- Joined
- Jun 20, 2010
- Messages
- 35,576
- Name
- The Dude
McQuaide Provides Consistency
Nick Wagoner
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.stlouisrams.com/news-and-events/article-1/McQuaide-Provides-Consistency/dee03693-b6e4-4764-ba5c-483b926b2dac" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.stlouisrams.com/news-and-eve ... 3b926b2dac</a>
Growing up in Cincinnati and attending Elder High, there were no two things more important for Jake McQuaide than his football team and the local team.
McQuaide grew up a Bengals fan and will have quite a contingent making the trek to St. Louis this weekend to watch his new team, the Rams, take on his old one.
“About half of the westside of Cincinnati is coming down,” McQuaide said. “A whole crew is coming in. It will be exciting but it’s the same thing, I have to focus on what I do then after the game I can worry about all those people. I grew up a big Bengals fan. In Cincinnati, high school football and the Bengals is all I lived for.”
But McQuaide allowed himself to move away from his Bengals fanhood as he moved up through the ranks of the game, starting with his time at Ohio State. As the Buckeyes long snapper, McQuaide never really considered that the game could take him much further than his college scholarship.
When current Bengals kicker and former Buckeye Mike Nugent came back to campus, he let McQuaide know that he could snap in the NFL someday. McQuaide began to see that his allegiance to any NFL team would have to change so he got a head start on the process.
“I had already in my head said I was going to be the biggest fan wherever I go,” McQuaide said. “The Bengals had to go on the backburner.”
After waiting along with the rest of the undrafted free agents for the lockout to end, McQuaide finally got the call to the NFL just before the start of training camp in late July.
The Rams signed McQuaide on July 27 and threw him into a competition with incumbent Chris Massey. They released Massey on Aug. 22 after seeing enough of McQuaide to know he could handle the job.
That was the last time anyone heard McQuaide’s name, which in his line of work, is a good thing. Since, McQuaide has executed 120 clean snaps without a misfire.
“I thought Jake’s done a good job,” special teams coordinator Tom McMahon said. “He’s been consistent. He’s got great velocity. We haven’t had to go too many places to try and get ball in terms of accuracy. The biggest thing with Jake is, he’s a pro, he’s a mature guy. He doesn’t act like he’s 23 years old. It’s almost like he’s been in this league a long, long time. He’s a guy, to me, is like a rock. Nothing gets to him. He’s been very mature.”
In a job that requires consistency above all else, McQuaide has provided that with his snap record. What he’s had to adjust to most, though, is handling the other part of his job: protection.
McQuaide said his biggest adjustment has been learning what McMahon expects of him after the ball is snapped and away as well as finding chemistry with punter/holder Donnie Jones and kicker Josh Brown.
“Really a major thing I have been trying to do is listen to what Tom has to say to me,” McQuaide said. “He’s helped me out a lot with making the transition from college to pro and learning his system of protection. And then listening to Josh and Donnie about how to stay focused. It’s a long season. Things aren’t going our way right now but that doesn’t change what we have to do. We could have any record right now and we’d be doing things the same way: approach every single day the same way, prepare the same way and go out and try to win the game.”
In terms of protection, McQuaide has seen plenty of things he wasn’t used to this year.
“I’ve just had to get the experience of getting out there and seeing different rushes, six, seven or eight in the box,” McQuaide said. “What teams try to do to you. You can kind of get a feel for what you do well and what you need to work on. The things you need to work on are the things you need to try to exploit. So we have got to fix it fast. We watch it up on film, no matter where it is, we figure out if something gets exposed, now fix it because next Sunday they are going to try to expose it, maybe in a different way but they are still going to try to go after that.”
BRADFORD SUFFERS SETBACK: In what has become a recurring thing around the Rams quarterback position, starter Sam Bradford is again in limbo this week as the team prepares to take on Cincinnati.
Bradford returned to action last week against Seattle after missing the previous game because of an aggravated sprained left ankle. In the time since he first suffered the injury on Oct. 16, Bradford has been unable to get fully healthy such is the nature of high ankle sprains.
And without getting full healthy, Bradford has likewise been unable to play in a game without suffering a setback. This week, that’s again the case as Bradford hasn’t practiced yet and his status for his week is up in the air following another setback.
The inability to get back to full strength has frustrated the young signal caller.
“I will say that it is becoming more and more frustrating to go out there and play, and then after the game feel like I’ve been set back,” Bradford said. “I feel like we’ve gone back instead of…when I came back the first time I was able to make it through those first three or four games without going backwards. It got better each week. It wasn’t sore after the game, whereas now the past two games I’ve gone out there, I feel like we’ve gone backwards. That is a bit frustrating, but in my opinion as long as it’s good to go, as soon as it feels right, I want to be out there with my team trying to help them win.”
FILLING IN AT FULLBACK: After losing Brit Miller for the final three games to a knee injury, the Rams placed him on injured reserve and activated cornerback Nate Ness.
The loss of Miller leaves the Rams thin at fullback, a job that fell to the remaining tight ends on the roster. With Stephen Spach battling a concussion, the Rams might need to make another move to add to the tight end/fullback position this week as Lance Kendricks and Billy Bajema are the only available options.
That could create an opportunity for practice squadder Ben Guidugli to make his debut though no decision has been made yet.
“For right now we’ll do that and if we have to make a roster move we’ll do it,” coach Steve Spagnuolo said. “But right now, we did make the one; Nate Ness is back with us. You saw that, so that was the flip for Brit. And if we have to do something else to help our situation at fullback we’ll do it.”
INJURY REPORT: Barely two days removed from Monday night’s game against Seattle, the Rams had little change to their injury report from Wednesday to Thursday.
Those not participating Thursday include Bradford, quarterback A.J. Feeley (thumb), end Chris Long (ankle), end James Hall (chest) and tackle Mark LeVoir (groin).
The new addition to that group is cornerback Justin King, who has a shoulder injury.
“We get a new one every day,” Spagnuolo said. “Yesterday he bumped his shoulder. It was sore, he went back in, practiced, finished it and it didn’t feel right. We’ll have to find out a little bit more about him as we go forward.”
Safety Craig Dahl (ankle), end Eugene Sims (ankle), Spach and cornerback Josh Gordy (abdominal) were upgraded to limited participation. Running back Quinn Porter (abdomen) and defensive tackle Fred Robbins (back) were also limited.
Nick Wagoner
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.stlouisrams.com/news-and-events/article-1/McQuaide-Provides-Consistency/dee03693-b6e4-4764-ba5c-483b926b2dac" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.stlouisrams.com/news-and-eve ... 3b926b2dac</a>
Growing up in Cincinnati and attending Elder High, there were no two things more important for Jake McQuaide than his football team and the local team.
McQuaide grew up a Bengals fan and will have quite a contingent making the trek to St. Louis this weekend to watch his new team, the Rams, take on his old one.
“About half of the westside of Cincinnati is coming down,” McQuaide said. “A whole crew is coming in. It will be exciting but it’s the same thing, I have to focus on what I do then after the game I can worry about all those people. I grew up a big Bengals fan. In Cincinnati, high school football and the Bengals is all I lived for.”
But McQuaide allowed himself to move away from his Bengals fanhood as he moved up through the ranks of the game, starting with his time at Ohio State. As the Buckeyes long snapper, McQuaide never really considered that the game could take him much further than his college scholarship.
When current Bengals kicker and former Buckeye Mike Nugent came back to campus, he let McQuaide know that he could snap in the NFL someday. McQuaide began to see that his allegiance to any NFL team would have to change so he got a head start on the process.
“I had already in my head said I was going to be the biggest fan wherever I go,” McQuaide said. “The Bengals had to go on the backburner.”
After waiting along with the rest of the undrafted free agents for the lockout to end, McQuaide finally got the call to the NFL just before the start of training camp in late July.
The Rams signed McQuaide on July 27 and threw him into a competition with incumbent Chris Massey. They released Massey on Aug. 22 after seeing enough of McQuaide to know he could handle the job.
That was the last time anyone heard McQuaide’s name, which in his line of work, is a good thing. Since, McQuaide has executed 120 clean snaps without a misfire.
“I thought Jake’s done a good job,” special teams coordinator Tom McMahon said. “He’s been consistent. He’s got great velocity. We haven’t had to go too many places to try and get ball in terms of accuracy. The biggest thing with Jake is, he’s a pro, he’s a mature guy. He doesn’t act like he’s 23 years old. It’s almost like he’s been in this league a long, long time. He’s a guy, to me, is like a rock. Nothing gets to him. He’s been very mature.”
In a job that requires consistency above all else, McQuaide has provided that with his snap record. What he’s had to adjust to most, though, is handling the other part of his job: protection.
McQuaide said his biggest adjustment has been learning what McMahon expects of him after the ball is snapped and away as well as finding chemistry with punter/holder Donnie Jones and kicker Josh Brown.
“Really a major thing I have been trying to do is listen to what Tom has to say to me,” McQuaide said. “He’s helped me out a lot with making the transition from college to pro and learning his system of protection. And then listening to Josh and Donnie about how to stay focused. It’s a long season. Things aren’t going our way right now but that doesn’t change what we have to do. We could have any record right now and we’d be doing things the same way: approach every single day the same way, prepare the same way and go out and try to win the game.”
In terms of protection, McQuaide has seen plenty of things he wasn’t used to this year.
“I’ve just had to get the experience of getting out there and seeing different rushes, six, seven or eight in the box,” McQuaide said. “What teams try to do to you. You can kind of get a feel for what you do well and what you need to work on. The things you need to work on are the things you need to try to exploit. So we have got to fix it fast. We watch it up on film, no matter where it is, we figure out if something gets exposed, now fix it because next Sunday they are going to try to expose it, maybe in a different way but they are still going to try to go after that.”
BRADFORD SUFFERS SETBACK: In what has become a recurring thing around the Rams quarterback position, starter Sam Bradford is again in limbo this week as the team prepares to take on Cincinnati.
Bradford returned to action last week against Seattle after missing the previous game because of an aggravated sprained left ankle. In the time since he first suffered the injury on Oct. 16, Bradford has been unable to get fully healthy such is the nature of high ankle sprains.
And without getting full healthy, Bradford has likewise been unable to play in a game without suffering a setback. This week, that’s again the case as Bradford hasn’t practiced yet and his status for his week is up in the air following another setback.
The inability to get back to full strength has frustrated the young signal caller.
“I will say that it is becoming more and more frustrating to go out there and play, and then after the game feel like I’ve been set back,” Bradford said. “I feel like we’ve gone back instead of…when I came back the first time I was able to make it through those first three or four games without going backwards. It got better each week. It wasn’t sore after the game, whereas now the past two games I’ve gone out there, I feel like we’ve gone backwards. That is a bit frustrating, but in my opinion as long as it’s good to go, as soon as it feels right, I want to be out there with my team trying to help them win.”
FILLING IN AT FULLBACK: After losing Brit Miller for the final three games to a knee injury, the Rams placed him on injured reserve and activated cornerback Nate Ness.
The loss of Miller leaves the Rams thin at fullback, a job that fell to the remaining tight ends on the roster. With Stephen Spach battling a concussion, the Rams might need to make another move to add to the tight end/fullback position this week as Lance Kendricks and Billy Bajema are the only available options.
That could create an opportunity for practice squadder Ben Guidugli to make his debut though no decision has been made yet.
“For right now we’ll do that and if we have to make a roster move we’ll do it,” coach Steve Spagnuolo said. “But right now, we did make the one; Nate Ness is back with us. You saw that, so that was the flip for Brit. And if we have to do something else to help our situation at fullback we’ll do it.”
INJURY REPORT: Barely two days removed from Monday night’s game against Seattle, the Rams had little change to their injury report from Wednesday to Thursday.
Those not participating Thursday include Bradford, quarterback A.J. Feeley (thumb), end Chris Long (ankle), end James Hall (chest) and tackle Mark LeVoir (groin).
The new addition to that group is cornerback Justin King, who has a shoulder injury.
“We get a new one every day,” Spagnuolo said. “Yesterday he bumped his shoulder. It was sore, he went back in, practiced, finished it and it didn’t feel right. We’ll have to find out a little bit more about him as we go forward.”
Safety Craig Dahl (ankle), end Eugene Sims (ankle), Spach and cornerback Josh Gordy (abdominal) were upgraded to limited participation. Running back Quinn Porter (abdomen) and defensive tackle Fred Robbins (back) were also limited.
