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Cowboys sessions beneficial for road-weary Rams
• By Jim Thomas
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/foot...cle_d1dff8da-5120-5683-b1ca-c6d388c129f4.html
OXNARD, CALIF. • It may fall into the category of oh, by the way. But before the brawl that ended it all, and beyond the “LA Rams” pep rally aspects of the practices with Dallas, the Rams did get good work with the Cowboys for two days.
“That’s a good football team over there,” coach Jeff Fisher said at the conclusion of Tuesday’s practice. “They won 12 games (in 2014). We’re a young team. We matched up and we got some things done. There were some great 1-on-1 battles and some great team efforts and great special teams work.”
There was also one great brawl that brought an early end to the proceedings Tuesday evening. This wasn’t a case of just a couple of players losing their temper, flailing at each other until teammates came to break it up.
It spread like a California wildfire, spilling over to a new area just when peace was restored in one spot. But there will be no NFL investigation and no player fines from league headquarters as a result of the melee.
On-field player conduct at practice is considered a club matter by the NFL, because training camp and team practices are team operated. Judging from his comments Tuesday, it doesn’t sound like Fisher is contemplating fines or discipline.
“There were probably a number of things that happened out there,” Fisher said. “Some not intentional; some intentional. We had a practice tempo that we had agreed upon, and for the most part we were OK.
“Both teams have young players that are trying to make the team, and sometimes they go beyond what’s expected or what the rest of the guys are doing. So we’ll look at it, but we’ll move on. I’m glad nobody got hurt.”
Even with the wild way the joint practices ended, Fisher said he would love to come back and practice against the Cowboys again. Because the practices were intense, Fisher told his players and told reporters it was like squeezing a fifth preseason game into the team’s camp schedule.
“I believe we got better these last two days,” linebacker James Laurinaitis said. “I really do. I think we got some really good work in against obviously a playoff team.”
A couple of the Cowboys’ big names – wide receiver Dez Bryant and left tackle Tyron Smith – didn’t take part in the joint practices because of injuries. (Although Bryant did make himself, uh, available for the brawl.) But there was still plenty of star power on the field for the Cowboys working against the Rams.
“We were just star-struck to be on the field with them,” defensive end Chris Long joked.
Well, Tony Romo is one of the game’s elite quarterbacks, tight end Jason Witten probably is a future Hall of Famer, and even without Smith the Cowboys have a talented offensive line.
But no matter who was on the other side of the line of scrimmage, the fact that it was somebody different was beneficial for the Rams.
“When you do for instance things like one-on-ones and all that, when you do it against your own team you start to learn the tendencies of your own guys,” Laurinaitis said. “You know what routes they’re really good at, and what they’re not good at.
“When you go out here blind against guys that you don’t see every day, it makes you get that much better at what you’re doing.”
Beyond that, as quarterback Nick Foles pointed out at the start of the trip, being on the road together can be a team-bonding experience. The Rams, who were scheduled to arrive back in St. Louis on Wednesday night, have been out of town for a week.
Even with the work accomplished against the Cowboys, the Rams haven’t practiced much in the last week and a half. They had a scheduled players’ day off Aug. 12. Then came a travel day to Oakland, followed by the Friday preseason opener against the Raiders. Last Saturday was a players’ day off; Sunday was a walk-through and film review.
Then came the Monday and Tuesday practices with Dallas. So it came as a surprise that Fisher called off Wednesday’s practice in Oxnard, which was supposed to be a Rams-only session. After a Wednesday walk-through in Oxnard, followed by a visit to nearby Point Mugu Naval Air Station, the team flew back to St. Louis.
When they take the field Thursday evening at Rams Park, it will mark only their third practice in nine days. That will be followed by a scheduled day off Friday, and then a travel day Saturday to Nashville for Sunday night’s preseason contest with the Tennessee Titans.
“We’ve got a tired team,” Fisher said, explaining his decision to cancel Wednesday’s work. “We’re gonna emphasize recovery.”
Perhaps it’s as much recovery from being road weary, as being practice weary. Even the trip to Oxnard was an hour commute for the team each day.
But Laurinaitis wasn’t complaining about the infrequency of practices.
“I mean, that’s what Coach does best,” Laurinaitis said. “He always finds a way to kind of get us our legs back. He always says you come into camp in the best shape of your life, and then you kind of break down. How can we get back up to that? So that’s just kind of one of those things — he’s trying to get our legs back to where we were.”
• By Jim Thomas
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/foot...cle_d1dff8da-5120-5683-b1ca-c6d388c129f4.html
OXNARD, CALIF. • It may fall into the category of oh, by the way. But before the brawl that ended it all, and beyond the “LA Rams” pep rally aspects of the practices with Dallas, the Rams did get good work with the Cowboys for two days.
“That’s a good football team over there,” coach Jeff Fisher said at the conclusion of Tuesday’s practice. “They won 12 games (in 2014). We’re a young team. We matched up and we got some things done. There were some great 1-on-1 battles and some great team efforts and great special teams work.”
There was also one great brawl that brought an early end to the proceedings Tuesday evening. This wasn’t a case of just a couple of players losing their temper, flailing at each other until teammates came to break it up.
It spread like a California wildfire, spilling over to a new area just when peace was restored in one spot. But there will be no NFL investigation and no player fines from league headquarters as a result of the melee.
On-field player conduct at practice is considered a club matter by the NFL, because training camp and team practices are team operated. Judging from his comments Tuesday, it doesn’t sound like Fisher is contemplating fines or discipline.
“There were probably a number of things that happened out there,” Fisher said. “Some not intentional; some intentional. We had a practice tempo that we had agreed upon, and for the most part we were OK.
“Both teams have young players that are trying to make the team, and sometimes they go beyond what’s expected or what the rest of the guys are doing. So we’ll look at it, but we’ll move on. I’m glad nobody got hurt.”
Even with the wild way the joint practices ended, Fisher said he would love to come back and practice against the Cowboys again. Because the practices were intense, Fisher told his players and told reporters it was like squeezing a fifth preseason game into the team’s camp schedule.
“I believe we got better these last two days,” linebacker James Laurinaitis said. “I really do. I think we got some really good work in against obviously a playoff team.”
A couple of the Cowboys’ big names – wide receiver Dez Bryant and left tackle Tyron Smith – didn’t take part in the joint practices because of injuries. (Although Bryant did make himself, uh, available for the brawl.) But there was still plenty of star power on the field for the Cowboys working against the Rams.
“We were just star-struck to be on the field with them,” defensive end Chris Long joked.
Well, Tony Romo is one of the game’s elite quarterbacks, tight end Jason Witten probably is a future Hall of Famer, and even without Smith the Cowboys have a talented offensive line.
But no matter who was on the other side of the line of scrimmage, the fact that it was somebody different was beneficial for the Rams.
“When you do for instance things like one-on-ones and all that, when you do it against your own team you start to learn the tendencies of your own guys,” Laurinaitis said. “You know what routes they’re really good at, and what they’re not good at.
“When you go out here blind against guys that you don’t see every day, it makes you get that much better at what you’re doing.”
Beyond that, as quarterback Nick Foles pointed out at the start of the trip, being on the road together can be a team-bonding experience. The Rams, who were scheduled to arrive back in St. Louis on Wednesday night, have been out of town for a week.
Even with the work accomplished against the Cowboys, the Rams haven’t practiced much in the last week and a half. They had a scheduled players’ day off Aug. 12. Then came a travel day to Oakland, followed by the Friday preseason opener against the Raiders. Last Saturday was a players’ day off; Sunday was a walk-through and film review.
Then came the Monday and Tuesday practices with Dallas. So it came as a surprise that Fisher called off Wednesday’s practice in Oxnard, which was supposed to be a Rams-only session. After a Wednesday walk-through in Oxnard, followed by a visit to nearby Point Mugu Naval Air Station, the team flew back to St. Louis.
When they take the field Thursday evening at Rams Park, it will mark only their third practice in nine days. That will be followed by a scheduled day off Friday, and then a travel day Saturday to Nashville for Sunday night’s preseason contest with the Tennessee Titans.
“We’ve got a tired team,” Fisher said, explaining his decision to cancel Wednesday’s work. “We’re gonna emphasize recovery.”
Perhaps it’s as much recovery from being road weary, as being practice weary. Even the trip to Oxnard was an hour commute for the team each day.
But Laurinaitis wasn’t complaining about the infrequency of practices.
“I mean, that’s what Coach does best,” Laurinaitis said. “He always finds a way to kind of get us our legs back. He always says you come into camp in the best shape of your life, and then you kind of break down. How can we get back up to that? So that’s just kind of one of those things — he’s trying to get our legs back to where we were.”
