RamView : From Row HH
By Rams Nation's Mike Franke
Position by position:
QB: It's been weeks since Marc Bulger had a knockout game,
but he continues to win fights on points. It's easy to underappreciate Marc's
work (20-32-236, 2 TD, 1 INT) today, because, as is usual lately, it wasn't
pretty. Marc threw some really bad passes. The Rams' first possession ended
abruptly with a safety. The good news for Marc is that he has great receivers.
Isaac Bruce snagged a ball way over his head for 25 the next drive. Later that
drive, Mike Furrey gained 13 on 3rd-and-12 from Seattle's 18 to set up the Rams'
first TD. Bulger hit Bruce nicely with an 18-yard TD the next drive to put the
Rams up 14-2. And he threw a 40-yard TD the next drive, but that was all Torry Holt, who made an amazing scoop of an underthrown ball. Bulger threw a bad interception
late in the first half; fortunately, that was his only turnover, and the defense
held Seattle to 3 points in its aftermath. And Marc didn't do much in the 2nd
half. That was especially a shame when the Rams 3-and-outed after Seattle narrowed
the lead to 24-22. But Bulger didn't just ride his teammates to glory –
he kept his mistakes down, looked decent in the pocket, made some smart checkdowns
when he had to, and turned in some big plays. Marc's getting it done right now
by not trying to do too much.
RB: It was another long day for Marshall Faulk (28-85), getting
little running room, and frustratingly being used little in the passing game,
but he saved his best for last, the Rams' final drive. With about 6 minutes left,
Marshall got the ball nine straight times and led the Rams from their own 15 to
Seattle's 28 with 1:42 left. He opened the drive with a 28-yard burst off left
tackle. He got nine two plays later on 2nd-and-8 behind Cam Cleeland's lead. But
Marshall's biggest play came on 3rd-and-4 from the Seattle 40. He catches a right
side screen that is absolutely doomed until he wheels back around to the left
for 6 and a huge first down. Six more yards out of Marshall got Jeff Wilkins in
range for a critical 45-yard FG that forced Seattle to drive for a TD to win.
Marshall was invaluable all day; he kept the offense balanced, he picked up the
blitz superbly, and at the end, he reached down deep and carried the team to victory.
WR: Isaac Bruce (2-43) got off to a hot start. He made an impressive
snare of a very high pass from Bulger over the middle for a 25-yard gain to get
the Rams' first TD drive started, and he got wide open on a pretty pattern to
score the Rams' 2nd TD. But he struggled with dropped passes as well, and most
importantly, got knocked out of the game in the 2nd with a sprained left ankle.
But Torry Holt returned to his Big Game form, with 6 catches for 100, featuring
a stupendous 40-yard TD catch in the 2nd. Bulger's bomb was underthrown, and Torry
was well-covered by Marcus Trufant, who was right on his shoulder, but he reached
out and grabbed the ball at his shoetops for the Rams' third TD. Dane Looker (3-30)
and Mike Furrey (4-45) stepped up nicely in Bruce's absence, especially Furrey.
He converted a 3rd-and-12 in the red zone on the Rams' first TD drive and took
a screen pass for 13 on the Rams' first FG drive of the 4th quarter. Great to
see those fellows come through when they're needed, but Bruce's ankle is the big
concern for now.
Offensive line: The line was very solid in the passing game,
except for the second offensive play of the game, when blitzing LB Orlando Huff
steamed by Adam Timmerman and racked up Bulger for a safety. That was the only
sack allowed, though, as Marc was usually allowed plenty of time to throw. Blitzes
were picked up well, thanks to good work from Faulk and Joey Goodspeed. When used
properly, Goodspeed was also a nice factor in the running game. He buried a DB
on Faulk's TD run and had some big pops on the Rams' last drive. But Mike Martz's
game plan seemed to depend on running behind Brandon Manumaleuna a lot, and he
is a weak, disappointing blocker for a 300-pound man. Faulk spent the first 3
½ quarters getting stuffed. Why not run more off-tackle behind Orlando Pace, like that big 28-yard Faulk run to start the final drive? But even with
the disappointing week in the running game, the offensive line still controlled
the line of scrimmage well enough to win, thanks to the amount of time they gave
Bulger to throw.
Defensive line / LB: The front seven was downright disappointing
today and needs to get its act together before it's too late. Leonard Little was
double-teamed all day, and his linemates barely responded. Adam Archuleta and
Grant Wistrom each sacked Matt Hasselbeck in the second, but that was it for sacks,
and until the waning moments of the game, there was too little pressure on the
Seattle QB, especially on Seattle's 72- and 56- yard TD drives. Run defense was
even more hideous, as Shaun Alexander cruised to a pretty-easy 126 yards. For
the second straight week, it didn’t even look like the Rams lined up defensive
tackles, and tackling was pretty poor. Any kind of misdirection made the Rams
look just bad. Jamie Duncan may have made some misplays, but Pisa Tinoisamoa also
overran too many plays and looked simply awful on one of Alexander's long runs
because he overpursued. So, as with Bulger, the question here again became, would
they make enough good plays to succeed. Answer: yes. Duncan batted a pass to end
Seattle's first possession. Tinoisamoa dropped Alexander for a 3-yard loss to
set their next drive back. Wistrom dropped back in coverage Seattle's next time
out, and he may have distracted Jerramy Stephens into tipping the ball away and
into Travis Fisher's hands for an interception that the Rams converted into another
TD. Archuleta's sack drove Seattle out of FG range – how big was that? Archuleta
added a huge tackle of Alexander for a loss of 4 at the Ram 8 that helped forced
a Seattle FG late in the 1st half. With the Rams up only 2 in the 4th, Little
made a big stop of Alexander to help force a punt near midfield, and the pressure
on Hasselbeck on Seattle's last drive was enough to make him throw poor passes
or settle for the dumpoff route. The overall performance left a lot to be desired,
but the effort was there at the right times.
Secondary: Travis Fisher led the way with a couple of big plays.
He picked off a deflected pass in the first, and his stop of Alexander in-bounds
in the game's last minute really mucked up their last drive. But nobody seemed
interested in covering TE Itula Mili in the first half, and when Jerametrius Butler
left the game late with an injury, things just got Groce, as in DeJuan, who immediately
became a weak link. Lovie Smith may have wisely moved Aeneas Williams over there
late in the game, which brought in Rich Coady, and darned if Rich didn't come
up with knockdowns on the last two plays. Adam Archuleta led the team with 9 tackles
and had a Pro Bowl-quality game. Tommy Polley should have had the pick on the
late play where the official tripped Bobby Engram. Seattle had stretches of moving
the ball downfield successfully against soft zone coverage, but like the rest
of the team, the secondary made enough plays to win.
Special teams: Jeff Wilkins continues to be money in the bank,
with 2 FGs today, including a clutch 45-yarder with 1:42 left to extend the margin
to 5 points. Kickoff coverage was very good, especially the last one of the game,
where Erik Flowers destroyed the wedge and forced Seattle to start their final
drive from the 20. But Sean Landeta punted lousy again, clanking a 29-yarder for
his first effort. The Ram "gunners" rarely even beat the Seahawks down
the field, so nothing happened on punt returns. In fact, Seattle's first punt
was downed at the Ram 3 and set up the safety. Luckily, Wilkins has saved the
STs this year.
Coaching/discipline: The Rams almost doomed themselves today
with too much cutesy coaching. The run game flopped largely because of funky calls
from Mike Martz. He decoyed with Goodspeed way too much, trying to get Seattle
thinking pass, but instead planning the run for Faulk behind Manumaleuna, who
lost the job Goodspeed has now because he was so lousy at it. How is that a good
idea? Martz's pluses much outweigh his minuses, though. He got an early challenge
to work – a re-spot changed a Seattle 3rd-and-3 to a 3rd-and-5, and they
couldn't convert it. He called 30 runs and 32 passes. The Bruce TD was a beautifully
designed play; Faulk, Bruce and Looker were on the left side, Faulk ran an out
and drew two DBs, which left Bruce all alone to run a flag into the end zone for
the TD. And certainly not least, Martz has claimed his second division title in
four years as a HC. Lovie Smith also got a little too cute for his own good at
times. He didn't compensate well for Little being double-teamed all day. The ridiculous
number of zone blitzes he called only took further heat off of Hasselbeck, and
he capitalized for nice gains. Wistrom's one sack came because the Rams blitzed
on that side and Grant got loose and got to the QB. I thought more of that straight-up
blitzing was called for, although Little covered the FB beautifully on a 2nd-half
zone blitz, and Wistrom's coverage of the TE in the 1st may have been enough to
force the interception. And if the zone blitzing is what stopped all the completions
to the TEs, then Lovie deserves more credit than I've given him. But the run defense
flirts with disaster every week, though, and Lovie has to get that cleaned up
for the postseason.
Upon further review: Not a good game at all by Walt Coleman and
crew. In a well-officiated game, you're not even supposed to notice the refs,
but that was made impossible today by back judge Greg Steed stumbling at the 5
and tripping Bobby Engram on a long bomb with 0:47 left. Analyzing that play,
Engram sure is wide open… when he's tripped. Yeah, I'm a Rams fan, but let's
not forget the Rams had three guys closing on that ball, and the fact that Tommy
Polley had a play on it does not change because Engram was tripped. I don't see
Engram outfighting Polley, who would have had position, for the ball. The refs
did an awful job controlling "extracurriculars" today, allowing way
too much chippy activity after plays were over. And right before the Engram trip
play, Koren Robinson put the ball on the turf for a clear fumble, but it was either
blown dead or incorrectly called as caused by the ground. The referees also allowed
way too much contact downfield – Rams receivers got mugged all day long.
Not quality work.
Cheers: Radio play-by-play man Steve Savard was right to some
extent about the home crowd being taken out of the game at times. Sloppy, weak
defensive play does that. But if Savard doesn't stop complaining about the crowd
being quiet while the Rams have the ball, WHICH IS WHEN WE'RE SUPPOSED TO BE QUIET,
I am going to turn around and throttle him, and I'm only a few rows away. The
crowd certainly cranked it up when it had to, and probably forced a couple of
false starts, but I'd agree that today's effort wasn't consistent. The little
I heard of Joe Buck's play-by-play again has me calling for him to stick to baseball.
On the Engram trip play: "The referee defended that better than the Rams
defense did!" Instead of immediately lurching for controversy, how about
noting that Polley had a play on the ball?
Who’s next?: Who thought in April that next Sunday's matchup
with the Cincinnati Bengals would be a clash between division leaders?. Bad news
for the Ram defense is that they're going to have to stop the run. Rudi Johnson
is big and fast and can break off the long one. He had about 180 yards in recent
Bengal wins over K.C. and S.F. The Bengals can pile up points, because Jon Kitna
has cut well back on mistakes this year. Chad Johnson is a seriously dangerous
WR, and if you forget about Peter Warrick, he'll toast you – just ask the
Chiefs. Besides stopping the run, it will be imperative for the Ram defense to
pressure Kitna. The Ravens sacked him six times in their win a couple of weeks
ago, taking advantage of their speed against Cincinnati's tackles, so Little could
well wreak some havoc next week.
The Bengals stub their toe a bit on defense. They're 24th overall, 24th against
the run and only slightly better against the pass. Their last three opponents
averaged 30 points, and the 49ers topped 500 yards Sunday despite losing. The
Ravens ran for over 220 the week before, and Tommy Maddox passed for 299 the week
before that. So, barring turnovers, the Rams should certainly be able to move
the ball. Bulger can continue to avoid turnovers if his offensive line can continue
to keep him relatively free from pressure. Most of Cincinnati's sacks come from
Duane Clemons and John Thornton on the left side, so Kyle Turley and Adam Timmerman
are going to be under the gun. This game has many of the makings of a shootout,
but if the Rams can execute their "grunt work" well enough on both sides
the line of scrimmage, they can assure themselves of having superior scoring power
in a game that will be big for both teams.
-- Mike
Game stats from nfl.com
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