RamView, December 3, 2006
From Row HH
(Report and opinions from the game.)
Game #12: Cardinals 34, Rams 20
Instead of building on last week's win, the Rams instead hit rock
bottom, and hard. Appearing to switch bodies with their traditionally
incompetent opponents from Arizona, the uninspired and undisciplined
Rams played like garbage from the opening kickoff and lost decisively,
at home, to a team that had lost its last seven road games. An
unforgivable, inexcusable, stick-a-fork-in-the-season performance.
Position by position:
* QB: Marc Bulger (27-45-314, 68.2) deserved a lot better game than the
one he ended up with today. It wasn't his fault the Rams ran on
3rd-and-6 from the Arizona 13 on their first possession, a drive he
kept alive with a 3rd-and-7 completion to Torry Holt. It wasn't his
fault the Rams missed an 83-yard TD in the 2nd, as his dead-perfect
long ball shockingly bounced off of Holt's hands. It wasn't his
fault he was swamped with Cardinal rushers all day. Today's four
sacks were all on the offensive line, not on Marc. Two of his INTs
weren't really his fault; Steven Jackson bobbled one away, and one
came on a game-ending Hail Mary attempt. It wasn't his fault a couple
of his best passes of the game were called back by penalties. The main
play that was Marc's fault was the Adrian Wilson INT right at the
first-half 2:00 warning, which set up an Arizona FG. I don't know why
Marc felt he had to rush the team to the line to beat the clock, when
it has never been in much of a hurry even in the no-huddle offense
before, but he got the play off, and it was a disaster, as Holt ran in
while Marc threw out, right to Wilson. Down 17-3 at halftime, Bulger
marched the Rams right downfield, hitting Holt for 21, then 15 and a
TD. He had the Rams driving for a tying score until getting a 3rd-down
pass deflected at the line. The Rams went with the safe punt; Arizona
drove for a TD to restore their big lead. Not Marc's fault his
team's defense is a sieve. The Rams could only answer that TD with a
FG thanks to a sack, and sacks and turnovers kept the Rams out of it
the rest of the way until a short meaningless late TD to Isaac Bruce.
After this fiasco, a frustrated Bulger justifiably called out some of
his teammates. He needed to. Today was plenty of evidence that Marc
can't do it all by himself.
* RB: Arizona seemed to be careful not to let Steven Jackson burn them
as a receiver today, and they did a credible job of limiting him. He
had 9 catches for 69, but two of those were in "garbage time", and
several of Steven's other catches were limited to minimal gains.
Jackson was a force running up the middle again, 21-96, and he is
getting better and better at putting his shoulder into guys and driving
them back. He got nice breathing room up the middle on an early 9-yard
run, but didn't see as much of it as last week, having to grind out a
lot of yards on his own today. After kicking off the Rams' first TD
drive with 2 runs for 26 yards, Steven was gradually taken out of the
game on the ground by Ram penalties and the ever-increasing scoreboard
deficit. With the Rams driving in the 4th, a big play seemed to be
developing with Steven sneaking downfield around a Cardinal blitz, but
he and Bulger had a hard time seeing each other over the traffic, the
pass Marc finally got off after triple-pumping was a little high, and,
going for it one-handed, Steven tipped it to David Macklin for an INT
and long return. Jackson's day seemed a little quiet - he didn't
score, and most of his longer plays didn't lead to scores - but 165
total yards and a lot of hard, punishing running say otherwise. The
Rams wasted his efforts today.
* WR: Torry Holt had a big day, 7-115 and a TD, but by missing a golden
opportunity to make it even bigger, he unfortunately provided one of
the game's turning points. Streaking past two Arizona defenders in
the 2nd, Torry was wide open past midfield with several steps to spare,
and Bulger uncorked one that perfectly hit him in stride for an 83-yard
TD, but, instead... doink, off Torry's hands, and there goes what
should have been a 10-7 lead. Torry still had a good game, but that
drop is extremely haunting. Isaac Bruce (5-75) added a TD catch, and
reacted to and snagged a sideline pass in the 2nd so quickly I don't
think he saw the ball until it was in his hands. We in the crowd were
willing to believe he heard the ball coming using funky Isaac Bruce
ninja powers. Last but not least, let's welcome Joe Klopfenstein to
the passing game. Joe caught 4(!) for 31 today and proved a reliable
outlet receiver.
* Offensive line: Missouri's governor declared St. Louis a disaster
area this week, and can amend that to include the Ram offensive line
after today. Despite Arizona's poor pass rush defense, Bulger was
swarmed, swamped and swatted all day long. Alex Barron seemed to get
run over, or past, by Chike Okeafor on every pass play. One of
Okeafor's 2.5 sacks was a case of Barron getting lazy and reaching
instead of moving his feet, and Alex simply has to do better than that.
That was a backup (Bertran Berry's out for the season) you couldn't
handle today, Barron! And it wouldn't be a Rams game without
Barron's weekly false start. You got any pride under that #70 jersey?
There, I've called out Barron, like most of the world believes Bulger
was doing after the game. Barron wasn't alone in poor play. One of
the Cardinal sacks was a jail break where Adam Timmerman got beat off
the snap and both Barron and Todd Steussie got overwhelmed on either
end of the line. Adam Goldberg played in Timmerman's place a lot of
the game, and, as much respect as I have for #62, I have to question
the wisdom of keeping his consecutive games streak alive, at Bulger's
expense. I like what Richie Incognito's been able to do at center,
but have to repeat my Draft Day '05 concern that he's too much of a
knucklehead, an impression he didn't help with another personal foul
today. There's a line that Richie'd better find quickly, and stay
behind. If only we could average out Incognito and Barron a little.
It'd be a shame to see either flame out, because along with Orlando
Pace and Mark Setterstrom, the Rams have tantalizing potential for a
very gifted line. But not today.
* Defensive line/LB: If this were TMQ, I would have set up some
AutoText by now, because it is the same crap week after week with this
defense. Against one of the league's worst offensive lines, there was
embarrassingly little pass rush on rookie QB Matt Leinart. He was
sacked just once, by LaRoi Glover, on a play where Leinart held the
ball long enough for even simple antibiotics to cure anything he may
have caught from Paris Hilton. Other than that play, Glover was good
for little besides defensive holding penalties. Leonard Little got
double-teamed all day, and got no help from the rest of the line, with
neither Brandon Green nor Claude Wroten making an impact at RDE. I
think I saw Jimmy Kennedy break into the Arizona backfield once. Of
course, brilliant offensive coordinators like Mike Kruczek know they
have little chance against Jim Haslett's awesome pass defense, so
Arizona was forced to unleash its vaunted 32nd-overall, 70-yards-a-game
running attack on the Rams. And like everybody else, they dominated the
line of scrimmage and succeeded wildly. With the Ram defense starting
out as flat as usual, Arizona opened the game with a 90-yard, 7 1/2
minute TD march and never looked back. Edgerrin James got his FIRST
100-yard game of the season (115). Marcel Shipp ran for his FIRST THREE
TDs of the season. The Cardinals ran for almost TWICE their season
average (137). They ran 37 times! Tackling was bad on every level,
though I can't criticize the LBs much because I can never find them.
James broke Little and Kennedy tackles on early runs, and almost never
went down on first contact. The Rams did stop a 4th-down play near the
goal line, mainly because Leinart tripped and fell pulling away from
center. But Shipp went through 2 DBs on his last TD run like they were
a French door. Fakhir Brown horribly blew a solo tackle on a dumpoff to
the fullback to keep a TD drive alive; Leonard Pope lugged a DB
(Atogwe?) for an embarrassingly long gain in the 2nd. You know, like
Tye Hill trying to tackle Vernon Davis last week, it sure would be nice
to see some GANG tackling on those plays, wouldn't it? The first
guy's getting there, but wouldn't it be good to get him some help
taking down guys who outweigh him by 75-100 lbs? Maybe one of those
guys who "back the line" could get there? Where are they? Where the
hell is the ball pursuit in this defense? Little made a couple of run
stops, Will Witherspoon made a couple and defended a TD pass attempt,
and Hill stopped a James sweep in the 1st, but this defense, whether
through poor talent, poor scheme, or both, continues to make far too
few plays. Today's domination by the Freaking Big Dead is the
ultimate measure of the depths to which this defense has sunk.
* Secondary: Even as Jim Haslett's great pass defense allowed Matt
Leinart only 186 yards, the Ram secondary still looked completely
overwhelmed most of the day, and I don't know who besides Tye Hill
would make any other team's roster right now. Fakhir Brown had a
lousy day. Arizona's 2nd TD was set up by a Brown DPI, an iffy call
that Brown drew by reacting poorly to Anquan Boldin slowing up for the
ball. Leinart got away with hanging up several passes because Ram DBs
reacted poorly, or could barely challenge the big WRs for jump balls,
like OJ Atogwe vs. Larry Fitzgerald on Arizona's first TD drive.
Brown made Arizona's 3rd TD possible with a pathetic whiff on a
3rd-and-7 dumpoff to Obafemi Ayanbadejo that went for 27. Then on
3rd-and-10 in Ram territory, Corey Chavous' coverage of Boldin was as
brutal as his 27-yard DPI, setting up a Marcel Shipp TD. Add Chavous to
the list of bad Rams FA safety signings. Ron Bartell was beaten handily
by a couple of corner patterns out of the slot, but appeared to make up
for those with an endzone INT in the 4th, except it was erased by a
Little offsides penalty. Will Witherspoon saved a TD by deflecting a
pass, and the Rams got a coverage sack early in the 3rd, but those were
about the only highlights of a long, long day on defense.
* Special teams: One decent player the Rams suited up today was kick
returner Willie Ponder, who returned one kickoff out to the Ram 38 and
averaged 31.5 a return. Ponder is more elusive than any Ram returner in
a while, and could be an option to return punts as well. Ponder helped
the Rams get away with a stupid call in the 4th. The hated punt return
reverse was on, and Shaun McDonald stayed with it even after
back-pedaling inside the 10 to retrieve a booming kick from Scott
Player. Ponder made the crazy play work by fielding McDonald's tossback
cleanly and snaking out across the 20. Matt Turk didn't hit anything
remotely resembling that Player blast, and the Rams really could have
used one, as often as Arizona got to set up near midfield. But special
teams gets a rare pass on a day where the rest of the team failed
miserably.
* Coaching/discipline: A major ice storm Thursday knocked out electric
power across much of the St. Louis area, but apparently, the lights
were out at Rams Park all week long. If this is the best this team is
going to play, when it thinks it's still in playoff range, when it's
at home against the 2-9 Big Freaking Dead, the most moribund franchise
in the history of the league, then we can only hope the Linehan Era
will be short. The Rams looked as prepared today as FEMA was for
Katrina, and as motivated as Kevin Federline is to find a real job.
What exactly were Scott Linehan's qualifications again, over oh, say,
Ron Rivera? You know, the guy whose defense, which'll be here next
week, plays so hard, and well, his team can win without a functioning
QB? And seeing as Linehan apparently couldn't motivate a supermodel to
purge? Oh, that's right - Rivera might kill the Ram offense. Good
thing we avoided that! You want peace in the Middle East? Put Scott
Linehan in charge of al-Qaeda. Two weeks, tops, they'll be holding
slumber parties and painting each other's toenails. The Rams routinely
come out flat for games, and if this coaching staff can't get the team
better prepared and motivated, somebody better motivate them.
And, in light of your press conference mini-rant last week, Jim
Haslett, shut up. Just shut the hell up. What are we supposed to
consider even remotely good about a defense that even the Arizona
Freaking Cardinals respect so little, they run THIRTY-SEVEN times
against it? Do you really think we're dumb enough not to know that your
pass defense gives up fewer yards than most teams because your run
defense is so pathetic? 34 points allowed to a team that averages 17?
Nary a blitz that worked today, of the few you did run, even though you
were up against a rookie QB behind one of the league's worst lines?
Only one sack, and that only because the secondary managed to cover
everyone for about 15 seconds? RBs running through the (porous)
defensive line directly into the secondary time after time? You've been
here how long, coach? Almost a year? What the heck are you doing with
the linebackers? If they're screwing up, why still, after all this
time? Why can nobody in the secondary tackle now? What happened to ball
pursuit on this defense? Why do so many guys have to make plays 1-on-1?
Where is Larry Marmie when we need him?
I assume Greg Olson called offensive plays again today; he made a
colossal blunder on the Rams' opening drive, numbskulledly calling an
inside run to Jackson on 3rd-and-6 from the Arizona 13. Four yards, and
on comes Jeff Wilkins. But I saw a lot of positives in Olson's
playcalling. He established Jackson and Holt offensively, and even got
Klopfenstein involved. He dialed up an 83-yard TD to Holt, but Torry
dropped it. He had a screen going to Jackson against a blitz in the 4th
for a big play, but Steven lost it. He didn't abandon the run with the
Rams trailing. They ran for 100, passed for 300, and scored on all 4
red zone trips, 2 TDs and 2 FGs. I think some of the sack problems come
from trying to force the deep ball, i.e. plays with all deep routes and
no outlet receiver, but on the whole, Olson didn't call a bad game.
Here is where a less crabby, more rational person would say, Cut
Linehan some slack. Be patient. It's still his first year. Give Haslett
some credit. He's trying to make chicken salad out of chicken crap. To
which I reply: True. All true. But I also ask that nobody sue me for
expecting this team, even as currently composed, to be able to win a
home game over the freaking Big Dead, as opposed to getting blown off
the field. Blowing modest short-term expectations this badly doesn't
make the long term look rosy.
* Upon further review: With Ron Winter heading up the officiating crew,
you can always expect a poorly-called game, and the Rams played the
first half 11-on-18. Winter set up an Arizona TD with a
roughing-the-passer penalty on Little in the 2nd for less contact than
was made with Matt Turk on the punt the previous play, which Winter
stared right at and ignored. The crew set up Arizona's 2nd TD with a
34-yard DPI call on Fakhir Brown, who didn't touch Boldin, who caught
the ball out of bounds anyway. Both of those calls were critical to
Arizona jumping out to an early lead. On one play, the entire Arizona
o-line appeared to jump, and the crew nearly let them continue the
play! before throwing the most delayed false start flag ever. And
several Cardinals dry-humping the goal post after a TD is a textbook
taunting penalty, also ignored by Winter. Bulger could have used this
crew's hair trigger on roughing calls a couple of times this season -
they called three on Arizona in the second half. But the way Antonio
Smith clocked Bulger in the head, with a 3-TD lead late in the game, he
should have been ejected. There'd better be a damn big fine headed his
way.
* Cheers: Not much to say about, or for, today's crowd, which only
filled half the Dome's seats. Attendance may have been down because of
the area's major power outage; I know I would have preferred to spend
the day in a cold, dark room instead of watching that crap. The
lackluster matchup was also a likely factor, and the hardy few present
were suitably lackluster, rarely managing any kind of volume outside of
booing the referees. With their play, the Rams made sure to kill any
enthusiasm the crowd did have right out of the gate and as often as
they could. I was surprised the team wasn't booed a lot harder than it
was; they certainly deserved it. Twelve games into the Linehan Era, the
vibe from the crowd is they're fed up with the team to the point of
apathy, and, yep, it's 1998 all over again in Rams Nation. The
cheerleaders have switched to the alternate Christmas uniforms, and
they led the junior cheerleaders for a Christmas show at halftime. But
that's all the cheer we figure to see in the Dome the rest of this
season.
* Who's next?: This week's preview can be summed up quickly. Scott
Linehan is not capable of coaching this team to a victory over the
Chicago Bears. I'm not eating a hat or going streaking down Broadway if
the Rams win next Monday night's matchup, but there is very little
reason after today to believe they would.
Chicago's three losses this year are almost all the work of one guy:
QB Rex Grossman, or for you Prison Break viewers, "Tweener". Arizona
nearly beat Chicago in October because Tweener was pathetic, with four
INTs and two fumbles. Joey Freaking Harrington led the Dolphins to a
major upset in Soldier Field last month, despite just 132 passing yards
and 2 picks, because Tweener was even worse, with a fumble and 3 INTs.
Miami had TD drives that day of 6, 12, and 24 yards, plus an INT TD by
Jason Taylor. Tweener similarly had four turnovers in a recent loss at
New England. After a hot start, Rex Grossman is now as bad a QB any
good team's ever had. But unless the Rams prove capable of slowing down
Thomas Jones and the Bear running game, which they aren't, they can't
take advantage of Tweener's sheer incompetence. Stacking 8 or 9 in the
box is the Rams' only hope I can see; make Tweener beat you, but that
relies on Fakhir Brown to be able to handle Ram-killer Muhsin Muhammed
one-on-one and for Bernard Berrian to continue to have a quiet second
half of the season. We'd never see that strategy anyway, as unwilling
as Jim Haslett is to expose his DBs like that. Blitzing could also get
to Grossman, and somehow, someway, you have to force him to make
mistakes to beat Chicago. I don't see the Rams able to do it.
Besides, Chicago wins even with Grossman's worst efforts. Tweener was
brutal against Minnesota today: 6-19, 34 yards, 3 INTs, passer rating
of 1.3. Yet the Bears still won easily, because of their dominating
defense and special teams. Brian Urlacher, Lance Briggs and Hunter
Hillenmeyer are likely the NFL's best linebacking corps, and they back
up a potent defensive line, which will likely send DT Tommie Harris to
the Pro Bowl (depending on his leg injury today), and where Alex Brown
has found a home as a dominating pass rusher. And I lobbied for the
Rams to draft Mark Anderson in April, starting in the 2nd round; guess
who leads the Bears in sacks, with 8? Lovie Smith's D is everything the
Rams' isn't. They're active, they're aggressive, they get after the
ball, they can tackle and pressure the passer. Maybe the Rams can power
run Jackson on them, who knows. But when they couldn't hold the line of
scrimmage against the goddamn Cardinals today, why expect them to do it
any time this year against the Bears? If Grossman forces the Rams to
earn most of their points with long drives, forget about this one. The
opportunistic Bears often don't even need scoring drives to score;
they're great at returning turnovers for TDs, and Devin Hester proved
himself again today as the league's most dangerous returner. The Rams
are going to have to be more prepared than they've been all year, which
ain't saying much, to keep up with these guys.
Realistically, the Rams are playing out the string now, and as it's
traditionally said, the players will mainly be playing for their jobs
these last four weeks. I've ripped Scott Linehan up one side and down
the other, but he'll be back next season, and probably should be, in
the name of stability if nothing else. I would like to see him put
something besides a disinterested team on the field. But if he can't
motivate these players, he needs to find new ones to motivate, and
probably more new ones than we'd suspected back in September. Time to
get good looks at the younger players and find out who should stay and
who should go. Maybe some good moments down the stretch this year will
lay solid ground for next year.
