Finally re-watched ATL game (long)

[Ramit]

On this forum, blue font= sarcasm.

I know haha....thats why I said I see what you did there....it was sarcasm without blue font.

 

[XXXIVwin]

Peterson was on & off the field all year. Just sucked he let Coppers fumble go to the Falcons,
.

Yeah, I really noticed the Kevin Peterson play when I re-watched. Peterson fell directly on top of the Cooper muffed punt, but somehow the football squirted out from underneath him. Game changing play

 

[XXXIVwin]

I know haha....thats why I said I see what you did there....it was sarcasm without blue font.

Yeah... it was actually a crappy attempt at a Jeff Fisher joke. As in, “Unlike with McVay, we never had to worry that Fisher would abandon the run too soon.”

I heard some faint grumbling (after Saints game, for example) about McVay’s supposed lack of commitment to the run game... as far as I’m concerned, McVay is an offensive genius and I’m not going to second-guess him.

Falcons chewed up the clock, and when we were down by 13 in the fourth, we had to rely on the pass

 

[Ramit]

Yeah... it was actually a crappy attempt at a Jeff Fisher joke. As in, “Unlike with McVay, we never had to worry that Fisher would abandon the run too soon.”

I heard some faint grumbling (after Saints game, for example) about McVay’s supposed lack of commitment to the run game... as far as I’m concerned, McVay is an offensive genius and I’m not going to second-guess him.

Falcons chewed up the clock, and when we were down by 13 in the fourth, we had to rely on the pass

Yeah bro, I knew exactly what you were alluding to. Wasn't knocking on yah at all, just being silly.
As far as the playoff game goes? We had a lot of success there in that game, but would it have made sense to pound the rock more when we were trailing late in the game? Absolutely not! Might we have done well to commit to the run in the first couple of series and then build play action and intermediate route work from there? Absolutely! But hindsight is always 20/20 and I have complete faith that McVay will learn from the experiance. As will each remaining member of the team. It will serve as a great learning experience for everyone involved.
Honestly? I'm just incredibly happy that we were competitive in our first playoff game even after all of the mistakes.

 

[majrleaged]

Yeah bro, I knew exactly what you were alluding to. Wasn't knocking on yah at all, just being silly.
As far as the playoff game goes? We had a lot of success there in that game, but would it have made sense to pound the rock more when we were trailing late in the game? Absolutely not! Might we have done well to commit to the run in the first couple of series and then build play action and intermediate route work from there? Absolutely! But hindsight is always 20/20 and I have complete faith that McVay will learn from the experiance. As will each remaining member of the team. It will serve as a great learning experience for everyone involved.
Honestly? I'm just incredibly happy that we were competitive in our first playoff game even after all of the mistakes.

As far as running more earlier in the game, I think the 2 turnovers, which lost us chances for the offense to gain a rhythm and settle in, kind of got us off balance when it came to play calling. We finally recovered and had some momentum going into the second half and then Tree's going for the big hit instead of breaking down and making the tackle, basically cost us our momentum. To me, when Tree screwed that play up and then how the rest of the game played out, I think it sealed his fate. To many times during the season he pulled this type of crap play. It was the last straw.

 

[CGI_Ram]

We played like an inexperienced team, which we were.

Once we made a few mistakes, we lost confidence... like an inexperienced team.

I don’t fault anyone in particular because there are a few things that played into that. But we weren’t as loose as we should have been.

 

[Ramit]

As far as running more earlier in the game, I think the 2 turnovers, which lost us chances for the offense to gain a rhythm and settle in, kind of got us off balance when it came to play calling. We finally recovered and had some momentum going into the second half and then Tree's going for the big hit instead of breaking down and making the tackle, basically cost us our momentum. To me, when Tree screwed that play up and then how the rest of the game played out, I think it sealed his fate. To many times during the season he pulled this type of crap play. It was the last straw.

Ogletree was a fish out of water in Wades system and was fully exposed in this game. Enough said there.

We played like an inexperienced team, which we were.

Once we made a few mistakes, we lost confidence... like an inexperienced team.

I don’t fault anyone in particular because there are a few things that played into that. But we weren’t as loose as we should have been.

Agreed completely CGI. I think you took the words right out of my mouth. Cheers.

 

[Merlin]

Goin off memory here but the offense as a unit had the yips the entire game. Atlanta played lights out defensively and Jones was all over Gurley and played a role in helping to neutralize him. Then you have players who are the ones the offense is supposed to rely on not helping the kid QB find his rhythm... Watkins, Higbee droppin passes and Pharoh fumbling on teams it was a mess. Goff also didn't play with the accuracy and consistency he normally had, and I think he was a big part of the nerves the unit showed, but again the 10 around him didn't exactly help him get rolling when he did make some good throws.

Defensively... Early in the game the Rams defense had Atlanta near their end zone and Donald broke through the line and would have had a game-changing safety. But the TE I think it was got just enough of a chip on him to save the day. Honestly it looked like the defense was so geeked up that they were exhausted by halftime. But of course much of that was their own doing in <gasp> not being able to get themselves off the field. Which was in turn due to sloppy run defense and tackling. And the pass defense was bad at the wrong times too, which is another hallmark of the players I think moreso than the defensive calls as our secondary pulled the same BS under Fisher.

What we lacked in that game--to my eye at least--was determination in the "key" guys to turn around the adversity and get it done. If you look at the changes they made, they clearly addressed a lot of the areas where that was true. Those changes plus growth of our kid QB will hopefully ensure they're ready for this year's playoff game.

 

[RamsFanCK]

You inspired me to go and re-watch the game myself. The biggest, and I mean huge, monumental, insane factor, was the field conditions. On the Rams first drive alone Gurley fell trying to make a cut. On 3rd down Goff tried to cut back to the middle of the field when scrambling and would have had a wide open field for the first down, instead he just fell right in front of the defender. Then there was all the dropped passes that made me think the slick field was making the ball slick, usually sure handed receiver's were letting everything slip through their hands. Donald was slipping when trying to get leverage. All the corners on both sides fell multiple times. I mean....jeeze, it was honestly worse than I remember.

Anyone know how they are going to address this for future prime time game in the Coliseum?

 

[Dodgersrf]

Call me crazy but I think Littleton is going to surprise us.

I sure hope so.
LB is going to be the most anticipated group to watch in camp. I'm so excited that football is almost upon us

 

[Dodgersrf]

Goin off memory here but the offense as a unit had the yips the entire game. Atlanta played lights out defensively and Jones was all over Gurley and played a role in helping to neutralize him. Then you have players who are the ones the offense is supposed to rely on not helping the kid QB find his rhythm... Watkins, Higbee droppin passes and Pharoh fumbling on teams it was a mess. Goff also didn't play with the accuracy and consistency he normally had, and I think he was a big part of the nerves the unit showed, but again the 10 around him didn't exactly help him get rolling when he did make some good throws.

Defensively... Early in the game the Rams defense had Atlanta near their end zone and Donald broke through the line and would have had a game-changing safety. But the TE I think it was got just enough of a chip on him to save the day. Honestly it looked like the defense was so geeked up that they were exhausted by halftime. But of course much of that was their own doing in <gasp> not being able to get themselves off the field. Which was in turn due to sloppy run defense and tackling. And the pass defense was bad at the wrong times too, which is another hallmark of the players I think moreso than the defensive calls as our secondary pulled the same BS under Fisher.

What we lacked in that game--to my eye at least--was determination in the "key" guys to turn around the adversity and get it done. If you look at the changes they made, they clearly addressed a lot of the areas where that was true. Those changes plus growth of our kid QB will hopefully ensure they're ready for this year's playoff game.

The offense started to get into rhythm before the half, but that ended after the half. Atl was just too stingy with the ball.

 

[kurtfaulk]

Atlanta played lights out defensively and Jones was all over Gurley and played a role in helping to neutralize him.

i think apart from ogletree, higbee and watkins, what irritated me the most from that game was that after seeing the falcons went all out to stop gurley as an outlet for goff the rams didn't try to make them pay for that. if they went all out to stop gurley in the passing game surely another player was open. they just kept going back to gurley and he kept getting tackled as soon as he caught the ball. it was weird that a coach like mcvay didn't set them up for big plays knowing they only had eyes for gurley.

.

 

[Akrasian]

i think apart from ogletree, higbee and watkins, what irritated me the most from that game was that after seeing the falcons went all out to stop gurley as an outlet for goff the rams didn't try to make them pay for that. if they went all out to stop gurley in the passing game surely another player was open. they just kept going back to gurley and he kept getting tackled as soon as he caught the ball. it was weird that a coach like mcvay didn't set them up for big plays knowing they only had eyes for gurley.

.

And that's where Cooks comes in. Precise route running, and always a threat deep. Focus on anybody else, and he'll be open for a long gain. Which means Gurley will be open for his 12 yard gains, over and over.

 

[XXXIVwin]

You inspired me to go and re-watch the game myself. The biggest, and I mean huge, monumental, insane factor, was the field conditions.

Agreed, CK. I’d forgotten how much the field influenced the game. It was almost like watching a game in a foot of snow in Buffalo.