RamView, From The Couch
By Rams Nation's Mike Franke
Position by position:
* QB: Kurt Warner threw a ton of passes today (54), for a
ton of yards (342), but committed way too many mistakes, and costly ones, in
an ultimately losing effort. FOUR fumbles lost and an interception are not the
stuff of which MVPs are made. Warner fumbled trying to escape the rush on the
Rams’ second possession. Orlando Pace recovered that one, but on the next
drive, from his own end zone, Warner maddeningly held the ball far too long
and far too insecurely, allowing the Giants to score a gift defensive TD. Warner
got the Rams down to the NY 5 in the 2nd on a drive extended by a fake field
goal, but fumbled away a blown snap. New York turned that crucial turnover into
3 points. Warner fumbled AGAIN in Giants territory later in the 2nd, just dangling
the ball off his hip, easy to knock free. Rookies protect the football better
than that, Kurt; about time you caught on. Warner started the 2nd half with
2 3-and-outs, which he followed with an interception that Omar Stoutmire would’ve
had even if Shaun McDonald hadn’t slipped on the route. The Giants converted
that into 3 more points. So Kurt handed away 13 points, gave away two fumbles
in easy scoring position, a third in Giant territory and one in his own end
zone. The offensive line was awful, but all those fumbles are still unforgivably
bad football. Warner took six sacks and didn’t help by holding the ball
FAR too long on several. Although he eluded several near-sacks, he was still
a post in the pocket, which didn’t help his problems, either. Warner moved
the offense well enough, even though the Giants blitzed nearly every play and
dominated the Rams offensive line. His throws looked fine. I’d say he
was his old self mechanically. If he gets any blocking at all, and just protects
the damn ball, he’d be fine. I wasn’t looking to bench Kurt after
the Tennessee game in 1999, and I’m going to call for it now. (Late report:
Warner had a mild concussion during the game and is being held the hospital
overnight for observation.)
* RB: Getting absolutely no blocking today, Marshall Faulk
was a disappointing non-factor, a woeful 9-28 rushing, 7-27 receiving. Faulk
normally makes a dozen impact plays or more a game, but had just one good play
today, an 18 yard sweep behind an Adam Timmerman block on the Rams’ ONLY
TD drive. But that was the only decent block Faulk got all day. Mike Martz completely
abandoned the run after a dismal early start, but Faulk didn’t, or couldn’t,
show any spark, not breaking tackles, missing blitz pickups, not getting his
head turned when he was the hot read on the blitz. Heck, with a 5-yard run and
a 10-yard reception, Arlen Harris had a better day. Marshall should be back
with a vengeance next week, though.
* WR: Failure of anybody to get open compounded Warner’s
problems. The line got Warner plenty of time on a couple of his sacks, but he
had no one to throw to. Ram wideouts had big days statistically: Isaac Bruce
8-120, Torry Holt 7-111, but nobody came up with the big play, especially in
the first half, when the Rams needed it. Holt was almost invisible until his
37-yard TD catch in the 4th, where he made a good adjustment to keep the DB
from getting to the underthrown ball. Shaun McDonald caught 6 for 46, but his
slip in the 3rd may have cost Warner an INT. With the TEs mostly kept in to
help the lousy offensive line, (only three passes of 54 intended for TEs), there
were many plays where WRs needed to get open downfield and didn’t.
* Offensive line: Best offensive line in football, huh? NOT
when run blocking was non-existent and pass blocking was rarely good. NOT when
your center creates two negative impact plays: a bad exchange fumbled by Warner
at the Giants 5, and a bad shotgun snap that led to a sack in the 4th quarter
- bad game from Dave Wohlabaugh. NOT when your big offseason acquisition, Kyle Turley, gets outplayed, even if it’s by Pro Bowler Michael Strahan. Strahan
got his hands on Warner a lot, and boy, am I disappointed with Turley right
now, who I thought would win the matchup today as decisively as he lost it.
NOT when you can’t pick up the blitz at all. And every Giant blitz worked:
LBs, CBs, straight blitzes, dog blitzes. The line was so ineffective against
the blitz that Warner was even getting swamped at times when they were trying
to run quick passes out of 3-step drops, which is unforgivable. Ironically,
the only lineman who played that well was Orlando Pace, who’s been in
camp for about a week. He made a big play in recovering Warner’s first
fumble. Constant failure against constant blitzing led to a big win in the trenches
for the Giants.
* Defensive line/LB: The defense started strong but petered
out badly by the end of the game, to the point that Tiki Barber wound up with
146 yards rushing on a slew of 10-yards-plus carries. Adam Archuleta sacked
Kerry Collins on the first play of the game, and Robert Thomas stopped that
first drive with two big stops of Barber. On the next drive, Damione Lewis got
great penetration and ran into Barber. Although it was an accidental hit, it
still forced a fumble that Jerametrius Butler recovered. The pass rush didn’t
do much of anything until after Collins’ 77-yard completion to Amani Toomer
in the 2nd. Grant Wistrom blew up a first-down screen pass that would have been
a TD to wide-open Jeremy Shockey, and the rush on 3rd-and-goal was good enough
to force an incompletion and a FG. Giant LT Luke Petitgout’s injury that
drive seemed to bode well for the Rams, who would face a truly scrub OL the
rest of the game. After Warner’s 3rd fumble, Leonard Little got Collins
for a sack and fumble, which Wistrom recovered. The Ram front seven really had
the momentum going into halftime, but poor field position to start the 2nd half
seemed to take away their edge. Even though they were facing an even rawer and
less-talented offensive line than the one that clocked them in St. Louis last
year, they let it happen again. Barber rolled for 15 and 22 yards on 2 runs
to set up a Brian Mitchell TD to put New York up 20-6. No Ram was near Barber
for the first FIFTEEN yards of the 22-yard run. After the Rams drew within 23-13,
the Giants were pinned deep after a penalty, but the defense did NOTHING to
capitalize on it. Ryan Pickett reinjured his ankle, and the vaunted Ram defensive
line got pushed around like nobodies, by a bunch of nobodies, as Barber ripped
off one big run after another. The defense almost did enough to overcome Warner’s
turnovers, but the total lack of run defense against a patchwork line down the
stretch was a killer, let alone that Wistrom (0) had fewer tackles than Warner
(1). You played half the game against a backup, Grant - this is your contract
push?
* Secondary: A pretty exemplary game, save Toomer’s
77 yard reception in the 2nd, a play on which Travis Fisher was absolutely TORCHED.
But Aeneas Williams made a TD-saving tackle. Fisher broke up a pass for Ike
Hilliard in the end zone three plays later to limit New York to a FG. Toomer
had only one other catch, and Jerametrius Butler really owned Hilliard, stripping
the ball out at the NY 20 in the 1st to set up a FG. Shockey had just three
catches, but two of them converted 3rd downs and the other put the Giants in
range for their last FG. But Kerry Collins had a lot of trouble finding an open
receiver. The secondary allowed only 202 passing yards and had a strong game.
* Special teams: Some improvement on special teams. Jeff Wilkins
hit 2 FGs and put nearly all of his kickoffs into the end zone. The Rams kept
Brian Mitchell in check, with Bryce Fisher, Scott Shanle and Courtland Bullard
getting downfield well. Harris returned a late kickoff to the 39, but brought
too many out of the end zone without making the 20. Sean Landeta was a major
disappointment. His first punt, from his own end zone, was only 36 yards. After
halftime, a 28-yard flub set the Giants up at midfield for a FG drive, and Landeta
followed that with a lousy punt that was 37 yards only because the Giants booted
it. That set them back up near midfield for a TD drive. Landeta is supposed
to be a LOT better than he was today.
* Coaching/discipline: Mike Martz did not have an answer to
the Giant blitzkrieg today. The Rams rarely slowed the Giant surge down. Martz
called a 90 flip for McDonald to get a 1st down in the 2nd, but needed to call
many more runs like that to discourage the Giants from coming up the middle
all the time. Martz tried a lot of quick passing, which normally beats the blitz,
but the Giants swamped the Ram line anyway. I doubt it’s fair to complain
that he never threw to the TEs, since he had to keep them in to block all day.
It is fair to complain about the Rams blowing all three first-half timeouts
by 14:13 of the 2nd. But that last one may have saved Martz from a Denver flashback.
He wanted to go for it on 4th-and-3. After Warner ate the last timeout, the
FG team came out, but surprise! It’s a flip to Brandon Manumaleuna for
9 and a first down. Gutsy call. But it’s fair to question the end-of-first-half
“hurry-up” offense. The Rams took 2:00 to travel 20 yards, and moved
with so little urgency, Fox cut over to Big Tony Siragusa for a lengthy sideline
report. Criminy! And Martz pretty much lost it at the end of the game. I agree
on skipping the 47-yard FG, but it was that long because of a bizarre 3rd-and-10
call for a screen pass to Faulk that lost 2, and the 4th-down pass was SHORT
of the down marker. On 4th-and-8, down 10, 2:26 left, though, kick the 41-yard
FG and try to recover the onside kick. Those fuzzy calls don’t decide
the game, though, if the Rams staff shows any ability at all to adjust to the
blitz or get a running game going. A real fullback might have been nice, eh?
* Upon further review: Tom White’s crew usually does
a much better job than today. They blew a crucial call in the 4th, when Barber
CAUGHT and possessed a screen pass deep in his own territory. Pisa nailed him
and Butler scooped up the loose ball and would have made it 23-20, but the refs
make the completely WRONG call of incomplete pass, blowing the play dead and
unreviewable, as the Rams are AGAIN screwed over on that call. At least two
of Barber’s long runs were extended by the refs not seeing him step out
of bounds 4-5 yards before the end of the run, including his 17-yarder in the
4th. Not their best work.
* Cheers: The Rams went with the blue pants for the first
time today, which is fine if you’re trying to look * exactly * like the
San Diego Chargers. Hopefully Mrs. Frontiere will determine the blue pants have
bad karma and order the team back to gold. Another disturbing stat: Kurt Warner
has now lost eight straight games as a starter, dating back to Super Bowl 36.
And how about Rickey Proehl catching the game-winning TD in Carolina today?
Think the offense misses his ability to get open on clutch plays?
* Who’s next?: The San Francisco 49ers come into this
season a as team determined to blitz more, which is very bad news for a Ram
offensive line that aren’t exactly jellin’ like felons so far. If
the Ram line remains completely helpless to stop any blitz, Warner (if he can
go) won’t have time to exploit a banged-up 49er secondary, where much-maligned
CB Mike Rumph has to play in place of injured Jason Webster. Bruce and Faulk
have feasted on the 49ers in recent years, but this game offensively is going
to be all about the Rams getting their act together up front. Turley had better
step up big time and dominate former Ram Chidi Ahonatu, and if Pace can hold
his own against Andre Carter, the offense should be OK. Obviously, the key guy
offensively for the Niners is Terrell Owens, who Fisher will probably draw all
game. It’s important for Butler to handle Tai Streets so Fisher can get
the help he’ll need. The 49ers have a very good offensive line and will
happily pound Kevan Barlow at the Rams, who encouraged that by getting rolled
by Tiki Barber today. Jeff Garcia will make some awful throws under pressure,
if the Rams can get any on him, but he is an excellent scrambler, so the speedy
Ram LB crew will have to earn their stripes Sunday. But the main man who has
to shine not just Sunday, but all week, is Mike Martz. It’s 49er Week.
This team needs to be flying, because this game will make or break their season.
Martz can’t let himself or his team enter the funk they did after early
losses last year. If they don’t snap back, they’ll likely just snap.
Sunday’s game is a HUGE one for this season, and for Martz’s career,
and he needs to coach and motivate his team like it.
-- Mike
Game stats from nfl.com