20 Random Simply Awful Start Thoughts

[AvengerRam]

1. That was tough to watch.

2. I'm going to start by giving credit to the Buffalo Bills for what they are - possibly the best team in the league right now.

3. The Bills defense is very strong, and Von Miller does seem to be the final piece they needed.

4. Josh Allen leads an offense that will keep opposing defenses off balance and strike with big plays.

5. But, for fuck's sake.... we're the defending champions. There is no excuse for such a poor showing.

6. The biggest disappointment by far was the play of the offensive line. No push in the running game, and absolutely dismal performance in pass protection.

7. The lack of protection provides context for Matthew Stafford's poor outing, but I'm not going to fully absolve him. He held the ball way too long, and failed to spread the ball around meaningfully. And no... it wasn't because of his elbow.

8. Cooper Kupp did his thing, but he can't be asked to be the whole offense week after week.

9. Allen Robinson was the invisible man tonight. Very surprised by that. Whether it was a function of Stafford's lack of time, a lack of chemistry, or something else... time will tell.

10. Makes me think that we missed Van Jefferson more than I thought we would.

11. Makes me REALLY think that we need to stop messing around and finally sign OBJ. While I know he can't help for a while, we may need him to make another playoff run.

12. As for the defense.... we continue to be vulnerable to misdirection and quick throws. Those are, after all, the only things that can neutralize Aaron Donald.

13. The secondary was just plain bad tonight. I don't know what Jalen Ramsey was doing on the Diggs TD. Perhaps he rightfully expected help, perhaps it was his fault. Either way, it was embarrassing.

14. Can the defense come around? Absolutely.

15. Can the offensive line get where it needs to be? Its fair to doubt that.

16. I was surprised to see Darrell Henderson starting, and even more surprised to see Cam Akers with such a minimal role.

17. Nick Scott gets credit for forcing two fumbles. Those turnovers, along with Allen's two interceptions, prevented an even worse outcome.

18. As big and strong as Allen is, he's not going to last if he keeps taking unnecessary hits. Just ask Cam Newton.

19. I expected adversity this season, just as we had last year. Guess it's coming sooner than expected. We'll see how the team reacts. Certainly, having a couple of extra days to prepare to host a weak Atlanta team is favorable.

20. For seven months we had joy and revelry. That's over now (though the memories will last forever). Now we're back to the grind. This was a tough day. Better days will come.

 

[Tumak61]

Akers. Where was he. McVay had to know two deep was coming. Why not slam Akers at that.

 

[MachS]

6. The biggest disappointment by far was the play of the offensive line. No push in the running game, and absolutely dismal performance in pass protection.

The OL was putrid. 7 sacks and no push in the running game. Just embarrassing effort by them and I think the loss of Whit is a lot bigger than most of us realized or wanted to admit. Our OL will likely be average at best this year, and vs good fronts pretty bad. Hard to see us beating the 49ers with this OL.

7. The lack of protection provides context for Matthew Stafford's poor outing, but I'm not going to fully absolve him. He held the ball way too long, and failed to spread the ball around meaningfully. And no... it wasn't because of his elbow.

Yes the OL is partly to blame, but Stafford was bad. He should've had another 2 INTs which would've put him at 4. He was very inaccurate and to me it was obvious that his fastball had less life on it. His elbow injury is a real thing.

9. Allen Robinson was the invisible man tonight. Very surprised by that. Whether it was a function of Stafford's lack of time, a lack of chemistry, or something else... time will tell.

I watched him closely tonight and he WAS open a number of times for big chunk gains. Seems like Stafford locked onto Kupp for whatever reason. But ARob was open and should've had another 3-4 big catches at least.

15. Can the offensive line get where it needs to be? Its fair to doubt that.

Man the left side looked horrible tonight on basic 2 man stunts. Not even exotic blitzes. Just basic shit. Not to mention they got two more sacks without Von even on the field. Both pressures coming from the left side.

16. I was surprised to see Darrell Henderson starting, and even more surprised to see Cam Akers with such a minimal role.

Queue the classic McVay postgame presser where he says "I need to do a better job at getting Cam involved" or some other bullshit. The RB snap counts tonight were weird as FUCK to me.

 

[Wisconsinram]

Great post. I'll add.

The interior OL was, indeed, a trainwreck.

I was so confident in A. Rob being a big part of the plan that I started him in fantasy. My disappointment doesn't come from his "lack of production," but the fact we didn't seem to involve him the plan.

I'm not sure it mattered who started/played at rb; there wasn't much there.

Jalen looked awful. Certainly didn't look like a shutdown cb/best in the league. But I'm confident he'll recover.

For the love of G, if we know Allen's release time is under 2.4, can we not play off the WR's by 10 yards and be in a zone? I always loved how Staley would adjust at half. Didn't see that tonight.

Special teams were horrible. The unit didn't get exposed in terms of big plays, but my goodness, coverage and return units were terrible.

The Bills impressed me tonight, for sure. They are tough in every facet at almost every level on both O and D. And Allen is special.

Our O had no identify. Love McVay, but it was hard to determine what the plan was. Run to set up the pass, visa versa, not sure. It was one of the rare games where it felt like we were just calling a play to see if it would work instead of having a plan to carve them up.

I hate to admit it, but the only thing preventing it from being over very early was the Bills shot themselves in the foot in the first half. Hell, I don't think they punted the entire game.

Where was Gaines, Floyd, Wagner, Rapp/Fuller, etc? Never showed up.

How did Fuller go from wearing the green dot to not being a starter by losing his job to Rapp?

Okay, that felt good. Carry on!!!!

 

[AvengerRam]

I'm just going to say this one more time...

There is no basis to blame Stafford's elbow for his performance tonight. Blame the OL, a scheme that frustrated him, and his poor decisions to hold the ball too long and lock on Kupp too much. Anyone who asserts that this was evidence of an elbow problem is simply speculating on the basis of a little bit of information and a lot of misinformation that has been put out there by the sports talking heads. So, please... until you hear it from Stafford or McVay, or see Stafford listed as questionable to play because his elbow, give the Internet Doctor routine a rest (at least on my threads).

 

[Mackeyser]

The lip reading at the end of the game was “I can’t hold the ball” r something close to that. I dunno if it went numb from a hit or what, but that was after that last pass to Robinson as he came off the field talking to McVay.

 

[AvengerRam]

OBJ provides thought #21:

View: https://twitter.com/obj/status/1568071254422482944?s=46&t=jomXzz1w1XCVQUC66GIX2g

 

[Ellard80]

The lip reading at the end of the game was “I can’t hold the ball” r something close to that. I dunno if it went numb from a hit or what, but that was after that last pass to Robinson as he came off the field talking to McVay.

he meant he didn't have time to hold onto the ball to throw it to Robinson in the end zone.

 

[AvengerRam]

I have to say.... having perused a few Rams boards and Twitter (I really should avoid doing that), I realize just how pathetic some fans can be after a tough loss.

I won't call out anyone by name (and many of the people I'm referring to are not on ROD), but, suffice to say, you can just STFU if you are asserting any of the following:

That this game proves Stafford's elbow is shot.
That this game proves that the Rams are a sub-.500 team this year.
That this game proves that signing Allen Robinson was a mistake.
That this game proves that Stafford is racist because he mostly targets white receivers (I'm not joking... I actually saw that posted unironically on Twitter).
That this game is grounds to immediately bench Joe Noteboom and/or Coleman Shelton.

It was one game, folks. One exceedingly shitty and horribly disappointing game.

But, don't forget... we lost 31-10 last season to a team we ultimately beat in the NFC Championship Game.

Its a long season. Take a breath.

 

[OntarioRam]

The lip reading at the end of the game was “I can’t hold the ball” r something close to that. I dunno if it went numb from a hit or what, but that was after that last pass to Robinson as he came off the field talking to McVay.

Link to this? I did not see it live. Even if Stafford was saying that, without context, it could easily be non-elbow related. E.g. in response to being asked why he was not going deep, maybe Stafford replied "I can't hold the ball", i.e., not enough pass protection for a longer route to develop. Who knows.

 

[Steve808]

I did find it odd that the Rams ran up the middle for what seemed like no gain on almost every first down. But make no mistake. The Bills looked like they were foaming at the mouth with this game circled and the Rams had some bright moments (forced 4 turnovers) but overall, the Bills definitely outplayed us tonight.

But horns up! We had a rough patch last November but rebounded and played well in the playoffs. I believe the Rams will run off a number of wins starting next week.

 

[Merlin]

Akers. Where was he. McVay had to know two deep was coming. Why not slam Akers at that.

No doubt. Would not have changed the loss with Buffalo's DL in our backfield but how bad has Akers looked to not get in that game. Or maybe he's dinged up. Rams are tight with info on that injury report.

 

[Merlin]

That this game is grounds to immediately bench Joe Noteboom and/or Coleman Shelton.

Calling for Shelton to be benched would not be some ridiculous or shortsighted fan call. Because he was like a junior varsity out there tonight and that's not sample size related. That was a straight ass kicking he received at a position where we need him to play a lot better. That's the kind of draw he's going to get in the playoffs. This is a Super Bowl contender and that is the bar.

Unfortunately calling for any of our depth to start at RG would be that bad. Because they looked like shit in preseason so it's unlikely any of them are an improvement over Shelton.

Re: Boom sample size applies because we've seen him play well and know Von was a rough week one matchup. Completely different situation there.

 

[kurtfaulk]

Makes me think that we missed Van Jefferson more than I thought we would.

damn straight. skow just looks awkward out there. there's no flow when he is targeted.

come back soon van.

.

 

[Zodi]

I'm so tired of runs up the middle on early downs. We don't have a power running game. We need to hit the outside. Matter of fact, our entire run scheme sucks. We get zero push to the second level.

Stafford isn't going to last an entire 17 game season if our offensive line continue to play like they played tonight.

Also when opposing QBs are getting the ball out in two seconds, why can't we play more man, press, etc? We're giving receivers a free release to get 8-12 yards a pop.

 

[Ramrasta]

The decision to play Cam Akers or Darryl Henderson was not a factor. We could have been handing it of to Jonathan Taylor and going nowhere. The offensive line is just ineffective and inexcusable.

 

[shake-n-bake]

1. That was tough to watch.

2. I'm going to start by giving credit to the Buffalo Bills for what they are - possibly the best team in the league right now.

3. The Bills defense is very strong, and Von Miller does seem to be the final piece they needed.

4. Josh Allen leads an offense that will keep opposing defenses off balance and strike with big plays.

5. But, for fuck's sake.... we're the defending champions. There is no excuse for such a poor showing.

6. The biggest disappointment by far was the play of the offensive line. No push in the running game, and absolutely dismal performance in pass protection.

7. The lack of protection provides context for Matthew Stafford's poor outing, but I'm not going to fully absolve him. He held the ball way too long, and failed to spread the ball around meaningfully. And no... it wasn't because of his elbow.

8. Cooper Kupp did his thing, but he can't be asked to be the whole offense week after week.

9. Allen Robinson was the invisible man tonight. Very surprised by that. Whether it was a function of Stafford's lack of time, a lack of chemistry, or something else... time will tell.

10. Makes me think that we missed Van Jefferson more than I thought we would.

11. Makes me REALLY think that we need to stop messing around and finally sign OBJ. While I know he can't help for a while, we may need him to make another playoff run.

12. As for the defense.... we continue to be vulnerable to misdirection and quick throws. Those are, after all, the only things that can neutralize Aaron Donald.

13. The secondary was just plain bad tonight. I don't know what Jalen Ramsey was doing on the Diggs TD. Perhaps he rightfully expected help, perhaps it was his fault. Either way, it was embarrassing.

14. Can the defense come around? Absolutely.

15. Can the offensive line get where it needs to be? Its fair to doubt that.

16. I was surprised to see Darrell Henderson starting, and even more surprised to see Cam Akers with such a minimal role.

17. Nick Scott gets credit for forcing two fumbles. Those turnovers, along with Allen's two interceptions, prevented an even worse outcome.

18. As big and strong as Allen is, he's not going to last if he keeps taking unnecessary hits. Just ask Cam Newton.

19. I expected adversity this season, just as we had last year. Guess it's coming sooner than expected. We'll see how the team reacts. Certainly, having a couple of extra days to prepare to host a weak Atlanta team is favorable.

20. For seven months we had joy and revelry. That's over now (though the memories will last forever). Now we're back to the grind. This was a tough day. Better days will come.

Your point on Van is a key one. He stretches the field with a big body and he gas chemistry with Stafford

 

[Tano]

Calling for Shelton to be benched would not be some ridiculous or shortsighted fan call. Because he was like a junior varsity out there tonight and that's not sample size related. That was a straight ass kicking he received at a position where we need him to play a lot better. That's the kind of draw he's going to get in the playoffs. This is a Super Bowl contender and that is the bar.

Unfortunately calling for any of our depth to start at RG would be that bad. Because they looked like shit in preseason so it's unlikely any of them are an improvement over Shelton.

Re: Boom sample size applies because we've seen him play well and know Von was a rough week one matchup. Completely different situation there.

Edwards was also terrible out there tonight.

He was the one giving up the majority of the inside rushes to get Stafford

 

[Oregonram]

he meant he didn't have time to hold onto the ball to throw it to Robinson in the end zone.

He also could have meant that he was too indecisive in the passing game and was holding the ball too long

 

[Oregonram]

I'm so tired of runs up the middle on early downs. We don't have a power running game. We need to hit the outside. Matter of fact, our entire run scheme sucks. We get zero push to the second level.

Stafford isn't going to last an entire 17 game season if our offensive line continue to play like they played tonight.

Also when opposing QBs are getting the ball out in two seconds, why can't we play more man, press, etc? We're giving receivers a free release to get 8-12 yards a pop.

It would be nice to see a more creative running game with a better sense of timing. Our best running plays have the RB a little head start by pitching it back…but Buffalo’s defense looked a lot like the Bengals from the SB on run D. Teams are going to force us to be one dimensional…worked last night.