RamView, November 12, 2006
From The Couch
(Report and opinions on the game.)
Game #9: Seahawks 24, Rams 22
Questionable coaching decisions, porous run defense and a 4th-quarter
special teams meltdown lead to a sickening loss in Seattle, the Rams'
FOURTH straight loss to the Seahawks, the second in a row they have had
won and squandered away. Oh, and Orlando Pace is out for the season.
Have a nice week!
Position by position:
* QB: Marc Bulger has gone into Seattle and won games single-handedly
before, but today (26-40-215) was not that day. The Ram offense bogged
down repeatedly in the Dread Zone and squandered golden field position
opportunities. Marc did a fine job eluding the Seattle pass rush - he
could have been sacked many more times than the four he was - but
never delivered the big play the Rams needed. 3rd-and-13 from the
Seattle 29 in the first, only 6 to Kevin Curtis vs. a blitz. Rams
settle for FG. In the 2nd, he got a drive going with a bullet to Torry
Holt for 14, and made a great play on 3rd-and-2, deciphering several
fake blitzes and avoiding Bryce Fisher to hit Holt for 7. 18 more to
Holt got the Rams to the Seattle 20, but the drive bogged down, with
Marc getting sacked, then missing a dumpoff to Steven Jackson. Rams
settle for a FG, but trailed just 14-13 at halftime. The Rams dominated
the field position battle in the 2nd half but did nothing with the
advantage. Getting to the Seattle 30 right after halftime, Bulger was
nearly picked off on 2nd down, hit another useless short pass on 3rd
down, and was intercepted on 4th down, mainly because Ken Hamlin was
dumb enough to field the deep pass. They got inside the 10 later in the
3rd, but Hamlin knocked down a 1st-down pass, and Bulger got sacked on
3rd down. RAMS SETTLE FOR FG. After Seattle fumbled in their territory
at the end of the 3rd, the Rams didn't even make them pay. Holt dropped
a 2nd-down pass. Bulger bobbled the snap on 3rd down, then hit Curtis
for just 5. The ensuing 4th-down play was curious in many ways,
including Bulger trying to force the pass to a very well-covered Joe
Klopfenstein. NO POINTS. The Rams started the next drive in Seattle's
half of the field, but Bulger got sacked back across midfield. They
started the following drive near midfield, but on 3rd-and-9, it's just
a 6-yard pass to Isaac Bruce, and Seattle then returned the punt for a
TD to move ahead 21-16. The Rams moved smartly downfield down the
stretch in the 4th, countering a ton of Seattle blitzing with quick
passing. Key plays were Marc's 8-yard scramble on a 2nd-and-4 and a
6-yard pass to Holt on 3rd-and-3, setting up a Jackson TD the next
play. Unfortunately, the Rams never got the ball back, emphasizing how
important is to do something with it when you have it. Credit Seattle's
defense, blame Orlando Pace's season-ending injury, but Marc Bulger
didn't pull the Ram offense through today, despite many good chances.
* RB: Another strong game for Steven Jackson (18-93). He got the Rams
going early, with 2 rushes for 13 and 2 catches for 21, before he lost
3 on an ill-conceived screen pass to kill the drive. Steven's probably
going to catch a lot of fan flak for failing to convert a 3rd-and-1 the
next drive, but it didn't help that Todd Steussie whiffed on a pull
block right in front of him. Steven's 2nd half efforts were almost
enough to win the game. He set up the Rams' third FG, and a 16-14 lead,
with a 30-yard run. He ran left, away from a blitz, and behind a big
pull block by Alex Barron. He got the Rams' last TD drive going with an
11-yard catch, and finished it with one of the best power runs in
recent Rams memory, a 14-yarder where he ran through FOUR different
Seahawks trying to stop him at the goal line. Jackson had four plays
for no gain or loss, which doesn't really look that bad. His worst play
as I see it was when he ignored Chuck Darby to go out into the pattern
early in the 4th. Darby sacked Bulger to end a Ram drive that had
started across midfield. Other than that, Jackson was a valuable
rushing and receiving threat, with 140-plus total yards. The Rams
should really be winning more games, considering the production they're
getting out of Jackson.
* WR: Pretty quiet day for the Ram receivers, though Isaac Bruce's 7-66
marches him up to #9 on the NFL's all-time receiving list, and Torry
Holt's 7-73 moved him past Randy Moss for best 8-year career start,
which should remind everyone of the historic nature of Torry's
accomplishments, and just maybe that he's the NFL's best receiver. The
Rams got Torry going early this week; he had three catches for 39 on
their first FG drive, including an 18-yarder on 3rd-and-10. Isaac's
22-yarder the next drive was the long of the day. Bulger missed several
long connections with Bruce and Holt, including Ken Hamlin's INT in the
3rd. And they were well-covered on all of those, as Hamlin and Marcus
Trufant had good games. They also settled for too many passes short of
the first down. 1st quarter: Kevin Curtis (3-22), 6 on 3rd-and-13. 3rd:
Shaun McDonald 4 on 3rd-and-9. 4th: Curtis 5 on 3rd-and-6, Bruce 6 on
3rd-and-9. Though Bruce caught a tipped pass and Holt had a key catch
to convert third downs on the Rams' last TD drive, Seattle's secondary
won the day. Bulger struggled to find open receivers in many clutch
situations, whether on 3rd down or in the Dread Zone. The whole Ram
pass offense has been "settling" too much in the last month. Time to
start going for it again.
* Offensive line: The offensive line was shaky, with four false starts,
and four sacks allowed, with Bulger preventing several more himself,
and it looks much shakier ahead with the knowledge that Orlando Pace
will miss the rest of the season after tearing his left triceps in the
second quarter. Instead of shuffling the line, the Rams simply replaced
Pace with Adam Goldberg, who had been a backup guard. LG Todd Steussie
turned out to be the line's weakest link. He and Alex Barron
(surprise!) had false starts on the opening possession. Steussie killed
the next drive by whiffing on Leroy Hill on a 3rd-and-1 Jackson run
that Hill stuffed for no gain. After Pace left the game, Goldberg
immediately got whupped by Julian Peterson on a play that counted as a
sack, though a Bulger scramble and a big backside block from Barron
kept it from being much of a loss. The Rams entered the Dread Zone
later that drive, but Goldberg false started, then Steussie and Richie
Incognito both got beat for a sack that went to Grant Wistrom. Jackson
had a 30-yard run later in the 3rd behind a big pull block by Barron
and a good block by Goldberg. That got the Rams inside the 10, but
Chuck Darby forced a FG with a sack for a big loss, beating Steussie,
who was on the ground. Darby smoked Incognito for a second sack in the
4th, with Jackson completely ignoring him to go into a pattern.
Incognito drew a couple of critical penalties after Jackson's TD put
the Rams ahead 22-21. One, a cheesy roughing penalty (more on that
below) forced the Rams to kick off from the 15. But perhaps more
importantly, Richie held on a successful 2-point conversion after that,
and the subsequent try from the 12 failed. Richie got a bit of a bum
rap on the roughing penalty, but it was a killer that the 2-pointer
came off the board. Not just Incognito, but the whole Ram offensive
line has got to improve its discipline in coming weeks, because with
Pace out, the talent's not there to be able to afford a lot of stupid
mistakes.
* Defensive line/LB: The Ram defense got off to a horrible start, and
was horrible yet again against the run. At the same time, the pass rush
was as good as it's been all year and delivered big plays for the
first time in several weeks. The defense dominated much of the second
half and handed the offense one great opportunity after another, only
to see them all squandered. Seattle did the squandering early on,
failing to score after driving immediately to the Ram 1 to open the
game. LaRoi Glover whiffed on Maurice Morris on an 11-yard draw. Morris
followed that with a 12-yarder which Will Witherspoon overran, with
only Fakhir Brown's ankle tackle saving a TD. Which was huge. After a
blatant DPI on Brandon Chillar put Seattle at the 1, Leonard Little
came in unblocked on third and goal to DRILL Seneca Wallace and jar the
ball loose. Victor Adeyanju scooped it up and sprinted away with an
89-yard TD, reminiscent of Grant Wistrom's INT TD in Atlanta in 1999.
7-0, Rams. Seattle took no time to even the score, though. Morris
opened the drive with a 20-yard run behind a guard taking out
Witherspoon AND Pisa Tinoisamoa. Travis Fisher took care of the rest;
7-all. Down 14-13, the D came out firing after halftime, repeatedly
stopping Seattle and giving the offense the ball near midfield. After
Ken Hamlin's INT, Adeyanju stuffed Morris, and Little smoked Tom
Ashworth on 3rd down to get Chillar a sack. The offense tacked on three
points for the lead. The next drive, Morris ran for 14 after
Witherspoon tripped, and 15 after non-factor Jimmy Kennedy missed him,
but Will then stepped it up. He "sacked" Deion Branch on a WR
option attempt, and impressively got after Wallace on a rollout and
batted down a pass. On 3rd-and-13, Jim Haslett brought everybody, and
OJ Atogwe got through for a big sack/fumble. The offense? Didn't
score. Witherspoon opened the next drive by stuffing Morris, leading to
a 3-and-out. The Rams got the ball back near midfield. The offense?
Didn't score. So the D stuffed Seattle again, deep in their
territory, behind Little's 2nd sack, the Rams' SIXTH, and it came
off a three man rush. They got the ball back near midfield yet again.
And the offense? DIDN'T SCORE! The defense didn't take the field
again until the final 2:30, after special teams handed Seattle field
position too good for the Ram D to do much about. Two Morris runs for
16 didn't help any, though, setting Josh Brown up for another
game-ending, game-winning FG. True, the Rams inexcusably made Morris
(21-124) look like Walter Payton - Seattle was minus two starting
offensive linemen! - and they made Wallace look like Steve Young in
the first half. But you know what, they did more than enough in the
second half to turn things around. Their poor start and poor run
defense are definite reasons for the loss, but today, the Rams ought to
be more red-faced on the other side of the ball.
* Secondary: After recent weeks of bad play, OJ Atogwe showed he still
belongs on the field today; Travis Fisher didn't. Atogwe blanketed
Deion Branch on 3rd down to stop a Seattle 2nd-quarter drive, saving
Little the embarrassment of a horribly-blown sack opportunity. He
collared (NOT horse-collared, Seattle fans) Wallace at the end of a
long scramble in the 2nd, briefly saving the Rams a TD. OJ also
delivered a big sack/fumble late in the 3rd to stop a Seattle drive.
Fisher was more of a Seattle enabler. They scored their first TD mostly
off of him. Darrell Jackson made Travis a bitch for 30, as Travis'
coverage was so bad, he was rarely within 5 yards of the receiver. DJ
beat Fisher again for a short TD. Seattle's 2nd TD drive went 94
yards, and they can thank the Rams' lack of clutch play. Branch beat
Fakhir Brown on 3rd-and-5, then after the Wallace scramble, Jackson
scorched Tye Hill's awful coverage for 30. Jerramy Stevens scored the
next play, putting a sweet move on Pisa while being ignored by
Witherspoon. Um? With Fisher out in the second half with an arm injury,
the defense was unsurprisingly better. OJ forced the fumble. Corey
Chavous helped stop a drive with a big hit on DJ. Hill stuffed a Morris
run to help stall another Seattle drive. Can we now say there's a
cause and effect? Secondary with Travis Fisher = bad? Secondary without
Travis = good? Wallace's passer rating with Fisher on the field was
140.8; without Travis to pick on in the 2nd half, he was just 4-8-23.
Have we learned anything here, or should I put in for the Nobel Prize?
* Special teams: I just had to compliment these guys last week, didn't
I? The Rams had the league's third-best punt coverage until the 4th
quarter today, when the slumping Will Witherspoon and Kay-Jay Harris,
who rode the Scott Linehan pipeline in from Miami, both whiffed on Nate
Burleson at the Seattle 10, Dane Looker got crushed, and Burleson was
gone for a 90-yard TD. They use starters, they bring in special teams
specialists, and the unit STILL SUCKS. Kicking off from the 15 after
the go-ahead TD with 2:30 left, the Rams proceeded to give up a 33-yard
return across midfield to Josh Scobee. Scobee got a big lane after
Kay-Jay slipped and fell in the middle of the field. Good thing HE was
immediately plugged into the starting unit. Jeff Wilkins drilled four
FGs in less-than-ideal conditions, but despite him, the Rams were done
in yet again by a special teams meltdown. To borrow the great John
McKay line: What do I think of the special teams' execution? I'm in
favor of it.
* Coaching/discipline: Scott Linehan's popularity rating around here is
falling faster than George W. Bush's. Linehan is having about as good a
November as the President, and he really hurt his team today by
breaking from his conservative principles at the wrong time. With Jeff
Wilkins lining up for an 35-yard FG attempt early in the 4th, Linehan
suddenly threw the red flag to challenge the previous play. This was a
successful challenge, since Kevin Curtis had in fact caught the pass,
but all the better it did was make it 4th-and-1 instead of 4th-and-6.
Just kick the FG now? No, Linehan suddenly gets the wild hair to go for
it instead of taking a lead that Seattle would need a TD to overcome.
OK, the percentages are pretty good on 4th-and-1, but, does Linehan put
the ball in the hands of his stud RB, or throw it to either of his Pro
Bowl wideouts? No, it's what TMQ would definitely call a wacky pass
into the end zone for Joe Klopfenstein, the rookie, who hadn't been
thrown to all day. You (essentially) take three points off the board to
throw a 12-yard pass on 4th-and-1? Egads! That's Linehan's dumbest
decision of the season to date, and one that did as much to lose
today's game as any special teams or run defense foul-up. Linehan went
for it earlier in the game, passing up a 48-yard FG attempt that
apparently would have been into a substantial headwind. But the call is
wacky again, a sideline bomb (into said headwind) to Holt in
double-coverage, which is only mildly successful if Hamlin is dumb
enough to catch the INT. Which he was. I appreciate that the (usually)
conservative offensive approach by Linehan keeps the Rams in most every
game and turns over the ball very little, at the same time, Marc
Bulger's been as conservative as Rick Santorum this month, with similar
success. The passing game is barely getting the ball downfield at all,
which helps lead to lots of short passes on third down and lots of
Dread Zone troubles. And can we get rid of the stupid fake end-arounds
to Bruce? Defenders are likelier to buy feminine protection at this
point than they are to buy that play. Hell, the fake led the defense TO
Jackson on a 3-yard loss in the 1st. Among other things, Linehan better
figure out how to beat a blitz for more than 4 yards on 3rd down; the
Rams are going to see a lot of it with Pace gone. To finish the season
even 8-8, they're going to need a lot sounder coaching than they got
out of Linehan today.
What to say about Jim Haslett? The ex-Saint is certainly no savior;
the Ram run defense is as bad, or worse, than it was under Larry
Marmie. Marmie. 2-0 vs. the Rams this year, with a secondary playing
twice as well as ours.
Where was I? Witherspoon made a lot of
mistakes again today and isn't playing anything like he was the first
five weeks. Maybe somebody's buddy could get him right again? And why
does it take an injury to FINALLY get Travis Fisher off the field?
Haslett's gotten the pass D cleaned up a lot; pass rush was actually
good today, and there weren't the usual ton of busted assignments.
But the run defense continues to kill the team, and Haslett hasn't
shown he has any answer for it.
* Upon further review: The Gerry Austin crew called a personal foul on
Richie Incognito after Jackson's 4th quarter TD, and it set up a big
kick return that put Seattle in position to win the game, so that
better be a flawless call, right? Let's see. Steven has scored, but in
the pile of Seahawks who didn't stop him, Ken Hamlin appears to knock
his helmet off and continues to try to bend him backwards, with the
play well over. THAT is roughing: where's the flag? Coming to defend
his RB, Incognito gets a glancing shove on Hamlin, and appears to whiff
on a punch. Maybe that drew the flag. I'll buy that. But not only does
Hamlin then get to shove Incognito back with no penalty, Julian
Peterson gets a shot in, too, a two-hander, the hardest blow of the
exchange, and one where he was lucky to miss Incognito's head. Complete
and utter BS that Incognito got the only flag there, when he was the
third-worst offender on the play! There should have been at least one
offsetting penalty, but instead, the refs made a call based on
Incognito's reputation, and it's a critical part of the endgame. A
rotten way to finish off what appeared to be an otherwise well-called
game.
* Cheers: I switched to radio after Orlando Pace's injury, but in the
first half, Fox's Matt Vasgersian and JC Pearson were a lot more
tolerable than the last Rams game they called. Matt's "Forget about
Eric Dickerson" remark during Adeyanju's TD return was humorous.
Pearson did a decent job of analysis. He didn't just point out false
starts, he suggested ways to fix them, like having linemen hold hands,
or turning toward the ball to see the snap, as Pace was on one replay.
The bulk of Pearson's analysis early in the game, though, appeared to
be cribbed directly from Jim Thomas or Bill Coats articles during the
week, on Barron's loss of confidence and the defense's problems getting
alignments right. Hey, at least he picked good sources. Looked like he
broke down some of the sacks well in the 2nd half well, too, but I was
on radio then, where Steve Savard called the defense's 1st quarter
effort their "ugliest ever." Hard to argue with that.
* Who's next?: Over the years, Carolina has earned a reputation as a
tough opponent for road teams. The Rams can vouch for that; they've
lost both meetings held down there since Super Bowl XXXIV, scoring just
nine points in the process. And Carolina has three straight wins in the
series if you count the gut-wrenching divisional playoff classic from
2003. Carolina has been beatable at home this year, though. Dallas just
came out there with a win in Tony Romo's first career start, and
Atlanta won there Opening Day. Step one for the Rams if they are to
pull off an upset next week is not to be intimidated by their
surroundings.
Step two is to contain the man who killed them in the 2003 playoff.
Steve Smith leaped into the top echelon of NFL WRs with an outstanding
2005 season, and despite missing two weeks this year, he is on his way
to duplicating it in 2006. Besides his great WR skills, speed and
heart, Smith is deadly on end-arounds and could even return some punts.
He's a game-changing player who the Rams don't have a single answer
for. I doubt Fakhir Brown is fast enough; Tye Hill isn't experienced
enough; Travis Fisher isn't skilled enough. And Keyshawn Johnson can't
be ignored, though he's in a slump right now. It'd be a good week to do
something good on the line of scrimmage. The Panthers' right side looks
very attackable, and Jordan Gross isn't a shutdown LT. The Panther
ground game is just 26th in the league. DeShaun Foster is under 4 yards
a rush, had just 2 TDs going into Monday night, and has been one of the
NFL's more fumble-prone RBs. And Jake Delhomme (80.3 passer rating)
isn't setting the world on fire. If the Rams can achieve the daunting
task of slowing Smith, they can exploit Carolina's weaknesses on
offense.
The exploitation idea goes both ways, though, since at first glance,
Alex Barron vs. Julius Peppers doesn't look like a heck of a good
matchup for the Rams. Peppers needs little introduction; the TE in a
DE's body is among the league's sack leaders, with 8 already this
season. Step 3 for the Rams in Carolina is finding a way to corral the
Panthers' "freak". Just like Leonard Little, though, Peppers doesn't
get much help from the rest of his line; he has nearly half the team's
sacks. Carolina's 2nd leading sacker is... Damione Lewis. But minus
Orlando Pace, the Ram offensive line really has its work cut out for
it, even against D-Lew. Better health in the secondary also helps
Carolina. They'll need Chris Gamble and Ken Lucas to keep up with the
Ram receivers. One big statistic is that the Panthers have been
outscored in every second half this year, including their 25-point
meltdown against Dallas. They don't seem to have the defensive depth to
prevent getting worn down after halftime. A halftime lead for the Rams
would be huge, but they may only need to be close after 30 minutes.
Either way, the second half could be Steven Jackson's half to shine.
The Rams kissed the division title goodbye today - hell, on
tiebreakers right now, they're in third behind the freaking 49ers -
but this game is still a great opportunity. The game has playoff
implications for both teams, and for the Rams, it's also a chance to
bump off the preseason favorite to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl.
That would be a nice jolt of confidence to propel the Rams into their
upcoming three-week home stand. The Panthers are good, but aren't a
team the Rams have to be intimidated by. When this opportunity knocks,
they need to make sure to answer the door. No hiding behind the couch.
