RamView, August 22, 2002
by Rams Nation's Mike Franke
From Row HH (Report and opinions from the game.)
Preseason Game #3: Chargers 31, Rams 10
You can count me among the fans demanding “preseason reform” after
tonight. What exactly was the point of that uninspired, uninspiring effort?
Bright spots: The game doesn’t count. That’s about it.
Position by position:
* QB: Not an MVP-worthy outing from Kurt Warner, 5-10-56. His
first two series went 3-and-out, and he only got the offense into scoring position
once. He really hasn’t had a chance to get going with Isaac Bruce or Torry
Holt yet in game conditions. Most of his yardage comes from a 31-yard pass to
wide open Ernie Conwell late in the 1st. Good & quick recognition by Kurt
there. Still waiting for Warner’s first long pass of the preseason, and
I’m starting to get impatient for Martz to have him “take a shot”.
I would like to “give the thumb” to any lingering doubts about Kurt’s
long ball… Marc Bulger seemed to take a step backward, throwing a couple
of bad interceptions to go with an otherwise decent 19-27-177 night. He didn’t
read the defenders well on either of those picks. He didn’t perform well
under pass pressure and eventually it looked like he quit looking downfield and
settled for dump-offs all the time. He did throw some accurate Warner-like passes,
and he eluded piece of filth Rodney Harrison beautifully on a blitz in the 2nd;
unfortunately, that play ended with Bulger’s first interception. Better
decision-making will be crucial for Bulger to make progress. Waiver bait: Ryan
Helming, this year’s Corte McGuffey, who was last year’s Gus Ornstein.
* RB: Marshall Faulk played a couple of series, looked fine,
and got out without a scratch. His only run was a draw for 11, and he had a couple
of short catches… The world’s deepest hole is on Russia’s Kola
Peninsula, near the Norwegian border, where a well has been drilled over 40,000
feet deep. Now put Mike Martz’s doghouse on top of that hole, and put Trung
Canidate at the bottom of it, and you’ll have some idea where Trung stands
after tonight. Trung tallied just 39 total yards in about 2 quarters, dropped
a pass while wide open and, most damning, fumbled for the second straight week,
and San Diego turned this one into a TD. But Lamar Gordon didn’t exactly
stand out, either, with 5 yards rushing on 8 attempts. This week he didn’t
do much of a job at all of breaking the first contact. Gordon played a little
with the first unit in the 1st, and I don’t think was going to come in until
the 4th – that is, until Canidate’s costly fumble late in the 3rd
brought him back in. Even worse news for the RB corps is that James Hodgins suffered
a broken foot early in the 2nd half and will be out 6 weeks, minimum. As the radio
postgame show mentioned, good thing the Rams picked up Chris Hetherington. Waiver
bait: Marques Glaze, Mike Malan, Dustin McClintock.
* Receivers: One player who played like his job was on the line
was Chris Taylor, who caught a big 7 passes for 85 yards, and looked great on
a couple of punt returns. Showed good hands and got where his QB expected him
to be. Taylor should push Yo! Murphy for the last WR job. Francis St. Paul got
the Rams’ only TD with a sweet double move in the end zone, but couldn’t
make a lot happen on returns. Brandon Manumaleuna had yet another long catch (37
yards) in the seam, again showing very nice hands. Ernie Conwell added 2 catches
for 43, and is holding on to the ball so far this year. Isaac Bruce had just one
catch for 6, and Torry Holt had no catches, failing badly to adjust his pattern
on an early Charger blitz. Waiver bait: Eugene Baker, Darran Hall, Anthony Tucker,
Dauntae Finger.
* Offensive line: A lot of eyes on John St. Clair this week,
and it did look like he played better. I’d probably give him a C-. He looked
really good on some plays, when he’d get solid blocks on a couple of linemen.
Other times, it looked almost like his guy would beat him inside and then he’d
stop blocking too soon. That hurried the QBs, but St. Clair didn’t give
up any sacks. Also notable was that the Rams gave him a significant amount of
help from Hodgins, Conwell and Manumaleuna. The new tackle, Grant Williams, looked
just-ok. His man got a step on him outside more than I’d like to see, but
he was usually able to tie him up enough to slow him down anyway. Something St.
Clair needs to get better at. The middle of the second line, Scott, Garcia and
Irwin, looked pretty solid pass-blocking, but run-blocking was poor all night.
Scott did look really good pulling and leading a sweep on one play. The starters
played the whole first half and looked awful on the last play, allowing Junior
Seau to blow in untouched and sack Bulger. Pass blocking needs to get firmer –
Warner didn’t get completely comfortable often enough. The Chargers did
seem to blitz a lot, so maybe that’s just a preseason non-game-planning
issue. Waiver bait: Andy King, James Broyles, DeMarcus Curry.
* Defensive line/LB: Grant Wistrom and Leonard Little looked
good, and the starters looked good on run defense, despite Brian Young jumping
offsides a couple of times. The starters got decent pressure on Drew Brees and
forced him into a lot of bad-looking mistakes… Didn’t some national
writer say Jamie Duncan was not going to be a playmaker? Wrong-o, Duncan was all
over the place in the first quarter, with six tackles, four which stopped runs
for 1 yard or less…Tommy Polley sat out with an injury, and Robert Thomas
made a couple of nice plays. He has plenty of speed, enough on one play to run
clear around a blocker right in front of him to make a nice shoestring tackle…
Except for a sack by Jonathan Brown, the Rams’ front seven backups played
awfully, getting mowed down and pushed around as if cardboard cutouts. Pass pressure
and linebacker play were poor. I must not be looking at the right times, I can’t
see what anybody likes about LB Michael Hawkes, besides the cool TV-detective
name. He got flambed on a 50-yard TE pass in the 3rd. I thought Kole Ayi played
better. John Burrough was a stiff. That experiment’s a failure. The DTs
were AWOL. Correction, Chris Ward had another good outing. That guy’s a
gamer. Waiver bait: Burrough, Hawkes, Luis Almanzar, Keith Washington, Carl Bradley,
Derick Pack.
* Secondary: The portent of bad things to come was Aeneas Williams
getting beat deep early in the game by Tim Dwight. Aeneas appeared to stumble
just as he was closing on the ball. But it’s good just to see him on the
field again. Dre Bly’s play appears to have slipped a little bit. Sure looked
like he was letting receivers get open a lot. Jerametrius Butler looked good,
making good plays on defense and special teams. Travis Fisher also looked good,
especially against the run again this week. This is not a draft pick Rams fans
are going to regret. Adam Archuleta had a good game which included a sack. Waiver
bait: Todd Howard, Ron Rogers, Rich Coady.
* Special teams: Taylor also stood out here, with two fine punt
returns, a long of 33, which were also very well-blocked by the special teams.
But who the heck is going to return kicks? St. Paul and Hall didn’t really
impress there. Yo! Murphy may be the best kick returner on the roster, but hasn’t
had any work there in preseason games… Jeff Wilkins’ 41-yard miss
in the 1st half is really going to disturb me unless someone tells me the snap
or hold was bad. You CANNOT miss those kicks indoors… Most of Mitch Berger’s
punts were excellent, and he pinned San Diego between the 10 and 15 several times…
Thanks to the lack of scoring, not much chance to evaluate 1st-string kickoff
coverage. The scrubs stunk again, though… Waiver bait: PK Matt Simonton,
& I assume Chris Massey has won the long snapper job.
* Coaching/discipline: The Chargers cared about tonight’s game.
The Rams didn’t care at all. Case closed. The poor quality of play was especially
amazing from the second and third-stringers. Guys who are supposed to be fighting
for their jobs not even playing hard? Especially most of the defensive subs, who,
when they weren’t badly out of position, were getting physically dominated.
Well, it should sure make some of the cuts easier for Mike Martz to make…
Martz again not really fancy at all offensively tonight. This helps explain why
the Chargers held them scoreless for a half, because the couple of fancy plays
he did call were big successes – the opening draw to Faulk and the long
catch by Conwell, with very effective motion that caused the Chargers to lose
him at the line of scrimmage. And let’s keep in mind that Faulk and the
main receivers again came out of the game very early… One of those “signs
of maturity” from Martz was his willingness to get extra blockers over on
St. Clair’s side… Still mildly upsetting to me to put down $94 to
see maybe 2-4 guys play with any fire at all. Season’s right around the
corner, and the Rams are playing with the sharpness of a ton of wet Nerf and the
intensity of Teletubbies. And, heaven forbid, what happens if the team can’t
just “turn on the switch,” like Martz appears to be counting on them
to do between now and the start of the season? I believe they will, though. Sorry
to sound so panicky over preseason games…
* Waiver bait: I’ve listed my predicted cuts at the end
of each section. This is under the assumption that the roster page on the Rams’
website is close to correct, that the Rams have to cut 21 players by Tuesday,
and that the NFL Europe guys (Willie Gary, Dane Looker, Rob Gatrell, Kaulana Noa,
Jason Gavadza) do not count against the roster for the first cut. That’s
a lot of ifs, we’ll see how close I get…
* Upon further review: I believe Dick Hantak was tonight’s referee,
and his crew didn’t give much to complain about. Could have been a little
tighter on holding calls, but I always complain about that. This is one of the
league’s best officiating crews, and they maintained that reputation tonight.
* Cheers: The fans countered the Rams’ lack of effort with
their own lack of effort. The crowd was never really in it after player introductions
except for a couple of third downs. Looked like about the same number as last
week – high 40K – low 50K’s. I normally would chastise a crowd
for booing the home team, which happened several times tonight, but one thing
you’re obliged to do as a fan is boo when players don’t appear to
be trying… Chargers scouting report: Drew Brees doesn’t look very
good. Doug Flutie is hilarious. To throw a ball over five yards, he has to run
up (not step) into it like he’s throwing a javelin or something. Chargers
have a keeper in safety Davis Sanchez. Kid was all over the field.
* What’s next?: (Sarcasm) Well, if the Rams don’t care about
winning the coveted Governor’s Cup Friday night in Kansas City, they’re
never going to care. (Sarcasm mode off) It would be nice not to go 0-4 in preseason.
Although I’m sure there’s no historical basis for 0-4 preseason teams
having subpar regular seasons, it would be at least shut up morons like the one
who headlined tonight’s game recap on nfl.com, “Chargers shock Rams.”
Really, now. Friday’ll be “step up” time, for those of us fond
of that cliché. Bulger needs to show he’s not Joe Germaine. Lamar
Gordon could well have the inside track at backup RB. Hetherington needs to step
up and in for Hodgins. St. Clair needs to put two semi-decent games together in
a row. The rest of the line needs to clamp down on the pass rush and crack open
more holes run blocking. Holt and Bruce need to play more like the Greatest Show
on Earth and less like guys who hate preseason games. The front seven on D needs
to pick up the pass rush a little bit, but they’re not far off, and the
secondary could stand to have a less-mistake-filled performance to build on. We
need consistency out of the special teams. And everybody try not to get injured.
Gee, think I’m asking for much? Actually, I don’t think so. These
guys are professionals who know that the rubber is starting to hit the road, that
the games that count are drawing near. They know you don’t achieve Max Q
without successful prelaunch procedures. Even if it doesn’t add up to a
win, let’s at least get in a good game against the Chiefs as a springboard
for Denver September 8th and all the big games that follow that one.
-- Mike
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