laram wrote:

Let’s see if everyone in the secondary is playing better after they face some actual passing offenses.

I don’t think that can be determined at this point, and IMO Gaines did not play well against Minny.

He gave up several completions and a TD, so my evaluation is not on how he’s played, I’m strictly looking at his movements and instincts.

You can tell they’re playing better by watching them. They’re better, as individuals and as a unit (Gaines of course is a rookie so we can’t rightly say he is better than last year). Anyway. What we will find out after they go up against top passing offenses is, HOW MUCH better.

You know, I think there’s something to that. I don’t know all the details, but during the game, we were saying that the Bux were burning the Rams on their big blitz packages, both on the run and the pass.

wv wrote:

InvaderRam wrote:
a head injury???

shaking my head…

The ‘Government’ would need 12 out of 12 jurors
to agree on a guilty verdict.
Defense only needs 1 out of 12 for a hung-jury-verdict.

Try and get 12 jurors on a panel
without at least one ‘spare the rod,
spoil the child’ government-hating-fundamentalist.

w
v

Yeah once again…it comes down to the Twelth Man.

Like, in Seattle.

Dak wrote:

As Pettis came down with the ball, however, Tampa Bay safety Dashon Goldson came over and delivered a crushing blow only to see Pettis find a way to hang on to the ball.

“At that point in the game you want to make a big play and I kind of thrive in those kind of situations,” Pettis said. “I came off the line and kind of had a feeling the ball was going to come to me on that play so I knew I had to come down with it no matter what.”

I love that attitude. I think the Rams have to find more opportunities for Pettis. This may lead to less Givens or Britt, I don’t know, but Pettis expects to come down with the ball. Maybe Quick should be watching Pettis and learning more from him. Because if Quick could come down with just a few more clutch plays (like the ball that hit him in the helmet), he’d be All-Pro.

I do wonder what happens when Bailey comes back. There really are a host of pretty good WRs on this team now, but no great ones.

I honestly don;t think anyone else on the team can do the Pettis as Extreme Pettis stuff Pettis does.

His reach and body control are kind of unique.

He’s like Mr. Fantastic from the Fantastic 4 out there.

Rams Head Coach Jeff Fisher – September 15, 2014

(Opening Remarks)
“I know you’re all curious about our injury update. We did test, did MRIs both on (TE) Cory Harkey and on (WR) Tavon (Austin), I guess you can say we got good news. We’ve got mild sprains, nothing that requires surgery. I wouldn’t rule either one of them out for this weekend. They’re both – as you can imagine – stiff and sore today, but it was good news this morning, and we really didn’t have anything else in the ballgame. Shaun (Hill) wasn’t set back at all during the warm-ups, during his test before pregame warm-ups and so he’s still rehabbing. I don’t know how much he’ll do Wednesday. He’s got a chance to get out there and do some things Thursday. That’s your injury update as far as the game’s concerned.

“I think, as I mentioned postgame, it was a great win for us. There’s still a lot of room for improvement. I’m especially pleased and proud of the way Austin (Davis) handled the game, the way he managed the game. The way he was throwing with timing, extending plays with the legs. The first third down, he did a nice job converting. We ran the football. We had balance in the game. We had 29 pass attempts and 29 rushes, so when you have balance in the game, you know you have a chance. I was pleased with the way Austin handled things in the game.

“Defensively, we have to continue to work. We’re not where we need to be in run defense. We’re going to really be tested this week. We have to get better there. We missed too many tackles. We had some run misfits. We’ve got our work cut out for us this week because it seems like yesterday that mess happened in Dallas last year. We have to get significantly better. Dallas had the ball for over 41 minutes yesterday in Tennessee, so that’s going to be a huge challenge for us. And the defensive penalties are still of a concern. We had five penalties in the game, but we actually had nine if you look at the ones that offset and those that were declined. We’ve got to get that under control. We challenged the defense to do the same thing that the offense did last week. The offense had seven last week, this week they had one. So significant improvement on the offensive side of the ball. I thought ‘Schotty’ (Offensive Coordinator Brian Schottenheimer) did a great job with the game, with Austin calling him. Our last three drives were scoring drives and they were all nine plays or more and that’s good work with a back-up quarterback.”

(On what Harkey showed him for going back out to play after taking a big hit)
“We knew. We knew Cory was a tough guy. He loves the game. That was a rough hit. Now when you saw it, that’s a byproduct of the league and the rule changes. (Bucs S Dashon) Goldson’s a good football player and that’s one that you just don’t like to see. We feared, I feared for the worst on it until he got to the sideline and the docs felt structurally he was going to be okay. We were going to change some personnel groups and Cory said, ‘No, don’t change them. I’m going back in,’ so very impressed with him”.

(On what he learned about Davis as the game progressed)
“He was in complete control. If there’s a timeout here or a timeout there or whatever the situation was, were talking about and he goes, ‘I got it.’ He felt good about what we were doing. He did a real nice job checking out of some things and getting us into some other things. The line of scrimmage was stacked yesterday and their opinion was probably that Austin wasn’t going to beat them with his arm and he did. He made some great plays, made some great throws. He understood exactly what we needed to do. He said, ‘What do I need in this drive?’, from the standpoint of what’s (K) Greg’s (Zuerlein) range here. I told him, ‘I want to keep him off the paint.’ The decal was really thick and hard and Greg had struggled kicking off the paint in the pregame. So he said, ‘Alright, I’ll get us there,’ and he did.”

(On if Davis exceeded expectations)
“No. Like I said last night, there’s a big difference between this week and last week and that difference is the practice reps.”

(On Davis’ third down production)
“Yeah, it’s good. It’s what you expect out of your quarterback. The difference is, he didn’t have to try and convert a third-and-25. We kept our down-and-distance manageable because we were running it. The twos and threes and fours and sixes and even the one 10, I think, he made the throws.”
(On why he wouldn’t consider starting Davis instead of a healthy Hill because of Davis’ play this past week)
“If Shaun is healthy and able to play and not going to subject himself to re-injuring this or making it worse, then Shaun’s our quarterback and Austin’s our backup. That’s just the way it is. Shaun was five-for-five against a good Minnesota defense here to get started.”

(On if there is any wiggle room as to who the starting quarterback is)
“No. I won’t visit with you guys tomorrow, but I will Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, so you can ask me again, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, if you want – you’re going to get the same answer.”

(On if he should sleep on that decision)
“I’m not sleeping on it. I got it. I’m proud of Austin and I’m proud of the way the team rallied around him. It was really exciting in the locker room for him.”

(On if it has been his philosophy throughout his career for players not to lose their spots due to injury)
“This has nothing to do with injury. He played because of the injury but, no. We brought Shaun (Hill) in to be our backup and Shaun now, unfortunately is our starter. Unfortunately, meaning Sam (Bradford) went down. When Shaun comes back he’ll win a lot of games for us.”

(On DE Robert Quinn’s contract extension)
“Talks kind of heated up middle part of the week last week. We got things going Friday and then Saturday morning they got things put together, so I was really happy for Rob. As we said we really appreciate (Rams Owner) Stan’s (Kroenke) support and approval on this. Rob’s got a chance to be an outstanding defensive player for us for a lot of years, so much deserving of it.”

(On the significance of the bye week for the health of the Hill)
“Well it would be a factor. Again, this is not coach speak, it’s day to day. We’re going to see how he is.”

(On Davis’s character and hard work considering he was out of league last year)
“He’s worked very hard. He studies, he understands the challenges that are related to the position and how important preparation is. He did some good things in college mind you, he set some records and he broke a pretty good player’s record down there. He understands the position. Again, a great win for us and for him, it’s great to see him have success.”

(On LB Jo-Lonn Dunbar’s roughing the passer penalty)
“I’ll say this. If it’s our quarterback I’m okay with the call but since it wasn’t I’m not. It’s just one of those things. Like I said last night, the referee’s responsibility as soon as anybody gets near the quarterback is to come off the tackle, the left tackle, the line of scrimmage and go to the quarterback. The issue is that the quarterback is between him and the contact so he can’t see it. So the assumption is that the contact was high, was in the helmet, head/neck area, so he threw the flag.”

(On if it looked like Dunbar hit Bucs QB Josh McCown’s shoulder)
“Yes with his face. He did, but they’re going to protect the quarterback, I understand that. I can disagree with the call but I understand the call. Now, I was a little more frustrated on Josh McCown’s touchdown run, both offensive tackles false started. I’d like to have seen that called. There’s a difference between a scramble for a touchdown on 3rd-and-10, but sometimes those things happen.”

(On if he spoke with DE Eugene Sims about the horse collar penalty)
“We did, we talked after. He apologized. Just leaving the ground on one…it’s effort play. You just can’t grab the collar through.”

(On defense struggling on second and third down)
“We’re working on it. We’ve got to be more consistent on all downs. We’ve got to get better on third down and we’ve got to play run defense better.”

(On RB Zac Stacy’s fumble due to being kicked in the head and if there should have been a penalty)
“No, there were a strange set of sequences that led up to it. We’re supposed to go down and cut off the backer. Instead we cut the backer and the backer flipped over. Zac was not expecting to get kicked and it just caught him by surprise, but there’s not foul there, there’s nothing. Just kind of one of those things that happened. Same is the case with our blocked punt. The line of scrimmage was the 24. They had two yards to gain. That ball was caught right about the line of scrimmage. Now whether it was in front or beyond or on the line, I guess what I’m saying is had they ruled the first down on that play, the ball has to be caught behind the line of scrimmage to be advanced. If it’s caught across the line of scrimmage it comes back to the spot and so that was a potential reviewable play, again it kind of paraphrased the game. This became a game of inches. It became a game where we needed to block a field goal, we needed to block a punt, we needed a play here and there. The good thing about this game is our players, this young group learned how to win a close game.”

(On if he always waits until two seconds left on the play clock to call the timeout)
“I’m going to generally do it at two. You saw the back judge throw the flag for delay of game and they waved it off, and said, ‘No they called timeout.’ So, I’m generally going to use it a two.”

(On if the officially he was standing next to, to call timeout was the side judge)
“It was the side judge, yeah.”

(On if yesterday’s win showed the NFL that the Rams are playing through adversity)
“I think most of the league didn’t even realize we had a game yesterday (laughs.) I saw (K) Greg’s (Zuerlein) winning field goal, that’s all I saw on all the highlights. So that’s OK with us.”

(On if the way the game ending was a teaching moment and if he remembers when Marshall Faulk lifted Az-Zahir Hakim up in 1999 in a game at Tennessee to help the Rams get set and spike the ball)
“I’m not familiar with that. No, we should’ve been in a different defensive deployment, I’ll say. But nonetheless, the reason we won the football game is because Austin Davis made a great throw and catch to (WR) Austin Pettis and got us in field goal range and they had to use all three timeouts. So when, their timeouts expired with 38 seconds or 40 seconds needing a field goal, I liked out chances. We made it close, but I liked our chances.”

(On if he would have changed the defensive alignment on the last play)
“I think yes but we have a number of things that we can do. We should’ve been out of this particular coverage. And I’m taking responsibility for it because I told (Defensive Coordinator) Gregg (Williams) that that’s what we needed. So, that was my discussion with Gregg after the game before I went to talk to (Tampa Bay Buccaneers Head Coach) Lovie (Smith). I was thinking one thing and I said the other. And he called what I said so. That’s behind the scenes.”

(On what he meant to call)
“I’m not going to go into what we were going to do. I wanted something other than what we did.”

(On SS T.J. McDonald’s tackle on the last play of the game)
“It was a big play.”

(On if it’s his philosophy to shorten the game to win these close games)
“I actually told the team before the game that, people are talking about a 13-10 game, and I said, ‘Why not a 35-10 game.’ We wanted to score points. But as the game started to take shape and the flow, you have to manage it that way. You manage, I felt like obviously, that this thing was going to come down to who had the ball last and a play at the end of the game to win it. Particularly because of what they were doing. We didn’t give up any deep balls down the field, they may have thrown one. But they were trying to drive the football. And run the football. And they did it with success. And they were OK with field goals as well. Last year we did have some games, particularly after that bye, at the bye when we came back, I think it was Chicago and we put a lot of points on the board because we were getting turnovers and things like that. Until we start getting turnovers, and we’re not getting them right now, most games are going to be like this.”

(On the play of both McDonald and FS Rodney McLeod through the first two weeks of the season)
“I think both the safeties have played very well, the last two weeks. Now, we missed some tackles but everybody’s going to miss tackles on their running back. But I think considering where we were last year, they’ve come a long, long way. I’m happy for them.”

(On WR Stedman Bailey’s potential reinstatement)
“Don’t have any new information. We’ve been hearing for four or five days that they’re going to vote and that everybody will be reinstated-or they have a list of those that should be reinstated. But, I mean there was some talk about even as late as Friday and Saturday. But I haven’t heard anything. We released (DT) Matt Conrath to clear the roster spot in the event that it does happen over the next couple of days.”

(On the blocked punt and blocked FG were due to film study or game plan)
“It’s a result of both but it’s effort. We’ve focused on it. We’ve spent a lot of time on it. We were very, very good at it last year. We got our hands on a couple balls last year. We’re going to continue to do so. It was a great, great feel by T.J. I was told it was the first time since ’79 that the Rams had both a field goal and a punt block in the same game. We’re going to continue, I think that’s going to help us down the line.”

(On if the blocks we’re due to overloading one side of the field)
“I don’t know what other people do, I don’t know. We’re obviously doing something that’s helping us be productive.”

Peterson Facing More Accusations

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/11534340/adrian-peterson-minnesota-vikings-facing-second-child-abuse-accusation?ex_cid=sportscenterTW

Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson, already facing felony charges in Texas for child abuse, has been accused in a separate incident involving another son who is 4 years old, KHOU-TV in Houston has reported.

The CBS affiliate cites text messages that reportedly include a photo of the son with an apparent head wound covered by bandages.

Peterson was indicted by a grand jury on charges of reckless or negligent injury to a child on Friday.

Peterson, who apologized in a statement Monday for “the hurt I have brought to my child,” also said he will testify in court that he did not intend to harm his son and said he is “without a doubt, not a child abuser.”

The Houston TV station reported the mother of the 4-year-old — from a different mother than the child he stands charged with abusing — filed a report with Child Protective Services but no charges have been filed.

The text exchange was as follows, according to KHOU-TV:

Mother: “What happened to his head?”

Peterson: “Hit his head on the Carseat.”

Mother: “How does that happen, he got a whoopin in the car.”

Peterson: “Yep.”

Mother: “Why?”

Peterson: “I felt so bad. But he did it his self.”

According to the report, Peterson then goes on to say he was disciplining his son for cursing at a sibling, though how specifically the child was wounded wasn’t made clear.

Mother: “What did you hit him with?”

Peter never directly answered, the report said, but later replied: “Be still n take ya whooping he would have saved the scare (scar). He aight (all right).”

Peterson has faced heavy criticism for his use of a so-called switch to discipline the other son, but the running back said in his statement that he “never imagined being in a position where the world is judging my parenting skills or calling me a child abuser because of the discipline I administered to my son.”

The Vikings deactivated Peterson for Sunday’s game against the New England Patriots but announced in a statement on Monday that Peterson will play on Sunday against the New Orleans Saints, adding they will let the legal process play out before deciding on further action. The NFL’s only comment came on Saturday, when spokesman Brian McCarthy said the league will review Peterson’s case “under the NFL’s personal conduct policy.”

Peterson is scheduled to enter a plea at an Oct. 8 hearing in Conroe, Texas, after his indictment for reckless or negligent injury to a child. Peterson faces up to two years in prison and a $10,000 fine if found guilty.

The Rams drove back and I was surprised at the Rams execution. You could tell that the Rams didn’t have a massive playbook, but in some ways, that may be helping this group because they executed better. Austin Davis looked very in control, his passes looked for the most part on the money and our receivers looked sure handed.

Well, in part yes it could be that focusing on a more limited playbook helped them—in fact that same argument was made in 2002 when Bulger could play and Warner was struggling.

But I think of other things. Like, was it 12 penalties against the Vikes? Or 14? (Ain’t gonna look it up right this sec.) Then, 5 in the Bux game. That’s everyone—not just the offense, but special teams and the defense too. So some improvement in OVERALL execution came from somewhere.

So another theory is, they look better when they execute. Leading now to a reversal of the old joke into a post-joke type anti-joke/ non-joke:

What do you think of your team’s execution?
It improved.

(Here’s a real example of a old joke become a post-joke type anti-joke/ non-joke:
What do you get when you cross a horse and a man?
A minotaur.)

Mackeyser wrote:

2nded

You were there.

We are discussing the defense. http://theramshuddle.com/topic/our-defense-is-a-fraud/

How did it look to you.

Maddy wrote:

I figure I’m not pointing out anything that’s not obvious if I suggest that the term “defending super bowl champs” sort of bolsters Seattles’ position.

Well, maybe it doesn’t work year in and year out.

What if for example at the end of the year, Seattle is worn out and beat up, and the Rams are just peaking.

Anyway I don;t think Fisher deliberately goes soft on teams. He just rests the injured. One result of that is that the OL virtually did not play together in the off-season and training camp. If it wasn’t one guy down it was another.

Maddy wrote:

I do wonder why we got so good against the run in the second half of last year, and then we begin the year getting raped by the run. I do not have the football acumen to recognize those causes. I mentioned my frustration once before being caused by my expectation that the defense would pick up where it left off last season. Expectations are the building blocks of disappointment I guess.

One thought that crossed my mind was that Fisher has to pick his poison, in a way. He can go straight to the whip from training camp through preseason, work these guys into midseason shape for the opener, full contact all the way, and then nobody could say they weren’t prepared. I know he tries instead to keep guys fresh, which might mean not exhausting every ounce of energy in camp and preseason. The benefit would be that you have gas in the tank at the end of the year. That is a management strategy, and I have no idea if there’s anything relevant about it for Fisher or these Rams, it’s just a thought that occurred to me. I won’t defend it with any conviction or anything.

If you want to finish the season playing your best ball and keeping guys fresh, rather than committing to busting out of the gate already worked into peak form, because you’ve been around and seen how difficult and unlikely it is to maintain that intensity, excellence, and some fresh legs for the whole season, you might regulate a little early on.

Not that the early games don’t count as much as the later games; they obviously do. But what’s the use of starting 4-0, then limping into a wildcard spot with a team that blew its wad getting ready for week one.

Also, I don’t mean that in this poorly thought-out that Fisher would just be blowing off the early games. I just mean that he would have them ready and prepared for the whole season, without treating week one like it was the super bowl.

I mention it because of the way they improved last season, and seem like they need to do it again this year. maybe its a stupid idea, but that’s one of my strong suits.

Granted we aren’t all-seeing, but I do think there’s something to that view–Fisher prefers to let vets prepare themselves and does not push them, since he prefers preparing for the marathon and not the sprint.

Can that backfire in the early games? Yes and in fact I think in fact it HAS. But so can the opposite way of doing things. I really do think it’s a matter of choosing your poison.

The opposite approach is Seattle’s. They act like every game is a playoff and got ready accordingly. The league even called them on it.

And, right now, both Seattle and the Rams are 1-1. Their defense was ranked #1 last year and is now ranked 12th. Rams defense was was ranked 15th last year and is now ranked 17th.

Herzog wrote:

I don’t know the logic behind having him learn more than one position as a freaking rookie. This completely goes against what they were doing in mini camp. I thought they were wise in mini camp….afterwords…..not so much

I have a theory on that. Everything about Robinson was longterm. If they wanted to go short term and just have a player week 1, then, they should have taken Matthews. But they like longterm thinking.

Longterm, every OL coach in the league has to contend with one thing–old-fashioned year in and year out OL continuity is dead. Free agency and the cap killed it. I posted an article a while back that analyzed this and concluded that on average, every OL in the league will have 3.5 new starters every 2 years. So how do you cope with that? The Rams approach is flexibility. Jones was playing all 3 inside positions. Saffold can play everything but center. They added GR to the mix–he can play both OG and OT, or will be able to when he’s ready.

Short term, that wasn’t good for GR…in the sense that he won’t be an early starter. Cause on top of having a lot to learn ANYWAY, they gave him more to learn.

But LONG TERM it’s good for the OL.

In fact these guys make a lot of longterm v. short term decisions. Quick is an example. Brockers is an example. And so on. Interestingly, they act like guys who really believe they have a 5 year deal and are not on the traditional 3-year death watch.

I don;t know if it will always work out or not, but then short term approaches don’t always work out either.

But if you look at it this way, it’s not that they made a huge mistake so obvious that even we fans can see through it–it’s that they were approaching this whole thing differently than some of us would like (it being understood that they could be right about their approach and we could be wrong about the value of our preferred approaches.) And that’s really 2 different things. They didn’t screw up…they just have a different approach than the one we’re looking for.

.

WV: Personally, I’m not ‘thrilled’ that GR is not ready
for prime-time yet, but I assume
he’ll be worked in gradually and will still
be what all the experts said he would be.

I think both of your statements are absolutely true. There’s no “assume” about it for me…to me, you just described the reality.

I don’t find anything about this “troubling” in the least. This is one of those issues, again, that’s just poster mindset…some guys see bad stuff in things like this, some guys don’t. It’s more how you see things than any other factor. And after a thousand words are spent analyzing and proposing and claiming and debating and counter-arguing and comparing creds, right now, till we know more, at the end of the day, it’s STILL just about mindsets.

And right now, where things stand, not only could it turn out one side is right and the other wrong, but, it’s equally possible that neither could be right, neither could be wrong, and possibly even both at once.