Who in the world called the onside kick in the beginning of the game?

[JFMose]

I just don't think it's worth it in the beginning of the game. And it is a big deal, you give the other team GREAT field position. If they score off that, you just helped get their offense going.

[hill_Bartell=Probowl]

I just don't think it's worth it in the beginning of the game. And it is a big deal, you give the other team GREAT field position. If they score off that, you just helped get their offense going.

But there was 60 min left to play, for us to make arrangements and try to score stop the opposing opponent

[JFMose]

We give up early/easy points. Who likes to play catch up early on in a game? Imagine if they scored a TD instead of a field goal. I mean i agree, if they actually converted the onside, i wouldn't be talking...yet i'd still think it's an awfully risky play early on.

[sonnyjames]

I really didn't and still don't think it was a big deal. They'd obviously studied the tapes and expected to see the Lions going back and thought they could make something happen. Heck, the coaches get criticised enough for being overly conservative in their play calling - this was an aggressive attempt to get us the ball straight back. It didn't come off, one of those things. It showed huge faith in our defense and in any case, we held them to three and had plenty of game to play with. We actually looked comfortable in the opening quarter - just fumbled in the red zone otherwise we should have been up.

Missed easy picks, bad fumbles, receivers who kept dropping the ball, a defense that created little pressure and an offense that created little anything. That was where the blame for today lies. We're gonna have bad weeks tho - best not to get too upset just yet. Replacing Clayton is the biggest deal to come out of this game, for me.

[hill_Bartell=Probowl]

We give up early/easy points. Who likes to play catch up early on in a game? Imagine if they scored a TD instead of a field goal. I mean i agree, if they actually converted the onside, i wouldn't be talking...yet i'd still think it's an awfully risky play early on.

Imagine if we scored on our next possession?? The thing is we cannot use the "what if" senario. The outcome was a fg and we tied up at threes.

[SavageRam]

It wasn't the call, it was the poor execution.

John Lynch (color commentator) said the Rams probably decided to do the onside kick after studing game film that showed how the Lions front line blockers had a tendency to fall back before the ball is kicked off.

But the way the play was executed didn't make any sense.

Instead of going back as Josh Brown normally does -- to stand there and then run up and kick it away down the field -- he did a quick about-face and pouched it instead. That didn't allow the Lions front blockers to be fooled at all into falling back! After Lynch's description, I'm like WTF?!

As some one else mentioned, if the Rams executed it properly, it would have been an easy on-side kick recovery and the coaches would have looked like geniuses.

But, poor execution by the whole team (except for #39, again) seemed to be very contagious throughout the game today, IMO.

Should the onside kick never have been called at all? I guess that's why they pay an NFL coaching staff the big bucks these days.

[MikeD]

I don't think the initial kickoff was out of desperation or anything like that. However, I do think it shows a lack of consistency. Something we need to is get into a rhythm, not change it up just for the sake of change, even if you see something in the scouting reports. Stay consistent so you you play consistent.

[Ironmaidenram]

I like the call, we tried to jump on top of them early, it didn't work, we got killed. IT'S OVER. I agree with C-MOB, had the played worked and we won, the game, We would all be talking about "the play". We got our ass handed to us in ALL areas of the game.Period.

[01d 0rd3r]

It's not really a big deal, we tied the game 3-3 early. The onside kick did not cause us to lose, it didnt really effect the game in any way.

[Nick_Weasel]

A dozen different cliches notwithstanding, onside kicks should be part of any team's special teams arsenal. If you never kicked onside kicks (except in obvious situations), teams would never be punished for turning their backs to the line early on kickoffs. It was a calculated risk and it didn't work out, that's life.

[AlphaRam]

Previous film showed that the Detroit ST tends to turn their back and fall back before they see the ball kicked. It was an excellent call to attempt to take advantage.

We got our asses beat and that's all their is to it. As I stated last week, I would get excited if we were 6-2 or 8-3. Time to focus on the Chargers.

[thatguy]

If the Rams would have recovered the kick people would be saying how great of an idea it was. Tha Rams showed some aggression and people are complaining about that.

[PeoriaRam]

Most of you seem to be overlooking the large flaw in this "clever" strategic exploit. Based on how we went about executing said surprise onside, it's pretty evident we have not practiced this regularly at all, but rather treated it as some spur-of-the-moment instance of "getting cute".

I would have thought if the Preseason had taught this coaching staff anything, it would have been that "getting cute" without proper practice doesn't work out for this team. Evidently I was wrong.

[Goldenfleece]

Since when is an onside kick desperation.

It's a low percentage play, so usually it is a desperation thing. I seem to recall reading somewhere that the kicking team only recovers the ball on about 1 out of 3 onside kicks. The odds are slightly better when the other team isn't expecting it, but you've still got to get the ball at least ten yards down field (but not much further if you want to have a decent chance of recovery) and get a lucky bounce.

It was a risky play, but I'm sure the team knew that. A successful onside kick would have stunned the Lions and given us a chance to maybe take an early lead; failure just meant giving the opponent better field position.

[ludairv]

risk reward...this team has been playing pretty good defense thus far, so spag smust of felt confident that if it wasnt made that the d could bail him out... boy he was wrong... the play of the d-line was flat out ridiculous...