Rams Struggle In First Preseason Test In Indy

Well that wasn’t what we were all hoping for. The St. Louis Rams struggled for most of the day and fell victim to Andrew Luck and the Indianapolis Colts 38-3 in their opening preseason contest on Sunday in Indianapolis. The offense moved the ball at times but, as we have become accustomed to, couldn’t find the end zone, and the defense allowed a touchdown pass to Luck on his first NFL throw and didn’t get much better from there. Luck finished 10-16 for 188 yards and two scores, and he really was about as impressive as one can look in a preseason contest. Sam Bradford played two series and went 7-9 for 57 yards, but mistakes stopped promising Rams drives early and often.

Before everyone starts the gloom and doom talk, let’s remember that this is the preseason. The Rams went 4-0 last year in the preseason and then went on to win only half that number in the regular slate. Still, there is some reason for concern. I haven’t watched the tape closely enough yet to break down individual performances, but I expected more from the defense. They put some pressure on Luck, but they just seemed a split-second slow for most of the game. I guess that’s to be expected in the first preseason game, but it will need to improve.

As far as the offense goes, I didn’t think it was all that terrible. They moved the ball early, but typical Rams mistakes like a Barry Richardson false start and a botched handoff to Isaiah Pead killed those drives. Those mistakes probably have me the most frustrated because we have seen those kinds of things so many times over the last few years and I thought the Jeff Fisher regime would stop it. Again, still the first preseason game so nothing to freak out about, but it’s still unfortunate that the Rams had to debut like that.

I’m going to check out the tape when I get home from work and try to give a little more insight into Sunday’s game, so stay tuned.