Return of Dahl leads to line shuffling

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BonifayRam

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Jan 14, 2013
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Vernon
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/foot...cle_467b8c6e-696d-50f7-ae73-a18b4752cca3.html

After 12 starts at right tackle, Joe Barksdale found himself on the bench against Arizona with the return of right guard Harvey Dahl.
After missing the previous four games with a knee injury, Dahl returned to the starting lineup at right guard. Rodger Saffold, who had started the previous three games there in place of Dahl, started at right tackle.

But the Rams ended up shuffling their personnel on the right side throughout the game, with Barksdale rotating in at right tackle. When that happened, Saffold slid inside to right guard, and Dahl was on the sideline.

“Generally speaking, we’re not going to demote a guy because of injury,” coach Jeff Fisher said, referring to Dahl. “We wanted to get Harvey an opportunity to play. He worked hard to come back.”

As for playing Saffold at both right guard and right tackle, Fisher said, “Our plan was not to bring Rodger out of the game. It was to let him play.”


Guessing from what I saw in the most recent game ... the Rams wanted to get Saffold into the OL as much as possible at the expense of the playing time of Barksdale & Dahl. Meaning both HD & JB getting less time on the field blocking. From my observations it would be safe to say the Barnes/Dahl/Saffold or the Barnes/Saffold/Barksdale or the Barnes/Dahl/Barksdale trio right side held up much better than the left side. Barksdale did give up a sack & several pressures but the Tards attacked the left side and were much more successful @ their attack on the left. In truth left side OL fell apart due to all the stunts & blitzes directed to that side. I would look for more of that from our opponents the remaining three games.

Fisher sure is getting all he can from the soon to be UFA Saffold @ the moment. Wonder what that means for Harvey or Joe in the off-season. I would also say Barnes held up well under this pressure yesterday for his first official NFL start. I see that Wells with a broken leg has still not went to the IR...is that a way to get Wells more $$$ off his contract? Does anyone else find this strange?? With Barnes doing as well as he did Fisher could now go ahead & retire Wells for the rest of the season. Shelley Smith was also inactive for the first time since the first of the yr in favor of Barrett Jones...would be a reason cause Shelley could not back up Barnes. I noticed many times yesterday where WR Pettis was responsible for blocking DE Abraham..in total failure??? What was that all about?? Strange! Abraham exploded for 3 sacks its been many many years since that old bird had 3 sacks in one game.
 

fearsomefour

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Barnes was ok. He was good in pass protection but as we have seen before got almost no movement in the run game. Dont know if that is a technique/hand issue or just strength. Williams/Long were brutal for stretches yesterday. Neither seems to have great balance. As for a WR chipping a DE, fine, asking a WR to block one is a poor design in my opinion. Rams were out schemed all day.