by ramsman34 4 years 6 months ago Total posts: 8521 Joined: Apr 16 2015 Back in LA baby! Moderator It’s the offense line, stupid! POST #21 dieterbrock wrote:Trent Williams is still out there. Just sayin And we have Edwards who in the ore season played pretty well and Evans who was suspect that might get a look at least in practice. I just don’t get how the staff projected the line to be as good or better this year than last. I also don’t get why McVay hasn’t consistently found ways to make defenses pay for “figuring” out his play calling tendencies. Unless, he is calling what his team is best at and it is simply a matter of lack of cohesion and consistent execution. It does only take one player not getting it done on a play for that play to be unsuccessful. by actionjack 4 years 6 months ago Total posts: 3942 Joined: May 19 2016 Sactown Superstar It’s the offense line, stupid! POST #22 I dont think playoffs are our of reach, but definitely a lot harder after yesterday. The Rams have 10 games left and play both Seattle and Niners, bottom line the Rams have to win the next game and then worry about the next game. The Chiefs, Rams and Cowboys are 0-8 since they were undefeated. The schedule is lighter for the Rams next 4 game, can they find there mojo. The niners have a good DL, not all teams do, so I am still thinking we can get this together. Fuk the Niners and Block Purdy by ramsman34 4 years 6 months ago Total posts: 8521 Joined: Apr 16 2015 Back in LA baby! Moderator Re: It’s the offense line, stupid! POST #23 So you’re saying there’s a chance? Lol. And of course there is. It’s just feeling like so many things are wrong/off at the same damn time. And that o line? My Lord how do you fix and/or scheme to account for their garbage play?How does the scripted first drive work so well and then the next opportunity gets down to the 1 work and then McVay gets out adjusted and out coached and can’t do a damn thing offensively? by ramsman34 4 years 6 months ago Total posts: 8521 Joined: Apr 16 2015 Back in LA baby! Moderator Re: It’s the offense line, stupid! POST #24 If they don’t take advantage of a terrible Falcons D and really show us that they can be an elite offense, THEN we are in trouble. The Hawks and especially Niners have really good defenses. We should destroy teams with bad Ds. And we MUST to get that o line some confidence. by Hacksaw 4 years 6 months ago Total posts: 24523 Joined: Apr 15 2015 AT THE BEACH Moderator It’s the offense line, stupid! POST #25 R4L liked this post ramsman34 wrote:How does the scripted first drive work so well and then the next opportunity gets down to the 1 work and then McVay gets out adjusted and out coached and can’t do a damn thing offensively?The 9ers expected us to pass a lot more (at all) on that 1st drive. When they shifted to stop the run, they did. That was the beginning of the end as we couldn't do anything about it.A lot of blame to go around but the big differences this year are the O-line, TGII and team salary cap flexibility. None trending upward. GO RAMS !!! GO DODGERS !!! GO LAKERS !!!THE GREATEST SHOW ON TURF,, WAS 1 by rams74 4 years 6 months ago Total posts: 1469 Joined: Nov 19 2015 Glendale, Arizona Pro Bowl It’s the offense line, stupid! POST #26 ramsman34 wrote:So you’re saying there’s a chance? Lol. And of course there is. It’s just feeling like so many things are wrong/off at the same damn time. And that o line? My Lord how do you fix and/or scheme to account for their garbage play?Yeah, it's not just that the O-line is not quite as good as it was the last 2 years. It's that they've gone from being one of the better lines in the league to one of the worst. Goff has no time for anything. At 3-3, the season is far from over. But we also need to consider this. Six games in, we're only half a game better than the last place Cardinals. Ugh. by snackdaddy 4 years 6 months ago Total posts: 9657 Joined: May 30 2015 Merced California Hall of Fame It’s the offense line, stupid! POST #27 CanuckRightWinger wrote:I've posted since the beginning of the season that Rams braintrust decided to Cheap-Out on the Interior of the 2019 OLine.......Noteboom makes $800K, Allen makes $700K and Blythe makes $2Million per year.....Total for 3 guys who protect the closest&fastest route to Goff? $3.5Million...They definitely need to devote more resources to the blocking positions. But doing that would not guarantee anything. I remember using the number two overall picks on guys like Jason Smith and Greg Robinson. First round picks like Alex Barron. Signing free agents like Jason Brown and Scott Wells along with a few others. We've seen quite a few bad lines over the years. And devoting more resources did not help. Meanwhile, why does it seem like every year Tom Brady rarely sees the kind of pressure Goff sees every week? Do the Patriots know how to find these quality blockers? Or do they have a good system in place that gives them the best chance to succeed? I don't recall them spending a bunch of high picks for their line and signing expensive free agents. by CanuckRightWinger 4 years 6 months ago Total posts: 2777 Joined: Jan 13 2016 VANCOUVER, BC Superstar It’s the offense line, stupid! POST #28 New England's OLine Coach is 71 year old Dante Scarnecchia, who whilst attending College in the 1960's also was a Sergeant in the US Marine Corps Reserve...…...AND HE OBVIOUSLY HAS AN EYE FOR OLINE BEEF & TALENT. Our guy Kromer? He's a salesman. He sold McSnead on the idea of letting Saffold and Sullivan go....and that their replacements, Noteboom and Allen, would deliver blocking performance that would not curtail the 2019 Los Ramos ability to run and pass the hogbladder! Based on what we've seen nearly 40% into the 2019 Regular Season??That Aaron Kromer cat is one helluva snake-oil salesman eh!!! by Elvis 4 years 6 months ago Total posts: 38445 Joined: Mar 28 2015 Los Angeles Administrator It’s the offense line, stupid! POST #29 https://theathletic.com/1291613/2019/10 ... =twitteredThe Rams gambled on their offensive line, and they seem to be paying for itBy Rich Hammond 4h ago 7 LOS ANGELES — No transcripts necessary.Offensive line coach Aaron Kromer lingered in the corner of the Rams’ locker room and chatted with tackle Andrew Whitworth long after Sunday’s dismal loss to the San Francisco 49ers. Kromer offered occasional smiles, some that looked a bit forced.Jared Goff, still clad in his post-shower towel, then wandered over to the linemen’s row of lockers and sat down next to center Brian Allen. Whitworth and guard Austin Blythe leaned in to listen and contribute. Goff used hand movements to explain something to Allen, who nodded. Whitworth also offered hand movements. No smiles. Kromer and coach Sean McVay had a quick hallway chat, as did Whitworth and fellow tackle Rob Havenstein in a side room.The conversation details don’t seem particularly important. The linemen and coaches will do what they can in the coming days to clean up mistakes by the unit that have greatly diminished the Rams’ ability to both run and pass the ball this season.“Right now, we’re a little mix of everything,” Whitworth said after Sunday’s game. “We’ve had some injury stuff. We’re not playing well enough. We just have to keep our heads down and stay focused.”But it’s not totally their fault. Allen didn’t force the Rams to start him before he was ready. Neither did Joe Noteboom or Jamil Demby. None of them had started a regular-season game before last month, and now all have been thrust into major roles. While the Rams splashed money around to high-profile players — Goff, Todd Gurley, Brandin Cooks, Aaron Donald — they got a bit greedy with their offensive line, betting that recent mid-round draft picks could get the job done. It hasn’t worked, and a six-game sample size is enough to say so.Whitworth is holding up the best, but at age 37, he can’t stay on top forever. Havenstein, an excellent right tackle in 2017 and 2018, is getting beat on a disturbing number of speed rushes by defensive ends or outside linebackers. Given the inexperience of the interior line, the Rams absolutely must get the best from the two tackles, and it hasn’t happened.Late in the second quarter of a 7-7 game, the Rams faced third-and-goal at the 49ers’ 1-yard line. They did the reasonable thing and ran Malcolm Brown twice. He did not reach the goal line. The Rams, trailing 17-7 late in the third quarter, had a drive stalled before it even got started, as San Francisco’s Solomon Thomas beat Allen for a first-down sack that pushed the Rams back to their own 7.Things got avert-your-eyes bad in the fourth quarter when the Rams trailed 20-7 and needed some magic in the final five minutes. Havenstein was badly beaten on a first-down sack. Then on third-and-19, when the 49ers rushed four players and had most of their defense lined up somewhere in Montebello, both 49ers ends — Arik Armstead and Dee Ford — easily got to Goff for another sack.What happened? How did things fall so far and so fast with this group?Every offensive line likes to think of itself as a unit, not five individuals. That’s why, when the Rams’ offense gets introduced before a home game, the line runs out together. So perhaps it’s fitting that now the blame is shared, and deservedly so. Toss in Kromer, McVay and general manager Les Snead, too.During the offseason, the Rams gambled on themselves, on recent history and on Kromer’s ability to work the magic he displayed in 2017 and 2018. It made sense in theory, but it has turned into a disaster. The Rams’ inability to develop cohesion and success along the offensive line is the biggest reason for their offensive regression and, arguably, the biggest reason for their 3-3 start and their slide into the bottom half of the NFC West.Yes, Goff needs to be better. His pocket presence hasn’t been sharp. Yes, McVay needs to make better adjustments, both before games and during them. His play-calling hurt the Rams on Sunday. Yes, the defense needs to play tighter and with more aggression. It shouldn’t be this easy to find soft spots in their veteran secondary. None of these things should be diminished, but even if all of these things got cleaned up, the Rams would still be in trouble.The results of the decision after last season to replace veterans Rodger Saffold and John Sullivan with two neophytes (Allen and Noteboom) have been rough. The Rams’ run game stalled after a promising start Sunday, and Goff now plays like a quarterback expecting to get sacked. He’s not looking down the field and stepping into throws with confidence, and his natural skill set doesn’t allow him to easily evade pressure.The Rams rushed for 62 yards on eight carries on their first drive, an average of 7.75 yards per rush. Over the final 54 minutes, they gained 47 yards on 14 carries, an average of 3.35 per rush.Yes, Gurley didn’t play. Yes, Noteboom had to leave with a knee injury late in the first quarter, forcing Demby into the game (more on that later). But by the fourth quarter, Brown and Darrell Henderson were running into a wall of defenders, only to bounce outside and get tackled.Goff, always the subject of much attention and criticism, didn’t fare any better, particularly while attempting to throw against a 49ers secondary that has been one of the best in the NFL this season. Goff was sacked four times and, moreover, rarely had more than a couple seconds to get off a forced throw.And this is where the Rams failed. They know what they have in Goff — a smart, accurate quarterback who can make any throw, but also one who thrives with a clean pocket. Advanced statistics show this. Give Goff some space and a couple extra seconds — and pair that with McVay’s play-calling — and he will find someone open. Pressure him, and things break down quickly, in part because Goff doesn’t have a great ability to extend plays with his feet. Russell Wilson he is not.Are these flaws? Yes, but they are the same negatives everyone has known about Goff since 2016. Nothing has changed. The issue is that the Rams, like overconfident gamblers, knew this about Goff but let it ride for three consecutive years when it came to the makeup of the offensive line.Really, who could blame them? When McVay took over in 2017 and hired Kromer, the Rams had an awful offensive line but didn’t overhaul it. They made two free-agent signings, in which they bet on a 35-year-old left tackle (Whitworth) and an over-30 center (John Sullivan) who was coming off a major back injury. They raised some eyebrows when they didn’t draft a lineman with any of their eight picks in 2017.It worked. Saffold, who had grown frustrated by being a four-position nomad under the previous coaching regime, settled in at left guard and played at a Pro Bowl level. Havenstein developed into one of the league’s better right tackles. Jamon Brown was solid at right guard. Sullivan made it through the whole season. Whitworth was such an upgrade over Greg Robinson that words can’t define it.Snead looked like a genius, Kromer like a wizard. So the Rams rolled along in 2018. They drafted Noteboom in the third round, Allen in the fourth round and Demby in the sixth round, and they felt so confident in their unit that, two months into season, they released Brown in favor of Blythe, whom they had plucked off waivers from Indianapolis 18 months earlier. Blythe proved to be an upgrade.So the Rams gambled again this year. They looked at Saffold and saw a 30-year-old free agent. They looked at Sullivan and saw a 33-year-old center who, though revered for his intelligence and ability to identify things at the line of scrimmage, had regressed in ability and wasn’t likely to bounce back.Saffold parlayed two great seasons into a $44 million contract with Tennessee. The Rams couldn’t have, and shouldn’t have, matched that. Sullivan became a free agent and did not sign with another team. It’s fair to say the Rams did the smart thing by moving on from both players.The issue is that they outsmarted themselves with the answers. Having brought the best out of Saffold, Sullivan, Blythe and Havenstein, they thought Noteboom and Allen would be able to step in without a significant drop-off. That was incorrect, at least to date.There’s still time for improvement, although Noteboom’s status for coming games remains unknown (he did not put weight on his right leg and he was helped off the field). Is a trade a possibility, perhaps for Washington’s Trent Williams? Or will the Rams once again roll with their own linemen, with the belief that drafting and developing is the way to go?“We’ve got faith in those sixth and seventh guys,” Goff said when asked how a lack of line continuity can impact a team. “It shouldn’t do much, honestly. We’ve got a lot of good players and we had some chances to do stuff. We just didn’t take advantage of them.” RFU Season Ticket Holder by Gareth 4 years 6 months ago Total posts: 1207 Joined: Mar 30 2015 LA Coliseum Pro Bowl It’s the offense line, stupid! POST #30 ramsman34 wrote:How does the scripted first drive work so well and then the next opportunity gets down to the 1 work and then McVay gets out adjusted and out coached and can’t do a damn thing offensively?Does this mean that McVay out adjusted and outcoached everybody else in all of the Rams other games this year? Because the Rams have been the precise opposite every other game - struggle offensively in the first half and then very good in the second half.Yesterday was terrible. But a lot of people are acting like that’s how we played all year and it just isn’t. We played well against Seattle and should have won. Again, yesterday was a catastrophe. But that was their worst game in McVay’s tenure. Hopefully not representative of things to come. RFU Season Ticket Holder Reply 3 / 4 1 3 4 Display: All posts1 day7 days2 weeks1 month3 months6 months1 year Sort by: AuthorPost timeSubject Sort by: AscendingDescending Jump to: Forum Rams/NFL Other Sports Rams Fans United Q&A's Board Business 33 posts Apr 17 2024 FOLLOW US @RAMSFANSUNITED Who liked this post
by actionjack 4 years 6 months ago Total posts: 3942 Joined: May 19 2016 Sactown Superstar It’s the offense line, stupid! POST #22 I dont think playoffs are our of reach, but definitely a lot harder after yesterday. The Rams have 10 games left and play both Seattle and Niners, bottom line the Rams have to win the next game and then worry about the next game. The Chiefs, Rams and Cowboys are 0-8 since they were undefeated. The schedule is lighter for the Rams next 4 game, can they find there mojo. The niners have a good DL, not all teams do, so I am still thinking we can get this together. Fuk the Niners and Block Purdy by ramsman34 4 years 6 months ago Total posts: 8521 Joined: Apr 16 2015 Back in LA baby! Moderator Re: It’s the offense line, stupid! POST #23 So you’re saying there’s a chance? Lol. And of course there is. It’s just feeling like so many things are wrong/off at the same damn time. And that o line? My Lord how do you fix and/or scheme to account for their garbage play?How does the scripted first drive work so well and then the next opportunity gets down to the 1 work and then McVay gets out adjusted and out coached and can’t do a damn thing offensively? by ramsman34 4 years 6 months ago Total posts: 8521 Joined: Apr 16 2015 Back in LA baby! Moderator Re: It’s the offense line, stupid! POST #24 If they don’t take advantage of a terrible Falcons D and really show us that they can be an elite offense, THEN we are in trouble. The Hawks and especially Niners have really good defenses. We should destroy teams with bad Ds. And we MUST to get that o line some confidence. by Hacksaw 4 years 6 months ago Total posts: 24523 Joined: Apr 15 2015 AT THE BEACH Moderator It’s the offense line, stupid! POST #25 R4L liked this post ramsman34 wrote:How does the scripted first drive work so well and then the next opportunity gets down to the 1 work and then McVay gets out adjusted and out coached and can’t do a damn thing offensively?The 9ers expected us to pass a lot more (at all) on that 1st drive. When they shifted to stop the run, they did. That was the beginning of the end as we couldn't do anything about it.A lot of blame to go around but the big differences this year are the O-line, TGII and team salary cap flexibility. None trending upward. GO RAMS !!! GO DODGERS !!! GO LAKERS !!!THE GREATEST SHOW ON TURF,, WAS 1 by rams74 4 years 6 months ago Total posts: 1469 Joined: Nov 19 2015 Glendale, Arizona Pro Bowl It’s the offense line, stupid! POST #26 ramsman34 wrote:So you’re saying there’s a chance? Lol. And of course there is. It’s just feeling like so many things are wrong/off at the same damn time. And that o line? My Lord how do you fix and/or scheme to account for their garbage play?Yeah, it's not just that the O-line is not quite as good as it was the last 2 years. It's that they've gone from being one of the better lines in the league to one of the worst. Goff has no time for anything. At 3-3, the season is far from over. But we also need to consider this. Six games in, we're only half a game better than the last place Cardinals. Ugh. by snackdaddy 4 years 6 months ago Total posts: 9657 Joined: May 30 2015 Merced California Hall of Fame It’s the offense line, stupid! POST #27 CanuckRightWinger wrote:I've posted since the beginning of the season that Rams braintrust decided to Cheap-Out on the Interior of the 2019 OLine.......Noteboom makes $800K, Allen makes $700K and Blythe makes $2Million per year.....Total for 3 guys who protect the closest&fastest route to Goff? $3.5Million...They definitely need to devote more resources to the blocking positions. But doing that would not guarantee anything. I remember using the number two overall picks on guys like Jason Smith and Greg Robinson. First round picks like Alex Barron. Signing free agents like Jason Brown and Scott Wells along with a few others. We've seen quite a few bad lines over the years. And devoting more resources did not help. Meanwhile, why does it seem like every year Tom Brady rarely sees the kind of pressure Goff sees every week? Do the Patriots know how to find these quality blockers? Or do they have a good system in place that gives them the best chance to succeed? I don't recall them spending a bunch of high picks for their line and signing expensive free agents. by CanuckRightWinger 4 years 6 months ago Total posts: 2777 Joined: Jan 13 2016 VANCOUVER, BC Superstar It’s the offense line, stupid! POST #28 New England's OLine Coach is 71 year old Dante Scarnecchia, who whilst attending College in the 1960's also was a Sergeant in the US Marine Corps Reserve...…...AND HE OBVIOUSLY HAS AN EYE FOR OLINE BEEF & TALENT. Our guy Kromer? He's a salesman. He sold McSnead on the idea of letting Saffold and Sullivan go....and that their replacements, Noteboom and Allen, would deliver blocking performance that would not curtail the 2019 Los Ramos ability to run and pass the hogbladder! Based on what we've seen nearly 40% into the 2019 Regular Season??That Aaron Kromer cat is one helluva snake-oil salesman eh!!! by Elvis 4 years 6 months ago Total posts: 38445 Joined: Mar 28 2015 Los Angeles Administrator It’s the offense line, stupid! POST #29 https://theathletic.com/1291613/2019/10 ... =twitteredThe Rams gambled on their offensive line, and they seem to be paying for itBy Rich Hammond 4h ago 7 LOS ANGELES — No transcripts necessary.Offensive line coach Aaron Kromer lingered in the corner of the Rams’ locker room and chatted with tackle Andrew Whitworth long after Sunday’s dismal loss to the San Francisco 49ers. Kromer offered occasional smiles, some that looked a bit forced.Jared Goff, still clad in his post-shower towel, then wandered over to the linemen’s row of lockers and sat down next to center Brian Allen. Whitworth and guard Austin Blythe leaned in to listen and contribute. Goff used hand movements to explain something to Allen, who nodded. Whitworth also offered hand movements. No smiles. Kromer and coach Sean McVay had a quick hallway chat, as did Whitworth and fellow tackle Rob Havenstein in a side room.The conversation details don’t seem particularly important. The linemen and coaches will do what they can in the coming days to clean up mistakes by the unit that have greatly diminished the Rams’ ability to both run and pass the ball this season.“Right now, we’re a little mix of everything,” Whitworth said after Sunday’s game. “We’ve had some injury stuff. We’re not playing well enough. We just have to keep our heads down and stay focused.”But it’s not totally their fault. Allen didn’t force the Rams to start him before he was ready. Neither did Joe Noteboom or Jamil Demby. None of them had started a regular-season game before last month, and now all have been thrust into major roles. While the Rams splashed money around to high-profile players — Goff, Todd Gurley, Brandin Cooks, Aaron Donald — they got a bit greedy with their offensive line, betting that recent mid-round draft picks could get the job done. It hasn’t worked, and a six-game sample size is enough to say so.Whitworth is holding up the best, but at age 37, he can’t stay on top forever. Havenstein, an excellent right tackle in 2017 and 2018, is getting beat on a disturbing number of speed rushes by defensive ends or outside linebackers. Given the inexperience of the interior line, the Rams absolutely must get the best from the two tackles, and it hasn’t happened.Late in the second quarter of a 7-7 game, the Rams faced third-and-goal at the 49ers’ 1-yard line. They did the reasonable thing and ran Malcolm Brown twice. He did not reach the goal line. The Rams, trailing 17-7 late in the third quarter, had a drive stalled before it even got started, as San Francisco’s Solomon Thomas beat Allen for a first-down sack that pushed the Rams back to their own 7.Things got avert-your-eyes bad in the fourth quarter when the Rams trailed 20-7 and needed some magic in the final five minutes. Havenstein was badly beaten on a first-down sack. Then on third-and-19, when the 49ers rushed four players and had most of their defense lined up somewhere in Montebello, both 49ers ends — Arik Armstead and Dee Ford — easily got to Goff for another sack.What happened? How did things fall so far and so fast with this group?Every offensive line likes to think of itself as a unit, not five individuals. That’s why, when the Rams’ offense gets introduced before a home game, the line runs out together. So perhaps it’s fitting that now the blame is shared, and deservedly so. Toss in Kromer, McVay and general manager Les Snead, too.During the offseason, the Rams gambled on themselves, on recent history and on Kromer’s ability to work the magic he displayed in 2017 and 2018. It made sense in theory, but it has turned into a disaster. The Rams’ inability to develop cohesion and success along the offensive line is the biggest reason for their offensive regression and, arguably, the biggest reason for their 3-3 start and their slide into the bottom half of the NFC West.Yes, Goff needs to be better. His pocket presence hasn’t been sharp. Yes, McVay needs to make better adjustments, both before games and during them. His play-calling hurt the Rams on Sunday. Yes, the defense needs to play tighter and with more aggression. It shouldn’t be this easy to find soft spots in their veteran secondary. None of these things should be diminished, but even if all of these things got cleaned up, the Rams would still be in trouble.The results of the decision after last season to replace veterans Rodger Saffold and John Sullivan with two neophytes (Allen and Noteboom) have been rough. The Rams’ run game stalled after a promising start Sunday, and Goff now plays like a quarterback expecting to get sacked. He’s not looking down the field and stepping into throws with confidence, and his natural skill set doesn’t allow him to easily evade pressure.The Rams rushed for 62 yards on eight carries on their first drive, an average of 7.75 yards per rush. Over the final 54 minutes, they gained 47 yards on 14 carries, an average of 3.35 per rush.Yes, Gurley didn’t play. Yes, Noteboom had to leave with a knee injury late in the first quarter, forcing Demby into the game (more on that later). But by the fourth quarter, Brown and Darrell Henderson were running into a wall of defenders, only to bounce outside and get tackled.Goff, always the subject of much attention and criticism, didn’t fare any better, particularly while attempting to throw against a 49ers secondary that has been one of the best in the NFL this season. Goff was sacked four times and, moreover, rarely had more than a couple seconds to get off a forced throw.And this is where the Rams failed. They know what they have in Goff — a smart, accurate quarterback who can make any throw, but also one who thrives with a clean pocket. Advanced statistics show this. Give Goff some space and a couple extra seconds — and pair that with McVay’s play-calling — and he will find someone open. Pressure him, and things break down quickly, in part because Goff doesn’t have a great ability to extend plays with his feet. Russell Wilson he is not.Are these flaws? Yes, but they are the same negatives everyone has known about Goff since 2016. Nothing has changed. The issue is that the Rams, like overconfident gamblers, knew this about Goff but let it ride for three consecutive years when it came to the makeup of the offensive line.Really, who could blame them? When McVay took over in 2017 and hired Kromer, the Rams had an awful offensive line but didn’t overhaul it. They made two free-agent signings, in which they bet on a 35-year-old left tackle (Whitworth) and an over-30 center (John Sullivan) who was coming off a major back injury. They raised some eyebrows when they didn’t draft a lineman with any of their eight picks in 2017.It worked. Saffold, who had grown frustrated by being a four-position nomad under the previous coaching regime, settled in at left guard and played at a Pro Bowl level. Havenstein developed into one of the league’s better right tackles. Jamon Brown was solid at right guard. Sullivan made it through the whole season. Whitworth was such an upgrade over Greg Robinson that words can’t define it.Snead looked like a genius, Kromer like a wizard. So the Rams rolled along in 2018. They drafted Noteboom in the third round, Allen in the fourth round and Demby in the sixth round, and they felt so confident in their unit that, two months into season, they released Brown in favor of Blythe, whom they had plucked off waivers from Indianapolis 18 months earlier. Blythe proved to be an upgrade.So the Rams gambled again this year. They looked at Saffold and saw a 30-year-old free agent. They looked at Sullivan and saw a 33-year-old center who, though revered for his intelligence and ability to identify things at the line of scrimmage, had regressed in ability and wasn’t likely to bounce back.Saffold parlayed two great seasons into a $44 million contract with Tennessee. The Rams couldn’t have, and shouldn’t have, matched that. Sullivan became a free agent and did not sign with another team. It’s fair to say the Rams did the smart thing by moving on from both players.The issue is that they outsmarted themselves with the answers. Having brought the best out of Saffold, Sullivan, Blythe and Havenstein, they thought Noteboom and Allen would be able to step in without a significant drop-off. That was incorrect, at least to date.There’s still time for improvement, although Noteboom’s status for coming games remains unknown (he did not put weight on his right leg and he was helped off the field). Is a trade a possibility, perhaps for Washington’s Trent Williams? Or will the Rams once again roll with their own linemen, with the belief that drafting and developing is the way to go?“We’ve got faith in those sixth and seventh guys,” Goff said when asked how a lack of line continuity can impact a team. “It shouldn’t do much, honestly. We’ve got a lot of good players and we had some chances to do stuff. We just didn’t take advantage of them.” RFU Season Ticket Holder by Gareth 4 years 6 months ago Total posts: 1207 Joined: Mar 30 2015 LA Coliseum Pro Bowl It’s the offense line, stupid! POST #30 ramsman34 wrote:How does the scripted first drive work so well and then the next opportunity gets down to the 1 work and then McVay gets out adjusted and out coached and can’t do a damn thing offensively?Does this mean that McVay out adjusted and outcoached everybody else in all of the Rams other games this year? Because the Rams have been the precise opposite every other game - struggle offensively in the first half and then very good in the second half.Yesterday was terrible. But a lot of people are acting like that’s how we played all year and it just isn’t. We played well against Seattle and should have won. Again, yesterday was a catastrophe. But that was their worst game in McVay’s tenure. Hopefully not representative of things to come. RFU Season Ticket Holder Reply 3 / 4 1 3 4 Display: All posts1 day7 days2 weeks1 month3 months6 months1 year Sort by: AuthorPost timeSubject Sort by: AscendingDescending Jump to: Forum Rams/NFL Other Sports Rams Fans United Q&A's Board Business 33 posts Apr 17 2024 FOLLOW US @RAMSFANSUNITED Who liked this post
by ramsman34 4 years 6 months ago Total posts: 8521 Joined: Apr 16 2015 Back in LA baby! Moderator Re: It’s the offense line, stupid! POST #23 So you’re saying there’s a chance? Lol. And of course there is. It’s just feeling like so many things are wrong/off at the same damn time. And that o line? My Lord how do you fix and/or scheme to account for their garbage play?How does the scripted first drive work so well and then the next opportunity gets down to the 1 work and then McVay gets out adjusted and out coached and can’t do a damn thing offensively? by ramsman34 4 years 6 months ago Total posts: 8521 Joined: Apr 16 2015 Back in LA baby! Moderator Re: It’s the offense line, stupid! POST #24 If they don’t take advantage of a terrible Falcons D and really show us that they can be an elite offense, THEN we are in trouble. The Hawks and especially Niners have really good defenses. We should destroy teams with bad Ds. And we MUST to get that o line some confidence. by Hacksaw 4 years 6 months ago Total posts: 24523 Joined: Apr 15 2015 AT THE BEACH Moderator It’s the offense line, stupid! POST #25 R4L liked this post ramsman34 wrote:How does the scripted first drive work so well and then the next opportunity gets down to the 1 work and then McVay gets out adjusted and out coached and can’t do a damn thing offensively?The 9ers expected us to pass a lot more (at all) on that 1st drive. When they shifted to stop the run, they did. That was the beginning of the end as we couldn't do anything about it.A lot of blame to go around but the big differences this year are the O-line, TGII and team salary cap flexibility. None trending upward. GO RAMS !!! GO DODGERS !!! GO LAKERS !!!THE GREATEST SHOW ON TURF,, WAS 1 by rams74 4 years 6 months ago Total posts: 1469 Joined: Nov 19 2015 Glendale, Arizona Pro Bowl It’s the offense line, stupid! POST #26 ramsman34 wrote:So you’re saying there’s a chance? Lol. And of course there is. It’s just feeling like so many things are wrong/off at the same damn time. And that o line? My Lord how do you fix and/or scheme to account for their garbage play?Yeah, it's not just that the O-line is not quite as good as it was the last 2 years. It's that they've gone from being one of the better lines in the league to one of the worst. Goff has no time for anything. At 3-3, the season is far from over. But we also need to consider this. Six games in, we're only half a game better than the last place Cardinals. Ugh. by snackdaddy 4 years 6 months ago Total posts: 9657 Joined: May 30 2015 Merced California Hall of Fame It’s the offense line, stupid! POST #27 CanuckRightWinger wrote:I've posted since the beginning of the season that Rams braintrust decided to Cheap-Out on the Interior of the 2019 OLine.......Noteboom makes $800K, Allen makes $700K and Blythe makes $2Million per year.....Total for 3 guys who protect the closest&fastest route to Goff? $3.5Million...They definitely need to devote more resources to the blocking positions. But doing that would not guarantee anything. I remember using the number two overall picks on guys like Jason Smith and Greg Robinson. First round picks like Alex Barron. Signing free agents like Jason Brown and Scott Wells along with a few others. We've seen quite a few bad lines over the years. And devoting more resources did not help. Meanwhile, why does it seem like every year Tom Brady rarely sees the kind of pressure Goff sees every week? Do the Patriots know how to find these quality blockers? Or do they have a good system in place that gives them the best chance to succeed? I don't recall them spending a bunch of high picks for their line and signing expensive free agents. by CanuckRightWinger 4 years 6 months ago Total posts: 2777 Joined: Jan 13 2016 VANCOUVER, BC Superstar It’s the offense line, stupid! POST #28 New England's OLine Coach is 71 year old Dante Scarnecchia, who whilst attending College in the 1960's also was a Sergeant in the US Marine Corps Reserve...…...AND HE OBVIOUSLY HAS AN EYE FOR OLINE BEEF & TALENT. Our guy Kromer? He's a salesman. He sold McSnead on the idea of letting Saffold and Sullivan go....and that their replacements, Noteboom and Allen, would deliver blocking performance that would not curtail the 2019 Los Ramos ability to run and pass the hogbladder! Based on what we've seen nearly 40% into the 2019 Regular Season??That Aaron Kromer cat is one helluva snake-oil salesman eh!!! by Elvis 4 years 6 months ago Total posts: 38445 Joined: Mar 28 2015 Los Angeles Administrator It’s the offense line, stupid! POST #29 https://theathletic.com/1291613/2019/10 ... =twitteredThe Rams gambled on their offensive line, and they seem to be paying for itBy Rich Hammond 4h ago 7 LOS ANGELES — No transcripts necessary.Offensive line coach Aaron Kromer lingered in the corner of the Rams’ locker room and chatted with tackle Andrew Whitworth long after Sunday’s dismal loss to the San Francisco 49ers. Kromer offered occasional smiles, some that looked a bit forced.Jared Goff, still clad in his post-shower towel, then wandered over to the linemen’s row of lockers and sat down next to center Brian Allen. Whitworth and guard Austin Blythe leaned in to listen and contribute. Goff used hand movements to explain something to Allen, who nodded. Whitworth also offered hand movements. No smiles. Kromer and coach Sean McVay had a quick hallway chat, as did Whitworth and fellow tackle Rob Havenstein in a side room.The conversation details don’t seem particularly important. The linemen and coaches will do what they can in the coming days to clean up mistakes by the unit that have greatly diminished the Rams’ ability to both run and pass the ball this season.“Right now, we’re a little mix of everything,” Whitworth said after Sunday’s game. “We’ve had some injury stuff. We’re not playing well enough. We just have to keep our heads down and stay focused.”But it’s not totally their fault. Allen didn’t force the Rams to start him before he was ready. Neither did Joe Noteboom or Jamil Demby. None of them had started a regular-season game before last month, and now all have been thrust into major roles. While the Rams splashed money around to high-profile players — Goff, Todd Gurley, Brandin Cooks, Aaron Donald — they got a bit greedy with their offensive line, betting that recent mid-round draft picks could get the job done. It hasn’t worked, and a six-game sample size is enough to say so.Whitworth is holding up the best, but at age 37, he can’t stay on top forever. Havenstein, an excellent right tackle in 2017 and 2018, is getting beat on a disturbing number of speed rushes by defensive ends or outside linebackers. Given the inexperience of the interior line, the Rams absolutely must get the best from the two tackles, and it hasn’t happened.Late in the second quarter of a 7-7 game, the Rams faced third-and-goal at the 49ers’ 1-yard line. They did the reasonable thing and ran Malcolm Brown twice. He did not reach the goal line. The Rams, trailing 17-7 late in the third quarter, had a drive stalled before it even got started, as San Francisco’s Solomon Thomas beat Allen for a first-down sack that pushed the Rams back to their own 7.Things got avert-your-eyes bad in the fourth quarter when the Rams trailed 20-7 and needed some magic in the final five minutes. Havenstein was badly beaten on a first-down sack. Then on third-and-19, when the 49ers rushed four players and had most of their defense lined up somewhere in Montebello, both 49ers ends — Arik Armstead and Dee Ford — easily got to Goff for another sack.What happened? How did things fall so far and so fast with this group?Every offensive line likes to think of itself as a unit, not five individuals. That’s why, when the Rams’ offense gets introduced before a home game, the line runs out together. So perhaps it’s fitting that now the blame is shared, and deservedly so. Toss in Kromer, McVay and general manager Les Snead, too.During the offseason, the Rams gambled on themselves, on recent history and on Kromer’s ability to work the magic he displayed in 2017 and 2018. It made sense in theory, but it has turned into a disaster. The Rams’ inability to develop cohesion and success along the offensive line is the biggest reason for their offensive regression and, arguably, the biggest reason for their 3-3 start and their slide into the bottom half of the NFC West.Yes, Goff needs to be better. His pocket presence hasn’t been sharp. Yes, McVay needs to make better adjustments, both before games and during them. His play-calling hurt the Rams on Sunday. Yes, the defense needs to play tighter and with more aggression. It shouldn’t be this easy to find soft spots in their veteran secondary. None of these things should be diminished, but even if all of these things got cleaned up, the Rams would still be in trouble.The results of the decision after last season to replace veterans Rodger Saffold and John Sullivan with two neophytes (Allen and Noteboom) have been rough. The Rams’ run game stalled after a promising start Sunday, and Goff now plays like a quarterback expecting to get sacked. He’s not looking down the field and stepping into throws with confidence, and his natural skill set doesn’t allow him to easily evade pressure.The Rams rushed for 62 yards on eight carries on their first drive, an average of 7.75 yards per rush. Over the final 54 minutes, they gained 47 yards on 14 carries, an average of 3.35 per rush.Yes, Gurley didn’t play. Yes, Noteboom had to leave with a knee injury late in the first quarter, forcing Demby into the game (more on that later). But by the fourth quarter, Brown and Darrell Henderson were running into a wall of defenders, only to bounce outside and get tackled.Goff, always the subject of much attention and criticism, didn’t fare any better, particularly while attempting to throw against a 49ers secondary that has been one of the best in the NFL this season. Goff was sacked four times and, moreover, rarely had more than a couple seconds to get off a forced throw.And this is where the Rams failed. They know what they have in Goff — a smart, accurate quarterback who can make any throw, but also one who thrives with a clean pocket. Advanced statistics show this. Give Goff some space and a couple extra seconds — and pair that with McVay’s play-calling — and he will find someone open. Pressure him, and things break down quickly, in part because Goff doesn’t have a great ability to extend plays with his feet. Russell Wilson he is not.Are these flaws? Yes, but they are the same negatives everyone has known about Goff since 2016. Nothing has changed. The issue is that the Rams, like overconfident gamblers, knew this about Goff but let it ride for three consecutive years when it came to the makeup of the offensive line.Really, who could blame them? When McVay took over in 2017 and hired Kromer, the Rams had an awful offensive line but didn’t overhaul it. They made two free-agent signings, in which they bet on a 35-year-old left tackle (Whitworth) and an over-30 center (John Sullivan) who was coming off a major back injury. They raised some eyebrows when they didn’t draft a lineman with any of their eight picks in 2017.It worked. Saffold, who had grown frustrated by being a four-position nomad under the previous coaching regime, settled in at left guard and played at a Pro Bowl level. Havenstein developed into one of the league’s better right tackles. Jamon Brown was solid at right guard. Sullivan made it through the whole season. Whitworth was such an upgrade over Greg Robinson that words can’t define it.Snead looked like a genius, Kromer like a wizard. So the Rams rolled along in 2018. They drafted Noteboom in the third round, Allen in the fourth round and Demby in the sixth round, and they felt so confident in their unit that, two months into season, they released Brown in favor of Blythe, whom they had plucked off waivers from Indianapolis 18 months earlier. Blythe proved to be an upgrade.So the Rams gambled again this year. They looked at Saffold and saw a 30-year-old free agent. They looked at Sullivan and saw a 33-year-old center who, though revered for his intelligence and ability to identify things at the line of scrimmage, had regressed in ability and wasn’t likely to bounce back.Saffold parlayed two great seasons into a $44 million contract with Tennessee. The Rams couldn’t have, and shouldn’t have, matched that. Sullivan became a free agent and did not sign with another team. It’s fair to say the Rams did the smart thing by moving on from both players.The issue is that they outsmarted themselves with the answers. Having brought the best out of Saffold, Sullivan, Blythe and Havenstein, they thought Noteboom and Allen would be able to step in without a significant drop-off. That was incorrect, at least to date.There’s still time for improvement, although Noteboom’s status for coming games remains unknown (he did not put weight on his right leg and he was helped off the field). Is a trade a possibility, perhaps for Washington’s Trent Williams? Or will the Rams once again roll with their own linemen, with the belief that drafting and developing is the way to go?“We’ve got faith in those sixth and seventh guys,” Goff said when asked how a lack of line continuity can impact a team. “It shouldn’t do much, honestly. We’ve got a lot of good players and we had some chances to do stuff. We just didn’t take advantage of them.” RFU Season Ticket Holder by Gareth 4 years 6 months ago Total posts: 1207 Joined: Mar 30 2015 LA Coliseum Pro Bowl It’s the offense line, stupid! POST #30 ramsman34 wrote:How does the scripted first drive work so well and then the next opportunity gets down to the 1 work and then McVay gets out adjusted and out coached and can’t do a damn thing offensively?Does this mean that McVay out adjusted and outcoached everybody else in all of the Rams other games this year? Because the Rams have been the precise opposite every other game - struggle offensively in the first half and then very good in the second half.Yesterday was terrible. But a lot of people are acting like that’s how we played all year and it just isn’t. We played well against Seattle and should have won. Again, yesterday was a catastrophe. But that was their worst game in McVay’s tenure. Hopefully not representative of things to come. RFU Season Ticket Holder Reply 3 / 4 1 3 4 Display: All posts1 day7 days2 weeks1 month3 months6 months1 year Sort by: AuthorPost timeSubject Sort by: AscendingDescending Jump to: Forum Rams/NFL Other Sports Rams Fans United Q&A's Board Business 33 posts Apr 17 2024 FOLLOW US @RAMSFANSUNITED Who liked this post
by ramsman34 4 years 6 months ago Total posts: 8521 Joined: Apr 16 2015 Back in LA baby! Moderator Re: It’s the offense line, stupid! POST #24 If they don’t take advantage of a terrible Falcons D and really show us that they can be an elite offense, THEN we are in trouble. The Hawks and especially Niners have really good defenses. We should destroy teams with bad Ds. And we MUST to get that o line some confidence. by Hacksaw 4 years 6 months ago Total posts: 24523 Joined: Apr 15 2015 AT THE BEACH Moderator It’s the offense line, stupid! POST #25 R4L liked this post ramsman34 wrote:How does the scripted first drive work so well and then the next opportunity gets down to the 1 work and then McVay gets out adjusted and out coached and can’t do a damn thing offensively?The 9ers expected us to pass a lot more (at all) on that 1st drive. When they shifted to stop the run, they did. That was the beginning of the end as we couldn't do anything about it.A lot of blame to go around but the big differences this year are the O-line, TGII and team salary cap flexibility. None trending upward. GO RAMS !!! GO DODGERS !!! GO LAKERS !!!THE GREATEST SHOW ON TURF,, WAS 1 by rams74 4 years 6 months ago Total posts: 1469 Joined: Nov 19 2015 Glendale, Arizona Pro Bowl It’s the offense line, stupid! POST #26 ramsman34 wrote:So you’re saying there’s a chance? Lol. And of course there is. It’s just feeling like so many things are wrong/off at the same damn time. And that o line? My Lord how do you fix and/or scheme to account for their garbage play?Yeah, it's not just that the O-line is not quite as good as it was the last 2 years. It's that they've gone from being one of the better lines in the league to one of the worst. Goff has no time for anything. At 3-3, the season is far from over. But we also need to consider this. Six games in, we're only half a game better than the last place Cardinals. Ugh. by snackdaddy 4 years 6 months ago Total posts: 9657 Joined: May 30 2015 Merced California Hall of Fame It’s the offense line, stupid! POST #27 CanuckRightWinger wrote:I've posted since the beginning of the season that Rams braintrust decided to Cheap-Out on the Interior of the 2019 OLine.......Noteboom makes $800K, Allen makes $700K and Blythe makes $2Million per year.....Total for 3 guys who protect the closest&fastest route to Goff? $3.5Million...They definitely need to devote more resources to the blocking positions. But doing that would not guarantee anything. I remember using the number two overall picks on guys like Jason Smith and Greg Robinson. First round picks like Alex Barron. Signing free agents like Jason Brown and Scott Wells along with a few others. We've seen quite a few bad lines over the years. And devoting more resources did not help. Meanwhile, why does it seem like every year Tom Brady rarely sees the kind of pressure Goff sees every week? Do the Patriots know how to find these quality blockers? Or do they have a good system in place that gives them the best chance to succeed? I don't recall them spending a bunch of high picks for their line and signing expensive free agents. by CanuckRightWinger 4 years 6 months ago Total posts: 2777 Joined: Jan 13 2016 VANCOUVER, BC Superstar It’s the offense line, stupid! POST #28 New England's OLine Coach is 71 year old Dante Scarnecchia, who whilst attending College in the 1960's also was a Sergeant in the US Marine Corps Reserve...…...AND HE OBVIOUSLY HAS AN EYE FOR OLINE BEEF & TALENT. Our guy Kromer? He's a salesman. He sold McSnead on the idea of letting Saffold and Sullivan go....and that their replacements, Noteboom and Allen, would deliver blocking performance that would not curtail the 2019 Los Ramos ability to run and pass the hogbladder! Based on what we've seen nearly 40% into the 2019 Regular Season??That Aaron Kromer cat is one helluva snake-oil salesman eh!!! by Elvis 4 years 6 months ago Total posts: 38445 Joined: Mar 28 2015 Los Angeles Administrator It’s the offense line, stupid! POST #29 https://theathletic.com/1291613/2019/10 ... =twitteredThe Rams gambled on their offensive line, and they seem to be paying for itBy Rich Hammond 4h ago 7 LOS ANGELES — No transcripts necessary.Offensive line coach Aaron Kromer lingered in the corner of the Rams’ locker room and chatted with tackle Andrew Whitworth long after Sunday’s dismal loss to the San Francisco 49ers. Kromer offered occasional smiles, some that looked a bit forced.Jared Goff, still clad in his post-shower towel, then wandered over to the linemen’s row of lockers and sat down next to center Brian Allen. Whitworth and guard Austin Blythe leaned in to listen and contribute. Goff used hand movements to explain something to Allen, who nodded. Whitworth also offered hand movements. No smiles. Kromer and coach Sean McVay had a quick hallway chat, as did Whitworth and fellow tackle Rob Havenstein in a side room.The conversation details don’t seem particularly important. The linemen and coaches will do what they can in the coming days to clean up mistakes by the unit that have greatly diminished the Rams’ ability to both run and pass the ball this season.“Right now, we’re a little mix of everything,” Whitworth said after Sunday’s game. “We’ve had some injury stuff. We’re not playing well enough. We just have to keep our heads down and stay focused.”But it’s not totally their fault. Allen didn’t force the Rams to start him before he was ready. Neither did Joe Noteboom or Jamil Demby. None of them had started a regular-season game before last month, and now all have been thrust into major roles. While the Rams splashed money around to high-profile players — Goff, Todd Gurley, Brandin Cooks, Aaron Donald — they got a bit greedy with their offensive line, betting that recent mid-round draft picks could get the job done. It hasn’t worked, and a six-game sample size is enough to say so.Whitworth is holding up the best, but at age 37, he can’t stay on top forever. Havenstein, an excellent right tackle in 2017 and 2018, is getting beat on a disturbing number of speed rushes by defensive ends or outside linebackers. Given the inexperience of the interior line, the Rams absolutely must get the best from the two tackles, and it hasn’t happened.Late in the second quarter of a 7-7 game, the Rams faced third-and-goal at the 49ers’ 1-yard line. They did the reasonable thing and ran Malcolm Brown twice. He did not reach the goal line. The Rams, trailing 17-7 late in the third quarter, had a drive stalled before it even got started, as San Francisco’s Solomon Thomas beat Allen for a first-down sack that pushed the Rams back to their own 7.Things got avert-your-eyes bad in the fourth quarter when the Rams trailed 20-7 and needed some magic in the final five minutes. Havenstein was badly beaten on a first-down sack. Then on third-and-19, when the 49ers rushed four players and had most of their defense lined up somewhere in Montebello, both 49ers ends — Arik Armstead and Dee Ford — easily got to Goff for another sack.What happened? How did things fall so far and so fast with this group?Every offensive line likes to think of itself as a unit, not five individuals. That’s why, when the Rams’ offense gets introduced before a home game, the line runs out together. So perhaps it’s fitting that now the blame is shared, and deservedly so. Toss in Kromer, McVay and general manager Les Snead, too.During the offseason, the Rams gambled on themselves, on recent history and on Kromer’s ability to work the magic he displayed in 2017 and 2018. It made sense in theory, but it has turned into a disaster. The Rams’ inability to develop cohesion and success along the offensive line is the biggest reason for their offensive regression and, arguably, the biggest reason for their 3-3 start and their slide into the bottom half of the NFC West.Yes, Goff needs to be better. His pocket presence hasn’t been sharp. Yes, McVay needs to make better adjustments, both before games and during them. His play-calling hurt the Rams on Sunday. Yes, the defense needs to play tighter and with more aggression. It shouldn’t be this easy to find soft spots in their veteran secondary. None of these things should be diminished, but even if all of these things got cleaned up, the Rams would still be in trouble.The results of the decision after last season to replace veterans Rodger Saffold and John Sullivan with two neophytes (Allen and Noteboom) have been rough. The Rams’ run game stalled after a promising start Sunday, and Goff now plays like a quarterback expecting to get sacked. He’s not looking down the field and stepping into throws with confidence, and his natural skill set doesn’t allow him to easily evade pressure.The Rams rushed for 62 yards on eight carries on their first drive, an average of 7.75 yards per rush. Over the final 54 minutes, they gained 47 yards on 14 carries, an average of 3.35 per rush.Yes, Gurley didn’t play. Yes, Noteboom had to leave with a knee injury late in the first quarter, forcing Demby into the game (more on that later). But by the fourth quarter, Brown and Darrell Henderson were running into a wall of defenders, only to bounce outside and get tackled.Goff, always the subject of much attention and criticism, didn’t fare any better, particularly while attempting to throw against a 49ers secondary that has been one of the best in the NFL this season. Goff was sacked four times and, moreover, rarely had more than a couple seconds to get off a forced throw.And this is where the Rams failed. They know what they have in Goff — a smart, accurate quarterback who can make any throw, but also one who thrives with a clean pocket. Advanced statistics show this. Give Goff some space and a couple extra seconds — and pair that with McVay’s play-calling — and he will find someone open. Pressure him, and things break down quickly, in part because Goff doesn’t have a great ability to extend plays with his feet. Russell Wilson he is not.Are these flaws? Yes, but they are the same negatives everyone has known about Goff since 2016. Nothing has changed. The issue is that the Rams, like overconfident gamblers, knew this about Goff but let it ride for three consecutive years when it came to the makeup of the offensive line.Really, who could blame them? When McVay took over in 2017 and hired Kromer, the Rams had an awful offensive line but didn’t overhaul it. They made two free-agent signings, in which they bet on a 35-year-old left tackle (Whitworth) and an over-30 center (John Sullivan) who was coming off a major back injury. They raised some eyebrows when they didn’t draft a lineman with any of their eight picks in 2017.It worked. Saffold, who had grown frustrated by being a four-position nomad under the previous coaching regime, settled in at left guard and played at a Pro Bowl level. Havenstein developed into one of the league’s better right tackles. Jamon Brown was solid at right guard. Sullivan made it through the whole season. Whitworth was such an upgrade over Greg Robinson that words can’t define it.Snead looked like a genius, Kromer like a wizard. So the Rams rolled along in 2018. They drafted Noteboom in the third round, Allen in the fourth round and Demby in the sixth round, and they felt so confident in their unit that, two months into season, they released Brown in favor of Blythe, whom they had plucked off waivers from Indianapolis 18 months earlier. Blythe proved to be an upgrade.So the Rams gambled again this year. They looked at Saffold and saw a 30-year-old free agent. They looked at Sullivan and saw a 33-year-old center who, though revered for his intelligence and ability to identify things at the line of scrimmage, had regressed in ability and wasn’t likely to bounce back.Saffold parlayed two great seasons into a $44 million contract with Tennessee. The Rams couldn’t have, and shouldn’t have, matched that. Sullivan became a free agent and did not sign with another team. It’s fair to say the Rams did the smart thing by moving on from both players.The issue is that they outsmarted themselves with the answers. Having brought the best out of Saffold, Sullivan, Blythe and Havenstein, they thought Noteboom and Allen would be able to step in without a significant drop-off. That was incorrect, at least to date.There’s still time for improvement, although Noteboom’s status for coming games remains unknown (he did not put weight on his right leg and he was helped off the field). Is a trade a possibility, perhaps for Washington’s Trent Williams? Or will the Rams once again roll with their own linemen, with the belief that drafting and developing is the way to go?“We’ve got faith in those sixth and seventh guys,” Goff said when asked how a lack of line continuity can impact a team. “It shouldn’t do much, honestly. We’ve got a lot of good players and we had some chances to do stuff. We just didn’t take advantage of them.” RFU Season Ticket Holder by Gareth 4 years 6 months ago Total posts: 1207 Joined: Mar 30 2015 LA Coliseum Pro Bowl It’s the offense line, stupid! POST #30 ramsman34 wrote:How does the scripted first drive work so well and then the next opportunity gets down to the 1 work and then McVay gets out adjusted and out coached and can’t do a damn thing offensively?Does this mean that McVay out adjusted and outcoached everybody else in all of the Rams other games this year? Because the Rams have been the precise opposite every other game - struggle offensively in the first half and then very good in the second half.Yesterday was terrible. But a lot of people are acting like that’s how we played all year and it just isn’t. We played well against Seattle and should have won. Again, yesterday was a catastrophe. But that was their worst game in McVay’s tenure. Hopefully not representative of things to come. RFU Season Ticket Holder Reply 3 / 4 1 3 4 Display: All posts1 day7 days2 weeks1 month3 months6 months1 year Sort by: AuthorPost timeSubject Sort by: AscendingDescending Jump to: Forum Rams/NFL Other Sports Rams Fans United Q&A's Board Business 33 posts Apr 17 2024 FOLLOW US @RAMSFANSUNITED Who liked this post
by Hacksaw 4 years 6 months ago Total posts: 24523 Joined: Apr 15 2015 AT THE BEACH Moderator It’s the offense line, stupid! POST #25 R4L liked this post ramsman34 wrote:How does the scripted first drive work so well and then the next opportunity gets down to the 1 work and then McVay gets out adjusted and out coached and can’t do a damn thing offensively?The 9ers expected us to pass a lot more (at all) on that 1st drive. When they shifted to stop the run, they did. That was the beginning of the end as we couldn't do anything about it.A lot of blame to go around but the big differences this year are the O-line, TGII and team salary cap flexibility. None trending upward. GO RAMS !!! GO DODGERS !!! GO LAKERS !!!THE GREATEST SHOW ON TURF,, WAS 1 by rams74 4 years 6 months ago Total posts: 1469 Joined: Nov 19 2015 Glendale, Arizona Pro Bowl It’s the offense line, stupid! POST #26 ramsman34 wrote:So you’re saying there’s a chance? Lol. And of course there is. It’s just feeling like so many things are wrong/off at the same damn time. And that o line? My Lord how do you fix and/or scheme to account for their garbage play?Yeah, it's not just that the O-line is not quite as good as it was the last 2 years. It's that they've gone from being one of the better lines in the league to one of the worst. Goff has no time for anything. At 3-3, the season is far from over. But we also need to consider this. Six games in, we're only half a game better than the last place Cardinals. Ugh. by snackdaddy 4 years 6 months ago Total posts: 9657 Joined: May 30 2015 Merced California Hall of Fame It’s the offense line, stupid! POST #27 CanuckRightWinger wrote:I've posted since the beginning of the season that Rams braintrust decided to Cheap-Out on the Interior of the 2019 OLine.......Noteboom makes $800K, Allen makes $700K and Blythe makes $2Million per year.....Total for 3 guys who protect the closest&fastest route to Goff? $3.5Million...They definitely need to devote more resources to the blocking positions. But doing that would not guarantee anything. I remember using the number two overall picks on guys like Jason Smith and Greg Robinson. First round picks like Alex Barron. Signing free agents like Jason Brown and Scott Wells along with a few others. We've seen quite a few bad lines over the years. And devoting more resources did not help. Meanwhile, why does it seem like every year Tom Brady rarely sees the kind of pressure Goff sees every week? Do the Patriots know how to find these quality blockers? Or do they have a good system in place that gives them the best chance to succeed? I don't recall them spending a bunch of high picks for their line and signing expensive free agents. by CanuckRightWinger 4 years 6 months ago Total posts: 2777 Joined: Jan 13 2016 VANCOUVER, BC Superstar It’s the offense line, stupid! POST #28 New England's OLine Coach is 71 year old Dante Scarnecchia, who whilst attending College in the 1960's also was a Sergeant in the US Marine Corps Reserve...…...AND HE OBVIOUSLY HAS AN EYE FOR OLINE BEEF & TALENT. Our guy Kromer? He's a salesman. He sold McSnead on the idea of letting Saffold and Sullivan go....and that their replacements, Noteboom and Allen, would deliver blocking performance that would not curtail the 2019 Los Ramos ability to run and pass the hogbladder! Based on what we've seen nearly 40% into the 2019 Regular Season??That Aaron Kromer cat is one helluva snake-oil salesman eh!!! by Elvis 4 years 6 months ago Total posts: 38445 Joined: Mar 28 2015 Los Angeles Administrator It’s the offense line, stupid! POST #29 https://theathletic.com/1291613/2019/10 ... =twitteredThe Rams gambled on their offensive line, and they seem to be paying for itBy Rich Hammond 4h ago 7 LOS ANGELES — No transcripts necessary.Offensive line coach Aaron Kromer lingered in the corner of the Rams’ locker room and chatted with tackle Andrew Whitworth long after Sunday’s dismal loss to the San Francisco 49ers. Kromer offered occasional smiles, some that looked a bit forced.Jared Goff, still clad in his post-shower towel, then wandered over to the linemen’s row of lockers and sat down next to center Brian Allen. Whitworth and guard Austin Blythe leaned in to listen and contribute. Goff used hand movements to explain something to Allen, who nodded. Whitworth also offered hand movements. No smiles. Kromer and coach Sean McVay had a quick hallway chat, as did Whitworth and fellow tackle Rob Havenstein in a side room.The conversation details don’t seem particularly important. The linemen and coaches will do what they can in the coming days to clean up mistakes by the unit that have greatly diminished the Rams’ ability to both run and pass the ball this season.“Right now, we’re a little mix of everything,” Whitworth said after Sunday’s game. “We’ve had some injury stuff. We’re not playing well enough. We just have to keep our heads down and stay focused.”But it’s not totally their fault. Allen didn’t force the Rams to start him before he was ready. Neither did Joe Noteboom or Jamil Demby. None of them had started a regular-season game before last month, and now all have been thrust into major roles. While the Rams splashed money around to high-profile players — Goff, Todd Gurley, Brandin Cooks, Aaron Donald — they got a bit greedy with their offensive line, betting that recent mid-round draft picks could get the job done. It hasn’t worked, and a six-game sample size is enough to say so.Whitworth is holding up the best, but at age 37, he can’t stay on top forever. Havenstein, an excellent right tackle in 2017 and 2018, is getting beat on a disturbing number of speed rushes by defensive ends or outside linebackers. Given the inexperience of the interior line, the Rams absolutely must get the best from the two tackles, and it hasn’t happened.Late in the second quarter of a 7-7 game, the Rams faced third-and-goal at the 49ers’ 1-yard line. They did the reasonable thing and ran Malcolm Brown twice. He did not reach the goal line. The Rams, trailing 17-7 late in the third quarter, had a drive stalled before it even got started, as San Francisco’s Solomon Thomas beat Allen for a first-down sack that pushed the Rams back to their own 7.Things got avert-your-eyes bad in the fourth quarter when the Rams trailed 20-7 and needed some magic in the final five minutes. Havenstein was badly beaten on a first-down sack. Then on third-and-19, when the 49ers rushed four players and had most of their defense lined up somewhere in Montebello, both 49ers ends — Arik Armstead and Dee Ford — easily got to Goff for another sack.What happened? How did things fall so far and so fast with this group?Every offensive line likes to think of itself as a unit, not five individuals. That’s why, when the Rams’ offense gets introduced before a home game, the line runs out together. So perhaps it’s fitting that now the blame is shared, and deservedly so. Toss in Kromer, McVay and general manager Les Snead, too.During the offseason, the Rams gambled on themselves, on recent history and on Kromer’s ability to work the magic he displayed in 2017 and 2018. It made sense in theory, but it has turned into a disaster. The Rams’ inability to develop cohesion and success along the offensive line is the biggest reason for their offensive regression and, arguably, the biggest reason for their 3-3 start and their slide into the bottom half of the NFC West.Yes, Goff needs to be better. His pocket presence hasn’t been sharp. Yes, McVay needs to make better adjustments, both before games and during them. His play-calling hurt the Rams on Sunday. Yes, the defense needs to play tighter and with more aggression. It shouldn’t be this easy to find soft spots in their veteran secondary. None of these things should be diminished, but even if all of these things got cleaned up, the Rams would still be in trouble.The results of the decision after last season to replace veterans Rodger Saffold and John Sullivan with two neophytes (Allen and Noteboom) have been rough. The Rams’ run game stalled after a promising start Sunday, and Goff now plays like a quarterback expecting to get sacked. He’s not looking down the field and stepping into throws with confidence, and his natural skill set doesn’t allow him to easily evade pressure.The Rams rushed for 62 yards on eight carries on their first drive, an average of 7.75 yards per rush. Over the final 54 minutes, they gained 47 yards on 14 carries, an average of 3.35 per rush.Yes, Gurley didn’t play. Yes, Noteboom had to leave with a knee injury late in the first quarter, forcing Demby into the game (more on that later). But by the fourth quarter, Brown and Darrell Henderson were running into a wall of defenders, only to bounce outside and get tackled.Goff, always the subject of much attention and criticism, didn’t fare any better, particularly while attempting to throw against a 49ers secondary that has been one of the best in the NFL this season. Goff was sacked four times and, moreover, rarely had more than a couple seconds to get off a forced throw.And this is where the Rams failed. They know what they have in Goff — a smart, accurate quarterback who can make any throw, but also one who thrives with a clean pocket. Advanced statistics show this. Give Goff some space and a couple extra seconds — and pair that with McVay’s play-calling — and he will find someone open. Pressure him, and things break down quickly, in part because Goff doesn’t have a great ability to extend plays with his feet. Russell Wilson he is not.Are these flaws? Yes, but they are the same negatives everyone has known about Goff since 2016. Nothing has changed. The issue is that the Rams, like overconfident gamblers, knew this about Goff but let it ride for three consecutive years when it came to the makeup of the offensive line.Really, who could blame them? When McVay took over in 2017 and hired Kromer, the Rams had an awful offensive line but didn’t overhaul it. They made two free-agent signings, in which they bet on a 35-year-old left tackle (Whitworth) and an over-30 center (John Sullivan) who was coming off a major back injury. They raised some eyebrows when they didn’t draft a lineman with any of their eight picks in 2017.It worked. Saffold, who had grown frustrated by being a four-position nomad under the previous coaching regime, settled in at left guard and played at a Pro Bowl level. Havenstein developed into one of the league’s better right tackles. Jamon Brown was solid at right guard. Sullivan made it through the whole season. Whitworth was such an upgrade over Greg Robinson that words can’t define it.Snead looked like a genius, Kromer like a wizard. So the Rams rolled along in 2018. They drafted Noteboom in the third round, Allen in the fourth round and Demby in the sixth round, and they felt so confident in their unit that, two months into season, they released Brown in favor of Blythe, whom they had plucked off waivers from Indianapolis 18 months earlier. Blythe proved to be an upgrade.So the Rams gambled again this year. They looked at Saffold and saw a 30-year-old free agent. They looked at Sullivan and saw a 33-year-old center who, though revered for his intelligence and ability to identify things at the line of scrimmage, had regressed in ability and wasn’t likely to bounce back.Saffold parlayed two great seasons into a $44 million contract with Tennessee. The Rams couldn’t have, and shouldn’t have, matched that. Sullivan became a free agent and did not sign with another team. It’s fair to say the Rams did the smart thing by moving on from both players.The issue is that they outsmarted themselves with the answers. Having brought the best out of Saffold, Sullivan, Blythe and Havenstein, they thought Noteboom and Allen would be able to step in without a significant drop-off. That was incorrect, at least to date.There’s still time for improvement, although Noteboom’s status for coming games remains unknown (he did not put weight on his right leg and he was helped off the field). Is a trade a possibility, perhaps for Washington’s Trent Williams? Or will the Rams once again roll with their own linemen, with the belief that drafting and developing is the way to go?“We’ve got faith in those sixth and seventh guys,” Goff said when asked how a lack of line continuity can impact a team. “It shouldn’t do much, honestly. We’ve got a lot of good players and we had some chances to do stuff. We just didn’t take advantage of them.” RFU Season Ticket Holder by Gareth 4 years 6 months ago Total posts: 1207 Joined: Mar 30 2015 LA Coliseum Pro Bowl It’s the offense line, stupid! POST #30 ramsman34 wrote:How does the scripted first drive work so well and then the next opportunity gets down to the 1 work and then McVay gets out adjusted and out coached and can’t do a damn thing offensively?Does this mean that McVay out adjusted and outcoached everybody else in all of the Rams other games this year? Because the Rams have been the precise opposite every other game - struggle offensively in the first half and then very good in the second half.Yesterday was terrible. But a lot of people are acting like that’s how we played all year and it just isn’t. We played well against Seattle and should have won. Again, yesterday was a catastrophe. But that was their worst game in McVay’s tenure. Hopefully not representative of things to come. RFU Season Ticket Holder Reply 3 / 4 1 3 4 Display: All posts1 day7 days2 weeks1 month3 months6 months1 year Sort by: AuthorPost timeSubject Sort by: AscendingDescending Jump to: Forum Rams/NFL Other Sports Rams Fans United Q&A's Board Business 33 posts Apr 17 2024
by rams74 4 years 6 months ago Total posts: 1469 Joined: Nov 19 2015 Glendale, Arizona Pro Bowl It’s the offense line, stupid! POST #26 ramsman34 wrote:So you’re saying there’s a chance? Lol. And of course there is. It’s just feeling like so many things are wrong/off at the same damn time. And that o line? My Lord how do you fix and/or scheme to account for their garbage play?Yeah, it's not just that the O-line is not quite as good as it was the last 2 years. It's that they've gone from being one of the better lines in the league to one of the worst. Goff has no time for anything. At 3-3, the season is far from over. But we also need to consider this. Six games in, we're only half a game better than the last place Cardinals. Ugh. by snackdaddy 4 years 6 months ago Total posts: 9657 Joined: May 30 2015 Merced California Hall of Fame It’s the offense line, stupid! POST #27 CanuckRightWinger wrote:I've posted since the beginning of the season that Rams braintrust decided to Cheap-Out on the Interior of the 2019 OLine.......Noteboom makes $800K, Allen makes $700K and Blythe makes $2Million per year.....Total for 3 guys who protect the closest&fastest route to Goff? $3.5Million...They definitely need to devote more resources to the blocking positions. But doing that would not guarantee anything. I remember using the number two overall picks on guys like Jason Smith and Greg Robinson. First round picks like Alex Barron. Signing free agents like Jason Brown and Scott Wells along with a few others. We've seen quite a few bad lines over the years. And devoting more resources did not help. Meanwhile, why does it seem like every year Tom Brady rarely sees the kind of pressure Goff sees every week? Do the Patriots know how to find these quality blockers? Or do they have a good system in place that gives them the best chance to succeed? I don't recall them spending a bunch of high picks for their line and signing expensive free agents. by CanuckRightWinger 4 years 6 months ago Total posts: 2777 Joined: Jan 13 2016 VANCOUVER, BC Superstar It’s the offense line, stupid! POST #28 New England's OLine Coach is 71 year old Dante Scarnecchia, who whilst attending College in the 1960's also was a Sergeant in the US Marine Corps Reserve...…...AND HE OBVIOUSLY HAS AN EYE FOR OLINE BEEF & TALENT. Our guy Kromer? He's a salesman. He sold McSnead on the idea of letting Saffold and Sullivan go....and that their replacements, Noteboom and Allen, would deliver blocking performance that would not curtail the 2019 Los Ramos ability to run and pass the hogbladder! Based on what we've seen nearly 40% into the 2019 Regular Season??That Aaron Kromer cat is one helluva snake-oil salesman eh!!! by Elvis 4 years 6 months ago Total posts: 38445 Joined: Mar 28 2015 Los Angeles Administrator It’s the offense line, stupid! POST #29 https://theathletic.com/1291613/2019/10 ... =twitteredThe Rams gambled on their offensive line, and they seem to be paying for itBy Rich Hammond 4h ago 7 LOS ANGELES — No transcripts necessary.Offensive line coach Aaron Kromer lingered in the corner of the Rams’ locker room and chatted with tackle Andrew Whitworth long after Sunday’s dismal loss to the San Francisco 49ers. Kromer offered occasional smiles, some that looked a bit forced.Jared Goff, still clad in his post-shower towel, then wandered over to the linemen’s row of lockers and sat down next to center Brian Allen. Whitworth and guard Austin Blythe leaned in to listen and contribute. Goff used hand movements to explain something to Allen, who nodded. Whitworth also offered hand movements. No smiles. Kromer and coach Sean McVay had a quick hallway chat, as did Whitworth and fellow tackle Rob Havenstein in a side room.The conversation details don’t seem particularly important. The linemen and coaches will do what they can in the coming days to clean up mistakes by the unit that have greatly diminished the Rams’ ability to both run and pass the ball this season.“Right now, we’re a little mix of everything,” Whitworth said after Sunday’s game. “We’ve had some injury stuff. We’re not playing well enough. We just have to keep our heads down and stay focused.”But it’s not totally their fault. Allen didn’t force the Rams to start him before he was ready. Neither did Joe Noteboom or Jamil Demby. None of them had started a regular-season game before last month, and now all have been thrust into major roles. While the Rams splashed money around to high-profile players — Goff, Todd Gurley, Brandin Cooks, Aaron Donald — they got a bit greedy with their offensive line, betting that recent mid-round draft picks could get the job done. It hasn’t worked, and a six-game sample size is enough to say so.Whitworth is holding up the best, but at age 37, he can’t stay on top forever. Havenstein, an excellent right tackle in 2017 and 2018, is getting beat on a disturbing number of speed rushes by defensive ends or outside linebackers. Given the inexperience of the interior line, the Rams absolutely must get the best from the two tackles, and it hasn’t happened.Late in the second quarter of a 7-7 game, the Rams faced third-and-goal at the 49ers’ 1-yard line. They did the reasonable thing and ran Malcolm Brown twice. He did not reach the goal line. The Rams, trailing 17-7 late in the third quarter, had a drive stalled before it even got started, as San Francisco’s Solomon Thomas beat Allen for a first-down sack that pushed the Rams back to their own 7.Things got avert-your-eyes bad in the fourth quarter when the Rams trailed 20-7 and needed some magic in the final five minutes. Havenstein was badly beaten on a first-down sack. Then on third-and-19, when the 49ers rushed four players and had most of their defense lined up somewhere in Montebello, both 49ers ends — Arik Armstead and Dee Ford — easily got to Goff for another sack.What happened? How did things fall so far and so fast with this group?Every offensive line likes to think of itself as a unit, not five individuals. That’s why, when the Rams’ offense gets introduced before a home game, the line runs out together. So perhaps it’s fitting that now the blame is shared, and deservedly so. Toss in Kromer, McVay and general manager Les Snead, too.During the offseason, the Rams gambled on themselves, on recent history and on Kromer’s ability to work the magic he displayed in 2017 and 2018. It made sense in theory, but it has turned into a disaster. The Rams’ inability to develop cohesion and success along the offensive line is the biggest reason for their offensive regression and, arguably, the biggest reason for their 3-3 start and their slide into the bottom half of the NFC West.Yes, Goff needs to be better. His pocket presence hasn’t been sharp. Yes, McVay needs to make better adjustments, both before games and during them. His play-calling hurt the Rams on Sunday. Yes, the defense needs to play tighter and with more aggression. It shouldn’t be this easy to find soft spots in their veteran secondary. None of these things should be diminished, but even if all of these things got cleaned up, the Rams would still be in trouble.The results of the decision after last season to replace veterans Rodger Saffold and John Sullivan with two neophytes (Allen and Noteboom) have been rough. The Rams’ run game stalled after a promising start Sunday, and Goff now plays like a quarterback expecting to get sacked. He’s not looking down the field and stepping into throws with confidence, and his natural skill set doesn’t allow him to easily evade pressure.The Rams rushed for 62 yards on eight carries on their first drive, an average of 7.75 yards per rush. Over the final 54 minutes, they gained 47 yards on 14 carries, an average of 3.35 per rush.Yes, Gurley didn’t play. Yes, Noteboom had to leave with a knee injury late in the first quarter, forcing Demby into the game (more on that later). But by the fourth quarter, Brown and Darrell Henderson were running into a wall of defenders, only to bounce outside and get tackled.Goff, always the subject of much attention and criticism, didn’t fare any better, particularly while attempting to throw against a 49ers secondary that has been one of the best in the NFL this season. Goff was sacked four times and, moreover, rarely had more than a couple seconds to get off a forced throw.And this is where the Rams failed. They know what they have in Goff — a smart, accurate quarterback who can make any throw, but also one who thrives with a clean pocket. Advanced statistics show this. Give Goff some space and a couple extra seconds — and pair that with McVay’s play-calling — and he will find someone open. Pressure him, and things break down quickly, in part because Goff doesn’t have a great ability to extend plays with his feet. Russell Wilson he is not.Are these flaws? Yes, but they are the same negatives everyone has known about Goff since 2016. Nothing has changed. The issue is that the Rams, like overconfident gamblers, knew this about Goff but let it ride for three consecutive years when it came to the makeup of the offensive line.Really, who could blame them? When McVay took over in 2017 and hired Kromer, the Rams had an awful offensive line but didn’t overhaul it. They made two free-agent signings, in which they bet on a 35-year-old left tackle (Whitworth) and an over-30 center (John Sullivan) who was coming off a major back injury. They raised some eyebrows when they didn’t draft a lineman with any of their eight picks in 2017.It worked. Saffold, who had grown frustrated by being a four-position nomad under the previous coaching regime, settled in at left guard and played at a Pro Bowl level. Havenstein developed into one of the league’s better right tackles. Jamon Brown was solid at right guard. Sullivan made it through the whole season. Whitworth was such an upgrade over Greg Robinson that words can’t define it.Snead looked like a genius, Kromer like a wizard. So the Rams rolled along in 2018. They drafted Noteboom in the third round, Allen in the fourth round and Demby in the sixth round, and they felt so confident in their unit that, two months into season, they released Brown in favor of Blythe, whom they had plucked off waivers from Indianapolis 18 months earlier. Blythe proved to be an upgrade.So the Rams gambled again this year. They looked at Saffold and saw a 30-year-old free agent. They looked at Sullivan and saw a 33-year-old center who, though revered for his intelligence and ability to identify things at the line of scrimmage, had regressed in ability and wasn’t likely to bounce back.Saffold parlayed two great seasons into a $44 million contract with Tennessee. The Rams couldn’t have, and shouldn’t have, matched that. Sullivan became a free agent and did not sign with another team. It’s fair to say the Rams did the smart thing by moving on from both players.The issue is that they outsmarted themselves with the answers. Having brought the best out of Saffold, Sullivan, Blythe and Havenstein, they thought Noteboom and Allen would be able to step in without a significant drop-off. That was incorrect, at least to date.There’s still time for improvement, although Noteboom’s status for coming games remains unknown (he did not put weight on his right leg and he was helped off the field). Is a trade a possibility, perhaps for Washington’s Trent Williams? Or will the Rams once again roll with their own linemen, with the belief that drafting and developing is the way to go?“We’ve got faith in those sixth and seventh guys,” Goff said when asked how a lack of line continuity can impact a team. “It shouldn’t do much, honestly. We’ve got a lot of good players and we had some chances to do stuff. We just didn’t take advantage of them.” RFU Season Ticket Holder by Gareth 4 years 6 months ago Total posts: 1207 Joined: Mar 30 2015 LA Coliseum Pro Bowl It’s the offense line, stupid! POST #30 ramsman34 wrote:How does the scripted first drive work so well and then the next opportunity gets down to the 1 work and then McVay gets out adjusted and out coached and can’t do a damn thing offensively?Does this mean that McVay out adjusted and outcoached everybody else in all of the Rams other games this year? Because the Rams have been the precise opposite every other game - struggle offensively in the first half and then very good in the second half.Yesterday was terrible. But a lot of people are acting like that’s how we played all year and it just isn’t. We played well against Seattle and should have won. Again, yesterday was a catastrophe. But that was their worst game in McVay’s tenure. Hopefully not representative of things to come. RFU Season Ticket Holder Reply 3 / 4 1 3 4 Display: All posts1 day7 days2 weeks1 month3 months6 months1 year Sort by: AuthorPost timeSubject Sort by: AscendingDescending Jump to: Forum Rams/NFL Other Sports Rams Fans United Q&A's Board Business 33 posts Apr 17 2024
by snackdaddy 4 years 6 months ago Total posts: 9657 Joined: May 30 2015 Merced California Hall of Fame It’s the offense line, stupid! POST #27 CanuckRightWinger wrote:I've posted since the beginning of the season that Rams braintrust decided to Cheap-Out on the Interior of the 2019 OLine.......Noteboom makes $800K, Allen makes $700K and Blythe makes $2Million per year.....Total for 3 guys who protect the closest&fastest route to Goff? $3.5Million...They definitely need to devote more resources to the blocking positions. But doing that would not guarantee anything. I remember using the number two overall picks on guys like Jason Smith and Greg Robinson. First round picks like Alex Barron. Signing free agents like Jason Brown and Scott Wells along with a few others. We've seen quite a few bad lines over the years. And devoting more resources did not help. Meanwhile, why does it seem like every year Tom Brady rarely sees the kind of pressure Goff sees every week? Do the Patriots know how to find these quality blockers? Or do they have a good system in place that gives them the best chance to succeed? I don't recall them spending a bunch of high picks for their line and signing expensive free agents. by CanuckRightWinger 4 years 6 months ago Total posts: 2777 Joined: Jan 13 2016 VANCOUVER, BC Superstar It’s the offense line, stupid! POST #28 New England's OLine Coach is 71 year old Dante Scarnecchia, who whilst attending College in the 1960's also was a Sergeant in the US Marine Corps Reserve...…...AND HE OBVIOUSLY HAS AN EYE FOR OLINE BEEF & TALENT. Our guy Kromer? He's a salesman. He sold McSnead on the idea of letting Saffold and Sullivan go....and that their replacements, Noteboom and Allen, would deliver blocking performance that would not curtail the 2019 Los Ramos ability to run and pass the hogbladder! Based on what we've seen nearly 40% into the 2019 Regular Season??That Aaron Kromer cat is one helluva snake-oil salesman eh!!! by Elvis 4 years 6 months ago Total posts: 38445 Joined: Mar 28 2015 Los Angeles Administrator It’s the offense line, stupid! POST #29 https://theathletic.com/1291613/2019/10 ... =twitteredThe Rams gambled on their offensive line, and they seem to be paying for itBy Rich Hammond 4h ago 7 LOS ANGELES — No transcripts necessary.Offensive line coach Aaron Kromer lingered in the corner of the Rams’ locker room and chatted with tackle Andrew Whitworth long after Sunday’s dismal loss to the San Francisco 49ers. Kromer offered occasional smiles, some that looked a bit forced.Jared Goff, still clad in his post-shower towel, then wandered over to the linemen’s row of lockers and sat down next to center Brian Allen. Whitworth and guard Austin Blythe leaned in to listen and contribute. Goff used hand movements to explain something to Allen, who nodded. Whitworth also offered hand movements. No smiles. Kromer and coach Sean McVay had a quick hallway chat, as did Whitworth and fellow tackle Rob Havenstein in a side room.The conversation details don’t seem particularly important. The linemen and coaches will do what they can in the coming days to clean up mistakes by the unit that have greatly diminished the Rams’ ability to both run and pass the ball this season.“Right now, we’re a little mix of everything,” Whitworth said after Sunday’s game. “We’ve had some injury stuff. We’re not playing well enough. We just have to keep our heads down and stay focused.”But it’s not totally their fault. Allen didn’t force the Rams to start him before he was ready. Neither did Joe Noteboom or Jamil Demby. None of them had started a regular-season game before last month, and now all have been thrust into major roles. While the Rams splashed money around to high-profile players — Goff, Todd Gurley, Brandin Cooks, Aaron Donald — they got a bit greedy with their offensive line, betting that recent mid-round draft picks could get the job done. It hasn’t worked, and a six-game sample size is enough to say so.Whitworth is holding up the best, but at age 37, he can’t stay on top forever. Havenstein, an excellent right tackle in 2017 and 2018, is getting beat on a disturbing number of speed rushes by defensive ends or outside linebackers. Given the inexperience of the interior line, the Rams absolutely must get the best from the two tackles, and it hasn’t happened.Late in the second quarter of a 7-7 game, the Rams faced third-and-goal at the 49ers’ 1-yard line. They did the reasonable thing and ran Malcolm Brown twice. He did not reach the goal line. The Rams, trailing 17-7 late in the third quarter, had a drive stalled before it even got started, as San Francisco’s Solomon Thomas beat Allen for a first-down sack that pushed the Rams back to their own 7.Things got avert-your-eyes bad in the fourth quarter when the Rams trailed 20-7 and needed some magic in the final five minutes. Havenstein was badly beaten on a first-down sack. Then on third-and-19, when the 49ers rushed four players and had most of their defense lined up somewhere in Montebello, both 49ers ends — Arik Armstead and Dee Ford — easily got to Goff for another sack.What happened? How did things fall so far and so fast with this group?Every offensive line likes to think of itself as a unit, not five individuals. That’s why, when the Rams’ offense gets introduced before a home game, the line runs out together. So perhaps it’s fitting that now the blame is shared, and deservedly so. Toss in Kromer, McVay and general manager Les Snead, too.During the offseason, the Rams gambled on themselves, on recent history and on Kromer’s ability to work the magic he displayed in 2017 and 2018. It made sense in theory, but it has turned into a disaster. The Rams’ inability to develop cohesion and success along the offensive line is the biggest reason for their offensive regression and, arguably, the biggest reason for their 3-3 start and their slide into the bottom half of the NFC West.Yes, Goff needs to be better. His pocket presence hasn’t been sharp. Yes, McVay needs to make better adjustments, both before games and during them. His play-calling hurt the Rams on Sunday. Yes, the defense needs to play tighter and with more aggression. It shouldn’t be this easy to find soft spots in their veteran secondary. None of these things should be diminished, but even if all of these things got cleaned up, the Rams would still be in trouble.The results of the decision after last season to replace veterans Rodger Saffold and John Sullivan with two neophytes (Allen and Noteboom) have been rough. The Rams’ run game stalled after a promising start Sunday, and Goff now plays like a quarterback expecting to get sacked. He’s not looking down the field and stepping into throws with confidence, and his natural skill set doesn’t allow him to easily evade pressure.The Rams rushed for 62 yards on eight carries on their first drive, an average of 7.75 yards per rush. Over the final 54 minutes, they gained 47 yards on 14 carries, an average of 3.35 per rush.Yes, Gurley didn’t play. Yes, Noteboom had to leave with a knee injury late in the first quarter, forcing Demby into the game (more on that later). But by the fourth quarter, Brown and Darrell Henderson were running into a wall of defenders, only to bounce outside and get tackled.Goff, always the subject of much attention and criticism, didn’t fare any better, particularly while attempting to throw against a 49ers secondary that has been one of the best in the NFL this season. Goff was sacked four times and, moreover, rarely had more than a couple seconds to get off a forced throw.And this is where the Rams failed. They know what they have in Goff — a smart, accurate quarterback who can make any throw, but also one who thrives with a clean pocket. Advanced statistics show this. Give Goff some space and a couple extra seconds — and pair that with McVay’s play-calling — and he will find someone open. Pressure him, and things break down quickly, in part because Goff doesn’t have a great ability to extend plays with his feet. Russell Wilson he is not.Are these flaws? Yes, but they are the same negatives everyone has known about Goff since 2016. Nothing has changed. The issue is that the Rams, like overconfident gamblers, knew this about Goff but let it ride for three consecutive years when it came to the makeup of the offensive line.Really, who could blame them? When McVay took over in 2017 and hired Kromer, the Rams had an awful offensive line but didn’t overhaul it. They made two free-agent signings, in which they bet on a 35-year-old left tackle (Whitworth) and an over-30 center (John Sullivan) who was coming off a major back injury. They raised some eyebrows when they didn’t draft a lineman with any of their eight picks in 2017.It worked. Saffold, who had grown frustrated by being a four-position nomad under the previous coaching regime, settled in at left guard and played at a Pro Bowl level. Havenstein developed into one of the league’s better right tackles. Jamon Brown was solid at right guard. Sullivan made it through the whole season. Whitworth was such an upgrade over Greg Robinson that words can’t define it.Snead looked like a genius, Kromer like a wizard. So the Rams rolled along in 2018. They drafted Noteboom in the third round, Allen in the fourth round and Demby in the sixth round, and they felt so confident in their unit that, two months into season, they released Brown in favor of Blythe, whom they had plucked off waivers from Indianapolis 18 months earlier. Blythe proved to be an upgrade.So the Rams gambled again this year. They looked at Saffold and saw a 30-year-old free agent. They looked at Sullivan and saw a 33-year-old center who, though revered for his intelligence and ability to identify things at the line of scrimmage, had regressed in ability and wasn’t likely to bounce back.Saffold parlayed two great seasons into a $44 million contract with Tennessee. The Rams couldn’t have, and shouldn’t have, matched that. Sullivan became a free agent and did not sign with another team. It’s fair to say the Rams did the smart thing by moving on from both players.The issue is that they outsmarted themselves with the answers. Having brought the best out of Saffold, Sullivan, Blythe and Havenstein, they thought Noteboom and Allen would be able to step in without a significant drop-off. That was incorrect, at least to date.There’s still time for improvement, although Noteboom’s status for coming games remains unknown (he did not put weight on his right leg and he was helped off the field). Is a trade a possibility, perhaps for Washington’s Trent Williams? Or will the Rams once again roll with their own linemen, with the belief that drafting and developing is the way to go?“We’ve got faith in those sixth and seventh guys,” Goff said when asked how a lack of line continuity can impact a team. “It shouldn’t do much, honestly. We’ve got a lot of good players and we had some chances to do stuff. We just didn’t take advantage of them.” RFU Season Ticket Holder by Gareth 4 years 6 months ago Total posts: 1207 Joined: Mar 30 2015 LA Coliseum Pro Bowl It’s the offense line, stupid! POST #30 ramsman34 wrote:How does the scripted first drive work so well and then the next opportunity gets down to the 1 work and then McVay gets out adjusted and out coached and can’t do a damn thing offensively?Does this mean that McVay out adjusted and outcoached everybody else in all of the Rams other games this year? Because the Rams have been the precise opposite every other game - struggle offensively in the first half and then very good in the second half.Yesterday was terrible. But a lot of people are acting like that’s how we played all year and it just isn’t. We played well against Seattle and should have won. Again, yesterday was a catastrophe. But that was their worst game in McVay’s tenure. Hopefully not representative of things to come. 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by CanuckRightWinger 4 years 6 months ago Total posts: 2777 Joined: Jan 13 2016 VANCOUVER, BC Superstar It’s the offense line, stupid! POST #28 New England's OLine Coach is 71 year old Dante Scarnecchia, who whilst attending College in the 1960's also was a Sergeant in the US Marine Corps Reserve...…...AND HE OBVIOUSLY HAS AN EYE FOR OLINE BEEF & TALENT. Our guy Kromer? He's a salesman. He sold McSnead on the idea of letting Saffold and Sullivan go....and that their replacements, Noteboom and Allen, would deliver blocking performance that would not curtail the 2019 Los Ramos ability to run and pass the hogbladder! Based on what we've seen nearly 40% into the 2019 Regular Season??That Aaron Kromer cat is one helluva snake-oil salesman eh!!! by Elvis 4 years 6 months ago Total posts: 38445 Joined: Mar 28 2015 Los Angeles Administrator It’s the offense line, stupid! POST #29 https://theathletic.com/1291613/2019/10 ... =twitteredThe Rams gambled on their offensive line, and they seem to be paying for itBy Rich Hammond 4h ago 7 LOS ANGELES — No transcripts necessary.Offensive line coach Aaron Kromer lingered in the corner of the Rams’ locker room and chatted with tackle Andrew Whitworth long after Sunday’s dismal loss to the San Francisco 49ers. Kromer offered occasional smiles, some that looked a bit forced.Jared Goff, still clad in his post-shower towel, then wandered over to the linemen’s row of lockers and sat down next to center Brian Allen. Whitworth and guard Austin Blythe leaned in to listen and contribute. Goff used hand movements to explain something to Allen, who nodded. Whitworth also offered hand movements. No smiles. Kromer and coach Sean McVay had a quick hallway chat, as did Whitworth and fellow tackle Rob Havenstein in a side room.The conversation details don’t seem particularly important. The linemen and coaches will do what they can in the coming days to clean up mistakes by the unit that have greatly diminished the Rams’ ability to both run and pass the ball this season.“Right now, we’re a little mix of everything,” Whitworth said after Sunday’s game. “We’ve had some injury stuff. We’re not playing well enough. We just have to keep our heads down and stay focused.”But it’s not totally their fault. Allen didn’t force the Rams to start him before he was ready. Neither did Joe Noteboom or Jamil Demby. None of them had started a regular-season game before last month, and now all have been thrust into major roles. While the Rams splashed money around to high-profile players — Goff, Todd Gurley, Brandin Cooks, Aaron Donald — they got a bit greedy with their offensive line, betting that recent mid-round draft picks could get the job done. It hasn’t worked, and a six-game sample size is enough to say so.Whitworth is holding up the best, but at age 37, he can’t stay on top forever. Havenstein, an excellent right tackle in 2017 and 2018, is getting beat on a disturbing number of speed rushes by defensive ends or outside linebackers. Given the inexperience of the interior line, the Rams absolutely must get the best from the two tackles, and it hasn’t happened.Late in the second quarter of a 7-7 game, the Rams faced third-and-goal at the 49ers’ 1-yard line. They did the reasonable thing and ran Malcolm Brown twice. He did not reach the goal line. The Rams, trailing 17-7 late in the third quarter, had a drive stalled before it even got started, as San Francisco’s Solomon Thomas beat Allen for a first-down sack that pushed the Rams back to their own 7.Things got avert-your-eyes bad in the fourth quarter when the Rams trailed 20-7 and needed some magic in the final five minutes. Havenstein was badly beaten on a first-down sack. Then on third-and-19, when the 49ers rushed four players and had most of their defense lined up somewhere in Montebello, both 49ers ends — Arik Armstead and Dee Ford — easily got to Goff for another sack.What happened? How did things fall so far and so fast with this group?Every offensive line likes to think of itself as a unit, not five individuals. That’s why, when the Rams’ offense gets introduced before a home game, the line runs out together. So perhaps it’s fitting that now the blame is shared, and deservedly so. Toss in Kromer, McVay and general manager Les Snead, too.During the offseason, the Rams gambled on themselves, on recent history and on Kromer’s ability to work the magic he displayed in 2017 and 2018. It made sense in theory, but it has turned into a disaster. The Rams’ inability to develop cohesion and success along the offensive line is the biggest reason for their offensive regression and, arguably, the biggest reason for their 3-3 start and their slide into the bottom half of the NFC West.Yes, Goff needs to be better. His pocket presence hasn’t been sharp. Yes, McVay needs to make better adjustments, both before games and during them. His play-calling hurt the Rams on Sunday. Yes, the defense needs to play tighter and with more aggression. It shouldn’t be this easy to find soft spots in their veteran secondary. None of these things should be diminished, but even if all of these things got cleaned up, the Rams would still be in trouble.The results of the decision after last season to replace veterans Rodger Saffold and John Sullivan with two neophytes (Allen and Noteboom) have been rough. The Rams’ run game stalled after a promising start Sunday, and Goff now plays like a quarterback expecting to get sacked. He’s not looking down the field and stepping into throws with confidence, and his natural skill set doesn’t allow him to easily evade pressure.The Rams rushed for 62 yards on eight carries on their first drive, an average of 7.75 yards per rush. Over the final 54 minutes, they gained 47 yards on 14 carries, an average of 3.35 per rush.Yes, Gurley didn’t play. Yes, Noteboom had to leave with a knee injury late in the first quarter, forcing Demby into the game (more on that later). But by the fourth quarter, Brown and Darrell Henderson were running into a wall of defenders, only to bounce outside and get tackled.Goff, always the subject of much attention and criticism, didn’t fare any better, particularly while attempting to throw against a 49ers secondary that has been one of the best in the NFL this season. Goff was sacked four times and, moreover, rarely had more than a couple seconds to get off a forced throw.And this is where the Rams failed. They know what they have in Goff — a smart, accurate quarterback who can make any throw, but also one who thrives with a clean pocket. Advanced statistics show this. Give Goff some space and a couple extra seconds — and pair that with McVay’s play-calling — and he will find someone open. Pressure him, and things break down quickly, in part because Goff doesn’t have a great ability to extend plays with his feet. Russell Wilson he is not.Are these flaws? Yes, but they are the same negatives everyone has known about Goff since 2016. Nothing has changed. The issue is that the Rams, like overconfident gamblers, knew this about Goff but let it ride for three consecutive years when it came to the makeup of the offensive line.Really, who could blame them? When McVay took over in 2017 and hired Kromer, the Rams had an awful offensive line but didn’t overhaul it. They made two free-agent signings, in which they bet on a 35-year-old left tackle (Whitworth) and an over-30 center (John Sullivan) who was coming off a major back injury. They raised some eyebrows when they didn’t draft a lineman with any of their eight picks in 2017.It worked. Saffold, who had grown frustrated by being a four-position nomad under the previous coaching regime, settled in at left guard and played at a Pro Bowl level. Havenstein developed into one of the league’s better right tackles. Jamon Brown was solid at right guard. Sullivan made it through the whole season. Whitworth was such an upgrade over Greg Robinson that words can’t define it.Snead looked like a genius, Kromer like a wizard. So the Rams rolled along in 2018. They drafted Noteboom in the third round, Allen in the fourth round and Demby in the sixth round, and they felt so confident in their unit that, two months into season, they released Brown in favor of Blythe, whom they had plucked off waivers from Indianapolis 18 months earlier. Blythe proved to be an upgrade.So the Rams gambled again this year. They looked at Saffold and saw a 30-year-old free agent. They looked at Sullivan and saw a 33-year-old center who, though revered for his intelligence and ability to identify things at the line of scrimmage, had regressed in ability and wasn’t likely to bounce back.Saffold parlayed two great seasons into a $44 million contract with Tennessee. The Rams couldn’t have, and shouldn’t have, matched that. Sullivan became a free agent and did not sign with another team. It’s fair to say the Rams did the smart thing by moving on from both players.The issue is that they outsmarted themselves with the answers. Having brought the best out of Saffold, Sullivan, Blythe and Havenstein, they thought Noteboom and Allen would be able to step in without a significant drop-off. That was incorrect, at least to date.There’s still time for improvement, although Noteboom’s status for coming games remains unknown (he did not put weight on his right leg and he was helped off the field). Is a trade a possibility, perhaps for Washington’s Trent Williams? Or will the Rams once again roll with their own linemen, with the belief that drafting and developing is the way to go?“We’ve got faith in those sixth and seventh guys,” Goff said when asked how a lack of line continuity can impact a team. “It shouldn’t do much, honestly. We’ve got a lot of good players and we had some chances to do stuff. We just didn’t take advantage of them.” RFU Season Ticket Holder by Gareth 4 years 6 months ago Total posts: 1207 Joined: Mar 30 2015 LA Coliseum Pro Bowl It’s the offense line, stupid! POST #30 ramsman34 wrote:How does the scripted first drive work so well and then the next opportunity gets down to the 1 work and then McVay gets out adjusted and out coached and can’t do a damn thing offensively?Does this mean that McVay out adjusted and outcoached everybody else in all of the Rams other games this year? Because the Rams have been the precise opposite every other game - struggle offensively in the first half and then very good in the second half.Yesterday was terrible. But a lot of people are acting like that’s how we played all year and it just isn’t. We played well against Seattle and should have won. Again, yesterday was a catastrophe. But that was their worst game in McVay’s tenure. Hopefully not representative of things to come. RFU Season Ticket Holder Reply 3 / 4 1 3 4 Display: All posts1 day7 days2 weeks1 month3 months6 months1 year Sort by: AuthorPost timeSubject Sort by: AscendingDescending Jump to: Forum Rams/NFL Other Sports Rams Fans United Q&A's Board Business 33 posts Apr 17 2024
by Elvis 4 years 6 months ago Total posts: 38445 Joined: Mar 28 2015 Los Angeles Administrator It’s the offense line, stupid! POST #29 https://theathletic.com/1291613/2019/10 ... =twitteredThe Rams gambled on their offensive line, and they seem to be paying for itBy Rich Hammond 4h ago 7 LOS ANGELES — No transcripts necessary.Offensive line coach Aaron Kromer lingered in the corner of the Rams’ locker room and chatted with tackle Andrew Whitworth long after Sunday’s dismal loss to the San Francisco 49ers. Kromer offered occasional smiles, some that looked a bit forced.Jared Goff, still clad in his post-shower towel, then wandered over to the linemen’s row of lockers and sat down next to center Brian Allen. Whitworth and guard Austin Blythe leaned in to listen and contribute. Goff used hand movements to explain something to Allen, who nodded. Whitworth also offered hand movements. No smiles. Kromer and coach Sean McVay had a quick hallway chat, as did Whitworth and fellow tackle Rob Havenstein in a side room.The conversation details don’t seem particularly important. The linemen and coaches will do what they can in the coming days to clean up mistakes by the unit that have greatly diminished the Rams’ ability to both run and pass the ball this season.“Right now, we’re a little mix of everything,” Whitworth said after Sunday’s game. “We’ve had some injury stuff. We’re not playing well enough. We just have to keep our heads down and stay focused.”But it’s not totally their fault. Allen didn’t force the Rams to start him before he was ready. Neither did Joe Noteboom or Jamil Demby. None of them had started a regular-season game before last month, and now all have been thrust into major roles. While the Rams splashed money around to high-profile players — Goff, Todd Gurley, Brandin Cooks, Aaron Donald — they got a bit greedy with their offensive line, betting that recent mid-round draft picks could get the job done. It hasn’t worked, and a six-game sample size is enough to say so.Whitworth is holding up the best, but at age 37, he can’t stay on top forever. Havenstein, an excellent right tackle in 2017 and 2018, is getting beat on a disturbing number of speed rushes by defensive ends or outside linebackers. Given the inexperience of the interior line, the Rams absolutely must get the best from the two tackles, and it hasn’t happened.Late in the second quarter of a 7-7 game, the Rams faced third-and-goal at the 49ers’ 1-yard line. They did the reasonable thing and ran Malcolm Brown twice. He did not reach the goal line. The Rams, trailing 17-7 late in the third quarter, had a drive stalled before it even got started, as San Francisco’s Solomon Thomas beat Allen for a first-down sack that pushed the Rams back to their own 7.Things got avert-your-eyes bad in the fourth quarter when the Rams trailed 20-7 and needed some magic in the final five minutes. Havenstein was badly beaten on a first-down sack. Then on third-and-19, when the 49ers rushed four players and had most of their defense lined up somewhere in Montebello, both 49ers ends — Arik Armstead and Dee Ford — easily got to Goff for another sack.What happened? How did things fall so far and so fast with this group?Every offensive line likes to think of itself as a unit, not five individuals. That’s why, when the Rams’ offense gets introduced before a home game, the line runs out together. So perhaps it’s fitting that now the blame is shared, and deservedly so. Toss in Kromer, McVay and general manager Les Snead, too.During the offseason, the Rams gambled on themselves, on recent history and on Kromer’s ability to work the magic he displayed in 2017 and 2018. It made sense in theory, but it has turned into a disaster. The Rams’ inability to develop cohesion and success along the offensive line is the biggest reason for their offensive regression and, arguably, the biggest reason for their 3-3 start and their slide into the bottom half of the NFC West.Yes, Goff needs to be better. His pocket presence hasn’t been sharp. Yes, McVay needs to make better adjustments, both before games and during them. His play-calling hurt the Rams on Sunday. Yes, the defense needs to play tighter and with more aggression. It shouldn’t be this easy to find soft spots in their veteran secondary. None of these things should be diminished, but even if all of these things got cleaned up, the Rams would still be in trouble.The results of the decision after last season to replace veterans Rodger Saffold and John Sullivan with two neophytes (Allen and Noteboom) have been rough. The Rams’ run game stalled after a promising start Sunday, and Goff now plays like a quarterback expecting to get sacked. He’s not looking down the field and stepping into throws with confidence, and his natural skill set doesn’t allow him to easily evade pressure.The Rams rushed for 62 yards on eight carries on their first drive, an average of 7.75 yards per rush. Over the final 54 minutes, they gained 47 yards on 14 carries, an average of 3.35 per rush.Yes, Gurley didn’t play. Yes, Noteboom had to leave with a knee injury late in the first quarter, forcing Demby into the game (more on that later). But by the fourth quarter, Brown and Darrell Henderson were running into a wall of defenders, only to bounce outside and get tackled.Goff, always the subject of much attention and criticism, didn’t fare any better, particularly while attempting to throw against a 49ers secondary that has been one of the best in the NFL this season. Goff was sacked four times and, moreover, rarely had more than a couple seconds to get off a forced throw.And this is where the Rams failed. They know what they have in Goff — a smart, accurate quarterback who can make any throw, but also one who thrives with a clean pocket. Advanced statistics show this. Give Goff some space and a couple extra seconds — and pair that with McVay’s play-calling — and he will find someone open. Pressure him, and things break down quickly, in part because Goff doesn’t have a great ability to extend plays with his feet. Russell Wilson he is not.Are these flaws? Yes, but they are the same negatives everyone has known about Goff since 2016. Nothing has changed. The issue is that the Rams, like overconfident gamblers, knew this about Goff but let it ride for three consecutive years when it came to the makeup of the offensive line.Really, who could blame them? When McVay took over in 2017 and hired Kromer, the Rams had an awful offensive line but didn’t overhaul it. They made two free-agent signings, in which they bet on a 35-year-old left tackle (Whitworth) and an over-30 center (John Sullivan) who was coming off a major back injury. They raised some eyebrows when they didn’t draft a lineman with any of their eight picks in 2017.It worked. Saffold, who had grown frustrated by being a four-position nomad under the previous coaching regime, settled in at left guard and played at a Pro Bowl level. Havenstein developed into one of the league’s better right tackles. Jamon Brown was solid at right guard. Sullivan made it through the whole season. Whitworth was such an upgrade over Greg Robinson that words can’t define it.Snead looked like a genius, Kromer like a wizard. So the Rams rolled along in 2018. They drafted Noteboom in the third round, Allen in the fourth round and Demby in the sixth round, and they felt so confident in their unit that, two months into season, they released Brown in favor of Blythe, whom they had plucked off waivers from Indianapolis 18 months earlier. Blythe proved to be an upgrade.So the Rams gambled again this year. They looked at Saffold and saw a 30-year-old free agent. They looked at Sullivan and saw a 33-year-old center who, though revered for his intelligence and ability to identify things at the line of scrimmage, had regressed in ability and wasn’t likely to bounce back.Saffold parlayed two great seasons into a $44 million contract with Tennessee. The Rams couldn’t have, and shouldn’t have, matched that. Sullivan became a free agent and did not sign with another team. It’s fair to say the Rams did the smart thing by moving on from both players.The issue is that they outsmarted themselves with the answers. Having brought the best out of Saffold, Sullivan, Blythe and Havenstein, they thought Noteboom and Allen would be able to step in without a significant drop-off. That was incorrect, at least to date.There’s still time for improvement, although Noteboom’s status for coming games remains unknown (he did not put weight on his right leg and he was helped off the field). Is a trade a possibility, perhaps for Washington’s Trent Williams? Or will the Rams once again roll with their own linemen, with the belief that drafting and developing is the way to go?“We’ve got faith in those sixth and seventh guys,” Goff said when asked how a lack of line continuity can impact a team. “It shouldn’t do much, honestly. We’ve got a lot of good players and we had some chances to do stuff. We just didn’t take advantage of them.” RFU Season Ticket Holder by Gareth 4 years 6 months ago Total posts: 1207 Joined: Mar 30 2015 LA Coliseum Pro Bowl It’s the offense line, stupid! POST #30 ramsman34 wrote:How does the scripted first drive work so well and then the next opportunity gets down to the 1 work and then McVay gets out adjusted and out coached and can’t do a damn thing offensively?Does this mean that McVay out adjusted and outcoached everybody else in all of the Rams other games this year? Because the Rams have been the precise opposite every other game - struggle offensively in the first half and then very good in the second half.Yesterday was terrible. But a lot of people are acting like that’s how we played all year and it just isn’t. We played well against Seattle and should have won. Again, yesterday was a catastrophe. But that was their worst game in McVay’s tenure. Hopefully not representative of things to come. RFU Season Ticket Holder Reply 3 / 4 1 3 4 Display: All posts1 day7 days2 weeks1 month3 months6 months1 year Sort by: AuthorPost timeSubject Sort by: AscendingDescending Jump to: Forum Rams/NFL Other Sports Rams Fans United Q&A's Board Business 33 posts Apr 17 2024
by Gareth 4 years 6 months ago Total posts: 1207 Joined: Mar 30 2015 LA Coliseum Pro Bowl It’s the offense line, stupid! POST #30 ramsman34 wrote:How does the scripted first drive work so well and then the next opportunity gets down to the 1 work and then McVay gets out adjusted and out coached and can’t do a damn thing offensively?Does this mean that McVay out adjusted and outcoached everybody else in all of the Rams other games this year? Because the Rams have been the precise opposite every other game - struggle offensively in the first half and then very good in the second half.Yesterday was terrible. But a lot of people are acting like that’s how we played all year and it just isn’t. We played well against Seattle and should have won. Again, yesterday was a catastrophe. But that was their worst game in McVay’s tenure. Hopefully not representative of things to come. RFU Season Ticket Holder Reply 3 / 4 1 3 4 Display: All posts1 day7 days2 weeks1 month3 months6 months1 year Sort by: AuthorPost timeSubject Sort by: AscendingDescending Jump to: Forum Rams/NFL Other Sports Rams Fans United Q&A's Board Business