Zach McCrite's Big 5: Thoughts from the Rams Scrimmage

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Medium-sized Lebowski
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The Dude
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http://www.101sports.com/category/zmccr ... Scrimmage/


WR Brandon Gibson just won’t go away. Let me give you the best example I can give about how I feel about Gibson. You know how we always say “that team is really talented, but seems to play down to the level of their competition?” I think that’s Gibson. The Rams’ secondary looks improved and certainly more athletic. Gibson has stepped up his game to match that. As one source told me, “he’s on about his seventh life, right?” That’s about right. And if there were a regular season game played today, he’d likely be a starter.

My biggest frustration is Sam Bradford’s ankle. Don’t get me wrong, there is still plenty to frustrate, but this is going to be a long process back to legitimacy—a process that I am very excited to watch. But the biggest of all of those frustrations is that the quarterback, who initially injured his ankle 295 days ago, is still hurting. I heard and read so many stories of voluntary on-field training by Bradford and some of his gameday targets during the offseason that I assumed his ankle to be 100 percent. What gives?

If I’m Jeff Fisher and I hear that my quarterback’s severe ankle sprain isn’t 100 percent from an October 2011 injury the previous year, I’m, ya know, telling him not to participate in offseason voluntary workouts. Sit on it and get better! That’s a huge frustration. And guess what? If it ain’t 100 percent by now, it’s not going to be all season.

The offense is still behind the defense. Or maybe I should say the defense is ahead of the offense. I guess that was to be expected, with the impressive defensive additions to this team. But, Bradford and the other quarterbacks were still receiving pressure akin to the 2011 season, and the numerous drops from receivers were more than memory-jogging from a year ago.

That being said, it was easy to tell that the offense seemed “easier on the eyes,” for lack of a better phrase. It doesn’t look so much like failed rocket science. Instead, it looks as though it’s simply an offense that’s going through growing pains.

Young players making mistakes. Mostly.

And I think most Rams fans learned last season, that having older players on a team doesn’t necessarily make your team better. Now that most of those players have been shed, fans must make due with younger, more talented players.
And the subsequent “young mistakes” that will come with them.

“Greg the Leg.” Rookie kicker Greg Zuerlein is fun to watch. I haven’t given him much public attention, but the guy has been booting the ball for the duration of training camp at Rams Park and that continued on Saturday at The Ed. He made a 59-yarder look easy, before hooking a 64-yard attempt.

Right on cue, though, as I was getting excited about what I was seeing from the Missouri Western grad, I overheard a fan.

“Yeah, we saw Josh Brown hit from 60 in the preseason.”

That’s fair. Maybe I should temper my expectations… at least until he, you know, plays in one NFL game.

I was impressed by the crowd. 12,753. Sometimes I felt like there weren’t that many in the Dome for some regular season games last season. Some won’t think that number is all that big. Let me remind those people that this team won a total of two bleeping games last year. It’s amazing what a spark a new coaching staff will give a fan base. The response has been pretty cool.

BONUS NFL THOUGHT: There was NFL on TV last night. Now, that’s got to make a Monday just a smidge easier, right?