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, 10 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. .

Welcome aboard, mcdah!

There’s free pie.

wv wrote:

I guess Westbrooks and Sam are the top contenders
for that last DLine spot?

Sam has the edge now, one would think.

w
v

I think Harlan is a contender too.

I think they will stash Westbrooks on IR.

I also think other things, for example I think I will save all that for another post.

NJRAM

It was mostly about Sam, open for interviews, no media restriction and he is not a distratcion just one of 90 players

There was a tidbit on Bradford playing in preseason though;

Coach Fisher on Bradford: “He is 100%. If he doesn’t play a couple preseason games, it’s because we keep him out.”

My own highlights version.

[re: Finnegan’s 3 M cap subtraction].. they can get by without the money this year. And they’ll have even more space entering the next offseason.

[Bradford] had one of his best practices _ at least those open to the media _ on the final day of OTAs (June 19). Bradford threw the ball very well, was anticipating his throws, and seemed comfortable moving around in the pocket. … Bradford’s mobility looked pretty good last month during OTAs. We’ll see what camp brings when the vets start practicing Friday.

I think Mason can be pretty good. As for Pead, I’m just not seeing [it] after 2 years in the league

I think [Bailey] would’ve been an opening-day starter were it not for the suspension.

The Rams are going to use a lot of different WR formations.

AP Pro32-Power Rankings

July 22, 2014

http://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/AP-Pro32-Power-Rankings-5638914.php

The Associated Press Pro32 NFL Power Rankings, as voted by a 12-member panel, with first-place votes in parentheses, records through July 22, total points based on 32 points for a first-place vote through one point for a 32nd-place vote, and previous ranking:
W L T Pts Pvs
1. Seattle Seahawks (11) 0 0 0 383
2. San Francisco 49ers (1) 0 0 0 360
3. Denver Broncos 0 0 0 356
4. New England Patriots 0 0 0 352
5. Green Bay Packers 0 0 0 329
5. New Orleans Saints 0 0 0 329
7. Indianapolis Colts 0 0 0 301
8. Philadelphia Eagles 0 0 0 290
9. Cincinnati Bengals 0 0 0 266
10. San Diego Chargers 0 0 0 251
11. Chicago Bears 0 0 0 248
12. Baltimore Ravens 0 0 0 242
13. Pittsburgh Steelers 0 0 0 229
14. Kansas City Chiefs 0 0 0 214
15. Carolina Panthers 0 0 0 213
16. Arizona Cardinals 0 0 0 205
17. St. Louis Rams 0 0 0 188
18. Detroit Lions 0 0 0 181
19. Atlanta Falcons 0 0 0 171
20. Tampa Bay Buccaneers 0 0 0 170
21. New York Giants 0 0 0 155
22. New York Jets 0 0 0 152
23. Washington Redskins 0 0 0 125
24. Miami Dolphins 0 0 0 105
25. Dallas Cowboys 0 0 0 103
26. Buffalo Bills 0 0 0 81
27. Tennessee Titans 0 0 0 80
28. Houston Texans 0 0 0 77
29. Minnesota Vikings 0 0 0 61
30. Cleveland Browns 0 0 0 48
31. Jacksonville Jaguars 0 0 0 46
32. Oakland Raiders 0 0 0 25

___
VOTING PANEL

John Czarnecki, Fox Sports

Tony Dungy, NBC Sports

Herm Edwards, ESPN

Bob Glauber, Newsday

Rick Gosselin, Dallas Morning News

Ira Kaufman, Tampa Tribune

Pat Kirwan, SiriusXM NFL Radio/CBSSports.com

Jeff Legwold, ESPN/ESPN.com

Jenny Vrentas , Monday Morning Quarterback

Alex Marvez, Foxsports.com

Jim Miller, SiriusXM NFL Radio

Charean Williams, Fort Worth Star Telegram