rfl wrote:

wv wrote:
True, rfl, but its also true that there was a trajectory on defense.
It got better. There were still some awful mistakes in the second half
of the season, but i dont see you acknowledging that there WAS
a trajectory of improvement. Which might lead to optimism. Yes?

w
v

LOL. My friend, I agree. We need to see all sides of the situation. I guess I feel that’s what I am trying to do.

Let’s just look briefly at the question of a trajectory of improvement. Was it there?

Well, yes. It would be foolish to deny that the defense wasn’t playing better in that shutout streak than it was weeks 1-5.

But then recall that the trajectory slipped and eroded again in the last few games. AZ came in with a beat up offense and we let them run steadily enough to outscore us. I thought that we slipped in that game. Then, the NYG game was a reversion to our worst habits. And the SEA game again featured, if I recall, a late collapse.

As I say, ALL of it counts.

And by the way, there are trajectories and there are trajectories. They were still playing lousy defense IN WEEK 5! There was little indication of anything more than a month into the season.

Then, a few weeks later they are playing at historical levels.

In my view, that is not a normal trajectory of improvement. That’s weird.

And, it has to be in context. It was the 2nd year in a row in which essentially the same guys started out horrible, got better, and then faded out again down the stretch. If we are going to assess the organization, we need to look at why a defense expected to be very good in ’13 started poorly, recovered, looked to be great in ’14, AGAIN started poorly, improved, then AGAIN fell off late.

Is that “trajectory” one to build optimism on? Well, optimism is a subjective state, and each guy chooses for himself.

For me, I try to look at it all. And what I see gives me hope and lingering concern.

Of course, it is great to see flashes of greatness in the unit. As a fan I HOPE that this becomes the norm for our defense.

But right now, it isn’t for me an EXPECTATION. Because, as the talent has risen, the two constants have been inconsistency and competitive slackness. Apart from a few games, I have not seen a MONEY defense over 2 seasons. As the article says, this has been true in wins as well as in losses.

So, here are my keys looking forward. You can decide whether they add up to optimism or not.

* The talent is fine. Exciting. Good enough for an elite defense.
* We need to stop or at least contain the run 90% of the time, as good defenses do. Teams cannot game plan to run on us because we are so vulnerable to cutbacks and big plays.
* The schemes have to stop blitzing recklessly and playing soft coverage. Conceding the chains does far more damage than a few long passes.
* The unit needs to get more stops and get off the field.
* We need to concede fewer than 20 points in all but a very, very few games. (I know–scores of turnovers count there!)
* The defense needs to prove that it can consistently get stops with the game on the line.
* None of the above is a matter of getting a couple guys at positions X, Y, and Z.
* We need to start playing consistently tough football, whatever our talent level.
* And we need to do so on the freaking field in league games that count.

When I see us doing the above–all of which, by the way, is frequently accomplished by limited but tough defenses not as talented as ours–THEN I will become genuinely optimistic.

To this point, the improvement I’ve seen adds up to a competitive minus. Sadly.

Well, I’m not sure I agree that the Rams defense faded significantly
At the end of the year. The Giant game was a defensive disaster for sure.
But the Arizona and Seattle games? I thought the Defense played
“well enough to win” if the offensive line and QB had played solid.

All in all, I think the trajectory on DEFENSE
was much different than in the first coupla months.

The last game was in Seattle – the hardest place to play in
the NFL – and the Rams D game up 13 points.
(Irvin returned an INT for a TD in the 4th quarter you will recall)
It was the Rams offense – Oline+QB – that got outplayed.
The Rams rushed for 42 yards, passed for 203.
Again, the problem was the Oline and QB.

Against the NYG, the defense gave up 30+ points,
128 yards rushing and 386 passing to Eli. Total defensive meltdown.
Odell Beckham 8 for 142, R.Randle 6 for 132
Williams had 26 rushes 110 yards.

Arizona – Cards got 12 points.
Stanton had 131 yards passing. 143 yards rushing.
Yes, the D didn’t stop the run, but its also true it bent and bent
And didn’t break. The offense bent and bent and broke.

QB – Oline – themz iz the problem. The defense was indeed ‘weird’
and had some bad games, but overall it was certainly “playoff caliber”
by midseason or so. Not 85 Bear caliber, but certainly in this age
of passing and offense – it was “playoff caliber.”

w
v

Yeah JJ is an odd player. So much physical quickness and talent
but is he a liability in the long run? Can they ever
count on him to be reliable? Can you win playoff game
after playoff game with a corner like JJ ?

Sure would be nice if they could find
another EJ Gaines late in the draft.

To catch the Seahawks they are gonna
have to find a diamond or two
in the later rounds or in the UDFA poool,
i would think.

w
v

Zooey wrote:

The drought is actually going to be a big deal this summer. We’ve gone a few years with subnormal snow. The bottom picture is a more accurate level of where we are right about now because we had some rain in November and December (I drove past the lake a month ago, and it’s more like the last picture). But we is in for some trouble in Cali.

Ok, is this the thread where we talk about the
big earthquake that is supposed to dump California
into the Ocean?

Because I hope Kroenke has accounted for that.

Ya know. Maybe an inflatable stadium or somethin.

We only had an inch of snow in appalachia, btw.
But it was odd because it was shaped like
little pasta shells and wheels and rigatoni’s.
Is this the thread for discussing snow
shaped like pasta?

Ok, Go Rams.

w
v

I’d like to see a journalist do a real good piece
on cheating in football. I looked around and there is very
little written on it. There’s little hints here and there
that its been going on for a long time in various ways,
but apparently nobody has done a big in-depth article on it.
I’m sure the NFL doesnt want to see one, either.

I’d just like to see the deflate thing and the spying thing
put in context

DV mentions a ‘spy’ who dressed up as a painter
http://www.rams-news.com/could-the-greatest-show-on-turf-beat-the-current-seahawks-defense-vermeil-audio/
and reported to a Dallas coach. And ive posted
about George Allen hiring a spy to spy on Dallas.

I just wish i had a better idea of the big-picture.
The context.

w
v
=============================
http://forums.denverbroncos.com/showthread.php?177825-NFL-investigating-Broncos
McD = Belichick ??? (Merged)

I was afraid of this………..

TAPING PRACTICES IS NOTHING NEW

Regardless of whether the Patriots did or didn’t videotape the Rams’ walk-through practice prior to Super Bowl XXXVI, it’s not the first time that such allegations have been raised.

As Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports wrote in the days following the discovery that the Pats were taping defensive coaching signals during a Week One game against the Jets, the Broncos were suspected at one time of secretly videotaping Chargers practices.

Wrote Cole: “The San Diego Chargers increased their security several years ago at a hill overlooking the practice field at the team facility during weeks when they played the Denver Broncos. Why? It turns out Broncos coach Mike Shanahan had been hiring spies to videotape the Chargers practices. The NFL had been aware of it for several years (at least one NFL official had seen one of the tapes), but didn’t step in because it was considered a team issue.”

Such stories tend to support the rumor that Patriots coach Bill Belichick included with the materials surrendered to the league extensive evidence of cheating by other teams.

Further bolstering the belief that the Pats weren’t the only team doing what they were caught doing are the comments of former Cowboys and Dolphins coach Jimmy Johnson. The Boston Herald has posted the transcript of a WFAN interview that we first mentioned on September 29, during which Johnson said that the videotaping of defensive coaching signals was a widespread practice.

“I did it with video and so did a lot of other teams in the league,” Johnson said on September 28. “Just to make sure that you could study it and take your time, because you’re going to play the other team the second time around. But a lot of coaches did it, this was commonplace.”

And this kind stuff is nothing new. Way back in 1967, Lee Grosscup wrote an item for Sport magazine that delved into the issue of spying in football.

The bigger issue with what the Patriots did against the Jets is that the Pats continued to do something that the league had specifically told teams not to do, and that the Jets decided to make a sufficiently big deal about it that it set off a media firestorm.

The staggering penalty applied to the Patriots ($250,000 fine and loss of a first-round pick) and coach Bill Belichick ($500,000 fine) created the impression that this really was a big deal, regardless of the fact that it had been going on for an extended period of time.

And by hitting the Pats so hard, the league backed itself into a corner. If the videotaping of defensive coaching signals compels such a harsh sanction, evidence that such things have been occurring on a widespread basis would potentially shake public confidence in the sport.

But at a time when folks are chasing (as we think they should) the question of whether the Patriots cheated in connection with Super Bowl XXXVI or any other postseason game since 2001, we think that resources and effort also should be devoted to exploring whether and to what extent there has been cheating by other teams.

Maybe that’s why teams like the Steelers and Eagles aren’t willing to blame spying on losses to the Pats in the 2004 AFC title game and Super Bowl XXXIX, respectively. Maybe the problem in both cases isn’t that either of the teams within Senator Arlen Specter’s territory were the victims of skullduggery. Maybe the problem is that they didn’t take enough steps to prevent themselves from being victimized by practices that were an open secret prior to Week One of the 2007 regular season.

I think Bob Brown was the best of
all of those allpros. And the rams traded
him for next to nothing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Brown_%28offensive_lineman%29

Just a quote from Tomsula,
i thot was interesting:

http://www.ninersnation.com/2015/1/17/7525283/jim-tomsula-coaching-philosophy-49ers/in/7313196
“How do I know where you’re at and where you’re going unless I talk to you, and you let me know where you’re at, what you feel, and your thoughts. So now, if we can open that up, now you’ll tell me, you’re the player, I’m the coach. You’ll tell me where I need to go in coaching you. You’ll tell me how I can help you. And a big thing for me, I firmly believe a coach works for the player. Demand your coaching. Now, there’s structure, there’s a chain of command, we’ve all gotta stay with that, or you have chaos. OK, so, it’s built in a structure environment, but coaches essentially, what do I do? My job is to help my players perform better on Sunday. That’s game day. So, everything we do is to maximize a player’s ability, and his value on Sunday, within a team concept.”

w
v

http://www.ninersnation.com/2015/1/26/7917109/st-louis-rams-bring-back-nathaniel-hackett-for-second-oc-interview
Hackett gets second interview

w
v

Mackeyser wrote:

Nothing’s going to happen.

They’re going to blame it all on some locker room attendent a la Matt Walsh and they’ll all skate.

So what if they are fined and lose draft picks? If they win the Super Bowl, they and their fans will still believe they earned it and the NFL will fight like hell to defend it because they don’t want anyone to believe that they sell a tainted product.

Except, most folks not Pats fans don’t believe that.

If the balls dont fit
you gotta acquit.

Or somethin like that.

w
v

Dak wrote:

I’d trade a draft choice for Foles, I guess. Maybe a 3rd-rounder. I mean, are we going to get anyone better in this draft? Probably not.

Yeah, i was thinkin, maybe a 3rd rounder.
Maybe a 3rd and a 5th. Somethin like that.

Dunno that i would give a 2nd.

w
v

===================
Laram

In his first yr in a qb friendly uptempo system with wr’s running free, he puts up great numbers

Second season, film on him, no D-Jax his accuracy and decision making is suspect and he’s a TO machine.

I’d give a 4th that I don’t have for him.

That’s IT.
===================

zn wrote:

Even that’s open to debate.

I don’t see them as having screwed up with decisions, plural.

I don;t think the results are good for 2014, but then, I always stress that the Rams OL history includes massive doses of bad luck.

Who injures 4 centers in one year?

And I promise you, the issue with Long when they signed him was whether he could still play at a high level. No one said “he will have other injuries.” The fear was that the arms weren’t fixed, not that he would start working on injuring the legs.

In terms of fixing it, they clearly are. So I agree with you there.

And as I said, to me, the stand-out thing is that the PB/JF axis has a combined 40 years of fielding good OLs. Odds favor them doing it again.

Well, I just dont really agree on Jake Long. I view him
as a big fat personnel Mistake. I dont think thats an unfair conclusion.
Lots of posters thought Long was too big an “injury risk” back when
they made the signing. I mean, i remember Laram was all over that one.

So we disagree about that, but I dont wanna go over the same ground.

For me, Long counts as a personnel mistake.

w
v

PA Ram wrote:

I really can’t remember if there was a time when players actually tried playing in the Pro Bowl but I watched about two minutes of it yesterday and had to turn it off. The defense looked like they were standing around watching things more than anything else–which is fine because I would hate to see an injury, but it makes for an awful football game to watch.

I used to love it–the excitement of seeing the Rams players in their helmets.

These days I just tune it out.

Its an absurdity. A joke.

They should turn it into a bingo-game
or spelling-Bee or square dance or somethin.
I mean, sure, give the great players recognition
but the game itself is a travesty. Worse than Ishtar.

w
v