September 7, 2014: The Day The St. Louis Rams’ World Officially Imploded

Sep 7, 2014; St. Louis, MO, USA; Minnesota Vikings fan looks on as his team plays the St. Louis Rams during the second half at the Edward Jones Dome. The Vikings defeated the Rams 34-6. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports

On Sunday, the St .Louis Rams organization officially hit rock bottom. By the end of the opening half, the Rams had been exposed as the unarguable worst team in the NFL, destined to become the first franchise since the 2008 Detroit Lions to finished the season with an 0-16 record. However, even the one-time NFC North doormats manage to stay out of the bottom of the league in a handful of areas, while the Rams, inevitably, will rank 32nd in all major statistical categories; aside from net punt yard average, of course. Jeff Fisher and Les Snead were likely on the verge of getting handed their pink slips, if it weren’t for Stan Kroenke, himself, juggling three major task: 1) trying to finalize a stadium in Los Angeles to immediately move the franchise out of St. Louis, 2) heading a conference call with the other 31 general managers attempting to auction off the services of Robert Quinn and Tavon Austin to the highest bidder, and 3) signing Sam Bradford to a six-year, $100 million extension, with $99.9 million guaranteed.

…alright, that might be a bit of an exaggeration.

In light of Overreaction Monday spilling over into the rest of the week, we figured we would take a look at some of the key unit from the St. Louis Rams Week 1 loss to the Minnesota Vikings. In this particular segment, we’ll label the unit as “PANIC,” “Guaranteed Top 5,” or “Wait and see…,” based on their first 60 minutes of 2014 regular season football.

Quarterback

If Shaun Hill is our “backup” quarterback, you wouldn’t have know it based on the St. Louis Rams opening possession, given the pass-to-run ratio called in by Brian Schottenheimer. Despite eventually stalling on both series, Hill managed to throw the ball relatively well, before some mental mistakes and penalties forced the veteran into a number of hard-to-convert situations. Aside from the failed attempt to throw the ball away on the Rams last possession, Hill was “acceptable,” if nothing else, as the Rams signal caller.

Austin Davis, following the quad injury to Hill, did not perform so well in his first “real” NFL action. Then again, he was thrust into a no-win situation, quickly trailing by a substantial margin, and throwing against a defense whose only concern in the second half was applying pressure to the quarterback. Hard to really gauge much from 30 minutes of film on either player.

Conclusion: Wait and see…

Offensive Skill Players

Zac Stacy had 11 total rushing attempts versus the Minnesota Vikings, which is roughly half of his “standard” amount last season. Benny Cunningham added a handful of touches, but there was really no opportunity to establish the run game once Brian Schottenheimer elected to come out of the game with guns blazing. Shaun Hill was able to find Jared Cook and Brian Quick for a number of big-gainers in the opening half, but, due to penalties and stalled drives, there weren’t many targets to truly showcase any of the receivers. Due to a number of the factors discussed in the previous section, Austin Davis wasn’t really able to get many receivers involved either, with Minnesota pinning their ears back to attack the newly-forced Rams one-dimensional offense. With only 36 pass attempts (and only about 25 being “reasonable” throws), it is difficult to really gauge the effectiveness of the receiving corps after one game. Ditto that sentiment for running backs.

Conclusion: Wait and see…

Offensive Line

Jake Long, Scott Wells, Davin Joseph, and Rodger Saffold all started 2014 at positions they had not manned at the end of the 2013 regular season. For some, they were seeing their first live action since their return from injury last year. For others, they were taking the field for the first time at their respective position on the St. Louis Rams offensive line. The new grouping didn’t exactly “gel” early in the game, struggling to open lanes in the run blocking game, and, on occasion, not giving Shaun Hill the time necessarily to complete some of the longer throws.

Then again, both Shaun Hill and Austin Davis ranked in the Top 15 in “average time to throw,” meaning the average time from the snap of the football to the time the quarterback attempted a throw, was sacked, or scrambled past the line of scrimmage. That extended “holding time” is not uncommon for backup quarterbacks, or for those signal callers trailing in by significant margins in games. In fact, more than 80% of the hits allowed on the Rams quarterback (including four of the five sacks) by the offensive line occurred when the ball was held for 2.6 seconds or longer. That longer “holding time” inevitably attributes to more total “quarterback disruptions.” So, can we bury the Rams offensive line after having played only one game as a unit, particularly while protecting two inexperienced quarterbacks attempting make plays in an atypical offensive gameplan?

Conclusion: Wait and see…

Defensive Line

Robert Quinn did not get a sack. Chris Long did not get a sack. Michael Brockers and Kendall Langford were adequate on the inside versus the run. Aaron Donald was impressive in his rookie showing. Are we really going to fret about the Rams defensive line, though?

Conclusion: Wait and see…

Linebackers

In James Laurinaitis first NFL action since the end of the 2013 season, he was not overly impressive in the middle of the defense; although, he did manage six tackles and only allowed 14 yards in 22 pass coverage snaps. Ogletree wasn’t much better, nor was Jo-Lonn Dunbar. Even with this being the least impressive unit on the field Sunday, is it time hit the panic button on the Rams second-level defenders, playing in their first game in Gregg Williams new scheme, versus a Top 3 running back and Top 3 run blocking offensive line?

Conclusion: Wait and see…

Secondary

The starting three cornerbacks for the St. Louis Rams allowed eight total catches for 72 yards and no touchdowns. The starting safeties allowed two total catches for 15 yards, although one of those was the touchdown throw to Greg Jennings following the Shaun Hill interception before the half. Four of the six leaders in total tackles were from the secondary, as were three of the five Rams that ended the game with three or more defensive stops. Aside from the myriad of poor angles and missed tackles than resulted in the long Cordarrelle Patterson touchdown run, the St. Louis’ secondary, for once, has not given the fans any reason to panic.

Conclusion: Wait and see…

How about that? Turns out every position managed to make it into the “Wait and see…” category. That is completely understandable given that each unit has only played about 30 minutes of football this season, and all are either adjusting to a new coordinator or a new offensive system based around a backup quarterback that hasn’t taken a “live” snap since the Rams played the Cleveland Browns in Week 3 of the preseason. With time, we’ll be able to better evaluate these units. However, it is nonsensical to rush to judgment on these players, these units,  and this team when ~94% of the regular season is still left to be played.

Note: For those that didn’t quite catch the underlying meaning of the article, it is meant to be satirical.

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