Did Someone Wake Up?

OK, three weeks into the pre-season and we've already won as many games as we did all season last year. You say, so what? It's just pre-season. This may be true, but any kind of win is going to build your teams confidence and that's what this team needs.

I think that Samkon Gado definitely is making a statement on who should be the back up to Steven Jackson. His performance in Thursday's game was flawless and pretty to watch as well. The Giants use to have their two back running game called Thunder and Lightening and now, I think we've found ours. Not to take anything away from Jackson, but Gado appears to be more of a compliment to Jackson and not just a back up. This could be our one, two punch that our offense needs. With type of running game, the QB is going to live a lot longer.

The defense was very impressive with their aggressive play against the Bengals with 2 batted passes, one INT, 6 sacks and 4 fumbles. Now that's what I'm talking about! This is the kind of defense we've been missing since the days of the "Greatest Show" was around. And kudos to James Butler with his 73 yard TD dash! And Laurinaitis is showing some real promise and may end up actually being one heck of a rookie impact player this year, this kid is impressive!

Only drawback with the Rams defense AGAIN is the running game. Still to this very day they have a tendancy to allow long bursts from runners no matter who the runner is. I don't know if they have problems reading the running plays or just don't get it, but something needs to be done, it's really old hat.

All and all though the Rams and all their units did well against the Bengals.

P.S. Just discovered Bengal fans are worse than Rams fans. With still about 5 minutes left in the game the stadium was all but empty, by the 2 minute warning, it was empty except for probably some Rams fans, media and the teams. Pathetic. Pre-Season or not that was pathetic!

GO RAMS!

Ouch! What Happened?

It's hard to say what really happened in this past game. I even got to see it this week and I was hoping to see some of what I read about from last week's game. But alas, I was utterly disappointed. The defense that seemed to have improved overnight, from what I could see had dropped back down to it's "norm" of unable to stop the run. The over tackling was just out of control and it didn't help that we started piling up the penalties this game.

It was like night and day.

But not to fret, there were a couple of very bright spots, especially at wide receiver. I was truly and utterly impressed with Laurent Robertson! This guy is a talent and it's more than obvious he will be starting along side Avery when the season opens. He is pure talent, has great hands and speed. It also looks like we may once again have a player that actually has YAC even with Bulger throwing the ball, we might see some YAC this year.

We also appear to perhaps have a semi-bright spot in the return game with Kenneth Darby. Although he didn't show much in the running game, once they put him on returns he began to show some flashes of talent there. We've not had a return game in eons. Would be nice to see it come to life!

All and all, it's way too soon to be judging the team. They have one more week to fix some of the bugs in the new system. But come the final pre-season game, dress rehearsal for the season, we can begin our more critical evaluation of the team.

Go Rams!

O-Line Still Needs Work ~ D Improving

From the few highlights and excerpts I've been going over, it looks like the offensive line is still in some need of improvement.

I understand that it's only preseason but three sacks are an indicator that we've still got some issues there.

At least for now if I were the coach I would really focus on this problem prior to the season hitting full swing, otherwise rookie Null may be seeing playing time well before anyone expected.

On a more positive side. From what I can tell, the defense is immensely improved, especially against the run. Something we've been so far behind on the past few years, it was refreshing to see that the defense actually kept it to where we had the most rushing.

Also, from what little I saw, I'd say that this defense is being trained to be extremely heavy hitters and are very hungry for the ball. This is a good thing. But to be expected from a coach that once coached the Super Bowl Champion Giants defense.

All and all it appears the Rams did fairly well for their first outing under Spags.

I have just one beef though. The media. Even though the Rams won, it was the Jets that got all the "kudos". So what the Rams were terrible last few seasons. This is a different team with a whole set of new coaches. You'd think there would be some interest in that.

Flying low under the radar, maybe is a good thing....hopefully this time will carry wins under their shoulder pads as well.

Quaterback Concerns

News out of camp, especially regarding a recent scrimmage the Rams had is that our QB's aren't anything to write home about.

Bulger appears to not be picking up too well on the new offense and it had been hoped by many. Still continues to be intercepted and this is just a simple scrimmage.

Boller I hear is simply ineffective and we may have been better off getting an old timer like Jeff Garcia.

Berlin, same old same old. Absolutely worthless.

The only QB that seemed to halfway impress anyone was Null. Seems he has a very strong arm, great accuracy with great poise in the red zone. Seems he's the only one that could get a score during the scrimmage.

I don't know about anyone else, but this doesn't sound very promising. Yes, it's just a scrimmage but that should not matter about how well you play. If you can't perform well in a scrimmage how do you expect to perform well under true pressure!

I think we need to be very concerned about this position. Doesn't look good.

A New Tougher Team

It's great to hear that Spags is not all talk and no action type of coaching. Something we've been lacking for quite some time. After all, if you have a coach that doesn't go for the one, two punch, it stands to reason that the team won't either.

But since the beginning Spags has come across as a hard nosed, no nonsense kind of guy and the type that doesn't believe in being soft on any player no matter who he is on the team.

From the beginning with Spags the Rams are going to have their character and stamina tested by Spags and it's either going to be sink or swim. There won't be any life preservers thrown out to them by this coach.

By far this is what this team has needed for years. After they get through this grueling training camp, I think we're going to be seeing a far tougher and nastier team than anyone is expecting.