Rams come up a bit short in 26-24 Loss to Saints /PD

[RamBill]

Rams come up a bit short in 26-24 preseason loss to visiting New Orleans
• By Joe Lyons

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/foot...cle_24e08a2b-8162-5381-9de3-45973033a43e.html

A pair of late Greg Zuerlein field goal attempts in the game's final five or so minutes went wide left as New Orleans came away with a 26-24 victory over the Rams in the preseason opener for both clubs Friday night at the Edward Jones Dome.

The Rams will host the Green Bay Packers Saturday at 3 p.m.

Down 26-17 after three quarters, the Rams' comeback attempt started early in the final quarter as second-year quarterback Austin Davis hooked up with rookie free agent Austin Franklin on a 15-yard post pattern to make it 26-24 with 11:07 to play.

The five-play, 64-yard drive, aided by a hands-to-the-face call on the Saints, was highlighted by a 20-yard run from rookie Tre Mason, the Rams' third-round draft choice.

The Rams forced a punt and put together another nice drive with Davis leading the way. Key plays on the drive were passes to Alex Bayer, Chase Reynolds and Emory Blake.

But a 46-yard field goal from Greg Zuerlein was hooked to the left with 5:02 to play.

The Rams caught a break early in the next New Orleans' series as a pass through the hands of wideout Brandon Coleman and high into the air before being hauled in by rookie free agent linebacker Johnny Millard near midfield.

But the Rams were unable to move the ball.

The Rams got the ball back with just over two minutes to play and put themselves in position for another field goal at the buzzer. But the 49-yarder from Zuerlein again went to the left.


The Saints took control of the game in the third quarter, following up on a 37-yard field goal from University of Illinois product Derek Dimke early in the second half with an eight-play, 80-yard drive to go up 26-17 with 3:43 to play in the third quarter.

On the touchdown, a 25-yard pass from Ryan Griffin to first-round draft pick Brandin Cooks, New Orleans caught the Rams in a blitz and took advantage. Griffin's quick release, just ahead of a hit from Rams' rookie Ethan Westbrooks, found Cooks in the flat. He made a quick spin move to the inside allowed him to slip away from a pair of Rams' rookies, E.J. Gaines and Lamarcus Joyner.

The Rams responded with a little razzle-dazzle as Chase Reynolds ran 38 yards with on a fake punt to the New Orleans 35. Reynolds, a core special-teamer, made a great cutback move early and followed his blockers downfield.

The drive stalled, however, as rookie Tre Mason was stuffed on a fourth-and-inches play.

ZUERLEIN'S BOOT GIVES RAMS LEAD AT HALFTIME

Greg Zuerlein booted a 45-yard field goal as time expired as the Rams took a 17-16 lead to halftime in their preseason opener against the New Orleans Saints at the Edward Jones Dome.

The field goal capped some solid two-minute execution from the Rams and rookie quarterback Garrett Gilbert. Key plays of the drive included a pair of passes from Gilbert to Tavon Austin and a roughing-the-passer call against the Saints.

The Saints took their first lead of the game, going up 9-7 on a 2-yard scoring run from Khriry Robinson with 8:32 to play in the opening half. Graham's extra point _ from the 15-yard line in the first two weeks of the preseason _ bounced off the upright.

The Rams came right back, moving 71 yards on just five plays to regain the lead at 14-9 on a 24-yard pass from Hill to second-year wideout Stedman Bailey on a well-placed pass to the back shoulder with 5:59 to play in the second quarter. the . It was a well-placed throw to the back shoulder. Key plays on the drive included a pair of passes from Hill to tight end Lance Kendricks and a nifty 19-yard run from Benny Cunningham, who spun away from a defender in the backfield before racing for a first down.

New Orleans responded with a nine-play 80-yard drive to go up 16-14 on a 22-yard run by Mark Ingram with 2:37 left in the half. Ingram, a fourth-year pro from Alabama, made a nice cutback run for the score, bouncing off a Cody Davis' tackle at about the 15-yard-line.

Some quick halftime stats: Hill completed 5 of 7 passes for 84 yards and two touchdowns while Gilbert was 5 of 8 for 46 yards. Benny Cunningham has 24 rushing yards.

Austin has three catches for 20 yards. Kendricks has two for 20. Seven different Rams have caught passes.

RAMS UP 7-3 AFTER ONE QUARTER

Chris Long makes the first big play of the game, picking off a screen pass near midfield to halt the night's first drive.

Six plays later, the Rams' Shaun Hill found a wide-open Cory Harkey in the left flat and the third-year tight end took it the rest of the way for a 16-yard touchdown with 8:10 to play in the first quarter. The key play of the 47-yard drive was a 24-yard pass from Hill to tight end Jared Cook.

The Saints answered with an 11-yard drive that resulted in a 37-yard field goal from Shayne Graham to make it 7-3 with 3:28 to play in the opening quarter.

During that New Orleans' drive, with 5:13 to play, defensive end Michael Sam from Mizzou took the field, becoming the first opening gay player to compete in an NFL preseason game.

RAMS, SAINTS KICK OFF PRESASON

The Rams and New Orleans Saints will kick off their preseason schedule tonight at 7 at the Edward Jones Dome.

It marks the third preseason meeting between the teams. The Rams are 2-0 against the Saints in preseason and own a 40-32 regular-season action against New Orleans. Because the two were division rivals prior to the 2002 realignment, the two haven't met in the preseason since 1968.

The Saints make the trip to St. Louis for the third time in four seasons. The Rams have won both previous meetings, including a 27-16 victory that featured huge games from defensive end Robert Quinn (two sacks, one forced fumble, one recovered fumble) and running back Zac Stacy (133 rushing yards, touchdown).

Rams are wearing their all-blue uniforms. The Saints have white jerseys with gold pants.

 

[PhxRam]

man that didnt take long

 

[RamBill]

Rams rally falls short
• By Jim Thomas

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/foot...cle_e187a8a0-e089-5fe1-8635-6b5149f0289a.html

As openers go, things couldn’t have gone much better for quarterback Shaun Hill in his Rams debut Friday at the Edward Jones Dome.

A perfect passer rating in the NFL is 158.3, and the 34-year-old from Parsons, Kan., was close to perfect. With Sam Bradford sitting this one out, Hill stepped into the starting spot and completed five of seven passes for 84 yards playing most of the first half.

Throw in a pair of touchdown passes, one to Cory Harkey and another to Stedman Bailey, and Hill ended his night with a 151.2 passer rating in a preseason game the Rams eventually lost 26-24 to New Orleans.

Hill is replacing Kellen Clemens as the Rams’ No. 2 quarterback this year, and Friday’s outing had to be a confidence builder. Even with the strong performance, Hill saw room for improvement.

“The two 3-and-outs we’d like to have back,” Hill said, referring to his second and third series of the night.

At the very least, Hill said he would’ve liked to at least flip field position with a couple of first downs on those series.

“Give our defense a little break,” Hill said. “But yeah, other than that, the guys made some great plays out there. The drives we did get going, we capped off with touchdowns instead of 3’s, so that helped.”

He also slightly overthrew wide receiver Brian Quick on a deep ball for one of his two incompletions, but other than that there wasn’t much to quibble about.

“Shaun was in complete control,” coach Jeff Fisher said. “He can win games for you.”

One of only a handful of defensive starters seeing action Friday, end Chris Long gave the Rams the ball for their offensive first possession when he intercepted a bubble screen intended for Saints rookie wide receiver Brandin Cooks near midfield.

The Rams took over on the Saints’ 47 and then escaped a second-and-17 situation when Hill found tight end Jared Cook open over the middle for a 24-yard gain.

“It was a good drive starter,” Cook said. “And Cory finished it off with a nice touchdown.”

That he did. Two plays after Cook’s catch, Hill threw to a wide-open Harkey in the left flat. Harkey, who has caught only 13 regular-season passes in two NFL campaigns, rumbled 16 yards for a touchdown and a 7-0 Rams lead.

“It was just a simple run-action play,” said Harkey, who has shown improved pass-catching skills during training camp and during the OTAs in June. “I was just looking to make sure my guy wasn’t coming on a blitz, and I ended up being wide open.”

Midway through the second quarter, Hill engineered a five-play, 71-yard TD drive with some help from tight end Lance Kendricks, running back Benny Cunningham, and then Bailey.

Kendricks got the drive jump-started with a 14-yard reception to the St. Louis 48. Cunningham responded in a third-and-1 situation from the Saints’ 43, breaking a tackle near the line of scrimmage, then breaking outside for a 19-yard gain.

On the next play, Bailey ran a streak pattern, then beat defender Stanley Jean-Baptiste with a back-shoulder catch for a 24-yard TD and a 14-9 Rams lead.

All told, only five of the Rams’ normal defensive starters opened the game: Long, linebackers Jo-Lonn Dunbar and Alec Ogletree, and safeties T.J. McDonald and Rodney McLeod.

It was more of the same on offense: fullback Harkey; running back Zac Stacy, left guard Greg Robinson and right tackle Joe Barksdale were among the only usual starters to open the game. Lance Kendricks was at tight end for the first play instead of Cook, but sometimes the tight end and wide receivers that start the game are decided according to play-call and formation.

At wide receiver, the Rams opened with their “bigs” — 6-3 Kenny Britt and 6-3 Brian Quick.

Bradford was in sweats during pregame warmups as coach Jeff Fisher chose to sit him. Others not playing included left tackle Jake Long, center Scott Wells, guard and tackle Rodger Saffold, and running back Isaiah Pead (bruised hand) on offense.

Among those sitting on defense were cornerbacks Janoris Jenkins (hamstring) and Trumaine Johnson, defensive tackles Michael Brockers (ankle) and Kendall Langford, and linebacker James Laurinaitis (ankle).

Defensive end Michael Sam played a lot. And a couple of quarterback hurries and a nice tackle at the line of scrimmage drew cheers from a half-filled dome.

There were some bumps defensively, even in the first half when the Rams were primarily using players who will be on the 53-man roster in September. There were too many missed tackles, including one by linebacker Ray Ray Armstrong that led to a 46-yard gain by tight end Josh Hill, setting up the Saints’ first TD.

On the final Saints possession of the first half, safety Cody Davis missed a tackle on a cutback run by Mark Ingram that resulted in a 22-yard TD.

In the first half alone, the Saints gained 99 yards on the ground, at 7.1 yards a crack.

“I’m sure there were some encouraging things, but definitely for our first game we should rachet down the run game a little better,” Chris Long said. “They hit the perimeter a little bit too much, but that’s what these preseason games are for.”

In a see-saw game, the Rams trailed by as much as nine points — 26-17 — after three quarters. But Austin Davis, following Hill and Garrett Gilbert into the game at quarterback, got the Rams back into it when he fired a strike to rookie free agent Austin Franklin for a 15-yard TD with 11:07 to play.

Greg Zuerlein’s extra point narrowed the Saints’ lead to 26-24, but the Rams missed a chance to take the lead on their next possession when Zuerlein uncharacteristically hooked a 46-yard field goal attempt way wide left with 5:02 to play. He missed again as time expired from 59 yards.

 

[RamBill]

Rams notes: Reynolds impresses in preseason opener
• By Jim Thomas

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/foot...cle_4ed97939-239f-5a13-9229-96d8b242eb38.html

Running back Chase Reynolds usually saves his best for last in the preseason. In his annual struggle to make the 53-man roster, he has had some strong performances in the fourth and final exhibition game.

This time, he got going early, finishing second among Rams rushers with 46 yards on six carries, good for a 7.7-yard average in Friday’s 26-24 loss to New Orleans in the preseason opener for both clubs. Thirty-eight of those yards came on a fake punt late in the third quarter.

Yes, a fake punt in exhibition play.

“It’s not the first time I’ve faked a punt in the preseason,” coach Jeff Fisher said. “And it won’t be the last time either. That’s part of what we do.

“We knew it was gonna be there, and felt like it could be there. But at that point we needed some more offensive snaps. I’m trying to give people looks and look at receivers and things like, and we were just running out of time.

“We wanted to steal a possession.

Reynolds took the center snap from his usual position as up-back on fourth-and-3 from the Rams 27 with 3 minutes 6 seconds left in the quarter. He started out to his right, then cut back to the middle of the field, breaking lose from the line of scrimmage.

He was finally brought down at the New Orleans 35. But nothing came of the trickery, because Tre Mason was stopped short of the first-down marker on a fourth-and-1 run from the Saints’ 26.

The Rams ended up with 70 offensive plays, and 16 Rams were targeted at least once in the passing game.

BRODINE SIDELINED

Mason Brodine, who’s trying to make the team at tight end after switching over from defensive end, suffered a fractured ankle late in the first half while serving as a blocker on the Rams’ kickoff return team.

“We lost him for the year with a fractured ankle,” Fisher said. “I feel bad for Mason because Mason worked so hard over the last couple years.

“It’s just a very unfortunate part of this game. But he’ll heal up. He’ll be in good hands” with Dr. Matt Matava.”

AUGUST FOOTBALL

Entering this, the 20th season of Rams football in St. Louis, the team has finished the preseason with a winning record only six times. What does a winning record in August mean?

Not much. Only once was a winning preseason followed by a winning regular season. That was 2001, the year of the Rams’ second Super Bowl appearance in the St. Louis. The Rams finished the preseason that year with a 3-2 record, getting an extra game because of an appearance in the Hall of Fame game.

Steve Spagnuolo was Mr. August, accounting for three of those winning preseasons during his ill-fated coaching tenure. Spags went 10-2 in exhibition play only to finish 10-38 in the regular season.

CONNECTIONS

Cahokia High product Terron Armstead started at left tackle for New Orleans and played the first two series.

Safety Jairus Byrd, who played his prep football at Clayton High, did not play for the Saints as he works his way back from back surgery.

Derek Dimke of the University of Illinois is battling Shayne Graham for the place-kicker job with the Saints.

RAM-BLINGS

• The 33-yard extra-point, being used on an experimental basis early in the preseason, came up and bit the Saints. After Khiry Robinson’s 2-yard touchdown run in the second quarter, Jimmy Graham’s extra point clanged off the right upright and bounced away, no good.

• Friday marked only the third preseason meeting between the Rams and Saints, and the first since 1968. The Rams won the first two.

• The Rams entered the night 3-4 in preseason play under Fisher. The Rams were opening a preseason at home for the first time in Fisher’s tenure here.