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znModeratorfrom ‘No One Is Listening to Us’
More people than ever are hospitalized with COVID-19. Health-care workers can’t go on like this.Every time nurse Megan Ranney returns to the hospital, there are more COVID-19 patients.
In the months since March, many Americans have habituated to the horrors of the pandemic. But health-care workers do not have the luxury of looking away: They’re facing a third pandemic surge that is bigger and broader than the previous two. In the U.S., states now report more people in the hospital with COVID-19 than at any other point this year—and 40 percent more than just two weeks ago.
Emergency rooms are starting to fill again with COVID-19 patients. Utah, where Nathan Hatton is a pulmonary specialist at the University of Utah Hospital, is currently reporting 2,500 confirmed cases a day, roughly four times its summer peak. Hatton says that his intensive-care unit is housing twice as many patients as it normally does. His shifts usually last 12 to 24 hours, but can stretch to 36. “There are times I’ll come in in the morning, see patients, work that night, work all the next day, and then go home,” he told me. I asked him how many such shifts he has had to do. “Too many,” he said.
Hospitals have put their pandemic plans into action, adding more beds and creating makeshift COVID-19 wards. But in the hardest-hit areas, there are simply not enough doctors, nurses, and other specialists to staff those beds. Some health-care workers told me that COVID-19 patients are the sickest people they’ve ever cared for: They require twice as much attention as a typical intensive-care-unit patient, for three times the normal length of stay. “It was doable over the summer, but now it’s just too much,” says Whitney Neville, a nurse based in Iowa. “Last Monday we had 25 patients waiting in the emergency department. They had been admitted but there was no one to take care of them.” I asked her how much slack the system has left. “There is none,” she said.
The entire state of Iowa is now out of staffed beds, Eli Perencevich, an infectious-disease doctor at the University of Iowa, told me. Worse is coming. Iowa is accumulating more than 3,600 confirmed cases every day; relative to its population, that’s more than twice the rate Arizona experienced during its summer peak, “when their system was near collapse,” Perencevich said. With only lax policies in place, those cases will continue to rise. Hospitalizations lag behind cases by about two weeks; by Thanksgiving, today’s soaring cases will be overwhelming hospitals that already cannot cope. “The wave hasn’t even crashed down on us yet,” Perencevich said. “It keeps rising and rising, and we’re all running on fear. The health-care system in Iowa is going to collapse, no question.”
In the imminent future, patients will start to die because there simply aren’t enough people to care for them. Doctors and nurses will burn out. The most precious resource the U.S. health-care system has in the struggle against COVID-19 isn’t some miracle drug. It’s the expertise of its health-care workers—and they are exhausted.
The struggles of the first two COVID-19 surges in the United States helped hospitals steel themselves for the third. Hardened by the crucible of March and April, New York City built up its ability to spot burgeoning hot spots, trace contacts, and offer places where infected people can isolate. “We’re seeing red flags but we’ve prepared ourselves,” says Syra Madad from NYC Health + Hospitals. Experienced health-care workers are less fearful than they were earlier this year. “We’ve been through this before and we know what we have to do,” says Uché Blackstock, an emergency physician who works in Brooklyn. And with the new generation of rapid tests, Blackstock says she can now tell patients if they have the coronavirus within minutes—a huge improvement over the spring, when tests were scarce and slow.
Smaller clinics, nursing homes, and long-term-care facilities are still struggling to provide personal protective equipment, including gloves and masks. “About a third are completely out of at least one type of PPE” despite having COVID-19 cases, says Esther Choo, a physician at Oregon Health and Science University and a founder of Get Us PPE. But larger hospitals are doing better, having built up stockpiles and backup plans in case supply chains become strained again. “The hospital is probably the safest place to work in Iowa, because we actually have PPE,” Perencevich said.
Most important, COVID-19 is no longer a total mystery. Health-care workers now have a clearer idea of what the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus is capable of. Protocols that didn’t exist in the spring have become habit. “It used to be that to do a single thing, people would start email chains and you’d be 100 emails in before we knew the answer,” Choo says. “Now we’re moving faster. It feels a lot more confident.”
There are still no cures, and the best drug on offer—the steroid dexamethasone—reduces the odds of dying from COVID-19 by at most 12 percent. But doctors know how to triage patients, which tests to order, and which treatments to use. They know that ventilators can sometimes hurt patients, and that “proning”—flipping patients onto their stomach—can help. They know about the blood clots and kidney problems. They know that hydroxychloroquine doesn’t work. This cumulative knowledge means that death rates from COVID-19 are much lower now than they were in the spring. Flattening the curve worked as intended, giving health-care workers some breathing room to learn how to handle a disease that didn’t even exist this time last year.
But these hard-earned successes are brittle. If death rates have fallen thanks to increasing medical savvy, they might rise again as nurses and doctors burn out. “If we can get patients into staffed beds, I feel like they’re doing better,” Perencevich said. “But that requires a functional health-care system, and we’re at the point where we aren’t going to have that.”
Intensive-care units are called that for a reason. A typical patient with a severe case of COVID-19 will have a tube connecting their airways to a ventilator, which must be monitored by a respiratory therapist. If their kidneys shut down, they might be on 24-hour dialysis. Every day, they’ll need to be flipped onto their stomach, and then onto their back again—a process that requires six or seven people. They’ll have several tubes going into their heart and blood vessels, administering eight to 12 drugs—sedatives, pain medications, blood thinners, antibiotics, and more. All of these must be carefully adjusted, sometimes minute to minute, by an ICU nurse. None of these drugs is for treating COVID-19 itself. “That’s just to keep them alive,” Neville, the Iowa nurse, said. An ICU nurse can typically care for two people at a time, but a single COVID-19 patient can consume their full attention. Those patients remain in the ICU for three times the length of the usual stay.
Nurses and doctors are also falling sick themselves. “The winter is traditionally a very stressful time in health care, and everyone gets taken down at some point,” says Saskia Popescu, an infection preventionist at George Mason University, who is based in Arizona. The third COVID-19 surge has intensified this seasonal cycle, as health-care workers catch the virus, often from outside the hospital. “Our unplanned time off is double what it was last October,” says Allison Suttle of Sanford Health, a health system operating in South Dakota, North Dakota, and Minnesota. Many hospitals have staff on triple backup: While off their shifts, they should expect to get called in if a colleague and their first substitute and the substitute’s substitute are all sick. At least 1,375 U.S. health-care workers have died from COVID-19.
The first two surges were concentrated in specific parts of the country, so beleaguered hospitals could call for help from states that weren’t besieged. “People were coming to us in our hour of need,” says Madad, from NYC Health + Hospitals, “but now the entire nation is on fire.” No one has reinforcements to send. There are travel nurses who aren’t tied to specific health systems, but the hardest-hit rural hospitals are struggling to attract them away from wealthier, urban centers. “Everyone is tapping into the same pool, and people don’t want to work in Fargo, North Dakota, for the holidays,” Suttle says. North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum recently said that nurses who are positive for COVID-19 but symptom-free can return to work in COVID-19 units. “That’s just a big red flag of just how serious it is,” Suttle says. (The North Dakota Nurses Association has rejected the policy.)
Short-staffed hospitals could transfer their patients—but to where? “A lot of smaller hospitals don’t have ventilators or staff trained to take care of someone in critical condition,” says Renae Moch, the director of Bismarck-Burleigh Public Health, North Dakota. “They’re looking to larger hospitals,” but those are also full.
Making matters worse, patients with other medical problems are sicker than usual, several doctors told me. During the earlier surges, hospitals canceled elective surgeries and pulled in doctors from outpatient clinics. People with heart problems, cancers, strokes, and other diseases found it harder to get medical help, and some sat on their illness for fear of contracting COVID-19 at the hospital. Now health-care workers are facing an influx of unusually sick people at a time when COVID-19 has consumed their attention and their facilities. “We’re still catching up on all of that,” says Choo, the Oregon physician. “Even the simplest patients aren’t simple.”
For many health-care workers, the toll of the pandemic goes beyond physical exhaustion. COVID-19 has eaten away at the emotional core of their work. “To be a nurse, you really have to care about people,” Neville said. But when an ICU is packed with COVID-19 patients, most of whom are likely to die, “to protect yourself, you just shut down. You get to the point when you realize that you’ve become a machine. There’s only so many bags you can zip.”
As the pandemic moved out of big coastal cities and into rural communities, health-care workers were more likely to treat people they knew personally—relatives, hospital colleagues, the bus driver who drove their kids to school. And across the country, doctors and nurses have struggled with the same anxieties as everyone else—loneliness, extra child-care burdens, the stress of a tumultuous year, fear. “The lines between our personal lives and our careers have completely gone,” says Laolu Fayanju, senior medical director in Ohio of Oak Street Health, a national network of primary-care centers. “We’re often thinking about how we protect ourselves, our families, and our neighborhoods” from the pandemic.
After SARS hit Toronto in 2003, health-care workers at hospitals that treated SARS patients showed higher levels of burnout and posttraumatic stress up to two years later, compared with those at hospitals in nearby cities that didn’t see the disease. That outbreak lasted just four months. The COVID-19 pandemic is now in its tenth month. “I’ve had conversations with people who’ve been nurses for 25 years, and all of them say the same thing: ‘We’ve never worked in this environment before,’” says Jennifer Gil from Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, who contracted COVID-19 herself in March. “How much can meditation or mental-health resources help when we’re doing this every day?”
Even after cases stop climbing, health-care workers will have to catch up on a new round of procedures that didn’t happen because of COVID-19—but without the adrenaline that a packed hospital brings. “Everyone talks about fatigue during the surge, but one of the hardest things is coming down from it,” Popescu says. “You’re exhausted but you still don’t get that mental break.”
As hard as the work fatigue is, the “societal fatigue” is harder, said Hatton, the Utah pulmonary specialist. He is tired of walking out of an ICU where COVID-19 has killed another patient, and walking into a grocery store where he hears people saying it doesn’t exist. Health-care workers and public-health officials have received threats and abusive messages accusing them of fearmongering. They’ve watched as friends have adopted Donald Trump’s lies about doctors juking the hospitalization numbers to get more money. They’ve pleaded with family members to wear masks and physically distance, lest they end up competing for ICU beds that no longer exist. “Nurses have been the most trusted profession for 18 years in a row, which is now bullshit because no one is listening to us,” Neville said.
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Choo also studies the impacts of health-care policy, and has found that health-care systems sometimes react to imminent policies months before they are actually come into force.
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Still, “you can’t just fix a pandemic this far down the rabbit hole,” Popescu says. “I’m hopeful, but I don’t expect this to suddenly turn itself around overnight.”
…“We can’t just sit on our hands and wait for Jan. 20 to come,” said Megan Ranney, the Rhode Island physician. Several health-care workers I spoke with are trying to keep mild cases of COVID-19 from becoming severe enough to warrant an ICU bed. The Oak Street Health primary-care centers deliver fluids, pulse oximeters, and smart tablets to the homes of newly diagnosed COVID-19 patients, so doctors can check on their symptoms virtually. In North Dakota, South Dakota, and Minnesota, the Sanford Health network has set up outpatient “infusion centers” where elderly COVID-19 patients or those with chronic illnesses can get drugs that might slow the progression of their disease. These drugs will include the antibody therapy bamlanivimab, which received an emergency-use authorization from the FDA on Monday, Suttle told me.
But the best strategy remains the obvious one: Keep people from getting infected at all. Once again, the fate of the U.S. health-care system depends on the collective action of its citizens. Once again, the nation must flatten the curve. This need not involve a lockdown. We now know that the coronavirus mostly spreads through the air, and does so easily when people spend prolonged periods together in poorly ventilated areas. People can reduce their risk by wearing masks and avoiding indoor spaces such as restaurants, bars, and gyms, where the possibility of transmission is especially high (no matter how often these places clean their surfaces). Thanksgiving and Christmas gatherings, for which several generations will travel around the country for days of close indoor contact and constant conversation, will be risky too.
Preliminary results suggest that at least one effective vaccine is on the way. The choices made in the coming weeks will influence how many Americans die before they have a chance to receive it, and how many health-care workers are broken in the process.
znModeratorPaul Hornung, whose singular ability as a runner, receiver, quarterback and kicker helped turn the Packers into an NFL dynasty, has died. https://t.co/JQAXyBvytR
— AP NFL (@AP_NFL) November 13, 2020
znModeratorKyle Griffin@kylegriffin1
Just in the last 12 hours, the Trump campaign has lost 6 election-related lawsuits in Pennsylvania.znModeratorJourdan Rodrigue@JourdanRodrigue
Here’s something interesting: As Joe Noteboom has worked his way back healthy (he will be elevated this week), he has been taking some backup LT reps. I wonder whether team would like to sort of start fresh on a position switch there post-injury, and with Edwards playing well.Either way, it’s hard to switch back and forth so if they really believe they can invest in him, it’s time to find one spot and really get those reps in.
On this point, McVay said Rams will continue to pick up swingman development for Noteboom and not necessarily just stick him at reserve LT/re-start his development there. Ultimately want a plug and play depth guy who can play on either side. So, moving away from full time LG.
znModeratorIn March, Congress gave billions in COVID relief to the @federalreserve to help struggling businesses. The Fed pledged these taxpayer dollars would *not* bail out Wall Street banks. They went back on their word—to the tune of 2 billion dollars. So I'm calling them out. (THREAD)
— Rep. Katie Porter (@RepKatiePorter) November 13, 2020
znModeratorRemember when the @RamsNFL pulled this off? (Oct. 19, 2014)
📺: #SEAvsLAR— Sunday 4:25pm ET on FOX
📱: NFL app // Yahoo Sports app pic.twitter.com/jzqfVG3Suh— NFL Throwback (@nflthrowback) November 13, 2020
znModeratorAdam Amin@adamamin
I was going to type some emotional tweet about how I’m thankful to be back on NFL coverage this week and I am but most of you don’t care and that’s fine.I’m 33 and healthy and I got COVID and it sucked. It sucked feeling like a truck hit me and having no life in my body.
It sucked going from my bed to my kitchen for water and feeling like I was going to pass out. It sucked feeling like I couldn’t breathe beyond 50% capacity for three days, fearing the same thing that Emmanuel Sanders, A PRO FOOTBALL PLAYER, feared.
Save your “survival rate” and “infection rate” screenshots. I’ve seen them. They won’t matter to you if you, the individual, go to bed honestly wondering if your body will stop working overnight. I’m not sure how people can’t comprehend that. The whole experience sucked.
And it sucked a lot less because I took in a lower viral load cause I wore a mask as diligently as I have while traveling. I don’t know when my lungs will decide to be 100% again but I’m going to work my ass off to get them as close to normal as possible
In the meantime, have some empathy for your fellow human, in fact for millions who dealt with this and likely will continue to deal with this in some capacity, hopefully a small one, and wear the fucking masks and stop bitching about LITERALLY the least you are being asked to do.
I usually say things nicely, so I apologize if this wasn’t nice.
But I don’t want to feel the way my body felt like that again. And I don’t want you to have to feel that way either. So I say these things in hopes that maybe you’ll minimize the chance you or someone else gets it.
znModeratorPFF@PFF
Top-5 Fantasy WRs through Wk 9:
1. Tyreek Hill – 175.2 PPR points
2. Davante Adams – 168.5
3. D.K. Metcalf – 167.8
4. Stefon Diggs – 162.3
5. Tyler Lockett – 156.5Stu Jackson@StuJRams
Rams HC Sean McVay said OLB Terrell Lewis (shoulder) and Leonard Floyd (knee) will be questionable for Sunday’s game vs. Seahawks, but are expected to play.S Jordan Fuller remains on track to be activated to 53-man roster and play.
Jourdan Rodrigue@JourdanRodrigue
Jalen Ramsey said that DK Metcalf is an “undeniable talent” – but will he stick with him throughout Sunday’s game? “I’m sure I’ll guard him. I’m sure I’ll guard probably all of their receivers at some point in the game.”Jalen’s direct quote actually was, “I’m sure I’ll guard him. I’m sure I’ll guard probably all of their receivers at some point in the game.”
Note: A CB can “shadow” a receiver while also having different assignments at certain points throughout a game. Headline seems misleading. https://twitter.com/Rotoworld_FB/status/1327336564003770368
Lindsey Thiry@LindseyThiry
Jalen Ramsey says WR DK Metcalf has taken a huge step from last year and calls him an “undeniable talent.”Rams Wire@TheRamsWire
Rams run more max-protect plays than any team in the NFLznModeratorFrank Reich has a thing for players (Rivers, Brissett & Hines) from #NCState – he once sung some pretty high praise of former 🐺 & 🐏 Roman Gabriel from his playing days with the Bills to now being a head ball coach for the #Colts #FridayVibes #FridayFeeling pic.twitter.com/fqJTeqnR8T
— Roman Gabriel for Pro Football Hall of Fame (@RGabriel4HOF) November 13, 2020
znModeratorJust got done watching this – highly recommend if you want a detailed Xs & Os breakdown of what went right and wrong for Rams against Dolphins' Cover 0 pressure. Reinforces OC Kevin O'Connell's comments about emphasizing making earlier throws/not all zero pressures being same. https://t.co/A60J8Dxkwo
— Stu Jackson (@StuJRams) November 13, 2020
znModeratorJourdan Rodrigue@JourdanRodrigue
Robinson will make his debut with his new team, head coach Sean McVay confirmed this week….Robinson does a lot of things, and does them well. He’ll be a great addition to the Rams’ run-stop efforts, considering his size and width, meaning he’ll be able to sit down in a couple of gaps and either help stuff a rusher or close his lanes and divert him. He also can acquire multiple blockers, which helps the Rams’ pass rush because one of their biggest goals each week is to free up Aaron Donald from the constant double-teams he faces. Robinson is really versatile, so he can play all three downs if needed. I still expect a rotation up front, but I don’t think he changes their actual scheme. He might make it a few percentage points better as he gets his feet under him.By the way, Rams fans, Robinson isn’t the only player the team will get back this week. Rookie safety Jordan Fuller, who was enjoying a bit of a breakout season before suffering a shoulder injury in mid-October, will return on Sunday. I can see the Rams using extra-defensive-back packages that also feature Rapp, who played really well in Fuller’s absence, to help counter the Seahawks’ prolific receiving corps.
McVay, unprompted, has brought up the team’s need to tighten up its special-teams efforts a couple of times this week, and it’s not hard to imagine why….one guy I believe they miss in coverage is Burgess. Remember Hekker’s MVPunter performance against Chicago? Burgess, before suffering his season-ending ankle injury, was everywhere and made a few special-teams stops.
I really believe the Rams have the pieces to beat Seattle, but as I wrote this week, it seems it will come down to game plan and execution on the offensive side. The Rams have a big opportunity to put the wheels back on that side of the ball this week, especially against a pretty dilapidated Seahawks secondary, but they need to take care of the ball and counter pressure better than they have so far this season. I think the Rams’ defense will show up as it has the last couple of weeks, but then there’s Wilson. So let’s also understand that some points inevitably will be put up on Sunday. Considering all of this, plus McVay’s 4-2 record against Carroll … I’m calling it for the Rams, 37-34.
znModeratorAaron Donald's 48 total pressures and 10 sacks both lead the league this season 🔥
Donald is also sporting a top 10 rushing defense grade among front-7 defenders 🤫#RamsHouse pic.twitter.com/Cdf69npDnD
— PFF LA Rams (@PFF_Rams) November 13, 2020
znModeratorFor 15 years Sweden thought Russian submarines were invading its waters, but it turned out to be fish farts.
(Thread, sources here: https://t.co/j1NL7Tnqvt) pic.twitter.com/kWELtQkq08
— James Felton (@JimMFelton) November 13, 2020
November 13, 2020 at 11:23 am in reply to: press & others (including McV) set up the Seattle game #124260znModeratorAround The NFL@AroundTheNFL
@greggrosenthal’s Week 10 game picks: Rams top Seahawks; Vikings over BearsLos Angeles Rams 30, Seattle Seahawks 27
Pete Carroll is 2-4 vs. Sean McVay, struggling against L.A. even during the Rams’ worst days of December 2019. Add whiz kid Rams defensive coordinator Brandon Staley to the mix against a Seahawks offensive line trending the wrong way, and the Rams have more ways to win.
November 13, 2020 at 11:16 am in reply to: press & others (including McV) set up the Seattle game #124259znModeratorWhen you are playing the @Seahawks, @Rams DC Brandon Staley is preparing for a fantastic finish. @gmfb @nflnetwork pic.twitter.com/KhoceHaYq0
— Steve Wyche (@wyche89) November 13, 2020
znModeratorNEW: More than 130 Secret Service officers are said to be infected with coronavirus or quarantining in wake of Trump’s campaign travel by @CarolLeonnig @jdawsey1 https://t.co/r1edchtGH2
— Matea Gold (@mateagold) November 13, 2020
znModeratorGeneral Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — speaking directly to Donald Trump.
Shots fired…pic.twitter.com/SrNHrmcIOR
— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) November 13, 2020
znModeratorFauci said the US has ‘no appetite’ for lockdowns but mask wearing and distancing could be enough, the day after a Biden advisor called for a weeks-long lockdown
https://www.businessinsider.com/fauci-us-no-appetite-for-lockdown-masks-distancing-needed-2020-11
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious-disease expert, on Thursday said the country had “no appetite” for lockdowns but that wearing masks and social distancing could be enough to control the coronavirus outbreak.
Fauci, who serves on the White House coronavirus task force, made the comments the day after Michael Osterholm, a COVID-19 advisor to President-elect Joe Biden, recommended a national lockdown that could last between four to six weeks in a bid to reduce the country’s infections.
Biden himself has not advocated for a lockdown, but has called for a stronger strategy to address the health crisis. He has also repeatedly said that he will “listen to the scientists” when working on public-health policy.
There is no indication that Fauci was responding directly to Osterholm’s suggestion of a lockdown, but said on “Good Morning America” on Thursday that there was “no appetite for locking down” among Americans.
He did not cite evidence for this belief, though there have been anti-lockdown protests across the country since the pandemic began.
Fauci added that “I believe that we can do it without a lockdown. I really do.”
“The best opposite strategy to locking down is to intensify the public-health measures short of locking down,” he said. “So if you can do that well, you don’t have to take that step that people are trying to avoid, which has so many implications both psychologically and economically. We’d like not to do that.”
He said that the US would not need to lock down if people followed other public-health advice, like wearing masks and social distancing.
“What we need to do is what we’ve been talking about for some time now, but really doubling down on it,” he said.
“There are certain fundamental, baseline things that you can do: universal and uniform wearing of masks; avoiding crowded, congregate situations; keeping physical distance.”
“If we could just hang in there, do the public-health measures that we’re talking about, we’re going to get this under control, I promise you,” he added.
While many countries have used weeks-long, localized or national lockdowns to try and control their outbreaks, the US has largely avoided that strategy, with President Donald Trump criticizing countries who have done them.
The other measures for controlling the virus that Fauci endorsed are not being enforced either: Many US states don’t have mask mandates, and the restrictions on social gatherings vary across states.
Biden has already created a coronavirus task force, which includes experts who have served under previous administrations during other infectious-disease outbreaks.
Biden has also encouraged people to wear masks throughout the year.
The US is the worst-hit country in the pandemic, having recorded the highest number of cases and deaths in the world.
According to data from Johns Hopkins University, more than 10.5 million people in the US have tested positive for the virus, and more than 240,000 people have died.
The US hit a record for the number of new coronavirus cases reported in a day on Thursday, with more than 150,000 new recorded. As of Thursday, more than 67,000 people were hospitalized for COVID-19 complications, an all-time high.
znModeratorIn the first season that the Seattle Seahawks were in the NFC West as division rivals, Marshall Faulk gave them a welcome party with a 252 yard day and 4 Touchdowns Sunday afternoon! pic.twitter.com/dbcJqLAMWz
— RAMS ON FILM (@RamsOnFilm) November 13, 2020
znModeratorWill the Rams-Seahawks Week 10 game be on TV in your area?https://t.co/iSF92D1vFM
— Rams Wire (@TheRamsWire) November 13, 2020
znModeratorRams-Seahawks injury report/update: Rams at their healthiest entering the second half of the schedule and might only be in danger of missing David Edwards this week … just as Joe Noteboom is activated to the 53. https://t.co/8A95KwwvZL
— TurfShowTimes (@TurfShowTimes) November 12, 2020
znModeratorCameron DaSilva@camdasilva
Kevin Demoff admitted the Rams can’t keep JJ, Everett and Reynolds. He does hope, however, that they can “keep some of them”znModerator4th down and 1 against in Seattle last season and Jalen Ramsey with the breakup! pic.twitter.com/MR7BfvByK7
— RAMS ON FILM (@RamsOnFilm) November 12, 2020
znModeratorHow does Jared Goff bounce back? “Just keep being me.” https://t.co/NFhAePIH23
— Gary Klein (@LATimesklein) November 12, 2020
znModeratorSteven Jackson bursts through the hole for the 53 yard score against the Seahawks! pic.twitter.com/QJF9ZQQF0K
— RAMS ON FILM (@RamsOnFilm) November 12, 2020
znModerator👊👊👊 pic.twitter.com/OPEC6j09N1
— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) November 11, 2020
znModeratorIn honor of Seahawks week, let’s take a look at @iamjohnthethird first ever INT! John had taken over for the struggling Maurice Alexander during the 2017 season. Oh times flys. pic.twitter.com/ldqvdNfkwn
— 🇷 🇦 🇲 🇸 🆂︎🆉︎🅽︎ (@ramsjuice) November 11, 2020
znModeratorRams Brothers@RamsBrothers
Seattle’s defense is on pace to shatter the NFL record for passing yards allowed in a single season.Jared Goff has never beaten the Seahawks when he throws the ball 40 times or more. What could possibly go wrong?
Jourdan Rodrigue@JourdanRodrigue
Rams rookie safety Jordan Fuller is getting a little extra work in after practice today. The hope is he can go on Sunday and he wants to be as up-to-speed as possible.Tremayne Anchrum is getting extra work too; that’s pretty standard as I often see him putting that time in.
Darrell Henderson (thigh/quad) and David Edwards won’t practice today, says Sean McVay, and Cooper Kupp (wrist) will be limited but he will likely play on Sunday.
Brandon Staley won’t say whether Jalen Ramsey will stick with DK Metcalf in totality as they do like to move him around/may still assert a mix of coverages as usual; however he did add that such a matchup between 2 elite players is “what gets you excited about pro sports.”
Stu Jackson@StuJRams
LB Natrez Patrick has been re-signed to the Rams practice squad, per a team spokesperson.PFF@PFF
PFF’s highest-graded defenses:
1. Steelers
2. Buccaneers
3. Broncos
4. Rams
5. ColtsNovember 11, 2020 at 10:32 pm in reply to: press & others (including McV) set up the Seattle game #124220znModeratorRams see a blueprint for beating the Seahawks, but can they execute it?
Jourdan Rodrigue
https://theathletic.com/2187955/2020/11/11/rams-seahawks-blitz-jared-goff/?source=emp_shared_article
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — After the Rams lost to the Dolphins in Week 8, fans grimaced as shades of the Super Bowl loss to the Patriots flashed through their memories.
Another loss at the hands of a Brian Flores-coached defense. Could Miami’s Cover 0 blitz, which completely discombobulated Jared Goff and the Rams’ offense, be a blueprint for others during a tough second half of the 2020 season?
But it’s not just Rams fans who are a little clenched. The Seahawks, who visit SoFi Stadium on Sunday, seem to have a bit of a blueprint on them, too. Teams are passing more than ever against Seattle — the 366 attempts against leads the NFL and is on pace to eclipse the attempts against it in 2019 (598) — and with good reason. The Seahawks’ defense is last in the league in passing yards allowed per game, by a wide margin, with 362.1.
On his call with Los Angeles media on Wednesday, Seattle coach Pete Carroll seemed to come to grips with those numbers, which also are up league-wide.
“We’ve seen so many passes in the fourth quarter of games,” he said. “We’ve seen just way more throwing than we’re used to seeing. We’ve been ahead a lot, so we’ve had a lot of opponents in catch-up mode, but just seen a lot of (the) throwing game — and people have been satisfied doing it — so a lot of points being scored …
“I don’t know (league-wide) numbers as far as throws, but we (as a team) are certainly seeing a ton more.”
After a loss in Week 9, Carroll expressed surprise that the Bills abandoned their running game and instead threw the ball 38 times for 415 yards (which matched Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen’s season high in yards but marked just his fourth-most passing attempts in a game this season). Allen’s success against the Seahawks’ zone coverage forced them into heavier pressure situations, and the Bills just kept passing, at that point against more favorable man coverage.
So, the Rams should pass a ton, right? One would think, but we know it’s never that simple.
While the Rams rank second in the NFL in rushing DVOA, according to Football Outsiders, it has been hard to peg when Sean McVay will run the ball (and with which running back) or pass. Against Buffalo in Week 3, his decision to keep running the ball, even in the face of a big deficit, remains his best move of the season, and it led to a 29-point Rams comeback that ultimately fell short on the game’s final play.
But against Miami, McVay seemed to completely abandon the run in favor of a 61-pass performance from Goff, who turned the ball over four times and missed some usually automatic throws. The Miami scenario fell into traditional football logic, which dictates passing a lot when facing a deficit, while the Buffalo game did not.
Even with these inconsistencies, the Rams are still outpacing their rushing attempts from 2019, with an average of 31 carries per game as opposed to 25 per game last season. It’s not likely McVay will completely forsake the run, either, because it predicates much of what they accomplish in the air.
“For us, I think we’re at our best when we are balanced,” McVay said this week, “when we’ve got the ability to have (our) runs go with some of the stuff (we’re) doing in the pass game.”
McVay also cautioned that the Seahawks’ loss to the Bills was “just one game,” and that the Rams’ staff must evaluate the total body of work.
Spoiler alert: That still dictates a heavier passing attack. Teams have passed for 350 yards or more against the Seahawks in six of their eight games.
Washington native Cooper Kupp should be a go-to target for Goff this week. The Seahawks have given up a whopping 977 yards to slot receivers this season, according to Pro Football Focus. (For context, the Rams’ secondary has given up 1,577 yards total.) Kupp was limited in practice on Wednesday due to wrist and oblique injuries suffered in Week 8 (he was able to come back into that game), but McVay expects him to play on Sunday.
Kupp, in addition to Woods and the Rams’ available running backs, should be quick-out options to break what likely be will increased blitz pressure from Seattle’s defense, as they try to imitate Miami’s attack. The Seahawks blitz on approximately 32 percent of dropbacks, according to Pro Football Reference, and have notably increased that pressure over the last two weeks. Against the Bills, the Seahawks, even with a weak secondary, were in Cover 0 for nearly 12 percent of their defensive snaps and in Cover 1 for nearly 34 percent, according to Pro Football Focus, thus leaving their defensive backs in those disadvantageous man situations.
If the Rams can actually beat the blitz, those opportunities would be tantalizing, especially for Woods and Kupp.
“(Our receivers) have done a good job against man coverage in the last few years, since we’ve been together,” Goff said. “And I feel good with all of them.”
Meanwhile, in practice this week it has been pretty obvious that the Rams are expecting an increase in pressure, if not from the Seahawks, then certainly in other games down the stretch.
Quarterbacks work through pressure drills in every practice, but on Wednesday, the Rams’ sequences were interesting. Coaches and assistants put on pencil-pads and batted Goff and the backup quarterbacks with them while also bringing in an extra guy in to wave the pad in throwing lanes and in the QBs’ faces. The quarterbacks then dumped the ball off quickly over the top to a receiver or running back.
The Rams did not beat Miami’s blitz, but they have the players to do so. And this week they can increase screens, short passes and the like while featuring catch-and-run receivers and running backs who can record big yardage after the catch. If an offense can beat a blitz once or twice with such a play, it backs a defense up and widens it out, therefore giving the offense a little more room to develop longer plays and also to run the ball.
But the Rams have to execute, and that has been an issue, especially in terms of ball security. All four of Goff’s turnovers against Miami were in the first half, against blitz pressure, and the Rams did not go to a short-passing game until it was too late.
“Other than points, there is no greater indicator of winning and losing games (than turnovers),” McVay said. “We’re minus-two for the season, and that’s not nearly good enough. … Offensively, we have to take much better care of the football.
“That’s something that, if we want to be the football team that I expect us and anticipate us to to be in this second half of the season, we have to be better in that phase of the game. … Really, when you look at it, that is why we lost against the Dolphins. You can look at a lot of different things, but turnovers and inability to handle that (zero) pressure. … We’ve moved on from it, but we certainly didn’t ignore it.”
November 11, 2020 at 10:24 pm in reply to: press & others (including McV) set up the Seattle game #124219znModeratorPete Carroll praises Rams DC Brandon Staley’s unique defensive scheme
Eric D. Williams
https://www.si.com/nfl/rams/news/pete-carroll-gushes-over-la-rams-dc-brandon-staley-unique-style
Count Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll among the growing list of admirers for Los Angeles Rams first-year defensive coordinator Brandon Staley.
Carroll, a longtime college and NFL defensive coordinator who perfected his own style of the 4-3 defense, sees Staley carving his own path in his variation of the 3-4 defensive front, leading an L.A. defense that is No. 2 in the league in points allowed, giving up just 19 points a contest.
“He’s doing a really good job, and he’s got his own way of doing it,” Staley said. “They look unique, which is always good. So you have to learn and adapt to them. It’s not like it’s a cookie-cutter group like somebody else does it.
“He’s been influenced really well by other coaches, but I really like what he’s doing. They’re able to keep the explosives down and take advantage of one of the best players ever in Aaron Donald.”
Of course, Staley’s defense hasn’t seen a quarterback the caliber of Seattle’s Russell Wilson, who is putting up MVP numbers. Wilson, 31, has completed 71 percent of his passes, throwing for 2,541 yards, 28 touchdowns and eight interceptions. Wilson has been sacked 24 times, posting a 117.1 passer rating.
“He’s really off to a great start,” Carroll said about Wilson. “And it’s just the process of owning a position that is so difficult, so challenging. And he’s the best he’s ever been at doing it.
“He’s really fitting up well with the people he throws to, the protection has been adequate. And we’re just seeing the benefits of all his experience coming together, and he will continue to improve. It’s such a challenging position. Guys arrive when they’ve got it, and he’ll just keep growing.”
Wilson and the Seahawks’ offense average a league-leading 34 point per game. While Seattle’s offense is sizzling, Carroll and defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr. have a lot of work to do on a defense that is giving up a league-worst 362 passing yards a contest.
“We’re still trying to get it together,” Carroll said about the defense. “We haven’t played like we want to. We’ve played winning football, but we’re not playing in the style that we want to play, but we’re still working on it. We’ve really tried to find the continuity, which has been difficult because we’ve had guys coming and going. So I feel like our best ball is ahead of us.”
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