A couple of observations from the game. But first, I just wanted to thank houstonram - a herd member who I have never met, and only communicated with via email when I responded to his post regarding purchasing today's game tickets from him at face value. He could have easily sold these tickets to make a profit, but didn't. A very class act by him.
Now, to the game.
1a) One of the first things we noticed was how many empty seats there were. This was a first place team coming home after two road wins -where were the fans?
1b) there were a LOT of bills fans. And they were loud.
1c) Rams fans have a lot to learn. Several times, when the rams had the ball on 3rd down, the crowd would get up and make noise. The announcer had to remind them to make noise when buffalo had the ball, but to be quiet when the rams were on offense. There was even a message on the big screen…….LA fans, SMDH.
2) Something I noticed on the Rams first defensive series, was how far back the safety was playing (usually Alexander, but sometimes McDonald). I don't know if it was noticeable on tv - or discussed- but they were almost always 20+ yards from the line of scrimmage. When McCoy broke through the line, he had a plant of time to put a juke on our safety who was stuck in no man's land.
3) The offense seemed to move the ball early - until they got into the red zone. I thought there were some creative plays called, but when it counted most, the rams stalled.
4) Keenum looked OK at times, and bad at others. THe missed pass to quick was gut wrenching- he has his man beat by two steps. Keenum hit austin on another mid range ball (had the pass not been a bit outside, austin probably scores) but they didn't go deep again. The bills seemed to be getting pressure on Keenum most of the time in the second half.
5) The roughing the kicker penalty hurt - if I remember correctly, Austin had a decent return, so even though the bills went three and out after the penalty, field position was changed.
6) The rams went into the dreaded prevent defense at the end of the half. During this drive, BOTH safeties were 20 yards off the ball. The rams gift wrapped that 3 points before halftime I haven't checked, but I would think Fisher probably doesn't have his defenses finish in the top 5 very often. He seems to go into this prevent garbage often - and gives up a lot of yardage (and points). It's almost as if he wants the offense to make mistakes rather than try to create them.
7) I haven't checked the board much today, but I would guess the fake punt was discussed quite a bit. I don't understand the call at all. Too much time, still had all three timeouts and the defense was playing well.
8) The pick six took the air out of the coliseum. It was a terrible pass.
9) It looked like Gurley was getting going……but then it stopped. I was surprised they didn't try to get him more involved in the pass game.
10) Greg the leg looked good……..
11) The last drive of the game just was bad. It just felt like they weren't going to do anything, and they sure didn't. Even though they were still in the game, it sure felt like the game was over.
12) LeRoy Irvin sat three rows in front of us. A few people recognized him and asked for pictures and shook his hand. He was very gracious and talked with everyone who stopped by.
I hate losses. I hate them more when I see them in person.
