Some good, plenty of bad in an ugly preseason loss
August 20th, 2007 | by Kevin Morris |
By
STLTODAY.COM SPORTS COLUMNIST
Not a lot of St. Louisans saw the Rams lose to the Chargers 30-13 Saturday
night. The CBS telecast was blacked out locally -– due to the lack of a sellout
-– and about half of the ticket-holders spent the night elsewhere.
Coach Scott Linehan’s initial game assessment was that fans didn’t miss much.
He saw some more positives after reviewing game tapes with his coaches, but
overall, not much progress was made during this preseason exercise.
Here were some things that stood out to your cyber-correspondent:
THE GOOD
Leonard Little is still Leonard Little. He earned a sack off a three-man rush,
using speed and tenacity to beat two blocks.
The Chargers came right after cornerback Ron Bartell -– and the youngster lived
to tell about it. This is good news, because he will have to fill-in for
suspended cornerback Fakhir Brown during the first four games of the season.
Working with the second unit, defensive tackle Claude Wroten got good pressure
right up the middle in pass rush situations. And new defensive end James Hall
managed to gain some penetration with the first defensive unit.
Back-up quarterback Gus Frerotte was outstanding, efficiently working the
check-down passes to move the ball without taking big risks. But he also hit a
big strike down the middle to Drew Bennett and located Marques Hagans for a
late TD pass.
And speaking of Hagans, he made his case for the sixth receiver slot with 5
catches for 71 yards and a touchdown. His 34-yard reception was a classic
catch-and-run up the right sideline. He ran a great route, made a nice break on
the ball and then turned it up field for a big gainer.
Specialist Dante Hall showed good wheels on his single kickoff return and his
punt return. The kickoff return was negated by penalty, but Hall managed to
excite the half-empty Dome both times he touched the ball.
Defensive coordinator Jim Haslett did a nice job generating pressure with
timely safety blitzes. O.J. Atogwe scored a sack on one of his sprints into the
backfield.
A couple of linebackers fighting for a roster spot, Raonall Smith and Jon
Alston, made nice plays defending the pass in the open field.
THE BAD
Try as it might, the Rams defense did not force any turnovers.
With Steven Jackson staying out of the line of fire, rookie Brian Leonard did
most of the ball carrying. He showed nice acceleration early and bolted to a
first down on a 2nd-and-7 play. Overall, though, he gained just 49 yards on 17
carries. There just wasn’t much there for him. Much more is expected from this
offensive line.
Speaking of the O-line, Richie Incognito suffered an ankle sprain during the
game. The initial diagnosis wasn’t scary, but this is a guy the Rams would
rather not lose.
Marc Bulger moved the ball OK, mostly throwing underneath coverage, but he
failed to lead the first defensive unit to a touchdown. Moving the ball between
the 20s won’t get the Rams into the playoffs this season.
On Bulger’s end zone interception, Chargers safety Clinton Hart got a better
break on the ball than Torry Holt did. That was just an ugly-looking play and
San Diego was sitting on it.
Bulger got rocked twice, hard, by blind-side pass rushers. Luckily, Rodney
Harrison no longer is a Charger; Marc was able to get out of the game with his
knees intact. But such breakdowns in protection are unacceptable.
The first Chargers offense worked the Rams first defensive unit over but good.
In the first quarter, running back Michael Turner gained 31 yards on five
carries as LaDainian Tomlinson’s stand-in and Philip Rivers completed four of
five passes for 45 yards and a touchdown.
Cornerback Jonathan Wade had a couple of rookie moments, missing an open field
tackle (by a lot) and getting beat in coverage as well. But the Rams will need
him to grow, because veteran Lenny Walls looks a step slow out there.
THE UGLY
The punt coverage team suffered massive breakdowns to allow Darren Sproles to
come back on an 81-yard touchdown return. What happened?
“I think what happened was No. 1 they blocked us and No. 2 we were stopping on
contact which we didn’t do last year,” Linehan said afterward. “There’s a lot
of learning and teaching to come off of that.” Or so the Rams hope.
While straining to gain extra yardage after a reception, fullback Madison
Hedgecock was stripped of the football as his knee touched down. Yes, he was
probably down when all this happened -– but he still lost the ball, which is
not good. This turnover killed a seven-minute drive. This is precisely the
sort of mistake Linehan loathes.
