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jacobarch
Well-Known Member
Overall:
Rams vs. Cards is going to become a great rivalry after this season. The Cards look much improved and be sure to look for them to make a push for a playoff run if they keep playing like they did on Sunday. Their OL looks improved and Palmer looks like the real deal. I wouldn't be surprised if they split the record with 2 of the 3 teams in the division this year.
However, I really felt the ball bounced Arizona’s way this game. Quinn knocked the ball out of Palmers hands 3 times and we only got one fumble recovery. They also fumbled two times and special teams and we didn't get one recovery. We did get one lucky break at the end of the game when Bradford lost the ball and Richardson was on his toes and quickly jumped on the ball. We would have lost the game if we turned the ball over.
Let’s start with the Offense;
First I want to come out and say our Olinelooks so much better than it did at this point last year. They are giving Bradford much needed time in the pocket. If we can stay healthy (Saffold!!!) we’ll have one of the best units in the league by mid season. Bradford played pretty well, 300 yards 2TD’s (should have been 3) and 1 INT, and the INT wasn't really his fault as he was trying to make a play and get it over the DL’s head to the flat, it was an unlucky play. He also hit 7 different receivers. If you look at the game statistically the Cards usually come out of the gates playing good Defense and we put up a lot of yards on them Sunday moving the ball between the 20’s with ease. Our Redzone Offense is still some what struggling but its leaps and bounds better than last year. Cook looks to be a fantastic off-season acquisition, exploding on to the scene with 2 TD’s and 141 yards. The one fumble was a bone head mistake that could have happened to anyone and he absolutely made up for it. I thought Richardson looked good for the most part. He’s still a little sketchy in pass protection but he’ll get better as the year progresses. My biggest concern with Daryl is his durability. We still lack that big back that can punch it in for a yard or two, Richardson is just not that guy and it’s not that I blame him at all he’s just not that type of back. The Rams need to figure out if Cunningham or Stacy can be that guy and if they aren't we might have to bring in a vet that can get those yards after contact. Kendrick’s looked good for being out all pre-season and it looks like he and Bradford still haven’t lost much of their chemistry, look for them to hook up more as the season goes on. I’m a little concerned about our receivers. Austin looked ok in his first game, the defense didn't give him much room to move after the catch playing press coverage on him most of the game or bracketing him. He’ll get better as the season goes on Shotty just needs to be a little more creative on play calling. Givens was a non-factor as he was blanketed by Peterson all game. Pettis came up with a couple clutch grabs at the end of the game. I like Pettis he’s seems like a reliable 3rd down option. Quick needs to get more involved, whenever he gets the ball he makes a play. He bulldozed through 3 defenders almost scoring a TD. If Quick can play 100% on every play he can be our “Dig route/fade” guy that we’re so desperately missing right now.
Onto the Defense:
I want to get to the negatives first….Cortland Finnegan!!! My God you had a bad bad game. 2 personal fouls, 1 defensive holding and numerous times being burned by Fitz and Floyd. He looked absolutely lost out there today. I will say that he seemed a lot more worried about lining up our young players correctly than himself which is fine, but the stupid mistakes must stop or the Fish will put you in the Dog house. I liked Jenkins and Johnson in the 2nd half they changed up coverage and played more man coverage which threw off the Cards timing resulting in more sacks and pressures. The first half we struggled in zone coverage and the Cards exploited that. It’s going to be a long season if we don’t get that fixed. Mcdonald and Cloud played pretty well considering we thought it would be the weakest part of our defense this season. Yes, it’s still early and the verdict is still out but so far they are off to a good start. McD looked great in run support, absolutely exploding on Mendenahal (sp) coming up the gut. He was late a couple of times rolling coverage but he’ll get that fixed as the season goes on. Our LB crew will need help sooner rather than later. Palmer picked on our OLB crew most of the day up the seam and slot. Ogeltree will improve once the game slows down for him but we still have to swing help over to his side or better offensive teams will have a field day with him. JL55 played well and looked solid in every facet, nothing new there. Witherspoon was functional but that’s all. The DLine was so-so in run support, looking great on one play and completely breaking down on the next. Quinn looks be taking the next step in his play and should have a pro-bowl season if he continues to ascend. Long looked locked down against Winston pretty much the entire day. I don’t know if Long is still injured or Winston just has his number. We’ll see over the next couple of weeks. Consistency will be key moving forward with this group.
Special teams:
Looked solid, great in coverage and great kicking by Greg the leg! Nothing negative to say about this group! Holding Peterson to almost no yardage is a good day in my book. Austin had no room to maneuver the Cards did a good job making sure he didn't get loose
Coaching:
I have some serious issues with some play calling / and discipline techniques of Fish and co. I’ll start with the play calling on both sides of the ball. Defensively we got torched by a good WR tandem because we were in a base cover 3 almost the entire first half. Play after play WR’s were left wide open either because of a miss-communication or them finding the holes in our zones. I get that we didn’t want to beat deep so we protected ourselves from the ‘big play’ but you can’t always play “not to lose” sometimes you have to take chances. Offensive play calling was pretty damn bland. Looked like the same offensive play calling as last season which just won’t do! We have better players on Offense this year and we need to be a little more creative or teams will just roll coverage to Cook and Givens and we’ll be left to dink and dunk passing.
And some one explain to me why we have 3 WR's over 6'3 and we're not running more fade routes in the redzone??? It's crazy to think that Quick and Pettis can't figure out how to run a deep fade.
Coaching…, sloppy sloppy game for us, we will not win many games this year if we keep on committing stupid ass penalties. The holding call on Long and False start on Saffold are completely unwarranted and no acceptable. We’re at home and those type of things will not help us win. So many stupid 15 yard penalties, a couple that were very suspect on the officiating crew but we can’t beat ourselves. This game would have been less of a nail biter if would of played good sound football. Which brings me to my last point; it would be nice to see a blow out once in a while guys. Yes, it’s important to win the close games or come from behind but I would like to see a complete and utter domination of your opponent. I’m tired of having butterflies in my tummy the entire game!
Cheers!
Rams vs. Cards is going to become a great rivalry after this season. The Cards look much improved and be sure to look for them to make a push for a playoff run if they keep playing like they did on Sunday. Their OL looks improved and Palmer looks like the real deal. I wouldn't be surprised if they split the record with 2 of the 3 teams in the division this year.
However, I really felt the ball bounced Arizona’s way this game. Quinn knocked the ball out of Palmers hands 3 times and we only got one fumble recovery. They also fumbled two times and special teams and we didn't get one recovery. We did get one lucky break at the end of the game when Bradford lost the ball and Richardson was on his toes and quickly jumped on the ball. We would have lost the game if we turned the ball over.
Let’s start with the Offense;
First I want to come out and say our Olinelooks so much better than it did at this point last year. They are giving Bradford much needed time in the pocket. If we can stay healthy (Saffold!!!) we’ll have one of the best units in the league by mid season. Bradford played pretty well, 300 yards 2TD’s (should have been 3) and 1 INT, and the INT wasn't really his fault as he was trying to make a play and get it over the DL’s head to the flat, it was an unlucky play. He also hit 7 different receivers. If you look at the game statistically the Cards usually come out of the gates playing good Defense and we put up a lot of yards on them Sunday moving the ball between the 20’s with ease. Our Redzone Offense is still some what struggling but its leaps and bounds better than last year. Cook looks to be a fantastic off-season acquisition, exploding on to the scene with 2 TD’s and 141 yards. The one fumble was a bone head mistake that could have happened to anyone and he absolutely made up for it. I thought Richardson looked good for the most part. He’s still a little sketchy in pass protection but he’ll get better as the year progresses. My biggest concern with Daryl is his durability. We still lack that big back that can punch it in for a yard or two, Richardson is just not that guy and it’s not that I blame him at all he’s just not that type of back. The Rams need to figure out if Cunningham or Stacy can be that guy and if they aren't we might have to bring in a vet that can get those yards after contact. Kendrick’s looked good for being out all pre-season and it looks like he and Bradford still haven’t lost much of their chemistry, look for them to hook up more as the season goes on. I’m a little concerned about our receivers. Austin looked ok in his first game, the defense didn't give him much room to move after the catch playing press coverage on him most of the game or bracketing him. He’ll get better as the season goes on Shotty just needs to be a little more creative on play calling. Givens was a non-factor as he was blanketed by Peterson all game. Pettis came up with a couple clutch grabs at the end of the game. I like Pettis he’s seems like a reliable 3rd down option. Quick needs to get more involved, whenever he gets the ball he makes a play. He bulldozed through 3 defenders almost scoring a TD. If Quick can play 100% on every play he can be our “Dig route/fade” guy that we’re so desperately missing right now.
Onto the Defense:
I want to get to the negatives first….Cortland Finnegan!!! My God you had a bad bad game. 2 personal fouls, 1 defensive holding and numerous times being burned by Fitz and Floyd. He looked absolutely lost out there today. I will say that he seemed a lot more worried about lining up our young players correctly than himself which is fine, but the stupid mistakes must stop or the Fish will put you in the Dog house. I liked Jenkins and Johnson in the 2nd half they changed up coverage and played more man coverage which threw off the Cards timing resulting in more sacks and pressures. The first half we struggled in zone coverage and the Cards exploited that. It’s going to be a long season if we don’t get that fixed. Mcdonald and Cloud played pretty well considering we thought it would be the weakest part of our defense this season. Yes, it’s still early and the verdict is still out but so far they are off to a good start. McD looked great in run support, absolutely exploding on Mendenahal (sp) coming up the gut. He was late a couple of times rolling coverage but he’ll get that fixed as the season goes on. Our LB crew will need help sooner rather than later. Palmer picked on our OLB crew most of the day up the seam and slot. Ogeltree will improve once the game slows down for him but we still have to swing help over to his side or better offensive teams will have a field day with him. JL55 played well and looked solid in every facet, nothing new there. Witherspoon was functional but that’s all. The DLine was so-so in run support, looking great on one play and completely breaking down on the next. Quinn looks be taking the next step in his play and should have a pro-bowl season if he continues to ascend. Long looked locked down against Winston pretty much the entire day. I don’t know if Long is still injured or Winston just has his number. We’ll see over the next couple of weeks. Consistency will be key moving forward with this group.
Special teams:
Looked solid, great in coverage and great kicking by Greg the leg! Nothing negative to say about this group! Holding Peterson to almost no yardage is a good day in my book. Austin had no room to maneuver the Cards did a good job making sure he didn't get loose
Coaching:
I have some serious issues with some play calling / and discipline techniques of Fish and co. I’ll start with the play calling on both sides of the ball. Defensively we got torched by a good WR tandem because we were in a base cover 3 almost the entire first half. Play after play WR’s were left wide open either because of a miss-communication or them finding the holes in our zones. I get that we didn’t want to beat deep so we protected ourselves from the ‘big play’ but you can’t always play “not to lose” sometimes you have to take chances. Offensive play calling was pretty damn bland. Looked like the same offensive play calling as last season which just won’t do! We have better players on Offense this year and we need to be a little more creative or teams will just roll coverage to Cook and Givens and we’ll be left to dink and dunk passing.
And some one explain to me why we have 3 WR's over 6'3 and we're not running more fade routes in the redzone??? It's crazy to think that Quick and Pettis can't figure out how to run a deep fade.
Coaching…, sloppy sloppy game for us, we will not win many games this year if we keep on committing stupid ass penalties. The holding call on Long and False start on Saffold are completely unwarranted and no acceptable. We’re at home and those type of things will not help us win. So many stupid 15 yard penalties, a couple that were very suspect on the officiating crew but we can’t beat ourselves. This game would have been less of a nail biter if would of played good sound football. Which brings me to my last point; it would be nice to see a blow out once in a while guys. Yes, it’s important to win the close games or come from behind but I would like to see a complete and utter domination of your opponent. I’m tired of having butterflies in my tummy the entire game!
Cheers!