Rams’ Scrimmage: a Half-Twitted Recap

All eyes were on Lindenwood University’s football field last night — nearly 7,000 sets of eyes, to be exact — as the Rams took the field in full pads and uniforms to play-act for the fans. We packed up the family, including Son of RamsHerd (shown here, studying the roster), and enjoyed a beautiful evening of football. After the game, I was checking my twitter, and discovered that there was a virtual play-by-play of the scrimmage. Selected tweets and photos after the jump.

Ed note: he didn’t. Hellboy needs to save his strength.

At the time, we were still searching for a place to park. The attendance has been impressive for all of these open events, considering the Rams’ lowly record, but this was something else.

Yup. Some things never change. Although, in fairness, as Nick Wagoner at StLouisRams.com reports, the Rams coaches specifically instructed the officials to pay close attention to pre-snap infractions (such as false starts), and to do a full reporting to coaches afterwards. There are referee crews at many NFL camps, helping to parse rules changes. The Rams referee crew is headed by Jeff Triplette, one of the most flag-happy stripes in the game.

This one is trouble. According to reports passed on by Mike Sando, the ankle is the same as the one that troubled him last year. Unless he gets healthy this year, he could wash out completely.

Bulger looked good tonight, again. It’s very heartening to see how quickly he is grasping the timing of this new offense, and meshing with his corps of receivers. He has yet to put together a bad or even mediocre practice session that I’ve seen, and I say this as a guy who has been very pessimistic on Bulger’s bounceback prospects.

I got several good photos of this action, focusing on the right side of the O-line, manned by Jason Smith and Richie Incognito. I have to say, they looked damn good opening up holes. Jackson ran well, but was often going full steam past the line before any defender laid hands on him.

This was a "touchdown."

So was this.

Incognito looks for fresh meat

Bulger in shotgun

After the first team offense impressed in red zone play and two-minute drill time, the second team offense came out and sputtered. I’m getting to the point where I really don’t trust Kyle Boller. The strong passes I’ve seen him make have been to receivers out in space, where they have beaten their cover man. When he tries to pick out action in the middle of the field, though, he stares down his man and waits forever before throwing. This leads to easy pass breakups, or in the case of two great series by James Hall and Chris Long, a bunch of sacks and/or turnovers.

This was nearly a sack ... the next play, he got him.

And as far as third-team offense is concerned, Keith Null should be the guy. Brock Berlin has been invisible in camp, except when he’s made mistakes. 2 INTs yesterday, including one of those infuriating plays where he and the receiver are on completely different pages, resulting in an uncontested pick by the safety.

Unfortunately, the game hit a sour note — injury with less than fifteen minutes of practice time left. Backup safety Eric Bassey was the unlucky recipient. But fans quickly forgot thanks to a couple outstanding connections between Null and Brooks Foster, the last being a 10-yard end-around for a touchdown.