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Carey Davis joined Kevin Wheeler to talk about the Rams loss to the Vikes, the lack of success in the passing game, who’s to blame.
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Rams-Vikings: The Day After
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ESPN.com Rams reporter Nick Wagoner breaks down the loss to the Vikings with Bernie.
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Five Takeaways: Rams at Vikings
By Myles Simmons
View: http://www.stlouisrams.com/news-and-events/article-1/Five-Takeaways-Rams-at-Vikings/c880305b-fc84-4a88-8e29-68d190caa45c
The Rams suffered a disappointing 21-18 loss to the Vikings in Minnesota yesterday, which underscored the need for improvement in several areas. Let’s take a look at those and also review what went right for the club in this edition of five takeaways.
1) Third down remains an issue
As has been the case for a number of weeks, the Rams failed to convert enough of their third-down opportunities on Sunday. The offense was just 2-of-16 in the situation, and both of those conversions came during the first quarter.
“We made some bigger plays, we had some more yardage, but when it came down to it, we weren’t able to keep drives alive,” head coach Jeff Fisher said after the game. “And that’s been a problem for us here over the last few weeks. So we’ve got to keep working on that.”
The Rams have now converted just four of their 37 third-down chances in the last three weeks. This has been discussed plenty, and it’s something St. Louis is clearly working on. The benefits of being successful in the situation are clear.
On 3rd-and-6 from St. Louis’ 24-yard line, quarterback Nick Foles found wide receiver Tavon Austin at the first-down marker, with Austin getting a few more yards after the catch for a 10-yard gain. Then on 3rd-and-5 from the visitors’ 39, Foles launched a deep pass over the middle to wide receiver Kenny Britt and the receiver made a contested catch at the Minnesota 6 for a 55-yard gain.
But after that, the Rams did not successfully convert a third down for the rest of the game.
The potential is there, but it must be realized throughout the game.
2) Too many penalties
The Rams were flagged 12 times for 87 yards, which in and of itself is too many. But perhaps more concerning than the number is the costliness. While the Rams held the Vikings to just 3-of-13 in third-down efficiency, six of the home team’s 21 first downs were attained via penalty.
“There’s just certain things like that -- situational football -- that we can do better on, that I expect us to do better on,” linebacker James Laurinaitis said. “We’re experienced now. So that’s the disappointing thing is situational stuff like that.”
The defense was also too susceptible to the hard count, as the unit got flagged four times for being offsides and earned another neutral-zone infraction.
“I’ve got to get it fixed,” Fisher said. “We’ve had seven defensive offsides in two weeks. It was a no brainer going into this week that they were going to do it. And that didn’t help us.”
Laurinaitis said Fisher and defensive coordinator Gregg Williams had harped on not jumping offsides throughout the week, with the scout team performing plenty of hard counts. Unfortunately, it was still an issue.
“I don’t mind the pass interference and stuff like that. That’s football,” Laurinaitis said. “Stuff happens after the snap that’s hard. But pre-snap stuff, we’ve got to cut it out because we’re just shooting ourselves in the foot. We’re giving teams second chances when we do it.”
“It’s not like you’re trying to do it on purpose, like you’re trying to make a penalty,” defensive tackle Michael Brockers said. “I guess your head is just not in the game at that point. You’re thinking about something else and you hear that snap count and you’re like, ‘OK, go.’
“Teams are mixing it up on us,” Brockers added. “It’s our job to be responsible and accountable for not jumping offsides. And we’ve just got to do a better job at that.”
3) Missed opportunities after touchdowns
Fisher elected to go for a two-point conversion after the Rams’ first-quarter touchdown, a decision the head coach said he would repeat.
“I felt like we were going to need as many scoring opportunities as [possible]. And also, it’s indicative of how the wind was,” Fisher said. “I liked what we had and I let the coaches know that I observed the wind. And it’s a long kick -- [the wind] was pushing the ball around. And so whether it worked out or not, I would do it again.”
Running back Todd Gurley was stuffed before he could reach the goal line on the play.
Much has been made of that decision, but there was an opportunity on defense that could have changed the game as well. After Minnesota quarterback Teddy Bridgewater ran in a 6-yard touchdown in the third quarter, the Vikings elected to go for two. The passing play was well covered, but Bridgewater found a lane to his right and snuck in the front right corner of the end zone to make the score 18-15 instead of 16-15.
The Rams had trouble getting to Bridgewater all day, who was able to effectively make plays with his feet.
“I mentioned it that one of the things, I don’t think, he’s known for is his ability to move around, scramble, and extend plays. He’s outstanding at that,” Fisher said.
“They didn’t do a lot of dropback passes either,” Brockers said. “They did a lot of boots, rollouts, play-action -- stuff to keep the heat off of [Bridgewater]. So they had a great scheme for us.”
4) Gurley/Austin combination continues to work
On the positive front, the Rams’ offense continued to show that it has something going with the combination of Gurley running through the tackles and Austin countering that by running on the outside. With Minnesota loading the box against Gurley, Austin took advantage of the opportunities rushing eight times for 66 yards.
“It usually pulls the defense a little bit, and we noticed that they were paying a little bit more attention to Todd, so we hand the ball to Tavon,” Fisher said.
In most of those instances, Foles would run a play fake to Gurley, and then hand it off to Austin as he ran through the backfield.
“I think it’s just, you’ve got a lot of things going on. You’ve got Todd running the other way. You’ve got Tav’ coming around the corner. We’ve also thrown it off of that,” Foles said. “There are a lot of things the defense has to look at during that play. But Tav does a great job of --sometimes it’s not quite there, he makes something out of nothing. So Tavon did a great job on that.”
While Gurley did not register 100 yards rushing for the first time as a starter, he still had 89 yards on 24 carries and a touchdown. With 20 yards on three receptions, he finished with 109 yards from scrimmage.
5) Zuerlein sets a record
Kicker Greg Zuerlein made four of his five attempted field goals on Sunday, including one from a record-setting distance of 61 yards.
With the wind at his back and the Rams down 10-6 in the second quarter, Zuerlein split the uprights to set a new franchise record for longest field goal.
It’s a strong accomplishment, but Zuerlein was primarily disappointed in the locker room that the Rams didn’t come out on top on Sunday.
“It’s great, but I don’t really care about any of that. What I care about is winning games, and we didn’t do that today,” Zuerlein said. “If it would’ve helped us win, I’d be a lot happier.”
By Myles Simmons
View: http://www.stlouisrams.com/news-and-events/article-1/Five-Takeaways-Rams-at-Vikings/c880305b-fc84-4a88-8e29-68d190caa45c
The Rams suffered a disappointing 21-18 loss to the Vikings in Minnesota yesterday, which underscored the need for improvement in several areas. Let’s take a look at those and also review what went right for the club in this edition of five takeaways.
1) Third down remains an issue
As has been the case for a number of weeks, the Rams failed to convert enough of their third-down opportunities on Sunday. The offense was just 2-of-16 in the situation, and both of those conversions came during the first quarter.
“We made some bigger plays, we had some more yardage, but when it came down to it, we weren’t able to keep drives alive,” head coach Jeff Fisher said after the game. “And that’s been a problem for us here over the last few weeks. So we’ve got to keep working on that.”
The Rams have now converted just four of their 37 third-down chances in the last three weeks. This has been discussed plenty, and it’s something St. Louis is clearly working on. The benefits of being successful in the situation are clear.
On 3rd-and-6 from St. Louis’ 24-yard line, quarterback Nick Foles found wide receiver Tavon Austin at the first-down marker, with Austin getting a few more yards after the catch for a 10-yard gain. Then on 3rd-and-5 from the visitors’ 39, Foles launched a deep pass over the middle to wide receiver Kenny Britt and the receiver made a contested catch at the Minnesota 6 for a 55-yard gain.
But after that, the Rams did not successfully convert a third down for the rest of the game.
The potential is there, but it must be realized throughout the game.
2) Too many penalties
The Rams were flagged 12 times for 87 yards, which in and of itself is too many. But perhaps more concerning than the number is the costliness. While the Rams held the Vikings to just 3-of-13 in third-down efficiency, six of the home team’s 21 first downs were attained via penalty.
“There’s just certain things like that -- situational football -- that we can do better on, that I expect us to do better on,” linebacker James Laurinaitis said. “We’re experienced now. So that’s the disappointing thing is situational stuff like that.”
The defense was also too susceptible to the hard count, as the unit got flagged four times for being offsides and earned another neutral-zone infraction.
“I’ve got to get it fixed,” Fisher said. “We’ve had seven defensive offsides in two weeks. It was a no brainer going into this week that they were going to do it. And that didn’t help us.”
Laurinaitis said Fisher and defensive coordinator Gregg Williams had harped on not jumping offsides throughout the week, with the scout team performing plenty of hard counts. Unfortunately, it was still an issue.
“I don’t mind the pass interference and stuff like that. That’s football,” Laurinaitis said. “Stuff happens after the snap that’s hard. But pre-snap stuff, we’ve got to cut it out because we’re just shooting ourselves in the foot. We’re giving teams second chances when we do it.”
“It’s not like you’re trying to do it on purpose, like you’re trying to make a penalty,” defensive tackle Michael Brockers said. “I guess your head is just not in the game at that point. You’re thinking about something else and you hear that snap count and you’re like, ‘OK, go.’
“Teams are mixing it up on us,” Brockers added. “It’s our job to be responsible and accountable for not jumping offsides. And we’ve just got to do a better job at that.”
3) Missed opportunities after touchdowns
Fisher elected to go for a two-point conversion after the Rams’ first-quarter touchdown, a decision the head coach said he would repeat.
“I felt like we were going to need as many scoring opportunities as [possible]. And also, it’s indicative of how the wind was,” Fisher said. “I liked what we had and I let the coaches know that I observed the wind. And it’s a long kick -- [the wind] was pushing the ball around. And so whether it worked out or not, I would do it again.”
Running back Todd Gurley was stuffed before he could reach the goal line on the play.
Much has been made of that decision, but there was an opportunity on defense that could have changed the game as well. After Minnesota quarterback Teddy Bridgewater ran in a 6-yard touchdown in the third quarter, the Vikings elected to go for two. The passing play was well covered, but Bridgewater found a lane to his right and snuck in the front right corner of the end zone to make the score 18-15 instead of 16-15.
The Rams had trouble getting to Bridgewater all day, who was able to effectively make plays with his feet.
“I mentioned it that one of the things, I don’t think, he’s known for is his ability to move around, scramble, and extend plays. He’s outstanding at that,” Fisher said.
“They didn’t do a lot of dropback passes either,” Brockers said. “They did a lot of boots, rollouts, play-action -- stuff to keep the heat off of [Bridgewater]. So they had a great scheme for us.”
4) Gurley/Austin combination continues to work
On the positive front, the Rams’ offense continued to show that it has something going with the combination of Gurley running through the tackles and Austin countering that by running on the outside. With Minnesota loading the box against Gurley, Austin took advantage of the opportunities rushing eight times for 66 yards.
“It usually pulls the defense a little bit, and we noticed that they were paying a little bit more attention to Todd, so we hand the ball to Tavon,” Fisher said.
In most of those instances, Foles would run a play fake to Gurley, and then hand it off to Austin as he ran through the backfield.
“I think it’s just, you’ve got a lot of things going on. You’ve got Todd running the other way. You’ve got Tav’ coming around the corner. We’ve also thrown it off of that,” Foles said. “There are a lot of things the defense has to look at during that play. But Tav does a great job of --sometimes it’s not quite there, he makes something out of nothing. So Tavon did a great job on that.”
While Gurley did not register 100 yards rushing for the first time as a starter, he still had 89 yards on 24 carries and a touchdown. With 20 yards on three receptions, he finished with 109 yards from scrimmage.
5) Zuerlein sets a record
Kicker Greg Zuerlein made four of his five attempted field goals on Sunday, including one from a record-setting distance of 61 yards.
With the wind at his back and the Rams down 10-6 in the second quarter, Zuerlein split the uprights to set a new franchise record for longest field goal.
It’s a strong accomplishment, but Zuerlein was primarily disappointed in the locker room that the Rams didn’t come out on top on Sunday.
“It’s great, but I don’t really care about any of that. What I care about is winning games, and we didn’t do that today,” Zuerlein said. “If it would’ve helped us win, I’d be a lot happier.”
Big Willie
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The day after....and the loss still sucks!
ramsince62
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Just exactly, what does "we’ve got to keep working on that”, REALLY mean. I'm so sick of this shit.
He's been "we’ve got to keep working on that” shit all season regarding penalties and what has it produced week to week?
4---7---7---7---8---9---12---12
Simply outstanding results.
He's been "we’ve got to keep working on that” shit all season regarding penalties and what has it produced week to week?
4---7---7---7---8---9---12---12
Simply outstanding results.
Elmgrovegnome
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junkman
Farewell to all!
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Umm... no. This is NOT clearly something the Rams have been working on. If they had great success on third down, we'd all be like - "wow, awesome! The Rams must have been working on third down conversions that they've had great success there." To the casual observer, it appears that the Rams have completely ignored 3rd down execution.
Spin away, Miles Simmons. You're transparent lies are not helping matters.
Umm... This 4 year pattern of the Rams continually failing at the fundamental stuff is frustrating.:headexplosion:
A PAT? A long kick?
OK, I wasn't there, so I don't really understand. The wind must have really been something. I imagine the wind effected everything from Foles' decision not to take that first deep shot to Britt to the Vikes elected to receive in OT. Really, it's possible the coin flip in OT decided the game, that it let the Vikes choose to play with the wind at their backs.