New St. Louis Rams coach Steve Spagnuolo stresses penalty reduction
The Rams players and coaches were joined on the practice fields Tuesday — the first day of OTAs — by a group of officials in black-and-white striped shirts, whistles at the ready. The idea is to reinforce the emphasis new coach Steve Spagnuolo has made on reducing penalties. If an indiscretion was spied during team drills, a flag was thrown.
“We talked to the whole team about reducing penalties. That was at the last minicamp, and that was a focus,” Spagnuolo explained after Tuesday’s two-hour workout. “I’m hoping that the emphasis that we’re putting on eliminating penalties will filter right across the board. It’s tough enough to win in this league without going backward.”
The Rams were the 11th-most-penalized team in the NFL last year, with 97. They were set back 718 yards, 16th in the league.
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Notes & quotes:
*DE Leonard Little was excused from Tuesday’s practice so that he could attend to a family matter. Some 84 players were on the fields.
*WR/KR Derek Stanley, who is coming off knee surgery, again was limited to individual drills.
*His contract problems resolved, G Ray Feinga, an undrafted rookie from Brigham Young, was back in uniform. The Rams like what they’ve seen of him so far.
*The Rams have signed T Eric Young, a former standout at the University of Tennessee. Young, who participated in minicamp earlier this month on a tryout basis, originally signed with Cleveland a year ago as an undrafted rookie. He was out all last season with a thigh injury and was waived this spring.
*After signing Young, the Rams released Mike Newkirk, a defensive lineman from Wisconsin. He was an undrafted rookie.
*Larry Grant worked with the first unit at strongside LB on Tuesday. That spot is open following the release of veteran Pisa Tinoisamoa. With second-round draftee James Laurinaitis still with the No. 2 unit, Chris Draft was at MLB with the ones.
*First-round pick Jason Smith also has yet to be promoted from the second unit, where he’s at RT. Adam Goldberg is the first-team RT for now.
*CB Tye Hill, who is coming off knee surgery, appeared to be running more freely and made a couple of nice pass breakups. Hill is battling for the starting job opposite Ron Bartell.
*CB Jonathan Wade is being used as the nickel back.
*Wednesday’s OTA is closed to the media.
All for now . . .
Who was Tye Hill defending? Laurent Robinson? Hahaha, sorry, I have no faith in Tye HIll, but I would love to be proved wrong.
I hope Tye Hill has a rebound, but after seeing him get destroyed more than a few times, I am also skepitcal.
lets hope that larry grant can grow to be a pro bowl strong side linebacker
Tye Hill’s last stand for sure; it was very, very painful watching “O” coaches exploiting our weakness by going to his side and burning him repeatedly.
He has alot to prove to the Rams fan base,I truly wish him luck in trying to redeem himself. (it can happen) !
The Rams seem to be still sifting/adding/releasing players. That’s good. Probably hard to get a good take on new players with just OTA’s, but talent does surface. So does the lack thereof. I know..when I returned from Korea I was a walk on for the 6th Army QB and CB positions. The head coach (besides getting some references) just lined me up, one-on-one against a 300 pound OL guy, which I promptly knocked on his butt with a quicker take-off. Then he lined up two of them fella’s facing me in a 3 point stance, so I just flew over the top of them landing on my feet. That was all the coach needed to see.
The degree of success(or not)of keeping/cutting player talent by Devaney and Spags is the process that will judge them, as well as the players.
Pretty hard to hope for cutting-edge wisdom by them in their first year as they add and cut, but luck, or lack thereof, will have a some impact this early in their efforts.
One thing I like about them is..they seem to know their responsibilities pretty good, or are willng to trust their instincts and lead.
I can wait until after the 2011 draft to see how the Rams play that year before either losing faith in Devaney and Spags, or realizing we have arrived in the rush to play good in the playoffs. 2011 is not that far off to take a constant loser to a SB winner.
I guess it is fair to say, at least, that this year is crucial in building that 2011 team, and those players that come to the Rams in the 2010 and 2011 draft should allow us all to measure if Devaney and Spags have what it takes to lead us to the promised land of football.
Linehan had his chance. I’ll give D & S at least that same time-frame shot to do their thing.
Amen…about reducing the penalties. If Spagnuolo is sucessful this could add 2-3 wins to our record. I wish someone kept stats on the number of drives stopped because of holding or procedure penalties or opposing drives that kept going because of silly holding penalties on 3rd & 15.
CARam-You’re killing me with your Army football stories…I think I threw up in my mouth
watch the defensive backfield evolve when Mark Rubin of Penn State
fame assumes the role not realized since Roger Wehrli retired.
He’s all of Spags’ 4 pillars and more. He can be a 2-way star,
defending and receiving.
zzzzzzzz… sorry, I thought I was still reading CARam’s autobiography. Anyways, reducing penalties is always a plus. All we got to do is keep Barron and Incognito in check and we should be alright.
The Rams was ranked 29 in redzone ratings and ranked 31 in third down conversions. Those are the two areas that need to be addressed first, don’t you think!!!!