8to12 Camp Report - Scrimmage Vs Chargers

[8to12]

As I mentioned earlier in the day, and as BubbaRam noted, it was a packed house. I ended up on the same side of the field also as Bubba, WE were locked in on the Rams offense. Getting to the other field to see the Defense was a high risk proposal ; chance you may not find a place to view the field.
My thoughts heading into the scrimmage was to pay attention to Higbee and Everett. The use of the TE's in this offense is still a grey area with me and wanted to note when and where Everett is being used in relation to Higbee. I will say for now, that Everett plays 85% of time on the outside, split out. Sometimes he is closer to the Tackle, like when they use certain "Bunch" formations. I will describe some plays and then come back to this.
After warmups, the scrimmage started with 7-on-7 ; First 2 plays were underneath throws to Gurley and HIgbee.Then, there was an incomplete pass to Woods up the right side. COverage was tight in this session. Most of Goff's completions were underneath. Even with the QB taking 3 to 4 snaps at a time, all the receivers and Backs rotated on almost every snap... I gets confusing. Jojo caught a short pass underneath and went to the ground after incidental contact by the LB.a play or two later, Kupp had a pass knocked away by a LB and he was knocked to the ground by the Safety.... again, it appeared to be incidental. Receivers were not open in the intermediate and long areas of the field in this session. Next, 11-on-11 ...
a short run through of the plays...... I missed some due to note taking....
Pitch left to Gurley for a short gain. Short pass to Gurley... I noticed both Higbee & Everett in the play ; Brown, handoff over RG for a short gain, again with both Higbee and Everett in on the play. Woods dropped a 15 yard in breaking route.... he was wide open ; Henderson up the middle for 3 ; short pass to Jojo broken up in the flat ; Incomplete pass to who I can't remember, but noticed again both 89 & 81 in on the same play ; NIce run by Brown up the middle for 6 after Woods decoyed motion of a Jet sweep ; Completion to Kupp on a deep cross ; Henderson caught a swing pass on right side for 6 ; Proehl caught a short pass in the flat and then juked a defender to grab another 6 yds or so. At this time, the crowd roared on the opposite of the field side as I believe Talib had a pick-6. The defense also finished up that next session with a pick on the last play. Break for special teams, then it was back to 11-on-11 ;
This was Redzone starting at the 10 yd line ; short pass left side to Everett who caught at the 5 and beat the defender to the pylon for a TD ; Next, Gurley up the middle , no gain ; Jet sweep to Woods for 5 yds to the 5 ; incomplete on an attempt to Kupp in the endzone ; next play with Bortles at QB, he threw a nice corner endzone TD to Higbee crossing in the back of the Endzone ; Back at the 10 yd line.... Henderson run over left side, no gain ; I'm noticing at this point that Everett is split out on almost every play to this point ; another short pass to Everett who takes it in for a TD ; Kelly finished off the REDzone drills with a 10 yd TD run up the middle, with all 2nd team players.
Keeping the 11-on-11, they started from approx the Rams 45 ; Gurley short run for 3 yds ; then Woods caught a short pass on the right, fell to the ground, then got up and raced the defender for a pick-up of 6 yeards then juked another defender coming at him for another pick up of 8 more yards....one of the more exciting plays of the day ; next play Bortles comes in and connects with Woods on a 50 yd TD pass with broken coverage ...he was open by 10 yards, though Isaw defender going at Bortle as he was releasing the ball ...hard to tell if it would've been a sack..... Borltes was pressured alot today. I counted a minimum of 3 sacks ; next, Goff threaded a a pass to Reynolds on an intermediate length throw in the middle of the field in between defenders ; Henderson had a short run to the left side.... up to this point, The Rams had a difficult time running the ball on the Chargers first team defense and some of their 2's also. The interior of both the 1' and 2's gave up penetration in the middle for the plays to be blown up. With that said the pass protection was much better than the run blocking, except for when Bortles was in (tongue in cheek)..
OK, the last session had to be the 2-minute drill..... although it didn't appear to be because there was no sense of urgency and it seemed they huddled more than not .... They started from the Ram 25 ... Gurley 6 yds up the middle ; incomplete pass to to left....don't know the intended target ; Deep pass down right sideline to Cooks, got his hands on it but juggled it...incomplete ; next, lengthy developing play with Kupp croosing from right to left and going up the sideline...... about a 35 yd pass, incomplete....he got bumped but no flag ; KUpp a short reception for 6 yds in the flat ; Goff sacked! ; Mundt seems to be the inline TE with the second unit ; Jojo a short reception over the middle...and he didn't end up on the ground (giggles) ; Kelly handoff up the middle for 10 .... Chargers seemed to have their nickle coverage in and the delayed handoff caught them offguard ; Henderson stuffed in the backfield ; Everett, positioned INLINE for the first time today, caught a pass in the flat for a short gain ; Rams now at Chargers 10.... Everett INLINE again, with a pass to Woods at the 5 ; Brown then took a handoff the disatance for a TD.. Reset.....back to the 25 with Bortles in ..... Had 2 receptions back to back to Higbee of 8 and 12 yds respectively ; short pass over middle to Reynolds who got pummeled on the play ; next play Reynolds down the right sideline, deep......incomplete ; Bortles pressure again... had to dump off ; Thomas nice 15 yard post over the middle ; notice that Higbee is in on every play in this session ... nest, deep fade to Thomas at the goal line .... incomplete but drew a flag ... he did nice job of getting his hands on the ball around the defender which helped draw the flag ; Kelly run play stuffed at the LOS ; then, Kelly again 5 yds for a TD. And, that's how the it ended .....
Thoughts:
1) Goff was a bit off today compared to the practices I saw last Sat and Mon, though I'm not concerned. What I am happy with was ability to step up and get rid of the ball when he was being rushed by Bosa and Ingram, He made better decisions and was able to manuever better than Bortles.
2) Seems Everett's position is something of a hybrid ; he doesn't do the same things as Higbee, and yet does not run the same routes as the other receivers. Up until the 2-min drill, he was split out on every play that he was in on. And he was split wide on at least 33% of the plays. When people say Higbee versus Everett, I have to say no such thing.....they each have an exclusive role of each other in the offense.
3) Henderson - I couldn't see any pattern of how he is used or if there were any new formations in place for him. The pace and the player rotation of practice makes it difficult to note when he is in.
4) Running the Ball - Rams lost that game today. I would say the Chargers D held 75% of the Rams run plays to 2 yards or less. The interior of both first and second unit are going to have to improve this week or else the Rams play-action will not be as affective.
5) Receivers - a few of the lower rung guys got a couple of snaps today like Proehl and Jojo. Hodge got a lot of reps today. Jojo looks suceptable to injury when he gets the ball on offense. It seems he goes down with just a defender blowing on him.He is difficult to bring down in the open field I will admit, but from scrimmage, he is going to be in more traffic. He went to the ground about 3 times today after incidental contact from defenders. If I Had to rank the receivers in order of depth, I would say Woods, Cooks, Kupp, Reynolds, Thomas, Hodge, Webster.....only the top 6 or 7 matter

I hope I didn't bore anybody with the details.

Back to your regularly scheduled reading

 

[So Ram]

Excellent review !! Thanks for taking the time for such an in depth report. I know the plays go fast as well. Plus the view is not always the best.

 

[Ram65]

Thanks 8to12.

2) Seems Everett's position is something of a hybrid ; he doesn't do the same things as Higbee, and yet does not run the same routes as the other receivers. Up until the 2-min drill, he was split out on every play that he was in on. And he was split wide on at least 33% of the plays. When people say Higbee versus Everett, I have to say no such thing.....they each have an exclusive role of each other in the offense.

This seems strange to me. I was hoping/thinking they would have him inline more at least alternating with Higbee or two TE sets. So here is the TD against the Chiefs. Rams have 4 WR counting Everett. This play seems to be what you were seeing with Everett out wide. It does create a mismatch. You would think the Rams could use Everett as a pass catcher starting inside where teams don't know if he will run block or go out on a route or chip and go out on a route.

I'm curious what others think about this.

Love this play...

View: http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-game-highlights/0ap3000000990496/Goff-drops-it-in-the-bucket-to-Everett-for-go-ahead-TD

 

[Ram65]

4) Running the Ball - Rams lost that game today. I would say the Chargers D held 75% of the Rams run plays to 2 yards or less. The interior of both first and second unit are going to have to improve this week or else the Rams play-action will not be as affective.

McVay made a comment that the offense wasn't up to standard or something like that.

Sounds like Noteboom, Allen and Blythe were not opening holes. Rams have to have the interior stand up and open holes. Hope it was just an off day. Something to watch for except no more local practices..

 

[FarNorth]

McVay made a comment that the offense wasn't up to standard or something like that.

Sounds like Noteboom, Allen and Blythe were not opening holes. Rams have to have the interior stand up and open holes. Hope it was just an off day. Something to watch for except no more local practices..

"The Rams had a difficult time running the ball on the Chargers first team defense and some of their 2's also. The interior of both the 1' and 2's gave up penetration in the middle for the plays to be blown up. With that said the pass protection was much better than the run blocking, except for when Bortles was in (tongue in cheek).."

Definitely sounds like the O-line had a rough day against a good Chargers defensive front. Assume that's what McVay was talking about just not singling them out.

 

[WestCoastRam]

McVay made a comment that the offense wasn't up to standard or something like that.

Sounds like Noteboom, Allen and Blythe were not opening holes. Rams have to have the interior stand up and open holes. Hope it was just an off day. Something to watch for except no more local practices..

Saffold was a high level starter (and our best guard since Timmerman) who could road-grade in the running game and pass block well. We will end up taking a step back with Notebroom - at least initially. Allen probably will offer more run blocking than Sullivan was able to do but I expect our running game efficiency to drop some from last year. Hopefully not too much.

Glad Notebroom and Allen are getting reps against other teams this TC though, it can only help.

 

[LARAMSinFeb.]

Saffold was a high level starter (and our best guard since Timmerman) who could road-grade in the running game and pass block well. We will end up taking a step back with Notebroom - at least initially. Allen probably will offer more run blocking than Sullivan was able to do but I expect our running game efficiency to drop some from last year. Hopefully not too much.

Glad Notebroom and Allen are getting reps against other teams this TC though, it can only help.

Yeah, we are going to miss Saffold, even if Boom turns out to be quite good. Big concern for me and this report aint helpin'.

 

[Merlin]

Nice report and thx for posting.

The run game stuff concerns me since I believe that being competitive running the ball vs the best fronts (which we know the Chargers are) is important... If you can't do that you will be one dimensional and in trouble come the playoffs. So I am sure the staff is all over that and will be nuking the film to debug and coach out some of the mistakes and hopefully it's not one or two guys getting trucked consistently.

Not too concerned, looks like both defenses got pi$$ed from being lit up the previous practice and played balls out. But our offense finished strong and McVay being angry about it isn't a bad thing means it'll get addressed.

 

[bubbaramfan]

Thx for the in depth report 8to12. Good stuff.

 

[bluecoconuts]

Bortles comes in and connects with Woods on a 50 yd TD pass with broken coverage ...he was open by 10 yards

Was that really Bortles? The Rams Instagram posted Goff to Woods on the video.

 

[TexasRam]

I keep hearing this narrative that Allen and Noteboom are going to improve on Sully and Saffold.

Some of you are in for a surprise. Neither of these guys have the run game ability of Saffold or Sully and it aint close. Sully did struggle in pass protection vs the Fletcher Cox and Hicks of the world, but as a run grader he was a solid center. Saffold was one of the best run blocking guards in the league hands down.

Allen is by my film review a MAJOR question mark for us. Go back and watch him in preseason last year and it's like watching a live massacre of innocents.

As stated on other posts, I predict we will be replacing Allen with Blythe, hopefully by game 4 or so. We will need one of the bigger guards (Evans, Edwards or Demby) to slot in at RG for Blythe and hope our scouts found a starter.

I fully expect a dramatic noticeable dropoff in our run game and a step back from being a top 5 offense this year until we shuffle the right lineman in.

 

[8to12]

Was that really Bortles? The Rams Instagram posted Goff to Woods on the video.

I thought I saw Bortles throwing on that play. But, after checking my notes, that was the third play of that session, and the QB's were changing approx every 4th play, so maybe my eyes deceived me.

 

[VeteranRamFan]

I thought I saw Bortles throwing on that play. But, after checking my notes, that was the third play of that session, and the QB's were changing approx every 4th play, so maybe my eyes deceived me.

It's okay. Every practice I went to they were swapping out players everyplay and even though I had my nice roster in spreadsheet form, I couldn't keep up.

 

[bluecoconuts]

I thought I saw Bortles throwing on that play. But, after checking my notes, that was the third play of that session, and the QB's were changing approx every 4th play, so maybe my eyes deceived me.

Honestly I was thinking that the Instagram may have gotten it wrong, but I won't lie, I do hope that it's Goff.

 

[tomas]

(On DT Greg Gaines)

“(DT) Greg (Gaines) has done a great job. He’s another rookie – you guys asked about it earlier – he’s shown up. I think (Defensive Line) Coach (Eric) Henderson and (Assistant Defensive Line) Coach (Thad) Bogardus have done a great job where you’re seeing him get more and more comfortable. He’s playing physical. I thought he had two good days of work against the Chargers and I’m looking forward to seeing him build on that against the Raiders, but I’ve been really pleased with Greg.”

 

[oldnotdead]

TexasRam: This team's run production was a product of forcing the defense to have only 6 men in the box. When teams like the Bears & Sea Hawks wanted to stop the run they did so with 4 closely spaced down linemen on the LOS and 3 LBs. When running against 7 and 8 man boxes even your vaunted Sully and Saffold couldn't move them. The problem was last year, Goff didn't always check out to a pass.

Stop and think about zone blocking assignments. The Rams last year ran to the weak side most of the time. Kromer runs an outside zone scheme with a basic horizontal concept. The oline isn't rooting anyone out they are simply moving the LOS horizontally waiting for an error or block in the second level to open the hole. The role of the LG is to move anyone who covers him to his left. The LT normally pulls to get the OLB or SS on the second level. The center like the LG simply blocks who ever is covering him to the left. If either or both of the center and or LG is uncovered they are blocking LB's on the second level. They rarely run to the strongside if Blythe is covered. He doesn't match up well with a 3T so they run away from that and Blythe needs to normally get to the second level and block a LB.

I'm not sure what you are talking about. I saw in one of the AZ games where Saffold completely missed his LB block, but his body was in the way so the play still worked as Brown took it to the sideline. Both Saffold and Sullivan missed occasional blocks in the passing game as well. The Rams don't play a man blocking scheme. As long as they don't allow penetration that outside scheme normally works since it's a horizontal concept in their outside zone.

Both Joe and Brian had regular season game experience last year. Noteboom played LT which means most of the time he was getting out into the second level. Brian played in 2 or 3 different games and the same can be said for him. There wasn't a noticeable drop off when either one played. I think the doom and gloom is premature.

 

[bubbaramfan]

I share your fear, TexasRam. Losing a pro bowl caliber LG, and starting two guys with just a handful of snaps on the interior OL is going to be ugly at times. We're going to get a glimpse in pre season.

With McVay's penchant for holding out starters in pre season, will he hold out Noteboom and Allen? For one, I sure as hell hope he doesn't. Those two aren't old guys who need who need rest, they need snaps.

 

[BonifayRam]

We all know It takes time for a newly refurbished OL to get it working right. Rams are in the early Stages in an effort to get all these new working parts installed & up & running. How many practices has this new unit completed in pads?

I need to remind myself Snead/ McVay/ Kromer were forced to replace the following FIVE OL positions this upcoming 2019 season:

#1)Starting LG Saffold- All Pro level veteran/ 8 season starter.
#2)Starting OC Sullivan- Former All Pro veteran starter/ Starter for the last 2 seasons.
#3)Reserve Swing OT
#4)Reserve Center
#5)Reserve Swing OG

That's a very big assignment for Kromer/Dickerson compared to last season, they had entire same five starting OL'ers returning, same swing OG Blythe & same reserve OC Aaron Neary. Granted there was a few wrinkles where Jamon Brown was suspended forcing the Rams to make a change @ RG.

The OL got better as the early season continued. The suspension of RG Jamon Brown in the OL unit was not that serious he was our weakest OL'er @ the end of 2017 season. Release of Jamon Brown opened up a roster post for the return of rookie Jamil Demby the same OL'er who is now the leading candidate to be the Rams Reserve Swing OG.

 

[BonifayRam]

........With McVay's penchant for holding out starters in pre season, will he hold out Noteboom and Allen? For one, I sure as hell hope he doesn't. Those two aren't old guys who need who need rest, they need snaps.

Thinking the same thing last night. I would think that Kromer might convince McVay there is a strong need to get Noteboom & Allen some early action in the first two pre season games.

The 2018 season McVay went with the same five starters playing the full amount of snaps with very few snaps made available for those two rookies who are now starters. Now McVay will pay a price for that decision early this season.