Goff QB 2 on depth chart

[wiley16350]

I like Goff. When I graded a few of his college games he graded very well. The thing I liked most watching him in college was that he played well and was highly productive despite facing constant pressure. I don't think he was as bad in the pre-season as the media makes it out to be. The turnovers were kind of stupid unfortunate events more than they were indicative of Goff's abilities. I wrote about it here http://wiley16350.wixsite.com/blitz/single-post/2016/09/15/A-Positive-Look-at-Jared-Goff.

 

[dolphinlover123]

I like Goff. I wrote about it here http://wiley16350.wixsite.com/blitz/single-post/2016/09/15/A-Positive-Look-at-Jared-Goff.

you give me hope wiley. why???

EDIT: Nice write up btw!

 

[HitStick]

But I think Wentz has a better supporting cast.

That includes coaching.

 

[SteezyEndo]

So no one was really bumped or down because Keenum is still #1 and he was the only one who played last week #2 was non existent the entire game. What a load of crap.

 

[nighttrain]

I just checked the Rams web site and he is in the 2nd position and moved Mannion to 3rd. I guess the kid is moving up. I know I heard Fish mention about the possibility of him moving behind Case. I guess this means he is progressing.
It would be nice to see him play his 1st game as well or better than Wentz did in Philly.

wentz was throwin agin the Brownies, hard to be unsuccessful
train

 

[rdw]

I like Goff. When I graded a few of his college games he graded very well. The thing I liked most watching him in college was that he played well and was highly productive despite facing constant pressure. I don't think he was as bad in the pre-season as the media makes it out to be. The turnovers were kind of stupid unfortunate events more than they were indicative of Goff's abilities. I wrote about it here http://wiley16350.wixsite.com/blitz/single-post/2016/09/15/A-Positive-Look-at-Jared-Goff.

Nice write-up, thanks for sharing!

 

[Loyal]

wentz was throwin agin the Brownies, hard to be unsuccessful
train

I was saying the same last year, thinking of Gurley leading the way like the first Rams v 49ers game.. It was the freakin, sorry @ssed 49ers after all...We saw how that went

..No one respects Keenum, and I can't say that I disagree with them right now.

 

[den-the-coach]

I can't help reading that in a Darth Vader voice....

And is the very reason I named my son "Luke."

 

[LACHAMP46]

I'm hearing now that Fisher doesn't even wanna play Goff this season....Gotlieb had Sliver on his radio show...
http://www.turfshowtimes.com/2016/9...ver-rams-qb-jared-goff-might-not-play-in-2016
http://media.kfhradio.com/a/1167106...-9-15-16-mike-silver-nfl-network-reporter.htm
http://gottlieb.radio.cbssports.com/audio/the-doug-gottlieb-show/

And, just looking at it...not trying to be a fanboy....He's not built for the punishment of the NFL...None of our Rookies really are...maybe Mike Thomas....maybe...but they'll all benefit from a redshirt year and a solid off-season under the guidance of coach Rock...

@wiley16350
great read....worthy of it's own post...but I'll put it in here for guys that can't click the link...
http://wiley16350.wixsite.com/blitz/single-post/2016/09/15/A-Positive-Look-at-Jared-Goff
A Positive Look at Jared Goff
September 15, 2016
Richard
There are a lot of negative articles being written about Jared Goff. I have decided to go the positive route rather than join in with the mainstream by rushing to judgment about Goff’s abilities. The problem with the media is that they create a narrative and then feed it to the masses as if their story is the absolute truth.


Once Jared Goff was named the 3rd string QB at the end of the pre-season, the media began its attack. They created the narrative that Jared Goff was clearly not ready to start and that it is a major problem that he wasn’t good enough to beat out Case Keenum or Sean Mannion. Never mind that the Rams said Keenum was the starter right from the time that they drafted Goff. Never mind that it is possible the Rams don’t want to expose Goff to a team devoid of offensive talent too early. After all, the worst thing that can happen is to have the fans turn on Goff very early in his career. If they started Goff before Keenum and the team struggles behind him then the fans may be anxious to see Keenum and lose all hope in Goff. Starting Keenum first would give the Rams more time to develop the team and Goff so that he has a better shot of being successful once he is inserted in the lineup. If Keenum fails, the fans will be more anxious to see and then be supportive of Goff. It just makes sense to sit a young QB when you have very little talent around him. Everybody says this but now that a team does it, the media has to find the negative angle to exploit rather than congratulate a team for doing it the right way.


I’m not going to say that Goff is absolutely ready to play but I don’t agree that it was obvious in the pre-season that he wasn't ready. I didn’t see a QB that looked confused or consistently held the ball while looking for an open receiver. In fact, it was the opposite. He consistently got rid of the ball on time and made good decisions. He had 2 interceptions in the pre-season and both of them were the result of off target throws rather than bad decisions. He was sacked 5 times but only 1 of those was the result of holding onto the ball. 1 sack was caused when he tripped, 1 was caused by a fumble when he took his eyes off the ball while in the shotgun formation and the other 2 were the result of poor offensive line play. His accuracy was actually pretty good despite his 44.9 completion percentage. He attempted 50 passes (including passes called back because of penalties) and was on target with 43 of them. That is an 86% accuracy rate. If it weren’t for 13 dropped passes, he would have completed 35 of 50 for a 70% completion rate. All of a sudden, his 45% rate doesn’t look so bad. The fact is; accuracy and finding open receivers wasn’t really an issue so I don’t understand why people say it was obvious that Goff wasn’t ready to play.


I will say that Goff did have too many turnovers and he wasn’t highly productive in terms of getting points but I don’t think that was because of any lack in his abilities. I think it was the combination of bad luck and poor play by the players around him. The reason I say bad luck is because of the kind of turnovers he had, which I discuss in detail later on. I think it is the turnovers that make the media think that Goff isn’t ready. To me they were one of a kind turnovers that I don’t really expect to happen to Goff again. Since the main issue with Goff was his turnovers and production rather than ability, I want to review with you each drive that he led in the pre-season so you can get a sense of why I don’t think ability was his problem.


GAME 1 VS DALLAS COWBOYS


DRIVE 1

• Goff had a pass intercepted because he was hit from unblocked pressure and it forced a pass to go right to a linebacker and it was nowhere near Goff’s intended receiver. The pressure was 6 against 5 in favor of the Rams but the offensive line couldn’t adjust to the Cowboys stunt. The Rams 3 interior guys blocked 1 defender and allowed another defender to rush in untouched. It was caused by the Cowboys scheme more than anything. This had nothing to do with accuracy or poor ability to read the coverage. The only thing Goff could have done differently was to take the sack. The inability for the Rams to score on this drive was not on Goff because it was a 3rd down and the sack would have ended the drive also. What is on Goff is the fact that the Cowboys got great field position on the Rams side of the field. This was not a mistake made because of experience or not being ready to play, it was a mistake that the majority of if not all QB’s have made throughout their careers and the offensive line is mostly at fault for causing the turnover.

DRIVE 2

• After Goff had a pass dropped that would have gotten the Rams down inside the 10 yard line he was sacked because of an excellent stunt that made the left tackle unable to recover after getting drawn inside by the defensive end. That sack ended the drive and there wasn’t much Goff could have done to respond to the pressure that would have kept the drive going. The main reason the Rams didn’t score on this drive was the dropped pass.

COMMENTS
Goff only got 2 chances against the Cowboys and both of them were ruined by the poor play of teammates. Goff did give his team an opportunity to score on the second drive if it wasn’t for his receiver dropping a pass.


GAME 2 VS KANSAS CITY CHIEFS


DRIVE 1

• This drive ended on a fumble by Goff when he landed on his hand that he was holding the ball with. The impetus for the sack was Goff tripping but it wasn’t clear whether he tripped over his own feet or somebody else’s feet. This was just kind of a stupid play that you don’t expect to happen very often. I don’t think it has anything to do with Goff’s ability. I have seen the greatest of QB’s have stupid fumbles similar to this. I once saw Joe Montana run into the back of his own lineman and fumble the ball away. Montana was more experienced and it was in a comeback situation. I don't think it ever defined Montana as a QB. Stupid things happen to the best of them.

DRIVE 2

• This drive ended with what may have been Goff’s worst play of the pre-season. He did a good job of rolling away from pressure and then it looked like he was going to do the right thing by throwing the ball away. For whatever reason he decided to not throw the ball away at that first moment. He did decide to throw the ball away after that but it was too late and he had his arm hit and he fumbled the ball. Luckily it went out of bounds. Ultimately, the result was the same as if he would have thrown the ball away but it could have been much worse. He did get lucky here to have the ball roll out of bounds. This is the first play where you might question Goff’s ability to find an open receiver. He didn’t have a lot of time but it is possible that a receiver was open before the pressure arrived. Since there is no coach’s tape for the pre-season, it is impossible to know for sure. You also have to recognize that it is very possible that there were no open receivers. The biggest thing he did wrong was to not throw the ball away the first time he thought about doing it. I’m guessing he may have seen a receiver out of the corner of his eye and it made him re-think throwing the ball away. I don’t expect him to make this same mistake again.

DRIVE 3

• This is a drive that Goff is definitely responsible for ending because he threw into excellent coverage on 3rd and short. He had a receiver on the opposite side of the field much more open. Since Goff wasn’t under pressure, there was no reason to force the pass into coverage. It is tough to gauge whether or not the defender should have picked it off or if a knock down was the best that should have been expected of him. Either way, Goff was completely at fault for the drive ending at the point that it did.

DRIVE 4

• The reason this drive ended was because a receiver dropped a pass on 2nd & 7 and a screen pass on 3rd down wasn’t able to pick up the necessary yardage.

DRIVE 5

• This was Goff’s first scoring drive as he completed 3 of 3 for 34 yards and a touchdown. He did get a nice 1 handed catch on the touchdown throw but quick pressure off the edge forced Goff to get rid of the ball quickly. It also stands to reason that Goff was throwing the ball away from the defense and so the pass wasn’t as off target as it looked.

DRIVE 6

• This drive ended on a screen pass that was dropped by the running back. The running back could only get 1 hand on the ball but that was caused by the play not developing as fast as the pressure arrived. The positioning of the defensive player closest to the running back also forced Goff to throw the ball away from the running back as much as he did. Ultimately it was still a very catch-able pass. The play wouldn’t have gotten the necessary yardage anyways because a defender immediately tackled the running back.

COMMENTS
This was the bad luck game and probably had the most effect on why people think Goff isn’t ready. The first 2 drives ended in turnovers that I really don’t expect to see again and I don’t think say much if anything about Goff’s abilities. The 3rd drive was the first drive where Goff’s ability was the reason the drive ended. Two of the last 3 drives were ruined by dropped passes and the other drive was a touchdown.


GAME 3 VS DENVER BRONCOS


DRIVE 1

• This drive ended when Goff didn’t get enough yards with a 3 yard run when trying to convert a 3rd & 4. Goff chose to slide rather than dive to get the first down. If this was a regular season game, his slide would not be acceptable. Since it was a pre-season game I won’t consider him at fault for the drive failure. He would have taken an unnecessary shot if he would have dove. It wouldn’t be worth it in the pre-season.

DRIVE 2

• This was one of Goff’s best drives of the pre-season with the exception of 1 play. Goff was only 2 of 7 for 33 yards but he could have been 5 of 9 for 64 yards if it wasn’t for drops and penalties. This was his 2nd scoring drive of the pre-season and he was accurate on multiple passes for more than 10 yards. The only problem with this drive was that he threw behind a receiver and had an interception dropped. That interception would have cost the Rams the field goal that they got. It is debatable whether or not it was a bad decision because a more accurate pass had a shot to be completed.

DRIVE 3

• This drive was mostly about penalties that came on 2 pass plays. It is hard to tell whether Goff was accurate on either of the plays because of pass interference and illegal contact. The Rams were in field goal range but chose to try for a 4th down conversion. Goff’s 4th down pass hit the receiver in the hands but he couldn’t bring the pass in before the defender made contact. It doesn’t look like the defender hit the ball but he did contact the receiver which was enough to make him drop the pass. It was a 4th & 2 and would have been a 1st down if the receiver caught the pass. Many things made it harder for Goff to get the completion. The first thing was that there was a blitz off the edge that went unblocked. That blitz forced Goff to use only half the field since it would be nearly impossible to complete a pass into tight coverage on the blitz side. That in turn forced Goff to throw to the side with only 1 receiver and gave him only 1 option to throw to. That receiver then made things harder because he rounded off his route and faded towards the defender rather than sharply cutting at the sticks and making it harder for the defender to recover. The only thing that may have been possible for Goff to get that completion would have been to throw the pass low but I’m not sure that is true either. Ultimately, the Rams were in position to score so there is no fault on Goff for not getting points.

COMMENTS
Goff only got 3 chances in this game and the Rams scored on 1 drive and were in position to score on another drive. The other drive possibly ended because of the situation and hopefully not something that Goff will do in the regular season. Goff did have an interception dropped so the fact a drive didn’t end because of him in this game was only because of luck.


GAME 4 VS MINNESOTA VIKINGS


DRIVE 1

• This was a touchdown drive but not much of it was because of Goff. His biggest play shouldn’t have counted because he threw the ball after he was past the line of scrimmage but the officials apparently never saw it. The other big play of the drive was on a screen pass. Goff did complete a very nice pass into tight coverage to get the touchdown.

DRIVE 2

• Goff didn’t get much of a chance on this drive as his only attempt was on a 3rd & 9. He overthrew an open receiver but he did have pressure in his face and took a hit so there is some reason as to why the pass was off target.

DRIVE 3

• Goff only had 1 bad play on this drive but unfortunately it was on 3rd down. He overthrew an open receiver that would have been able to get the 1st down if the pass was accurate. Pressure was not a factor so that makes the drive failure all on him.

DRIVE 4

• Goff didn’t get much of a chance on this drive as his only attempt was on a 3rd & 7. Unblocked pressure forced him to throw the ball away. There is no way to tell if he had an open receiver. The receiver he threw in the direction of was well covered and it looked like the Vikings were playing tight all the way across the field.

DRIVE 5

• Goff had a second down pass dropped on this drive and then had his 3rd down pass come up a yard or so short of the 1st down. He had to throw against quick pressure on both plays so he did well to give his team a shot despite poor play from the offensive line.

DRIVE 6

• This drive ended on another fumble that had very little to do with Goff’s ability. It seems like Goff looked too soon to check the defense and dropped the ball when it wasn’t in the precise location that he was expecting it to be. It still was very catch-able so Goff had no excuse. It is another play that I don’t really expect to see again. I don’t think it says anything about what kind of QB Goff is.

DRIVE 7

• This drive ended when Goff’s 3rd down pass was dropped. The pass was above the receivers head but still catch-able. It would have been enough for the 1st down.

COMMENTS
This was the game where Goff got the most opportunities in terms of drives but some of those were wasted by play calling and teammates. Three of the 7 drives ended because of dropped passes or poor offensive line play. Since 1 drive ended with a touchdown, we have 3 other drives where Goff could be responsible for not scoring. One of those 3 drives wasn’t all Goff’s fault as pressure and a hit caused him to be inaccurate on 3rd down. That leaves 2 drives that were all on Goff and once again we had a stupid fumble that doesn’t necessarily reflect his abilities. The biggest failure was missing an open receiver on 3rd down when there was no pressure.


CONCLUSION
There were 2 drives where the inability to score was about Goff’s abilities and only his ability. There was 1 other drive that should have ended because Goff didn’t make a good throw and he should have been intercepted. That means Goff wasn’t good enough on 3 of his 18 drives of the pre-season based on actual ability. I don’t think that is out of line when compared to any other QB. The problem is when you include the 3 fumbles that he had. That is what made his pre-season look so bad. It is my opinion that those fumbles weren’t caused by him being unprepared or not capable or not being ready to compete in the NFL. I think they were an unfortunate string of events that should not continue once he starts for real. If they do continue, then I might start to agree that it has something to do with Goff’s personality or ability to perform on the big stage. For now I won’t get carried away with talk of Goff not being good enough or of him being a bust. It is way too early to make those kinds of declarations. What I saw was a QB that was generally accurate, got rid of the ball quickly and was for whatever reason a spectator of multiple unfortunate events.

 

[Ramhusker]

My prediction is the Rams #1 pick, Goff, will be dressed for the first regular season game played in LA in 22 years. It's going to be a media frenzy even after the turd the Rams laid last week. Too much attention going to be given to this game so Goff will have a Rams uniform on even if it is on the sideline.

 

[LumberTubs]

View: https://twitter.com/mylesasimmons/status/776880395044347904

 

[Boston Ram]

I bet there is a short leash for Keenum too.

 

[RamsJunkie]

Its a step in the right direction. Now at least if Keenum is stinking up the joint they at least have the option to put Goff in.

 

[jrry32]

That officially sucks.

 

[RamsJunkie]

That officially sucks.

I'm not happy about it either but what a better way to start his career as a ram than for Keenum to put up zero points again in the first half and then Goff comes in and leads the team to victory in there first game back in LA. one can dream

 

[Bruce2980]

I'm not happy about it either but what a better way to start his career as a ram than for Keenum to put up zero points again in the first half and then Goff comes in and leads the team to victory in there first game back in LA. one can dream

That would be pretty cool to see.

 

[-X-]

That officially sucks.

Patience Young Grasshopper.

 

[JIMERAMS]

LMFAO. X awesome

 

[Jorgeh0605]

I'll take the small victory!

 

[LumberTubs]

View: https://twitter.com/mylesasimmons/status/776881450922541056


This would annoy me if it happens.