 BALTIMORE AND ATLANTA-BY GRITS (Sept 18) |
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THE OFFENSE:
I felt the Rams offensive line contained a very good pass rushing defensive line in the
Ravens. Don't forget Mike McCrary had 15 quarterback sacks last season and he did nothing
last Sunday. Also, the Ravens are a very good defensive team and nobody is going to run
outside on them because of their ability to pursue and also their overall team speed and
quickness. Believe me, I mean it when I say that if the Ravens were just average on
offense they would have a good shot at the playoffs with that defense. I felt the Rams lack of success running the football were the types of running plays being called. As I said due to the speed of the Baltimore defense it is difficult to get outside on them. My feeling is that more blast plays, more dive plays and more counter or trap plays should have been run to counteract the agressiveness of the Ravens defense. If you watched the game last week you can't honestly say that Warner is just a back up guy. A guy like Brent Jones, who did the color commentary on the Baltimore game and ought to know a good QB when he sees one, was extremely impressed with Warner and he said so. I love Trent Green and I was shattered by that vheap shot by Rodney Harrison as much as anyone and yes I feel that Trent is a better QB in many ways. However, I also feel Kurt is capable and will prove he is NFL caliber as the season moves on. Don't forget he has a pretty talented group to throw to. You don't find much better then Bruce, Holt Hakim and Prohl in this league. So I believe that even with the inexperienced Warner in there at QB the Rams showed their passing attack is something to be feared. I especially liked the way the tight ends played into the game plan. I believe the first TD was to Roland Williams in the corner of the endzone in the second quarter. Marshall Faulk blew a golden opportunity when he fumbled on the Raven five yard line and Warner's first interception killed another golden opp when the Rams were on the Raven 5 yard line in the first quarter. Despite the Rams lack of running game Warner was still shredding the Raven secondary and I feel that was because our receivers are superior to the guys in their secondary. The Rams have very quietly put together a corp of receivers that has to rank in the top two or three groups of receivers the league. If I were the Rams, I would play to our strengths on offense and that is the short to medium passing game with quick, crisp timing routes and the shovel passes and quick screens. If the Rams can get Atlanta pass concious the running game will open up, particularly in the middle. WARNER: Warner has been a successful winning quarterback where weve he's played. He led his NFL-Europe team to the playoffs. He was the best passing and winningest QB in the Arena league. He was a national passing leader in college. He didn't make the Packers because the three guys ahead of him at the time only happened to be Brett Farve, Ty Detmer, and Mark Brunnell. Last season Mike White said that Kurt Warner has the ability to put the ball accurately in tight places and a lot of starting NFL QBs can't do that. I think that has been well demonstrated in Kurt's two starts against Detroit and Baltimore. ATLANTA: Can the Rams defense stop the run? I say its too early to know that. I think we will have a better handle on whether or not the Rams can stop the run after they play Atlanta. It may depend on how healthy the defensive tackles are. I'm not sure that Atlanta's defense is any better then the one we saw last
Sunday [against Baltimore]. Keep in mind that Atlanta had a very good offense last season
but, keep two other things in mind. Last season was a career season for Chris
Chandler, who has never had that kind of success before and tends to get injured and
out of the line up as he is this week [week 2]--and keep in mind that Tony Martin, who
when teamed with Mathis gave Atlanta a super double threat at receiver, is now playing in
Miami. The guy who replaced him is good but he is not the deep threat Tony is. Also, Bob
Grazziano, a good QB at Oregon is not a proven QB either. In fact he has thrown
fewer real game passes then Kurt Warner hasm and hasn't had the success in the pros
(no matter what league) that Warner has had. |
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