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Retroram52
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Hey everyone: The much anticipated opening of the 2013 season fizzled from a combination of factors. Coaches prerogative to hide a goodly portion of the offense (the least likely compared to the rest of the league), team mistakes including interceptions and fumbles, giving up ST runbacks, a defense that took the night off, and a very bland first string offense that simply did not play well.
Old patterns emerged. We spent the first quarter offensively doing nothing and then spent the rest of the game trying to catch up with second and third stringers. Defense was basically taking the night off, and special teams looked flat an uninvolved except for Zuerlein who popped two 50+ yard field goals like they were money!!
Overall, with three different QB's, our total offense was 396 yards to Cleveland's 320. We had 304 yards in total passing to the Brown's 238 and we had 92 yards rushing with a plethora of backs most notably Daryl Richarson to Cleveland's 82.
The Positives-offense. Tonight's star was an unlikely dude. Raymond Radway had two big plays: one for 53 yards and a TD and one for 20 yards finishing the night with 3 catches for 88 yards. Followed by this was Chris Givens who looked very polished and had a deep score for 59 yards that set up an early TD. Daryl Richardson looked ready of the three RBs by committee.
The negatives. We have not fixed our offensive line woes and our RB issues with Pead trying everything in his power to get cut from this team. Even with the changes, Fat-ass Saffold got hurt early shifting the line around being filled in by Barksdale who is now our biggest O-lineman. After many of the starters went out, many of the second-teamers looked fairly decent in pocket protection although it was nothing to be excited over. We simply have to address these two issues especially next draft because Sammie was scrambling again like last year. This may be our Achilles heal this year again.
The positives-defense. First team defense-not much here although our run defense was pretty good and Finnegan is ready to nail somebody as was T.J. McDonald who is going to be the starting safety in a few weeks. Many second-teamers played early and often such as Conrath and he looked fairly stout as did Josh Hull. It looked as though the defense took the night off overall but Ernie Sims had a sack. Maybe C. Long was right in texting Gadell telling him pro players don't like pre-season games!
Special Teams-Except for Greg Zuerlein, ST's basically sucked giving up a runback that was the difference in the game. More work here.
I get that this is a pre-season game and nobody will remember them, but losing can be learned just as winning is learned and we continue to depend on a mentality offensively that does not score points readily by starting slow and then trying to catch and hold the other team with our defense. Sammie finished the night with a meager 5/8 for 102 yards and a TD and was outplayed by Clemons who went 6/12 for 116 a TD and an INT.
Granted, Clemons played longer than Sammie, but if you buy the notion that we were sandbagging the O then why all of the 4th down and 2-point conversion tries that failed? Moreover, if you compare Sammie's performance with other random QB's tonight, it dispels this notion.
For example: Drew Brees, 209 yards, 3TDs; Kevin Kolb, 204 yards, 1TD, 1 INT; Tom Brady, 309 yards, 1TD, 1 INT; Colin Kaepernick, 233 yards, 1 TD; Joe Flacco, 240 yards, 3 TD's; Kellen Clemons, 116 yards, 1TD, 1 INT a pattern of a more productive offense is nearly everywhere else except with teams such as the Rams, Jets, and the Buccaneers-teams that have been struggling to work out of very deep franchise holes.
This is our basic problem: We have to get more production from our offense or we are going to be staring at a similar record this year as last. This starts with the O-line and I have been screaming this for years and the Rams have yet to fix this glaring problem. We keep passing on good O-line players even in the middle rounds for project players and this has been a problem for some time. If we don't change this, the Niners and the SeaHags will be contending for the division title every year while we look forward to another draft!!
Old patterns emerged. We spent the first quarter offensively doing nothing and then spent the rest of the game trying to catch up with second and third stringers. Defense was basically taking the night off, and special teams looked flat an uninvolved except for Zuerlein who popped two 50+ yard field goals like they were money!!
Overall, with three different QB's, our total offense was 396 yards to Cleveland's 320. We had 304 yards in total passing to the Brown's 238 and we had 92 yards rushing with a plethora of backs most notably Daryl Richarson to Cleveland's 82.
The Positives-offense. Tonight's star was an unlikely dude. Raymond Radway had two big plays: one for 53 yards and a TD and one for 20 yards finishing the night with 3 catches for 88 yards. Followed by this was Chris Givens who looked very polished and had a deep score for 59 yards that set up an early TD. Daryl Richardson looked ready of the three RBs by committee.
The negatives. We have not fixed our offensive line woes and our RB issues with Pead trying everything in his power to get cut from this team. Even with the changes, Fat-ass Saffold got hurt early shifting the line around being filled in by Barksdale who is now our biggest O-lineman. After many of the starters went out, many of the second-teamers looked fairly decent in pocket protection although it was nothing to be excited over. We simply have to address these two issues especially next draft because Sammie was scrambling again like last year. This may be our Achilles heal this year again.
The positives-defense. First team defense-not much here although our run defense was pretty good and Finnegan is ready to nail somebody as was T.J. McDonald who is going to be the starting safety in a few weeks. Many second-teamers played early and often such as Conrath and he looked fairly stout as did Josh Hull. It looked as though the defense took the night off overall but Ernie Sims had a sack. Maybe C. Long was right in texting Gadell telling him pro players don't like pre-season games!
Special Teams-Except for Greg Zuerlein, ST's basically sucked giving up a runback that was the difference in the game. More work here.
I get that this is a pre-season game and nobody will remember them, but losing can be learned just as winning is learned and we continue to depend on a mentality offensively that does not score points readily by starting slow and then trying to catch and hold the other team with our defense. Sammie finished the night with a meager 5/8 for 102 yards and a TD and was outplayed by Clemons who went 6/12 for 116 a TD and an INT.
Granted, Clemons played longer than Sammie, but if you buy the notion that we were sandbagging the O then why all of the 4th down and 2-point conversion tries that failed? Moreover, if you compare Sammie's performance with other random QB's tonight, it dispels this notion.
For example: Drew Brees, 209 yards, 3TDs; Kevin Kolb, 204 yards, 1TD, 1 INT; Tom Brady, 309 yards, 1TD, 1 INT; Colin Kaepernick, 233 yards, 1 TD; Joe Flacco, 240 yards, 3 TD's; Kellen Clemons, 116 yards, 1TD, 1 INT a pattern of a more productive offense is nearly everywhere else except with teams such as the Rams, Jets, and the Buccaneers-teams that have been struggling to work out of very deep franchise holes.
This is our basic problem: We have to get more production from our offense or we are going to be staring at a similar record this year as last. This starts with the O-line and I have been screaming this for years and the Rams have yet to fix this glaring problem. We keep passing on good O-line players even in the middle rounds for project players and this has been a problem for some time. If we don't change this, the Niners and the SeaHags will be contending for the division title every year while we look forward to another draft!!