nittany ram wrote:

I will not believe this defense can dominate until it actually does.

You know, Jesus just wants you to
Believe.
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“Doubting Nittany”

rfl wrote:

I 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.

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No, i did not see “evidence of a top ten defense versus Oakland.”

But, while i think its a fair question, I 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.

I simply do not place much weight on the FIRST
pre-season game. I just dont. I’d say that
if they had won the game 52 to 0.

I will be watching the second game
closely though. And the third.
And the fourth.

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One of the greatest Green actresses.

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Well you had that first practice where Dez was upset and said
the cowboys lacked fire, so you had to figure at the next practice
the Cowboys would be more fiery — mix that with a Fisher team
and you are gonna get fights. I mean that was easy to see coming.

I think the only way to prevent that kind of thing is to
have a “no talking” rule. I mean no talking by the players – period.
Its almost always the taunting that starts things rolling.

As to what it ‘means’ — i dont think it means anything. I dont
think it means Fisher is a good coach or bad coach, etc.
I mean the Cowboys won twelve games and they were fighting.

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this caught my eye
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==================

The total quality of an NFL team is four parts offense, three parts defense, and one part special teams.

There are three units on a football team, but they are not of equal importance. Our DVOA ratings provide good evidence for this. For a long time, the saying from Football Outsiders was that the total quality of an NFL team is three parts offense, three parts defense, and one part special teams. Further recent research suggests that offense is even more important than we originally believed. Recent work by Chase Stuart, Neil Paine, and Brian Burke suggests a split between offense and defense of roughly 58-42, without considering special teams. Our research suggests that special teams contributes about 13 percent to total performance; if you measure the remaining 87 percent with a 58-42 ratio, you get roughly 4:3:1. When we compare the range of offense, defense, and special teams DVOA ratings, we get the same results, with the best and worst offenses roughly 130 percent stronger than the best and worst defenses, and roughly four times stronger than the best and worst special teams.
Offense is more consistent from year to year than defense, and offensive performance is easier to project than defensive performance. Special teams is less consistent than either.

Nobody in the NFL understands this concept better than Indianapolis Colts general manager Bill Polian. Both the Super Bowl champion Colts and the four-time AFC champion Buffalo Bills of the early 1990s were built around the idea that if you put together an offense that can dominate the league year after year, eventually you will luck into a year where good health and a few smart decisions will give you a defense good enough to win a championship. (As the Colts learned in January 2007, you don’t even need a year, just four weeks.) Even the New England Patriots, who are led by a defense-first head coach in Bill Belichick, have been more consistent on offense than on defense since they began their run of success in 2001.

zn wrote:

Greg Cosell’s Playoff Preview: Chip Kelly’s offensive innovation is all in the presentation

By Greg Cosell
January 4, 2014

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/greg-cosell-playoff-preview-chip-kelly-offensive-innovation-160316361–nfl.html

I like the Eagles’ offense and enjoy watching it on film – the offense really features a ton of misdirection and deceptions. The Eagles create conflicts for defense and space for running backs and receivers. That’s what they do in a nutshell.

And they’re so good at doing those things.

I think what Eagles coach Chip Kelly does is all in the presentation. If you watch right after the snap, you see a large majority of tactics everyone does. The route combinations are NFL combinations, the running game is a zone game for the most part, like a lot of NFL teams. When ball is snapped, he’s doing mostly what everyone else does. Before the snap, it’s formations, it’s motions, it’s very simple, subtle things you probably wouldn’t notice when you’re watching a game. I don’t always notice them watching the game the first time, then I watch the games on film and I see them. Keep an eye out for it when the Eagles play the Saints on Saturday night.

I’ll give you an example, and it came on a 20-yard run by LeSean McCoy in the first quarter against the Cowboys last week. Receiver Jason Avant motioned into the formation. Seems like nothing – take a slot receiver into the formation. Seems like everyone does that, no big deal. But what happened is, when you do that, you end up creating another gap for the defense to account for. And you have defenders outside of those gaps, so when you have an inside run, there aren’t enough defenders. Then the Eagles snapped the ball as soon as Avant got to the formation.

View gallery
.

(NFL.com screen shot)

View gallery
.

(NFL.com screen shot)

It’s simple stuff like that, and it gets a 20-yard run.

Again, it’s all in the presentation. He’s great using formations and motion and spreading field horizontally. He makes the defense defend the whole field. There’s a lot of space for the opponent to cover.

In the passing game, it’s funny because you don’t see Nick Foles make a number of difficult throws. We talk about NFL quarterbacks making stick throws into a tight window, and how that is a necessity. You don’t see that a lot with Foles. He throws to a lot of open receivers. Kelly breaks defenses down really well with his routes and spreading the field. There are route combinations everyone runs, he just gets to them in a different way. Again, he creates conflict for defense and space for his offense to work.

I don’t know if this has been drilled into Foles by Kelly, but Foles is a safe quarterback. If he doesn’t feel it’s there or it’s not in the play design, he doesn’t throw it. He’s a primary read quarterback – and my interpretation is that’s what Kelly wants.

Kelly’s concepts are sound. And the speed/tempo element adds a lot. When you think of no-huddle offenses, people think of Peyton Manning and Tom Brady. They get to the line of scrimmage and take some time to and research the defense. The Eagles don’t research the defense, they get up to the line and snap the ball. It’s hard to play defense against that. Opponents just have to make sure they get lined up, and they have to play every basic. The Eagles don’t face a lot of the defensive multiplicity, and that’s an interesting element in the playoff game against the Saints.

Saints defensive coordinator Rob Ryan is very good at what we call “designer blitzes.” He comes up with some for each opponent. But it’s hard to be complex against the Eagles. And you can’t substitute. This particular player may be critical to this specific blitz for the Saints, but you might not be able to get him in the game. That doesn’t mean the Saints won’t blitz at all, but sometimes it’s limited against speed/tempo offenses like the Eagles

That was a good one.

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Agamemnon wrote:

<iframe src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/j7PSC4l0djk?feature=oembed&#8221; allowfullscreen=”” frameborder=”0″ height=”349″ width=”620″></iframe>

Cool video.
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“Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but sometimes playing a poor hand well.”
― Jack London, To Build A Fire

========================================
LaRam

One thing among many that I am absolutely sick of hearing from Rams players is “we’re just ready to hit somebody else”

Really? I couldn’t tell because they seemed totally uninspired last night. Flat, sloppy, undisciplined and just not sharp at all.

I know most will say its the first preseason game, okay that’s fine then alter your views and expectations.

Look for things that can be discerned early on. Enthusiasm, continuity, a team that has the look of a group ready to advance.

That CAN be evident from the first game.

The Rams don’t have that look. They look very much like the penalty plagued, undisciplined bunch they’ve been under Fisher

Totally uninspiring play last night.

– Foles confirmed somethings for me. He’ll be widely inconsistent. Another qb that needs everything around him to be optimum. Problem is his o-line is not going to give him that luxury. Holding the ball to long means one of two things for ME. One, you’re not sure of what you’re seeing from the defense, or two, nobody is getting open. I think its the former.

– Keenum – Can’t see the field. Pressure up the middle will always force him to go outside the hashes. Between Keenum and Davis, its going to be a coin toss IMO. They both have significant limitations.

– Mason – Gamer. Tough little SOB who ran hard despite not much room, and hustled.

– Benny – A great guy to have on your team. Does a little bit of everything for you

– #39 Malcolm Brown – This kid was the most impressive Ram for me last night. He ran hard with power, always going forward when hit. Avg 9 ypc last night.

– Pead – Meh, if he were cut he would not be missed IMO

– Watts – OK, but looked a lil slow to me.

Offensive line – Depth? What depth?

– Washington – Reminds me to much of Davin Joseph. Cut him, or cut his hair!

– Barrett Jones – Maybe the most nonathletic nfl football player I can recall in recent memory. If he makes the team, its a favor to someone. Doesn’t belong.

– Saffold – Ugh, this guy really needs to take sometime and consider if he’s in the right line of work. His body can’t hold up.

– GRob – Up and down. Some good and bad against no real stellar competition. I expected him to dominate his man. He didn’t

– Barnes – Held his own, played the best of a pretty weak group at the position. So not saying much

– Britt – Looked sharp and competed

– Bailey – Steady Eddie. The guy just catches everything thrown his way

– Austin – Best decisive traffic running I’ve seen from him. As a route runner, he still has a long way to go

– Givens – Acquitted himself pretty well. Made a couple of tough catches on poorly thrown balls from Keenum, and ran well on reverses. He’s competing for a job

– Cook – Got away with an OPI but only chance he had trying to make a catch on poor ball placement.

Defense

Vanilla soft coverages so not much to takeaway there. The INT by Tru was not a great play by Tru, it was a bad route by the receiver and Carr threw the ball flat. But give Tru credit for making the catch I guess.

Obvious to me that the Raiders watched some tape and learned somethings from their meeting last year.

In the run game, influence Donald up the field, stone Brockers and run in behind him. The Raiders avg 14ypc doing just that. Lb’s??

In the pass, short quick hitting stuff, and misdirection to slow down the aggression. NFL teams aren’t stupid, they copy schemes that have been effective.

The Rams lb’s and backend better button up their chin straps, because teams are going to be running a lot of stuff to counter that front..

Bad miss tackle on what should have been a sack by Bates, I believe other than that not much from that group.

Chris Long didn’t play huh? Long having some back issues this camp huh?

I offered the opinion that the Rams should have traded Long while he still had value, and was accused of never liking Chris Long.

It has absolutely nothing to do with that, its just being smart. Knowing when a player is declining and letting somebody else pay for it.

I only looked for a few positive things in the first preseason game. I didn’t see them.

One thing that I am absolutely sure of however is Jeff Fisher would never be confused for Bill Walsh.

Agamemnon wrote:

wv wrote:

I like that Tavon just went out of bounds
and didnt risk injury in a preseason game.

w
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Tavon still has some juice.

Yeah, he has to learn to hold onto the passes,
and not get himself kilt too soon. Them two things.

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Agamemnon wrote:

<span class=”d4pbbc-font-color” style=”color: blue”>It was hard to tell a lot from the game. The Raiders looked the better team. I liked Havenstein, Brown, and Mannion. The rest seemed up and down.</span>

I dunno. I just never draw many conclusions from game one.
Its always a ridiculous game. Just a lot of chaos as far
as the ‘team’ aspect.

We ‘do’ know that the Rams are not the Patriots
and Foles is not Brady. But can they win ten games
and be a playoff team? Nothing in preseason-game-one
helps answer that. And i would say that if they
had won the game 18-3.

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Yeah, I’m not sure they were bad enough.
I dunno. They need to fix that
in the next game.

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Agamemnon wrote:

>Do intangibles really exist? What does science say?

Intangibles laugh at science.

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PA Ram wrote:

Well, subjectively-speaking of course,
it looks lame-and-awful,
to me.

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There is only one Tarantino film I did not like and that was Kill Bill 2.

From what I understand this film takes place mostly in one room and that can be good or that can be bad. If Tarantino uses this to vomit an endless stream of dialogue(as he can do)it may be a bit dull. But if the uses this tight environment like he did in the basement scene of “Inglorious Basterds”, with high tension that ratched up to an explosive scene–look out. It could be classic.

In any case–I’ll be there to see it.

You wont be able to see it. No-one will.
Once Tarantino hears about my scathing review
he’ll withdraw the film from public-view, and seek
counseling. And then he’ll give up the movie biz completely
and buy a farm
and raise chickens.

I’m sorry but thats just the way things are.

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InvaderRam wrote:

so robert is now the face of the franchise. i approve although donald should have something to say about that.

i think this defense goes as far as ogletree and mcdonald can take them. they’re the two wildcards to me.

at times this defense has looked like world beaters. consistency has been the problem. ogletree and mcdonald i think have been two of the biggest culprits.

Well last year there were times the front seven got gashed by runners.
And there were times the secondary just made bonehead decisions and had miscommunication errors,
and, there were also times we saw teams just dink and dunk the Rams to death.

I would ‘think’ the second problem would be a thing of the past,
at the very least.

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