Preseason Five Takeaways: Cowboys vs. RamsBy Myles Simmons
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www.therams.com]
The Rams welcomed professional football back to Los Angeles with a rousing preseason matchup against the Cowboys. With an announced crowd of 89,140, the final whistle blew with L.A. on top after a nice 28-24 comeback victory.
Of course, in preseason, the final score is never the whole story. For a better understanding, here are five takeaways from the Rams’ first exhibition matchup.
1) Goff has an up-and-down debut
Aside from the hoopla surrounding the overall return of the NFL to the L.A. Coliseum, much of the intrigue on this game had to do with No. 1 overall pick Jared Goff’s debut. The quarterback entered the game with 9:45 left in the second quarter, playing the rest of the period for his first NFL action.
The first possession ended after only three plays, as the rookie was hit hard from a blitz on third down and threw an interception.
But Goff looked much more comfortable in his next series, especially on his passes to rookie tight end Tyler Higbee. The Cal product went to his fellow rookie three times on the drive, and two of those passes went for first downs. Goff also threw a strike down the middle that would have gotten the Rams in the red zone, but the pass was dropped.
All this despite Goff aggravating his non-throwing shoulder on the hit that induced the interception.
Head coach Jeff Fisher had initially planned on playing Goff playing a couple series into the third quarter, but scrapped that as a precaution at halftime.
“We talked to him and he was getting a little stiff, so I said, ‘I’m not going to mess with it,’” Fisher said.
Sean Mannion played the rest of the game, but both Fisher and Goff said the rookie will be fine going forward.
“I’ve played through much worse,” Goff said.
2) Running backs steal the show
Running backs Benny Cunningham and Malcolm Brown did a fine job of gaining yards and breaking through tackles on Saturday. With Todd Gurley a healthy scratch, Cunningham got the lion’s share of carries in the first two quarters, amassing 23 yards on four carries. He broke through at least three tackles en route to his 14-yard touchdown run. And he also had a 20-yard reception on a screen during the same scoring drive.
“I just feel like the offensive line did a good job the entire game,” Cunningham said. “Those guys have been grinding during camp. I feel like they’re going to be the staple of this offense. And they were just opening up holes. I know every series I was in, it was cake the way those guys were grinding for me.”
Brown did plenty of damage himself as the club’s leading rusher. He had eight carries for 66 yards — including a 39-yard rush in the third quarter that put the Rams in position for their second touchdown.
Running back depth is always important, and if Saturday night is any indication, Los Angeles should be just fine behind Gurley.
3) Higbee, Cooper make early contributions
Dubbed “Little Baby Gronk” by Gurley at Family Day last week, Higbee showed why head coach Jeff Fisher said he could contribute early and often to the Rams’ offense this year. Through three quarters, Higbee led the home team with five receptions for 49 yards. L.A. can use him all over its offensive formations, and he’s shown prowess in both blocking and receiving.
But when he makes a catch and breaks tackles, like he did on a reception from Goff in the second quarter, that’s where he gets the nickname “Little Baby Gronk.”
As for Cooper, the Rams already have two strong return men in Cunningham for kicks and wide receiver Tavon Austin for punts. But Cooper may be making creating a good problem for Los Angeles to have.
Cooper brought back a kickoff return 48 yards in the first quarter to the Los Angeles 41. Then he used his shiftiness to reverse field and bring a punt back 25 yards to the Dallas 33-yard line.
Again, it’s only one preseason game, but those return skills show just one reason why the club was happy to grab Cooper in the fourth round.
4) Spruuuuuuuuuuce
There’s a reason Nelson Spruce became the Pac 12’s all-time leader in receptions.
Spruce has been making catch after catch in training camp. And that certainly translated to the field on Saturday, as Spruce caught led the team with six receptions for 51 yards and a touchdown.
The former Westlake High School star shone bright again in Southern California, as he was one of the main catalysts for the Rams’ second-half comeback. At one point in Los Angeles’ go-ahead scoring drive, Mannion completed three passes in a row to Spruce. The wideout also made a number of tough catches, including a leaping grab that gave the Rams a first down in the red zone.
All that induced some pretty loud "Spruuuuuuuce" chants from the Coliseum crowd.
“I’ve seen that from him throughout OTAs, to tell you the truth,” wide receiver Kenny Britt said. “He’s becoming a young player who’s coming into himself.”
“Nelson’s a guy I trained with, and for us to be on the same team now and to see him do that was really exciting,” Goff said. “I’m really happy for him."
Fisher said Spruce needed X-rays on his knee, postgame, but the issue shouldn’t be anything that should keep him out for a significant amount of time.
“He’s a little sore,” Fisher said. “I think he’s going to be fine.”
Especially considering his performance tonight, Spruce is making an early case for a spot on the 53-man roster.
“We brought him here because we think he’s got a chance to help us win games,” Fisher said. “He’s talented. You look at what he did in college — setting the Pac 12 record is pretty impressive. So we’ve thought that since well before the draft.”
5) One for the Fans
The fans deserve a nice ovation for supporting the Rams in the club’s return to Los Angeles, as the announced attendance was 89,140. Clearly many, many people wanted to help welcome the Rams back to Southern California, which helped create what was undoubtedly a special event.
“You could feel after we came in from warmups and then once some of the guys who were no longer playing — the response was, ‘Hey, this is very cool,’” Fisher said. “Some of them had not had that in their professional career. So it was really cool.”
“They stayed until the fourth quarter of a preseason game and were on their feet for the whole fourth quarter, so you can tell right there what it means to them and how exciting it is to have a team back here,” Goff said of the fans. “You could tell the atmosphere was just awesome. I expect it to be like that most games in the regular season as well.”
