dominant defense. What I saw in that P/S game was the goods.
Also consider last year. The Rams showed us in P/S what they would be for half the season at least. You could SEE it. It foretold the season on the defensive side of the ball. It really did.
My friend, here’s essentially my response to your basic point.
If you have a legitimate, Top 5 defense, people can SEE IT. Sure, P/S is weird, but the competitive character of a truly elite unit is there to be seen, at least as long as the players expected to contribute keep playing. There’s no mistaking an elite defense. I actually think all football fans know it, deep down.
Anyway, I appreciate your frankness. You say …
A) There was no evidence.
B) But the absence of evidence doesn’t say anything.
I agree with A but not with B.
Fair enough. Let us hope we see something beginning to emerge
in game two. I ‘expect’ we will.w
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