Bonus coverage! This is the week 3 matchup between Indianapolis and Washington, so of course it's a matchup of the top two picks in the draft: Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III, who I'd like to get a look at before the Rams' home opener. The pre-game said he struggled against Chicago's pass rush in their previous game, but at the same time, he's adapting nicely to life as a pocket QB and has shown some lethality on the run. Let's see how he does against the team that beat the Rams by five TDs two weeks before...
FIRST QUARTER
RG3 gets the ball first, at his 34. Bomb for Pierre Garcon off play-action barely misses, and Garcon was open. As he showed at the Shrine Game, Alfred Morris proves very hard to tackle for 4. Blitz comes in clean on RG3 on 3rd down, but he fakes the blitzer and runs off right end and dives for the first down. RG3 throws a nice quick hitch to Garcon for 4, but on 3rd-and-2, the Colts are blitzing again, and RG3 does not even appear to see the LB coming and gets drilled for a big hit. Got the pass away, but he'll need to show a lot better blitz recognition than that to survive his rookie season.
Yeah, suddenly now Adam Carriker can play 4-3 DT, making a couple of run stuffs out of that offensive front. Jim Haslett rushes 3 out of a 3-4 look on 3rd down and drops everybody else back, but Luck finds DONNIE AVERY on a drag route, and the noted physical WR runs through a LB for the Colts' first 1st down. Next play, big shocker, smoke route to Avery goes nowhere. THAT, we're used to from Avery. Colts pick up a blitz out of 4-3 to allow Luck to hit T.Y. Hilton for 10. Is the T.Y. for Thank You? A clipping penalty on center Samson Satele kills the drive. Barry Cofield whipped Satele on 1st to force a quick pass, a DeAngelo Hall blitz on 2nd blew up an attempted shovel pass, and the Colts surrendered with a handoff on 3rd. Could be poor eyesight on my part, but Haslett seemed to use a lot of 4-3 on that drive. Also, Brian Orakpo is out.
Alfred Morris continues to show why he was a member of RamView's Never Draft A Kicker class when it takes a half-dozen Colts to tackle him after a short gain on 2nd down. On 3rd-and-2, Griffin tries the bomb for Garcon again but misses it by more this time. And it wasn't open. Three-and-out, though I doubt they would have bombed away again in a real game.
Colts start this drive from their 8. Luck beats a blitz with a completion to Reggie Wayne over the middle for one first down, but Haslett gets him the next time by blitzing London Fletcher, with Ryan Kerrigan and Chris Wilson, in the Orakpo role, meeting at the QB to split the sack. Steven Bowen whips a man on the inside to sack Luck again on 3rd down, and it's hard to believe the Rams aren't going to have similar problems with the Redskins' speed on the LOS and the number of angles Haslett will throw at them. One thing is that the Colts haven't tried very much running so far.
RG3 continues to show a strong, accurate arm on short passes, including a 3rd-and-2 bullet to Josh Morgan at midfield on Washington's opening series. The pocket closed on RG3, but he bounced outside and made the throw. Unlike most rookie running QBs, he hasn't been looking to run first.
SECOND QUARTER
Nice run/pass mix by Kyle Shanahan here. Pounds Morris three times for about 15, which sets up play-action for RG3. Griffin does a nice job to step up from Dwight Freeney's pressure and hit Garcon for 18 in the red zone. Morris powers off right guard and nearly scores from about 20 out, but gets to finish it off the next play with another excellent, second-effort, power run. This guy's not going to be the opening day starter? Um, okay. Redskins 7-0
Meanwhile, RG3 looks every bit as good as, well, Sam Bradford at the moment, though he's really benefiting from Morris' play.
Redskins keep pretty good pressure on Luck throughout the next drive, but he does a good job repeatedly stepping up out of pressure and leads Indy to a game-tying 79-yard TD drive. He hits Wayne for 21, Avery on another short drag, and Hilton beautifully for a 31-yard TD behind Madieu Williams on the out-and-up. Pretty clear that Bradford is going to have to be good on the move if he's going to do anything against the Redskins week 2. Redskins 7, Colts 7 Scott Wells and Harvey Dahl are also going to have to do a better job on Cofield than the Colts are. Also, Haslett seems to know when the Colts are running and always has the box stacked for it. So Jackson's going to see a ton of that - nothing new there - so all the more important that Bradford's going to have to be light on his feet againt Haslett's pass rush.
Washington responds with a fine long TD drive of its own, though it's fueled more on the ground than it is by Griffin through the air. Morris - I still can't believe he isn't starting the season - continued to grind up the Colts front and also proved he can get outside, bouncing left for a big 20-yard run. Tim Hightower, who won't even make the team, bounced a run outside for another 15 to get Washington inside the 5. Along the way, Griffin continued to look poised and threw several short-yardage darts, including a short TD pass to Santana Moss. Redskins 14-7 Colts can't really stop them at all at the moment. The Skins are running too well, and Griffin's been getting the ball out too quickly. Also, both of the big runs this drive went around left end behind crushing blocks by LT Trent Williams. He's Robert Quinn's matchup for week 2.
The one thing Griffin hasn't shown yet is ability to hit anyone deep. The Skins took their third shot of the half with Leonard Hankerson this time, but they seem to miss by more on every try. RG3 clearly has the arm for it, though, which is enough of a threat by itself.
The good matchup between the rookie QBs continues through the last minute of the half as Luck gets the Colts back across midfield, but a Hail Mary is just broken up at the goal line to preserve the halftime lead for the home team. Wilson is playing like his hair is on fire; Indy has had to resort to double-teaming him down the stretch. And he's the backup!
THIRD QUARTER
Washington holds the Colts to one first down before forcing a punt after the halftime break. Colts can't get anything going on the ground at all; the rare time Donald Brown does find a running lane, the Redskin safety shuts it down. They've supported the run well all night. London Fletcher's blitz forces a rushed throw out of bounds from Luck, and the punt.
RG3's first really bad throw is a 20-yarder well behind Garcon to start the next drive. He hasn't had to do a lot of throwing downfield in this game. Future opponents will probably want to make him prove he can hit those, though the rest of his game does not suggest a problem there. The problem at Redskin Park is that they're too stupid to start Alfred Morris, who goes over the 100-yard mark (14-107) with a nice cutback run for 20 on a sweep right that the Colts had stuffed. The passing game sputters a little bit, though, which leads to a punt.
Indy's Luck has run out; Chandler Harnish now at the reins of the Colts. The Redskins have sent in the backup defense as well, so I'll be phoning it in from here. Good news for Wilson; he still counts as a backup and stays on the field, where, after the Redskins stuff yet a couple more runs, he whips the right tackle and buries Harnish in the end zone. Chris Wilson's a player to keep an eye on. Redskins 16-7
Laugh of the night comes as the home crowd boos the entry of Rex Grossman into the game. Hightower charges for 8 on first down, but fails to get the rest on two more tries. Send in the punter.
The Redskin D continues to dominate the battle of the backups, with Lorenzo Alexander's sack forcing the Colts off the field this time. Nothing fancy here; the Skins are just rushing vanilla out of 3-4 sets. More than a little embarrassing the Rams didn't look better against an offensive line that's looked pretty outmatched all game here.
Dominating field position so far this half, the Radskins are quickly in FG range after play-action from Grossman to Anthony Armstrong for 20. Rex next beats a blitz with a quick slant to Terrence Austin inside the 15, followed by a pretty easy TD to Morgan on a post route. Can't say I've noticed Justin King as one of the Colt corners getting beaten in this game, which comes as a shock. Redskins 23-7
Even though play-action has little reason to be effective at this point, Harnish and the Colts do succeed in using it to string some passes together, and get across midfield in time for the end of the third.
FOURTH QUARTER
Harnish and the Colts o-line looks a lot more composed as they march into the red zone, with Harnish getting good protection and hitting Britt Whalen several times. Deji Karim fumbles at the 10 on a 3rd-and-short run, though. The Colts win a review and get to keep the ball but Chuck Pagano pusses out on 4th-and-1 and kicks the FG. It's preseason! Adam Vinatieri doesn't need 28-yard FG practice! Ugh. Got another Spagnuolo here. Redskins 23-10
Redskins get out of a hole when a Colt LB stupidly touches Grossman on top of the helmet (and Redskins color man Joe Theismann just as stupidly complains about the call and blames it on the fake zebras when Ed Hochuli would have made the exact same call). Grossman then bombs away to Dezmon Briscoe across midfield and hits a swing pass to Tristan Davis for another 15. Nice leaping catch over the middle by Austin puts them at the 12, then a fairly-easy catch for a very open Briscoe on a simple post route scores Washington another TD. Redskins 30-10 Grossman's 8-8-120 with 2 TDs.
Harnish hits Jeremy Ross with a 20-yard out, and after Kevin Barnes' terrible blown tackle, Ross tacks on another 40, turning Reed Doughty several directions before Doughty can finally make the tackle. Without looking it up - I'm on dialup today, it's not very easy - I'd hope Ross at least made the Colts practice squad; he's turned in some big plays this preseason. After Harnish scrambles down to the 10, Bryan Kehl's blitz forces a throwaway and 4th down, but Darren Evans plunges in for the score. So now Pagano's OK with going for it? Forgive me for not being thrilled with the Colts' near-term prospects. Redskins 30-17
3:48 to play, with Kirk Cousins to mop up for the Redskins. Big cheer that Grossman is out, even though he just turned in a perfect passer rating. It's a 3-and-out with Cousins getting walloped on a 3rd-down miss.
2:50 left. Haslett still blitzing, so Harnish goes deep down the sideline and the Colts get a friendly call on a hit on the receiver. One thing the fake zebras are calling is anything remotely close to a hit on a defenseless receiver. Harnish gets the Colts inside the Redskin 40 despite facing a lot of blitzing. Brandon Thompson breaks up a 4th-down pass for the Redskins to stick a fork in this one.
Final score: Redskins 30, Colts 17
What have we learned: Unlike what you'd expect from rookie QBs, Griffin's willing to stay int them week 1. And they're having trouble getting any running game going. Good luck, kid.
Player of the game: The Redskins' broadcast agrees with me: despite Grossman's perfect game, Alfred Morris gets the POTG, 14-107 with a TD. Skins keep getting a ground game like that, they will be difficult to reckon with.
Up next: I think that's probably it. Happy football season!
-$-
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Monday, September 3, 2012
Game 10: Big Dead 31, Raiders 27
Well, let's jump into week 2's Big
Dead-Raiders matchup. Not to sound reluctant or unenthusiastic, but
we don't just have the awful Big Dead QB battle here, the Raiders are
coming off a game I'm frankly afraid to watch, ever, a 3-0 loss in
Dallas last week. Seriously, how did any fans come out of that game
alive?
FIRST QUARTER
Raider offense
doesn't step up a bit from the Dallas borefest. Adrian Wilson shuts
down a rollout screen to the tight end and a sideline comeback to
Darrius Heyward-Bey. Reggie Walker blitzes the inevitable and stupid
third-and-long preseason draw to Darren McFadden. The Raiders then
IDIOTICALLY punt directly to Patrick Peterson, who returns 45 yards
to the OAK40. Good thing the Rams didn't hire Dennis Allen for head
coach; we've already gone through one head coach dumb enough to punt
to Peterson.
Kevin Kolb gets
the start for Arizona, along with Ryan Williams, who is blown up in
the backfield on first down behind no blocking. Kolb responds with a
couple of short out routes to Early Doucet, getting down to the 25,
and Williams works around left end and off a strong block by Larry
Fitzgerald to get Arizona down to the 5. He busts his way in over LG
to put the Cards on top. Arizona 7-0
Oakland drives
80-plus yards and settles for a FG when they can't punch it in from
the one in three tries. Carson Palmer beats a couple of blitzes and
beats a zone blitz to hit DHB near midfield. McFadden gets a nice
gain past a, guess what, overpursuing Sam Acho and a big block by his
fullback. Darnell Dockett and Calais Campbell don't do much, neither
does Dan Williams, who's mostly getting the blocking sled treatment
from rookie guard Alex Parsons. Doesn't look like a project to me. Williams makes one of the plays on McFadden
inside the 1, though, and Clark Haggans doesn't buy a fake screen on
3rd-and-goal and pressures Palmer into throwing one out
the back of the end zone. Why not go for it in preseason, Oakland?
Ehhh. Arizona 7-3
After a penalty,
Arizona starts from their 5 after the kickoff, and march backwards
into a safety. Kolb is called for grounding at the 1. Ryan Williams
picked up a blitz OK, but guess who, Adam Snyder, got beat to force
Kolb into a premature chuckaway. Next play, Tommy Kelly splits Snyder
and Jeremy Bridges and buries Kolb in the end zone. Arizona 7-5
Attack Snyder, attack Snyder, attack Snyder.
After the free kick, Palmer and McFadden burn a Stewart Bradley blitz for 17 to get into FG range. Would have been better had Palmer thrown a better ball and McFadden worked harder to get his feet in on 3rd down. They burned a zone blitz and McFadden was open by at least 5 yards with Acho covering, but Palmer's throw was too far and McFadden's footwork too complacent. Raiders 8, Big Dead 7
SECOND QUARTER
O-line isn't the problem as the Big Dead 3-and-out to start the quarter: Kolb holds the ball forever and lets a dog blitz get there for another sack. Brilliantly, the play didn't give him a dumpoff option. D'Anthony Baptiste beaten at right tackle, too.
Palmer responds with a terrible overthrow that Kerry Rhodes picks off at his own 30 and returns all the way down inside the Oakland 5. In Palmer's defense, he could have been expecting his tight end to continue his route downfield, but major scoring opportunity now for Arizona.
Or maybe not. On 2nd-and-goal, Darryn Colledge drags a Raider DT AND Baptiste to the ground, letting Lamarr Houston in free on Kolb, who fires a completion to... Snyder. Not a whole lot legal happening on that play. Levi Brown gets held with no call on 3rd down and can't pick up a stunt that forces another blank from Kolb. Jay Feely puts Arizona back on top. Big Dead 10-8
Mike Goodson takes two handoffs to fumble the ball back to Arizona, forced by a nice play by Darryl Washington. That brings John Skelton into the game to huge cheers from the home crowd. He immediately guns to Todd Heap for 12 to the OAK13. He hits Rob Housler inside the 5. Either his receivers are working harder for him, his line is working harder for him, or he's just less bothered by pressure compared to Kolb. Bad news for Arizona, though, this is the drive where LT Levi Brown is injured. Their offensive line is bad enough without losing starters. Doesn't bother Skelton just yet, though, as he beats a blitz and hits fullback Anthony Sherman in the flat for a 3-yard TD. Big Dead 17-8
Energized Cardinals backups 3-and-out the Oakland starters (minus McFadden) with a Rashad Johnson blitz forcing a Palmer throwaway on 3rd-and-2. RamView NDAK class member Justin Bethel then blocks the punt, recovers the ball and takes it in 20 yards for a TD. The man who should have blocked him just drifted off and let him run right by. Inexplicable; was he expecting a fake? Not that Arizona cares. Big Dead 24-8
The Raiders, along with millions of fantasy teams, look screwed if they lose McFadden. In Oakland's case, Goodson has been pretty much a mess, tripping over his feet on one run, then fumbling the ball on a dumpoff. Great strip tackle by Mike Brisiel on Clark Haggans, though, keeps the ball in Oakland's possession. Reggie Walker, who forced the original fumble, has been a defensive standout for Arizona. The drive stays alive on a questionable roughness call on Jamell Fleming for a clean-enough looking hit on DHB. Palmer adds a scramble to the ARZ30 at the 2:00 warning. The Arizona second-string D has done a better job pressuring Palmer than the starters. Ancient Vonnie Holliday and Quan Sturdivant smear Palmer on one incompletion. Arizona color man Ron Wolfley, spewing nonsense as he's wont to do, says Sturdivant plays "like he has sawdust in his boots." He has poor traction? He has dry, sweet-smelling feet? WHAT? While I'm trying to figure that out, Lonyae Miller bangs down to the 2 on several red zone carries, but the Raiders again can't punch it in, and AGAIN gutlessly take the FG inside the 5 in preseason. Dennis Allen is like Steve Spagnuolo on steroids with the non-risk-taking. He even turns down the penalty when Bethel, pretty dumbly, is offsides on the FG attempt. You'd have been inside the 1! Puss. Big Dead 24-11
THIRD QUARTER
Both teams should be done with starters now, and the Raiders are about to roll out Fratboy Leinart, so forgive me for not paying intent attention. In fact, I'm already writing the postgame show.
Huge hole, and huge opening kickoff return, for William Powell, and that hole was so big that, yes, Myrna Loy could have returned the kick out to the 45. Ryan Lindley's first move after that is to wing a pass right at Chimdi Chekwa for a pick.
Do stadiums normally announce when the visiting team changes QBs? They do here in Arizona, seemingly to get heat for Fratboy Leinart. The Raiders tiki-taka their way to midfield; somehow tiki-taka is more interesting when Barcelona does it. Arizona has 12 men on the field on 3rd-and-3 to keep the drive alive at midfield. Leinart responds with a back-shoulder throw to Juron Criner at the 15. 25-yard gain. From there, the referees gift Oakland a DPI inside the 5, and Miller punches it in from there. Bethel comes through again for Arizona by blocking the PAT. Big Dead 24-17
Raiders blow tackles left and right before forcing Arizona to punt from their own 40.
Leinart beats a blitz with a 20-yard out to Brandon Carswell and hits Trey Session at midfield. Owen Schmitt doing a nice job of blitz pickup this drive. Terrible late hit by Ricky Lumpkin moves them down to the ARZ30. That should be a significant fine for Lumpkin. Took a run and launched into him, all well after the ball was gone. Terrelle Pryor replaces Leinart, and that's where the drive falls apart for Oakland. False start, then a sack by an untouched Quentin Groves, who Pryor never accounted for. Give-up handoff and a punt.
Lindley's bad throw behind Housler prevents a big, big gain on 1st down. That's especially regrettable after Carl Ihenacho absolutely whips D.J. Young, who was the first tackle off the bench after Brown got hurt, and tomahawks the ball out of Lindley's hand on the 3rd down sack. The ball's recovered and taken into the end zone by... The Undertaker! Hall Davis. Oakland 24, Arizona 24
FOURTH QUARTER
After Powell keeps the drive alive a couple of times with strong 10-yard runs, Lindley throws a long laser to Demarco Sampson, leaping over two Raiders at the 10. From there, Powell breaks a tackle behind the line and bounces outside left for a TD stroll. Young bounced back with some good run-blocking that drive. Big Dead 31-24
Raiders 3-and-out after Pryor has to scramble on 3rd-and-2 but comes up short.
Thomas Clayton starts the next drive off well with a 12-yard run around right end, but ends it poorly with a fumble recovered by... Mason Brodine. Brodine sets the Raiders up at the ARI40 on his way to better things.
Pryor gets away with a poor bomb that should have been intercepted in the end zone. The Raiders do not get away with a false start, though, and a dumpoff to Miller leaves them five short. Eddy Carmona drills a 53-yard FG with Zuerlein-like ease. Big Dead 31-27
On 3rd-and-6, Lindley drops a perfect 32-yard pass into Stephen Williams' breadbasket, over the DB's shoulder, on a go route. Javarris James grinds the clock down to the 2:00 warning, then two Oakland timeouts, then he gets around left end on third-and-long for about 15 down to the OAK11 to stick a fork in this one. Inexcusably weak play by Oakland on third down there.
If Arizona's announcers are any indication, the rest of the NFC West is afraid of Sam Bradford returning to form this year as we in Rams Nation are all afraid he won't.
Final score: Big Dead 31, Raiders 27.
Postgame show
What have we learned: No surprise here that Arizona ultimately picks Skelton as their starting QB. Better arm, better composure under pressure. Ryan Williams looks good to start for them at RB as far as I'm concerned. The offensive line, though, is still a shambles, and if Brown's injury forces Bobby Massie into a starting role, we're looking at joke material. Arizona's LB play has really picked up since the beginning of preseason, I'm sure in no small part because the Cardinals actually did some blitzing this game. Improves the aggressiveness of the whole team. It's definitely a different team when they blitz. I'm still goofy enough to believe the Rams can beat them this year, though. For Oakland, Miller probably takes away Goodson's backup job. Palmer had trouble finding open receivers, but they barely utilized the TE and backs, and many of their fastest guys weren't on the field. He won't be throwing to Rod Streater quite so many times in the regular season. I'm going to guess the o-line got a little tired in the 2nd quarter, because they looked good in the 1st. I'd have to see a little more, but they had to be troubled with the lack of productivity from their starting offense at this point.
Player of the game: gotta go with my boy Justin Bethel out of Presbyterian, whose two kick blocks were responsible for a swing of 8 points.
Up next: well, the regular season. Sorry I suck so much at this that I can barely get any games in anymore. Maybe next year!
-$-
Game 9: Rams 31, Ravens 17
What have we learned: The Rams' first-string is capable of dominating a good team's second-string. So they have that going for them, which is nice. Bradford looked solid, running game looked strong, Quinn continues to look good, as does rocket-legged Greg Zuerlein. Special teams are well-coached overall and might start making a positive difference for the Rams for a change. About all the Rams got out of basically a glorified scrimmage, though, is maybe a little confidence heading into the regular season, not much else. Oh, and they lost first-round draft pick Michael Brockers for the first month of the season.
Even though it was only their second-string, I honestly expected a better game out of a well-run team like the Ravens all the same. The fact that the Rams could walk all over their reserves, and scrubs like Danny Gorrer and Billy Bajema actually made their final roster, tell me to start betting against Baltimore pretty heavily if injuries start to pile up on them.
Player of the game: I'll give it to Bradford again; when he's on and getting good protection, he's dynamite, and was here: 11-16-175, 3 TDs, passer rating 144.5.
Up next: obviously, the Preseason Challenge is once again going out with a whimper rather than a bang. As silly an idea as it is, though, I'll keep the idea alive as long as NFL Network keeps putting all the preseason games out there. Never know when my summer might open wide enough again to get a serious number of preseason games in.
-$-
Game 8: Cowboys 20, Rams 19
Postgame report:
What have we learned: We don't know what we've got with the Rams here. At this point they were back to looking like the dreadful Rams from the first preseason game. Sam Bradford wasn't protected well, and struggled accordingly, 6-17 with a passer rating in the 40s. Quinn Ojinnaka and Barry Richardson continue to be blocking liabilities. Demarco Murray ran all over the Ram front seven, AGAIN, and the secondary was a woeful spectacle, giving up 200 passing yards in just the first quarter, with Dallas' offense missing its TOP THREE receivers. Janoris Jenkins was terrible, Trumaine Johnson was awful, tackling was poor. On the good side, Robert Quinn remained a pass-rushing menace, Daryl Richardson lapped Isaiah Pead in the backup running back competition, and Greg Zuerlein continues to bomb away from long FG range.
Player of the game: Really no observations to make on Dallas from this game, because they had so many key starters out and the Rams were so epically bad. 198 yards passing in the first quarter make Tony Romo the easy POTG winner.
Up next: I'll get another quickie up for Rams-Ravens and try to squeeze in a little more Arizona preseason goodness before bailing well short on yet another Preseason Challenge.
-$-
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