- Joined
- Oct 28, 2012
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- 2,116
- Name
- Dale
Today was a scrimmage between the Rams and the Chargers. There were, at my estimate, over 5,000 Rams fans and two Charger fans in attendance (I kid). I think we saw maybe four Charger’s jerseys all afternoon.
These Rams fans were true supporters of the team. No booing was heard from our section or anywhere else for that matter. Unless of course you mistakenly heard “Cooooooppp” (C. Kupp) or “Spruuuuuccce” (Nelson Spruce) and thought those were boo sounds. As to be expected, the beer garden attendees were very vocal.
Rams On Demand was well represented with @bubbaram, @theduke, @RamBall, @8to12 and yours truly VeteranRamFan. It was really great having all of us sitting together and talking Rams football. We were on the north side of the fields in shady bleachers. I excused myself to go and try to get some pics. Just too many people in my way for any good shots! The ushers (I guess that is what they are called) kept everyone away from the railing that separates the fans from the field so I couldn’t just hang out like I had been. I went back to our seats but the sight line was not very good for photos. Sorry guys.
Here is how practice started. The usual warm ups by position and then the teams split up with the Rams defense going to the far (south) field and the Chargers offense along with them. That meant we had the Rams offense and the Chargers defense on our field. Talking with @theduke we both agreed we didn’t need to watch our D and we wanted to see how our offense was looking. We were not disappointed. More on that later.
The teams broke into groups with our QB/WR 1’s and 2’s doing one on one against the Chargers DB’s at midfield and going away from us to our right and the 3’s at about the 30-yard line (about where we were sitting) going to our left. Things happened fast! This is another reason I couldn’t get any pics. Just too much action.
All of our QB’s were doing a good job of connecting. The Chargers DB’s did well in these drills also. Cooper Kupp runs some insanely sharp routes and catches everything. Other standouts include Higbee and Everett. Pharaoh Cooper also was getting open and making great catches. Back to Higbee for a moment. He went out on a seam route, out ran his man coverage and Goff dropped a dime for a TD. Let’s not forget about Woods and McRoberts. Both were showing well. McRoberts pulled one in on the far sideline on an out route. It was a great catch. Gurley was lining up in the backfield then goes in motion and lines up outside as a WR. He did this a few times. Once he took off on a go route and Goff threw a pretty decent ball, a little short and Gurley had to turn around and backpedal. That one got deflected by the DB but not because he knew where the ball was, just got his arms in the way.
If I remember correctly, and I asked the guys at the end of practice this, did the Chargers DB’s defend any passes? I could only remember one pass breakup where the DB got his hands on the ball and knocked it away. There may have been some others.
I think I messed up here, at some point we did 7X7 and that is where a lot of the above happened.
The 11x11 was really nice to watch. Hav was at RT, Brown at RG. Goff was afforded a good clean pocket and I think there may have been one sack. Goff did fake a handoff and rolled to his right. He threw on the run and Woods caught it sliding out of bounds. Incomplete as Woods came down out of bounds. I think Goff took way too long to decide to throw the ball on that one. Gurley was gaining about 5 yards a carry when going up the middle. Not bad, I’ll take it.
The teams then went into punt formation. Hecker is the best punter ever. We all know this. Our gunners were getting down field and covering very well. Special teams won’t be a problem. During this portion another fight broke out. Seems one of the Chargers blocking the gunner didn’t want to stop at the whistle. Coaches got in there quick and broke it up. This was the third fight of the afternoon. The other two came early on with our D against their O on the far field during 11x11. At the start of the second fight on the far field, Coach McVay was seen running from our field over to the action.
In summary, I was getting worried about our O as it seemed during our own practices the defense was winning the battles. That was not the case today. @theduke agreed that maybe our D is really good, especially the DB’s. I started off believing we would win 12 games this season, then I tempered that down to 10 and lately I stopped drinking the Kool-Aid and was hoping for 8 and 8. After today, I’ve changed my mind again and drank some more Kool-Aid and I’m back at 10 wins.
I’m sorry this isn’t one of my better reports, going totally off of memory and I know it isn’t up to my usual quality. I really enjoyed meeting up with the guys and really did appreciate their opinions and input. I know we all had a great time.
These Rams fans were true supporters of the team. No booing was heard from our section or anywhere else for that matter. Unless of course you mistakenly heard “Cooooooppp” (C. Kupp) or “Spruuuuuccce” (Nelson Spruce) and thought those were boo sounds. As to be expected, the beer garden attendees were very vocal.
Rams On Demand was well represented with @bubbaram, @theduke, @RamBall, @8to12 and yours truly VeteranRamFan. It was really great having all of us sitting together and talking Rams football. We were on the north side of the fields in shady bleachers. I excused myself to go and try to get some pics. Just too many people in my way for any good shots! The ushers (I guess that is what they are called) kept everyone away from the railing that separates the fans from the field so I couldn’t just hang out like I had been. I went back to our seats but the sight line was not very good for photos. Sorry guys.
Here is how practice started. The usual warm ups by position and then the teams split up with the Rams defense going to the far (south) field and the Chargers offense along with them. That meant we had the Rams offense and the Chargers defense on our field. Talking with @theduke we both agreed we didn’t need to watch our D and we wanted to see how our offense was looking. We were not disappointed. More on that later.
The teams broke into groups with our QB/WR 1’s and 2’s doing one on one against the Chargers DB’s at midfield and going away from us to our right and the 3’s at about the 30-yard line (about where we were sitting) going to our left. Things happened fast! This is another reason I couldn’t get any pics. Just too much action.
All of our QB’s were doing a good job of connecting. The Chargers DB’s did well in these drills also. Cooper Kupp runs some insanely sharp routes and catches everything. Other standouts include Higbee and Everett. Pharaoh Cooper also was getting open and making great catches. Back to Higbee for a moment. He went out on a seam route, out ran his man coverage and Goff dropped a dime for a TD. Let’s not forget about Woods and McRoberts. Both were showing well. McRoberts pulled one in on the far sideline on an out route. It was a great catch. Gurley was lining up in the backfield then goes in motion and lines up outside as a WR. He did this a few times. Once he took off on a go route and Goff threw a pretty decent ball, a little short and Gurley had to turn around and backpedal. That one got deflected by the DB but not because he knew where the ball was, just got his arms in the way.
If I remember correctly, and I asked the guys at the end of practice this, did the Chargers DB’s defend any passes? I could only remember one pass breakup where the DB got his hands on the ball and knocked it away. There may have been some others.
I think I messed up here, at some point we did 7X7 and that is where a lot of the above happened.
The 11x11 was really nice to watch. Hav was at RT, Brown at RG. Goff was afforded a good clean pocket and I think there may have been one sack. Goff did fake a handoff and rolled to his right. He threw on the run and Woods caught it sliding out of bounds. Incomplete as Woods came down out of bounds. I think Goff took way too long to decide to throw the ball on that one. Gurley was gaining about 5 yards a carry when going up the middle. Not bad, I’ll take it.
The teams then went into punt formation. Hecker is the best punter ever. We all know this. Our gunners were getting down field and covering very well. Special teams won’t be a problem. During this portion another fight broke out. Seems one of the Chargers blocking the gunner didn’t want to stop at the whistle. Coaches got in there quick and broke it up. This was the third fight of the afternoon. The other two came early on with our D against their O on the far field during 11x11. At the start of the second fight on the far field, Coach McVay was seen running from our field over to the action.
In summary, I was getting worried about our O as it seemed during our own practices the defense was winning the battles. That was not the case today. @theduke agreed that maybe our D is really good, especially the DB’s. I started off believing we would win 12 games this season, then I tempered that down to 10 and lately I stopped drinking the Kool-Aid and was hoping for 8 and 8. After today, I’ve changed my mind again and drank some more Kool-Aid and I’m back at 10 wins.
I’m sorry this isn’t one of my better reports, going totally off of memory and I know it isn’t up to my usual quality. I really enjoyed meeting up with the guys and really did appreciate their opinions and input. I know we all had a great time.
