Celebration thread!!!! Lets watch Hawk Talk!

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BTW, I might have to change my vote in the Blueberry poll from "burn the blue pants" to merely "ban the blueberries."

We are 2-0 at Seattle wearing the blue pants with white jerseys, including a playoff win.

(for those that are wondering, we wore bone on bone in our week 16 game last year).
I think I heard the announcers saying the Squaks were undefeated when wearing their all glo green unis. Just saying…
 
@oldnotdead needs to chill out.

The defense still has holes but Morris & company only allowed 17 points on the road.

This defense is not to be judged until they play another 3 or 4 games.

Our Rams are 4-1 and it's not a fluke.

Please don't use the excuse that Wilson was unable to finish the game with his injured finger.

The Rams defense did their part tonight even with their flaws.




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The defense played a solid ‘B’ game with good pressure on Wilson and good run defense. Need a lot of work on pass coverage especially on positioning on the deep passes. Rochelle got a good dose of trial by fire. I believe they will make a move to add a CB before the trade deadline. Won’t happen but a stud ILB would fix most of our run defense problems.
 
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Could you elaborate on this a bit? For example could you name a few of ”Staleys“ plays that we ran that made you write this? Not asking for time stamps in the game or anything crazy just what kind of “Staley” coverages did you notice? What about “Staley“ Blitzes? Do you recognize the blitzes/coverages enough to name them?

Seems to me you’re just crediting good things to Staley and bad things to Morris.
NJRamsFan. You obviously don’t know how this works. Oldnotdead is gracious enough to shower us with his superior insight and intellect but he has no time or patience for any rebuttals from us mere mortals. We need to appreciate and embrace this gift we receive.
 
This imo is the key. It's a great scheme when properly executed. But imo to make it work requires dialed in adjustments and calls throughout the game and on a play by play basis. Staley is a defensive genius who made that happen with the Rams.

Still too early imo to tell whether Morris can get this D dialed in at a high level. New coach, new players, four games.

I think Morris is feeling his way. He is prepared to make changes. Putting in Rochelle as an inexperienced rookie was not exactly playing it safe. Clearly there will be more adjustments.

You can be certain that Morris and McVay see the same things we do, but with ten times more granularity. They now have a little break and three non-division games to pull this D together.
Just to add on this as you said, the concepts and overall scheme alone will not be effective unless utilized properly.

Brandon Staley was essentially engaged in high level chess matches with opposing teams and often came away victorious. He understood tendencies prior to the game and allowed teams to play to their tendencies to their own demise.

Is it a team that inherently wants to run because that’s what they’re good at or that’s the coaches philosophy? Let’s show them a light box on early downs while post snap it’s a run blitz. They got off the bus (plane) wanting to run the football and Staley gave them every reason to pre snap but they played directly into his hand.

Now obviously most NFL coaches are smart people so they won’t be fooled continuously by the same thing so they have a response the next time we try to bait them into a run blitz, and THAT is where Staley truly shines. That is why last year you often saw our D clamp down even more at halftime because Staley saw how they would counter and was able to repeat the process he came into the game with. So now he knew where you initially wanted to go and how you reacted when that was taken away and at that point he had most teams hook line and sinker.

IMO he is of the same cloth as McVay they both use tendencies against players and coaches. They both make most of their looks/coverages indistinguishable or intentionally mis-leading pre snap. They know if we fake a run team x has a tendency to react this way, it’s how they are coached so it leaves them vulnerable in this area. They know if a qb sees a light box on early downs they are pre disposed to check to a running play (just an example) and the strength of their o-line is running whichever direction so let’s disguise a run blitz to their a gap. Than at half they understand what adjustments were made to combat the already predisposed tendencies and they again counter those keeping us one step ahead.

and as I mentioned Staley was a beast at essentially calling plays for the opposing O with his looks. He would essentially say throw this crossing route it’s wide open except it wasn’t.
 
I’m back in the Victory Bourbon! Wooo hoooo!
Have any favorites or recommendations? I'm just getting into bourbon and enjoy Elijah Craig small batch and Booker's. Also liked Legent, which is a blend of American bourbon and Japanese whiskey.
 
Just to add on this as you said, the concepts and overall scheme alone will not be effective unless utilized properly.

Brandon Staley was essentially engaged in high level chess matches with opposing teams and often came away victorious. He understood tendencies prior to the game and allowed teams to play to their tendencies to their own demise.

Is it a team that inherently wants to run because that’s what they’re good at or that’s the coaches philosophy? Let’s show them a light box on early downs while post snap it’s a run blitz. They got off the bus (plane) wanting to run the football and Staley gave them every reason to pre snap but they played directly into his hand.

Now obviously most NFL coaches are smart people so they won’t be fooled continuously by the same thing so they have a response the next time we try to bait them into a run blitz, and THAT is where Staley truly shines. That is why last year you often saw our D clamp down even more at halftime because Staley saw how they would counter and was able to repeat the process he came into the game with. So now he knew where you initially wanted to go and how you reacted when that was taken away and at that point he had most teams hook line and sinker.

IMO he is of the same cloth as McVay they both use tendencies against players and coaches. They both make most of their looks/coverages indistinguishable or intentionally mis-leading pre snap. They know if we fake a run team x has a tendency to react this way, it’s how they are coached so it leaves them vulnerable in this area. They know if a qb sees a light box on early downs they are pre disposed to check to a running play (just an example) and the strength of their o-line is running whichever direction so let’s disguise a run blitz to their a gap. Than at half they understand what adjustments were made to combat the already predisposed tendencies and they again counter those keeping us one step ahead.

and as I mentioned Staley was a beast at essentially calling plays for the opposing O with his looks. He would essentially say throw this crossing route it’s wide open except it wasn’t.
Very well done. Great explanation. I guess we will see how this works out.
 
Very well done. Great explanation. I guess we will see how this works out.
I think it will be inconclusive for a while as we had a lot of personnel turnover, we replaced a lot of experience with inexperience which naturally had to have an effect. Couple that with Morris running new concepts…it just needs time.

That being said, as I mentioned the preparation and ideology is a great start but for true effectiveness it needs to be coupled with an above average play caller. A defensive concept can be really strong but called at the wrong time the results are likely to no meet expectation. So time will tell if Morris can achieve that.
 
I think it will be inconclusive for a while as we had a lot of personnel turnover, we replaced a lot of experience with inexperience which naturally had to have an effect. Couple that with Morris running new concepts…it just needs time.

That being said, as I mentioned the preparation and ideology is a great start but for true effectiveness it needs to be coupled with an above average play caller. A defensive concept can be really strong but called at the wrong time the results are likely to no meet expectation. So time will tell if Morris can achieve that.
Makes me wonder if McVay's choices DC were limited in terms of finding some one who had experience with the system. Seems like he could have robbed from Fangio. Maybe he even interviewed someone but didn't get the same vibe as Staley so went with someone he had confidence in and knew he would be able to work with. Figured together could figure it out.
 
Just to add on this as you said, the concepts and overall scheme alone will not be effective unless utilized properly.

Brandon Staley was essentially engaged in high level chess matches with opposing teams and often came away victorious. He understood tendencies prior to the game and allowed teams to play to their tendencies to their own demise.

Is it a team that inherently wants to run because that’s what they’re good at or that’s the coaches philosophy? Let’s show them a light box on early downs while post snap it’s a run blitz. They got off the bus (plane) wanting to run the football and Staley gave them every reason to pre snap but they played directly into his hand.

Now obviously most NFL coaches are smart people so they won’t be fooled continuously by the same thing so they have a response the next time we try to bait them into a run blitz, and THAT is where Staley truly shines. That is why last year you often saw our D clamp down even more at halftime because Staley saw how they would counter and was able to repeat the process he came into the game with. So now he knew where you initially wanted to go and how you reacted when that was taken away and at that point he had most teams hook line and sinker.

IMO he is of the same cloth as McVay they both use tendencies against players and coaches. They both make most of their looks/coverages indistinguishable or intentionally mis-leading pre snap. They know if we fake a run team x has a tendency to react this way, it’s how they are coached so it leaves them vulnerable in this area. They know if a qb sees a light box on early downs they are pre disposed to check to a running play (just an example) and the strength of their o-line is running whichever direction so let’s disguise a run blitz to their a gap. Than at half they understand what adjustments were made to combat the already predisposed tendencies and they again counter those keeping us one step ahead.

and as I mentioned Staley was a beast at essentially calling plays for the opposing O with his looks. He would essentially say throw this crossing route it’s wide open except it wasn’t.
Outstanding post.

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Just to add on this as you said, the concepts and overall scheme alone will not be effective unless utilized properly.

Brandon Staley was essentially engaged in high level chess matches with opposing teams and often came away victorious. He understood tendencies prior to the game and allowed teams to play to their tendencies to their own demise.

Is it a team that inherently wants to run because that’s what they’re good at or that’s the coaches philosophy? Let’s show them a light box on early downs while post snap it’s a run blitz. They got off the bus (plane) wanting to run the football and Staley gave them every reason to pre snap but they played directly into his hand.

Now obviously most NFL coaches are smart people so they won’t be fooled continuously by the same thing so they have a response the next time we try to bait them into a run blitz, and THAT is where Staley truly shines. That is why last year you often saw our D clamp down even more at halftime because Staley saw how they would counter and was able to repeat the process he came into the game with. So now he knew where you initially wanted to go and how you reacted when that was taken away and at that point he had most teams hook line and sinker.

IMO he is of the same cloth as McVay they both use tendencies against players and coaches. They both make most of their looks/coverages indistinguishable or intentionally mis-leading pre snap. They know if we fake a run team x has a tendency to react this way, it’s how they are coached so it leaves them vulnerable in this area. They know if a qb sees a light box on early downs they are pre disposed to check to a running play (just an example) and the strength of their o-line is running whichever direction so let’s disguise a run blitz to their a gap. Than at half they understand what adjustments were made to combat the already predisposed tendencies and they again counter those keeping us one step ahead.

and as I mentioned Staley was a beast at essentially calling plays for the opposing O with his looks. He would essentially say throw this crossing route it’s wide open except it wasn’t.
Well stated.

With both McVay and Staley it's the element of deception that causes the other to side to misread the formation, or read it too slowly.

While I'm sure there are basic repeatable formations in Staley's D, it is not a mechanical approach. It has to be challenging to implement. As you point out it first requires a serious understanding of the other team's tendencies and a specific design of looks to frustate or confuse or delay them. It then requires subtle variations and play by play adjustments. And maybe most important a critical refocus/reset at halftime.

A chess game that Staley excelled at and usually won.
 
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Have any favorites or recommendations? I'm just getting into bourbon and enjoy Elijah Craig small batch and Booker's. Also liked Legent, which is a blend of American bourbon and Japanese whiskey.
Basil Hayden

Woodford Reserve Double Oaked

https://www.woodfordreserve.com/
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