some more follow-up…ongoing

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CoachO

Laurinaitis has been out of the boot for over a week. His situation is mostly precautionary. I believe he had a procedure in the offseason, that landed him a walking boot then, so this injury is more about not aggravating it any further. IF he has shown one thing in his career, he WILL be on the field on Sundays. It’s anyone’s guess as to whether or not he will play in any of the preseason games. But my guess, if he does, it won’t be until Miami.

As to Brockers, he has been getting in some work on the side with Reggie (Head Trainer) and should be back for next week’s game in Cleveland.

I think with Hayes, they are just taking things slow with him, like they are with a few of the other guys. He apparently had some neck and shoulder issues taken care of in the off season, and with him being a veteran, he doesn’t need the same time and reps to be ready for Sept. 7th. Now if he doesn’t start working his back into a regular rotation in the next week or so, then there may be more to it than that.

Rhaney suffered a knee strain, and according to Fisher’s post-practice comments, it isn’t as serious as they thought. An MRI is scheduled. My guess is he won’t be playing tomorrow. Don’t be surprised to see Mike Person getting more than a few token reps at Center in tomorrow’s game.

The biggest thing about the Barrett Jones injury, is it exposed how short handed they are with the younger UDFA’s just not being where they need to be.

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I believe that Person will get the reps while Bradford is in the game. Then Van Dyk may get a look at LT. Not sure how much Wells will play, so Barnes and Person may finish the game at Center. Hooey will get his reps at RT, with the 2nd unit, then may slide over to LT with the 3’s.

[At]…RT, I’m thinking Sean Hooey gets the first nod. They seem to like what he brings, and the kid has made some nice strides in camp this year. Boudreau seems to like the tall tackles, with the reach hat Hooey at 6’9 can provide. While he can at times have problems with a speed rush, being on the right side, he isn’t as likely to come up against that quite as much as he would on the left.

As far as Washington, I have a feeling his days have been numbered since camp started. He is the perfect example of a player who has managed to stick around because he was the “best” of an otherwise very weak core of depth guys. They have “out drafted” him with the guys that have been brought in the last year. But Joseph’s signing kinda sealed his fate.

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As much as I love the Joseph acquisition, when Saffold is in there, this unit has the potential to have an overpowering running game. Joseph has been good, Saffold could be special.

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They do have a 2nd unit for kickoff coverage, but honestly, it changes practice to practice, with all the players sitting out. It’s difficult to even chart it. My suggestion is to keep an eye on the telecast tomorrow, to get a better idea of who it is THIS week.

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McLeod looks to be coming on. He is more often than not, in the single high safety position, and has showed to be quite comfortable, and is reading routes and making breaks on balls in the air. Again, he just needs to clean up his tackling, and I think people may be pleasantly surprised.

The 4 Safeties who IMO are safe, are McLeod, McDonald, C. Davis, and Alexander.

…what I have seen of Bryant, I like. He seems to play with a certain “balls to the wall” mentality. He just needs to get up to speed in the defense.

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My biggest fear is the fans all jumping ship if this team doesn’t get off to a 3-1 start. They need to stay the course, and let a Jeff Fisher team improve as the year goes on. As most of his teams have shown they will. A fast start would be very helpful,, ,but if they can be around .500 at the halfway point, they could very easily win 6 of the last 8 to make their playoff push.

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I think our base did a pretty good job in limiting the damage last year of the read option. None of the teams that tried to run it, including Washington in Week 2 had much success. With the addition of Ogletree and McDonald, IMO, these players are perfect fits, lined up on opposite sides of the formation to run down a Wilson or Kaepernick, while not compromising the interior of the defense by losing one of the DTs.

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I think you have to look deeper at some of the reasons that screens are successful against our defense, and why on offense, they don’t seem to be nearly as effective, even when they try to run them.

From a schematic point of view, teams use these screens to exploit the Rams biggest strength. The aggressive nature of our defensive front, which tends to be in a constant “rush the passer” mode, plays right into the hands of an team running effective screens. The defensive front tends to run themselves out of the play, creating a numbers mismatch against the back 7. Especially when teams can run off the safeties, leaving maybe 3 or 4 defenders to stand up to the screen.

Conversely, other teams propensity to play mostly zone schemes against our offense, doesn’t create the same sort of mismatches for our offense. Trust me, it’s not that they don’t work on the screen game in practice. They work on it a lot.

But when teams tend to be more passive in their approach vs. our offense, especially when we don’t show the ability to stretch the secondary, they will out number us at the point of the screen more often than not.

…while it would be nice to have in the arsenal [on offense], I’m not sure it something “needs to fix”. Play calling as a rule, is more about taking advantage of the matchups the defense gives you. And when teams take the approach they have taken as a general rule, running screens just isn’t the way to attack it. But it also opens other things to take advantage of.

One example I like to point out from last year, is the Indy game. compared to other games. Fans are always complaining about Schottenheimer’s “failure” to get Austin the ball in space. But by design, when teams are playing primarily zone, you have to attack the open spaces and find the windows. Which means most of the time, the receiver has to settle into that void, and is standing still when the ball is delivered.

Now, to use the Indy game, they played primarily man to man defense, and you saw they difference. Austin caught the crossing route in stride, and was off to the races. Even Chris Givens, who rarely runs them, had a couple of big plays on similar crossing routes.

This is how OC’s change their play calling based on the defense. And screen passes are just another tool in the drawer when the opportunity present itself.

On defense, it becomes a “pick your poison” sort of decision. In most cases, they choose to pressure the passer, and it can make them susceptible to the screens.

But that’s where having an experienced DC can make all the difference in the world, And actually GAME PLANNING, which you are not likely to see much in the preseason. Down and distance, and scouting tendencies, will allow Williams to have a better feel when to get after the QB, and when to back off and force them into throwing into coverage.

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coyotes, native to the Great Plains, began pushing eastward and mated with the refugee wolves. Their descendants in turn bred with coyotes and dogs. The result has been a creature with enough strength to hunt the abundant woodland deer, which it followed into the recovering Eastern forests. Coywolves, or Eastern coyotes, as White prefers to call them, have since pushed south to Virginia and east to Newfoundland.
…

I’ve seen a couple of em in my time here. Or at least I think that’s what they were.

from an article: “Coywolfs are most often found in the North East, and in Maine, most the coyotes caught and studied were actually to some degree or another, Coywolves. A study in Maine of one hundred coyotes found that out of the one hundred, twenty two of the individuals studied were actually more wolf than coyote.”
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ON WMS: “He has so much in his defense,” Quinn says. “He can switch it up on you so fast. If people focus on me there are going to be 10 other guys out there who could be coming. With Gregg being here it’s going to be a lot harder for teams to focus on me.”

It;s going to be interesting to see how that works.

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The Washington Post

NFL considering tougher penalties for future domestic violence cases, including possible one-year ban

By Mark Maske August 13

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/sports/wp/2014/08/13/nfl-considering-tougher-penalties-for-future-domestic-violence-cases-including-possible-one-year-ban/

The NFL is considering toughening its penalties for players who commit acts of domestic violence, including a potential one-year ban for a second offense, according to multiple people familiar with the league’s recent deliberations.

The prospective new policy, if it is implemented, could establish guidelines for a suspension of four to six games without pay for a first offense and potentially a season-long suspension for a second incident, according to those with knowledge of the matter. They spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the topic and because no final decision has been made by the league on implementing the policy.

The contemplated changes, if they are made by the NFL, would come after the league and Commissioner Roger Goodell have been criticized heavily for the two-game suspension imposed on Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice for allegedly striking Janay Palmer, the woman who is now his wife. Many media members and other observers have called Rice’s suspension insufficient and said it sends the wrong message about the league’s attitude toward domestic violence.

It was not clear if the potential new policy faces any significant obstacles to being put into effect.

“We need to have stricter penalties,” said one person with knowledge of the league’s deliberations on the matter. “I think you will see that. I believe the commissioner and others would like to see stricter penalties. We need to be more vigilant.”

That person said Goodell and the league “tried to stick with precedent” from previous NFL disciplinary measures when deciding on the length of Rice’s suspension.

“A lot of us were disturbed by what we saw” in the Rice case, the person said. “I think you will see something in probably the next few weeks. A first offense could be four to six games, definitely more than two. A second offense might be a year.”

AdvertisementA second person who had been briefed on the matter confirmed that the increased penalties are under consideration. That person said he did not know if it is definite that the new policy will be enacted nor when the new policy, if implemented, might go into effect.

The NFL declined to comment through a spokesman.

Two people with close ties to the NFL Players Association said the union was not involved in the deliberations.

Rice’s suspension resulted from an incident in February in which he allegedly struck Palmer, then his fiancée, in a hotel elevator in Atlantic City. Video became public showing Rice pulling an apparently unconscious Palmer from the elevator. The couple later married. Rice pleaded not guilty to a third-degree aggravated assault charge and avoided trial when he was accepted into a pretrial intervention program.

Rice was suspended from the Ravens’ first two games of the upcoming season without pay and was fined an additional game check based on last season’s salary. He will lose about $529,000 from the NFL’s penalty.

Goodell has defended the length of the suspension. When he spoke to reporters while in Canton, Ohio, for the Pro Football Hall of Fame induction ceremonies, he said that the punishment “has to be consistent with other cases, and it was in this matter.”

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NFL considering stiffer punishment in abuse cases amid Ray Rice uproar

By Eric Edholm

https://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/nfl-considering-stiffer-punishment-in-abuse-cases-amid-ray-rice-uproar-161850996.html

The NFL oh-so carefully has allowed word to leak out that it plans to get tougher on players who commit acts of domestic violence in the wake of the backlash of Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice’s suspension.

The Washington Post, citing league sources, said the NFL is looking to toughen player bans for as much as a yearlong suspension for a second offense. A first offense could garner a suspension in the range of four to six games, according to Mark Maske’s report.

Rice’s abuse case and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s perceptibly light sentence — a two-game suspension — has caused some uproar in league circles, as well as from fans and media members. The message, they have said, is that the league has taken a lenient stance towards physical abuse.

“We need to have stricter penalties,” one person told Maske of the NFL’s discussions on the matter. “I think you will see that. I believe the commissioner and others would like to see stricter penalties. We need to be more vigilant.”

That’s classic NFL, isn’t it? There’s vocal opposition to an issue, and quietly — through leaked sources — the league lets it be known that changes are in store. Savvy PR folks they employ there. At least they are open to some change and listening to some of the outrage.

Nothing like slamming that barn door shut after the first flock has gotten out. Goodell had defended the discipline process and the sentencing on Rice, citing league precedents on past cases. It appears he and the league officials in charge of disciplinary matters are seeing things differently now.

Fair or not, apples to kumquats notwithstanding, observers comparing Rice’s discipline and those of marijuana offenders and recreational-drug takers are having a field day with the apparent lack of justice. Heck, Terrelle Pryor once was docked five games for a violation he committed while still under the NCAA’s umbrella … in a tattoo scandal! By that comp, at the very least, Rice skated.

“A lot of us were disturbed by what we saw [in the Rice case],” the source told the Post. “I think you will see something in probably the next few weeks. A first offense could be four to six games, definitely more than two. A second offense might be a year.”

Rice was indicted on a third-degree aggravated assault charge for striking his then fiancée, now wife, Janay Palmer in an Atlantic City casino in February. He since has apologized and taken full responsibility for his actions. Rice will miss the Ravens’ first two games of the season, against the Cincinnati Bengals and Pittsbugh Steelers. He’ll be eligible to return to the Ravens’ active roster prior to their Week 3 game against the Cleveland Browns.

InvaderRam wrote:

i think that’s a great point. i’m even willing to bet that’s what they’re thinking.

robinson, long, and saffold is a great start to an offensive line.

Yeah and watch them draft another LOT candidate for guard.

The solution to traditional NFL depth issues at LOT? Start 4 LOTs. Slide em over when needed.

Then your depth is mostly the cheaper, easier to find, more abundant ROT and OG types.

Their motto could be “an Ogden a year keeps the qb upright.” Okay it doesn’t rhyme but it’s still a good idea.

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InvaderRam wrote:

i’m excited to see this offensive line. i think it will have a bigger impact than any other offensive group. the running game. and then off that the play action. pass protection. i’m excited to see how quickly this group can get it together. that should be the identity of this offense. the line.

Here’s some more buzz that feeds into that.

Barnes is apparently stronger. Got a little manhandled last year so if he has upped his game, that’s good.

Joseph is apparently fine.

Which brings us to the crucial “3rd left OT” issue. It’s a continuing problem with teams–finding a back-up LOT. Cause if a guy is a good LOT, he ain’t gonna be a back-up for long. Most good LOTs are taken high in the draft, so maybe you can develop a lower pick there for a couple of years and he can be good depth, but honestly, this is not common.

So the Rams solution is interesting, though I am not sure they sat down and planned this out. Someone good enough to be a very effective LOT is a starting caliber lineman. If he is a vet, and good enough to start, teams will compete for him; if he’s a draft prospect, and he looks good enough, he gets snapped up. So. If a decent 3rd LOT is going to be a guy who is good enough to start, and that means it’s hard to find one as a back-up…well, then, start 3 LOTs on your line.

The Rams are now 3 deep at LOT. Obviously–Long, Saffold, Robinson. And actually observers are saying Robinson looked more comfortable at tackle last Friday than guard. I take that to mean Robinson is not far off as a left OT, apparently.

They have Joseph to fill in at guard, and it seems Barnes to fill in at center, plus 3 starting caliber LOTs.

If any of that about Barnes and Joseph holds up, then this team can lose up to 2 guys on the line before they get down to the dreaded “developmental and/or journeymen” types who populate most teams depth charts at OL.

And maybe Bond is another guard.

And if they find one more guy among the remaining young hopefuls, then, IMO that is as deep as an OL can get in the NFL.

And that’s all IF there are injuries. If Long and Wells stay healthy, you’re right, this is a team-defining kind of OL. IMO as good a line as the Rams have had since the GSOT days. Different from that line, but as good if not better in a lot of ways. (To me the differences between that line and this one is summed up by the differences between Pace and Robinson.)

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Dak wrote:

Nice updates. Thanks.

You’re welcome, and it’s easy. Anyway, I probably extended the last follow-up a couple of times since you posted that.

rfl wrote:

Wow! Incredible blast from the past. Amazing.

The times are obviously very different but you raise similar kinds of concerns about team chemistry.

Given what I tend to look for, I am not sure I will see the kind of chemistry that tells me a lot until an important regular season game. I thought they had a lot of that going in the 2012 SF game, the one that ended in a tie. But that team has since been hurt and/or inconsistent. So I wait for a future defining game. Not sure we will see that in August.

Reminds me of a post you wrote in Sept. 99 after the Detroit pre-season game. That was Warner’s first p-s game as a starter after Green went down:

THIS TEAM RALLIED, BY RAMMED FOR LIFE (Sept 3)

http://www.geocities.ws/ramsezine/preseason99/this_team_rallied_by_rfl_93.htm