The good, the bad, and the ugly

[RaminExile]

I know we gave up 400 yards to Winston - but at least a hundred were in the 4th quarter. And whether we like it or not those were "garbage time" yards because they were against prevent defense. From 12 minutes to play in the 4th we started playing soft prevent deep zone coverage which gave up a TON of yards. Why they did it? I have no idea. It kept the Bucs in the game. I suppose if you ask GW he'll say we won because the Buc's ran out of time and that was due to us keeping the ball in front of the secondary and making them use up chunks of clock by keeping the ball in play. I couldn't argue because we have no "control" version of where we didn't play prevent defense. Whatever, I don't like the approach - but what I'm saying is those figures are a little inflated.

Also - whatever you say about Winston, he's an old fashioned gun slinger. He will always give his team a chance because he throws it up there. He doesn't seem to be bothered by the stats - he'll throw 6 interceptions in a game some day like Fitzmagic did because he's a competitor and wants to give his team a shot. I really like the guy actually - but a bit like Favre - he'll put up big numbers; and big interception totals occasionally.

 

[den-the-coach]

Did this come up yet in any post-game press conference? Even if Fisher won't answer, I hope some reporter asks it. I honestly can't think of any way to justify it, and I'm one of those people that think teams should go for two every time!

Maybe they thought they had a great play, but what they ran sure did not look like it.

 

[sjm1582002]

Good -- That long sideline pass to Britt on third down, backed up to our goal line, with 2 minutes to go. Wasn't completed but I love to go for the kill. Fearlessness and confidence produces victory. Let's see it more often.

Bad -- No running room for Gurley. He is getting too beat up. When was the last time we tried a sweep toss?

Ugly -- Pass rush disappearing late in the game. Big folks from So Cal in the direct Florida summer sun can't keep hard charging pass play after pass play after pass play after pass play. Use timeouts and put backups in or send in speedy LB's or Db's and let them pass rush. Their big guys are slowing down, too.

 

[raised_fisT]

I had this as a loss after Keenum lost his footing and lost yardage on 2nd down right near the goal line. After the awful 'throw it up and pray for a PI' third down play... I got that sinking feeling in my stomach.

But, they hung tough and pulled thru. Nice win that would have been a loss in years prior. That's 2 tough games in a row the DEF comes thru.

The Offense needs to build and sustain a nice cushion one of these games.

 

[OldSchool]

One thing I haven't seen that saved us was Hekker and that magic foot bombing that last punt.

 

[yrba1]

One other thing in the good column: Quinn is so definitely back.

Did anyone notice on the Westbrooks TD, after the strip Quinn delivered not one but two blocks to help Ethan get all the way home. F'in great play on multiple levels. The awareness to reach out and cause the fumble and the headiness to get in the way of multiple guys so that his teammate could score the TD. Way to go, RQ!!

Yeah saw that. I was anticipating Hochuli to throw the flag when he ran out of bounds celebrating near the endzone. Glad that didn't happen

 

[RamFan503]

Disagree about Austin being at fault on the kick off.
They were playing for a pooch kick off. He had to retreat to catch the ball and his momentum carried him over the goal line. By not fielding the the ball he would running the risk of a loose ball going to Tampa. It was the only play he had.

This is what I saw. Either he tries to make the most of it or the Rams take the ball where he caught it. An argument could be made that Benny should have been behind him in the endzone but I don't put this on Austin.

If the momentum carried him in to the EZ, he could have downed it there for a touchback, no?

I don't think momentum results in a touchback. IIRR it only says that if the momentum carries you back into the endzone then the ball comes back out to where you caught it. But the way the NFL rules are written it is still cloudy. Add that to some of the rulings on the field that we have seen with the zebras and who is going to rely on them for the right call. Hell, if the zebras don't know all the rules, should the players?

Yes.
However, and I'm going off of memory here.....couldn't find video of the KO....if memory serves he one foot that hit the goal line. He could have taken another step into the endzone....he was never fully in the endzone....so he would be risking a judgement call from the ref. if he let the ball go he is again risking a bounce that would lead to a dead ball or a touchback.
I don't see another option than the return.

This is what I saw as well.

Bad call by our coaches, then. With the new rules, teams are well practiced at kicking it high in the air to about the five. Happens in every game, an easy kick. They should've had a guy at each level, not just Tavon at the twenty, stupid.

I can see your point. I thought so as well. That was a perfectly placed kick by a kicker that has been anything but perfect. I can see the idea that you want to have most of your team up front for a potential onside kick though. Putting another receiver back means one less set of hands where the Bucs could have gotten the ball in great field position with way more time on the clock. In retrospect, I don't know that Fisher made the wrong decision there. It's a little rich calling it stupid just because you would have done something different.

What?! No. You can only touchback if you catch it in the end zone and don't come out of it. How do you not know this? Same for college football.

Easy there. You can make your point without being a jackass. Can you produce the rule that states exactly that in a clear form? I mean from the NFL rules themselves? I've tried to find a clear definition and it doesn't seem to be there.

Clearly that is true, but it's one hell of a lot easier to run up on a pooch from the goal line than turning and running back to the goal line from the 20. This is basic crap.

And if he plays Tavon or anyone else in a normal position, the team pops the ball over the line and while that egg bounces around, the Bucs have as much of a chance at it as we do. It's just not as simple as you are suggesting.

 

[PowayRamFan]

This is what I saw. Either he tries to make the most of it or the Rams take the ball where he caught it. An argument could be made that Benny should have been behind him in the endzone but I don't put this on Austin.

I don't think momentum results in a touchback. IIRR it only says that if the momentum carries you back into the endzone then the ball comes back out to where you caught it. But the way the NFL rules are written it is still cloudy. Add that to some of the rulings on the field that we have seen with the zebras and who is going to rely on them for the right call. Hell, if the zebras don't know all the rules, should the players?

This is what I saw as well.


I can see your point. I thought so as well. That was a perfectly placed kick by a kicker that has been anything but perfect. I can see the idea that you want to have most of your team up front for a potential onside kick though. Putting another receiver back means one less set of hands where the Bucs could have gotten the ball in great field position with way more time on the clock. In retrospect, I don't know that Fisher made the wrong decision there. It's a little rich calling it stupid just because you would have done something different.


Easy there. You can make your point without being a jackass. Can you produce the rule that states exactly that in a clear form? I mean from the NFL rules themselves? I've tried to find a clear definition and it doesn't seem to be there.


And if he plays Tavon or anyone else in a normal position, the team pops the ball over the line and while that egg bounces around, the Bucs have as much of a chance at it as we do. It's just not as simple as you are suggesting.

All good points, and I'm certainly no genius here, but what happened there shouldn't have, period.

 

[RamFan503]

All good points, and I'm certainly no genius here, but what happened there shouldn't have, period.

That was my first impression as well. After watching it a few times, I came away figuring it was a pretty great kick when I think the bet was either onside kick or pooch. A pooch with no one in the spot where TA was would have had the kicking team with the momentum running down the ball. An onside kick would have had 9 sets of hands to their 11. Tough call. Glad it worked out. Personally, I think our bigger problem there is the inability to run the ball. We have to get that figured out.

 

[Loyal]

The primary is to protect vs the onside kick.

If we had not lined up to prevent an onside kick, the kicker may have had the discretion to DO an onside kick if our personnel had been in normal kick return formation.

 

[-X-]

Tavon's "blunder", as it's now come to be known, should be cancelled out by his ankle-breaker on Keith Tandy.
He gave us 7 points and cost us zero. That's a net positive, peeps.

 

[dieterbrock]

Tavon's "blunder", as it's now come to be known, should be cancelled out by his ankle-breaker on Keith Tandy.
He gave us 7 points and cost us zero. That's a net positive, peeps.

He literally walked in from the 20. Watch it in slow mo, its such a man vs boy moment. I swear we've only scratched the surface on what this cat can do

 

[TexasRam]

I'm not worried about the sack numbers.

A lot of 4 man fronts have been needed since Sensabaugh and Hill have been rushed into duty with EJ out.

With EJ back you can put him on an island and blitz a lot more. EJ also creates coverage sacks.

 

[lockdnram21]

I can understand the concern about the D up to a point, but I will say the following:

1) We had to shuffle the DL around a lot yesterday. That probably had some effect on the pass rush. And still, they did make some plays (Quinn/Westbrooks/fumble return, anyone?).

2) I think the secondary problems are more short term and long term. If there is one area where I'll give this staff a lot of benefit of the doubt, it's with developing DB's. They've been pretty good at identifying and developing talent in the DB group, and so far Sensebaugh seems like the only real whiff. Then again, it's early with him. Not betting on it, but wouldn't be shocked if he came around.

3) Can we give a little credit to Tampa Bay's offense? Winston is an excellent QB. Mike Evans is an absolute stud WR. Humphries was a revelation, looking much like what we hope that Spruce will be someday. And Dirk Koetter is a good offensive mind. So it's not like the Rams gave up a lot of yards to a dog-shinola offense ... they were facing a pretty good offense.



This is the biggest good of all to come out of this game. I had kind of baked an 'L' into my cake based on our history of the past 4-5 years or so. Instead they got it done, on the road, facing some adversity, and overcoming a 10-point deficit at one point in the game. That's pretty satisfying.

I know Evans a stud but wasn't Tru supposed to be one 2 hence 13 million... He is what I thought he was

 

[shaunpinney]

Good:
1. We won. And we did it after beating Seattle, and it wasn't a pretty win either.
2. Play-calling seemed better

The Bad:
1. Strangely not using Quick more, dude looked good - #neverthoughtidsaythat
2. Not passing to our TE's
3. Benny looked good when he had his chances, found the holes

The Ugly:
1. That first INT, I think without that we could have steamrollered Tampa
2. That 70 minute delay, it was super late here in the UK, and I'd just managed to find a decent stream then the delay!!!
3. Our pass-rush is a little underwhelming at the moment.

 

[RhodyRams]

The good: Tampa's Kicker Aguayo sucks



The Better: Rams kicker Zuerlein doesnt


(knocks on wood)

 

[Mojo Ram]

I watched the game twice.
Anyone who says the defense was terrible yesterday is just looking at box scores, highlights and the final score.

Was it a classic Rams lockdown? Of course not. The Bucs found a matchup that worked for them(Evans) and they went there often. It happens. They couldn't score when it mattered and had everything in their favor to do so. Home field, rest, timeouts, a flag in the red zone. Nada.
They never established the run, they turned it over twice, they got a free 6 points from Keenum, Winston was rushed and hit repeatedly.
They piled up yardage and got the Rams into a shootout which is not how our defense is designed to function and our guys made it work.

I get that football is a week long mindset but there's nothing average about this Rams defense.

 

[Mojo Ram]

The Good:
We won

The Bad:
It took 5 hours

The ugly:
All the Bucs fans who went home because of a little weather delay.

 

[DR RAM]

I can attest to 110 heat index. It was boiling until the storm came. @Selassie I was literally using ice packs to the neck to keep rolling. We put wet wipes in the cooler and used them often.

Where did you guys use them???

 

[Bruce2980]

Ask @BonifayRam & @Florida_Ram about that Florida sun....and humidity....the defense looked worn out...The rushers were gassed....I had to watch Aaron Donald on 3 plays to see what the hell he was doing...and he was gassed. As I looked around at the entire defense, guys were huffing and puffing...no excuses, but that's what it looked like to me, the sunshine state took it's toll on the defense...and sorry, when the O puts that many 3 & outs, short drives, back to back out there, that's gonna happen...

We also only had two DEs for most of the game, not sure when, but Hayes was out with an ankle injury and Sims got ejected early, those were huge loses when considering the temp/humidity and time on the field. Our defensive line battled hard all day.