#24 RB Isaiah Pead and #79 Barry Richardson (Courtesy STLouisRams.com)
It’s that way too familiar feeling as Rams fans wake up Monday morning. I open up my laptop in the hopes that Sunday’s game didn’t really happen and that the game ended with a different outcome.
But as @Ramsherd said in his game recap, “At least it didn’t count.”
Aside from the scoreboard, which doesn’t count anyway, the game wasn’t all bad as an exhibition of some individual players and their skills. Unfortunately, this is an 11-on-11 game, and it’s plain to see that the Rams are still playing as a collection of parts, rather than a whole. Most of the game’s big breakdowns (even the ones involving my personal punching bag, Craig Dahl) didn’t fall on a single player. Breakdowns between players – missed assignments, missed handoffs, etc. – were much more prevalent. … Read more at Ramsherd.com >>>>
The guys at Turf Show Times have their take on the first drubbing of the preseason. Their conclusion as well as many others on Twitter – the Rams need to get back to basics. One example that they bring up:
Blocking
Both sides of the ball clearly need more work, more time to gel as a unit. The pass blocking suffered more than once because of a blown assignment, a missed defender charging into the pocket. The starting five were a different configuration than the one that spent the most time together on the practice field.
Quinn Ojinnaka, Barry Richardson and Bryan Mattison were all replacement players from the starting five. Free agent addition Scott Wells is still sitting out, recovering from a knee injury that may or may not have been a knee scope. In the running game, they did a better job, with much credit going to fullback Ovie Mughelli. Read more at TurfShowTimes.com >>>>
A team that has gone 15-65 is not going to turn things around in a mere four months. There’s a lot of deprogramming and reprogramming to be done.
I had running back Isaiah Pead as one of my “ones to watch” in this first game. I talked him up quite a bit and had high hopes for his debut. Although he had a rough start to his NFL career I agree with Coach Fisher that the mistakes are fixable. Call them rookie jitters or just plain old getting adjusted to the speed of the NFL game, either way he will get better.
Running back Isaiah Pead, the last of three second-round picks by the Rams in April, got plenty of work Sunday with 13 touches on 10 carries and three receptions. But preseason or not, he had some opening-game jitters.
Pead gained only 13 yards on his first six carries in the Rams’ 38-3 loss to Indianapolis, replacing Steven Jackson on the third series of the game. Pead did better over the rest of the first half, with four carries for 20 yards to finish with 33 yards rushing.
“At first glance, he was a little east-west instead of north-south,” coach Jeff Fisher said. “We can get that fixed. And we’re disappointed he lost the ball.” Read more at STLToday.com >>>>
The Rams have the day off but Coach Fisher will be addressing the media at 3:00 p.m. CT.
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