Embarrassing: A Recap of Week 2, Rams at Giants

Anthony Bafaro

“…There’s no doubt we will b ready for Monday night”-@Bgibson04

I really think the Rams should have signed Plaxico Burress.  Not only would he have provided a big, veteran, sure-handed receiver to aid in the perpetual failure that is our redzone offense, he also could have preached to the team about just how detrimental it is to shoot yourself in the foot in New York.

This game made me sick to my stomach; there’s no better way to describe it.  I’m not going to take the time to critique every dropped pass, bad penalty, blown coverage, mindless turnover, and questionable play call; there’s plenty of that saturating sports talk radio and fan message boards.  I just want to roll and wallow in my own frustration and misery for a moment.  Look, I get it, this [our offensive performance in the first two weeks] is what is to be expected when you try to implement a new, relatively complicated offensive system in a few weeks time, especially when you’re trying to do so with a mix of inexperienced and untalented players, but there are a few things I just don’t understand.

1) What exactly is Danario Alexander’s role in this offense?  Aaron Ross or not, three catches for 122 is nasty and the knee looked just fine to me as he twisted, somersaulted, remounted, and got after the YAC (@Bgibson04, that stands for Yards After Catch, only you could make three defenders miss and still lose yards after the reception).  Now, it would have been nice of Danario to stretch his arms out and break the plane, but with all this game had to offer, that’s hardly the thing to bitch about.  I am of the mindset that so long as Danario can walk he should be lined up.  There is an argument to be made that the knee can only take so much, that his usage has to be limited.  There is the argument that also due to knee endurance issues he is limited in practice, shrinking the number of plays that can be installed with his name on it.  Okay, I’ll buy it, but if that’s the case those plays must be Redzone packages.  Of course it’s nice to see him knock out 40 yards at a time in acrobatic fashion, but since drafting Bradford, we’ve had no real problem picking up the first 80 yards.  This offense is embarrassing in the Redzone.  Why is that we have no problem calling a fade route in the endzone to the 5’11” Amendola being covered by the 6’2” Cromartie, but we refuse to call such a play when the potential matchup is 6’5” Alexander against 6’0” Ross?  I just don’t get it.

2)  Why did we sign Jerious Norwood?  I didn’t hate the signing, but with SJ39 and Cadillac as the top two backs it would have been nice to have saved a roster spot for a running back that is closer to twenty years old than he is to thirty.  The argument for signing the twenty-eight year old speed back coming off of ACL surgery was that he provided kick/punt return ability.  So why was rookie Greg Salas returning punts on Monday Night Football?  Spags said that with SJ out they didn’t want to risk an injury to Norwood, because if he got hurt and Cadillac got hurt they’d be left with only Quinn Porter at running back, who had no real experience with the offense.  First of all, if you’re really that concerned about players getting injured on returns, why is your number one receiver (Danny boy) also your number one return man?  Secondly, Norwood returned a kick in the Eagles game (a nice return at that) after SJ was injured, when he and Cadillac were the only two running backs with pads on…God damnit!

3)  I do not ever, under any circumstances, want to see Billy Bajema or Craig Dahl on the field again.

I understand that as fans we must be prepared to deal with growing pains.  I understand that we have some major contributors injured (Jackson, Bartell, Amendola, Clayton, Murphy).  I don’t expect this team to play lights out, mistake free football.  What I expect is to not be insulted, to not be lied to, to not be told that, “There’s no doubt we will b ready for Monday night,” when you haven’t the slightest idea what it means to be ready for a professional football game.