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- Rambeau
Not blog worthy and late, but thought I'd share some of things I saw in the win.
On offense:
- The Rams called play action on a lot of first downs, and jumped into the no huddle offense very early in the game to get some things going. With the running game being at their peak, play action should really open up some big plays. The offense looked pretty fluid at times as we continue to get a glimpse into the future of what can be.
- Bradford seemed a little off the whole game, so I put the microscope on him to find out why. I came away with what I though was the biggest issue. He threw the ball a half beat late on most occasions. He needs to make his decisions a little quicker and throw on time as soon as he gets into his drop. For the most part the decisions were good, and on a lot of plays he had few options. One thing that I noticed is that teams are definitely afraid of Lloyd beating them deep.
- The Browns safeties made sure that Lloyd was in front of them by playing off. This really helped in the running game.
- Wragge missed a couple assignments early, wasn't great on blocking in space, and his snapping from shotgun was erratic. But..he didn't allow penetration, and had a couple key blocks with Dahl that created some huge holes for Jackson.
- Bell struggled, he had the worst performance by our offensive lineman and gave up the only sack, he also gave up some pressures. Dahl and Bell both got beat by Phil Taylor on occasion, who is proving to be a good football player. Goldberg (didn't see the trip), Saffold and Levoir played pretty good. Keeping out of 3rd and long really helped this group, but I would like to see this group be able to block 4 with their 5, and they haven't proven they can do that yet. McDaniel's gave them help most of the game.
- The screen game has really improved and it looks like there are some big yards to be had, if we keep executing it.
- Lloyd had a drop on what would have been a first down on the first series ending the drive. His 1-handed grab was sensational on a 2nd and 20 after a Bajema hold, giving the Rams a first down and extending the drive for the eventual only touchdown that the Rams scored. On the touchdown, Lloyd got major separation on the stick route and contorted his body to secure the catch. Harvey Dahl ran over and picked him up after the catch.
- Rams have struggled on 3rd downs, well, on the touchdown scoring drive, they just eliminated 3rd downs, except the 3rd and 3 that was the touchdown, there were no other 3rd downs on that 10 play drive.
- Brit Miller in gradually being worked into the gameplan and had a couple of nice plays during the game. He is starting to show that he has decent hands and also decent vision.
- Jackson and the running game continue to be huge for the Rams. He continues to play hard and his will to win is starting to rub off on the rest of the team. He is leading by example. This is the best stretch that I have ever seen him play in his career, but I'd be remiss to not give the play calling, offensive line, and receivers down field credit for blocking well for him. He is not above criticism and he missed a couple holes that I though he should have hit. On the last drive in the first half on 1st and 10 Jackson missed the 5 hole between Bell and Saffold, Bell had it sealed and Saffold kicked, this would have been a huge gain and a possible touchdown. On the nest play, which was 2nd and 9, the whole left side was sealed and if Jack would have seen it, he had his head down, I think it would have been a touchdown. He was probably really tired at this point, remember, he wasn't getting any breathers and this was the end of the first half. I won't even mention the rare fumble that he had later, whoops, I did. His positives still far outweighed his negatives.
- Bajema needs to play better, and I could give several examples, but I'm tired of saying the same thing.
- B. Gibson played a very poor game. He dropped an easy 15 yard pass, a hard pass over the middle, and had a lazy break off of a route where he appeared to be the primary target on a well thrown ball for Bradford. At least twice Gibson was lined up incorrectly, and forced us to call a timeout on one of them.
- Pettis had a nice game, he had a very nice run after the catch (RAC) on one play, and he appears to be filling in for Salas, who was filling in for Amendola nicely. The Browns got away with a couple obvious pass interference calls by arriving early and going through the receivers, Pettis was involved on one of these on a third down killing a drive for the Rams.
On defense:
- The defense as a whole have continued to be outstanding, and I can't stress enough that the earlier problems were because of missed assignments, by mostly new players, but also by some vets.
- Chamberlain flashed several times in the first half and continues to impress. This was his best game, but he faded a little in the second half.
- King had really good coverage on a couple 3rd down plays, including an almost interception in the end zone. He tied Laurinaitis for the most tackles in the game with 6.
- Mikell was very aggressive early on and continues to play very solid football, he has been a great acquisition.
- Gordy played stellar, and I hope he keeps it up, still looks like a huge find for us, and maybe has helped save our season to some extent.
- Dahl continues to disappoint. I thought that we got real lucky on a couple of plays when he was in coverage. On one play he was lined up in the slot opposite Ben Watson, who ran right by him before Dahl turned to run. Watson had a running 5-yards on Dahl. Luckily, Chris Long got mad pressure on McCoy forcing an early throw. There was no deep coverage on the play, the Browns were in the spread. Teams will continue to target him in coverage like Arizona did after seeing how he reacted in deep coverage vs. the Saints, which is almost thew same play that the Ravens ran on us twice where Stewart was the victim. Don't be surprised to see opponents run twins left vs. cover 2, where the out side receiver will run a deep crossing pattern and the inside receiver will run a hesitation deep skinny post. I'm ready to see James butler out there.
- Stewart played solid, not spectacular as his last few games, but I think he injured his neck early in the game, but continued to play.
- Long continues to get pressures and sacks even when we only rush 4. He barely missed what would have been his 2nd sack when McCoy made a really good juke move on him. Hall made some big plays, and I was a little disappointed in Quinn, who didn't do much in this game.
- JL, and BP played solid games and the defense was very balanced in tackles. The improved backer play has coincided with the defensive lineman in fixing the gap control issues. It seemed to happen almost overnight, and I give a lot of credit to Laurinaitis and Mikell for their on and off field leadership.
It was a hard fought win that came down to Lloyd making a couple great plays, Jackson and the o-line essentially controlling the game, and the defense playing almost perfect Spagnuolo football. Not pretty, but I'll take it.
It is offenses turn to carry this team a little I think.
On offense:
- The Rams called play action on a lot of first downs, and jumped into the no huddle offense very early in the game to get some things going. With the running game being at their peak, play action should really open up some big plays. The offense looked pretty fluid at times as we continue to get a glimpse into the future of what can be.
- Bradford seemed a little off the whole game, so I put the microscope on him to find out why. I came away with what I though was the biggest issue. He threw the ball a half beat late on most occasions. He needs to make his decisions a little quicker and throw on time as soon as he gets into his drop. For the most part the decisions were good, and on a lot of plays he had few options. One thing that I noticed is that teams are definitely afraid of Lloyd beating them deep.
- The Browns safeties made sure that Lloyd was in front of them by playing off. This really helped in the running game.
- Wragge missed a couple assignments early, wasn't great on blocking in space, and his snapping from shotgun was erratic. But..he didn't allow penetration, and had a couple key blocks with Dahl that created some huge holes for Jackson.
- Bell struggled, he had the worst performance by our offensive lineman and gave up the only sack, he also gave up some pressures. Dahl and Bell both got beat by Phil Taylor on occasion, who is proving to be a good football player. Goldberg (didn't see the trip), Saffold and Levoir played pretty good. Keeping out of 3rd and long really helped this group, but I would like to see this group be able to block 4 with their 5, and they haven't proven they can do that yet. McDaniel's gave them help most of the game.
- The screen game has really improved and it looks like there are some big yards to be had, if we keep executing it.
- Lloyd had a drop on what would have been a first down on the first series ending the drive. His 1-handed grab was sensational on a 2nd and 20 after a Bajema hold, giving the Rams a first down and extending the drive for the eventual only touchdown that the Rams scored. On the touchdown, Lloyd got major separation on the stick route and contorted his body to secure the catch. Harvey Dahl ran over and picked him up after the catch.
- Rams have struggled on 3rd downs, well, on the touchdown scoring drive, they just eliminated 3rd downs, except the 3rd and 3 that was the touchdown, there were no other 3rd downs on that 10 play drive.
- Brit Miller in gradually being worked into the gameplan and had a couple of nice plays during the game. He is starting to show that he has decent hands and also decent vision.
- Jackson and the running game continue to be huge for the Rams. He continues to play hard and his will to win is starting to rub off on the rest of the team. He is leading by example. This is the best stretch that I have ever seen him play in his career, but I'd be remiss to not give the play calling, offensive line, and receivers down field credit for blocking well for him. He is not above criticism and he missed a couple holes that I though he should have hit. On the last drive in the first half on 1st and 10 Jackson missed the 5 hole between Bell and Saffold, Bell had it sealed and Saffold kicked, this would have been a huge gain and a possible touchdown. On the nest play, which was 2nd and 9, the whole left side was sealed and if Jack would have seen it, he had his head down, I think it would have been a touchdown. He was probably really tired at this point, remember, he wasn't getting any breathers and this was the end of the first half. I won't even mention the rare fumble that he had later, whoops, I did. His positives still far outweighed his negatives.
- Bajema needs to play better, and I could give several examples, but I'm tired of saying the same thing.
- B. Gibson played a very poor game. He dropped an easy 15 yard pass, a hard pass over the middle, and had a lazy break off of a route where he appeared to be the primary target on a well thrown ball for Bradford. At least twice Gibson was lined up incorrectly, and forced us to call a timeout on one of them.
- Pettis had a nice game, he had a very nice run after the catch (RAC) on one play, and he appears to be filling in for Salas, who was filling in for Amendola nicely. The Browns got away with a couple obvious pass interference calls by arriving early and going through the receivers, Pettis was involved on one of these on a third down killing a drive for the Rams.
On defense:
- The defense as a whole have continued to be outstanding, and I can't stress enough that the earlier problems were because of missed assignments, by mostly new players, but also by some vets.
- Chamberlain flashed several times in the first half and continues to impress. This was his best game, but he faded a little in the second half.
- King had really good coverage on a couple 3rd down plays, including an almost interception in the end zone. He tied Laurinaitis for the most tackles in the game with 6.
- Mikell was very aggressive early on and continues to play very solid football, he has been a great acquisition.
- Gordy played stellar, and I hope he keeps it up, still looks like a huge find for us, and maybe has helped save our season to some extent.
- Dahl continues to disappoint. I thought that we got real lucky on a couple of plays when he was in coverage. On one play he was lined up in the slot opposite Ben Watson, who ran right by him before Dahl turned to run. Watson had a running 5-yards on Dahl. Luckily, Chris Long got mad pressure on McCoy forcing an early throw. There was no deep coverage on the play, the Browns were in the spread. Teams will continue to target him in coverage like Arizona did after seeing how he reacted in deep coverage vs. the Saints, which is almost thew same play that the Ravens ran on us twice where Stewart was the victim. Don't be surprised to see opponents run twins left vs. cover 2, where the out side receiver will run a deep crossing pattern and the inside receiver will run a hesitation deep skinny post. I'm ready to see James butler out there.
- Stewart played solid, not spectacular as his last few games, but I think he injured his neck early in the game, but continued to play.
- Long continues to get pressures and sacks even when we only rush 4. He barely missed what would have been his 2nd sack when McCoy made a really good juke move on him. Hall made some big plays, and I was a little disappointed in Quinn, who didn't do much in this game.
- JL, and BP played solid games and the defense was very balanced in tackles. The improved backer play has coincided with the defensive lineman in fixing the gap control issues. It seemed to happen almost overnight, and I give a lot of credit to Laurinaitis and Mikell for their on and off field leadership.
It was a hard fought win that came down to Lloyd making a couple great plays, Jackson and the o-line essentially controlling the game, and the defense playing almost perfect Spagnuolo football. Not pretty, but I'll take it.
It is offenses turn to carry this team a little I think.
