W2W4 revisited: St. Louis Rams/Wagoner

[RamBill]

W2W4 revisited: St. Louis Rams
By Nick Wagoner

http://espn.go.com/blog/st-louis-rams/post/_/id/10346/w2w4-revisited-st-louis-rams

EARTH CITY, Mo. -- Looking back at three things to watch from the St. Louis Rams' 26-24 loss to the New Orleans Saints on Friday night.

1. An aggressive defensive approach?

Much was made of Rams defensive coordinator Gregg Williams taking on his former team but, as could be expected in the preseason, that anticipation fell flat. Despite talk all week about Williams dialing up exotic blitzes to get after his old squad, the Rams were every bit as vanilla as coach Jeff Fisher promised during the week.

Williams didn't completely shut off the blitz faucet but chose his spots here and there and ultimately stuck to basic coverages and schemes. Perhaps the most intriguing thing the defense did was use end Robert Quinn exclusively on obvious third-down (and one fourth down) passing situation. That resulted in about five snaps worth of work for Quinn, who did manage to generate pressure on a couple of them.

2. Sorting out the running backs

After getting nicked up earlier in the week, Zac Stacy did handle the starting running back duties. And yes, the job still appears to be his as he got the bulk of the work with the starting offense Friday night. Stacy was solid, too, carrying four times for 22 yards before calling it a night.

The Rams followed their practice script in divvying up the rest of the carries with Benny Cunningham coming in second followed by rookie Tre Mason and Chase Reynolds. Isaiah Pead spent the evening in street clothes, perhaps because of the hand injury that has cost him time in camp. Cunningham also had some good moments, carrying five times for 24 yards.

Mason was the busiest of the backs, getting 15 carries for 51 yards. He struggled to get much going early but he was also working behind the third-team offensive line. He had a couple of long runs late, including one called back for holding and actually had a couple of strong moments picking up the blitz. Chase Reynolds got work in Pead's absence with six carries for 46 yards, though 38 of those came on a well-designed and executed fake punt. He also had a catch for 10 yards and showed up on special teams. Pead looks to be falling further behind.

3. First glance at Sam

Defensive end Michael Sam found himself on the field early and often, entering the game with a little more than five minutes to go in the first quarter. He had a couple of moments that caused Fisher to take notice, namely a quarterback hurry and a run stop and earned some time on special teams as well. He played through the first half and into the third quarter before calling it a night. It was a solid if unspectacular first step for Sam though some of his competition for a potential roster spot also offered some positives. End Ethan Westbrooks posted three tackles and Sammy Brown had two tackles for loss and a quarterback hit.

 

[RamBill]

Rams get plenty of lessons in opener
By Nick Wagoner

http://espn.go.com/blog/st-louis-rams/post/_/id/10337/rams-get-plenty-of-lessons-in-opener

EARTH CITY, Mo. -- Aside from attempting to stay healthy for four consecutive games, perhaps the primary goal of preseason football is to put your team through as much situational football as possible.

The idea being that the more different situations the team goes through, the more valuable lessons you can learn before the real games start. While the St. Louis Rams' preseason opener against the New Orleans Saints was strange in many ways, it also offered plenty of learning experiences for coach Jeff Fisher's team.

“I hope that when you get in preseason games that there’s enough things that take place there that you can learn from and learn lessons and teach from, and we got our share today," Fisher said. "I’ll tell you, that was something."

The fourth quarter alone could serve as a crash course on some of the league's lesser-known rules as well as an instruction book on how not to run a two-minute drill.

Twice, the Rams found themselves in position to score the go-ahead points and each time they failed to convert in part because of some silly mistakes. The offense at the time was comprised mostly of third- and fourth-stringers but the mistakes made could be used by anyone as lessons for the future.

Kicker Greg Zuerlein missed a 46-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter and then missed a 59-yarder as time expired to give New Orleans a 26-24 victory.

It was the final sequence that raised the most eyebrows. After starting their final drive with a couple of conservative run calls, quarterback Austin Davis hit tight end Alex Bayer down the middle for a 42-yard gain to the Saints 42.

Things went haywire from there as there was some clear confusion about when the two-minute warning was. Davis hit receiver T.J. Moe for a gain of 4 yards but nobody, officials included, seemed to know whether they had hit the two-minute warning, and the Saints ended up using a timeout. Davis promptly was flagged for delay of game coming out of the timeout but it seemed mostly because of the confusion over the timeout and clock.

After a couple of completions got the Rams in field goal range, they went back to the conservative approach with two runs for no gain. Out of timeouts, Davis let the clock run down and then attempted to spike the ball to stop the clock to set up a 49-yard field goal attempt.

But Davis mishandled the snap before he could spike it. According to league rules, a mishandled snap that touches the ground that is then spiked is intentional grounding. The flag came out, the Rams moved back 10 yards and there was a 10-second runoff which suddenly left Zuerlein attempting a 59-yard field goal and the Rams having to snap the ball as soon as the whistle blew.

Zuerlein had the distance but missed it left.

"I didn’t see it hit the ground, I saw him mishandle it, but I didn’t see it hit the ground," Fisher said. "But it’s correct. It’s the right call, kind of unusual with four seconds left in a preseason game to see that, and then you got a 10-second runoff.”

That's just one glaring example of something the Rams will have to work on this week, not including the bigger issues such as tackling and eliminating silly penalties.

 

[LACHAMP46]

hmm...didn't see it hit the ground either....I've heard about that rule before, but never seen it applied. We seem to settle for FG's in that situation too much. Score TD's...The RB's & TE's looked good. I'm assuming that's a byproduct of the rebuilt line. Coach0 is gonna love practice this week, should be a bunch of hitting and tackling drills. I hope not too much, injuries can derail this season.