> RamView, September 24, 2006
> From The Couch
> (Report and opinions on the game.)
> Game #3: Rams 16, Big Dead 14
>
> The Rams win a game in Arizona that was so crazy you couldn't make it
> up. A fumble by each team in the final 2:00? Arizona had a chance at a
> 75-yard FG with 0:00 left? Then didn't? If this had been a movie, the
> script would be criticized for lack of realism, but it's a very real,
> very relieving, win for the Rams.
>
> Position by position:
> * QB: Marc Bulger (21-31-309) is getting it together, and not a moment
> too soon. After his typical slow start, the timing and rhythm of the
> Ram passing game looked much better than it has this season. In the
> 2nd, the Rams' first TD drive came from 91 passing yards. Marc quickly
> hit wide open Torry Holt for a 45-yard catch-and-run out to midfield,
> beat a blitz with a screen pass to Steven Jackson for 26, hit Holt for
> 13 down to the 10, and hit Torry for the TD with a perfect pass at the
> back of the end zone. Driving again in the 2nd, Marc converted a key
> 3rd-and-5 by rolling a little right and hitting Tony Fisher for 6. That
> led to a FG and a Ram 13-7 lead. Marc came out throwing after halftime,
> a 16-yard screen to Aaron Walker and a 28-yard pass to Isaac Bruce,
> leading toward another FG. Now up 16-7, Bulger and the Rams had a
> chance to put Arizona away, and Marc hit Isaac with a sweet sideline
> bomb for 45 yards. Shaun McDonald fumbled the next pass away, though,
> and Marc failed at other chances to put the Big Dead away. 1st- and
> 3rd- down incompletions early in the 4th kept the ball, and the clock,
> from moving. The Rams were still up 16-14 heading toward the 2:00
> warning, but Marc committed a bungle that threatened to put the whole
> season in a tailspin, fumbling away a handoff that put Arizona in prime
> FG position. Luckily for Marc, Kurt Warner was the hero for the Rams
> again today, or Rams Nation would be abuzz about Bulger blowing the
> game. Instead we can look at his good day passing, hitting a lot of
> good sideline passes, throwing no INTs, throwing one TD and having a
> should-have-been TD pass denied. All that's forgotten, though, if Kurt
> doesn't return the favor after Marc's fumble. Marc's getting the Ram
> passing game back on track, but, much like the other St. Louis team,
> he'll have do a much better job of closing out games the rest of the
> season.
>
> * RB: Steven Jackson ran for just 62 yards, but added 59 yards worth of
> catches in another strong effort. Two of his biggest plays were middle
> screens against blitzes. He took one for 22 in the 1st and another for
> 26 in the 2nd, the latter during the Rams' TD drive. On both passes he
> broke at least three tackles, continuing the tough running style
> expected from him. The Rams' 2nd FG was made possible by Steven's
> strong effort on a 3rd-and-1 90-flip, outsprinting the Arizona defense
> around the corner. He followed that with a 14-yard run up Arizona's
> gut, getting the Rams inside the Arizona 10. The Rams got there twice
> and had to settle for FGs, though. The first time, forcing the Rams'
> first FG, Jackson immediately lost two, as fullback Paul Smith appeared
> to keep him from hitting the left-side hole in time. This time, he
> immediately lost three behind poor edge blocking from Smith and Joe
> Klopfenstein, and a 3rd Ram FG loomed. The Ram running game wasn't
> clutch down the stretch, either; Jackson got stuffed three times trying
> to run some clock early in the 4th before Scott Linehan got pass-happy.
> Then in the last 4:00, when you'd hoped he'd grind the Big Dead down,
> he lost a yard, and Linehan got pass-happy again before Bulger's
> near-critical fumble. Steven didn't dominate in the typical sense, but
> was a big part of defusing the Arizona blitz with draw plays and screen
> passes. He had a good game, but Rams Nation wouldn't be wrong to ask
> for more of a closer mentality out of him, too. Put the team on your
> shoulders in the red zone and down the stretch with a lead, 39. They're
> broad enough. Killer instinct will make you a truly dominating back.
>
> * WR: For the first time this year, Torry Holt (8-120) looked like an
> elite player again, taking over the game in the 2nd quarter. He made an
> amazing catch for 23 to kick off the Rams' first scoring drive,
> reaching behind Antrell Rolle and tipping the sideline pass with his
> left hand up to his right for a one-handed catch. After Isaac Bruce
> (3-79) converted a third down with a disputed catch, Torry drew a
> disputed DPI from Rolle to set up the FG, which was forced by a, well,
> disputed incompletion in the back of the end zone that should have been
> a TD for Holt. But Torry turned the dial up to 11 the next possession,
> making the game a nightmare for unlucky stand-in CB Matt Ware. Torry
> torched Ware off the line for a 42-yard catch-and-run (though he
> chicken-heartedly flopped to the ground in front of Adrian Wilson at
> midfield - put a move on him!) Chastised by that, Ware stayed a mile
> off Torry to allow a 13-yard catch down to the Arizona 10, and Torry
> beat him one more time for the Rams' TD, dooming Ware with an
> inside-outside move. Aaron Walker got the Rams going after halftime
> with a 16-yard rumble, followed by a 28-yarder to Bruce, though Holt
> couldn't finish the drive off with a TD on that rollout play
> they've run in close the last two weeks, getting into a multiple-flag
> fracas with Robert Griffith instead. Up 16-7, the Rams appeared to put
> it away with a 45-yard bomb to Bruce tightroping the sideline, but
> Shaun McDonald (2-16) fumbled the next pass away. It's really still a
> 2-WR attack, but Torry Holt reminded everyone he's still a dominating
> WR, and Isaac Bruce reminded them not to go to sleep on him. Still a
> dangerous 1-2 punch.
>
> * Offensive line: The offensive line was clearly a big part of the win,
> but had its moments of ineffectiveness. Kendrick Clancy pushed Adam
> Timmerman like an empty grocery shopping cart into Bulger to force a
> 1st-quarter sack and fumble. Fortunately, Orlando Pace recovered.
> Orlando played like he was still groggy early on, having a lot of
> trouble with Bertran Berry, and false-starting to sabotage an early
> drive. But most of the day, he and Alex Barron were able to either
> handle their men or steer them back of Bulger so he could step up in
> the pocket. Mark got superior pass protection most of the game,
> (Clancy's was the only sack) including the 3rd-and-5 pass he
> converted with Tony Fisher in the 3rd. But the next play, Richie
> Incognito snapped the ball a mile over Marc's head, Jackson covered up
> for a 16-yard-loss, and the Rams settled for their 2nd FG. Just one
> sack allowed, with all the blitzing Arizona does, attests to the Rams'
> excellent job picking up the blitz. Tony Fisher and Joe Klopfenstein
> did a nice job on the 28-yard completion to Bruce in the 3rd. The
> running game in the red zone, along with the end of the game, remains
> an issue. Part of that is that the Rams have to get better play out of
> their fullbacks, and Klop's blocking also has to improve. But the Ram
> blockers bounced back from their 6-sack performance in San Francisco in
> a big way today.
>
> * Defensive line/LB: The Rams had only one sack, but that just hides
> the key plays a little bit. Ram blitzes had Kurt Warner throwing before
> he wanted to throughout the game, and he didn't have a good day. At
> all. Edgerrin James (24-94) was effective, though. The first Arizona TD
> was helped by Jimmy Kennedy's offsides penalty and a weird formation
> on a 3rd-and-3. Brandon Green was lined up way inside the tackle, and
> Edge ran that direction for 9, with the LT picking off Fakhir Brown.
> With the Rams trailing 7-3, I'm not certain Will Witherspoon didn't
> make one of the game's key plays, even though it was a penalty. He
> hit Warner HARD HARD HARD on a blitz near midfield, but it was a
> helmet-to-helmet hit. If not loopy, Warner still made a loopy play a
> bit later, ignoring an open, gesticulating Edge and forcing one for
> Fitzgerald, covered by WW and Pisa Tinoisamoa, who batted the pass away
> for a huge INT. Before that play, Victor Adeyanju (!) caught Boldin at
> the end of a 34-yard play, possibly saving a TD. Adeyanju led the team
> in tackles (6) and was also a monster rusher today, judging by the
> number of times he got held. Anthony Hargrove seems a
> nice-though-mixed-up guy, but he's lost his starting job in my eyes
> after Victor's performance today. Up 16-7, the Rams made a goal line
> stand that seemed game-winning. Raonall Smith stopped Edge on
> 1st-and-goal from the 2. WW stuck him at the 1 on 2nd down. On 3rd, the
> Big Dead decided to get cute with a play-action pass, but Leonard
> Little, who pressured Warner all day, tugged Kurt's sleeve as he
> threw, and what could have been a pass to the TE at the back of the end
> zone instead went right to Dexter Coakley for a major INT. (Last
> year's Rams would have dropped that INT.) The Rams stuffed the next
> Arizona drive as well. Adeyanju and Kennedy stuffed a James run, and
> Little nearly sacked Warner twice, flushing him into Smith and Green
> for a sack on third down. Then they seemed to lose their legs. Warner
> eluded Little and LaRoi Glover to "scramble" for 9 on 3rd-and-7.
> AUGH! Fitzgerald converted a third down and a fourth down, then James
> wore them down for 31 yards and a TD on 5 touches. And then, they
> couldn't even count on the offense to run the clock out properly,
> having to retake the field with Arizona at the Ram 30. James promptly
> ground out 12 yards, and the game was all but over. Except Warner had
> one gift left in him. Jimmy Kennedy's super jump on the snap forced a
> quick reaction from Arizona's RG, who punched the snap away from
> Kurt, and Witherspoon fell on the fumble to save the day. You'd like
> to see more sacks, but the front seven kept Warner under good pressure,
> and Will Witherspoon continues to be a major playmaker, as good as any
> MLB in the league right now. This defense can, and Will, win games.
>
> * Secondary: The highlights of the secondary were big interceptions and
> bad tackling. OJ Atogwe blew a tackle of Anquan Boldin (10-129) badly
> to allow an initial Arizona 3rd-down conversion. (Arizona was 6-of-12
> on 3rd down.) Tye Hill wrapped Boldin up nicely to end the first drive,
> but he and Jerome Carter were run through by Larry Fitzgerald at the
> goal line for Arizona's first TD. Travis Fisher followed that TD with
> a good series, holdin' Boldin to 3 on 2nd-and-6, then blitzing Warner
> for an incompletion. But Travis would return to his Least Physical CB
> Ever persona, letting Boldin brutally drag away from him for 34 in the
> 2nd. The secondary did a lousy job limiting YAC today. Fisher was
> bailed out by Victor Adeyanju's tackle and OJ Atogwe's goal line
> INT off Pisa Tinoisamoa's deflection. The Rams turned that into a TD,
> followed by an FG after Fakhir Brown's superb diving INT on
> Arizona's next play. Up 16-7, Fisher's at it again, with terrible
> coverage and tackling to let Bryant Johnson get away for 55 yards. This
> time, Travis would get bailed out by a great goal line stand, ending
> with the Coakley INT. They seemed helpless to stop short timing passes
> to the big Arizona WRs down the stretch, so physicality, especially
> Fisher's pathetic tackling, remain a major issue for the Ram
> secondary, though neutralized today by Brown's and Atogwe's big
> plays.
>
> * Special teams: Jeff Wilkins' leg decided another game for the Rams,
> with 26, 47 and 21-yard FGs. MVP of the team? Hell, how about the whole
> league? Jeff's deep kickoffs also contributed to beautiful kick
> coverage. After the Rams' first FG, six Rams were inside the 20 before
> JJ Arrington got there, with Jerome Carter getting the tackle.
> Arrington returned 1 of 4 kicks across the 21, and that was just to the
> 28. Ram special teams are getting it done. Matt Turk averaged just 38 a
> punt; his 31-yard clunker in the 1st set up Arizona's first TD drive.
> He also had a brutal 23-yarder erased by a penalty. He had good hang
> time on his punt with :05 left, but once again, that kick has to be out
> of bounds, or you're risking a long return, or a free kick. Not just
> the Ram coaches, but Turk himself has been around long enough, to know
> that rule.
>
> * Coaching/discipline: There was a lot of talk of Scott Linehan
> bringing back parts of the Mike Martz offense for today's game, which I
> fear is going to lead to a lot of giving credit to Martz for the win. I
> don't think Mike Martz invented any of the patterns Ram receivers got
> open on today. I think it's just a matter of Linehan using more of the
> old plays and routes that the players were more comfortable running.
> Actually, that's a compromise that should have been made in training
> camp; I hope it's one Linehan maintains. A big reason the Rams won
> today was that Linehan did something Martz seemed obstinate about his
> last couple of years. In St. Louis in late '04, Adrian Wilson blitzed
> just about every play, and Martz did nothing to counter it. Today,
> Linehan counterpunched beautifully against the Arizona blitz, with tidy
> little middle screens and draw plays that Jackson broke off for big
> gains. Wilson was virtually a non-factor. For all the good strategic
> moves, Linehan also made a variety of mistakes, the biggest being NOT
> PUNTING OUT OF BOUNDS with 0:05 left in the game. I also thought the
> Rams should have run a couple of times more in the fourth quarter than
> they did, since incomplete passes? Stop the clock. And the Rams won
> again despite not being productive enough in the red zone. It might be
> time to give the
> roll-Marc-out-and-look-for-Torry-in-the-back-of-the-end-zone play a
> rest, for instance. Jackson's first run-for-loss inside the 10 looked
> like it was a block away from being a big play, but the second time,
> Linehan called a sweep right behind a couple of questionable blockers
> in Klop and Paul Smith. Maybe run to Pace's side and pull Timmerman?
> That play's got a pretty good history of success. Better than the
> much-too-cute play called when Bulger fumbled; that was supposed to be
> a play fake to Hedgecock left and a flip toss to Jackson right. A
> pretty risky play when you're running out the clock. Then again, why
> the didn't Denny Green have Warner falling on the ball
> once the Big Dead got inside the 20? In retrospect, that's the most
> idiotic (non)move of the day, and further proof of how lousy the
> Arizona coach is at clock management.
> Something else that has a pretty good history of recent success is
> blitzing Kurt Warner. Larry Marmie was too stupid to do it last year,
> but it was a big part of Jim Haslett's winning strategy today. Blitzes
> stopped several Big Dead drives and also yielded Witherspoon's big hit
> of Warner in the 2nd. Adeyanju was in position to get the tackle of
> Boldin on his 34-yarder in the 2nd, and save a TD, because he was
> dropped back on a zone blitz. With Arizona 1st-and-10 at the Ram 18
> with about 1:40 left, there would have been some logic to letting
> Arizona score quickly, so the Rams could get the ball back, instead of
> letting them run the clock down to nothing and kick an "automatic" FG.
> So, whether Haslett considered it or not, it worked out that he
> remembered nothing is automatic, not even the center-QB exchange.
>
> * Upon further review: I won't pretend to be unbiased here, but it
> looked like Bill Carollo and crew did a solid job today, except for the
> catch Torry Holt made in the back of the end zone while being pushed
> out in the 1st. That should have been called a TD. The push kept him
> from getting both feet in. That's one of the easier examples of that
> call, and I can't figure how the refs missed it. Lots of pivotal calls
> in this game. Arizona challenged a Bruce catch in the 2nd where it
> appeared Isaac had the ball and "dotted the i" with each foot before
> stepping out of bounds. Prior to Holt's non-TD catch, Antrell Rolle was
> flagged for a long DPI covering Holt that could have been dual
> penalties. Late in the game, Arizona challenged that Holt had not made
> a 3rd-and-2 catch, but it looks like he had possession and a knee on
> the ground before the ball came loose. And the last play of the game
> was something else. Time expires while the punt is in the air, but
> Arizona was offsides on the play. Linehan and the coaches run onto the
> field, thinking they'll decline the penalty and the game is over. But
> Arizona starts readying for a 77-yard free kick, which the rules allow
> after a fair catch to end a half. Figuring that out, the Ram staff
> changes its mind, and Carollo, after a LOT of conferencing, lets the
> Rams accept the penalty and get the ball back on 4th down, with a
> kneeldown ending the game. Significant calls went the Rams' way, but it
> looked like Carollo and crew got those calls right.
>
> * Cheers: Brad Sham, the regular Dallas radio announcer, and Bill Maas
> did a wonderful job with this game for Fox. Sham's play-by-play was
> expert. He not only kept us up-to-date well on down-and-distance, he
> helped viewers out by noting formations and even play-calling trends,
> like all the Ram runs with 3 WR sets. Maas' analysis was good, they got
> names right, they covered up each other's (infrequent) mistakes well
> like a well-polished broadcast team. Amazing how good a broadcast can
> be when it's done by football guys instead of a Roshambo guy. And their
> humor was much better than Matt Vasgersian's attempts at stand-up last
> week. Sham after Holt's TD: "Somebody look for (defending DB) Matt
> Ware's underwear". Maas during a sideline shot of a scowling Arizona
> lineman: "That look will curl spaghetti around the fork without the
> spoon". Maas after halftime talking about turnovers: "You have to take
> care of the taco". How'd he find out about the Pink Taco Dome? And I
> can't leave out Jim Hanifan's immortal radio call after Warner's
> fumble: "I got a cramp!" I think he hurt himself celebrating.
> Hilarious.
>
> * Who's next?: He's baaaaack!!! The name of the Detroit Lions' head
> coach (Rod Marinelli) isn't a well-known one right now, but all of Rams
> Nation can sure identify the Lions' offensive coordinator: former head
> coach/pariah Mike Martz, the architect of one of the greatest offenses
> the NFL has seen. The media in St. Louis have many more story lines
> available to them than the looming battle of the coordinators, Martz
> vs. Jim Haslett, however. Detroit's first visit to St. Louis in the
> Rams era will see at least seven reunion subplots. In the Detroit
> secondary, there's former Ram Dre Bly, Torry Holt's brother Terrence
> and St. Louis native Jamar Fletcher. WR Az Hakim is back, as well as
> never-should-have-become-a-safety Mike Furrey. Camera magnet Tyoka
> Jackson (who also has lined up in Detroit's goal line packages) is
> back, and who could forget Rex Tucker?
>
> Actually, Rex may not be a bad person to start with when breaking this
> game down. Unsurprisingly, Martz has the Lions throwing twice as much
> as they run. That worked for 342 yards and 2 TDs against Green Bay, but
> that's the league's #31 defense. Jon Kitna is not a QB with good
> pocket presence and will throw terrible passes under pressure. And
> pressure should come from his right all day next Sunday, since the
> Lions/Martz still think career GUARD Tucker can play RT. He should be
> as big a liability over there as he was for the Rams early last season.
> I shouldn't single Rex out so much; the whole Lion offensive line is
> bad, which figures to hobble Martz's offense until they "get it
> fixed". They're allowing 4 sacks a game, and RB Kevin Jones
> averages just 3.7 a rush. Admittedly, some of that comes from playing
> Seattle and Chicago the first two weeks, but so, too, does Martz have
> Jones the power back running outside a lot - sound familiar? The Ram
> defense has changed a lot, but they ought to know how to, and stop, the
> Lion offense, especially with Jim Haslett matching wits with Michigan
> Madness. Blitzes should be pouring unchecked through Detroit's line
> all day. Then again, Martz knows the Ram defense, too. Expect a lot of
> 3- and 4-WR sets to keep Tye Hill on the field, and Martz ought to be
> picking on Fisher all he can, knowing Travis can't tackle. Travis vs.
> big, fast Roy Williams is a bad mismatch Martz should try to get as
> often as he can, and the Rams could get into trouble if they can't
> handle Roy.
>
> Same goes offensively for Shaun Rogers, the elite defensive tackle
> Detroit drafted well after the Rams picked Damione Lewis and Ryan
> Pickett in 2001. He dominated the Rams' shocking loss in Detroit in
> 2003 and probably will have to draw a day-long double-team. The Lions
> are actually one of the league's better run defenses right now -
> they shut down Shaun Alexander Opening Day - and stand a good chance
> of forcing the Rams to go to the air. There's where we'll find out
> if Marc Bulger's found his consistency, and if Torry Holt has come to
> play. Frankly, Torry loafed the game in '03 against his good friend
> Dre and little brother Terrence. He needs to bring a "Holt Bowl"
> attitude and bring it next week like he brought it today. Bly's a
> good cover man, but a suspect tackler. Fernando Bryant has barely
> played the last two seasons. Detroit's safeties are hard hitters but
> not great cover guys. The Lion defense is a Tampa-2 offshoot; they
> don't come from a philosophy that blitzes a lot. If the Rams hold the
> line straight-up, Bulger and the WRs ought to move the ball downfield
> well.
>
> This game's filled with shoulds and oughts. The Rams "should"
> have lost to Denver. They "should" have beaten San Francisco.
> Today, expectations were that they "should" lose to Arizona. So
> far, it's good they haven't done what they "should". That ends
> Sunday against Detroit, an inferior team with a poor road record and an
> offense that the Rams "should" know how to stop. The road win today
> was a great building block for Scott Linehan's team, but they really
> need to capitalize on it by winning at home next week over a team that
> is worse than them, and keep Mike Martz's ghost at bay. No couldas,
> no wouldas, no shouldas, no oughtas. These are the kinds of wins you
> need to be a contender at the end of the season.
>
> -- Mike
> Game stats from nfl.com
>