Robinson drops into pass pro vs. DE Robert Quinn…

Yeah he has a whole series showing Quinn beating Robinson, then the other way around.

Fisher no longer in Montana state of mind

• By Jim Thomas

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/football/professional/fisher-no-longer-in-montana-state-of-mind/article_c0747ac5-4388-5203-8e2e-12a9aeb4f600.html

For the Rams and NFL teams everywhere, these are the happy days of training camp. For the players, their bodies feel about as good as they will for the next six months. Even the coaches come back refreshed after the summer break, Jeff Fisher included.

“Every year’s a challenge. Every roster’s different,” Fisher said, as he begins his 19th full season as an NFL head coach, and his third in St. Louis.

“It’s the players; the players keep me going,” Fisher said. “I enjoy the relationships, and I enjoy seeing them develop. Enjoy the chemistry in the locker room and welcome the challenge in the division. All it takes is two or three weeks in Montana and here we go again.”

Montana is where Fisher spent nearly all of his time between now and the end of OTAs in late June. He owns a place in Big Sky Country, and suffice it to say does a lot of fishing there. Except for a brief side trip to Los Angeles for the ESPYs, where Michael Sam received the Arthur Ashe Courage Award in mid-July, Fisher didn’t budge from Montana.

But from now until January — maybe longer with a playoff berth — Fisher won’t budge from Rams Park. It doesn’t take a mind reader to figure out that Fisher likes this team, these 2014 Rams. Whether he still likes it in December remains to be seen.

As the Rams finish off their first weekend of camp with an evening practice Sunday, team energy has been high on the practice field and in the meeting rooms. Fisher doesn’t need to give any pep talks at this point — more often than not, he has to back down the players a little. Youngsters, after all, have a lot of energy.

“I know everyone on the team’s excited, especially building up through OTAs,” said fourth-year wide receiver Austin Pettis. “I think both sides of the ball have big expectations this year. And being able to finally get camp started, get that much closer to the games, is a good feeling.”

Potential can be a dangerous word, as veteran defensive end Chris Long points out. And excitement alone won’t be enough to get the Rams where they need to be. Namely, their first winning season since 2003, and their first playoff season since 2004.

“Every year, you think this could be the year,” Long said. “It could be the year for you personally. It could be the year for you as a team. … Everybody has that attitude I think. And that’s just the excitement off it.

“Every team in the NFL has hopes, and we’re all undefeated right now. But pretty quickly, you’ve just got to move from excitement to intense focus.”

Otherwise, you’ll get left behind. This Rams team has plenty of potential, but that doesn’t guarantee victories.

“That stuff has to play itself out on the field,” Long said. “Potential can only get you so much. We’ve been here before, where we’ve said this has got to be the year. Well, it’s gotta be the year if we make it the year. We have to play it out.”

The “playing out” part of Long’s equation got underway over the weekend. The Rams dodged the weather on Friday and Saturday — with rain leaving the area just before practice Friday, and some rain coming in just as practice ended early Saturday evening. Cloud cover and an occasional breeze made Saturday’s mid-90s temperatures much more bearable.

“We need some heat, in particular because we’re gonna go down in Week 2 to Tampa Bay,” Fisher said after Saturday’s practice. “We’ll get our opportunities (for heat). But from an acclimation standpoint, it’s ideal what we’ve been through the last couple days.”

Even with the weather concerns, the crowds have been good over the weekend. It used to be rare for the Rams to draw 1,000 spectators to Earth City for camp. But they’ve drawn over 1,400 on the first two days: 1,484 Friday and 1,434 Saturday.

The intimate setting at Earth City has fans close to the players. That’s especially true this season because of a new offensive line drill added by line coach Paul Boudreau.

Every day, team security ropes off an area on a hill and temporarily clears the crowd out in that area. But the fans are still only a few feet away from the players as one offensive lineman pushes another up the hill.

On Saturday, Boudreau had Auburn’s Greg Robinson and Alabama’s Barrett Jones take part in a “race” to see which one could push a player up the hill first. The rest of the offensive linemen, who were watching, quickly dubbed it Iron Bowl II — in honor of the Alabama-Auburn rivalry game.

Alabama won, with Jones pushing his player up the hill first.

At one point or another, most fans have taken a look at Mizzou defensive end Michael Sam during practice, and he didn’t disappoint Saturday. He had a stellar day rushing the passer from the left end position, mainly against offensive tackles Sean Hooey and R.J. Dill.

“He’s improving — he is,” defensive line coach Mike Waufle said of Sam. “And like all rookies, they’re baby steps. But the baby steps are good.”

Day 2 featured big plays by quarterback Sam Bradford and the receiving corps — particularly Kenny Britt and Tavon Austin. No. 2 overall draft pick Robinson continues to work at left tackle as Jake Long works his way back into practice/game readiness.

“He’s learned that Rob Quinn is a really good rusher,” Fisher joked when asked how Robinson was faring at tackle. “I think he knew that before he got out here, but it’s different in person.”

some follow-up (open-ended…I will keep adding to it)

====

CoachO

Bradford MOVED fine yesterday. Mobility and his knee do not look like an issue in the least. His rustiness yesterday, was more from timing and rhythm issues. and he was much more comfortable today.

*

Michael Sam had a very good practice. He was causing issues in the backfield all day. Granted he was working against 2nd & 3rd team RTs (Hooey mostly) but he showed his burst and leverage. He has the ability to drop his hips and turn the corner while engaged, and the taller Hooey couldn’t handle him.

*

They need to get one more year out of Wells. With Robinson lining up at LG, it will benefit him greatly to have both Long and Wells alongside.

And without having to worry about picking up the garbge that usually got by C. Williams/S. Smith last year, having the two horses (Saffold and Robinson), he can focus on getting to the second level, which he excels at.

I really don’t want to go into this season with a ROOKIE starting at LG, and what amounts to a ROOKIE starting at Center.

Robinson going up against Quinn, is not going to look good period. I doubt seriously that audition will last much longer. I anticipate them starting to take a look at guys like Hooey, Person, and even Bond out there and let Robinson settle in at LG.

*

Reid hasn’t done anything at this point to stand out one way or another. He has been relegated to 3rd team reps both days, and hasn’t flashed good or bad. Other than taking his place with the 1st unit KO team during the Special Teams drills on Sat (he was not on it Friday), he has been relegated to 3rd team reps at CB, sharing reps with the likes of Jarrid Bryant. Thus far he has done nothing to garner any mention.

He obviously looks athletic, but honestly, in team drills, (7 on 7 or 11 on 11) he looks bored and uninterested. If that doesn’t change soon, his days will be numbered.

*

Gilbert has gotten considerable work with the 2nd unit and looks good throwing the ball. Arms strength…..Check Accuracy…. Check Mobility…… Check Still has issues with his reads, and getting the ball out on time.

*

Givens and Pettis are working together as they continue to rotate pairs of receivers. Bailey and Austin, Britt and Quick, then Givens and Pettis. And to be frank about it, Givens has gotten the least amount of reps. He did have one nice catch on a sideline comeback route, where Hill threw all the way across the field to get the ball to him. But he has not shown much, even as a deep threat as of yet.

The guy who may be the surprise odd man out is Pettis. Think about it. When they brought him in, how many other 6’3 WRs did they have? Not Gibson. Not Amendola. Not Salas. Alexander was a huge ? Now they have Britt, Quick, Cook, Kendricks. So his ability to be a big target was something different.

Now, when you factor in he is entering his 4th year, and isn’t cheap, and someone like a TJ Moe comes along and can give you the quickness and ST value that Pettis doesn’t? Not saying it WILL happen, but its something to think about. Especially if Britt proves to be a keeper.

*

Joseph looks pretty good at RG. He squared off with Donald on occasion today, and while no one else has been able to slow him down, Joseph did a nice job on him.

*

[Pead]..had more opportunities yesterday. Today Stacy got the lions share of the work, along with Cunningham. He had a few carries today, but they really don’t run the ball alot during these 11 on 11 drills,, about enough to keep the defense somewhat honest.

RamBill

Nick Wagoner ‏@nwagoner

Also, during one on one passing drills, DB’s held tennis balls as receivers ran routes in effort to get in habit of keeping hands off WRs.

The idea obviously being to cut down on DPI and illegal contact. DBs allowed to drop tennis balls to make play on the ball in the air.

A couple of interesting twists on drills:During O-line individual,OL separated the crowd and spent time pushing each other uphill among fans

Number one offensive line looked same as yesterday with a noticeable exception: Barrett Jones got work with first team at center.

Again, #Rams still not in pads but top defense continues to control the action against top offense.

List of non participants similar to yesterday: S Bryant, FB Jones, LB Millard, DE S. Brown, DL Westbrooks, C Wells, OT J. Long, DE Hayes.

DE Michael Sam also had a good showing. Beat OT Sean Hooey repeatedly in team as well as one on one pass rush drills.

Good day for WR Stedman Bailey, who continues to create separation. Still no pads on but a nice double move for a TD against Brandon McGee.

A couple players limped off for various reasons. CB Joyner exited but returned. CB Johnson,WR Blake also left early but didn’t return.

#Rams off the practice field Saturday evening. Cloud cover saves the day, no problems with heat. Practice No. 2 in the books.

===
Jim Thomas ‏@jthom1

WRs Kenny Britt, Tavon Austin made flashy plays in practice. With Britt using his frame on one play to come back and grab a contested ball.

Not practicing Sat. for Rams: FB Kadeem Jones, C Scott Wells, LB Johnny Millard, DE Sammy Brown.

DE Michael Sam was very impressive working at left end in 11-on-11 team drills, albeit against backup players.

CB Trumaine Johnson left field during 7-on-7 drills with possible leg tweak. Didn’t appear to be anything serious.

TE Justice Cunningham, who is trying to make the roster as fourth TE (Mike McNeill former spot) was limping noticeably late in practice.

laram wrote:

I don’t like coaches who did what he did. I’m not impressed.

Well I don’t like when coaches do what he did either. So we agree on that.

laram wrote:

I’m hoping for the pass rush to help the corners look better than they are.

Jenks fundamentals are horrid and Tru is a limited corner in respect to the types of receivers he can cover.

If I were an offense, I would put a big on Jenks and speed on Tru’s side.

You can do that since they don’t travel.

IF you have both you have an advantage.

The thing about Jenkins, though, is that Wms is famous as a teacher. How good was Verner before Wms? (And because I anticipate this question from someone, in their minds if nothing else, I’ve read up on Wms in Tennessee and local beat writers there said he had a big hand in how their defense played last year. They went from 27th the year before to 14th and a solid unit. Fisher himself said that when he watch the Titans on tape to prepare for that game, he could see that Wms’s hand was all over that defense.)

Rambill

VID:The Rams stepped onto the fields at Rams Park for the training camp session of 2014. Sam Bradford participated fully coming off of last season’s knee injury. Video includes practice clips, along with Sam Bradford and Jeff Fisher comments.

Watch Day 1 Practice Report

http://launch.newsinc.com/share.html?ndn.trackingGroup=91130&ndn.siteSection=stltodaystudio_hom_non_sec&ndn.videoId=26456624&freewheel=91130&sitesection=stltodaystudio_hom_non_sec&vid=26456624

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5 takeaways from the first day of Rams training camp

By Ryan Van Bibber

http://www.turfshowtimes.com/2014/7/26/5939539/st-louis-rams-training-camp-practice-report-sam-bradford-greg-robinson

The Rams are practicing football again, and that means were officially counting down to the start of the 2014 season. Sam Bradford and Jeff Fisher spoke to the media after practice on Friday, offering a few tidbits of news and an assessment of the day’s work.

For practice observations from the fans and media on the scene, head over to our report from yesterday.

1. Young, but experienced

The Rams are a young team, for the third year in a row, but the party line this year is that these are an experienced group of youngsters.

” … because of the fact that we have players now in their third year and guys last year in their second, they’re familiar faces, they’ve matured, they have the playing experience,” Fisher said after practice. “So despite the age on paper the team doesn’t act that way, the team acts much more mature and will be much more prepared.”

2. Greg Robinson is doing “fine”

The second overall pick turned some heads over the summer by admitting he was struggling to adjust to the move inside to guard and a more complex playbook that the one he had at Auburn. On the field Friday, Fisher and Sam Bradford spoke highly of Robinson’s day at practice.

Robinson is also working at two positions.

“I thought Greg did a great job,” Bradford said. “Today he played both tackle and guard and when you’re trying to learn a system, you’d really prefer to have to learn one but we’re asking him to learn two because we think he can handle it. I thought he did a great job playing both inside and outside today. I think he is really going to help us up front.”

3. Bradford doesn’t feel the pressure

Is it or isn’t it a make or break year? Is it or isn’t it the second or third or fourth year in a row we’ve heard that?

“I don’t really pay attention to that,” Bradford said. “Every year is a ‘make it or break it’ year according to someone. I think everyone in our locker room feels really good about where we’re at right now and where this football team is going. I think we have a great chance to be really good …”

Bradford was struggling with his throws yesterday according to folks on the scene. Fisher was more confident in his assessment.

“He was fine. He’s doing good, throwing the ball well … he’s ready to go,” Fisher said.

A rough first day of camp doesn’t mean anything, especially for a QB coming off an ACL tear. It’s just practice.

4. Impressive defense

Bradford’s been in the NFL long enough to know what a good defense looks like. And he was talking up the one he saw on the field Friday.

“I think our defense is going to be extremely good this year,” the quarterback said. “There’s nothing easy against those guys, especially up front. That front seven is really, really tough.”

5. Everyone wants to win!

There’s your breaking news development of the day. Fisher and Bradford were asked about fans’ desire to see the Rams put together their first winning record in 11 years.

“I think everyone here wants to win,” Bradford said. “That’s our goal. That’s why we’re out here to play. No one steps on the field to lose. I think we want just as bad as the city and the fans do.”

Fisher had a little more perspective, a little less canned response to the question.

“Well it’s just been before I got here and the day I arrived and it’s going to continue to be that way,” the coach said. “We’re fortunate to have a fan base that has high expectations and remember the good years and they should.”

wv wrote:

The media-celebrities are just not sold on Bradford. They’ve seen Kaperhead and R.Wilson
do big things, but they haven’t seen Sam do big things.

I think thats prettymuch how they analyze thingz.

w
v

I think this is also part of it. No media analyst watches every regular season game to the point where they know the details of how 32 teams played in all 16 games.

Winning teams get watched more. Naturally. Imagine going into a life of sports analysis and you get assigned the “know losing teams only” slot in your group.

National media analysts tend to be kind of less informed about Bradford because they have seen less of him. In fact that fits my (part joking) “one national game” theory. Most people only saw one Rams game–last year’s SF game. The whole team kind of screwed up that game (picture in your head Finnegan running fruitlessly behind a productive Boldin.)

Mort, on the other hand, is a friend of Fisher’s and is on the “war room invitation” list.

.

Time for Rams’ potential to produce

July, 25, 2014

By Nick Wagoner | ESPN.com

http://espn.go.com/blog/st-louis-rams/post/_/id/9867/time-for-rams-potential-to-become-production

EARTH CITY, Mo. — With training camp rapidly approaching, St. Louis Rams general manager Les Snead started to get the football itch. He could feel the time for football was close and he was growing so eager for it to start he actually considered cutting a family vacation short.

Upon returning to St. Louis, Snead walked back into Rams Park with full knowledge that this season must be different from the first two years of his and coach Jeff Fisher’s regime. Under Fisher and Snead, the Rams have won 14 games in two seasons, far better than what they’d done in the five years before their arrival, but still well removed from something more than vague progress.

[+] EnlargeAaron Donald
AP Photo/Jeff RobersonDT Aaron Donald is just one of the many young players the Rams will lean on in 2014.
The third year of any regime comes with a certain amount of inherent expectation but here in St. Louis, Snead openly acknowledges now is the time for a team that has been the league’s youngest each of the past two seasons to move past mediocrity.

“The goal is to win the division,” Snead said Thursday. “We have played San Fran, we’ve played Seattle and we’ve played Arizona and we’ve beat them all in the last two years with these guys. All they’re doing is getting better and more experienced.”

Clearly, the Rams enter the 2014 season hoping that their willingness to allow their many young players to start and play the majority of the snaps will pay off. The potential of the league’s youngest roster must at some point turn into production if the Rams are to elevate to contender status.

Fisher and Snead set about a major roster renovation in 2012 knowing that they would hit their share of speed bumps along the way. They improved to 7-8-1 in that first season after combining a boat load of draft picks acquired in trade with Washington with some big free-agent spending. They followed a similar path in the 2013 offseason, trying to find a few emerging young veterans to complement the youth movement coming via the draft. The result was last season’s 7-9.

In steadfastly sticking to their plan, Fisher and Snead entered this past offseason ready to mostly roll with what they’ve got.

“To get experience you have got to play and to learn how not to spill milk you have got to spill some milk,” Snead said. “So I have always used that analogy. You have got to hope that experience keeps you from spilling milk and now you can pull it up and drink it a lot faster.”

Of course, there’s also plenty of risk that goes with betting big on young, mostly unproven players even players who have played a lot of snaps in their first couple of seasons.

The secondary, for example, has no projected starters with more than two years of experience. At wide receiver, only Kenny Britt has spent more than three seasons in the league. Zac Stacy, entering his second season, is the most seasoned running back on the roster in terms of carries.

While many of the team’s young players have flashed the potential to become solid or better NFL starters, they simply still have yet to prove themselves on a consistent basis. And it seems overly-optimistic to think that all of the players the Rams are banking on will take the necessary step forward to help the team reach the next level.

But Snead believes there has been enough evidence, even if the sample size is relatively small, for many of those players to do what is expected. There’s even an air of quiet confidence that the belief is more than just the usual summertime hopes and dreams of a franchise in need of wins.

“I think that’s the best way for us and the way we were setup to do it,” Snead said. “I always use the example, you saw what Robert Quinn did. So what happens is those guys are maturing too and not only physically but also mentally and psychologically and in their life and in their game and they really want to be good and they had two years or one and they say ‘I did that last year and I was actually kind of nervous. It was my rookie year and now I got this.’ So all those things come into play. You have got to just let them evolve.”

Snead and the Rams are well aware the evolution of a young team into playoff contender is not going to be an easy task. They find themselves in the NFL’s toughest division and will, for the third season in a row, play one of its toughest schedules. If the Rams are to survive the crucible of those two things and come out on the other end still playing in January, they will have plenty of bumps and bruises along the way.

In some ways, they enter this training camp ahead of where they were last year. They have a clearly defined identity on both sides of the ball, even if it’s one that doesn’t promote the promise of Greatest Show on Turf recollections. They have the defensive coordinator in Gregg Williams they wanted all along leading a talented group.

“I think just having an identity, that helps you rally instead of ‘What are we today?'” Snead said.

As they begin camp today, the Rams are still the team hoping the promise that comes with youth turns into the production of a team much older. Where they stand at the end of the season will tell us if they were right.

stlramz

It has to be self defense. Otherwise the Cops are facing an “excessive use of force action” by tasing the guy fighting with Dunbar.

You can’t tase a guy that is defending himself.

Since tasing is only allowed to stop an aggressor basically from injuring himself or others, the police and Dunbar’s story will essentially have to match up.

That’s always a good place to be when you are defending someone.

According to the police reports, Dunbar told arresting officers he was just defending himself.

The arrest affidavits indicated that the defendants (Dunbar and the Greene brothers) were involved in a verbal altercation as they left the Club Dream. Club security and several patrons attempted to keep the parties from fighting by holding them apart.

But a short time later, the three started brawling just south of the club entrance. As Dunbar and Dmetrique were exchanging punches, Donte approached Dunbar from behind and began to punch Dunbar in the head and neck area.
”

If the “three started fighting” with one positioning from behind to later attack, no problem.

2 on 1 = Self Defense.

• This reply was modified 10 years, 5 months ago by zn.

Guardians of the Galaxy Review: Super Sounds of the 70s

James Gunn’s superhero space opera is an old story with a fresh new vibe.

July 25th, 2014 William Bibbiani

http://www.craveonline.com/film/reviews/731209

It doesn’t take long for the new Marvel Studios movie to take us to a desolate wasteland in the far reaches out of outer space and turn into a one-man musical performance of a 1974 pop hit. That’s Guardian of the Galaxy for you: an ecstatic celebration of all the conventional sci-fi tropes, told in a completely unconventional way. It’s full of unforgettable characters and unforgettable dick jokes. It’s Star Wars as told by a lovable a-hole.

And a talented a-hole: Guardians of the Galaxy was directed and co-written by James Gunn, who cut his teeth writing the indie pukefest Tromeo & Juliet and went on give us the kindhearted superhero satire The Specials and the mean-hearted superhero satire Super. In between he contributed to scripts for such formulaic genre flicks as Scooby-Doo and 13 Ghosts. He’s developed a singular storytelling style through experience in the mainstream, the outré, the classical and the nerdy, and he’s combined all of these elements into a single blockbuster experience that plays the same game as all of its brainless competitors but does so with grace and wit and, again, some great dick jokes.

That’s the precise and eclectic résumé necessary to bring Guardians of the Galaxy to the big screen, since unlike Marvel’s Golden and Silver Age creations – which were dramatically satisfying and mostly obvious metaphors (“Can’t control your rage? You’re kind of a hulk!”) – the middle years of the publisher’s sprawling comic book universe were full of a lot of attention-grabbing nonsense. There’s a talking raccoon – with an attitude – voiced by Bradley Cooper. There’s a sentient superarboreal tree voiced by Vin Diesel. Iron Man they are not. If anything, they seem one step removed from fast food mascots.

But that’s what makes Guardians of the Galaxy so great. Our emotional connection to these characters stems not from their universality, but from their distinctiveness. Dave Bautista plays a green-skinned tattooed convict on a mission to avenge his family, but who runs into constant problems because his species doesn’t understand metaphors. And Chris Pratt was abducted as a small child and taken to outer space, where he lives a life of adventurous escapism while still clinging to a mix tape of 1970s tunes that his Mom gave him. Tied to the past without ever technically looking backwards. His attitude is a little Han Solo, but he’s driven by something way more immature.

Along with a repentant assassin played by Zoe Saldana, these selfish jerks find themselves thrust together by a combination of fate and pointless circumstance. They’re in possession of a mysterious orb that could very well destroy the universe. A political dissident named Ronan the Accuser, played by Lee Pace, wants the orb, but our “heroes” want to sell it; or, if that fails, to turn heroic for no other reason than to save their own asses.

The plot is as perfunctory as any typical summer release. There’s a ragtag team of misfits, a MacGuffin everybody wants and a whole bunch of big explosions at the beginning, middle and end. But Guardians of the Galaxy feels special because this course of events brings some wonderfully unique characters together into something more than the sum of their parts. The outcome of the adventure may be inevitable but the connections they make to one another are not, any bond formed between these snarky, cynical jerks has to be earned. Through a combination of witty dialogue, carefully balanced structure and – most importantly – a highly developed sense of fun (remember fun? it’s so much fun), James Gunn succeeds at turning a relatively familiar and kinda dumb story into an impressively emotional and satisfying journey. The details are superb. The grand sweep is merely simple enough to keep the details from being overwhelming.

With a kickin’ soundtrack that may at first seem random, but gradually reveals itself as one of the most important parts of the movie, Guardians of the Galaxy bursts out of the typical Marvel mold and into exciting and bold new territory. The unexpected, the eccentric and a very welcome sense of joy are experienced in practically every scene, but they’re grounded in smart, winking humanity… even from the rodents and plants. It’s a spectacularly entertaining space opera and a guffaw-worthy comedy. It’s a thoroughly pleasing ensemble piece with a great cast, amazing visual effects and exciting action. It’s certainly one of Marvel’s best movies, and quite possibly their most fun. .