JMHO

[ANGELAKERAMS]

I knew the Rams were making a mistake by trading up for Austin.

I heard the rumor prior to the draft and was sooo hoping it was a smokescreen. Unfortunately, it was true.

He has been a disappointment so far. He is not the game changer/ game breaker the Rams thought they were drafting. 6 yards per catch is nothing. Our terrible WR's last year did that and they didn't cost what the Rams gave up to get Austin.

I hope this changes, but I have seen nothing from him that proves he is anything special.

 

[Counselor Chris]

The Rams are only using him on short passes...why? I don't know

 

[ANGELAKERAMS]

The Rams are only using him on short passes...why? I don't know

Part of it is that.

The other is that he can't seperate from coverage and he's too short to out jump a defender.

 

[Clayton]

The problem with this is that we don't know the opportunity cost. Im pretty sure if we stayed put and drafted Datone Jones we would have all been pretty dumbfounded.

Tavon Austin could have been DeAndre Hopkins and Eddie Lacy. I think 80% of Rams fans would've taken that in a heartbeat and the other 20% would've come around.

But we have Tavon Austin and judging WRs before year 3 usually doesn't make a lot of sense.

 

[zeke2829]

Every year we draft a wr or 2. We cant seem to get this right. Plus it always seems that when we do draft, the best guy is off the board. Or the "best guy" just isnt that good. We just cant get this right. All I can say, is we better quit drafting duds and bring in a proven free agent.

2009- Foster Brooks 5th rd pick; gone
2010- Mardy Gilyard 4th rd pick; gone
2011- Austin Pettis 3rd rd pick
2011- Greg Salis 4th rd pick; gone
2012- Brian Quick 2nd rd pick
2012- Chris Givens 4th rd pick
2013- Tavon Austin 1st rd pick
2013- Stedman Bailey 3rd rd pick

 

[blk4x499]

The last two weeks, Bradford takes two steps back and he getting hit...He does not have two seconds in the pocket. Thats part of the reason. Missing a wide open Quick is inexcuseable. When Bradford does have time its a 5 yard pass...Dink and dunk part two!! Defenses know this and everyone is covered. I also lay blame on the play calling as well.

 

[Red_Chaos]

Every year we draft a wr or 2. We cant seem to get this right. Plus it always seems that when we do draft, the best guy is off the board. Or the "best guy" just isnt that good. We just cant get this right. All I can say, is we better quit drafting duds and bring in a proven free agent.

o hell no we can't even pick those right either

Back to Tavon give the kid a break, its his first year. It took chris long 3-4 before he became decent

 

[fastforward]

The last two weeks, Bradford takes two steps back and he getting hit...He does not have two seconds in the pocket. Thats part of the reason. Missing a wide open Quick is inexcuseable. When Bradford does have time its a 5 yard pass...Dink and dunk part two!! Defenses know this and everyone is covered. I also lay blame on the play calling as well.

Not true. Bradford was under pressure against the Cowboys but he wasn't facing a speed rush from the 49ers. If you're susceptible to speed rush you should take measures to counter it. You keep the TEs tight to the OTs, chip block on every play, and don't allow your OTs to get beaten in the 1st 2 steps. That way you can roll out if you OL gets beaten in the middle. Rather predictably we didn't do that and Bradford never knew where the pressure was coming from. We all expected Bradford to be at 100% on Thursday regardless of the 19 hits he took on Sunday. With hindsight that was an error. The 49ers rarely got to Bradford quickly but they did apply consistent pressure. Bradford is poor at analysing pressure. If he thinks he's under pressure, (even if he actually isn't), he zeroes in on certain things but becomes blinkered to other factors. If he doesn't feel under pressure, (even if he actually is), he reads the whole field. On the Pettis miss he has room to move left and up in the pocket. Bradford immediately sees the corner route open but Pettis signals fly as Bradford is releasing the ball. Seeing it again I think it's a misread by Pettis. Bradford could still have put more air under it though.

 

[Retroram52]

This is Austin's first year and Mike Mayock in the booth stated that he thinks Austin is thinking too much and not playing because we have not seen the speed this kid has that he demonstrated at the college level where he was a blur. Being this his first year and thrown into the fire, he is going to take a couple of years just like Chris long who became pretty good about the end of his second year.

Having said that, there were two lineman we could have traded up for if we did not want an Austin and both have stepped right in and are doing ten times better than any lineman we have playing. But because Fisher does not take O-lineman in the first round (which is a stupid philosophy and is going to have to change if we wish to select Jake Matthews in this upcoming draft), we whiffed on both blue-chip O-lineman.

Of course those two would be Kyle Long and D.J. Fluker both of whom I was yelling at the T.V. for Snead to take and we still could have selected Olgetree. But noooo, Snead stuck to Fisher's idiom and now we have the results of an O-line that cannot block in both the pass and teh run. Kyle Long is playing right guard and Fluker is playing right tackle and both are having ROY seasons already just after 4 weeks.

 

[blk4x499]

We'll have to disagree. Speed rush or pressure, he has no time and when he does opposing defenses are playing tight for the short throws. Unless adjustments are made, it's going to be a long year.

I will agree that Brdford has a difficult time under pressure making accurate throws and poor decision making...but that all falls back to the pressure he is under as well.

 

[Retroram52]

WTH blk4x499. If Bradford is under pressure, is it not the job of the O-line to pick that up? If our O-line sucks, which it does, why would we not pick-up complete maulers in both of those O-lineman? Your logic is bewildering if you are referring to my suggestions in the OP.

 

[fastforward]

The OL aren't blast-ahead run blockers. In 3 of the 4 games the pass blocking has been adequate. I don't think Long, Wells, and Dahl are value for money but that's a different issue. I wouldn't have kept Dahl on the roster at $4M since his guarantees had expired, but that's gone now.
I definitely agree with the need for adjustments. There were things we could have tried in the last 2 games, but we were too rigid with the gameplan.

 

[Retroram52]

Yea, we have pretty much sealed our fate by passing on those O-lineman and going with what we ahve and then making zero adjustments which is on Shottenheimer's head. If we do it again by not taking Jake Matthews, we deserve to have another sukie offense next year.

 

[Clayton]

PFF on Bowman vs the Rams:



On his 13 blitzes (more than the first three games of the season combined, and a career high for a single game) Bowman recorded pressure seven times (2 Sacks, 2 Hits, 3 Hurries), and added a batted pass and a forced fumble in for good measure. Three of Bowman’s seven pressures came against Rams’ running backs, with neither Benny Cunningham nor Daryl Richardson really able to slow his progress to Bradford. The ground game was a dwindling part of the Rams’ offense, but Bowman was productive there as well, registering three stops on 15 run defense snaps.

 

[fastforward]

PFF on Bowman vs the Rams:



On his 13 blitzes (more than the first three games of the season combined, and a career high for a single game) Bowman recorded pressure seven times (2 Sacks, 2 Hits, 3 Hurries), and added a batted pass and a forced fumble in for good measure. Three of Bowman’s seven pressures came against Rams’ running backs, with neither Benny Cunningham nor Daryl Richardson really able to slow his progress to Bradford. The ground game was a dwindling part of the Rams’ offense, but Bowman was productive there as well, registering three stops on 15 run defense snaps.

This is an OC issue. Richardson and Cunningham don't have receiving skills. IE passes to them have to be perfect. Richardson is weak as a pass-blocker. So why have him in there on passing plays? Put Kendricks in the backfield. If the blocker releases someone has to at least cover him. That would likely have been Bowman's role. This was a game where Pead likely had the more valuable skill-set.

Later edit: Bowman came into the game as an injury doubt.

 

[Retroram52]

That is the problem Fastforward. Tape of the game revealed that neither Kendricks or Cook blocked well either. Putting Kendricks in the backfield would have accomplished little. We let two of the better blocking and pass catching tight ends walk. Those being Mike Hoomanawanuai who is have a decent year in New England and Matthew Mulligan who is out of football right now.

 

[Clayton]

This is an OC issue. Richardson and Cunningham don't have receiving skills. IE passes to them have to be perfect. Richardson is weak as a pass-blocker. So why have him in there on passing plays? Put Kendricks in the backfield. If the blocker releases someone has to at least cover him. That would likely have been Bowman's role. This was a game where Pead likely had the more valuable skill-set.

Later edit: Bowman came into the game as an injury doubt.

And thats the core issue with the offense: our running backs suck so why are we putting them in positions to pass block when they can't pass block and doing play actions when no one even cares about the RBs that can't make it past the Line of Scrimmage.

Bradford also needs to get rid of the ball immediately on a lot of plays if he makes the correct read. This is why Peyton is still good with only about 80% of his prime arm strength.

 

[Retroram52]

Yea Clayton. The military has a term for our team right now and starts with the word "cluster".

 

[Clayton]

I almost think our best formation would involve Cook as the RB just because he has so much speed, can catch the ball and refuses to block

 

[Retroram52]

You have a point there!