Thank God we won, but might as well trade Marshawn Lynch

[HawkWow]

Rams game planned perfectly tonight. Took away our strength (run game) and exploited our weakness (oline). That Bevell couldn't counter that by calling pass plays where the ball gets out FAST annoys me more than anything. The few slants and screens he called worked for the most part. I love that we won but it doesn't make me less annoyed at the play calling.

Nope, sorry. Bevell took away our run game. Feeling like the running game wasn't effective is not a worthwhile excuse either. We called 15 designed run plays tonight for a total of 44 yards. However, we also called 25 pass attempts (Wilson threw 18 passes and was sacked 7 times). If you remove the 80 yard touchdown pass the Hawks totaled 11, YES 11 yards on those other 24 plays. So which is more effective:

44 yards on 15 rushing plays or 11 yards on 24 pass plays?

Damn. That's some cold, hard facts right there.
Bevell's problems might be clinical.

 

[formido]

The play calling was fine. The OL was what killed us, pure and simple. They couldn't pass protect, they couldn't run block inside, and they couldn't run outside. It was right around the time I was thinking Seattle needed to use screens and bubble screens that they did, with some success. It was right around the time that I thought they needed to do play action that they did for a long TD. He adjusted when he needed to. But it's rather incredible Seattle managed any points at all with that OL performance tonight.

I think the Rams deserve a ton of credit, both coaching and players. That was a damn near perfect performance on defense. It was the best defensive performance of the season, at least by yardage, and probably by DVOA as well.

What I don't like about Bevell is that he hasn't been able to counter quick pressure the way pretty much any other good offense can, the way that Drew Brees can. It's been half a season plus 4 preseason games, and it's gotten worse, not better. And I've come to believe it will never get better as long as Bevell is here.

Your last paragraph highlights the play calling problem I had with Bevell. If the defense is playing super aggressive and stacking the box, you hit them with short pass plays. That may not be our preferred MO, but you MUST do that when you have this big of a talent deficit in the trenches. I thought they'd figured that out a little bit the last two weeks, but then it was right back to this. How can it be possible to be an NFL OC and be this slow to adjust? It's beyond bizarre. Mind boggling.

 

[seahawks08]

Re: Our ineffective WRs, I think it is probably a combination of three things: Long-developing routes, Wilson not throwing the ball into tight windows typically, and bad pass blocking.

perfect, this sums it up, I totally agree.. all of this!

 

[Blitzer88]

No matter how you look at it, 8 carriers is not enough for Marshawn. Our offense needs to get its crap together or else. We should not have won this game.

 

[seahawks08]

I can't believe he only got 8 carries. Something has to be going on in behind the scenes that we don't know about.

This is a game I would've actually not been pissed if bevel ran three times with Lynch.

I hope to see a heavy dose of Lynch next week against the Buccs.

Let's destroy them next week so I can be happy.

maybe, payback for flipping the coach of last week. It seems like a pure ego thing with the coaches.. you flip me off, I will give you more lesser plays as I can regardless of what is good for the team. Feed the beast.. wasn't that the philosophy run first team?

 

[TwilightError]

Man I wish the Rams give up on Brian Schottenheimer and he ends up with us after some poor team appoints Bevell as HC. Schottenheimer coached Mark Sanchez to the conference finals as OC, twice! After he left, the the decline of Sanchize started. Imagine what he could do with a stout running game and Wilson..

 

[Browncoat]

I'm not sure what everyone is all worked up about, either.

Frankly, Seattle could have easily lost 2-3 more games this year than they have. The OC must be doing something right, because they're putting up enough points on the board to get it done with one of the league's worst OL's.

 

[MysterMatt]

Since we've decided not to use our best weapon.

Word. He sucks, so I think it was a brilliant strategy to leave him out of the game. Clearly it blew the Ram's minds.

 

[MysterMatt]

Tom Cable needs to show up.

Who?

 

[hawksfansinceday1]

Funny, in a chess match, we almost got checkmated.

The only way, and I mean ONLY way the Rams could beat us, was stack the box against the run and make us throw.

Since we don't seem to have many short or intermediate routes in our route trees, it gave the DEs time to destroy 2 backup tackles. They had to force us to throw, and we played right into their hands.

Terrible. We threw a few screens that worked well. So we stopped doing it.

We threw a few slants to Miller and Tate that worked well. So we stopped that.

It's truly unbelievable how bad our game plan was tonight.

I always take serious note of your posts 46 because I feel like you are almost always spot on. I was at work and did not watch the game, but my buddy that did and was text reporting to me said pretty much all the same things you did. H ealso said the o-line was as much to blame as the playcalling. So the question then is why does Pete allow Bevell to be this shitty? Is Fisher just completely outcoaching Pete? It feels that way to me cuz the Hawks seem to always look like this vs. the Lambs. Eleven days to prepare and this is what the offense plays like?

 

[Hawkscanner]

The play calling was fine. The OL was what killed us, pure and simple. They couldn't pass protect, they couldn't run block inside, and they couldn't run outside. It was right around the time I was thinking Seattle needed to use screens and bubble screens that they did, with some success. It was right around the time that I thought they needed to do play action that they did for a long TD. He adjusted when he needed to. But it's rather incredible Seattle managed any points at all with that OL performance tonight.

I think the Rams deserve a ton of credit, both coaching and players. That was a damn near perfect performance on defense. It was the best defensive performance of the season, at least by yardage, and probably by DVOA as well.

What I don't like about Bevell is that he hasn't been able to counter quick pressure the way pretty much any other good offense can, the way that Drew Brees can. It's been half a season plus 4 preseason games, and it's gotten worse, not better. And I've come to believe it will never get better as long as Bevell is here.

I didn't post last night at all because frankly, I was too darned emotional at that point and needed some time to come back down and for my rationality to return. I haven't gone back and re-watched the game, but would tend to agree with a lot of what you're saying Kip.

Absolutely it was the Offensive Line that killed us ... and specifically on our side of the ball, it was 3 guys who consistently kept on killing us again and again from what I could see -- McQuistan, Bowie, and Sweezy. The Rams beat on those guys all night long like a drum. But really, I'd say that it was 2 guys who caused most of that chaos all night long -- Chris Long and Robert Quinn. Now I've consistently said that those guys are phenomenal talents. They really are. Pro Bowl DE's both. I just watch Chris Long play and see his father Howie all over again.

In my Preview Thread, I talked about the fact that the Rams Defensive Line could be an issue given the status of our offensive line. I hadn't realized that it would be such A GLARING ISSUE. Chris Long and Robert Quinn single handedly blew up our entire offense. When they weren't beating Bowie and McQuistan on the edges ... they were attacking Sweezy and beating him on stunts (and beating him handily I might add).

You're exactly right in what you're saying. The Rams loaded up the box with 8 guys all night long ... and with Long and Quinn doing their thing, they were able to blow up virtually everything that the Hawks tried on offense. The run blocking and pass blocking was non-existent basically because those 2 were that good.

If you'll recall, they were that good in Seattle against us last year as well. In that Week 17 Matchup, the Rams had 6 sacks and 7 tackles for loss. Chris Long (3 Sacks and 3 TFL's), Robert Quinn (1 Sack and 1 TFL), and Robert Hayes (who I've always liked. He had a Sack and a TFL in that game as well) were a pain in that game all day long. And that was against a completely INTACT Seahawks Offensive Line, as Quinn was even beating Russell Okung around the edge. Yeah, those guys are that good.

I was saying the exact same thing about the screens ... and then lo and behold, there they came and with some success. The quick passes starting happening as well, but not nearly to the frequency and the execution level that I'd like to see obviously. The inability to counter quick pressure and to get the ball out quickly is an issue ... has been an issue ... and it absolutely killed us last night.

Another big complaint that I personally had last night -- where was the max protect? Here's where I really need to go back and do my homework, because I don't really remember a whole lot of 2 TE sets in the game. Gruden kept illustrating again and again that McQuistan and Bowie just could not block Long and Quinn 1:1 at all. Fine I said -- bring on the 2 TE sets. I could be wrong, but I don't ever recall seeing that. I know those sets are somewhat limiting, but you can also run a lot of short and very effective pass patterns with your TE's in the face of pressure out of those sets as well. With the complete inability of McQuistan and Bowie to do anything -- that's the way I would have gone.

I agree with you in saying that the inability to deal with and counter quick pressure is probably going to continue to be an issue as long as Bevell is here. I'm personally thinking that this is going to be the last year we'll be seeing him though, as he's probably going to be a hot commodity on a few teams' head coaching lists for next season.

All of that said, we won the game and I'm obviously happy about that. I don't know that we're going to see another pass rush quite like that until San Francisco on December 8th. I'm just hoping that we have Okung back and clicking on all cylinders by that point.

 

[aawolf]

Re: Our ineffective WRs, I think it is probably a combination of three things: Long-developing routes, Wilson not throwing the ball into tight windows typically, and bad pass blocking.

perfect, this sums it up, I totally agree.. all of this!

http://www.nfl.com/videos

Go to the 1:11 point of this highlight and count the number of seconds Wilson has from the time of the snap to the time he gets hit for the sack. Less than three seconds every time and mostly against a four-man rush, not a blitz. If you can't stop a four-man rush for more than three seconds, the QB and the OC isn't your problem. Its fine to audible out to a quick hit or quick screen when you see a blitz, but you can't do that when they are only rushing four and keeping in their base defense. The havoc was caused purely by the OL whiffing on their blocks. It happened continuously and I'm surprised we didn't get more turnovers because of it.

For the record, we did try to do more screens this game--I recall a couple to Tate and one to Kearse (or Baldwin, I don't know which)--one broke for a first down and the rest were blown up in the backfield or for a short gain.

The critics of Bevel are right about one thing though, IMO. We should have run more. I don't know if Lynch was somewhat hurt or not, but we didn't utilize our biggest weapon effectively to have an impact. This is where I disagree with Kearly--if you run between the tackles, you can take some heat off the aggressiveness of the pass rush.

 

[sc85sis]

The play calling was fine. The OL was what killed us, pure and simple. They couldn't pass protect, they couldn't run block inside, and they couldn't run outside. It was right around the time I was thinking Seattle needed to use screens and bubble screens that they did, with some success. It was right around the time that I thought they needed to do play action that they did for a long TD. He adjusted when he needed to. But it's rather incredible Seattle managed any points at all with that OL performance tonight.

I think the Rams deserve a ton of credit, both coaching and players. That was a damn near perfect performance on defense. It was the best defensive performance of the season, at least by yardage, and probably by DVOA as well.

What I don't like about Bevell is that he hasn't been able to counter quick pressure the way pretty much any other good offense can, the way that Drew Brees can. It's been half a season plus 4 preseason games, and it's gotten worse, not better. And I've come to believe it will never get better as long as Bevell is here.

Your last paragraph highlights the play calling problem I had with Bevell. If the defense is playing super aggressive and stacking the box, you hit them with short pass plays. That may not be our preferred MO, but you MUST do that when you have this big of a talent deficit in the trenches. I thought they'd figured that out a little bit the last two weeks, but then it was right back to this. How can it be possible to be an NFL OC and be this slow to adjust? It's beyond bizarre. Mind boggling.

I agree with this in general and think it's something the offense should focus on. Last night was just crazy though; Russ often had no time to even get a short pass off. The o-line was just abysmal.

 

[Tech Worlds]

We are supposed to be a running team. One that sticks with the run and out physicals the opposition.

Last night it was us that got out physicaled

 

[SeatownJay]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought one of the main reasons Seattle brought Michael Robinson back was so they had a fullback that could block so that the team could continue to try to run the ball even against an 8-man front.

 

[iigakusei]

We are supposed to be a running team. One that sticks with the run and out physicals the opposition.

Last night it was us that got out physicaled

Exactly. Bevell tries to overthink things and get too cute sometimes. Inside the 5 yard line and Lynch doesnt touch the ball once is inexcusable. You have to at least TRY to smash it in there...who cares if they know what we are going to do.