Play Calling Very Questionable here ...

[RamsInfiniti]

My biggest gripe, among many, with this game is the play calling. All the things that made Boller successful when he came in the game were gone in the second half ...

None of the misdirection passes ...

No quick hitters ...

Overuse of Jackson. When you run him 67% of the time, they know he's coming ...

Shurmur looked like a genius in the first half, a rookie in the second ...

Why don't we blitz linebackers or DB's, ever?

Why are we running the ball at all down two TD's late in the 4th?

Why is McMichael still on this team? He sucked all the momentum out with a drop on 3rd down ...

Why was Billy Devaney looking pissed off after the game to point of being called "murderous" looking by Bernie?

I'm sick over this game, absolutely sick. Sterling Sharpe was right, Rams would have an opportunity to win this game. And we blew it, better yet, we choked, from the coaches down ...

Effort is there, but the execution is questionable at best. Very angry with our coaching staff this week. Unacceptable loss in my opinion. Had a chance to win over the fans, and they were doing ok, then it unraveled as usual. No excuses this week ...

[BarronWade]

Re: Play Calling Very Questionable here ...

My biggest gripe, among many, with this game is the play calling. All the things that made Boller successful when he came in the game were gone in the second half ...

None of the misdirection passes ...

No quick hitters ...

Overuse of Jackson. When you run him 67% of the time, they know he's coming ...

Shurmur looked like a genius in the first half, a rookie in the second ...

Why don't we blitz linebackers or DB's, ever?

Why are we running the ball at all down two TD's late in the 4th?

Why is McMichael still on this team? He sucked all the momentum out with a drop on 3rd down ...

Why was Billy Devaney looking pissed off after the game to point of being called "murderous" looking by Bernie?

I'm sick over this game, absolutely sick. Sterling Sharpe was right, Rams would have an opportunity to win this game. And we blew it, better yet, we choked, from the coaches down ...

Effort is there, but the execution is questionable at best. Very angry with our coaching staff this week. Unacceptable loss in my opinion. Had a chance to win over the fans, and they were doing ok, then it unraveled as usual. No excuses this week ...

OVERUSE OF JACKSON?

Jackson is our Offense. The D already knows Jackson is running the ball before the game begins. He is our only playmaker on Offense. He runs our whole offense basically. He is the catalyst. So we have to run the ball

We are running a West Coast Offense so there are not many deep balls we can throw. So when we are down 2 TDs its basically up to Jackson to get yards.

And we did try those quick hitters but they just did not work cuz we just dont have those playmaking receivers. But Robinson probably out lets hope Avery steps up to his rookie year form.

And for that blitzing i think we need to blitz spoon if anyone. He moved to the weakside so he can blitz. He is not very good in pass covering so we need to blitz with him.

I think we should just drop Mcmicheal. But i think he is one of the team leaders so he is probably not going anywhere. But i like how we put Fells out there.

[Ahmedrams81]

Re: Play Calling Very Questionable here ...

I do agree with you, some of the play calling was horrible. 3rd and 2 situation should be Jaxx all day, not Darby. Also, we did not take advantage of the Packers line being banged up, we only brought a 4 man rush most of the time. I have to say I do disagree you on the Jaxx point. He is our best player, we have to give him the ball consistently. Plus, even though they knew he was coming, he still shredded them.

I want to see more motion in our play calling. I feel like defenses know what we are calling the second they see us line up.

[RamsInfiniti]

Re: Play Calling Very Questionable here ...

I don't care how good Jackson is, you cannot give him the ball everytime, how about some play action?

How about a deep pass after they've stacked 11 in the box against Jackson?

[btimsah]

Re: Play Calling Very Questionable here ...

I don't care how good Jackson is, you cannot give him the ball everytime, how about some play action?

How about a deep pass after they've stacked 11 in the box against Jackson?

Holycrap, we agree!

Now, I had to listen to the game on the radio but I will watch the replay tonight/tomarrow. But, it sounded like they were content to just run, run and pass almost. I made the comment that our defense isnt good enough to win with ball control, but neither is our line. We have to pass more, to open up lanes for Jackson. I've said that before and I'll keep saying it till we do it.

We did that at the end of the half... Kinda worked well for us. But this was a collective effort of suck out there so it's in no way the playcalling that did us in.

Our receivers (TE and WR's) flat out cannot make tough catches, save Robinson.

[Nick]

Re: Play Calling Very Questionable here ...

My biggest gripe, among many, with this game is the play calling. All the things that made Boller successful when he came in the game were gone in the second half ...

Well, at least one of the drives in which Boller was successful was when he was running the two minute offense, and from what I've read elsewhere, the Packers were dropping eight into coverage in a Prevent-type defense. Obviously those looks weren't going to be there for the rest of the game, though that's not to say other adjustments couldn't have been attempted.

For whatever reason, this offense does not seem to have many plays that feature deep routes. It's rather conservative in nature and going deep seems to be a rarity at this point. Which is odd, because if anything, I think Avery gives you someone who has the speed to make something happen on a deep route. But the Rams seem content using him on quick strikes rather than trying something deep to him. Those haven't worked well with him thus far, so I question whether they're really using him correctly.

Overuse of Jackson. When you run him 67% of the time, they know he's coming ...

They know he's coming regardless, because he's this team's best player and the Rams need to feature him. Do they need to adjust and find ways to free him up so the D can't just overload on him? Yes, but the Rams don't have other players who strike enough fear into defenders to really accomplish that. When you have a player like Steven Jackson or Maurice Jones-Drew or Adrian Peterson, you use them. A lot. And you find ways of using them even when teams try to stop you. But you also have to have some other options to make teams pay when they go one-dimensional and just try to defend against one guy. Who do the Rams have right now that does that? Maybe Robinson, maybe... but it sounds like he'll be out for a bit.

Why is McMichael still on this team?

He likely won't be after this season, along with some other carry-overs.

[Ramblin` Ram]

Re: Play Calling Very Questionable here ...

Randy Mc made an awesome one handed catch on the 1st drive and i thought we were in for a good day..:|


i think the thing with Avery was that he started out this season under a lot of pressure..at 24 he was given the number 1 wideout job on a bad team..he is a good effort guy..but i think that hasnt helped because i think he needs to try and relax more..as he`s thinking of the YAC before he makes the catch...he will be fine im sure once he settles down and realises that it isnt all on him and Jax.

[ScottD413]

Re: Play Calling Very Questionable here ...

I'm just tired of Avery and McMichael dropping passes.

I agree that our playcalling was terrible once again

[molar_pistol]

Re: Play Calling Very Questionable here ...

a couple of attempts down field would certainly be nice...we just aren't able to get any continuity going. bad turnovers, bad throws from boller, dropped passes, or the line giving up quick pressure, either way it has killed us time and again through these 3 games.

[RockinRam]

Re: Play Calling Very Questionable here ...

Just because Steven Jackson is our best player on the offense, it does NOT mean we have to hand off to him on first AND second down every single drive in the 3rd and 4th quarter.

Plus, he usually got minimal gains, in a time that importantly calls for big gains from the passing game.


Face it. Our passing game went nowhere, especially when Robinson went out. Burton was decent, and Fells has a couple key mismatches, but other than that, we are thin at wide receiver.

The playcalling was terrible IMO.


One of the key reasons we lost today was because every single time Jackson got a huge carry, our passing game could not get anything done, forcing punts. Our receivers are bullied by their corners and safeties all day long, and they don't have enough experience to handle some things.

[BM_Face]

Re: Play Calling Very Questionable here ...

Jackson saw a good number of touches today. I am satisfied with his play vs. the Packers, but I did not approve of some of the plays called. Wildcat? Pfft.

Also, I challenge the mythology that says West Coast Offense can't pass deep and stretch the field. We must have some deep passes in the book, especially if Boller has an arm. GoRams!

[itsguud]

Re: Play Calling Very Questionable here ...

Why don't we blitz linebackers or DB's, ever?

See my thread titled "Where's the blitz"? because this is a huge area of miss use for us.

[RockinRam]

Re: Play Calling Very Questionable here ...

Our "wildcat" wasn't even tricky. Let's direct hand-off to Jackon, who is our BEST player, so he must be running the ball...


If we're gonna run the wildcat, we must mix it up. Direct hand-offing to Jackson is not effective.

[Nick]

Re: Play Calling Very Questionable here ...

Just because Steven Jackson is our best player on the offense, it does NOT mean we have to hand off to him on first AND second down every single drive in the 3rd and 4th quarter.

That's a bit of an exaggeration, but a closer look at the playcalling tendancies do show a lot of predictability on first down through the entire game.

The Rams ran 19 plays on first down in the first half of the game. The first 14 of them were runs by Steven Jackson. The Rams did not throw a pass on first down until Kyle Boller's 14-yard pass to Keenan Burton during the two-minute offense. In total, 15 of the 19 first down plays were runs by Jackson. That's 79%. One of those plays was called back by a penalty. Jackson gained 45 yards on the other 14 plays. Nine of the fourteen runs were for less than three yards. Six of the fourteen went for no gain or a loss of yards.

In the second half, the Rams ran 13 plays on 1st Down. Seven of the first 10 (or 70%) were hand-offs to Jackson. The final three first down plays - two passes and one Boller scramble - came after the Rams found themselves down 36-17. So that's a total of seven out of thirteen plays being runs to Jackson, which amounts to 54%. But again, three of those 1st Down plays were when the game was basically out of reach and the Rams went almost entirely full pass attack. On those seven plays, Jackson gained 50 yards. Only two of those runs went for less than three yards. None of them were for no gain or negative yardage.

So if anything, the 1st Down runs in the second half were more productive than the 1st Down runs in the first half. There were half as many second half 1st Down runs, but they gained more yards nonetheless.

How about second half 2nd Down playcalling? Well, the Rams had twelve 2nd Down plays in the second half. Six of them were runs (5 by Jackson, 1 by Darby) and six of them were passes. So it was actually balanced between the run and the pass on 2nd Down in the second half. Looking further, two of the six passes and one of the six runs came during the final drive, which as I started earlier, was almost full pass attack as the game was out of hand. On the six 2nd Down runs, the Rams gained 19 yards. Four of the six runs went for three yards or less. Two of the six runs went for no gain. To compare, the Rams ran 11 first half 2nd Down plays. Only one of them was a run.

So what does this tell us? Well, it doesn't tell us that the Rams handed the ball off to Steven Jackson on 1st and 2nd Down of every second half drive. But it does seem to suggest that, at the very least, the 1st Down playcalling for the entire game lacked much imagination and variety.

[Goldenfleece]

Re: Play Calling Very Questionable here ...

I thought the shovel pass to set up that first field goal attempt was very questionable. Too much risk for a play that had little chance of getting more than a couple yards. If that's all you want, just call a dive play.

I also would have liked us to be a little less predictable. For example, when SJ lined up as a receiver, everybody knew the ball was going to him. Instead, we might have lined him up out there and then called a receiver screen with Jackson clearing a path for someone fast. It's not much of a trick play if it's incredibly obvious what you're planning before the snap.