nittany ram wrote:

TackleDummy wrote:
Without playing in any regular season NFL game before this season, Austin Davis this year in 8 games is 163 completions out of 254 passing attempts (64.2%) for 1785 yards (7.0 average). He has 11 TDs and 7 INTs. His passer rating is 87.8.
Doubling everything he would end the season with 326 completions out of 508 attempts (64.2%) for 3570 yards (7.0 average). He would have 22 TDs and 14 INTs. His passer rating would still be 87.8.

For comparisons, Sam Bradford in his rookie year, 2010 was 354 completions out of 590 passing attempts (60.0%) for 3512 yards (6.0 average). He had 18 TDs and 15 INTs. with a 70.5 passer rating.

So it would seem to me that Austin Davis is on track for a slightly better year than Bradford had as a rookie.

And yet there are people who think Austin Davis has reached his ceiling. That he cannot improve. That he might not be able to “come back” after what they consider a sub-par game. This is the same Austin Davis who went from being cut a year ago to becoming the starting QB this year and producing numbers like our former NFL offensive rookie of the year. Really? He has shown he has the ability to improve his game greatly. He has shown a great work ethic in doing so. And people are already ready to write him off after only a half of season.

SORRY, I JUST DON’T GET THE LOGIC (OR LACK THEREOF).

I don ‘t know where Davis’s ceiling is. But I am pretty sure he has not reached it. Nor will he reach it this year and probably not next year. He will keep improving for a while yet.

Apples and oranges. There is a huge difference in the quality of players (and coaches) that Bradford had around him his rookie year compared to what Davis has now.

I thought the Seattle game was pretty revealing,
and interesting. I mean, AustinD completed, like
18 of 21 or somethin like that, but they were
almost all dinks and dunks. Fisher reigned him
in. Didnt trust him to throw it downfield.

Now maybe they can win with that formula,
sometimes, or even often, but i dont think
thats how the gameplan would have looked
if Bradford had been in there.

I’m concerned that the Rams cant count
on Bradford or AustinD to be ‘the guy’
in the coming years.

I guess we’ll see.

w
v

Herzog wrote:

Man he is playing a LOT of top 5 defenses lately, without Quick now. If he can cut down on the int’s, than he’s my guy…. But he has to cut down on them

Yes, he’s played tough defenses,
without Quick. And no-one can tell the future, so, sure,
maybe he will end up improving and being a
good starter.

But my eyeballs have made me skeptical.
Sure looks to me like teams have figured out
what he does best and they’ve taken it away.
I no longer think he will turn out to be
a quality starter.
But who knows.
I hope he turns out to be the next
Kenny Anderson.

At any rate, if the rams can
rush the passer and run the ball
they can win with a decent
“game manager-QB”

w
v

• This reply was modified 10 years, 4 months ago by wv.

zn wrote:

InvaderRam wrote:
i think he’s got the physical skills. i think at this point it’s just learning the position. if he can continue to grow into the position he’ll be fine. if not then rams are looking for a new qb.

I try to be as objective as I can in my first post in this thread.

BUt this is a complicated issue and I have mixed feelings.

Personally, I don’t like the idea of this season becoming the “see if Davis can play project.”

I am very “win now.” They have the future in which to figure out the future. Or to put that more narrowly, they have the off-season to figure out the next season.

If it were me and he falters again, I would just start Hill. I wouldn;t even hesitate.

From what I saw of Hill in this offense, he can play, and his strengths as a qb are pretty much the opposite of Davis’s weaknesses.

It is fair and realistic, I think, to ask if AD can rebound.

But. My “win now” attitude also has me wary of that. So he doesn’t have too long to prove he can, in my book.

Yeah, i agree with that.

I dont think Fisher is playing Davis just to
“see if he can play.” Fisher is always in
win-now mode it seems to me.

If AustinD sucks again next week,
i think Fisher will switch.
Though, i’m not sure its a good thing
to be the QB that gets to start against Denver.

w
v

zn wrote:

I think this gets down to confidence again.

Davis made a couple of huge mistakes in the SF game, but the Rams didn’t fold this time like they did with huge mistakes by other players against other teams. That’s IMO because the team believes it’s always “in it” with a West opponent.

When i watch the Cardinal defense,
the players just look like they are always
in a good position to make the tackle.
When i compare it to the Rams, it seems like
the Ram players are always lunging and
over-running or almost-over-running things.
There’s just a sense that the cards Defenders
are not running around as much. I dunno.

w
v

Winnbrad wrote:

I have no idea. The Rams, seemingly, are 10 different teams rolled into one.
If these Rams were a movie, they’d be “Sybil”.
So I don’t know what the hell is gonna happen anymore.

I would think Carson Palmer is going to try to
dink and dunk all the way down the field.
He’s not gonna hold the ball and let Quinn
and Donald kill him.

So, somehow, someway, Greg Williams has to
find a way to stop the short passing game
to Fitzgerald and company.

Rams are seven point underdogs again.
http://www.footballlocks.com/nfl_odds.shtml

Saints favored by 4.5 over the 49ers.

w
v

I assume, on the Field Goal ‘return’
Tavon was dilly-dallying so the SF coverage
team would think he was not bringing it out.

I dont really mind his slow, halting
first steps on that play. I think
he was just trying to be deceptive.

Its the bonehead move at the edge
of the endzone-line that was
dum.

Tavon has an odd return style.
Remember the big return against the Colts —
it was “no, no, dont, dont…yes, yes!”

Thats what you get with Tavon.
Sometimes it’ll look ugly and sometimes
he’ll break them.

w
v

=============================
Ramble–On

I was in the box office line to pick up my tickets, and I saw an older couple in line, and the wife was wearing a Cunningham jersey. I went up to them and gave them both a “Go Rams!” and a high five. As I was standing there, I started thinking that it was a bit strange she had Benny’s jersey…I mean he’s great, but who has a Benny Cunningham jersey? Then I noticed that the couple was letting everyone walk past them in line, as if they were waiting for something….their free tickets perhaps?

On a hunch, I pulled up Cunningham’s Wikipedia page on my phone to see where he was from (thinking maybe SF), and I hear someone else ask the couple where they’re from. They reply, “Tennessee,” which is where he’s from, so I said, “Excuse me, but…do you know Benny somehow?” the woman said with a smile, “Oh yes, I’m his momma!”

I high fived Benny Cunningham’s momma! Totally made my day.

—

Also, maybe obvious, but the Niner fans were awful. We made good conversation with a few guys around us, but the stadium was half empty, and there was lots of cheering and celebration when Austin Davis left the field with an injury at one point.

What an excruciating game to watch…on pins and needles until the very last second! GO RAMS!!!

Damn — i had to go eat Indian food with a friend
last night so I missed the second half.
(i followed the nfl.com play-by-play game-tracker thingy
in the first half)
I just found out the Rams won a few seconds ago.
How the fuck did they win?

I am SOO looking forward to watching Replay. 🙂

A ram win, on the road against SF. Damn.

What a weird year. They beat Seattle
and SF and get blown out by Minnesota.
One of the strangest Ram teams i can
ever remember.

Now what? Who are they?

I guess i was wrong about AustinD.
Looks like he cant read defenses
at all. Sigh. Then again,
SF’s D has made a lot of QBs
look bad. I dunno.

w
v

I dunno guys. I dunno.
I look at that Bruce Arians team,
and i wonder why the Rams dont look
that good. Its been three years.

w
v

Interesting that Chris Long
has Riggins in his locker.

w
v
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhlfyXL7Si8

zn wrote:

Herzog wrote:
But did Fisher inherit a mess? The team seems to be exactly what it was when he took it over…..a .500 team with massive injuries and an Ill timed coordinater change with a massively bad impact…..he has built the team to that exact point it was when he took it over.

I don’t agree with that. For one, injuries are not the fault of the “builder.” If you mean they are still losing, well yeah. But then, you can have a good team (in terms of overall talent) that has a bad year. Depends on the reasons. In terms of the talent level…Spags inherited nothing. Just plain zip. Fisher inherited what Spags added and then added to that.

I just think this team had its heart taken out when they lost Bradford AGAIN and if you go back to when it happened, everyone was saying they expected a lot from him this year.

To me the big story of 2014 is making huge unbelievable mistakes and then collapsing in their aftermath. To me more than anything, this is the “psych 101 season.” When you watch them you can see them lose momentum.

At the same time, if you cancelled the 2014 Rams and let all their players go, there would be a long list of them who would get picked up by other teams. That’s not as true of the 2011 team.

Jenkins is a good example of this. Jenkins played well this year…but people remember the one big boneheaded, (as it turns out) game-costing error. And. Now he’s hurt.

In terms of the future, look at Robinson and Donald. You know what Greg Cosell said about Robinson? He wasn’t as pro ready as Matthews, but that once he got up to speed as a pro player, he would be in the conversation for the best tackles to ever play the game. Not best in the 2014 draft class, one of the best ever.

So I am frustrated by 2014, but I also see that 2014 is as talented a team as we have seen for years. They’re also massively mistake prone and easily put into a funk by those mistakes. That’s all (to me) a confidence thing.

And I actually agree with some of Miklasz’s points:

I do think Fisher’s program should be further along by now, and I won’t defend him on that. I haven’t hesitated to criticize Fisher. But some reconstruction projects take longer than others. Especially when the roster has been torn up by injuries.

• Stability — and giving Fisher a chance at a fourth season — is preferable to another regime change, and another roster turnover, and another round of chaos. Fisher is the team’s third head coach since 2006

6th, actually, if you go back to 2005 and count Martz plus count 2 interim coaches (Vitt and Haslett).

Well, i dunno. Losing Bradford was big, no doubt, but its the
defense that has been biggest disappointment.

Also, i dunno that I’d agree that JJ played well
before the bonehead mistake. I saw some stats
somewhere that indicated otherwise.

I think one major criticism of Fisher-Snead
that I wonder about is the Free Agent signings:
Wells, J.Long, Finnigan, Cook.

I’m still not sold on Mr Quick either, btw, fwiw.
And Tavon and Brockers and Ogletree are mysteries to me
at this point.

There’s a lot of good and bad
with this regime. I could definitely
see Fisher being here five years
and having a .500 record.

w
v

• This reply was modified 10 years, 4 months ago by wv.

ive given up on the idea of the rams
having a winning season (and I’m
very disappointed in how this team has played so far)

But I’ve been following them since 68
so…ya know.

As far as the time i put into now,
I just watch Replay when i feel like it
(didnt want to see the KC game).

This 2014 team is one of the most
frustrating teams I can ever remember.
I cant recall a team that makes so many
good plays and bonehead plays all mixed
together.

w
v

I had a relationship last 25 days once.
Thats a record for me.

Congrats. I think. I dunno.

w
v