The View From Section 201

[Ozoneranger]

I didn't put this in the vent thread- I wanted to cover more than the game itself.

This was my second visit to Levi's. My first was Stanford-SC for the Pac 12 championship. The stadium was maybe 60% full for that game and wasn't a good example for the "Levi's Experience." New venue and all. Except for the prices of everything. $10 beers and my brother and I split the $120 to park his RV.

It seems like the Levi's powers that be have worked the kinks out as far as access is concerned. Got in, got out with ease. Minus $50 bucks for the parking pass (next time I'm parking at my office, 1 mile from the stadium, and Ubering in and out.) We tailgated with friends; I was the only Ram fan in our group. But the team travels well to the Bay Area. Ram fans everywhere. The mood of the crowd was far better than my last game, which was in 09 at The Stick. Now that was scary- both fan bases were mean and surly, mostly due the mediocrity on the field. From beginning to end, this crowd was the best behaved crowd I've ever been a part of. No fights or ejections from my vantage point. Great experience.

I will say this- security was ominous. Snipers on the rooftop- my girlfriend pointed them out to me- SWAT teams with automatic weapons. But what was almost laughable...jets taking off from SJC flew directly over the stadium. Seemed like they were coming directly at us. No way that airport launches\lands airplanes for the Super Bowl.

The game.

If Janoris Jenkins and Trumaine Johnson "test the free agent market," they blew that up today. Both of them got schooled, especially Johnson. By the Niners recievers, led by that fossil Bolden. His touchdown was positively laughable. Bolden smeared Jenkins like Lebron plowing through a small forward. Johnson was beaten by some guy named Ellington for 40. Must have been the scheme, right? I'll get to that. But bad day for those two.

Greg Williams. Anyone who still thinks this guy is a defensive genius lives in some other earthly timeline. It was obvious Williams dared Blaine "Joe Montana" Gabbert to beat them with his arm. And beat them he did. Like a drum, to the tune of 28-44 for 354 yards. Blaine Gabbert, he of the now five wins as a starting quarterback. I had a great view of the secondary coming my way. Half the time there was no over the top safety to help out the corners. None. I was stunned. And when there was, he was so far back, the guy couldn't provide run support. You all saw the play...Niner back busts through a massive hole and ran at the safety like a hockey rush, the safety backs off, not wanting to get juked for the TD and the runner gets nailed by his own blocker, saving the TD. This unit gave up five, count em, five plays over 30 yards today, to the second worst offense in the NFL. But they did get a sack.

Rams Offense. Same old shit, different game. Jet sweeps, wr screens, and predictable dives. They had a few nice drives, but as usual, when they get inside the 40, Fisher gets all Bear Bryant. No balls. No glory. Note the Rams one touchdown drive was TWO yards. That's not Boras, that's Fish. Case in point. Opening drive, Quick gets wide open for six and Keenum overthrows him. I think, well go for that again- and they did! Jackpot, a 50 yarder to Britt. Clearly, the corner on that side is weak. Attack him. Nope. The Rams go back to the run, screens, jets and outs. I'll give credit for going with Cunningham over Mason. Cunningham is a football player. Heart, vision and moves. Still, this team needs a real OC to exploit the talent the Rams have. Unfortunately, Fish hates real OCs.

Case Keenum = Blaine Gabbert with a straight jacket. They both have the same ball...no touch. Gabbert wins this round due to how ridiculously open the 49ers receivers were. Keenum's ball is like a pitcher who throws 99 with no control. He gives his receivers no chance for YAC. They're too busy just trying to catch his errant throws. And he had time, mostly. I watched him sit back and go through one, two three progressions, and he still threw a barely catchable ball. He almost got Quick killed on that pass that Quick had to elevate to grab and got flipped; it should have been a TD (This will be a highlight play you'll see for eons). Keenum protects the ball, doesn't make dumb throws like Foles and Davis, but has zero touch. None at all. He's serviceable backup, nothing more.

Coaching. The team plays hard. They wanted to win. For once, they kept the penalties down, for a Fisher team. Still, Fish is predictable. I called the fake punt. Ask my GF. They wanted more room and took the delay of game...then they went deep with the return man as a defacto safety over the top? To Marquez? Oh, God. Well, it probably worked in practice...against a Williams defense.

Summary...

This game was a win in the bag before the players stepped out on the field. I knew that. The Niner fans I was with knew that. And Fish found a way to drop another turd against an inferior opponent in disarray. Unfortunately for us, the Niners canned their head coach two hours after the game tonight. Maybe the Stanley will take the cue...

 

[DenverRam]

levis stadium was pretty empty for the vaunted california sports market

 

[Elmgrovegnome]

I don't know how that Antoine Boldin Touchdown was not offensive pass interference. That was a BS non call IMO.

The team looked flat right out of the gate and surprisingly their Oline blocked pretty well despite all of the pressure coming at them. The defensive scheme was very questionable. It almost seemed like Fisher and company purposely tanked this game to get a higher pick. There weren't any adjustments.

Maybe they wanted to see Keenum under duress. Until this game his passes had great touch and accuracy. He still was better than Foles but he didn't look as good without the lead. I guess if you are going to experiment then this game was a good one to do it with. I would rather see it now instead of next season.

 

[Prime Time]

Thanks for your input @Ozoneranger.

 

[fearsomefour]

I will say this- security was ominous. Snipers on the rooftop- my girlfriend pointed them out to me- SWAT teams with automatic weapons.

If I owned a team I would have implemented this a while ago. Maybe not in view, but, they would be there with quick access/view of as much of the goings on as possible.

levis stadium was pretty empty for the vaunted california sports market

Missing the point of where value is....completely missing it.

 

[junkman]

If Janoris Jenkins and Trumaine Johnson "test the free agent market," they blew that up today. Both of them got schooled, especially Johnson. By the Niners recievers, led by that fossil Bolden. His touchdown was positively laughable. Bolden smeared Jenkins like Lebron plowing through a small forward. Johnson was beaten by some guy named Ellington for 40. Must have been the scheme, right? I'll get to that. But bad day for those two.

Time for my tin foil hat.

1. Maybe JJ and TruJo didn't want to get injured heading into an important off-season?
2. (this one is way out there) Maybe the Rams wanted the 49ers to decide they really actually like Gabbert so they wouldn't pick a QB with their #7 pick in the draft. How can you replace a QB that just threw for 350+ yards against a vaunted D like the Rams with two highly rated CBs? Even the INT was kinda fluky.

 

[Ram65]

Nice writeup. Wow that parking $$$$ is wack!

Should have been pass interference on the fake punt. Marquis was pushed rather hard. Maybe in the end losing works out. The Rams should won that game. Thanks for sharing you game experience Ozoneranger.

 

[LumberTubs]

If I owned a team I would have implemented this a while ago. Maybe not in view, but, they would be there with quick access/view of the refs.

I corrected this for you @fearsomefour

 

[OnceARam]

We could have destroyed them by playing cover 2 but we must not have the safeties or LBs to do so... Instead we were playing cover 1 with zero gap control, corners on an island and JL in trail position (although he got beat so bad he didn't even make it into the replay camera angle) and seemingly no one assigned to the RB on shallow routes.... atrocious defensive performance... a clinic on how to waste talent, Honey Badger was right.

Plus we made their RB look like the second coming of Roger Craig.

But at least our offense played up to their ability minus Gurley.

We should have no illusions that our offensive personal (skilled) are not good (outside of Cunningham and TA) That's not on Fisher as a coach. Fisher as a GM is another story.

Can't find any fault in our OC. May be the best coach we have. He isn't the one throwing bad balls and dropping passes or falling down for a two yard gain...

Maybe we actually were evaluating talent going into the offseason rather than trying to win the game.

That's the only explaination for that game that makes any sense IMO.

 

[TexasRam]

To say Keenum has no touch is untrue.

Keenum has shown a lot of touch leading up to this game. Look at the TD's to Britt, the passes to the flat to Tavon and Gurley.

To say Keenum had no touch in the 9ers game is a more credible assertion.

 

[SuperMan28]

First of all, I'm darn sure asking your girlfriend...

Kidding aside, I really enjoyed your write up. Did I hear 60% attendance? Interesting.

I didn't get to watch the game, they showed DEN in SWMO mad. It was clear through game cast Keenum was having quite a fiew incompletions. When I saw the targets, (Cook, Marquez, Quick), I didn't hesitate to concur those guys are not up to par. You viewed it like they were open? I'm sure Keenum missed some throws but the WR's being open regularly, like you let on, is very hard to believe. Keenum had a great game against TB and did enough against SEA.

It just really makes me wonder which needs to come first, QB or WR. Most all will say QB, I'm not ready to go there.

As far as the secondary, very clear the third and longs were converted far too often. As was the case with the first time the Rams beat SEA, a let down game followed. That's my conclusion.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[junkman]

It just really makes me wonder which needs to come first, QB or WR. Most all will say QB, I'm not ready to go there.

The good news in this is that we're talking about QB / WR / TE / OCoord to fix the offense, not OL. That's new as of these last 4 weeks. A lot can be attributed to Keenum, with his mobility, quick release and fast decision making, but Keenum (like Austin Davis) doesn't seem like the answer, which is unfortunate. But the OL has just felt better as a whole. The return of Havenstein has helped. Wichman playing well has helped. Reynolds is consistently consistent. And it was nice not hearing Robinson's name all day. Of course we should add some more talent, perhaps a solid vet value free agent and a rookie in the first 4 rounds. But ok... that's progress, right?

 

[SuperMan28]

The good news in this is that we're talking about QB / WR / TE / OCoord to fix the offense, not OL. That's new as of these last 4 weeks. A lot can be attributed to Keenum, with his mobility, quick release and fast decision making, but Keenum (like Austin Davis) doesn't seem like the answer, which is unfortunate. But the OL has just felt better as a whole. The return of Havenstein has helped. Wichman playing well has helped. Reynolds is consistently consistent. And it was nice not hearing Robinson's name all day. Of course we should add some more talent, perhaps a solid vet value free agent and a rookie in the first 4 rounds. But ok... that's progress, right?

Yes! That is absolutely progress.

However, whether that means we start fast next year is a different story. This team is getting there, but even an infusion of talent through the draft to aquire pass catchers means more youth.

And for the record, I still like Keenum. I saw a mock draft where we drafted Ragland and two WR's in the second round. Then we drafted a TE in the third round. That sure smells like the answer to me.

 

[Mikey Ram]

The good news in this is that we're talking about QB / WR / TE / OCoord to fix the offense, not OL. That's new as of these last 4 weeks. A lot can be attributed to Keenum, with his mobility, quick release and fast decision making, but Keenum (like Austin Davis) doesn't seem like the answer, which is unfortunate. But the OL has just felt better as a whole. The return of Havenstein has helped. Wichman playing well has helped. Reynolds is consistently consistent. And it was nice not hearing Robinson's name all day. Of course we should add some more talent, perhaps a solid vet value free agent and a rookie in the first 4 rounds. But ok... that's progress, right?

The good news in this is that we're talking about QB / WR / TE / OCoord to fix the offense, not OL

ONLY WR QB TE and OC, instead of O line...wow, if that's the good news I really don't want to hear the bad...

 

[SteveBrown]

I didn't put this in the vent thread- I wanted to cover more than the game itself.

This was my second visit to Levi's. My first was Stanford-SC for the Pac 12 championship.
______________________________________
Thanks for the truth...it reflects Jeff's 1979 vision (that is when he started his career with Bears).....

 

[SteveBrown]

Oops, I did that wrong the part underneath the ____________ is mine not ozoneranger....trying to keep it short...

 

[Ozoneranger]

In answer to some of the comments- Good ones, by the way.

-Just to be clear, Levi's was 60% full for the SC - Stanford game. Call it 85% for the Ram game.
-Keenum. He had guys open from my vantage point. He didn't hit guys in stride, save for the bomb to Britt after badly misfiring to a wide-open Quick on the opening drive. And he had time to throw. I'll stick to my guns that Keenum is a good backup, not a starter. The Rams need a quarterback.
-Boras. He calls the game a lot like the Niners OC. The difference was Gabbert hit his open guys in stride, allowing a ton of YAC. I don't see him as a true OC who can create mismatches and get the passing game to the middle of the pack. The Rams need a new OC.
-Yes, I called the fake punt.

 

[junkman]

The good news in this is that we're talking about QB / WR / TE / OCoord to fix the offense, not OL

ONLY WR QB TE and OC, instead of O line...wow, if that's the good news I really don't want to hear the bad...

Yes, that's good news, that we're not talking about what a disaster the oline is (as we were doing 4 weeks ago). That was really my only point.

One could even rationally suggest that the Rams OL could be a strength if GRob continues into 2016 like he finished 2015 (since the 2nd half of the Lions game). That would be with or without Saffold, but I'd like to see Barnes back 'cuz he was at least durable (when his shoes were tied). Havenstein and Reynolds are both playing like PLUS players. GRob might finally be turning the corner. Wichman has shown potential to be a plus player even though the sample size is small. And we get Brown back, Battle to develop as a swing...

 

[Fatbot]

I don't know how that Antoine Boldin Touchdown was not offensive pass interference. That was a BS non call IMO.

I'm not going to go back and watch any part of that garbage game, but from my memory I think JJ just lost his footing. I don't think it was PI.

Maybe JJ and TruJo didn't want to get injured heading into an important off-season?

Hm I just can't see those guys doing that, both have been really great team players -- and in fact I would guess that giving max effort in a meaningless game probably would count for something going into free agency too. Maybe I just don't want to think it possible in my rainbows and lollipops world. Also I think Tru put the wood on someone early in that game, a hit worthy of a concussion, so don't think he was jaking it.

Should have been pass interference on the fake punt.

By rule there's no pass interference on the outside guy when a team shows punt. http://operations.nfl.com/the-rules/2015-nfl-rulebook/ See Section 5: "Note 3: Whenever a team presents an apparent punting formation and until the ball is kicked, defensive acts that normally constitute pass interference are permitted against the end man on the line of scrimmage ... provided that the acts do not constitute illegal holding."

 

[Merlin]

-Keenum. He had guys open from my vantage point. He didn't hit guys in stride, save for the bomb to Britt after badly misfiring to a wide-open Quick on the opening drive. And he had time to throw. I'll stick to my guns that Keenum is a good backup, not a starter. The Rams need a quarterback.
-Boras. He calls the game a lot like the Niners OC. The difference was Gabbert hit his open guys in stride, allowing a ton of YAC. I don't see him as a true OC who can create mismatches and get the passing game to the middle of the pack. The Rams need a new OC.

I agree with you on both counts. Unfortunately the OC position will likely not be upgraded. But there is a chance they actually make QB a priority, so got my fingers crossed that happens and that Fish and Snead actually pick the right one.