Rams Review: Preseason Week 3

Last night in Oakland, the Rams lost their second preseason game to the Raiders, 20-10. The offense did not look good in this one. For the third time this preaseason, St. Louis failed to score a touchdown on offense. The game was plagued by three pass interference penalties against the Rams that allowed Oakland to take a 17-3 halftime lead at McAfee Colliseum.

The good news, however, is that pro bowlers Torry Holt and Steven Jackson did not play in this game. The bad news is, against a team like the Raiders, the Rams showed they would need those two guys more then ever. Marc Bulger didn’t look good in his time during the game, going eight for 21 with only 109 yards passing.

The only scoring for the Rams came on a Jeff Wilkins 26 yard field goal. St. Louis showed some early impressiveness as Bulger completed a 40 yard pass to Issac Bruce on the first play from scrimmage, which proved to mean nothing as the punter Donnie Jones gave the ball back to the Raiders three plays later.

St. Louis didn’t waste anytime in being caught off guard with penalties. Fourth-year veteran Brandon Chillar was called for pass interference on the first play for the Oakland offense, a penalty that put the Raiders up 28 yards from their original spot.

A couple of plays later, Duante Culpepper proved he still had some wheels as he scrambled on third and four to the Rams 36 yard line for ten yards and a Raiders first down. Oakland was able to drive the ball to the 32, where veteran Sebastian Janokowski kicked a 50 yard field goal to put the Raiders up 3-0.

Later in the half, second-year vet Tye Hill was also called for pass interference which ended up leading to an Oakland score, putting the Raiders up 10-0. This defense simply let the Raiders offense get the best of them in this game and you can’t be happy with that considering that this defense is not the bright spot of this team.

The Rams face off against the Chiefs in their final preseason game coming your way at 8:00 P.M. EST on Thursday night, August 30.