RamView From Row HH
By Rams Nation's Mike Franke
Position by position:
QB: Although a lot of his night was as easy as pitching bread
crumbs to pigeons from a park bench, Marc Bulger still more than impressed in
the national spotlight, with 352 yards on 23-for-34 passing. He threw for 2
TDs, ran for one for the third straight game, and made some highlight-reel throws
throughout the game. Marc scored on a draw play to put the Rams up 10-0, then,
after halftime, punctuated a quick 4-play, 69-yard drive with a 21-yard TD pass
to Torry Holt, an insanely accurate pass that split two Atlanta defenders and
hit Torry just inside the pylon. Bulger’s second TD to Torry was a lot
easier – Holt was wide open in the end zone the entire play – but
Marc did a fine job rolling away from pressure and finding him. Bulger’s
best pass of the night was also under pressure, a 25-yard pass to Arlen Harris
that dropped over the LB’s head and hit Harris on the fingertips. Bulger
was intercepted twice; one wasn’t his fault, Brandon Manumaleuna fell
down at the goal line, and on the second one, a throw that got away from him,
Kyle Turley forced a fumble and got the Rams the ball back. Bulger had a huge
night, but has the potential for even more. His timing with Isaac Bruce was
way off on the one deep ball he threw, and the offense missed out on several
big play opportunities when he didn’t hit his receiver in stride. Even
so, Bulger stepped in front of the entire country tonight and proved with flying
colors that he has earned the starting QB job here.
RB: Lamar Gordon’s looking real comfortable in the role
of Rams’ feature back, 92 yards on 19 rushes tonight with the Rams’
best run blocking of the season in front of him. He left the field after the Rams’
first offensive play with a reaggravated wrist injury, but the J.D. Drew act didn’t
last long, and Lamar went on to gash Atlanta for 6 rushes over 10 yards on the
night, including two 20-yarders. Gordon shows Marshall Faulk-like patience waiting
for holes to develop, hits the hole well and runs exceptionally well inside, running
strong, not getting taken down by arm tackles. Arlen Harris chipped in 23 rushing
yards and showed concentration atypical of a rookie on the 25-yard catch in the
3rd. Both Gordon and Harris handled the ball securely as well, as they continue
to make big contributions with Faulk sidelined.
WR: Torry Holt knocked ‘em dead again this week, with 11
catches for 161 yards and 2 TDs. The hell with T.O., T.H. is the money receiver
in the NFC West. Holt was open just about all night. The rare time he wasn’t,
he still scored, showing world-class hands and footwork on his first TD catch.
Isaac Bruce was open just about as often as Holt, but got just 4 catches and 87
yards to show for it. Ike’s highlight for the night was his option pass
to Holt off a reverse for 25 yards early in the game. Bruce had catches of 26
and 33 yards, but the long reception of the night was Brandon Manumaleuna’s
39-yarder in the 4th, where a lucky trip-up just prevented a TD. Brandon slipped
and fell at the goal line on an earlier play, though, turning a probable TD into
an interception. Dane Looker (4-43) fumbled in the 3rd, but Mike Martz went right
back to him the next drive, for one of his two third down conversions on the game.
Offensive line: They’ll get overlooked by the shutout,
but the offensive line deserves a curtain call for tonight’s performance.
Bulger was not sacked, and at the very worst was only mildly pressured. Rare Falcon
blitzes were picked up by the line with aplomb, and most of the night, Bulger
was simply playing pitch-and-catch. And even when he screwed that up, on the 4th
quarter INT, Kyle Turley did his best Leonard Little impression and stripped the
CB to keep a FG drive alive. Run blocking was exceptional, as Gordon got some
of the biggest holes the line has made all year. Orlando Pace had his most dominating
game of the season, and guards Andy McCollum and Adam Timmerman knocked open good
holes throughout the night. FB Spencer Nead got a big block on Gordon’s
3rd-and-1 11-yard run in the 2nd that got the Rams inside the Atlanta 10 and set
up the first TD. This line has jelled, hardened, solidified, you name it. They
didn’t get off to as fast a start as Kansas City’s line, but deserve
mention with them right now as one of the league’s best.
Defensive line/LB: The defensive line rope-a-doped the first
half, and let the secondary make the big plays. Struggling Falcons QB Doug Johnson
felt more pressure than he was really getting, and TJ Duckett was making decent
progress on the ground. But after the halftime bell, the guys up front came out
swinging. Leonard Little got one of the prettiest sacks you are going to see in
the 3rd, stunting to the middle and charging out of chaos to drop Johnson for
an 11-yard loss. After piece-of-crap Bob Whitfield took Grant Wistrom out of the
game briefly with a dirty hit to the knee, Bryce Fisher played the next series
and finished it by driving through Whitfield and bringing Johnson down with one
arm. And Wistrom got his revenge the following series, smelling blood like the
rest of his teammates with Atlanta pinned at their own 1 and stopping Duckett
for a safety. Jamie Duncan got one of the Rams’ three sacks on a goofy direct
snap to Woodrow Dantzler that only served to show how much the Falcons miss Michael Vick. (As does my fantasy football team. Get well soon, Mike.) 3 sacks doesn’t
make them the 1985 Bears, but Wistrom and Little got into Johnson’s face
often enough to get into his head, and the Rams’ fantasy night was Atlanta’s
nightmare. The Falcons had barely 200 total yards, a meager 136 net passing yards,
negative passing yards in the 3rd quarter. They entered the red zone only one
time. Their drive chart on nfl.com reads: punt, interception, punt, fumble, blocked
FG, punt, punt, safety, punt, punt, interception, end of game. I’ll say.
Unaware TV viewers expecting the Greatest Show on Earth got a great defensive
show instead, and I hope tonight’s game opens the eyes of more than a few
Pro Bowl voters to get Little a trip to Hawaii in February.
Secondary: Any chance Atlanta had to make this a game early on
was personally snuffed by Aeneas Williams with two major first-half plays. Aeneas
intercepted Johnson in the end zone to thwart their promising second drive of
the game, and permanently turned the momentum of the game by stripping Alge Crumpler
and recovering the loose ball after a 24-yard catch in the 2nd. Adam Archuleta
led the team with 9 tackles before leaving the game with an ankle sprain that
reportedly is not serious. Travis Fisher and Jerametrius Butler continue to quietly
have very good seasons at CB. Fisher returned a Kurt Kittner interception 74 yards
for the game’s final score. Atlanta tried to go deep to Peerless Price several
times, but the Ram CBs had him blanketed, and peer-pressured him into a priceless
ONE catch for 8 yards. Both screwed up once. Butler gave Brian Finneran up to
the safety WAY too early on a 30-yard catch in the 1st, and somebody named Quentin McCord burned Fisher for 33 in the 2nd, even though Fisher held him at the line
of scrimmage. But looking at Atlanta’s awful 136 net passing, Price and
Alge Crumpler neutralized as receiving weapons, and three turnovers forced, this
secondary was nothing short of excellent tonight.
Special teams: Bobby April found the perfect place for 6’8”
Richard Angulo: stick him in the middle of the FG block unit, like the Cowboys
did with Too Tall Jones. Angulo was a big hurdle for Jay Feely’s 60-yard
FG attempt at the end of the first half to get over, and it didn’t. The
rest of special teams play was very solid, though kick coverage slacked off at
the end of the game. Jeff Wilkins’ kicks were all deep, and Atlanta was
stopped inside the 20 twice. No TDs given away this week, for a change, was also
a big plus.
Coaching/discipline: You could tell Mike Martz had an extra week
to spend with his playbook in the evil genius laboratory on just the second drive
of the game. Handoff to Gordon, (sloppy) end around flip to Bruce, 25-yard pass
to Holt. That wasn’t the only, um, unusual play. On 3rd-and-14 the first
series, Bulger took off so quickly on a draw play that it appeared to be a designed
play, raising many eyebrows. That worked much better on the goal line (wasn’t
as much of a draw play, though) for the Rams’ first TD. Wonder when opposing
offenses are going to recognize Bulger as a scoring threat in close. Martz earned
the crowd’s favor by going for it on 4th-and-a-foot from the Falcon 7 in
the 2nd, up only 3-0. Unfortunately, I was looking for a QB sneak, or a quick
hitter – you only need a foot, and you’ve got 900+ pounds on either
side of the center (St. Clair / Turley / Timmerman, Manu/Pace/McCollum) –
but what we got was Martz calling an outside run again on a crucial short yardage
situation, and Atlanta blew up a sloppy 90-flip for a loss. I hate to dwell on
that one play, because everything else Mike dialed up tonight worked, thanks to
dominating line play, but it’s a failed play in a big situation again. There
was only one pass to a RB tonight, so imagine what the offense looks like when
Faulk comes back healthy. I thought Martz could have run more late in the game,
but I still count 31 runs to 35 passes, and the Rams won time of possession roughly
38 minutes to 22. The Rams committed 3 turnovers but still won the turnover battle,
and committed just 5 penalties for just 45 yards, so this game certainly works
for me from a discipline standpoint.
Upon further review: Bill Leavy’s crew wasn’t challenged
much tonight, although they may be the only crew in the league that actually calls
holding, flagging the Rams for it 4 times (Manu twice). No controversial calls
I remember, though they should have gotten the challenged incomplete pass to Duckett
in the 3rd right the first time. I saw the ball hit the ground from way-up high;
luckily, Martz saw it as well.
Cheers: Maybe I had my headphones turned up too high, but the
crowd noise didn’t impress me that much tonight. Didn’t seem to be
a lot of big-game electricity for the only Monday night game here this year. We’ll
need a better crowd effort against the Packers. On Monday nights in the past,
they’ve given away “noodles” to stir up the crowd. I dared to
hope for thunder sticks tonight; what did we get? Coupon books. I guess yelling
“50 cents off Mrs. Butterworth” at Doug Johnson works as well as anything
else, though. Ray Buchanan’s ruby red slippers – er, shoes –
were fitting for tonight: his team played like Toto, melted down, and learned
that in St. Louis, there’s no place like Dome (for the ninth straight time).
Who’s next?: Green Bay blew two huge leads and lost in
overtime at home yesterday against Kansas City. And the Dome won’t exactly
be a soothing atmosphere for them, not in light of their last visit, a 45-17 2002
playoff loss where they committed 8 turnovers, including 6 Brett Favre interceptions.
The Packers haven’t exactly been road warriors this year, either, given
their gag three weeks ago in the desert to the Big Dead, and Favre is notorious
for playing poorly in domed stadiums. But Ahman Green has been as good as any
RB in the NFL since the Big Dead loss, and his success opens up the Packer offense
and allows Favre to play-action defenses to death. The future Hall-of-Fame QB
doesn’t have a dominant wideout right now, but hit NINE different receivers
and completed 70% of his passes against K.C., behind excellent protection, so
he’s still very dangerous. Especially since many of his passes are to the
equally-dangerous Green. The Chiefs were mostly helpless against Favre, so it
is incumbent on the Ram defensive line to get good heat on him. He will make terrible
throws under pressure, just like he did here in 2002. The Packer defense shut
down Priest Holmes for three quarters and ran to the ball exceptionally well,
but their awful pass defense was their downfall. Their safeties are good, but
CBs Mike McKenzie and Al Harris made a pretty average receiver in Johnny Morton
look really good, so Holt and Bruce should get their opportunities. The Packer
line barely pressured Trent Green at all. Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila looked like the
only lineman who got much straight-up pressure, and he draws Orlando Pace Sunday,
so the Packers will be forced to blitz more and expose their subpar secondary
that much more. Pass pressure will be the name of this game. We’ll see if
the Ram pass rush can draw an extra edge from the din of the Dome crowd and reel
in a big one Sunday.
Mike
Game stats from nfl.com
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