A Few Points That Were Driven Home To Me After Watching The "Game"

We need to draft Matt Kalil. It's obvious that an offense can not function without at the very least, a serviceable line, and the Rams line is a long way from being serviceable. Blackmon would be great, but could he really have made a difference yesterday? It's a cliche, but it's true, "it all starts up front".

The defense needs work, but not a lot. A healthy secondary and a few decent additions will get things where they need to be.

Bradford is not the problem. Did anyone really think Feeley was going to do any better with the state of the offense? Give Bradford a REASONABLE environment to work in, and his potential will be fully realized.

Spags and Devaney have completely failed this team. The Rams are as dysfunctional as they were at the end of the Martz and Linehan regimes. The well is poisoned and Kroenke needs to show the players he's willing to do whatever it takes to be successful by making sweeping changes.

It's a crime what has happened to Steven Jackson throughout his career as a Ram, an absolute crime.

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Originally Posted by r8rh8rmike

We need to draft Matt Kalil. It's obvious that an offense can not function without at the very least, a serviceable line, and the Rams line is a long way from being serviceable. Blackmon would be great, but could he really have made a difference yesterday? It's a cliche, but it's true, "it all starts up front".

The defense needs work, but not a lot. A healthy secondary and a few decent additions will get things where they need to be.

Bradford is not the problem. Did anyone really think Feeley was going to do any better with the state of the offense? Give Bradford a REASONABLE environment to work in, and his potential will be fully realized.

Spags and Devaney have completely failed this team. The Rams are as dysfunctional as they were at the end of the Martz and Linehan regimes. The well is poisoned and Kroenke needs to show the players he's willing to do whatever it takes to be successful by making sweeping changes.

It's a crime what has happened to Steven Jackson throughout his career as a Ram, an absolute crime.

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Good post. I still hope for Blackmon, because to me I see a more improved line when our injured tackles come back.

Hopefully Saffold will be doing more strength training to get stronger, and I actually think one reason Jason Smith is doing bad is because he's playing out of position. He played on the left side in college, I want to see him try the left side next year.



I really, really want to trade Steven Jackson. Why?

1) He deserves to play on a competitive team that can take home the gold. Personally a championship caliber team like the Patriots or the Packers could use him.

2) He's getting a bit old, and is not strong enough or fast enough to handle the entire workload we put on him anymore. He would be amazing on a team that could actually block and have another feature back, but on this team, he's just going to sacrifice his body and potential and career for a franchise that will never give anything back to him that amounts to the same value he gave to us.

I feel amazingly sorry for Jackson, and sometimes I'm ashamed to even think about this monstrosity.

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Originally Posted by RockinRam

Good post. I still hope for Blackmon, because to me I see a more improved line when our injured tackles come back.

Hopefully Saffold will be doing more strength training to get stronger, and I actually think one reason Jason Smith is doing bad is because he's playing out of position. He played on the left side in college, I want to see him try the left side next year.



I really, really want to trade Steven Jackson. Why?

1) He deserves to play on a competitive team that can take home the gold. Personally a championship caliber team like the Patriots or the Packers could use him.

2) He's getting a bit old, and is not strong enough or fast enough to handle the entire workload we put on him anymore. He would be amazing on a team that could actually block and have another feature back, but on this team, he's just going to sacrifice his body and potential and career for a franchise that will never give anything back to him that amounts to the same value he gave to us.

I feel amazingly sorry for Jackson, and sometimes I'm ashamed to even think about this monstrosity.

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I agree, he has given this team his all his entire career without complaining. He deserves better, and is in the back end of his career. We can get good value for him (draft picks) and he will go to a team that is contending. It's a win-win situation. It will be hard for me to see him in another uniform though.

I still want the Rams to get Blackmon and THEN go after some lineman.

While it may sound appealing to trade jackson, i dont think we would get a ton for him at this stage of his career. I dont see any chance of a team giving up a #1 pick for him and if you trade him, then you need a running back. I would rather build the team, especially the line, and then hope we get competitive while he still has some gas in the tank.
Truly an all time great ram, the big boy certainly deserves far better than the Rams have offered him.

Ramming speed to all

general counsel

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Originally Posted by r8rh8rmike

We need to draft Matt Kalil. It's obvious that an offense can not function without at the very least, a serviceable line, and the Rams line is a long way from being serviceable. Blackmon would be great, but could he really have made a difference yesterday? It's a cliche, but it's true, "it all starts up front".

The defense needs work, but not a lot. A healthy secondary and a few decent additions will get things where they need to be.

Bradford is not the problem. Did anyone really think Feeley was going to do any better with the state of the offense? Give Bradford a REASONABLE environment to work in, and his potential will be fully realized.

Spags and Devaney have completely failed this team. The Rams are as dysfunctional as they were at the end of the Martz and Linehan regimes. The well is poisoned and Kroenke needs to show the players he's willing to do whatever it takes to be successful by making sweeping changes.

It's a crime what has happened to Steven Jackson throughout his career as a Ram, an absolute crime.

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I wouldn't care at this point if we drafted 4 offensive linemen with our first 4 picks if there were O-linemen that were commensurate with the bpa criteria. We need a center, a guard and maybe two tackles. Steven Jackson probably wouldn't mind either, although he'd likely not go on record publicly with it ..

What really aggrevated me yesterday was the inability or unwillingness for McDaniel to make adjustments throughout the game and to put together a game plan that makes sense. His play calling was absurd at times. Calling an end-round reverse on 3rd and short when the Whiners were in the Rams backfield all day long? Really? The Rams lack speed, the line is getting beat badly, and he calls a play that takes forever to develop.

Everytime I see McD on the sidelines I can only envision a scene from the "Waterboy". You know, the scene where the coach is calling plays from a book called; "Offensive play-calling for Dummys".

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Originally Posted by RAMFANRAIDERHATER

What really aggrevated me yesterday was the inability or unwillingness for McDaniel to make adjustments throughout the game and to put together a game plan that makes sense. His play calling was absurd at times. Calling an end-round reverse on 3rd and short when the Whiners were in the Rams backfield all day long? Really? The Rams lack speed, the line is getting beat badly, and he calls a play that takes forever to develop.

Everytime I see McD on the sidelines I can only envision a scene from the "Waterboy". You know, the scene where the coach is calling plays from a book called; "Offensive play-calling for Dummys".

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I wonder how much of the problem is McDaniels. The offense seems to have regressed the most. Maybe he's finally getting Spags back for that Suprbowl loss.;)

When you look at the last three games it just seems wrong to even have a running back like Steven Jackson on the team. It's one thing if he was just looking like he was done out there, but when you see him having success receiving passes as opposed to just running straight up the middle into a wall of bodies, you know he's certainly got quite a bit left in the tank.

Our offensive line and play calling is so pathetic right now that you can pretty much put Spagnuolo himself out there in the running back position with the exact same pathetic result.

And McDaniels just continues to frustrate me to no end. How do you even justify sticking stubbornly to the running game against the best rushing defense in the NFL? I know this team is bad, but just maybe we could have looked just a bit less bad if only just for the sake of the fans watching this team embarrass themselves week after week.

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Originally Posted by r8rh8rmike

We need to draft Matt Kalil. It's obvious that an offense can not function without at the very least, a serviceable line, and the Rams line is a long way from being serviceable. Blackmon would be great, but could he really have made a difference yesterday? It's a cliche, but it's true, "it all starts up front".

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I have been on this for awhile now, he is the right pick. Not the sexy pick but the right one. Looks like we are going to have the 2nd or 3rd pick not sure Blackmon would go that high.

The only thing I'd love to know is how did everyone think our line was elite and one of the best before the season, and now there all terrible and everyone needs to be released. Brown can go for all I care. Bell may or may not be back. Wragge sucks. J.Smith is bad. Saffold had a terrible year. The only constant here is Dahl. I'd bring Bell back too just so we dont create another hole.

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Originally Posted by sosa39rams

The only thing I'd love to know is how did everyone think our line was elite and one of the best before the season, and now there all terrible and everyone needs to be released. Brown can go for all I care. Bell may or may not be back. Wragge sucks. J.Smith is bad. Saffold had a terrible year. The only constant here is Dahl. I'd bring Bell back too just so we dont create another hole.

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My take on the O line before the season was it had potential to be decent not elite. Dahl coming in was a big upgrade IMO. Brown was not living up to his price tag but not was not a liability but this year his play has slipped. Smith looked to be solid RT, but he has played poor and now is injury prone and over paid. Saffold had and still has huge upside, but has regressed at LT would better suited playing RT. The Rams where down on Bell from preseason when they asked him to take a pay cut, he's not lived up to his contract.

By drafting Matt Kalil, we would have two good tackles in Kalil and Saffold and one solid Guard in Dahl. Smith might be good inside if we can get him to take a new deal. Brown and Bell both will be gone. We are going to need a new Center and Guard most likely.

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Originally Posted by sosa39rams

The only thing I'd love to know is how did everyone think our line was elite and one of the best before the season, and now there all terrible and everyone needs to be released. Brown can go for all I care. Bell may or may not be back. Wragge sucks. J.Smith is bad. Saffold had a terrible year. The only constant here is Dahl. I'd bring Bell back too just so we dont create another hole.

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This seasons unexpected regression of the O-Line is ultimately the reason DeSpags will be fired end of season. A couple of better draft picks here, and who knows.? Things could have been a bit different for DeSpags. I hated seeing how untalented the Rams were yesterday. In fact I was disgusted by what I saw.:mad:

As much as I'd Love Kalil and hope he would become the next " Jake Long " that Jason Smith never became, I feel we as fans need to have patience with our OT's. Saffold and Smith need to be coached better ( Juan Castillo?) and they are still very young lineman with plenty of room to grow. Trust me, a duo of LLoyd and Blackmon will do wonders for Bradford, along with a better offensive scheme. New, get in your face coaches that will accept nothing short of perfection is what the doctor has ordered for this young team of ours. I hope Kroenke realizes this.

I have decided that the best thing to do with Jason Smith is move him back to LT.

Some players can switch between LT and RT; others have harder times. Smith might find his niche back on the left side.