[CanuckRightWinger]

Yes, agreed my friend from the Keystone State!

And just please know that it's never "personal" with me (and I trust that you DO know that, as you say, from our knowledge of each other's face-to-face temperments & styles from our time together in St. Louis in 2005 and 2006).....

For me, it's about defending my opinion by vigorous argument....most of that defense (hopefully) factual....hence "the stats" emphasis. Does some spin, even sarcastic spin, filter in at times? Could be alleged

Additionally, rightly or wrongly, I feel that (sometimes) the Forum needs guys to step-up and post New Topics.....I call it:

"WeCan'tLetElvis&Aeneas1DoItAll" syndrome....
so I will start a New Topic, for example, about
Fowler's Sacks Not Matching His Salary Numbers.....OR a
WTF Did We Pay Tyler 1TD/Year Higbee $8 Mill?

And I will defend those positions....because at the time of their writings, I felt my observations were valid regarding Players'Production vs Players'Pay not matching up. Time moves on...and the situations change....but based on the feedback, I think that stirring the pot gets all us fans involved and THINKING....and POSTING, which is what it's all about, no?

I've posted before, that we ARE all wired differently and see things differently....and I see that as good, because it would be a boring FRIGGIN' world if we were all a bunch of Stepford Wives, n'est-ce pas??

So, vive les differences PA.....because despite our locking horns from time to time....to me, you have always been honorable in your passion and positions!

....well, at least before you made Kromer into Billy Martin....
and me into George TheGeneralPinochetOfTeamOwners Steinbrenner!!
j/k

Your Bud From Up North,

Canuck

[snackdaddy]

Imagine being so binary that the only options are that all the line issues were solely Kromer’s fault, or you’re making excuses for him.

Even better... that if you don’t think Kromer was solely to blame for the line problems, you’re arguing the Rams Oline was good last year!

When it comes to coaching the youngsters up, yes Kromer should absorb that blame. Its his job to get them ready and they weren't ready at times. But to say he's the reason for the personnel moves on the line, well, I just don't see a position coach with that much authority. And I seriously doubt replacing him means problem solved. Apparently McVay feels the same way.

[/zn/]

When it comes to coaching the youngsters up, yes Kromer should absorb that blame. Its his job to get them ready and they weren't ready at times. But to say he's the reason for the personnel moves on the line, well, I just don't see a position coach with that much authority. And I seriously doubt replacing him means problem solved. Apparently McVay feels the same way.

The problem with the Rams OL to start the season was the 2 OTs. You can play newbies inside if the OTs hold up and they didn't. The OL got better when AW got better and Hav went out. That was an OL starting 3 youngsters.

And absolutely yes, we know for a fact that like all OL coaches in the NFL--and like Hanifan and Boudreau before him--Kromer was very involved in picking linemen. So we have him among others to thank for Edwards and Evans.

OL coaches in the NFL are never just simple "position coaches." A linebacker coach or a secondary coach has to be an extension of the defensive coordinator; a WR coach or a QB coach has to be an extension of the offense coordinator. But an OL coach is more like a junior partner of the offensive coordinator. It has been that way with the Rams for years and we have all sorts of reports about the draft process across the years that back that up.

[PARAM]

Injuries prevented us from getting a full picture on Noteboom. Allen looks prepared.. but just seems to small and easily overpowered, imo.
Kromer got a line with 2 rookies, a guy they traded for mid-season and a new center to functional pretty quickly, imo. But.. of course.. as with the failures.. A LOT of the success was based on good design and playcalling.

Yes, it's been noted ad nauseum how bad the rushing numbers were the last 7 games with the same line starting. But they were 4-3 and their 3 losses? Dallas scoring on 4 of their first 5 possessions (28-6 at half). Baltimore scoring TDs on their first 5 possessions (28-6) at the half. And Frisco....at their 18 yard line with 2:00 to go and 3rd and 16.....First down!!!!....then another 3rd and 16 nowhere near FG range.....First down!!! and GW FG.

Now we could certainly say, "if the Rams offense controlled the ball and put up points they could have won in spite of the poor defense." But is that realistic with 2 rookies and another guy making the first starts of his career? Sorry but I have to put those 3 losses on the defense. Hell, the offense played well enough to be tied with SF with 2 minutes remaining!!!

But the defense shit the bed.....as they did numerous times last year. There's a theory when you are undermanned or have inexperience on one side of the ball, you keep things simple. Well the Rams offense kept it simple enough to win 4 games and be in position to win a 5th (of the last 7 games of the year). I call that acceptable.

[CanuckRightWinger]

Not to be argumentative....just an observation:

In Week 10, in Pittsburgh, that bed-shitting Rams D scored 9 Points via the Dante Fowler TD-fumble return and AD's Safety Sack.

The Rams Offense mustered 3 points in a 17-12 Rams loss.

Whitworth, Edwards, Allen, Blythe and Havenstein started the Steeler game, which is also the game Brian Allen went down....with Corbett and Shelton filling in. FYI.

Not like Pittsburgh scored a bunch like the Dallas, Baltimore, or SF games...
but, in the end, that Pittsburgh L still resulted in a Playoff-killer lost game for Los Ramos.

[/zn/]

Yes, it's been noted ad nauseum how bad the rushing numbers were the last 7 games with the same line starting. But they were 4-3 and their 3 losses? Dallas scoring on 4 of their first 5 possessions (28-6 at half). Baltimore scoring TDs on their first 5 possessions (28-6) at the half. And Frisco....at their 18 yard line with 2:00 to go and 3rd and 16.....First down!!!!....then another 3rd and 16 nowhere near FG range.....First down!!! and GW FG.

Now we could certainly say, "if the Rams offense controlled the ball and put up points they could have won in spite of the poor defense." But is that realistic with 2 rookies and another guy making the first starts of his career? Sorry but I have to put those 3 losses on the defense. Hell, the offense played well enough to be tied with SF with 2 minutes remaining!!!

But the defense shit the bed.....as they did numerous times last year. There's a theory when you are undermanned or have inexperience on one side of the ball, you keep things simple. Well the Rams offense kept it simple enough to win 4 games and be in position to win a 5th (of the last 7 games of the year). I call that acceptable.

Another issue (which has come up before) is pressures.

In the 2nd half of the season overall the OL played better. Pressures were not the only issue but still it is AN issue.

In the first 9 games, with OL point.one, they gave up 92 pressures, averaging 9.1 a game.

In the final 7 games, with OL point.two, they gave up 46 pressues, averaging 6.57 a game.

I submit that that's improvement.

[PARAM]

Not to be argumentative....just an observation:

In Week 10, in Pittsburgh, that bed-shitting Rams D scored 9 Points via the Dante Fowler TD-fumble return and AD's Safety Sack.

The Rams Offense mustered 3 points in a 17-12 Rams loss.

Whitworth, Edwards, Allen, Blythe and Havenstein started the Steeler game, which is also the game Brian Allen went down....with Corbett and Shelton filling in. FYI.

Not like Pittsburgh scored a bunch like the Dallas, Baltimore, or SF games...
but, in the end, that Pittsburgh L still resulted in a Playoff-killer lost game for Los Ramos.

Not argumentative at all. Your point is dead on. But we can say that about any game we lost....." it would have put us in the playoffs "......because we were 9-7, not 6-10. So we might agree, we were close....1 win away....not from .500 but from the postseason.

And that is my point. With two 2nd year players, 1st time starters on the O-line...injuries....two rookie lineman and a second year, first time starter on the o line we were just 1 game away. So I'd expect a good veteran defense with a veteran defensive coordinator, with no where near the setbacks the offense suffered, to carry us through those rough spots, but they didn't.

I acknowledge the youngsters weren't awe inspiring, first time starter or rookie phenoms. But that's something a complete team overcomes.

[Elvis]

[AvengerRam]

It would be absolute folly to count on Allen or Noteboom as anything more than reserves for 2020.

If the Rams don't think they otherwise have the starters in place (assuming Blythe and Whitworth are brought back), they need to make acquiring OL talent a major priority.

[snackdaddy]

We absolutely do have questions on the line. We don't know if the youngsters will get better with the experience they got. We hope they will, but we can't know until the games start. We don't know if Whitworth returns or how much he has left in the tank. We don't know if Havensteins regression was just a blip on the screen or a harbinger of things to come.

But with all that, I think we can reasonably believe they will be better than the early part of the season. They showed improvement in pass blocking later in the season. McVay also adapted his play calling to help with protection. There is no reason to think they won't be better this season. How much better remains to be seen. The run blocking definitely needs to be better. But how much was the blocking and how much was Gurley?