Tevin Broner: So What Now?

[Prime Time]

http://www.turfshowtimes.com/2014/9/8/6120591/rams-vikings-recap-brian-quick

Rams-Vikings: After the Blowout
By Tevin Broner  @T_Bron

Michael Thomas

The fact that the Rams lost in their first game to start the season is heartbreaking, but, as hard as it is to believe, it was just one game.

This isn't how the St. Louis Rams were supposed to start the season.

Yes, the loss of Sam Bradford to another torn ACL injury was sure to set the Rams back, but no one expected the Minnesota Vikings to blowout the Rams 34-6. The game was a complete blowout, and the sad thing is, when the Vikings went up 14-3 in the first half my heart dropped because it seemed like it was over.

The sad part about this whole ordeal is that we have seen this movie play out a few times. The Rams are down, and although the offense shows a couple of signs of hope, they usually can't put up enough points to come up with the win.

So right now, the Rams are in surprising but familiar territory. Losing the first game of the season isn't going to define the Rams 2014 season, because although there was hope, the fact is that this team's best chance to finally reach the postseason ended when Bradford was declared out for the season.

I'm not going to predict the Rams' potential wins and losses for this season, but I will talk about how the Rams can make this season worth watching, hell maybe even save the season.

The first thing that the Rams need to figure out is what in the hell do they want to do with Tavon Austin

The 2013 1st-round wide receiver has struggled to find his groove on the field. Granted some of that responsibility has to be placed on the Rams coaching staff that traded up to the 8th overall pick in that draft, because honestly they seem clueless on how they want to use Austin. Austin has struggled with either getting opportunities for snaps or just making plays on the field.

The Rams tried to use Austin a few times in the backfield against the Vikings, and although it could work, it didn't last night. So far, the Austin experiment has been like placing a square peg in a circular hole, and if the Rams are going to have a successful season then Austin has to be the explosive player that the Rams imagined when they drafted the receiver.

The Rams defense needs to continue to find itself also

The Rams defensive line didn't really disappoint being in the backfield a lot, and getting some pass rushes. However the rest of the defense is still up in the air, but I will admit that the defense played better than I expected them to. The development of safety T.J. McDonald and Alec Ogletree will go a long way towards making the defense an elite unit. However against the Vikings, it appeared that the defense's big problem was the Rams offense being anemic.

The offense has to wake up as a whole

Not only did Rams not score a TD, they never had a snap in the red zone. Deepest penetration was MN 23-yard line. - Brian Hall

It's disappointing that the Rams offense was pathetic against the Vikings, because that's been the fear of fans going into this season. One player that has looked like the switch has turned on for him, is third-year-pro Brian Quick. Let's put this in perspective. Last season, Quick had 302 yards on 18 receptions; after one game in 2014, he has 99 receiving yards on seven receptions.

Unfortunately as far as bright spots on offense, Quick was it. Seriously, every player on the offensive side of the ball was terrible. Right tackle Joe Barksdale usually plays well, so it wouldn't surprise me if he played well again. But the offense has to get on track. The Rams won't win any games only scoring six points.

Look, the Rams got their ass handed to them against the Vikings. There's no sugarcoating that fact. I'm not going to sell a dream here that everything will be okay and that the Rams will make the playoffs, but I do know that one game a season doesn't make.

 

[CodeMonkey]

Agree with your take PT. The continued pattern of penalties with this team is what really tics me off. You could blame youth but the truth is that it goes straight to coaching and preparation. The fact that we're a young team makes preparation that much more critical in fact. That its pervasive (not just one guy f'ing up all the time) demonstrates there is a systematic issue here.

 

[bomebadeeda]

While some of the things he brought up were dead on. I always have trouble getting through an article where it was apparent they wasn't paying attention at all.

"The game was a complete blowout, and the sad thing is, when the Vikings went up 14-3 in the first half my heart dropped because it seemed like it was over."

It was never 14-3 in the first half. And only after Hill's interception very late in the half did the Vikings push it to a 2 score lead. We didn't score in the first half. Zuerline's first FG was almost 5 minutes into the 2nd half. So much of "his feelings" come into question. It turned into a blowout once we didn't do anything beyond the 3 points and Patterson's run and the pick 6 capped off a day where our offense couldn't get things done. Thus leaving the defense to having the unenviable task of keeping Peterson in check.....which they did for the most part. But in the end it affected how they defensed Patterson. Minnesota is probably a better team than everyone expected. But this game hinged on a few plays that we didn't win. And it was more about what we didn't do, than it was about what Minnesota did. Give them props....they got the win and certainly at the end of the day looked to be the better team. But this was our fault we came out flat, to our latest "interview"..........

 

[Alan]

Something I don't understand about the pathetic performance of the O-line is how could they have played so badly after practicing against OUR D-line? Aren't we supposed to have the best D-line if the NFL? You'd think that would make the O-line better. I know that injuries cut down on the playing time of many but that's only part of the story. Fish seems to live or die by the better safe than sorry mantra. Is it surprising that we've started out the last two seasons so slowly?

I'm beginning to think (or my earlier thoughts are getting stronger) that Fisher's policy of not pushing vets in practice or the preseason games is not the way to go. What good is it to try and cut down on the preseason injuries if the play of the starters suffer because of the lack of practice? I'm really starting to seriously question his philosophy in this area. Those of you who are older than dirt like myself can remember the tiny playbook of the Packers under Lombardi that was still so successful because they practiced those plays so many times.

 

[Dodgersrf]

14 puts off turn overs.
13 penalties. Many of which put the Vikes back on the field. Others eliminated good plays by our offense.

Not hard to figure out.

 

[bomebadeeda]

Something I don't understand about the pathetic performance of the O-line is how could they have played so badly after practicing against OUR D-line?

I don't know if it was completely our Oline. I saw some unsettling things yesterday. There was a handoff to Tavon where he was in the I and he went toward the line and tried to bounce it outside to the left. Joseph was pulling to the left and basically blocked his man into Austin. Now I'm not the smartest guy when it comes to play developement but shouldn't the play have gone behind the block? I think that one was on Austin. Later when Davis was sacked, they showed a protection where our line seemed to be flowing to the left. The DT ripped inside and was released by Wells to Safford who was impeded by Long trying to push his guy inside. Safford had to stand there as the RB was out of position to do anything and Davis was wrapped up. Now once again.... I'm not the smartest guy.....but if you are going to slide left w/ your protections, shouldn't the QB roll that way too? I'm not sure if it was their performance or someone was simply calling the wrong assignments or others were simply going the wrong way. But I'll agree.....there was plenty of things wrong w/ what was happening......

 

[blackbart]

@Alan I have to agree with you on the idea that not practicing is hurting more than helping. I hate the new CBA and what it has done to cutdown days of practice. Add to that the lack of participation in training camp and preseason games and it looks like the team is not prepared to start the season.

I know Bradford being out virtually eliminates the Rams from playoff contention but at least they could be prepared to compete.

 

[Greg Stone]

Yeah the 14 - 3 mistake jarred me, too. That and consecutive sentences on the "sad thing" and the "sad part" show the need for editing.

 

[CodeMonkey]

@Alan I have to agree with you on the idea that not practicing is hurting more than helping. I hate the new CBA and what it has done to cutdown days of practice. Add to that the lack of participation in training camp and preseason games and it looks like the team is not prepared to start the season.

I know Bradford being out virtually eliminates the Rams from playoff contention but at least they could be prepared to compete.

All true but every team is affected by the same rules, no?

 

[Alan]

bomebadeeda adding other issues to the mix:
I don't know if it was completely our Oline. I saw some unsettling things yesterday. There was a handoff to Tavon where he was in the I and he went toward the line and tried to bounce it outside to the left. Joseph was pulling to the left and basically blocked his man into Austin. Now I'm not the smartest guy when it comes to play developement but shouldn't the play have gone behind the block? I think that one was on Austin. Later when Davis was sacked, they showed a protection where our line seemed to be flowing to the left. The DT ripped inside and was released by Wells to Safford who was impeded by Long trying to push his guy inside. Safford had to stand there as the RB was out of position to do anything and Davis was wrapped up. Now once again.... I'm not the smartest guy.....but if you are going to slide left w/ your protections, shouldn't the QB roll that way too? I'm not sure if it was their performance or someone was simply calling the wrong assignments or others were simply going the wrong way. But I'll agree.....there was plenty of things wrong w/ what was happening......

Good observations. Still, again it seems to come down to a lack of practice. RBs and TEs fit into the same equation in that they are also trying to block our D-line and LBS and the RBs are trying to find the holes that the O-line are or aren't making versus our vaunted D-line.

 

[Alan]

CodeMonkey thinking level playing field:
All true but every team is affected by the same rules, no?

While the amount of time allowed for practice is the same, the allocation of the time is peculiar to the HC.

 

[RGBRAM]

So anyone know how bad hill is hurt? Davis gonna be the starter next week?

 

[Prime Time]

Agree with your take PT. The continued pattern of penalties with this team is what really tics me off. You could blame youth but the truth is that it goes straight to coaching and preparation. The fact that we're a young team makes preparation that much more critical in fact. That its pervasive (not just one guy f'ing up all the time) demonstrates there is a systematic issue here.

I deleted my own comment after the article, which you are addressing in your post, because I was venting and setting a bad example. It is the chronic boneheaded penalties, season after season, which drives me nuts more than anything. This is entirely the responsibility of the coaching staff and is part of Fisher's history with both the Rams and the Titans and needs to come to an end real soon.

 

[bomebadeeda]

I deleted my own comment after the article, which you are addressing in your post, because I was venting and setting a bad example. It is the chronic boneheaded penalties, season after season, which drives me nuts more than anything. This is entirely the responsibility of the coaching staff and is part of Fisher's history with both the Rams and the Titans and needs to come to an end real soon.

I will say, the yipping, yapping and bravado does get old. Peterson was talking about all of the trash-talking before the game. That would have been one area I would have told my guys to clean up against him. Some have to get their statements out there to get themselves going. But other look to "feed" off of others comments. But the real head game is not say anything. They flip out when you do not utter a sound. It's starts playing w/ their head if you don't respond to their BS. And then they start thinking more about why you aren't responding instead of thinking assignments, positioning and all the real things that are needed to happen to be successful. Not to mention....no penalties for wolfing it up back and forth.

But we are relics from another era.......

 

[blackbart]

All true but every team is affected by the same rules, no?

All teams have the same rules but in how they are implemented there is a huge difference

 

[CodeMonkey]

All teams have the same rules but in how they are implemented there is a huge difference

That was exactly my point.

 

[jrry32]

I don't know if it was completely our Oline. I saw some unsettling things yesterday. There was a handoff to Tavon where he was in the I and he went toward the line and tried to bounce it outside to the left. Joseph was pulling to the left and basically blocked his man into Austin. Now I'm not the smartest guy when it comes to play developement but shouldn't the play have gone behind the block? I think that one was on Austin.

Eh, sort of. Austin could have cut back behind the block and picked up positive yardage. I think you'll see things like that as he shakes off the rust in the back-field. On the play, however, it was designed to go left and Austin was trying to follow FB Cory Harkey who had actually sealed the edge pretty darn well. Had Austin been able to, he very possibly turns that into a big play. The reason why Floyd blew it up wasn't on Joseph or Austin. It was Jake Long. Long was supposed to reach him and hit him with a down block to wash him down the line. Long whiffed on the block. Joseph was supposed to be pulling around the edge. Had he been able to, Austin has nobody in front of him for a good 10-20 yards.

So yes, Austin could have saved the play by cutting back rather than following where he was supposed to run but the issue on the play wasn't Austin or even Joseph. I mistakenly yelled at Joseph during the game for it. Joseph more or less ran into Floyd because he wasn't expecting him to be there. Which is why it was such a poor looking block. Jake Long's whiff on the play ended up resulting in a -3 yard play instead of one that could have possibly been a TD.

In fact, on the play before, we were also extremely close to a big play. It was actually a really well designed play by Schotty. Austin had the choice of bouncing it outside underneath the DE who bit on Hill's fake bootleg or hitting the seam up the middle. He decided to hit the seam up the middle and, unfortunately for us, right as he hit it the LB was able to break Harkey's seal and trip Austin up as he squeezed through. Had he gotten through, he in a lot of space with a lot of field ahead of him and only two or three Vikings defenders to deal with.

And with seeing this on review, I'm going to have to say that Schotty isn't at fault here. Both were well designed plays. Both failed because of one player being unable to execute their assignment. Obviously, I think Harkey is a little less blameworthy because he did initially seal the LB. He just didn't sustain it quite long enough.

 

[iamme33]

I don't know if it was completely our Oline. I saw some unsettling things yesterday. There was a handoff to Tavon where he was in the I and he went toward the line and tried to bounce it outside to the left. Joseph was pulling to the left and basically blocked his man into Austin. Now I'm not the smartest guy when it comes to play developement but shouldn't the play have gone behind the block? I think that one was on Austin.

i'm not sure if this is the same play but i think it is.it looked to me that saffold missed his block and his man came through untouched and ran into joseph who was pulling to lead around the end. i think we should move saffold back to rg he seemed to play well there. put grob in at lg and let them play together as long as they can until injury happen

 

[bomebadeeda]

Eh, sort of. Austin could have cut back behind the block and picked up positive yardage. I think you'll see things like that as he shakes off the rust in the back-field. On the play, however, it was designed to go left and Austin was trying to follow FB Cory Harkey who had actually sealed the edge pretty darn well. Had Austin been able to, he very possibly turns that into a big play. The reason why Floyd blew it up wasn't on Joseph or Austin. It was Jake Long. Long was supposed to reach him and hit him with a down block to wash him down the line. Long whiffed on the block. Joseph was supposed to be pulling around the edge. Had he been able to, Austin has nobody in front of him for a good 10-20 yards.

So yes, Austin could have saved the play by cutting back rather than following where he was supposed to run but the issue on the play wasn't Austin or even Joseph. I mistakenly yelled at Joseph during the game for it. Joseph more or less ran into Floyd because he wasn't expecting him to be there. Which is why it was such a poor looking block. Jake Long's whiff on the play ended up resulting in a -3 yard play instead of one that could have possibly been a TD.

In fact, on the play before, we were also extremely close to a big play. It was actually a really well designed play by Schotty. Austin had the choice of bouncing it outside underneath the DE who bit on Hill's fake bootleg or hitting the seam up the middle. He decided to hit the seam up the middle and, unfortunately for us, right as he hit it the LB was able to break Harkey's seal and trip Austin up as he squeezed through. Had he gotten through, he in a lot of space with a lot of field ahead of him and only two or three Vikings defenders to deal with.

And with seeing this on review, I'm going to have to say that Schotty isn't at fault here. Both were well designed plays. Both failed because of one player being unable to execute their assignment. Obviously, I think Harkey is a little less blameworthy because he did initially seal the LB. He just didn't sustain it quite long enough.

Thanks for the explanation. I saw the play and was trying to wrap my mind around it as the announcers were babbling about how great this guy was or maybe it was the previous play. But half the time they weren't making a lot of sense. Especially the "analyst". But I missed Harkey getting ahead of the play and just saw Joseph. I thought it wouldn't be the best direction to send Tavon (Up the gut w/ a 176# guy....a half reach would knock him down....).

 

[Mojo Ram]

I wonder if Tavon Austin could be considered an asset rather than a piece of the puzzle by season's end, if his impact in this offense doesn't improve.