 THE STORIES OF THE BROWNS GAME, BY FAST EDDIE
(Oct 26) |
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JERSEY IRONY.. I have a
funny story about the game and the jersey I was wearing Sunday. It is a London
Fletcher #59 replica jersey that I had made at NFL.com. I was very proud of it and I
figured I wouldn't see another one of those all day. Well I bought my tickets from a scalper outside the dome and went to my seat... pretty good seats for face... then I started looking around me... Fletcher...Fletcher...Fletcher... the ENTIRE section, EVERYONE had #59, there were like 30 of them surrounding me! One of the guys says "Hey where'd you get that jersey?" I just smiled and said he was my cousin. Well...turns out I was sitting right in the middle of London's entire family, he had them all flown in from Cleveland and outfitted with jerseys... I fit right in. One of my new cousins got me an autographed hat after the game:) FAULK. He was sick alright. Unbelievable. The last two weeks, Marshall has ran the ball as well as he ever has in his career to my knowledge. The spinning, stop-go, juking, and jiving... he was incredible. Put him to slow jazz as Bernie Miklasz says. That 33 yard TD run in the fourth quarter was pure Barry Sanders. IT WAS BARRY SANDERS! Martz has finally figured out how to use him, with the counters and the draws, the short screens to the middle of the field and the shovel passes. The guards are doing a great job of pulling to either side---both Timmerman and McCollum. Miller and Pace are getting down the field and finishing, Williams is sealing that outside end on most plays, and no group of wide receivers in the league focus on blocking downfield the way Al Saunders' unit does... but alot of it is just Marshall alone. I love the appraoch these guys take as well. After the game, they weren't celebrating the talent of Marshall Faulk in the lockerroom. Ike Bruce said simply, "They sat back in cover 2 and that's just Marshall's job. ... He won't allow many teams to attempt to defend us that way." And not even a smile as is Ike's way... "I'm ready to play (Tennessee)". For four games, culminating in the whiner thrashing, teams gameplanned for Marshall Faulk... he was the only KNOWN quantity on this team. Bruce had been hurt for so long that teams had forgotten how truly unstoppable he is. Warner was a complete unknown and through at least 3 weeks a "fluke". The smart way to defend the Rams was to stack the box and make Warner beat you. Well that proved to be a sure recipe for a quick death and 3 quarters of suffering through mop-up time down by 20+. So we've seen them hold the safeties back in cover two for the past two weeks and Marshall has "done his job"... 413 total yards from scrimmage. That's a bit slower death, but perhaps an even more unavoidable one. I think Ike's right... we won't see much more of that... at least until Warner proves his deep touch in a few more blowouts... And that should start this week. I think the Rams will handle the 46 blitz by and large, though it should take Faulk out of the mix to some extent as he stays in to block. But the price will be great. One on one down the field with Ike, Torry, and Az and Warner's quick release. Faulk would seem to be the ultimate turf-back, but this is what Marshall thinks about that... "I think most people would agree with me that grass is a much better playing surface. Turf does allow players to make quicker cuts and run faster, while on grass they don't get that advantage. I grew up playing on grass all the way through college, so my natural abilities have enabled me to learn how to make quick cuts and run fast. Defenders are more likely to catch me if we are on turf vs. grass." Take the Rams and give the points. MORE STUFF. We could talk Marshall all day... he was the obvious, but did you see this stuff? Did you see Hodgins smacking people in the defensive backfield? He will never be a threat to carry the ball and he's still not as skilled as Harris was receiving it, but did you see him laying 270 pounds of wood leading the play? Did you see Orlando Pace wiping out half the defensive line on trap blocks on the counter plays to the left side? Forget McCollum... he's a lot like Nutten, he can pull and help out on the right side, and he's adequate in pass protection, but on the majority of those plays to the left, he's engulfed... by Orlando. Did you see Billy Jenkins anticipating the balls to the tight end? He's been doing this all year. It's true they have Jones and Clemons running with the tight end while Billy hangs back most of the time on 3rd down in nickel situations, but when the ball comes Billy's way, he sees it and he gets his hands in there. Did you see London Fletcher step all over Terry Kirby in his eagerness to jump up and dance and then Kirby come after him, looking like he wanted some of that... unfortunately, Little London was busy getting funky and shaking his moneymaker for the crowd, he never even turned around to see Kirby towering over him, so poor Terry just had to suck it up and go back to the huddle:) Did you see Kurt Warner give Trent Green a wink and a big smile as he ran back onto the field after a 4th quarter timeout? Have you seen the attitude that Dexter McCleon is bringing into these games? Some folks don't like the 'tude, the talking smack and getting in these young quarterbacks' and receivers' faces when they screw up... but I LOVE IT. Dexter is pure competitive fire. He gets in people's heads and he HATES it HATES it when he gets beat... which has been VERY seldom. I still remember his expletive laden explosion up at Macomb when he got torched for the first time all day by Ricky Proehl. He beat the heck out of a down marker and he carried his anger right on into the lockerroom. He's a slow burn, very different from Dre Bly's hotdogging sideshow. I want my cornerbacks to be mean like Dexter. Did you see the penetration D'Marco Farr got, blowing up the run all day and batting down 3 passes? And finally, some say that Dexter's holding came prior to the tipped ball and Lyght's interception should not have counted? Well, that could be, though the rules are explicit that there is no pass interference on tipped balls... at any rate, if the Rams got away with one, then it was only even... on the prior play, Ray Agnew hit Couch as he released the ball and it was ruled an incomplete pass... bad call. Couch released the ball at the 15 and it landed at the 17 or 18... that's a fumble. That's just some cool things I noticed this week amidst the Fletcher family reunion. BRUCE. Can anyone get to Warner with these receivers in single coverage down the field, and can ANYONE cover Ike Bruce in man??? There is no cornerback in football who can single cover Ike Bruce. I don't know if Deion at his peak could have done it. A team like Tampa with solid corners and a great rush from the front four could give the Rams problems except for the matter of Ike Bruce. If you don't double him, you're inviting catastrophe... if you do... the Rams have enough firepower at the WR position and pass catching backs to move the ball consistently against the other nine defenders. In this glorious season for the Rams that has seen so many great stories allready and so many things go right... Mike Martz, Marshall Faulk, Kurt Warner, Torry, Az, Holcombe et al. ... the song remains the same in one major respect... the Rams will go as far as Ike's hamstrings can carry them. Dick Vermeil says that no-one can cover Bruce on turf. The Rams are a turf team and the defense is built around speed... the grass surface should take away some of that advantage away. But the Rams are not strangers to grass... they have an indoor practice facility in Earth City, but they used it a total of 4 times last year. They practice outdoors on grass every day |
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