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You can talk about Bulger all you want, to let the Arizona Cardinals run all over the place yesterday was what beat the Rams. The Rams DT's are non-existent even with a healthy Carriker. The OLB play was abysmal yesterday too. The Rams need to contact Suh's people as soon as they can.
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Re: Arizona? Running the ball? What the.....
You fail to link that the running game stopped working so amazingly well as soon as Warner left the game. Before that, the Rams were forced into dime coverage since the Cardinals were running out 5 WRs in the spread offense. That is going to lead to running lanes and mismatches. Once the Cardinals moved back to a traditional offense with Leinart, the running game fell apart also. -
Re: Arizona? Running the ball? What the.....
They still shouldn't have been able to run the ball like they did. Are you saying we aren't weak at DT?Comment
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Re: Arizona? Running the ball? What the.....
we definitely are weak at DT, thats clearly an area requiring an upgrade.
The thing is, it sort of makes Chris Long's play all the more impressive, since teams are keying off on him a fair bit what with him being the only real decent player on the line.
Little is good at pass rushing and all but his play as a run defender is poor@EssexRam_Comment
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Re: Arizona? Running the ball? What the.....
The Rams run defense has been improved for the most part this year, but yesterday was clearly a bad peformance in that area. I'm sure that Spags is going to be very tempted to take one of the two "stud" DTs (Suh, G.McCoy) in the first round.Comment
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Re: Arizona? Running the ball? What the.....
Of course our DTs are weak. Just look at the turnover at the position since training camp opened. How do you expect it to not be weak? Plus the Rams have two outside linebackers who are barely backup quality. Lenin will be out of the NFL most likely next season and Vbora is a backup only. He's not starting quality. Think maybe that has an impact also?
The Rams have lost Carriker, Gary Gibson & Hollis Thomas. That's 3 out of the 4 they planned on going with this season at one point.Comment
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Aerial showdown looms in desert
By Scouts, Inc.
Why To Watch
For the second straight week, QB Kurt Warner faces a former team and the younger protégé who supplanted him. Warner and Marc Bulger combined to air it out for more than 600 yards in Week 1 losses, largely because neither the Cardinals nor the Rams came close to establishing a running attack.
Both teams also looked sloppy on special teams. The Rams allowed a punt return for a TD, while the Cardinals allowed both a punt and kickoff return for TD, the latter coming after an offsides penalty. Both teams also had their character and preparation questioned after lackluster Week 1 efforts.
Will Mike Martz stick to his game plan and pound the ball with Steven Jackson? Can the Cardinals offensive line open any holes for J.J. Arrington and give Kurt Warner enough time to throw? Expect an aerial duel between two former teammates in this one.
When the Rams have the ball
Rushing: The Cardinals' run defense started strong against the Giants, but wore down as the game went on. Arizona's defenders were guilty of several missed tackles in the second half, many of them on big, bruising running back Brandon Jacobs.
The Rams have a bruising back of their own in Steven Jackson, and a great change of pace back in Marshall Faulk. Jackson is not the type of back Martz is used to, and with his best results probably coming in the fourth quarter, Martz's patience will be tested. The Rams will try to run the ball behind LOT Orlando Pace, though RDE Bertrand Berry and linebackers Karlos Dansby and James Darling were very active in Week 1.
The Rams are a finesse offensive line, with marginal talent. It is unlikely they can get the same kind of push that the Giants were able to get last week. The Cardinals have good athletes on defense and should be able to best the Rams with movement.
Passing: Nobody is better at finding man-to-man matchups and exploiting them than Mike Martz . Cardinals' DC Antrel Rolle got picked on a little by the Giants, and Bulger will look to find Torry Holt matched up with him in single coverage. Rolle is a fast playmaker, but has struggled with his pedal since the preseason, and precise route runners like Holt and WR Isaac Bruce will be able to exploit that.
DC David Macklin also doesn't match-up well with Bruce or Holt. The Rams utilized WR Shaun McDonald out of the slot on third-down situations, running underneath crossing patterns. The Cardinals might look to slow down and jam McDonald, and speedy WR Kevin Curtis, at the line to avoid match-up concerns with their nickel cornerback Raymond Walls. The Cardinals do not have an answer for the Rams when they have to play nickel and dime sets.
Cardinals defensive coordinator Clancy Pendergast will show Bulger many different looks before the snap in order to confuse...-09-14-2005, 05:25 AM -
Cards push envelope in new offensive plan
Odeen Domingo
The Arizona Republic
Aug. 14, 2005 12:00 AM
At first, the Cardinals offense looks conventional.
There's one running back in the backfield, a tight end at the line and three receivers spread out wide. Then quarterback Kurt Warner starts his cadence, and chaos begins.
The running back, tight end and even the receivers shift one-by-one, motioning to Warner's every word.
Then silence.
All of a sudden, there's no running back in the backfield, no hint of a tight end at the line, and five wide receivers ready to create havoc on a defense primed to surrender a mismatch.
That's the 2005 Cardinals offense that debuted Saturday in a preseason 13-11 victory over the Dallas Cowboys before 36,787 at Sun Devil Stadium: part bedlam, part brilliant.
At least, the Cardinals hope it's brilliant.
Their offense started slow and simplified in the first series. The most significant motion came from the entire unit trotting off the field after a three-and-out.
Then brilliance happened.
In the offense's fourth possession of the game, Warner completed 5 of 6 attempts for 84 yards, including a 31-yard touchdown to Larry Fitzgerald. When the first-team units jogged to the sidelines for good, the Cardinals led 10-0.
"We're just trying to get completions and try and (throw) the ball down the field," Warner said. "We're going to continue to get better. It's not bad for the first day and a new offense."
And for at least one series, the Cardinals showcased what their offense is capable of.
"It's more open," said receiver Anquan Boldin, who missed Saturday's game due to a broken nose. "We're moving guys around. We're moving on every play, putting guys into position to get the ball, create mismatches, similar to what we did my rookie year. Last year, we were just bland. Wherever we lined up at, that's where we were going from."
The Cardinals have a tough task. They have three young receivers, a rookie running back and a new starting quarterback who are learning from a first-time offensive coordinator trying to teach one of the most complicated offensive systems in the NFL.
One or two styles define most teams' offensive schemes. The Cardinals have three:
1. A vertical passing game.
2. A power running game.
3. A quick, timing passing game.
If anyone can mold all three styles into one, Cardinals coach Dennis Green thinks new offensive coordinator Keith Rowen can.
Rowen worked under Green in Minnesota, where a similar offensive scheme vaulted the Vikings to one of the top offenses in NFL history. Before joining the Cardinals, Rowen helped coach a vertical-passing Kansas...-08-14-2005, 05:15 PM -
by Brett Gall on Jul 16, 2010 12:32 AM CDT in 2010
Some say that winning is a habit. Obviously it's one that we lack, with only three wins in the past two seasons, so that's not looking too good for us. Despite our trend of losing, let's look on the bright side: we probably are going to win a game in 2010, regardless of how awful or outmatched we may look on paper. Some team is going to overlook the lowly Rams, the matchups may be just right, perhaps the cosmos will align in the perfect manner, or maybe we will actually just dominate the field from start to finish, but in all likelihood (knock on wood!) we will win a game in 2010.
Maybe it's too much Turf Show Times Kool-Aid, but in recent weeks I have gained a lot of optimism about the Rams, relative to how I felt in prior weeks. Despite a boring free agency, a good but not spectacular draft, and a potentially chronic injury to the one true playmaker on the team, I've gone from thinking the Rams were making the sensible if unsexy moves towards slowly building a respectable team to now believing that the Rams will certainly play the underdog in every game of the season, but that if the football gods bless us with good health and some luck, they will also suprise a team or two along the way.
So if the Rams are going to win a game, the real question is: when?
I believe we will probably win our first game of the season.
If you forget what the Rams schedule looks like, feel free to check it out in the poll at the bottom. Otherwise, I'll try to give a good explanation of why the Rams will [perhaps] start off 1 for 1 on the season.
Week 1 vs. Arizona Cardinals
The Rams are currently about 3-4 point underdogs on this game. I think that the lossess of Karlos Dansby and Antrel Rolle would take a defense that wasn't that great anyway, and turn it into the sieve that has historically been associated with the Cardinals, if it weren't for some decent pickups of young guys and veterans. These include Darryl Washington, Kerry Rhodes, Joey Porter, and Dan Williams. Their defense will be improved over last year's, that is almost certain. Yet the questions of the team chemistry, the effectiveness of their nose tackle, the wear and tear on some of their acquisitions and the offseason development of their young players, who will be forced to fill substantial roles in the defense, are notable. On the other hand, I believe our defense will make huge strides this year if the defensive line can step up big time. I would give the Cardinals an edge defensively against our team.
The key to our victory lies in the fact that the Cardinals' offense has lost two of its three most important players. With the departures of Kurt Warner and Anquan Boldin, the only quality pickup for the Cardinals offense as Alan Fanica. I'm fairly positive that Doucet and Steve Breaston will have solid seasons...-07-16-2010, 09:41 PM -
Rams keeping focus on preventing big play against Cardinals
Nick Wagoner, ESPN Staff Writer
PHOENIX -- A look three things to watch when the St. Louis Rams play the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday at 4:25 p.m. ET at University of Phoenix Stadium:
1. Staying underneath: Three weeks into the season, the Rams defense is allowing opposing quarterbacks to complete 81.6 percent of their passes. Without question, that's an eye-popping number for a defense that has been expected to carry the load in the early part of the season. While that number will certainly drop (it almost has to), the Rams actually don't mind it so much, especially when playing dynamic offenses like Pittsburgh or this week's opponent, Arizona.
The reason? Well, the Rams aren't allowing big plays down the field, instead relying on the pass rush to force the ball out quick and make tackles short of the sticks. Last week, Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger had just four incompletions on 24 attempts but his yards per dropback came in at just 6.3. That was a big step back from the 13.67 he had the previous week against San Francisco and the 8.45 he had in the opener against New England. The result was a Pittsburgh offense that didn't have a passing play over 20 yards and the only one going that long was a catch-and-run by running back Le'Veon Bell.
With that in mind, don't be surprised if the Rams take a similar approach against Cardinals quarterback Carson Palmer and his offense. Palmer enters the game fourth in the league in yards per attempt (9.4) and won't hesitate to take shots down the field. That means the Rams will probably again try to force him to get rid of the ball quick and make the Cardinals dink and dunk their way down the field.
2. Finding big plays: On the other side of the ball, the Rams find themselves in a position where they must attempt to do offensively what they're trying to stop defensively. In the season opener against Seattle, the Rams had eight plays of 20-plus yards so even when they struggled to run the ball, they were able to get yards in big chunks and put points on the board.
Over the past two weeks, the Rams have had a total of three plays of 20-plus yards. That wouldn't be a big deal if they were running the ball with any consistency but they aren't. The Rams are 29th in the league in rushing and still adapting to new zone concepts in the running game. Although they insist they're close to a breakthrough, it probably won't come this week against an Arizona team that is tied for fourth in the league in rushing yards per attempt allowed at 3.45.
Putting the ball in the air against opportunistic defensive backs such as Patrick Peterson and Tyrann Mathieu can be a dangerous proposition, but the Rams will have to lean on the passing game if they want to get the chunk plays needed to reach the end zone.
3. Scoring other ways:...-10-03-2015, 09:53 AM -
Saturday, September 23, 2006
By Nick Wagoner
Senior Writer
1. Dynamic Duo
In St. Louis, the fans know all about what a dynamic receiving duo looks like. Rams fans have been blessed with the ability to watch Isaac Bruce and Torry Holt do their thing for years.
In Arizona, the Cardinals are becoming accustomed to a similar experience with talented young wide outs Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin asserting themselves as top-tier players.
The Cardinals are 10th in the league in passing, mainly because of their dynamic duo at receiver. Both are fast, but they have just about all of the tools to be star receivers for years to come.
“(They are) big and physical,” Rams coach Scott Linehan said. “They’ve got more tools than that, but it’s really a tough match up when you go up against big, physical guys like that. The challenge is to be able to contain them. I really mean that. They have the ability to make big plays. They’ve got a great quarterback who can get them the ball, who knows how to get them the ball. It’s going to be a pretty big challenge for our secondary to slow those guys down a little bit.”
In two games this season, Boldin and Fitzgerald have combined for 23 catches for 309 yards and a touchdown. The Cardinals passing game was in top form in the opener against San Francisco but struggled with quarterback Kurt Warner in the second game against Seattle.
The Cardinals also have other big targets in tight end Adam Bergen and third receiver Bryant Johnson, but they rely mainly on the combination of Boldin and Fitzgerald.
Expect the Rams to come with some creative coverages to attempt to limit the big plays. St. Louis gave up some big gainers in the passing game against San Francisco last week and though it’s almost impossible to stop Fitzgerald and Boldin, they have to at least limit the long plays that result in points.
“They’re complete package guys,” Linehan said. “That makes it for a tough match-up. We’ve got to be creative in how we also help those guys at times, too. Not always having to cover them one-on-one. . You’re going to have to get it done.”
2. Living on the Edge
During the offseason, running back Edgerrin James was perhaps the biggest name available on the free agent market..
Arizona inked James to a four-year, $30 million deal, giving the Cardinals instant credibility..
“He’s one of the best running backs in the league,” defensive end Leonard Little said. “He’ll give you 1,600 yards a year. There’s a real threat with their running game. We have to really prepare for both things; the running game and the passing game.”
In fact, in James’ eight seasons in the league, he has rushed for more than 1,500 yards on four occasions. This season, he is off to a slow start as the...-09-24-2006, 06:33 AM
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