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The following report was posted on the Herd board. I cut out the Bears part. Good read.
Posted by Isiah 58 on the RamBeat Mail List-
---------------
Although this is from a Bears' fan's perspective, it
is pretty interesting but long. The second half is
Bears' stuff, but I didn't edit the post. Note his
characterization of Stephen Jackson!
Isiah 58
Made it to Macomb in time for the afternoon practice
on Friday. Stayed overnight and attended the scrimmage
with the Rams today. Here are my observations. They
are uncluttered. I have not read the home page. I
tuned in WSCR on the way out of Macomb, as it was the
only AM station broadcasting something other than pork
belly and grain futures. However, the contradictory,
rambling, self-serving opinions quickly became
background noise. I have no idea what the heck those
guys were talking about.
Please remember that these are lay observations and
they are from memory. I wish I had video-taped the
scrimmage or had taken notes. There was an
extraordinary number of substitutions, with varying
combinations of personnel. It was really tough to keep
track of everyone. The plays were run very quickly.
Additionally, it was a beautiful day and there were a
lot of beautiful, comfortably dressed females in
attendance. I would like to take this opportunity to
say a special 'Hello' to the bleach blond in the
pink top and white SHORTs sitting with the skanky
looking dude by the south end zone and the 'Mom'
from the Quad Cities (with her 'father-in-law' over in
Section N ).
With that disclaimer, I begin this somewhat unedited
post (note re: Friday's practice - We watched the
Bears Offense play the Rams Defense. However, we sat
high enough in the stands that we could see the
adjacent field where the Rams O played the Bears D.):
WIU
-- The staff was extremely cordial and helpful. They
seemed delighted to be hosting this weekend. The
stadium was immaculate, the practice facilities
excellent, and everything seemed to go smoothly,
including Will-Calls and last minute general admission
sales. Traffic flow, 'signage', and police protection
was first class. They even had rent-a-cops standing
guard on the hilltops in case al-Qaida decided to
attack Hanson Field.
The place was completely packed. My son just came down
to tell me that ESPN reported 14,000 fans. I dunno
about that, but I am sure there wer ove 10,000. There
seemed to be an equal number of Rams and Bears fans.
Everyone seemed to get along quite well, even though
we were completely intermingled. Rams fans are
actually very nice people, I was disappointed to
learn. I was hoping it would be as easy to hate them
as it is, ohhh, say, Cheeseheads.
My only gripe is that there are only two (count
'em-2!) water fountains and bathrooms for the whole
stadium. Both water fountains had broken handles, so I
had to spend $2 for a small bottle of water. A pretty
minor gripe. We ate before coming to the stadium, but
the grilled pork sandwiches smelled delicious.
Am I glad I went? Yes. Was it fun? Yes. Would I
readily do it again? Probably not. It was quite an
investment of time and money to watch second-stringers
beat the crap out of each other for 90 minutes.
The Rams D
-- They are loaded at the defensive back positions
with the addition of fine rookie CB prospects 20
Dwight Anderson from South Dakota and 27 Corey Yates
from Southern Miss. Rookie FS 30 Jason Shivers from
ASU looks like he will stick. He can hit. At SS, I
liked the way Rich Coady covered the field and did not
seem to miss assignments against the Bears deceptive
offensive scheme. However, I would be surprised if he
takes Adam Archuleta's starting spot.
Dwight Anderson seems to be the best of the bunch of
the new D-backs, although I am sure he is still
adjusting to the size and speed of NFL receivers. I
don't think he saw too many like this at South Dakota.
He had no problem with covering any of our guys. He
has excellent technique, contains his bumps to the
five-yard zone instinctively and seems to anticipate
cuts. I did not see any of his guys 'get open.' The
long catch that Bernard Berrian made against him in
the scrimmage was a combination of an excellent
NFL-caliber throw by Jonathan Quinn and a great
leaping adjustment by Berrian. I don't think Anderson
could believe that Berrian caught the ball. He had
very good coverage on the play. It was a very
impressive leap and catch.
-- LBs 50 Pisa Tinoisamoa and 51 Tony Newson looked
great and sounded dangerous when they hit things. Like
opposing human beings. All-in-all, this is a young,
fast athletic group. I would be very surprised to see
rookie 54 Brandon Chillar UCLA make the team. They are
just too deep. Trev Faulk had a sack in the scrimmage,
but I wouldn't make too much of that. OC Terry Shea
and OL Coach Pete Hoener were mixing assignments and
positions up at that stage.
-- DL The guy that kept standing out was Tyoka
Jackson, the 10th year vet (Miami, Bucs, Rams) who
played a lot of the practice and the scrimmage at LDE,
although he can play DT, too. I wasn't really looking
for him when I went down there, but he seemed to be
around the ball every play. Valuable guy. Bryce Fisher
and Sean Moran also looked good. Fisher got tagged
pretty good at one point by Brock Forsey and left the
game limping. It was kind of hard to tell, but it
looked like his knee gave out right before Brock
slammed him. Fisher is a big guy and if it were his
knee, he could need a long rest.
Note from Rams Camp on Fisher - the coaches and
players said they, too, thought his injury was bad
when he went down. Trainer said it was just a
twisted/sprained ankle and the Fat Guy will be back
soon. revised - 8/9/04
The Rams O
-- First, the bad news. Chris Chandler is better than
any QB we have. Now the really bad news - he's the
back up to Marc Bulger, who took away 2-time NFL and
1-time Super Bowl MVP Kurt Warner's job and got him
shipped to the Giants. Chandler is throwing great. I
am here to predict that Chandler will step in without
missing a beat the second Bulger stumbles this season.
In the practice session, I saw Chandler make at least
three throws on 15-20 yard 'outs' that were smack on
the money. He had NO trouble victimizing Nathan Vasher
or Peanut Tillman. Chandler had an awesome throw TD to
Torry Holt, I believe in the scrimmage. Bulger is
still, deservedly, Da Man. He's like a machine. MSU's
Jeff Smoker looked like the rookie that he is. Hoffman
Estates' very own Russ Michna, the rook QB out of
Western Illinois, played behind a basically rookie and
free agent OL (Phillips, Kennedy, Heyer). I think it
was the Rams way of saying, "Thanks for stopping by
for the cup o' coffee."
Rams coach, Matz, stated on Sunday that he likes
Michna, that he is "not just a 'camp arm'", and that
he is receiving serious roster consideration. Hey,
Mike, it's your team, Man. revised 8/9/04
--Now for the REALLY, REALLY, REALLY bad news. Steven
Jackson is a friggin' load-and-a-half. The guy can
catch, run inside and outside, block, hit and take
hits. He's a nightmare. Get his rookie card - and get
it signed. Ten years. HoF. Period. I was very happy to
see Jerry Schmacher and Cameron Worrell laying some
lumber on the guy. More on those two guys in a bit.
They nailed him a few times, but he kept coming and
coming and coming.and falling forward. Marshall Faulk
better be ready to start picking splinters out of his
bobble-head (they gave them away free on Friday) arSE.
--At FB, Joey Goodspeed (Our Lady University of the
Golden Domes) seems to be playing very well. He had a
couple of nifty catches and was not afraid to block
any of our big, bad D-linemen.
--At wide receiver, they have Tory Holt and Isaac
Bruce. I wish that were the end of the story, but it's
not. They also have this tough little bas-tid Mike
Furrey, a second year guy out of Northern Iowa. He
catches, he runs after he catches and he returns
kicks. He doesn't look like much either on paper or in
pads, but this guy is a football player. He left
Nathan Vasher looking for his jock about ten times.
And McQuarters is still trying to find the guy. He
seems to be very hard to bump off the line, for some
reason.sneaky little pr*ck.They have pretty good depth
at WR with Dane Looker, who does not appear to be
capable of dropping passes.
At TE, Brandon Manumaleuna looks to be as good as they
come. I know he is listed behind Cleeland on the depth
chart, but I fail to see why. He runs well, blocks
like a beast and catches anything he can get to. He
made some of our LBs look pretty slow, including Leon
Joe and Marcus Reese. He seals off the DE on sweeps
very well, but, then again, Steven Jackson doesn't
need much of a seal.
--I know the Rams starting OL is a bunch of beasts. I
did not spend as much time watching the Ram OL as I
usually do because I wanted to watch the skill players
and our D. Orlando Pace is not in pads. He is a
'franchise player' and, as such, doesn't have to get
dirty-wirty or any owwie boo-boos during training
camp. They gave our DL a lot of trouble, suffice it to
say.
Posted by Isiah 58 on the RamBeat Mail List-
---------------
Although this is from a Bears' fan's perspective, it
is pretty interesting but long. The second half is
Bears' stuff, but I didn't edit the post. Note his
characterization of Stephen Jackson!
Isiah 58
Made it to Macomb in time for the afternoon practice
on Friday. Stayed overnight and attended the scrimmage
with the Rams today. Here are my observations. They
are uncluttered. I have not read the home page. I
tuned in WSCR on the way out of Macomb, as it was the
only AM station broadcasting something other than pork
belly and grain futures. However, the contradictory,
rambling, self-serving opinions quickly became
background noise. I have no idea what the heck those
guys were talking about.
Please remember that these are lay observations and
they are from memory. I wish I had video-taped the
scrimmage or had taken notes. There was an
extraordinary number of substitutions, with varying
combinations of personnel. It was really tough to keep
track of everyone. The plays were run very quickly.
Additionally, it was a beautiful day and there were a
lot of beautiful, comfortably dressed females in
attendance. I would like to take this opportunity to
say a special 'Hello' to the bleach blond in the
pink top and white SHORTs sitting with the skanky
looking dude by the south end zone and the 'Mom'
from the Quad Cities (with her 'father-in-law' over in
Section N ).
With that disclaimer, I begin this somewhat unedited
post (note re: Friday's practice - We watched the
Bears Offense play the Rams Defense. However, we sat
high enough in the stands that we could see the
adjacent field where the Rams O played the Bears D.):
WIU
-- The staff was extremely cordial and helpful. They
seemed delighted to be hosting this weekend. The
stadium was immaculate, the practice facilities
excellent, and everything seemed to go smoothly,
including Will-Calls and last minute general admission
sales. Traffic flow, 'signage', and police protection
was first class. They even had rent-a-cops standing
guard on the hilltops in case al-Qaida decided to
attack Hanson Field.
The place was completely packed. My son just came down
to tell me that ESPN reported 14,000 fans. I dunno
about that, but I am sure there wer ove 10,000. There
seemed to be an equal number of Rams and Bears fans.
Everyone seemed to get along quite well, even though
we were completely intermingled. Rams fans are
actually very nice people, I was disappointed to
learn. I was hoping it would be as easy to hate them
as it is, ohhh, say, Cheeseheads.
My only gripe is that there are only two (count
'em-2!) water fountains and bathrooms for the whole
stadium. Both water fountains had broken handles, so I
had to spend $2 for a small bottle of water. A pretty
minor gripe. We ate before coming to the stadium, but
the grilled pork sandwiches smelled delicious.
Am I glad I went? Yes. Was it fun? Yes. Would I
readily do it again? Probably not. It was quite an
investment of time and money to watch second-stringers
beat the crap out of each other for 90 minutes.
The Rams D
-- They are loaded at the defensive back positions
with the addition of fine rookie CB prospects 20
Dwight Anderson from South Dakota and 27 Corey Yates
from Southern Miss. Rookie FS 30 Jason Shivers from
ASU looks like he will stick. He can hit. At SS, I
liked the way Rich Coady covered the field and did not
seem to miss assignments against the Bears deceptive
offensive scheme. However, I would be surprised if he
takes Adam Archuleta's starting spot.
Dwight Anderson seems to be the best of the bunch of
the new D-backs, although I am sure he is still
adjusting to the size and speed of NFL receivers. I
don't think he saw too many like this at South Dakota.
He had no problem with covering any of our guys. He
has excellent technique, contains his bumps to the
five-yard zone instinctively and seems to anticipate
cuts. I did not see any of his guys 'get open.' The
long catch that Bernard Berrian made against him in
the scrimmage was a combination of an excellent
NFL-caliber throw by Jonathan Quinn and a great
leaping adjustment by Berrian. I don't think Anderson
could believe that Berrian caught the ball. He had
very good coverage on the play. It was a very
impressive leap and catch.
-- LBs 50 Pisa Tinoisamoa and 51 Tony Newson looked
great and sounded dangerous when they hit things. Like
opposing human beings. All-in-all, this is a young,
fast athletic group. I would be very surprised to see
rookie 54 Brandon Chillar UCLA make the team. They are
just too deep. Trev Faulk had a sack in the scrimmage,
but I wouldn't make too much of that. OC Terry Shea
and OL Coach Pete Hoener were mixing assignments and
positions up at that stage.
-- DL The guy that kept standing out was Tyoka
Jackson, the 10th year vet (Miami, Bucs, Rams) who
played a lot of the practice and the scrimmage at LDE,
although he can play DT, too. I wasn't really looking
for him when I went down there, but he seemed to be
around the ball every play. Valuable guy. Bryce Fisher
and Sean Moran also looked good. Fisher got tagged
pretty good at one point by Brock Forsey and left the
game limping. It was kind of hard to tell, but it
looked like his knee gave out right before Brock
slammed him. Fisher is a big guy and if it were his
knee, he could need a long rest.
Note from Rams Camp on Fisher - the coaches and
players said they, too, thought his injury was bad
when he went down. Trainer said it was just a
twisted/sprained ankle and the Fat Guy will be back
soon. revised - 8/9/04
The Rams O
-- First, the bad news. Chris Chandler is better than
any QB we have. Now the really bad news - he's the
back up to Marc Bulger, who took away 2-time NFL and
1-time Super Bowl MVP Kurt Warner's job and got him
shipped to the Giants. Chandler is throwing great. I
am here to predict that Chandler will step in without
missing a beat the second Bulger stumbles this season.
In the practice session, I saw Chandler make at least
three throws on 15-20 yard 'outs' that were smack on
the money. He had NO trouble victimizing Nathan Vasher
or Peanut Tillman. Chandler had an awesome throw TD to
Torry Holt, I believe in the scrimmage. Bulger is
still, deservedly, Da Man. He's like a machine. MSU's
Jeff Smoker looked like the rookie that he is. Hoffman
Estates' very own Russ Michna, the rook QB out of
Western Illinois, played behind a basically rookie and
free agent OL (Phillips, Kennedy, Heyer). I think it
was the Rams way of saying, "Thanks for stopping by
for the cup o' coffee."
Rams coach, Matz, stated on Sunday that he likes
Michna, that he is "not just a 'camp arm'", and that
he is receiving serious roster consideration. Hey,
Mike, it's your team, Man. revised 8/9/04
--Now for the REALLY, REALLY, REALLY bad news. Steven
Jackson is a friggin' load-and-a-half. The guy can
catch, run inside and outside, block, hit and take
hits. He's a nightmare. Get his rookie card - and get
it signed. Ten years. HoF. Period. I was very happy to
see Jerry Schmacher and Cameron Worrell laying some
lumber on the guy. More on those two guys in a bit.
They nailed him a few times, but he kept coming and
coming and coming.and falling forward. Marshall Faulk
better be ready to start picking splinters out of his
bobble-head (they gave them away free on Friday) arSE.
--At FB, Joey Goodspeed (Our Lady University of the
Golden Domes) seems to be playing very well. He had a
couple of nifty catches and was not afraid to block
any of our big, bad D-linemen.
--At wide receiver, they have Tory Holt and Isaac
Bruce. I wish that were the end of the story, but it's
not. They also have this tough little bas-tid Mike
Furrey, a second year guy out of Northern Iowa. He
catches, he runs after he catches and he returns
kicks. He doesn't look like much either on paper or in
pads, but this guy is a football player. He left
Nathan Vasher looking for his jock about ten times.
And McQuarters is still trying to find the guy. He
seems to be very hard to bump off the line, for some
reason.sneaky little pr*ck.They have pretty good depth
at WR with Dane Looker, who does not appear to be
capable of dropping passes.
At TE, Brandon Manumaleuna looks to be as good as they
come. I know he is listed behind Cleeland on the depth
chart, but I fail to see why. He runs well, blocks
like a beast and catches anything he can get to. He
made some of our LBs look pretty slow, including Leon
Joe and Marcus Reese. He seals off the DE on sweeps
very well, but, then again, Steven Jackson doesn't
need much of a seal.
--I know the Rams starting OL is a bunch of beasts. I
did not spend as much time watching the Ram OL as I
usually do because I wanted to watch the skill players
and our D. Orlando Pace is not in pads. He is a
'franchise player' and, as such, doesn't have to get
dirty-wirty or any owwie boo-boos during training
camp. They gave our DL a lot of trouble, suffice it to
say.
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