Rams Chargers Joint Practice 8/9

A huge crowd for the joint practice. The bleachers on both fields were packed as was one of the two end zone bleachers. Practice was supposed to start at 4:30 and at that time the chargers were out stretching on the far field but the rams were not out yet. The rams came out about 15 minutes later and did not seem to have as organized a pre-game warm up. However, I was sitting in the bleachers on the chargers side. There was no place to sit in the bleachers on the near field so I am not sure exactly what they were doing. At around 5 pm, the chargers offense and rams defense went the far field and the Rams O and Chargers D went to the near field. I stayed on the far side so watched our D vs. their O. The first drill was one on one passing. Two QBs were alternating throws. One throwing to the left side of the field, the other to the right. The offense was going to the far end zone (near where I was sitting). The rams were playing well. I don’t think any of the first 10 pass were caught but I may have missed one on the right side of the field. You may have heard about the fights, Tru was flagged on one play about ten yards down field and then probably had interference at the end of the play. It got rough between Tru and the receiver with helmets coming off. Robey Coleman came over and got into it with the SD receiver. I am not sure which SD player it was but someone came off and took Coleman off his feet and basically drove right through him and body slammed him down. It was about 10 yards in front of me. Everybody got into it then and this was only 5 minutes in. Not a good look for the rams, after last year’s scrimmage with Dallas. When everyone calmed down, Tru and Robey Coleman sat out for a few minutes to calm down. The rams dbs constantly were draped over the SD receivers. There were a number of balls tipped and knocked down. A few times flags were thrown on the rams and at least once, no flag was thrown, but I would have tossed one if I was the ref. SD started getting some receptions doing well with slants. Webster was beat on a nice leaping catch by Dontrell Inman. He also gave up a catch on his next time up against Jamall Jones (I don’t know anything about him). A few minutes later the teams moved on to 7 on 7s. After a SD run up the middle, a fight broke out between E.J. Gaines and Jamall Jones on the near side of the field. It looked like the fight started after the whistle. Again, lots of players got involved and the coaches had to calm things down. When 11 on 11s started, Tru batted down a pass. Kennan Allen had a nice completion, two runs (hard to tell how much they got as it was hard to see through the players on the sideline blocking my view. Gates had a nice catch.

At the break, most players moved over to the other field. I went that way and watched from the end zone bleachers. Special teams and punting was up next. When the rams were punting, at least one did not look good, not much hang time nor was it deep. When the rams were the receiving team, Kupp was first up as the returner, he made two people miss and would have had a 20 or 30 yard return. After two returns, Shakeir Ryan came on as the return man. I don’t know what was up with SD’s long snapper, but two high poor snaps in a row led to poor punts and no chance for Ryan to field the punt. Shippen came in for two and fielded two deep punts, and had lots of room to return the first. It was deep and pinned in the corner, but the punter outkicked his gunner (I guess trying to make up for the previous two punts). Ryan got another shot at it, and juked out a few players and took it to the house.

At the next break, the teams went back to 7 on 7s. I stayed on the rams’ O side. Gurley had a nice catch on the first play. Next play was a TD down the middle to Higbee. However, I felt the ball was flat and may not have had such a good end result if there was a safety out there playing center field. Woods had some nice grabs and Hemmingway had some mice catches.

When Mannion was in, he had an incomplete followed by a pass I felt he held too long but the throw led to a nice catch by LLorens. Mannion hit Shippen and Spruce on the next two passes. Spruce took a hit from two defenders but got a few yards post catch.

When Goff came back in, he had a quick hit to Goff and then to Woods, who took a big hit but held on. McRoberts made a nice leaping catch and Shippen had some nice moves after a catch as well.

In the 11 on 11s, Goff had a deep pass to Gurley, if he led him more it was a TD, as it stood interference was called on SD so it would have been a 40 yard pick up. Spruce had a couple of catches, and then Gurley was opened but led too much, Gurley tried to one hand it but could not. Next pass was thrown slightly behind Woods in the middle of the field for an incompletion. Mannion hit Justin Davis and then overthrew McRoberts heading about 15 yards downfield to the left sideline, someone on the sideline had that pass hit him in the face. Next pass was off target again to McRoberts going toward the right sideline.
From what I saw, the rams’ O did better early on rather than later. In the next set, Goff hit Higbee and then Woods had a nice catch keeping his feet in bounds on the right sideline. Goff then hit Higbee for what would have been a big gain but he bobbled and dropped it. Next pass to Cooper by the left sideline was blocked. Goff’s next pass was batted down at the line. Next play he held the ball too long and the ref whistled it dead (would have been a sack).
In the Red Zone, Goff had a nice roll out (looked designed) and throw to Woods but he could not hold on. Gurley took two handoffs first was whistled dead prior to the end zone, the second did not get in up the middle.

When the 2s came in with Mannion, Llorens had a nice run around the left edge followed up by a nice catch. When I watched practice on Friday, Llorens looked really good when running with the 3s. It seems I was not the only one who noticed this as he got a lot of playing time with 2s today.
When Goff and the 1s came back on, Goff had a nice pocket but led his receiver too much in the end zone for an inc. He changed the next play at the line and handed off to Gurley up the middle for little gain. Higbee had a drop in the end zone, and when the 2s were back, the defender jumped a route and knocked down what would have been a TD to Spruce.

I have less notes for the later part of the practice. Goff was picked on the sidelines and he hit on a deep sideline pass on the left side to Kupp.
I only focused on the line a bit. On the first play Hav ate up his man. On the next, Hav and Brown did a nice job taking on the two lineman, but the corner had a free beeline to the QB on Hav’s side (there was not TE or R there to help. The ref blew it dead but Goff threw it complete to Higbee on the left side. I am not sure if the DB would have got there in time for the sack, but even if he didn’t he would have blown up Goff. One other time I watched the line, there was a big hole in the center of the line and a LB was coming in, Eldrencamp filled the hole and stuffed the LB.

At the end of session, the teams went to a two minute drill. Both the rams’ ones and twos ended those drills with incomplete passes (the last one was batted down). After the joint practice ended on the rams’ O side of the field, the rams 3s faced each other. On the first play, Llorens again got the edge running to the left. At that point, I left as I had to pick up my son. For those who will get their first shot at watching the 2017 rams when the play Dallas, pay attention in the 4th quarter to #37 De’Mard Llorens. I am not saying he will make the squad, but he is definitely making his presence known.