Source: Page 39 of White Noise Keywords: "I'd," "spots," "weaving"

From: "Jim Becker" <jbecker31nospam@cox.net> Subject: Re: RamView IS BACK, 8/12/2004 (Long) Date: 15 Aug 2004 Newsgroups: alt.sports.football.pro.stl-rams

Thanks Mike for another great write up and welcome back. I've got my NFL Sunday Ticket all set and I'm ready. I did get to record the game against the Bears and I think Steven Jackson will prove to be an exciting runner. I hope the Rams can figure out how to use him. He reminds me of a mix between Ricky Williams and Eric Dickerson. We'll see. GO RAMS Jim in VA "Mike Franke" <spikecpi@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:384032e9.0408130106.1ddd137c@posting.google.com... > RamView, August 12, 2004 > From Row HH > (Report and opinions from the game.) > Preseason Game #1: Bears 13, Rams 10 (OT) > > More penalties than total points? Must be preseason! But hey, football > is back. Hooray football! > > Bright spots: Starting offensive and defensive lines looked better > than expected. > > Position by position: > * QB: Marc Bulger drove the Rams to their initial FG on 3-6-57 > passing, the highlight pass a 14-yarder to Dane Looker between two > defenders to convert a 3rd-and-12 from the Bear 26. The drive and > Bulger's night ended with Marc getting swamped by a Bear blitz. Chris > Chandler was close to perfect in relief, 8-9-108 and a TD to Joey > Goodspeed. Chandler showed nice accuracy and surprisingly nimble feet, > though both a 5-yard scramble on 4th-and-1 and a nice improvised > rollout and zinger to Shaun McDonald for 21 were nullified by > penalties on Goodspeed and Grant Williams. He scrambled some more on > the Goodspeed TD, buying a lot of time before finding the fullback for > the score. Chandler showed he can run this offense if needed, though > he'll need to avoid dumb interceptions like the deep out intended for > Kevin Curtis late in the 2nd. Gotta know after 17 years in the league > that you can't force that throw, Chris. Or at least get some air under > it. Jeff Smoker (7-14-81) had some expectable rookie moments, but > showed he's good raw material. He did a lot of checking down, but also > showed a good arm and hung tough in the pocket. (Hmm. Like the Rams' > last QB from Michigan State.) Smoker, whose theme song is officially > "The Joker" by the Steve Miller Band, showed great touch on a 24-yard > completion to TE Mike Brake early in the 3rd, but he lamentably > overthrew a wide open McDonald in the 4th, which probably would have > led to a score. Trying to drive the Rams for a score with 1:04 left, > he held the ball too long on first down and took a sack on his own 7. > He followed that with a HORRIBLE forced pass in the flat that Chicago > LB Joe Odom should have intercepted and returned for a score. Smoker's > got some skills, and he's definitely got Mike Martz mad at him, so > he's right on schedule as a Rams rookie QB. > > * RB: Steven Jackson (15-73) got almost all of the work as Arlen > Harris started but left early with an injury. (Here's an SAT question > for you: Arlen Harris is to Mike Martz as ? was to Dick Vermeil. > Answer at end of column.) Radio said Jackson is still a little slow > reading the defensive alignment before the snap, but he's fitting in > nicely in the passing game, with four catches, and he made a sweet > blitz pickup that belies his rookie status. As a runner, he's got > explosiveness; he waits for his blocks; he can wiggle through a small > hole and burst into the open, like on his long run of 18 in the 3rd; > and he can take on tacklers. He didn't seem to have great speed to the > outside, and he had footing problems a couple of times. He's got good > hands (better than Lamar Gordon's) and good smarts; once he really > picks things up, I think the Rams will have a neat hybrid on their > hands: a big back who plays like a smaller back. > > * WR: Isaac Bruce and Torry Holt played the first series, with Bruce > catching 2 for 43. We got a big dose of Shaun McDonald, Kevin Curtis > and Dane Looker, and the big winner was McDonald, who caught 5 for 78, > showing good hands and some of that speed he was drafted for last > year. His 40-yard catch-and-run set up the Rams' TD, and he was the > go-to WR all night. Curtis had just 1 catch for 20 and had a bad drop > in the 3rd, though he also drew a 30-yard interference penalty to set > up the TD. Looker (2-24) made a costly mistake late in the 4th, > fumbling with the Rams driving for a score. > > * Offensive line: Slight exaggeration, but it was no Pace, no Turley, > no problem tonight for the offensive line which now appears next to > the entry for "makeshift" in the dictionary. First-half lineup > left-to-right was Grant Williams, Adam Timmerman, Andy McCollum, Andy > King and Scott Tercero, and they held up rather nicely. Chandler had > ALL NIGHT on his TD pass. Bulger was sacked on the first possession. > Jack Snow said Tercero made a mistake; I'd thought it was more the > Bears bringing about 8 guys and successfully blitzing the formation. > First-half QBs were only hit a couple of other times. Run blocking > wasn't really strong. Jackson didn't see any big holes, though King > and McCollum got a couple of nice knocks. The weakest guy among the > starters was probably Williams, who continues to get off the line > slowly at times and get burned by speed rushers. Second-half lineup > was Matt Morgan, Chris Dishman, Larry Turner, Ben Noll and Greg > Randall, and they were actually pretty decent. Smoker was sacked a > couple of times. Once was because Morgan got flat whipped, but his > sack late in the 4th was because he held the ball too long. The Bears' > defensive line looks quite weak, so there's not cause for excitement, > but what's posing for the Rams' offensive line held together tonight > and looked decent in the process. > > * Defensive line/LB: Bryce Fisher started at RDE, and I'd call him the > guy for the job amidst all the DE-by-committee talk. Bryce started > slowly but was a big factor tracking down runs from behind, and was > simply too fast at times for Chicago's terrible offensive tackles. > Fisher came away with a sack that really should have been split with > Leonard Little. They both humiliated their cement-footed opponents and > met at the QB. There's work to do in the running game. The Bears, led > by Thomas Jones' 7-53, ran much too successfully for any comfort. They > took advantage of overpursuit by Fisher a couple of times, but Little > also got caught upfield for a long run. Jones' longest run, a > 26-yarder, was a cutback run made possible by a blown Robert Thomas > tackle. The defense missed Pisa Tinoisamoa, who made a couple of nice > plays early but was forced out of the game with a sprained ankle. > Tyoka Jackson entered the game at DT, but was a madman after he > shifted to DE, replacing Little. He shot past the OT for a sack on his > first play at DE and hit the QB on third down to force an incompletion > and kill a later drive. Tyoka will be great rotating in at LDE for > Little. OTs will think they can relax, but they can't. Eric Flowers > played ahead of Sean Moran in the 2nd half and had two sacks despite > playing hurt. Tony Hargrove played primarily in the 3rd quarter. I'd > thought he was more of a Little-type speed rusher, but he impressed me > early on by repeatedly driving his man into the QB like a blocking > sled. I wouldn't think he has any conditioning issues, but by the time > he'd been out there a quarter, Hargrove appeared to have nothing, like > he was out of gas. Trev Faulk (4 tkl) does indeed appear to be the > lead playmaker among the backup LBs. Didn't see much out of D-Lew and > Pickett as starting DTs, nor that much out of Holsey and Howard as the > second-half DTs. Pass rush was pretty good, but the defense isn't > convincing enough against the run yet. > > * Secondary: The secondary played without its top two starters but > still looked pretty good. Kevin Garrett looked good. The Bears tried > him deep several times but he had his receiver blanketed. Aeneas > Williams saw some action early and stuffed a short pass. Jason Shivers > was awful and ranks as a big disappointment so far. He was well late > giving Garrett help on a first-half bomb. Fortunately, Garrett had the > play covered. Shivers gave up a big pass to the TE that set up > Chicago's TD, though that drive was extended by a bad penalty by > Dwight Anderson. Shivers and Trev Faulk nearly screwed up bigtime on > Craig Krenzel's Hail Mary pass at the end of regulation by trying to > come away with the INT. What does Tom Jackson say? KNOCK IT DOWN! > Shivers is giving me the shivers so far. > > * Special teams: There's improvement over the Rams' biggest team > weakness from last season, but still painful inconsistency, too. Ram > kickoff coverage stopped every Bear return inside the 25 before the > last return. Garrett made a nice play early, and Nick Burley schmeared > a punt returner in the 3rd. McDonald returned all the punts, and > danced around WAY too much. That appeared to pay off, though, in a > weaving, winding 65-yard punt return TD in the 4th, topped off by > Burley schmearing the punter, but it was called back for a penalty, > and the special teams dam then broke, as Ahmad Merritt took the > overtime kickoff 87 yards to set up the game-winning FG for Chicago. > Ugh. Arlen Harris got little going on kickoff returns. The Rams have > GOT to get some decent speed back there. > > * Coaching/discipline: Gregg Easterbrook's TMQ immutable laws even > work in preseason. Lovie Smith worked the game in his shirtsleeves; > Mike Martz wore a coat. Indoors! The coach who looks coldest loses. > Not much to take away from this game from a coaching standpoint, other > than both teams committing a ton of penalties. The head coach can call > timeouts directly starting this season, so there's Martz toward the > end of the first half, running out onto the field to get his timeout. > Who wants to bet he'll be the first coach to get plowed over by a > player while doing that? Mostly vanilla playcalling. I didn't detect a > lot of blitzing on either side. Bears run/pass was about 50/50; Rams > were 40/60. The Bears ran a couple of reverses that fooled the Rams > completely and faked a few others. The Rams lined up five wide a few > times but always pulled Jackson back into the backfield before the > snap. Notable that Martz didn't have any of the QBs "take a shot". Two > turnovers on offense is tolerable, but the defense really should have > forced at least one against a Chicago team that had pretty lousy > talent on the field most of the night. Since the game was effectively > lost on a special teams snafu again, we can't say if Mike Stock is an > improvement over Bobby April or not. You'd think it was all scrubs out > there, but Bryce Fisher, one of last year's best ST guys, was on the > field for that last return, too. And he overran the play badly. > (smacks forehead) > > * Waiver bait: Waiver bait, thy name is Dwight Anderson. Jim Thomas > says on stltoday.com that Anderson committed the penalty that erased > McDonald's punt return TD. He definitely committed a critical > defensive holding penalty on THIRD AND 27 that extended the Bears' TD > drive. I even think he was the guy who got blown up right at the start > of Merritt's game-deciding kick return. Gulp. Nijrell Eason also > appeared to fudge containment on that return. NFL.com says Dusty > McGrorty committed the penalty on McDonald's punt return TD, and he > didn't get into the game at RB at all - gulp. I doubt he's likely to > be cut, but Shivers has got to get a lot better than he showed tonight > - there's a lot of competition at the safety spots. And alas, no > playing time for my two favorite names on the roster: QB Russ Michna > and punt returner Brian Sump. > > * Upon further review: If Ron Winter and crew had been on a pitch > count tonight, they would have been pulled by every manager in MLB > save Dusty Baker. The Bears had 19 penalties for 160 yards; they > completed 19 passes for 168 yards. The Rams added 12 penalties for 80 > yards. It's a shock this game got done in just a shade over three > hours. Since the referees threw a flag on every play, I guess they > didn't miss anything. The Rams did draw an illegal contact penalty and > a pass interference penalty. > > * Cheers: I can't find tonight's total attendance anywhere. 50,000 > would be a very charitable guess, and the Dome was nearly empty by the > time the fourth quarter started. Only the (failed) goal line stand in > the 4th got any kind of rise out of the crowd. Normal for postseason. > Line of the night on radio was Steve Savard explaining what went wrong > on one of Jones' long cutback runs and saying in contrast that > something Grant Wistrom was always good at was "squeezing the > backside." You can bet that's not the last time that line comes up. Be > Careful What You Wish For award goes to Jim Hanifan, who in a sideline > interview right before the overtime kickoff, said "Hopefully somebody > scores fast here." > > * Stars of the game: As if RamView isn't long enough already, this > year's new wrinkle will be to award the top three stars of the game, > much like they do after hockey games (remember hockey?). So here they > are: #1 star - Ahmad Merritt, for effectively ending this mess; #2 > star - Shaun McDonald for a breakout night; and #3 to Chris Chandler > for a TD pass and a nice night statistically. > > * Who's next?: More importantly, who's the idiot that schedules this > garbage? The Rams will be off 11 days before playing two games in 5 > days. The Rams Coaching Reunion Tour resumes in Kansas City August 23 > as Mike Martz and Dick Vermeil square off in a battle for Your > Governor's Cup. Hmm, since the governor lost in the primary last week, > maybe the loser gets the cup this year. Some of the Rams' penalties > were very costly tonight, and I'd make that the #1 thing the coaching > staff needs to get cleaned up for K.C.. The Chiefs obviously have a > very good running game, and I expect a big turnaround for them > defensively this year, so both the Ram lines should be in for tougher > tests than they got tonight. And PLEASE NO special teams screwups of > ANY kind. As for position races, we'll see if Jackson keeps the inside > track as Marshall's backup, if McDonald has locked down #4 WR, if > Hargrove has caught his breath yet, which of the backup LBs makes a > move and whether we'll ever see the immortal combination of > Michna-to-Sump. > > -- Mike > Game stats from nfl.com > sage~~~~ > > SAT answer: June Henley.

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