Rams vs Chiefs: Bubble Battle at QB

Five players got the axe Tuesday from the Rams, including official “bust” Joe Klopfenstein. A sixth player, WR Brooks Foster, was placed on Injured Reserve, meaning that 21 more will be cut after this final preseason game. So we will have position battles all over the field, played out as the Rams and Chiefs players […]

The First (Five) Cuts are the Sharpest

Wow. Devaney is not afraid to go bold. In announcing four of their five cuts, the Rams included the ostensibly still-battling-for-the-3rd-string-job Joe Klopfenstein. This declares one camp battle over, as there is almost nothing Daniel Fells can do, outside of punching the Pope, to lose the 3rd-string job to Eric Butler. Then, rather than placing […]

Coming up this week on RamsHerd

I’m traveling to Atlanta on business Monday and Tuesday, but will try to keep you rolling in fresh content as I can. Here’s what’s on tap: The Rams will begin making roster cutdowns, from 80 to 75. Via his Twitter account,

Weekend Reading: “Return Man”

“Don’t take anything for granted,” Vermeil tells the players. “Nothing in life gets better by accident. It will take a degree of concentration you’ve never experienced as a Ram to succeed. Winning is not complicated. People complicate it. Consistent winning motivation comes from within. As I build this team, I will eliminate those who aren’t […]

More thoughts from Rams-Bengals

The Rams’ cornerbacks had a very rough go last night. In quick succession in the second quarter: Justin King got beat deep middle for what should have been a touchdown, but the throw glanced off Andre Caldwell’s fingers. Jonathan Wade gets flagged for defensive holding on a pass that was tipped incomplete by the D-line, […]

Rams vs Bengals: Quick reactions

I’ll be writing something more in-depth after further review, but here were my quick thoughts from the first team portion of the Rams’ game against the Bengals: Chris Long looked energized rushing from the LDE spot. We’ve often called Leonard Little our “best” pass rusher, but it’s worth noting that he is never lined up […]

Why do the Bengals want to take away our NFL?

Looking ahead to this week’s matchup against the Bengals, no on-field issue is more important than the elephant in the room: owner Mike Brown’s refusal to pay a fat man his due. The Bengals’ first two picks were like the bad-character Bizarro mirror of the Rams’ first two picks: For our “good citizen” tackle Jason […]

Remaking the Defense: Observations from PFF (Part 2)

Last week, we had an interesting round-table with Sam and Ben from Pro Football Focus on two key figures in the Rams’ defensive front seven: James Hall and the now-departed Pisa Tinoisamoa. This time, I wanted to focus on our secondary, a definite area of weakness, but one which might contain our two most reliable […]

Weekend Reading: The Run Also Rises

The long, agonizing drive. Eat up the clock. Keep your defense off the field, keep the enemy quarterback playing catch on the sidelines. The pendulum swings, and we welcome back, from the pages of history, the running game. This, of course, is a reaction to all that defense against the passing game, which grew wings […]

The second half: a blow by blow

Just like in my first half summary, I’m using a basic red-light, yellow-light, green-light highlighting to describe whether I think the play was a bad, average, or good one for the Rams. There’s more green here, but you can kind of get a feel for the inconsistency of the game, and ultimately, its disappointing end.

The first half: a blow-by-blow

I’m still waiting to get my DVR hooked up, will have something in place by the start of the season. In the meantime, here are my observations of the game replay, with the benefit of knowing the play’s outcome before it runs. Notations are from the nfl.com gamebook. As part of the play-capture, I’ll use […]

Well, that wasn’t much fun.

First team vs first team, Rams were outclassed. The first series was all Michael Turner, the second series all Matt Ryan. Both ended in touchdowns, as holes erupted again throughout the Rams D. Boller was flat-out terrible. The only pattern working for him early was the slant to Robinson. Anything longer than ten yards through […]

Rams vs Falcons: What to Watch For

The 2008 Atlanta Falcons provide a pretty strong model for how to bust out of a franchise slump — capitalize on the things you still do well (run blocking), then make it better (Michael Turner). Go bold in your areas of biggest need (Matt Ryan), and get new blood from old players (John Abraham) as […]

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