PREGAME Rams at Cardinals Pregame Thread
- Thread starter Fire Ants
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DeaconJones
Rookie
Even coming out of retirement, Woods would be the best route runner and blocker on the field for us.
CJ Daniels, Konata Mumpfield, Xavier Smith. I believe that all of these guys have potential.
But while I haven't been to one practice, in the preseason games I've watched the past couple seasons, the most impressive WR has been Brennan Presley. Hopefully, he's not just active for special teams and is given a real shot to make some plays on offense tomorrow.
But while I haven't been to one practice, in the preseason games I've watched the past couple seasons, the most impressive WR has been Brennan Presley. Hopefully, he's not just active for special teams and is given a real shot to make some plays on offense tomorrow.
Not so sure on that. The Cards sacked Stafford 3 times and he was 25 of 33 for 222. That was with Puka and Adams playing. That tells me the Cards secondary was pretty good that day. This is at Arizona and each game takes on it's own identity...but in this game I think McVay has to lean harder on the run game. KW and Corum rushed 19 times combined but both avg'd about 5 yds a carry.
The Rams WR attack is thin...and these are guys Stafford doesn't have rhythm with like he does with Puka and Adams. We're gonna see CJ Daniels out there for the 1st time also. McVay does well to come out running hard in my view...and I wouldn't be surprised to see Higbeast lining up as a WR a few times, as well as some passing to KW and Corum out of the backfield to keep the Cards defense off balance.
The biggest mistake I can see McVay making, is coming out throwing. He really needs to have a balanced attack rushing hard to hopefully create short yardage on 2nd and 3rd down where he has the run/pass option. The Ram OLine run blocking is gonna be a big deal, as well as very little offensive penalties!!!
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BonifayRam
Legend
When this season concludes, there's going to be a great need to get changes made & big work ahead to make a solid GROUP of pass catchers in this 2027 WR room, no matter who's QB Stetson Bennett, TY Simpson, or an unknown veteran.
McVay has one very well-known WR coach here... Eric Yarber, but both Robert Woods & Rob Calabrese are in their FIRST season coaching WR's.
I am very interested in seeing a good amount of offensive snaps of WR Brennan Presley! Please get him in that lineup.
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... to be clear ... this is intended to be a joke .. I was lookig for a Confused Einstein but could not find one
BonifayRam
Legend
Then let these speedsters with high velocity run under that deep ball instead of having them fight and claw LB'ers and safeties off in crowded short and mid zones! Rams have 4 very fast WRs-Brennan Presley 4.46 seconds) Tyler Scott(4.29 seconds) Xavier Smith{4.38 seconds) & Tutu Atwell(4.39 seconds) in the 40's. ; Mumpfield and Daniels are not them.
Rams have an outstanding OL use it!
That’s okay because Smith & Atwell are extremely fast and Presley is twitchy. Daniels offers the size for the redzone, if you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with,
Again, just to be fair and objective ... the Cardinals WR depth chart against the Rams will be ...
Simi Fehoko
Devin Durenay
Reggie Virgil
Harrison Wallace
Those guys ... combined ... have eight receptions this year ... 8
They do have a top-tier-TE
Looks like there will be enough tight ends to run 13 personnel. Higbee, Allen and Parkinson are all trending towards playing. Just hope they come out of the game unscathed. They will be needed against Green Bay.
Shula needs to pull a Belicheat and concentrate on eliminating McBride every down at all costs. Let the scrubs beat us if they can.
Hope so but they were all active last week. Both Parkinson and Allen have been playing but are banged-up.
As you also mention here, not a lot of game reps with these receivers and Stafford.
If I were the Cards, I would be spending lots of extra time on tipped ball drills. Bad route running and the potential timing issues can lead to deflected passes and costly interceptions.
I also think screens to KW are in order.......just not to BC.
See my tipped passes comments above on that.
Yeah, Parkinson missed a couple games and has been in and out of a few other games getting dinged up a lot. Him and Allen have not always been available for 60 minutes having to come out with injury. I hope the bye will help them heal. Too bad its not a full two weeks.
Looks like the ground stop won't affect any NFL team flights. But they had to shuffle the referees schedule. Our ref crew changed from Adrian Hill's crew to Land Clark's crew. This is what I found on his tendencies:
Land Clark is generally a below-average flag thrower who leans slightly toward calling penalties against the offense and the home team. Across the 2025 and 2026 seasons, his crew has ranked among the more lenient officiating groups in overall penalty volume.
Offensive Focus. Clark's crew calls a noticeably higher share of penalties on the offensive side of the ball compared to the NFL average, led by offensive holding (2.06 per game in 2025) and false starts (1.50 per game in 2025). Early in the 2026 season, roughly 65% of his crew's penalties—and 75% on third downs—were assessed against the offense.
Land Clark is generally a below-average flag thrower who leans slightly toward calling penalties against the offense and the home team. Across the 2025 and 2026 seasons, his crew has ranked among the more lenient officiating groups in overall penalty volume.
Offensive Focus. Clark's crew calls a noticeably higher share of penalties on the offensive side of the ball compared to the NFL average, led by offensive holding (2.06 per game in 2025) and false starts (1.50 per game in 2025). Early in the 2026 season, roughly 65% of his crew's penalties—and 75% on third downs—were assessed against the offense.
In the first game this year, Quessenberry filled in for Jackson at left tackle. On the podcast of BTHs, they said Quess's play was good, but he sets differently than Jackson, which affected Avalia in protection. You can watch it for details. So that's a positive for the passing game.
I'm inclined to go with the quick offense. Rams are more focused in that offense, while the Cardinals will have to make faster defensive calls. Go with 13P; have a balanced attack. I think they can run and pass either way they need to avoid penalties. They can either spread the 13P or go tight formation. Keep the defense guessing.
You can always second-guess the play call when it doesn't work. It's as much about execution as it is about play calling. Sometimes the defense makes plays.
Drive 1: The Rams decide to pass on 3rd and a long 1. Stafford can't find anyone open and gets pressure for incomplete pass.
Should they have run there?
Drive 2 : They had two solid runs of 8 and 9 yards and then lost 2 yards. The next two plays were incomplete passes.
Goal line attempt to Parkinson and then a sack.
Was it the play calling or the defense stepping up?
Drive3: Conservative call on 3rd down and 7.
Against the Cardinals on October 18, 2026, the Rams ran 12 offensive plays across three first-quarter drives, splitting them evenly between 6 pass dropbacks (5 pass attempts, 1 sack) and 6 rushing attempts. [1, 2]
| Drive | Play-by-Play Sequence (1st Quarter) | Split |
|---|---|---|
| Drive 1 (Punt) | 1. Kyren Williams 3-yard run 2. Matthew Stafford 6-yard pass to Colby Parkinson 3. Stafford incomplete pass | 1 Rush, 2 Pass |
| Drive 2 (Field Goal) | 1. Blake Corum 9-yard run 2. Corum 8-yard run 3. Corum -2-yard run 4. Stafford incomplete deep pass to Parkinson 5. Stafford sacked for -9 yards (Josh Sweat) | 3 Rush, 2 Dropbacks |
| Drive 3 (Punt) | 1. Stafford 3-yard pass to Kyren Williams 2. Stafford incomplete pass to Williams 3. Williams 5-yard run | 1 Rush, 2 Pass |
Tape their practices and walkthroughs?
Deflate some footballs?
Mess with the radio signals of the headsets?
Use the big video screen to put up some fake images of the goal posts and wind patterns?