Mitch
Crawled Through 5 FB Fields
At kickoff I was reminding myself of how great it feels to have a coach who wants the ball first. Thus, I was delighted to see the offense move the chains via some solid runs and hard-nosed pass pro blocks by rookie David Johnson and culminating in a picture perfect corner fade TD to J.J. Nelson, thrown beautifully on time and over the top by Carson Palmer. There were some glitches along the way, but this offense is resilient and it believes it can compensate for setbacks.
Watching the defense smother Todd Gurley in the first half was another thing of beauty. Good to see Ed Stinson make some stops. The pass defense was well coordinated, thanks to a combination of James Bettcher's planning and Patrick Peterson's monday "fix it" meeting and highlighted right off the bat by Rashad Johnson's outstanding over the top interception. I was especially happy to see Peterson assigned to Tavon Austin and felt that if the defense could slow Gurley and Austin down it could take command of the game. I did wonder whether Justin Bethel could do a solid job on Kenny Britt in Bethel's first starting assignment, and despite some early flaws in technique and a penalty, Bethel settled in nicely and limited Britt to 2 catches in 10 targets. Of course having Rashad Johnson tilted to his side to give him deep help, was a plus. But later in the game, Bethel showed he didn't need deep help.
Began to feel a little concerned that the offense was stalling on drives just outside of field goal range in the second quarter---and was especially frustrated when once again a Ram safety had a straight shot on the blitz at Palmer. But, then I was happy to see BA adjust and put TE Darren Fells in the backfield opposite Johnson, and then when Johnson was releasing on patterns, Fells came all the over the other side of the pocket to seal off the vacated side. Clearly, BA was ready for the Rams' safety blitzes. One time Bobby Massey got caught blocking inside and then tried to recover too late, but that's what the Rams do, they overload the weak side and force the tackle to make an inside or outside decision---and what tackles are taught is with no RB blocking help to their side, you block the inside gap first.
Getting a good defensive stop late in the second quarter and being able to kick a FG before half-time was a win-win, especially the way punter Johnny Hekker was flipping the field on the Cardinals as he always does. Makes me feel like the Cardinals should go after him occasionally to hurry his punts, cause man every punt looks like it sails 55-60 yards.
What was clear to me at half-time was that the Cardinals, while a little frustrated on offense, were not intimidated by the Rams physicality this time. In fact, the toughest hit the Rams had was when T.J. McDonald missed Michael Floyd and laid a helmet to helmet licking on Janoris Jenkins, which sent Jenkins to the locker room.
The start of the third quarter was a little nerve wracking, as after a good stop on the Rams' first series, Hekker flipped the field, the offense stalled and then Tavon Austin busted a punt return for 60 plus yards, only to be brought back to mid-field where Todd Gurley made his 34 yard scamper and reminders of the second half at home when Gurley went off were setting in---only the defense got enough pressure on Nick Foles who was hurrying his throws just enough to have them sail a little on him and thus forcing the Rams to settle on a FG at that point was encouraging.
Moreover, after Kerwynn Williams muffed the kickoff out of bounds at the 2 yard line, to see Carson Palmer calmly lead a signature-type answering drive, aided and abetted by not losing David Johnson's fumble due to the defender being out of bounds, was gratifying.
I was impressed that Palmer kept testing Jenkins who is by far the Rams' best CB. Later in the game, Palmer got a huge jump ball receptions from Floyd over Jenkins who had been cleared and had returned. Floyd's concentration on that pass was stellar.
Then when Rams were ramming each other in the secondary some more, again when Jenkins got nailed on the nifty TD pass to David Johnson who was lined up in the slot---it made me wonder whether BA had coached the receivers to "catch and slip" the contact. Man, the receivers were very sharp about splitting the defenders.
From there the defense was smothering Gurley again and hurrying Foles enough to get a series of high throws and suddenly the Cardinals were putting this game away.
The highlights of the rest of the second half were fantastic:
* Kerwynn Williams stepped up to be the lightning to David Johnson's thunder as he did what Kerwynn does as well as any RB on the Cardinals' roster---he hits the hole fast and he squirts through it quickly, only this time he displayed that extra gear to take a 33 yard run to the house.
* Carson Palmer hitting John Brown on a "dime" up the right sideline on a go pattern.
* Larry Fitzgerald becoming the youngest player to garner 1,000 receptions---and quite symbolically, the 11th player in NFL history to record 1,000 catches.
* Michael Bidwill getting a gatorade birthday splash and an array of bearhugs from the coaches and players on the sidelline.
* BA giving a game ball to an elated Michael Bidwill and then to every player on the team for going 3-0 versus the NFC West on the road.
* Third consecutive 10 win season---for those of us who relished the Jim Hart, Dan Dierdorf, Conrad Dobler, Mel Gray days of the mid 1970s---did we ever thought we'd see this day again? Are we pinching ourselves, or what?!!!
Watching the defense smother Todd Gurley in the first half was another thing of beauty. Good to see Ed Stinson make some stops. The pass defense was well coordinated, thanks to a combination of James Bettcher's planning and Patrick Peterson's monday "fix it" meeting and highlighted right off the bat by Rashad Johnson's outstanding over the top interception. I was especially happy to see Peterson assigned to Tavon Austin and felt that if the defense could slow Gurley and Austin down it could take command of the game. I did wonder whether Justin Bethel could do a solid job on Kenny Britt in Bethel's first starting assignment, and despite some early flaws in technique and a penalty, Bethel settled in nicely and limited Britt to 2 catches in 10 targets. Of course having Rashad Johnson tilted to his side to give him deep help, was a plus. But later in the game, Bethel showed he didn't need deep help.
Began to feel a little concerned that the offense was stalling on drives just outside of field goal range in the second quarter---and was especially frustrated when once again a Ram safety had a straight shot on the blitz at Palmer. But, then I was happy to see BA adjust and put TE Darren Fells in the backfield opposite Johnson, and then when Johnson was releasing on patterns, Fells came all the over the other side of the pocket to seal off the vacated side. Clearly, BA was ready for the Rams' safety blitzes. One time Bobby Massey got caught blocking inside and then tried to recover too late, but that's what the Rams do, they overload the weak side and force the tackle to make an inside or outside decision---and what tackles are taught is with no RB blocking help to their side, you block the inside gap first.
Getting a good defensive stop late in the second quarter and being able to kick a FG before half-time was a win-win, especially the way punter Johnny Hekker was flipping the field on the Cardinals as he always does. Makes me feel like the Cardinals should go after him occasionally to hurry his punts, cause man every punt looks like it sails 55-60 yards.
What was clear to me at half-time was that the Cardinals, while a little frustrated on offense, were not intimidated by the Rams physicality this time. In fact, the toughest hit the Rams had was when T.J. McDonald missed Michael Floyd and laid a helmet to helmet licking on Janoris Jenkins, which sent Jenkins to the locker room.
The start of the third quarter was a little nerve wracking, as after a good stop on the Rams' first series, Hekker flipped the field, the offense stalled and then Tavon Austin busted a punt return for 60 plus yards, only to be brought back to mid-field where Todd Gurley made his 34 yard scamper and reminders of the second half at home when Gurley went off were setting in---only the defense got enough pressure on Nick Foles who was hurrying his throws just enough to have them sail a little on him and thus forcing the Rams to settle on a FG at that point was encouraging.
Moreover, after Kerwynn Williams muffed the kickoff out of bounds at the 2 yard line, to see Carson Palmer calmly lead a signature-type answering drive, aided and abetted by not losing David Johnson's fumble due to the defender being out of bounds, was gratifying.
I was impressed that Palmer kept testing Jenkins who is by far the Rams' best CB. Later in the game, Palmer got a huge jump ball receptions from Floyd over Jenkins who had been cleared and had returned. Floyd's concentration on that pass was stellar.
Then when Rams were ramming each other in the secondary some more, again when Jenkins got nailed on the nifty TD pass to David Johnson who was lined up in the slot---it made me wonder whether BA had coached the receivers to "catch and slip" the contact. Man, the receivers were very sharp about splitting the defenders.
From there the defense was smothering Gurley again and hurrying Foles enough to get a series of high throws and suddenly the Cardinals were putting this game away.
The highlights of the rest of the second half were fantastic:
* Kerwynn Williams stepped up to be the lightning to David Johnson's thunder as he did what Kerwynn does as well as any RB on the Cardinals' roster---he hits the hole fast and he squirts through it quickly, only this time he displayed that extra gear to take a 33 yard run to the house.
* Carson Palmer hitting John Brown on a "dime" up the right sideline on a go pattern.
* Larry Fitzgerald becoming the youngest player to garner 1,000 receptions---and quite symbolically, the 11th player in NFL history to record 1,000 catches.
* Michael Bidwill getting a gatorade birthday splash and an array of bearhugs from the coaches and players on the sidelline.
* BA giving a game ball to an elated Michael Bidwill and then to every player on the team for going 3-0 versus the NFC West on the road.
* Third consecutive 10 win season---for those of us who relished the Jim Hart, Dan Dierdorf, Conrad Dobler, Mel Gray days of the mid 1970s---did we ever thought we'd see this day again? Are we pinching ourselves, or what?!!!
OMG!
