Re: Rams Defense, Offense, Special Teams

Very nice write up, leaf.

I'll just tag along with a few thoughts of my own.

Ram 1's generally held their own vs the Bronco 1's. And maybe then some. Lol. That's very encouraging.

Fisher pulled his OL starters very quickly, I thought. I will say that before the night was over that every single O lineman got a good look. I even saw Arkin at C for Mannion.

Darrell Williams had a nightmarish night. I had hopes that he could be a quality developmental backup, but after last night he scares me.

As to deep throw attempts? I think that 90% of the O is being kept under wraps in these PS games. There are hints here and there, but I think our O has been kept under a blanket so far.

I had hoped to see more from Higbee last night.

Keenum is clearly the starter. And he may continue to start longer than many of us had projected.

Kendricks is gonna be a bigger part of this O than I had expected. We got a glimpse under the O preseason blanket of that last night.

I don't know what to say about the WR dropsies. Like the announcers on TV said, "It's like it's contagious". Is it jitters? Are they practice players instead of gamers? Very frustrating. We all had had such high hopes for Duke Williams, Thomas, Hemingway, McRoberts, North, and even Quick. But damn! Geez, Quick could make the 53 by default unless something changes PDQ. If I'm a Ram QB, I'm having a hard time trusting some of these WR's beyond Britt, Austin, Cooper, and Spruce. And really, Cooper's only had the 2 big catches in 3 games that I recall. Very disappointing as a backup group.

DL cuts are gonna be excruciating. Cam Thomas has grown on me. Coples, too. And we have to keep 5 DE's for injury insurance for Quinn, don't we?

Beyond our starting LB's, does anyone make you feel all warm and fuzzy? Not for me.

Our CB corps is more "fluid" than I had thought. When did Roberson and Joyner turn into penalty flag magnets? Sure hope Troy Hill is okay. All he does is show up and make plays on my TV screen every week. Could he play slot?

Cody Davis has started with the 1's for 2 weeks in a row. That can't be a coincidence, can it? Is Mo hurt?

Yeah, GZ made all 3 of his attempts. But geez, why did they have to be so close to the left upright?

I think we're gonna have to be verrrrry patient with Goff. It's gonna take more time than I, for one, anticipated. And his receivers have been killing him for 3 weeks. Problem is that he will see fewer snaps once the regular season gets underway. Maybe some mop up duty here and there will be helpful. I still think that he will be our quality starter one day, mind you. But I do think that it's gonna take longer than I had expected. Maybe a lot longer. Of course, Keenum's fine play makes it much easier to be patient with Goff.

Finally, a word about Fisher. I'm bending over backwards to give him the benefit of every doubt since he is clearly our HC this year. Any talk of firing him now (as I've seen posted) is absurd. But I will say this. He needs to post a winning season this year, and I mean in the 10-6 range or better. He's got the talent on his roster. And I think that Boras and Groh can get this O over the hump IF he will give them the reins. So, no excuses Jeff. It's now or never.

To summarize:

I'm pleased that our 1's more than held their own vs the Bronco 1's in our first away game.

But after that, bright spots were few and far between for me. Too many players that I had considered both promising and ascending disappointed significantly.

Still lots of work to do on both sides of the LOS for the Rams. More than I had previously thought.