Anthony Bafaro
The Rams lead the league in dropped passes and Bradford has been hit while throwing more than any other QB in the NFL. This is the world of Sam Bradford. He has an offensive line that’s lucky to give him two seconds of protection, and a receiving corps that takes seven seconds to get open. When he escapes the pressure and buys time, they drop passes. If that’s not bad enough, the opposition spends most of the game knowing he’s going to drop back and pass, because his defense is allowing 21 first half points per game. I wonder if he’s starting to wish he had left school early and gone to the Lions.
Rams Offense vs. Redskins Defense
What the Rams are able to do on offense this week depends on two things: what percentage of Steven Jackson we get, and whether or not our young tackles decide to play at a high level, which kind of sucks for us.
Saffold hasn’t been horrible, but he’s not playing as well as he did last year, particularly in pass protection. Hopefully it’s just a matter of adjusting to the new system, but maybe his skill set is more exposed outside of the super conservative Shurmer offense. Jason Smith, right now, is one of the worst starting tackles in the NFL. He’s been better so far this year in the running game, but still not good, and he’s a turnstile in pass protection . They’re going up against Brian Orakpo and Ryan Kerrigan. Orakpo was a first round pick in 2009, and unlike the Rams first rounder from that year, he’s played well in the trenches. He had 11 sacks his rookie year and 8.5 in his second. Kerrigan, their first round pick this year has been good so far with a sack in each game, a forced fumble last week, and a tipped pass-interception-touchdown in week one.
The Rams really need Steven to be full throttle here. You know Haslett’s crazy ass is going to send at least six guys on every down. We need Steven blocking, running screens, and turning dump offs into big gains. We need him doing anything & everything. The fact of the matter is no other skill player on this offense scares anyone in the NFL. It’s a sad state of affairs, but it’s the truth. If he’s not out there for the majority of the Rams offensive snaps, it could be a long and lethargic day for the offense.
I would like to see more of Pettis this week and an emphasis on getting Kendrick’s the ball. Lance does have more dropped passes than, well, any TE in football, but he’s also top five in yards-after-catch. He looks like a playmaker, which takes some getting used to, and I think the dropped passes issue might just be a matter of building his confidence. It’s also likely that the underneath routes will be most successful, which could be to the advantage of both of these players. Bradford did enjoy picking on the perpetually overrated Deangelo Hall last year, but the redskins have scary safeties after stealing Atogwe from the Rams to join with Laron Landry; a deep pass to inferior athletes will be a dangerous move all day.
Rams Defense vs. Redskins Offense
The defense owes the offense a big game. It’s hard enough trying to implement a new offense with a second year quarterback, unreliable blocking and no weapons without also having to play two possession catch up for most of the game.
Skins starting LT, Jamall Brown is bad in pass protection; he’s already allowed 4 sacks this year. This needs to be a break out game for Chris Long. He’s looked great so far, ranking 3rd in the NFL with 13 QB pressures, and picking up three sacks in as many games, but the combination of Jamall Brown and Rex Grossman presents an opportunity for Long to have a multiple sack-turnover game, and it would be nice to see some game changing plays from our former top pick. I hope we see a lot of Robert Quinn in this game as well. We can’t stop the run anyway, so we might as well just play Hall at DT and keep Quinn out there. He looks angry in the pass rush, Selvie-esque, and he’s not going to learn how to play against the run by standing on the sideline.
I have no idea what to do about the secondary. With Bartell and Murphy out it’s pretty much going to take a comeback player of the year performance from Rod Hood to stop the bleeding. Fletcher is a good corner, maybe a great corner, but after him its liability after liability in one form or another.
The Rams need to get consistent pressure and they need to do it with four guys; the secondary will be badly exposed if they over blitz. Grossman, over his entire career, has had a propensity to do terribly stupid things when pressured and the Rams definitely need some stupidity from the opposition to level the playing field.
I really think the Rams are going to find a way to win this game. Steve Spagnuolo was embarrassed last week and his defense’s numbers for the season thus far are embarrassing. I think we’re going to see everything that he has in terms of preparation this week. He knows that his side of the ball has the opportunity rip this game out of Grossman’s hands, and I think that’s exactly what they’re going to do.
"The defense owes the offense a big game." I absolutely agree, and you're right in saying that the only way that happens is with immense pressure from Long & Co. While certainly possible, it's hard to bet on the Rams doing anything right at this point.
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