Quick Takes on Rams 9-7 loss @ Washington
Good day…
* The Outcome: The game was there for the Rams all day, just waiting to be claimed. Baffled coach Jim Zorn and the Redskins tried to give it away to the visitors, and the Rams flubbed the opportunity. Were the Rams better in Washington than they were in Seattle? Yes. The Rams defense kept the Redskins out of the end zone, and Steven Jackson rushed for 104 yards. But the bottom line is the 12th consecutive loss for the franchise. Disappointing. The Rams have played two games and have scored 7 points. That’s inexcusable.
* The Effort: The Rams played hard in Washington and the players are clearly determined to do better. That’s what they should be doing, of course. They have every reason to be motivated. But that hasn’t always been true ; in 2007 and 2008 we saw too many faint-hearted efforts. Now the challenge will be to hang tough during more hard times. The Rams are off to an 0-2 start and the schedule doesn’t get any easier. Green Bay comes to The Ed after getting burned at home by Cincinnati, and then the Rams head to San Francisco, which is 2-0 and playing a physical, relentless style of football. San Franciso coach Mike Singletary is succeeding in changing his team’s losing culture. The Rams aren’t close to making that conversion.
* The Coach: Keeping the morale up will be more of a challenge for rookie HC Steve Spagnuolo. I don’t mind his positive approach. This is the Dick Vermeil way of doing things. Spagnuolo has to stay upbeat, and keep his players working and competing. It might make fans feel better to hear/read Spagnuolo savage his team after a loss, but that wouldn’t achieve anything. He has to remain true to himself. Keep an eye on Spagnuolo. You don’t really find out about a coach until he has to deal with losing streaks and adversity, and the rookie boss has entered that zone. In addition to the 0-2 start and one TD in two games, the offensive line has taken a hit with injuries. Post-Dispatch beatwriter Jim Thomas noted that it took Spagnuolo 25 minutes to gather himself before he faced the media after the game. (The NFL-mandated wait time is 10 minutes.) I don’t know what that means, but again: losing isn’t easy to handle.
* Game Management: Spagnuolo and staff really need to grow in this area. Offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur can’t keep getting plays in late. You can’t burn all of your timeouts early in close games. Wasting the final timeout before that 4th quarter punt with 9:25 left in the game? What was that? A confused player, Kenneth Darby, called it - but ultimately this is the coach’s responsibility to make sure the players know what to do and when to do it. And defensive coordinator Ken Flajole was slow to adjust when the Rams inexplicably left Redskins tight end Chris Cooley uncovered for most of the first half.
* Play Calls: The Rams still didn’t run it enough. There was a point in the second half when they clearly had the Redskins D-line tuckered out, and that was the time to keep pounding away. In the fourth quarter, with the Redskins linemen huffing and puffing, the Rams faced a third and 2 near midfield and had two downs to move the chains. This was an ideal time to smash ‘em with Jackson. Instead, Shurmur called for a pass that went incomplete. And then came the screwed-up timeout/punt sequence. This coaching staff has to establish an identity and attitude. The Rams can’t be reluctant to run under any circumstances.
* The Grim Reality: More than anything, here is the problem … this team suffers from an extreme shortage of playmakers. Or difference makers. RB Steven Jackson can break a play now and again, as he did with a 58-yard run in Washington. But there isn’t a receiver on this roster who scares a defense. QB Marc Bulger’s primary mode these days is that of a game manager. He is being schooled to avoid mistakes, and is running a rather conservative, low-risk offense. Bulger is, indeed, avoiding mistakes. And he’s competing hard; there’s some fight to his game. But he’s not exactly attacking, either. It’s a pretty harmless passing game, more methodical than anything. He’s not the type of QB who can break down a defense. I’m not dumping on Bulger; it’s just the way it is. So where are the playmakers, the game changers, on offense? Jackson has the capability, and that’s it. And SJ39’s critics would argue that he doesn’t do it enough. On defense, there’s safety Oshiomogho Atogwe, who has 18 interceptions, 12 forced fumbles and six fumble recoveries in 62 NFL games. He is definitely a playmaker, and if he played on a defense that could pressure the QB on a regular basis, Atogwe would be sailing into the Pro Bowl every season. But other than Atogwe, the Rams defense doesn’t have another player capable of changing a game. (Rookie MLB James Laurinaitis could develop into one; we’ll see.) The NFL has a lot of close games - I think eight on Sunday were decided by about a touchdown or less — and the teams with the playmakers find ways to win them. The Rams have two playmakers, one on each side of the ball. It’s a bleak situation.
* The Defensive Line: Beginning with the 2000 draft, the Rame have selected 12 defensive linemen. Five were chosen in the first round: Damione Lewis, Ryan Pickett, Jimmy Kennedy, Adam Carriker, Chris Long. Two were picked in the third round, Anthony Hargrove and Claude Wroten. They also drafted Victor Adeyanju, Darell Scott, Brian Young, Clifton Ryan, Keith Jackson. I don’t want to get into a recap of each player’s history, but in Pickett and Young were solid DTs. And Scott is a rookie, so it’s too soon to evaluate him. Ryan has a chance to be decent. But to read that list of first-rounders … wow. The lack of impact is shocking. And by now, I expected that Chris Long would be delivering more impact. Overall, most of the names on this list were busts, washouts or disappointments. So there’s little wonder why this is one of the weakest areas of the team. Now that an aging Leonard Little has lost much of his speed, the Rams have no one up front to give a QB or an O-lineman a restless night of sleep before facing the Rams. There’s virtually no pass rush. No intimidation factor. In the first two games, the opponent has set up to pass 73 times, and the Rams have one sack. Just terrible.
* The Secondary: Given the absence of a pass rush, the Rams’ defensive backs did a nice job in preventing big plays. I know they were facing an average (at best) quarterback in Jason Campbell. And tough he completed 65 percent, a lot of it came on the short stuff. The Redskins’ wideouts didn’t do much damage downfield.
* The O-Line: I “tweeted” this during the game and will repeat it here: The Rams have invested millions of dollars into the offensive line, and so far the stimulus package is failing. Bulger was harrassed by the Redskins all afternoon. The run blocking wasn’t bad against Washington. But this offense can’t sustain drives or develop a downfield passing game because of frequent breakdowns up front. The Rams couldn’t budge Seattle’s front seven a week ago, but the San Francisco 49ers shredded that same Seattle defense for 207 yards rushing by Frank Gore on Sunday.
* Disappointing Donnie Avery: I had an enthusiastic reaction when the Rams made Avery the first wide receiver taken in the 2008 draft. And he zoomed off to a fast start as a rookie, averaging 16.9 yards per catch in his first five games. He scored three touchdowns, two on long passes and one on a 37-yard run. He had five catches of 25+ yards. But defenses adjusted to Avery. They stopped worrying about Torry Holt and rolled their coverage to Avery’s side. And he’s become a non-factor. Over his last 11 games, Avery has caught only 40 passes for 391 yards — that’s 9.7 yards per reception. And he’s had only one catch of 25+ yards. He’s fumbled in both Rams losses this season; Sunday’s fumble probably cost the Rams a win. He’s committing silly penalties. I’m not giving up on Avery, but he’s backing up instead of getting better. And GM Billy Devaney is going to be reminded — many times — that he could drafted DeSean Jackson instead.
* The Return Game: The Rams don’t have one. In two games, they’re averaging 16.1 yards per kickoff return. Derek Stanley did have a 24-yard punt return at Seattle, but in Washington the Rams averaged 6.5 yards on two punt returns.
* The State of Missouri: The Rams have been outscored 324-123 in going 0 for their last 12. They’re 5-29 since the end of the 2006 season. The Kansas City Chiefs lost to Oakland on Sunday. Since the start of last season, the Rams and Chiefs are a combined 4-32. Since the start of the 2007 season the Rams and Chiefs are a combined 11-57 and have been outscored 1,766 to 1,026.
Thanks for reading …
-Bernie
The glorious Greatest Show on Turf days were lighting in a bottle. Basically, they should never have happened. No team will ever again pull off a Marshall Faulk trade and if that is not whacked out enough, think about the Kurt Warner story. Isaac Bruce came about as an LA Ram and Torry Holt was an odd hit on the draft the year before. So, there you have a story that just should never have happened and will not again. A few months after they won the Super Bowl they drafted Trung Candidate, Jacoby Sheppard and John St. Clair, and there we go. THAT is the Rams we know and have had since and will have forever until they blow the place up. Shaw is still in the picture and the family has no long term experience in winning football. It is great Linehan and Zygmunt are gone but that is still a rancid franchise that needs to be totally gutted. Until then, the big drama every year is who we are going to pick with that high draft choice (Chris Long has been just great, ha).
As you say it will be interesting to see how the head coach handles the stress. He has to fight the good fight to the nth degree, but keep his composure and the respect of his players. It won’t be easy, but if he does so and the ownership is patient, and they draft well, the franchise can be turned around. This is why it was so important to hire a man of strong character.
Sounds similar to my post on the pressbox Thursday without needing to see the Redskins game, although that got locked for reasons unknown (for not drinking the kool aid maybe).
Again, the Rams outside of Jackson have no front line star players and Devaney should take a lot of blame from the stl media for making numerous personnel decisions over a 2+ year span. The front line players are the problem; not #’s 50-53 and the practice squad (interviews shouldn’t focus on marginal players). Devaney has his fingerprints on 2 full drafts and maybe some of the 2007 draft, although I’m not sure when he officially came aboard.
In addition to passing on Desean Jackson for Avery, allowing Brandon Chillar to leave, and overpaying for Jacob Bell and Jason Brown, draft picks in rounds 3-7 have amounted to nothing. Quan Cosby was a 5th round pick who plays WR and returns punts and kicks. He returned 2 punts today for 60 yards and 32 yards and returned a punt for a TD against the Rams in the preseason. The Rams still don’t have a punt or kickoff returner, for about the 6th straight season. Does the Rams front office know that special teams is 1/3 of the game? It wouldn’t hurt the media to criticize once in a while.
Devaney purposely went into the season with no veteran/threatening wide receivers and has been quizzed about it by the media. Considering that this is a huge weakness, he should be taken behind the work shed by management. Kenneth Darby as the change of pace RB? How much as the head personnel evaluator do you have to see before you draft and use someone better?
This franchise loses value each week; you’d think Chip would have higher standards for Devaney before his mother’s inheritance erodes further. Plus, I don’t want to hear Kevin Demoff blame the salary cap mess on previous management; that’s why he was hired to improve the situation, we all know it was bad, no need to rehash as a built-in excuse.
The Rams are 0-2, home games will be blacked out, and at least the Lions have a future with Megatron, Kevin Smith and Matt Stafford. The Rams are like the financial crisis; just like the too-big-to-fail banks haven’t been gutted and reorganized, the Rams still have remnants of the old regime and no one’s sure if the bottom has been reached.
Deavany can be blamed for the player changes this year but Zigmund was pulling the strings when Avery and Long were selected. That is why Ziggy and company are no longer here. We all knew is was going to be a long overhaul for this team, especially with all the house cleaning done during the off season. I felt 4-5 wins this season would be a victory. The talent level is poor but this team can still grab a few wins playing smart. Spags is a good coach and we should give him time. A comment from someone said that Spags will grow 10 years older by the end of this season. Yes it is painful to watch and perhaps if it gets really bad, just turn off the media source and do something else.
Good work Bernie. Your best football related piece in quite some time. The points that you make in the Game Mangagement and Grim Reality paragraphs are especially salient in my view.
Bernie, nice piece. Regarding the offensive, I’ve stated several times that Schumer’s offense game plan appear’s to be way to conservative and timid..
Let’s assume for a instant that our receivers could catch the ball (and hold onto it). Still, it would be hard to score TD’s as the ball is rarely thrown down field for real yardage..
Everything is a short hook pattern or a short flare-out to the flats… Big deal. That’s not going to win football games..
I didn’t waste my day sitting in front of the T.V. so no great loss to me but the writing is starting to appear on the wall regarding this offense’s continued abysmal and embarrassing performances..
I wished I like hockey more so I’d have something to do after the baseball season is over…
Billy Devaney was hired as the GM on Christmas Eve, 2008. Spagnuolo was hired the following month. Kevin Demoff was hired after that. To blame thm for the current state of affairs at Rams Park is irrational. Has Devaney made mistakes? Sure he has. Does everyone out there need to do better? Absolutely. But these people took over the most dysfunctional, depressingly bad organization in the NFL. And turning this around is a massive project. To pretend otherwise is preposterous. I don’t have a problem with a fan being frustrated. But at least try to make sense. At least try to be constructive. Thanks.
-B
bernie,
you are correct that billy was hired as “GM” in December 2008. however, billy was hired as part of the personnel evaluation staff the offseason before and played a significant part in the Ram’s selections of DE Long, WR Avery, etc.
To indicate that Billy had nothing to do with personnel decisions before this offseason is just not accurate. You, yourself, have criticized him in the past for recommending the signing of jacob bell … that was two offseasons ago.
So, while he has only been GM in title since December 08, his “fingerprints” are all over two offseasons, not one.
His failure to adequately adress a horrible wr corp is probably the most baffling to me, as is his choice to keep the compelte stiff known as kenneth darby on the roster. I could not have agreed with you more when you recently indicated the Rams dropped the ball on passing on rb gartrell johnson on waivers/fa (who ended up signing with the giants). That falls sqaurely on billy. IMO, it is not too early to criticize him for such moves.
Hey Bernie, you were right about Bulger playing better against the Skins. He was much more alert out there showing better pocket presence, toughness and some poise as well. I was pleased with his effort. But that’s how bad St. Louis football has become, STL fans are happy to see our QB, who is entering his 7th year as our starter, to finally show up and compete in what amounted to as a 9 to 7 loss. This is what St. Louis Rams football has become—-sad. You make great points about the methodical harmless attack the Rams have now. I couldn’t agree more. It was disappointing to not even mount some kind of drive on that last possession. 4 and out and that was it, we’ve seen this movie before, always has the same ending, rarely do we get to see a fantastic finish…….the Rams are striking out too much in the draft, even the most recent drafts are raising questions. Much like their offense, the Rams drafts the past couple years have maybe been to conservative as well. But I will say this, I’ve only seen 2 Spags post game conferences, but I get the impression this guy is genuine, he speaks the truth. I’m sold on him. I love his passion, I love how much he takes these defeats so hard. He reminded me of 30 years ago after watching a Big Red game. How can you not root for a man like this? I hope he can survive this year and we have a good draft/off-season next year. Devaney needs to start pushing the right buttons to give Spags a chance, I believe this man can turn this franchise around.
Yes, that’s the point - I’ve scrutinized Devaney where he deserves to be scrutinized. I’ve written and said that this is his O-line. The receivers, sure, they have to make it more of a priority. But someone would have to be really reaching, or really stupid, to posture that somehow this mess is his fault. Be angry, be frustrated. But at least TRY to be reasonable and intelligent. Thanks.