What did you observe (week 2)

[Ram_Rally]

I missed most of the game. Started drinking after the pick 6. Can anybody tell me the following:

Was nick foles really that bad? How was his footwork and composure? Is this the foles we should expect to see? Looks similar to last years

How did havenstein and brown play?

Our defense is just waiting for the regular season, right?....right?

I'd love to hear anything you guys noticed last night

 

[Legatron4]

Basically we played like we did against the Giants last year. Joyner looked good. Our team looks like they barely try.

 

[Boston Ram]

Just my opinion. Foles struggled but didnt have much of a pocket to work with. He did manipulate the pocket well once when he had the chance. Hard to project what he is going to be right now. Clearly he needs protection though.

Brown to me looks very good. Seemed to know his assignments and sealed well on a few plays. Not a lot not to like. He looks like the real deal! Havenstein also look pretty good. Not spetacular but good enough. Like the scouting reports, he just gets the job done. He is not overpowering anyone and does not seem to do anything extremely well but does not make a ton of mistakes and is fundamentally sound.

Defense was solid. Donald and Quinn up front were excellent. As has been said in other threads the DB's seem more interested in tackling with their helmets and not their arms. Im not worried about the defense right now though.

I am very concerned about the offense though. Rhaney and Washington were not very good at all IMO. Although some are happy with Rhaneys performance, I was not impressed and hope there is someone who is going to beat him out. He was flat footed and got bullrushed a few times and he and Washington looked to have some communication issues. Washington was worse, if Saffold is going to miss significant time we might be in trouble....big trouble because the Rhaney, Washington combo was as much about communication as it was about execution. This is just my opinion obviously I dont know this but the late reaction by them seemed like they had trouble communicating.

 

[Ram_Rally]

Just my opinion. Foles struggled but didnt have much of a pocket to work with. He did manipulate the pocket well once when he had the chance. Hard to project what he is going to be right now. Clearly he needs protection though.

Brown to me looks very good. Seemed to know his assignments and sealed well on a few plays. Not a lot not to like. He looks like the real deal! Havenstein also look pretty good. Not spetacular but good enough. Like the scouting reports, he just gets the job done. He is not overpowering anyone and does not seem to do anything extremely well but does not make a ton of mistakes and is fundamentally sound.

Defense was solid. Donald and Quinn up front were excellent. As has been said in other threads the DB's seem more interested in tackling with their helmets and not their arms. Im not worried about the defense right now though.

I am very concerned about the offense though. Rhaney and Washington were not very good at all IMO. Although some are happy with Rhaneys performance, I was not impressed and hope there is someone who is going to beat him out. He was flat footed and got bullrushed a few times and he and Washington looked to have some communication issues. Washington was worse, if Saffold is going to miss significant time we might be in trouble....big trouble because the Rhaney, Washington combo was as much about communication as it was about execution. This is just my opinion obviously I dont know this but the late reaction by them seemed like they had trouble communicating.

Thanks for the recap. I know it's just preseason but it looks like we're the only team in the league not even trying. That's not how a team should roll into the regular season and I wouldn't be shocked if we started slow again. Giving the o line the benefit of the doubt. They've only played together 2. But saffold needs to stay healthy or we're as good as dead.

 

[DCH]

Positives:
- We have RB depth up the ass.
- Pead and Watts both looked like they should be playing over Cunningham.
- Our backup QBs are looking better than they have in years - both Keenum and Mannion look like gamers.
- Joyner flew around the field like his hair was on fire and rather than wanting to put it out, he wanted to take some f***ing Titans down in flames with him
- We seem to have a legit starting LT, RG and RT, as Robinson, Brown and Havenstein all played reasonably well
- Barrett Jones (my boy!) didn't get his name called much when he took his turn at C, and that was in a good way - dude played solid.
- Barron looked good back on the field, was relatively disruptive and got his hands on what should have been an INT
- Rhaney looked OK... inconsistent, but flashing talent.
- I don't think they threw at Jenkins once, which I take as a testament to his threat.
- They didn't have nearly as many penalties, and the roughing the passer calls were both total bullshit.
- Stedman catches everything close to him and makes plays out of it.
- Givens can still take the top off of a defense.

Negatives:
- The D-line is not looking good... if swapping Brockers out for Westbrooks means we're gashed for 5 yards per carry and can't generate consistent pressure on the QB, then what the hell are we paying the other 3 starters so much for?
- Aaron Donald is, so far, invisible to me
- Foles... yeesh. What I see is a guy who is very good when his first read is open, and very bad afterwords. His footwork has not been good. He's not shifted around in what little pocket he's had. He's forced bad throws. He doesn't seem to check down to the safety valve effectively when his primary read is open and the pocket is collapsing. One thing NFL radio noted this morning: they said he looks slow taking his drops, like he's getting back to step 5 when he should have already released the ball.
- Brandon Washington seems to have spent 2014 watching Davin Joseph and now thinks that's what a starting NFL guard should look like. He's played awful.
- JL looks a step slower and a bit weaker than he did last year. Not sure what's up with him, but he just looks like a guy who's made his name on a consistent motor who's cruising through preseason. High-motor guys playing with the motor on idle don't look good... and he doesn't look good.
- Barron flashed hands of stone on the aforementioned dropped INT.
- Austin was invisible.
- Still no creativity on the offensive scheming. Not even vanilla... more like unflavored ice chips.
- Williams blitzing seems to leave a lot of holes for offenses to exploit. Why can't our D-line collapse pockets without guys coming out of the secondary or from the LB corps?
- Middle of the field pass defense is... we'll say porous.
- Austin Davis does not belong on an NFL field. Bad in the pocket, no arm strength, no vision, no idea how he had a stretch of success last year.
- There seems to be way too much "We're missing X player from the unit, therefore the unit as a whole is failing." Saffold on the O-line. Brockers on the D-line. Is this not a team sport? The team seems to internalize excuses, like "We're tired from playing the Cowboys," and "We're missing one of our starters on this group," and playing down to lowered expectations.

 

[snackdaddy]

Foles looked bad at times. But I'm willing to give him time to see if its just a case of transitioning to a different offense. I hope they weren't premature in giving him that extension.

The defense seems to have problems wrapping up ball carriers. Too many yards after contact.

 

[ztoben]

Just focusing on the oline:

*Rhaney wasn't great but I saw a few flashes of true athleticism. The play where foles scrambled around in the pocket, rhaney had a great cut block that showed his awareness and quickness.
*Brown played better than I would expect for a rookie. He actually looks like a starter.
*Havenstein looked okay. For how big he is I was expecting him to just maul people. This is not the case. He gets it done, but it wasn't pretty.
*Robinson played about where I expected him to. Didn't really notice any glaring mistakes, but I would need to go back and really watch to see. I was mostly focusing on the rest of the line.
*Don't get me started on Washington.... ugh.... Please saffold, get better and stay healthy. Foles is counting on you.

Overall, not terrible but nothing I would brag about. They weren't giving Foles any time at all, and for all the focus we've been putting on the run game there weren't many holes created at all. If you look at each player individually, they did alright. But as a group they did not play well at all. I think the center competition is down to rhaney vs jones, I'm not sure who I want to get the job. Anything I'm missing?

 

[Big Game]

I agree with most of what everyone has said about the team so far in preseason. I just seems as if Fisher coaches his teams to not give full effort or he just doesn't really care about winning or showing anything during the preseason.

And to me that's fine if we are playoff team every year. But with us being a team that has not hit the .500 mark in several years. I would just like to see them put a little more effort in fundamentals. You don't have to show anything but make sure guys are wrapping up on defense. O line should have good communication and not breaking down(this was mainly Washington). And on defense you can't give up almost 5 yards a pop(On what would have been Brockers side on run plays)

I'm hoping that we see a better effort in the last two preseason games. to help develop a winning attitude and get them ready for Seattle.

 

[Fatbot]

Defense was solid. Donald and Quinn up front were excellent. As has been said in other threads the DB's seem more interested in tackling with their helmets and not their arms. Im not worried about the defense right now though.

I agree with not being worried about the defense since it's still not even game 3 of the preseason, and the main thing is no more starters got hurt. I still believe in the expectations of the Rams to be a top 5 elite defense once the season starts. But I don't agree one could describe the defense as "solid" in that game itself, it was simply a terrible showing.

 

[FRO]

Fisher never seems to put much stock into preseason games. Weather that is a contributor to the slow starts is debatable. I believe it is, I'm wrong a lot. With Fisher not putting a lot into preseason it's hard to draw any conclusions. What scares me about Foles when we got him still scares me now. He has lapses of judgment at times. He makes some great throws, then he makes some what are you thinking throws. I'm not sold on him as our future. I'm hoping for 2013 Foles, but expecting 2014 Foles.

Saffold is the key to our offense. Without him we are sunk. Which sucks that so much depends on one guy, but we need that vet in there. He has to play 16 for us, or at minimum the first half so these kids can get their feet wet and adjusted.

We need a big man backing up Brockers. I'm not sure Westbrooks or Fairly are the guys to back him up.

Stedman Bailey needs a bigger role in this offense.

I really like Keenum as the #2 guy. I really like what I've seen from him.

 

[BonifayRam]

Saw Travis Bond playing left OG ??? Bond's miscue misread resulted in a sack of our QB.:eek:

Andrew Donnal was getting a lot of reps @ both right OG & ORT. While our back up ORT Donnal looked a little weak in his pass pro he did hold up well enough. Good to see him be versatile enough like this as a rookie.

I saw a near perfect game out of Barrett Jones myself. He will give some ground in the pass pro but still leave room for the step ups by the QB. Jones was all over the place in space in performing his downfield blocks. I was very happy with his play.

Watts sure looks to be something special to me. WOW . All those moves & his power & his burst! He made Mason & Cunningham look like TC fodder.:bow:

RB Pead sure knows how to run behind his blocks....he is the best I seen from our backs in a long while.

We have a very good back up QB guys, I like his style. Glad to see Snead/Fisher go and get him back.

CB Johnson must be in the burn ward of hospital after getting scorched. :notsure:

Our starting safeties forgot how to wrap up.

Where did this LB'er named Cameron lynch come from he looks like a keeper to me #50 he was everywhere in the 2nd half & he brings the hit with his tacks. Guess he was the replacement for Bates while he's healing both about the same size ....short!

 

[DaveFan'51]

Positives:
- We have RB depth up the ass.
- Pead and Watts both looked like they should be playing over Cunningham.
- Our backup QBs are looking better than they have in years - both Keenum and Mannion look like gamers.
- Joyner flew around the field like his hair was on fire and rather than wanting to put it out, he wanted to take some f***ing Titans down in flames with him
- We seem to have a legit starting LT, RG and RT, as Robinson, Brown and Havenstein all played reasonably well
- Barrett Jones (my boy!) didn't get his name called much when he took his turn at C, and that was in a good way - dude played solid.
- Barron looked good back on the field, was relatively disruptive and got his hands on what should have been an INT
- Rhaney looked OK... inconsistent, but flashing talent.
- I don't think they threw at Jenkins once, which I take as a testament to his threat.
- They didn't have nearly as many penalties, and the roughing the passer calls were both total bullcrap.
- Stedman catches everything close to him and makes plays out of it.
- Givens can still take the top off of a defense.

Negatives:
- The D-line is not looking good... if swapping Brockers out for Westbrooks means we're gashed for 5 yards per carry and can't generate consistent pressure on the QB, then what the hell are we paying the other 3 starters so much for?
- Aaron Donald is, so far, invisible to me
- Foles... yeesh. What I see is a guy who is very good when his first read is open, and very bad afterwords. His footwork has not been good. He's not shifted around in what little pocket he's had. He's forced bad throws. He doesn't seem to check down to the safety valve effectively when his primary read is open and the pocket is collapsing. One thing NFL radio noted this morning: they said he looks slow taking his drops, like he's getting back to step 5 when he should have already released the ball.
- Brandon Washington seems to have spent 2014 watching Davin Joseph and now thinks that's what a starting NFL guard should look like. He's played awful.
- JL looks a step slower and a bit weaker than he did last year. Not sure what's up with him, but he just looks like a guy who's made his name on a consistent motor who's cruising through preseason. High-motor guys playing with the motor on idle don't look good... and he doesn't look good.
- Barron flashed hands of stone on the aforementioned dropped INT.
- Austin was invisible.
- Still no creativity on the offensive scheming. Not even vanilla... more like unflavored ice chips.
- Williams blitzing seems to leave a lot of holes for offenses to exploit. Why can't our D-line collapse pockets without guys coming out of the secondary or from the LB corps?
- Middle of the field pass defense is... we'll say porous.
- Austin Davis does not belong on an NFL field. Bad in the pocket, no arm strength, no vision, no idea how he had a stretch of success last year.
- There seems to be way too much "We're missing X player from the unit, therefore the unit as a whole is failing." Saffold on the O-line. Brockers on the D-line. Is this not a team sport? The team seems to internalize excuses, like "We're tired from playing the Cowboys," and "We're missing one of our starters on this group," and playing down to lowered expectations.

LOVED your positives!

HATED your negative! But your right!!

 

[RaminExile]

Positives:
- We have RB depth up the ass.
- Pead and Watts both looked like they should be playing over Cunningham.
- Our backup QBs are looking better than they have in years - both Keenum and Mannion look like gamers.
- Joyner flew around the field like his hair was on fire and rather than wanting to put it out, he wanted to take some f***ing Titans down in flames with him
- We seem to have a legit starting LT, RG and RT, as Robinson, Brown and Havenstein all played reasonably well
- Barrett Jones (my boy!) didn't get his name called much when he took his turn at C, and that was in a good way - dude played solid.
- Barron looked good back on the field, was relatively disruptive and got his hands on what should have been an INT
- Rhaney looked OK... inconsistent, but flashing talent.
- I don't think they threw at Jenkins once, which I take as a testament to his threat.
- They didn't have nearly as many penalties, and the roughing the passer calls were both total bullcrap.
- Stedman catches everything close to him and makes plays out of it.
- Givens can still take the top off of a defense.

Negatives:
- The D-line is not looking good... if swapping Brockers out for Westbrooks means we're gashed for 5 yards per carry and can't generate consistent pressure on the QB, then what the hell are we paying the other 3 starters so much for?
- Aaron Donald is, so far, invisible to me
- Foles... yeesh. What I see is a guy who is very good when his first read is open, and very bad afterwords. His footwork has not been good. He's not shifted around in what little pocket he's had. He's forced bad throws. He doesn't seem to check down to the safety valve effectively when his primary read is open and the pocket is collapsing. One thing NFL radio noted this morning: they said he looks slow taking his drops, like he's getting back to step 5 when he should have already released the ball.
- Brandon Washington seems to have spent 2014 watching Davin Joseph and now thinks that's what a starting NFL guard should look like. He's played awful.
- JL looks a step slower and a bit weaker than he did last year. Not sure what's up with him, but he just looks like a guy who's made his name on a consistent motor who's cruising through preseason. High-motor guys playing with the motor on idle don't look good... and he doesn't look good.
- Barron flashed hands of stone on the aforementioned dropped INT.
- Austin was invisible.
- Still no creativity on the offensive scheming. Not even vanilla... more like unflavored ice chips.
- Williams blitzing seems to leave a lot of holes for offenses to exploit. Why can't our D-line collapse pockets without guys coming out of the secondary or from the LB corps?
- Middle of the field pass defense is... we'll say porous.
- Austin Davis does not belong on an NFL field. Bad in the pocket, no arm strength, no vision, no idea how he had a stretch of success last year.
- There seems to be way too much "We're missing X player from the unit, therefore the unit as a whole is failing." Saffold on the O-line. Brockers on the D-line. Is this not a team sport? The team seems to internalize excuses, like "We're tired from playing the Cowboys," and "We're missing one of our starters on this group," and playing down to lowered expectations.

I agree hugely with not really enjoying Greg Williams blitzing fetish. We get picked apart doing it. Our supposed strength is our front 4. Why not play to their strength by letting them go after the quarterback and getting pressure whilst forcing him to hang on to the ball by playing tighter coverage? So far (last year as well I'm talking about) we struggled when they (opposing QB's) just got rid of the ball quickly. They were able to do it because of all the blitzers coming leaving open lanes in behind them. Suppose he's not going to change his philosophy now after making an entire career doing what he does - but he said himself "I'm going to have to learn to just let our (4 guys on the line) go after the quarterback". He hasn't seemed to follow his own advice too often imho.

 

[LACHAMP46]

I'll be back....I haven't seen the 2nd half....But I loved the Joyner bounce back game...I thought G-Rob coulda sealed the backside better on an early run...Foles looks like Pac-12 Foles...Cunningham has lost some juice...We are playing with fire starting Washington..seriously...nobody on the bench better than him? We're in trouble...Westbrooks took a step back...The entire D-Line must be garbage if we need to blitz that much...thought preseason was vanilla? Still playing corners too soft & off...Why not practice some bump & run? JL...Tree...Ayers....all hype IMO...no WOW plays....tackling as a team was poor in the first half..

Things I did like, Quinn seemed to turn into the team leader this game...only guy whos game matched his fame in the starting rotation...Those rookie o-line starters are gonna be ok...

 

[Merlin]

Most of their problems stemmed from being beaten on both lines.

The OL has a weak spot in the middle with Williams and Rhaney playing next to each other. What it means is Saffold is absolutely crucial to this line. If he's out I presume Reynolds goes in, but cannot say for sure. Having Saffold and Brown next to whoever wins center should be ok, they just can't have two subpar guys next to each other and expect Foles to stay clean. I'd assume we will see a lot of other guys given a long look at OG over the next two games so Boudreau can have a good feel for the pecking order when Roger gets dinged up.

The DL has no anchor without Brockers in the lineup. Remove him and suddenly they're a fast DL with no lead in their asses vs the run game. What this means is they really should have drafted a backup for that role who has some oomph to him, or went that route in FA instead of ponying up for a slimmed down Fairley.

At this point it's pretty clear to me that Roger and Brock are both critical pieces that need to stay healthy for this team to achieve what they're capable of. The OL does have an advantage of some young options not to mention Reynolds, so of the two from what I'm seeing Brock is actually more important to this team.

 

[DCH]

Most of their problems stemmed from being beaten on both lines.

The OL has a weak spot in the middle with Williams and Rhaney playing next to each other. What it means is Saffold is absolutely crucial to this line. If he's out I presume Reynolds goes in, but cannot say for sure. Having Saffold and Brown next to whoever wins center should be ok, they just can't have two subpar guys next to each other and expect Foles to stay clean. I'd assume we will see a lot of other guys given a long look at OG over the next two games so Boudreau can have a good feel for the pecking order when Roger gets dinged up.

The DL has no anchor without Brockers in the lineup. Remove him and suddenly they're a fast DL with no lead in their asses vs the run game. What this means is they really should have drafted a backup for that role who has some oomph to him, or went that route in FA instead of ponying up for a slimmed down Fairley.

At this point it's pretty clear to me that Roger and Brock are both critical pieces that need to stay healthy for this team to achieve what they're capable of. The OL does have an advantage of some young options not to mention Reynolds, so of the two from what I'm seeing Brock is actually more important to this team.

There's no way one DT can make the difference between a good run-stopping team and a terrible one... Brockers makes a big difference, but so does gap responsibility and solid tackling. I thought the run game was hurt by a lack of fundamentals and exacerbated by a lack of MB.

 

[Big Willie]

My observations/opinions:

• We seem to have a lot of scheme players aka players who can play well through blitzes, stunts, pulls, and misdirection but cannot just line up and beat their man on a continuous basis. Quinn, Donald, Brown, and Bailey, and perhaps Robinson seem like they can win straight up but few others can.
• I like JL as a leader and Ogletree as an athlete, but neither are top tier LBs from what I have seen last year and so far this year. Both are better in the pass game than the run game...which is not a good thing. I would rather have great run stuffing LBs that are average in pass defense and I could replace them with DBs on 3rd down.
• We do not have a man to man CB on the active roster. I think EJ can do it, but the others are best in zone coverage.
• Center is gonna be a problem this year. I think the OL will be serviceable with Haverstein, Brown, Robinson and Saffold, but the push up the middle is going to be problem some. An injury to any of them will be devastating.
• Foles has moxy, can fire bullets on the run, is gonna throw too many interceptions, and if given time will help this team make the playoffs.
• Barron and Fairly will both be disappointments this year and it will be their last with the Rams.

 

[HometownBoy]

Foles is still very much the same guy that forced him out of Philly. He's GOT to work past this inability after his first read and sloppy footwork or we're not going to get anywhere.

 

[PhillyRam]

As far as the offense goes, very vanilla, no imagination. No rb screens or qb rollouts, mis-directions, or nothing. So couple that with an OL that was not able to dominate the LOS, and not having Quick available and for sone unknown reason not having Baily play with the ones, and you got pretty much nothing to get excited about.

 

[Rainram]

Positives:
- We have RB depth up the ass.
- Pead and Watts both looked like they should be playing over Cunningham.
- Our backup QBs are looking better than they have in years - both Keenum and Mannion look like gamers.
- Joyner flew around the field like his hair was on fire and rather than wanting to put it out, he wanted to take some f***ing Titans down in flames with him
- We seem to have a legit starting LT, RG and RT, as Robinson, Brown and Havenstein all played reasonably well
- Barrett Jones (my boy!) didn't get his name called much when he took his turn at C, and that was in a good way - dude played solid.
- Barron looked good back on the field, was relatively disruptive and got his hands on what should have been an INT
- Rhaney looked OK... inconsistent, but flashing talent.
- I don't think they threw at Jenkins once, which I take as a testament to his threat.
- They didn't have nearly as many penalties, and the roughing the passer calls were both total bullcrap.
- Stedman catches everything close to him and makes plays out of it.
- Givens can still take the top off of a defense.

Negatives:
- The D-line is not looking good... if swapping Brockers out for Westbrooks means we're gashed for 5 yards per carry and can't generate consistent pressure on the QB, then what the hell are we paying the other 3 starters so much for?
- Aaron Donald is, so far, invisible to me
- Foles... yeesh. What I see is a guy who is very good when his first read is open, and very bad afterwords. His footwork has not been good. He's not shifted around in what little pocket he's had. He's forced bad throws. He doesn't seem to check down to the safety valve effectively when his primary read is open and the pocket is collapsing. One thing NFL radio noted this morning: they said he looks slow taking his drops, like he's getting back to step 5 when he should have already released the ball.
- Brandon Washington seems to have spent 2014 watching Davin Joseph and now thinks that's what a starting NFL guard should look like. He's played awful.
- JL looks a step slower and a bit weaker than he did last year. Not sure what's up with him, but he just looks like a guy who's made his name on a consistent motor who's cruising through preseason. High-motor guys playing with the motor on idle don't look good... and he doesn't look good.
- Barron flashed hands of stone on the aforementioned dropped INT.
- Austin was invisible.
- Still no creativity on the offensive scheming. Not even vanilla... more like unflavored ice chips.
- Williams blitzing seems to leave a lot of holes for offenses to exploit. Why can't our D-line collapse pockets without guys coming out of the secondary or from the LB corps?
- Middle of the field pass defense is... we'll say porous.
- Austin Davis does not belong on an NFL field. Bad in the pocket, no arm strength, no vision, no idea how he had a stretch of success last year.
- There seems to be way too much "We're missing X player from the unit, therefore the unit as a whole is failing." Saffold on the O-line. Brockers on the D-line. Is this not a team sport? The team seems to internalize excuses, like "We're tired from playing the Cowboys," and "We're missing one of our starters on this group," and playing down to lowered expectations.

Agree with most.

I concur on Stedman Bailey...am I the only one that would like to see him on the field a lot more?
Tavon...what are we gonna do man? The WR screen was hilarious the way Tennessee sniffed it out...and any time he's on the field, teams will be knowing we're gonna try something with him like that. *sigh*

And where the hell has Fairley been...my goodness. He's so non-existent thus far (including in camp/practice reports), that I almost forget he's on the team.

I disagree on your assessment of Donald though...

Donald is certainly not invisible. He's picking up right where he left off. No worries there at all.