wv wrote:

Well, Fisher has an owner that has given him everything he wants;
he has a bunch of handpicked allstar coaches; he’s had the benefit of RG3 trade; he’s built this team with his players – so wv-ram does not wanna see anymore .500-ish seasons.

And I wanna see a Lombardi Trophy in year 3, 4, or 5.

And i want Cake for everyone on the internet.

w
v

Well, to me, perhaps more importantly, he has an organization that will hopefully avoid the situation he got in 2004/5 where he not only lost players because of injury, but had to face a dire cap and let key players go.

More planning and continuity.

Injuries happen, especially to Rams offensive linemen (that is actually a fully substantiated law of physics), BUT, you don’t have to combine that with cap-driven massacres.

Cake? We can’t let them eat cake. As history shows us, letting them eat cake leads to social collapse and reigns of terror.

.

some follow-up

===============
CoachO

I plan on working on a final report, giving my general thoughts on where they are, and evaluate the roster kinda like I did at the midway point of camp. There have been a few players who really helped themselves over the final 2 weeks, and some who have slipped. It should be an interesting final two weeks of the Preseason.

I would say there are a couple of surprises. On both ends of the spectrum.

On the positive side, one of my biggest surprises is just how good Bradford has looked. The velocity on some of the throws is noticeably better. He is fitting throws into tight windows consistently. Obviously, the combination of Quick and Britt, and how well they have looked has been a big surprise.

On the other end, Givens has been a huge disappointment. I have never been a big fan, but he just looks disinterested, and almost defeated. He contributes next to nothing in practice, and other than a few days two weeks ago, he looks no where near the guy they drafted. The other, again, not a huge fan (obvious to anyone who has read anything I have posted before) but with all the hype and chatter about how Armstrong was poised to step in and “take reps from Dunbar”, he has been given every opportunity, and has not shown much at all. In fact, I now hear how “we need to be patient” “he is still earning a new position”, “he missed the last year of school” and “at least he still is a value because of his Special Teams play.”

*

Austin looks like the 3rd or 4th option on many of the routes he runs. Most are crossing routes, or an occasional wheel route up the sideline. They tried to run the toss/reverse they ran vs. Chicago, and it was sniffed out by Westbrooks who stayed at home, and was waiting for him when he reversed fields.

*

I have always paid close attention to the Special Teams, especially the 2nd units. They tend to be very fluid, based on who is not practicing, and who the coaches feel deserve an extra look. Fisher commented last week, that every position coach, breaks down the Special Team tapes, so they can see their position players and how they perform. So it’s not just Coach Fassel when it comes to input on these teams. They can be very telling as to the back end of the roster, and who is garnering a second look.

*

[Jake]…Long looks fine. He always looks like he just understands how to play the position. No worries about him being ready.

*

Quick didn’t look to be serious. He just got caught in an awkward position, extended and reaching for a high throw. Davis didnt hit him hard, just ill timed and caught him just right. For what’s worth, Quick did not look happy about it as practice wore on.

*

Hayes was limited, and I had a conversation wiht someone who said they are just being very cautious with him. His hip is the biggest issue from the off season, and they want to ease him back.

*

Robinson in one on one stuff dominates more than not. It’s still not as consistent as he needs to be in terms of assigments, and playing “fast”. I was somewhat surprised, that Saffold worked as much as he did at LG today, and that Robinson took most of his reps with the “2’s”.

What’s with Joseph getting 1st team reps over Robinson and GRob with the second unit? Joseph has been the one constant this entire training camp. He and Barksdale have been out there virtually every day since the begining of camp.

What direction they go in, is purely speculation, even on my part, and wont’ do us any good. There are a 100 different possible scenarios as to why they are doing what they are doing [playing GRob with the 2s in one practice]…. It’s one day, so I am not reading anything into it. But I did think it was something that needed to be mentioned in my camp report.What they do in the next 2 preseason game will give us a much better picture of their plans heading into Sept 7th.

*

[LBs]…Phillip Steward has been a constant in getting 2nd unit reps from the outset of training camp. At this point, I would say he is definitely in their plans. He is showing up on Special Teams as well.

*

I would be shocked if Washington makes this roster. He has missed a ton of training camp, and honestly, I didn’t like his chances before camp. I think they have added too much talent, who have made him vunerable. He stuck around last year because he was the “best” of an otherwise very weak group of depth guys. By adding the likes of Joseph, and even Bond to some extent, Brandon Washington’s day could be numbered.

*

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/20/us/shooting-accounts-differ-as-holder-schedules-visit.html?_r=1

Shooting Accounts Differ as Holder Schedules Visit to Ferguson

By FRANCES ROBLES and MICHAEL S. SCHMIDTAUG. 19, 2014

ERGUSON, Mo. — As a county grand jury prepared to hear evidence on Wednesday in the shooting death of a black teenager by a white police officer that touched off 10 days of unrest here, witnesses have given investigators sharply conflicting accounts of the killing.

Some of the accounts seem to agree on how the fatal altercation initially unfolded: with a struggle between the officer, Darren Wilson, and the teenager, Michael Brown. Officer Wilson was inside his patrol car at the time, while Mr. Brown, who was unarmed, was leaning in through an open window.

Many witnesses also agreed on what happened next: Officer Wilson’s firearm went off inside the car, Mr. Brown ran away, the officer got out of his car and began firing toward Mr. Brown, and then Mr. Brown stopped, turned around and faced the officer.

But on the crucial moments that followed, the accounts differ sharply, officials say. Some witnesses say that Mr. Brown, 18, moved toward Officer Wilson, possibly in a threatening manner, when the officer shot him dead. But others say that Mr. Brown was not moving and may even have had his hands up when he was killed.

The accounts of what witnesses have told local and federal law enforcement authorities come from some of those witnesses themselves, law enforcement authorities and others in Ferguson. Many spoke on the condition of anonymity because they did not want to be identified discussing a continuing investigation.

The new details on the witness accounts emerged as Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. was scheduled to visit Ferguson on Wednesday to meet with F.B.I. agents who have been conducting a civil rights investigation into the shooting.

Mr. Holder and top Justice Department officials were weighing whether to open a broader civil rights investigation to look at Ferguson’s police practices at large, according to law enforcement officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal talks. The issue came up after news reports revealed a 2009 case in which a man said that four police officers beat him, then charged him with damaging government property — by getting blood on their uniforms.

Under Mr. Holder, the Justice Department has opened nearly two dozen such investigations into police departments, more than twice as many as were opened in the previous five years, according to department data.

Also on Tuesday, federal authorities learned the results of an autopsy performed on Mr. Brown by military coroners that showed that he had been shot six times, though they declined to release further details until their investigation was finished. An autopsy conducted on behalf of Mr. Brown’s family also found that he had been shot at least six times — including once in the face and once in the top of his head — with all bullets striking him in the front. The county has also done its own autopsy, which found evidence of marijuana in Mr. Brown’s system.

Clashes between the police and protesters have become a nightly ritual, although the scene on Tuesday was initially calm. The authorities took their positions before sunset, and Missouri National Guard soldiers staffed checkpoints at the shopping center that is now a police command post. Demonstrators marched without incident while officers watched. The quiet nature of the protests raised hopes that they had entered a calmer phase, but more confrontations were reported overnight, with 47 people arrested.

In a statement on Tuesday night, Gov. Jay Nixon expressed sympathy for the Brown family and praised residents for “standing against armed and violent instigators.” But he also said that “a vigorous prosecution must now be pursued.”

“The democratically elected St. Louis County prosecutor and the attorney general of the United States each have a job to do,” Mr. Nixon said. “Their obligation to achieve justice in the shooting death of Michael Brown must be carried out thoroughly, promptly and correctly, and I call upon them to meet those expectations.”

The fatal confrontation began on Aug. 9 shortly after the police received reports that two men had robbed a convenience store in Ferguson. Officer Wilson, who was not responding to the robbery, had stopped to speak with Mr. Brown and a friend, Dorian Johnson. The Ferguson police chief, Thomas Jackson, said that it was around the time that Officer Wilson started talking to the two that he realized they fit the description of the suspects in the convenience store robbery.

A lawyer for Mr. Johnson said that his client was interviewed by the F.B.I. and the St. Louis County police last week for nearly four hours. In that interview, Mr. Johnson admitted that he and Mr. Brown had stolen cigarillos from the store, said the lawyer, Freeman R. Bosley Jr.

Mr. Bosley said that the officer told the two to get off the street, adding that Mr. Johnson told the officer that he lived nearby. They got into a bit of a verbal dispute with the officer about whether walking in the street constituted a crime, Mr. Bosley said.

Contrary to what several witnesses have told law enforcement officials, Mr. Bosley said that the officer then reached out of the window with his left hand and grabbed Mr. Brown by the throat.

He said Mr. Brown pushed him off, and the officer then grabbed Mr. Brown’s shirt.

“My client sees the officer pull a gun and hears him say, ‘I’ll shoot you’ — then ‘pow!’ there was a shot,” Mr. Bosley said, referring to the one that apparently went off in the car. “He did not describe a scuffle. It was more of a scuffle for him to get away.”

Asked if Mr. Brown had punched the officer, Mr. Bosley said that Mr. Johnson “did not observe that.”

However, law enforcement officials say witnesses and forensic analysis have shown that Officer Wilson did sustain an injury during the struggle in the car.

As Officer Wilson got out of his car, the men were running away. The officer fired his weapon but did not hit anyone, according to law enforcement officials.

Mr. Johnson took cover near a parked car as he saw the officer confronting Mr. Brown, Mr. Bosley said.

A man who lives nearby, Michael T. Brady, said in an interview that he saw the initial altercation in the patrol car, although he struggled to see exactly what was happening.

“It was something strange,” said Mr. Brady, 32, a janitor. “Something was not right. It was some kind of altercation. I can’t say whether he was punching the officer or whatever. But something was going on in that window, and it didn’t look right.”

Mr. Brady said he could see Mr. Johnson at the front passenger side of the car when he and Mr. Brown suddenly started running. Mr. Brady did not hear a gunshot or know what caused them to run. But he said he did see a police officer get out of the patrol car and start walking briskly while firing on Mr. Brown as he fled.

What happened next could be what the case turns on. Several witnesses have told investigators that Mr. Brown stopped and turned around with his arms up.

According to his account to the Ferguson police, Officer Wilson said that Mr. Brown had lowered his arms and moved toward him, law enforcement officials said. Fearing that the teenager was going to attack him, the officer decided to use deadly force. Some witnesses have backed up that account. Others, however — including Mr. Johnson — have said that Mr. Brown did not move toward the officer before the final shots were fired.

A lawyer for the police union, Greg Kloeppel, did not return calls for comment.

The F.B.I., Mr. Bosley said, pressed Mr. Johnson to say how high Mr. Brown’s hands were. Mr. Johnson said that his hands were not that high, and that one was lower than the other, because he appeared to be “favoring it,” the lawyer said.

James McKnight, who also said he saw the shooting, said that Mr. Brown’s hands were up right after he turned around to face the officer.

“I saw him stumble toward the officer, but not rush at him,” Mr. McKnight said in a brief interview. “The officer was about six or seven feet away from him.”

Frances Robles reported from Ferguson, and Michael S. Schmidt from Washington. Reporting was contributed by Matt Apuzzo from Washington, Marc Santora from New York, and Alan Blinder and John Eligon from Ferguson.

Rams have brought in a high school team to simulate crowd noise…not sure where the team is from #ramscamp

–

Yes, that was a Ferguson school.

—

Fisher:

http://theramshuddle.com/topic/fisher-820-transcript/

On today’s practice and the added participation from high school football players from Ferguson, Mo.)
“It was quite a day, as a matter of fact. We finished up training camp and obviously what better way could we finish up than to invite some special guests to practice today. We were brainstorming last night in light of everything that’s going on and we wanted to do something and things just fell into place. We had a lot of people work real hard to put this together and we’re fortunate that we can provide an opportunity for these young high school athletes to get away. Imagine that they were trying to get ready for games this week and they were having to practice in a park and not being able to practice at the facility at their high school. There’s no better game than high school football and we didn’t want them to be denied of this opportunity. So we invited them over as our guests and it looks like they had a lot of fun. They participated in practice in the one drill simulating crowd noise and we had a bunch of mistakes, so I wouldn’t say they were close to Seattle, but pretty close.”

Some follow-up (ongoing)

==========

….CoachO

[The OL:]…IMO, based on what I have watched for the past 4 weeks, is they will more than likely keep 10:

Long, Robinson, Wells, Saffold, Barksdale, Barnes, Joseph, Person, Bond, and depending what they decide to do with Jones, either him, or Hooey.

Van Dyk could be cut outright, or put on the Pracitice Squad. Rhaney will either be put on IR, or PS.

Washington’s days are numbered IMO.

Saffold looks fine, and I would guess he will be back at full participation if not later this week, then definitely first part of next week.

*

[CBs]…Jenkins, Johnson, Joyner, Gaines, McGee and Woodard…not that I necessarily agree, but in terms of reps when they are all healthy, that is how they stack up

I don’t see the UDFA CBs for example, as being anything more than Practice Squad candidates.

Roberson has shown to have good cover skills, but lacks the overall game to be considered anyone who is going to help out THIS YEAR. Reid has come on of late, and has shown a physical side, has made a few plays, but overall lacks consistent cover skills. His best chance to contribute THIS YEAR is to take advantage of the opening in the KR role, and thus far he hasn’t shown to be even close to his former production in that area.

Woodard needs to be on the field to show he has developed. The problem with that is, when he was on the field early on in camp, he didn’t show much of anything.

*

[Daniels]…needs to stay on the field the rest of the Preseason, and show he still belongs. If he can, I think they would prefer to keep him as a 5th Safety, than reach to keep a 6th CB. He is included on too many ST, when compared to Reid or Roberson.

*

[The Nickel]…Keep in mind, Gaines will most likely be in that mix rather than having McLeod step up into one of the slot positions. Leaving McLeod as one of the two deep safeties.

Fisher, vid

http://www.stlouisrams.com/videos/videos/Fisher-Weve-got-a-good-group/e775288c-8b00-4301-a256-4406c195b608

Defensive tackle Aaron Donald sits down with Randy, D’Marco and Brad after Rams’ warm practice

===

Mike Sando reads the panic meter regarding the 49ers

After two games, I get the distinct impression that opposing defenses are going to make the Rams throw.

This fits something I have been focused on. I’ve said for a while now, if you look at the games under Fisher, Bradford has played well on avg. when he has had BOTH a relatively healthy OL (ie. no more than a couple of usual replacements) AND a running threat. I never said “running game,” I said “threat,” because if you concentrate resources on taking away the Rams running game, it leaves things open for the pass.

That was true of the Carolina game. They stopped Stacy but Bradford threw all over them. That was also true of the GB game. I saw that they were playing the run against the Rams, and Fisher said so too–they were pulling up a guy.

The time that didn’t work was when Richardson was the RB. He was not a threat defenses had to worry about. You can defend the run against Richardson just with normal resources, so after teams saw that, they concentrated on taking away the big passing play, and there were no receivers who could beat that. Not last year anyway.

So what you say will happen, HAS happened, IMO…we’ve seen it. When even a top defense like Carolina thinks run defense and limits rushing yards, they leave a crack open in pass defense, and even without a top namebrand receiver, Bradford could exploit it.

I think this picture of them will hold up this season.

What the Rams then did, of course, was intensify their investment in the run game by drafting Robinson. I think their goal is to pull people up, get them to think run threat, pass on them, PLUS run on them ANYWAY.

http://mmqb.si.com/2014/08/18/san-francisco-49ers-levis-stadium-debuts/5/

5. I think you should watch The MMQB this week for reporting from riot-torn Ferguson, Mo., from our Robert Klemko. http://mmqb.si.com/2014/08/16/nfl-player-david-bass-ferguson-racial-profiling/ The reportage began with this story from the weekend about Chicago defensive lineman David Bass, who grew up in the area and discusses the racial profiling he felt he encountered there. Klemko was on site Saturday night and Sunday, and spent time with some of the key people in the drama, and some of the high school football players and coaches who are trying to make a normal life for themselves in the midst of the strife.

6. I think if you’re wondering about the Rams’ involvement in the local story, wonder no more. Klemko has uncovered that the Rams provided tickets for high school players from the stricken area to the preseason game against Green Bay on Saturday. He filed this to me Sunday, and he’ll have more in a story on our site this week:

Watching the violence over Michael Brown’s killing unfold in Ferguson last week, a Rams staffer thought of the high schoolers, specifically, the boys who are supposed to play in their first football game of the season this weekend. Rams manager of fan development & alumni relations Kyle Eversgerd put in a call to coaches at McCluer High, McCluer North and McCluer South; there would be 75 free tickets awaiting each team if they chose to come to Saturday’s preseason game at the Edward Jones Dome.

“In light of everything going on it just kind of hit me,” says Eversgerd, whose job includes outreach with local high schools. “I can’t imagine with all that stuff going on, how tough it must be to practice. We were able to get them away from it all.”

So as hundreds of protesters faced off with police on the now-infamous West Florissant Avenue on Saturday night in Ferguson, leaving a man critically wounded by gunfire just yards from the homes of area children, the boys from three local teams were at their first NFL game, watching Aaron Rodgers and Sam Bradford from the 400 level. Said McCluer coach Mario MacDonald, “Our kids are focused on this season, but I worry about them out here, to be honest.”

At McCluer, MacDonald estimates more than 75% of his roster comes from single-parent homes, and most would not have been able to otherwise afford tickets that average about $100. The game was a welcome distraction; many McCluer players are angry with police and inclined to protest after Michael Brown’s shooting death here a week ago. On the bus ride to the game, players saw protesters on Florissant and started chanting, “Hands Up! Don’t Shoot!”

Then they focused on football.

“It was overwhelming to see the NFL live, for real,” said senior running back Henry Jones, “You saw how fast they played, and how they played together. I’ve been thinking about it ever since. I could actually see myself out there playing.”

Westbrooks

http://www.stlouisrams.com/videos/videos/One-on-One-with-Ethan-Westbrooks/beb43c2c-779a-4a45-9255-a7bfa77381a6