Did the Rams game bring up any cause for concern?

I know its the rams, and flukey things will always happen. I can accept that.

What i can't accept is the rams dline single handedly regressing our team to week 1 levels. We will get eaten alive by the cardinals and panthers Dline and company if turns out wilsons success was only due to playing paper tiger defenses and terrible defensive lines.

It didn't look like Russell had a bad or good game. There was no way to tell. Bevell and our oline just simply decided to regress to week 1. WTF happened? someone explain to me what made us look like poop.

TBH, I was not that surprised by the Rams line making our o-line look incompetent. We've seen some teams that lacked a truly dominant athlete at DT for a few weeks and I think it lulled a few (a ton of) people into thinking we'd fixed the line issues.

It's a process that I'm okay with enduring as long as they do fix it. Russ was getting hammered even when doing a three step drop and getting the ball out.

Laloosh":1q85rlrs said:

TBH, I was not that surprised by the Rams line making our o-line look incompetent. We've seen some teams that lacked a truly dominant athlete at DT for a few weeks and I think it lulled a few (a ton of) people into thinking we'd fixed the line issues.

It's a process that I'm okay with enduring as long as they do fix it. Russ was getting hammered even when doing a three step drop and getting the ball out.

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Curious, how does that make you feel against the panthers and cards.

Seems to me that the only fighting chance we give ourselves is when we protect wilson. Nothing else matters.

I'm completely sold on him. we are a superbowl team if we can protect him through these playoffs. If that doesn't happen in either one of these two games, we are going home empty handed.

blazen2392":1ps43336 said:

Laloosh":1ps43336 said:

TBH, I was not that surprised by the Rams line making our o-line look incompetent. We've seen some teams that lacked a truly dominant athlete at DT for a few weeks and I think it lulled a few (a ton of) people into thinking we'd fixed the line issues.

It's a process that I'm okay with enduring as long as they do fix it. Russ was getting hammered even when doing a three step drop and getting the ball out.

Click to expand...

Curious, how does that make you feel against the panthers and cards.

Seems to me that the only fighting chance we give ourselves is when we protect wilson. Nothing else matters.

I'm completely sold on him. we are a superbowl team if we can protect him through these playoffs. If that doesn't happen in either one of these two games, we are going home empty handed.

Click to expand...

Not worried, they don't have Aaron Donald, let alone a defensive line made up of all 1st round picks. Nick Fairly is an absolute monster when he's motivated.

Not really. It was an off day. If there's one little nitpick I have, it's that they didn't seem like they were ever emotionally or mentally into this game. Seemed genuinely uninterested at times.

Let's be fair though - the Rams were missing Robert Quinn, and Fairley went out with a concussion. They still had their way with us.

ivotuk":96dy6t05 said:

blazen2392":96dy6t05 said:

Laloosh":96dy6t05 said:

TBH, I was not that surprised by the Rams line making our o-line look incompetent. We've seen some teams that lacked a truly dominant athlete at DT for a few weeks and I think it lulled a few (a ton of) people into thinking we'd fixed the line issues.

It's a process that I'm okay with enduring as long as they do fix it. Russ was getting hammered even when doing a three step drop and getting the ball out.

Click to expand...

Curious, how does that make you feel against the panthers and cards.

Seems to me that the only fighting chance we give ourselves is when we protect wilson. Nothing else matters.

I'm completely sold on him. we are a superbowl team if we can protect him through these playoffs. If that doesn't happen in either one of these two games, we are going home empty handed.

Click to expand...

Not worried, they don't have Aaron Donald, let alone a defensive line made up of all 1st round picks. Nick Fairly is an absolute monster when he's motivated.

Click to expand...

Kawann Short has the same number of sacks (11), more passes defended, more forced fumbles, and more fumble recoveries. If Donald is 1a then Short is 1b or vice versa, imo. Star Lotulelei may have gone #1 overall in 2013 if not for a heart scare causing him to fall to the teens and I'm not sure how projected 1st rounder Kony Ealy fell to the late 2nd.

The truth is that the active sacks leader in Allen and football's 4th highest paid player in Johnson have seen better days than they have showed so far in 2015.

Did the Rams game bring up any cause for concern? Lmao... I wasn't concerned at all, until the Rams game. :? Now, I dunno...

To me it seemed like the plays were what we were running early season. Long developing routes etc. Haven't seen all22 footage so that is just what it looked like while watching. I was really surprised at the lack of quick hitters.

keatonisballin":n0ynj7wa said:

To me it seemed like the plays were what we were running early season. Long developing routes etc. Haven't seen all22 footage so that is just what it looked like while watching. I was really surprised at the lack of quick hitters.

Click to expand...

It looked to me like the rams were playing the quick pass game quite well. Russell was looking to get rid of the ball quick, but he didn't pull the trigger.

rideaducati":2ak06ftz said:

keatonisballin":2ak06ftz said:

To me it seemed like the plays were what we were running early season. Long developing routes etc. Haven't seen all22 footage so that is just what it looked like while watching. I was really surprised at the lack of quick hitters.

Click to expand...

It looked to me like the rams were playing the quick pass game quite well. Russell was looking to get rid of the ball quick, but he didn't pull the trigger.

Click to expand...

LOL of course

Anthony!":ha038vn9 said:

rideaducati":ha038vn9 said:

keatonisballin":ha038vn9 said:

To me it seemed like the plays were what we were running early season. Long developing routes etc. Haven't seen all22 footage so that is just what it looked like while watching. I was really surprised at the lack of quick hitters.

Click to expand...

It looked to me like the rams were playing the quick pass game quite well. Russell was looking to get rid of the ball quick, but he didn't pull the trigger.

Click to expand...

LOL of course

Click to expand...

If you disagree, I'd like to know what game you were watching. Easily seen even in the tv copy. Compare this game to the past three and have your stopwatch at the ready if you don't believe me.

I think what the game did for me was to lower my expectations some.

It reminded us that the O line is still actually terrible, and that this team will struggle against decent competition. Can't beat up on teams like the Browns every week unfortunately.

The OLine is exactly what we thought is was, really not that good. Then again playing from 17 points behind screws up most game plans.

The concern is if an opposing team can force RW to stay in the pocket and restrict his ability to move there while covering the short pass the Hawks don't have an answer.

Losing the TO battle as the Hawks did sure makes for a an uninspiring day.

To me, this game totally reinforced the fact that this team desperately needs help on the o-line. It also yet again made me feel like Coach Cheap Shot way too often finds a way to outcoach Pete.

It should.

When we lost to the Rams the first time, the line was that it was the Rams and they are pretty good.

Then it turns out they suck.

And for all the great things they do well, nobody else seems to have that much trouble beating them.

But we do, because they have a a really good DL.

You know who else has a really good DL? The Panthers. A team that already beat us, at home.

Arizona doesn't have as good of a line, but they blitz a lot.

You know who has trouble with the blitz? Both Wilson and our crappy line.

So, as long as we are playing the Sisters of the Poor, we can score in bunches. But against even a very good DL, we are in trouble.

That should be cause for worry.

Now hopefully Kam will come back, Okung will at least get a little better, and Lynch can make a big push in the playoffs.

Even so, I think this season was somewhat turned around but that schedule and facing some depleted/fortuitously injured teams helped.

But yes, this team just got beat AT HOME with Case Keenum. Any SB aspirations have to go through that lens, because I don't think you can honestly tell me that a SB caliber team should struggle with a 15th string QB that isn't good enough to start for the Browns if they had him.

Is that a cause for concern? It depends on your expectations

2 weeks back, I said the O-line was not that good, and new offensive concept were hiding that fact. Which I actually considered good coordinating, should have been that way all year. I took some lumps from the ones who believed Cable and Pete who were touting the suddenly awesome execution of the O-line.

Only two playoff teams have defensive talent like the Rams in the playoffs, so there is that. The Panthers and Broncos. And the Panthers open themselves up with blitzing in a way we can take advantage of, the Broncos we would not see until the SB. The Cards have some speed, but as an overall group are not even close to the speed and athletic mismatch we see from the Rams.

Causes for concern:
Maybe we need "glass ankles" Okung in 2 weeks?
TE depth is becoming an issue?
Russ will need more than 10 hours of massage this week?

Because of their strong front 7, and their running game, I'm more concerned about the Panthers in the playoffs than the Cards. If our secondary is banged up, and in "last man up" mode, then the Cards are the bigger threat.

Even though it didn't seem like it, we overall outplayed the Rams, and played more than well enough to win by two scores, aside from the turnovers and favorable bounces for the Rams on fumble recoveries. The fumble return for 6 alone was a 10-point swing. The Wilson fumble late in the game cost us 7, though we probably got that 7 back on the next possession. The two lucky fumble recoveries the Rams got on the one TD drive cost us another 7. So a 17 point swing on a couple flukey plays.

We were also missing key OL and down to a 4th string, weak-blocking TE. Pete and Bevell and Cable will find a way to fix and/or scheme around that for remaining games. Sucks that TE Anthony McCoy (injuries) can't stay on the field.

It sure is nice to have Jeremy Lane back. Between his play and the steady play of Deshawn Shead and Kelcie McCray, it looks like we'll have a solid, reasonably healthy secondary for the playoffs, especially if Kam is able to return. We'd be a tough matchup for the Cards. A matchup vs. the Panthers would be a slugfest no matter what. Packers... depends on which Packers team shows up.

The only cause for concern from the Rams game is that it shows we are not quite dominant enough to overcome a couple bad breaks against a difficult opponent. For example, we could have made up for the bad bounces if we were able to run on them. The Rams stuffed our running game.

If we play mostly turnover-free football in the playoffs and have at least average, 50-50 luck on crazy bounces, I'm telling you "there's more than a chance".