Instant Reaction: Los Angeles Rams Battle Injuries, Show Grit Against Detroit Lions

[Music] yo what is up ramley what's up Los Angeles live instant reaction tough loss for the Rams an overtime 2620 hardfought game fun game uh I'm sure a lot of fans were probably pulling their hair out but uh Rams battled showed some grit came back showed heart uh we we'll talk some positives obviously talk some concerns and and kind of future outlook and all these injuries and whatnot but uh got a special guest joining us so first and foremost let's uh coach row does the salute the Troy podcast with me so he's does our USC stuff here in the lap network but also a Rams fan and wanted to join up what's up coach how's it going how how's everything been going since the last since I saw you 12 hours ago yeah 9:00 amm we did our USC live Victory Sunday after USC won last night and we are back 12 hours later doing Ram so yeah good seeing you and I'm doing good yeah skinny what's up brother how we doing oh doing all right this was a fascinating game um completely a lot of things I was not expecting to see um but really fascinating I mean we can put it at that yeah yeah fascinating is a a good good word to put I mean let me coach I'll start with you like do you feel good after this game like based on the injuries the fact they battled by the overtime is that a posit I mean that is obviously a positive but is that like a a good building block or there was there more red flags out of this than maybe positives for you so the positives are that they were able to compete while they were super injured right so they lost their number two receiver they lost uh their offensive tackle right and then they had a third string guy in that Aiden Hutchinson just beat like a drum on the Baseline but um the fact that they were still able to compete with injuries on offense I mean so you do see the positives uh I haven't looked at the exact numbers but the defense is really competitive too they're not as bad as everybody think I think it's just one of those things that's going to have to come over time defensively with the Rams because it is a new defensive coordinator there is a little bit of new scheme to it there are some new players so a couple of those things are going to have to happen but positively they're not in a bad place but there's a couple of things that they will have to fix in order to achieve the goal that they want to achieve that the standard has been set for them yeah I think there's a there there's a lot we'll get into it a lot that needs to be kind of addressed but um before I give my I don't want to go into a monologue but skinny what you think overall I know we were talking the whole game and it was I mean it was a fun game it was a fun game and stuff like that but just your initial kind of reaction I guess to to the loss you know coming into it I said this this would have to be a Stafford Le game and I I feel like he was on fire tonight I think he put the team on his back I think it came down to he and cup once PUK Anda went out um can't remember exactly how many catches he ended with but 14 I think or 14 I think TI ties the most of of his career um 21 21 targets Jared gof only had 28 pass attempts in this game so he was targeted just almost as much as um as they were throwing the ball and to that point um you know uh the Rams are really lucky that the Detroit Lions decided to start throwing the ball instead of keep running the ball because the Rams could not stop the run we saw it we saw it perfectly on that last Drive where they just could not they were just getting pushed around by by bigger more physical by a bigger more physical line yeah they wised up in overtime and went back to what was actually working running the ball we say it all the time right like offensive player calls try to get too cute sometimes it's like what if it's working working luckily they they didn't and it that's what got to overtime so um yeah you know I want to start with you know pause let's get in everyone enjoyed it thanks for hanging out uh bring your comments thoughts uh concerns questions excitement I mean you know it was still a fun game but um you know it not to P myself in the back I'm pretty sure do you remember what your score prediction was in our previous show it was 3230 I thought it was going to be a much more high scoring you're doing I think mine was 2720 if I'm not mistaken yeah you said yeah that's right because you had them covering so yeah I think it was 2729 anyway not that it matters um would have ra much rather the Rams win than my score get right but no I so I think the good is Stafford looked fantastic um as you alluded to um you know I I saw a few non Rams Fans even tweet like Stafford looks like the best quarterback in football based on week one performances and he played like it 34 49 317 yards touchdown did have that one bad interception couple Miss opport ities I think of that one third down on the was either the last Drive in regulation the second last drive when he stepped up he was obviously pressure but stepped up in the pocket had cup open and just overthrew him a bit and you feel like he if he got that that could have that could have really you know changed the outcome of the game potentially but um overall played fantastic being the fact that he was behind the offensive line that he was I mean you think about you have a third string left tackle with AJ aury you had a $16 million guard that moved to Center that then moved back to guard so then you had a rookie center with a backup right tackle I it was just 2022 Vibes all over again so the fact that he was able to play the way he did fantastic Cooper cup just reminded the whole world that he still is probably arguably top three receiver in football duude to his Unstoppable and everyone knew he was gonna get the ball every time you mentioned it 21 targets and they still couldn't stop him and that that toet tapping catch he had down the sidelines was pretty incredible um and I thought the defense you know they battled their butts off uh I thought schematically they looked pretty good Chris Shula called a good game for his first ever defensive coordinate professional football game um regular season I should say uh I thought he' played well I thought tackling overall was fairly good you know some miscues here and there uh Quinton Lake I thought played great in his first kind of like starting role in that star he had that ever important tackle on that last drive that ended up helding Detroit to the field goal um which forced it into overtime so you know I thought that was really good and just the way they battled all games so you know it showed late that they were mismatched when it came to just the trenches to the maybe the talent discrepancy but you can't knock the heart the will the grit the passion so those are my those are my positives before I get into some worrisome stuff but coach anything else to add positive wise no like I said positively they were able to compete at least they can compete and they were to compete with a lot of injuries and that's always a plus you know injuries always heal you know as long as there's not season in injuries they always heal and it's only week one and they have 16 more games to go so it looks like you know they'll be able to get back and they could get things together they'll be able to be a competitive team I don't know about Super Bowl bound they have some things that they need to fix Super Bowl bound we'll probably get into that but they they could be a playoff team yeah yeah I think so I mean that you have the no quit that's that's number one now the thing and I was it in our other chat Ryan that we were talking about this but like the way they played was was great and admirable but it's not sustainable through 17 games and and you know you can play with that grit that mentality to stay in these games but if you do that every game it's just going to wear and eventually you're G to get exposed like like they did in overtime so you know concern wise and again I don't want to turn this into a hey we told you but this was like the question we had been asking all offseason was how this defense would look down the stretch and trenches against Elite offensive lines like the Lions have like the running game they have how this offensive line would look when they spent all this money and yet couldn't get healthy and they went after players that had already had injury history so skinny you first like what what stood out in this game as like a all right this is what we were asking all offseason it didn't really answer those questions well it's it's about where they ended up last year um they went on that great tear almost going eight to end the season just losing one game to the to a very good Ravens team um and they did it on Kiren Williams back uh and we didn't see that today um that was kind of what we all expected with this updated line getting Jonah Jackson in there paying Kevin doson uh third most expensive line I keep I keep hitting that point um in not the ones that played tonight but it's supposed to be the third most expensive yeah certainly um so you know I I came into this game expecting to see a lot more Kiren Williams I expected to see you know a lot more bullying from Steve Aila from Jonah Jackson from Kevin doson I understand that they were down on on the on the tackles but you know where kyen will Williams really made his hay last year was in between the tackles um specifically running behind Kevin doson and Sean McVey just went away from that game plan pretty much entirely you know weal talked about what we got uh Matthew Stafford with 49 pass attempts uh kyen Williams had 18 rushing attempts so I you know I get it um this is a passing League you got you got to do that but are they able to do that are they able to have that same running game that they had that fueled that that beautiful run that got him into the playoffs last year well I I think what was was frustrating about it and I again I get it that they they already started handicapped if you will with both tackle starting tackles out just to start the game then obviously losing um Avala and Joe Noom during the game but the whole mindset based on the draft based on offseason acquisitions based on kind of the talk was that this was going to be a kind of run first protect Matthew Stafford obviously you have one of the greatest arms in football at your disposal but they wanted to run the ball establish the Run kind of become this smash M team we we joke all the time coach you haven't obviously been on the show much but we joke that this went from like a Glitz and gland team to more of a bring your lunch pill to work team over the course of the end of last season because that's the kind of the identity they wanted to create and then tonight they just reverted all the way back to just that Glitz and Glam and not being that Smashmouth and obviously if you don't have the Personnel up front you can't you can't necessarily do that but it's like they didn't even try I mean the first drive what was it what was it skinny like eight passes to one run on the first drive well I I I said it in our chat you know it was it was 12 passes to two after the first two drives so I mean yeah I think it that's that sounds probably about right and I think that first run was about his only good run for the game yeah I I did uh I did find it interesting they ran a lot of pistol thought that was kind of fun though a lot of pistol formation uh he did that some last year too but um but yeah I mean it you know obviously and I'm seeing comments here you know was a lie McVey was never going to run the ball I mean it's not a bad point because he he hasn't a ton like there's been games where he dedicates and we how many times do we say like if the Rams run the ball 30 times they're like 98% win percentage it's it's unreal what how much they win when they run the ball 30 plus times it's just rare that they hit that number um and it looks like now that they're a little banged up they're going to revert back to pass coach let me ask you this because you would know probably even better than us when you have injuries I know you coach defense but you're a smart guy so you can answer this put you on the spot oh thank you yeah yeah you're you're pretty smart you know I think so when you're banged up on offensive line do you want to put those guys in a position like is it easier for backup I'm trying to think how to like phrase this question is it easier to run the ball with your backup off Lin or force them to pass protect 49 times against Elite pass rushers well it all yeah it all depends what what type of run you're trying to do and which is interesting because uh Shan McVey is a West coast-based guy and when you think about the roots of the West Coast you you base your pass off the Run game right and he's an outside zone or wide Zone as they call it so and now they're talking about reverting the power which it's a little bit harder to teach especially the guys that's been there because you have to find your track and and look up the numbers and things like that um so it is hard if you just go get a backup tackle it's hard if you go get a backup guard because normally what you want to try to do is what you call what you call a swing guy so you want to go get a backup guard Center you want to go get a backup tackle guard that way you really don't lose a step and then like I remember they were talking about well they had to move somebody to Center and then move somebody to guard when you start moving all those people around and they're not really used to that position and I don't know and I don't study the the you know me Ryan I don't really study rosters like I could get deep into the Exodus and but I don't really Ste The rosters but you the USC roster that much yeah so like like uh it's funny skin I say Ryan who's number 14 yeah that guy he's pretty good um no but but um he I don't know if their backups or swings and their backups if their backups or swings it' be a lot easier I see the issue is that now you're talking about throwing a guy in it's like a pitch Runner that's the best way I could put it it's like a a pitch Runner pitch hitter you're sitting there you're not hoping to play and the next thing you know I got to protect the backside of your franchise quarterback against one of the top defensive ends in the game and now I'mma throw the ball let's say I'm throw the ball another 29 times and I got to keep him from having from getting sacked it's pretty tough and it's pretty hard to do especially if you don't know in the NFL the backups don't practice that's what a lot of people don't know once the game comes the backups don't practice they're scout team players only people who practice the game plan are the starters that's it so he probably didn't practice one rep and then wasn't even close to practicing one rep and he just was the lion offense to tackle this whole week and the next thing you know he has to know the game plan he has to know the slide protection to be able to protect now it was it's very fixable and sha McVey gets really stubborn right and he should have would he should have gone to what it's called 60 protection and 60 protection is just one more blocker not with the tight end but he should have used the back he should have kept Kyon Hudson in and used him to help and excess with with uh with with uh Hutchinson and then used them to chip off and then he would have had a dump off but he didn't really do that and it kind of put him in a bad position so um to your question yeah it it is kind of hard especially when you don't practice the game plan and you have no idea what's going on with the game plan just from being a meetings and reading the Playbook so it is kind of hard to jump in there and be able to do that so harder to run Block versus it's harder to pass it's harder to pass so so theoretically they should have run the ball more they should have ran the ball more yeah but yeah yeah sorry sorry they should have they should have ran the ball more but the problem with them now is they're trying to become a gap scheme team they're trying to get out of the Zone scheme so then it starts to become a little bit different too because you have to figure out you have to ID people you got to figure out who to block you got remember with gapsk you're leaving a guy so you have to pick up a guy so everybody blocks down one so am I Gap still hinge am I going next level to seal there's a bunch of stuff that happens in that Gap scheme compared to good Zone schemes like oh there's a dude in front of me he's on my inside all I have to do is just block him off and if and if the play goes I could get to the next level and help there's a lot of differences between Gap and Zone scheme so it is a little bit harder but it's much easier to run the ball and get out of the game and keep the clock running then pass the ball against the top one of the top defense Edge rushers in the NFL and constantly stopping the clock so yeah it is easier to run I'm sorry about that no no you you explain it great I was just making sure you let the people people know that that's the point I was trying to make but no you said something really interesting there that that skinny and I talked about and skinny I'll toss to you in a second because you mentioned this also during the game you know the center almost always is the one calling out the protections at the line of scrimmage and what concerned us last week when they made the switch to say oh Jonah Jackson's gonna move over to Center we're gonna move Avala back to guard is okay all training camp the thought was Avala was going to be the one making those checks calling out those protections and then all of a sudden the week game week basically Mak the switch back to Jackson and then obviously in this game make the switch back and put Bo limmer in at Center who had a great preseason but still a rookie and skinny you said you noticed like Kevin doson even was was very vocal on the line calling stuff out because clearly there wasn't that that Captain if you will on the offensive line that was able to call it out and that was going into the game a concern for us like this is a really quick switch yeah sure he can snap the ball and he can probably block guys but there's a lot more pre- snap that valuable from the center position that making the switches is just seems too quick to go up against this defensive line and so I'll toss to you skinny because you're the one that brought that up like how much did you notice that as an issue with this offensive line yeah I just started noticing Kevin Dodson who's the Right Guard out there pointing you know that's how you know uh offensive lineman's communicating with everybody as he's Point pointing and I was like you know you don't see the Right Guard doing that terribly often you you see that uh you know the centers doing that regularly um and you're just putting something onto Kevin dodson's plate uh he's he's obviously played phenomenally phenomenally last year at the very least um and you know it's similar to what Shawn McVey said when they brought on Jerry Jacobs when Darren Kendrick went out with an injury you don't want to start moving around more responsibilities and putting more pressure on people and he's specifically talking about injuries so I guess it's at least a little bit relevant here but you're putting more responsibility on a guy um who's your best lineman doing what he does best maybe not necessarily communicating and uh you know being the captain and and and playing as a center Ju Just a little bit to the right so you know it just something I noticed and I was curious about and I don't know if you have any experience with that coach but uh you know it's uh it's a whole whole added responsibility for a guy that's used to not having to do that so okay so that was be my question was he originally the one that I Beed the mic but I the only thing I could come up with and and and one of the one of the things I'm show you I don't know I'm not there I don't know what they're talking about so this is the only idea I can give you it was loud in there and I can't assume that they were going off a silent count so it's easier for the guard to talk to the tackle than the center the ID the mic that's two spaces down that's the only solution I could come with the opposite guard might have been ID in the mic also he just wasn't as pointed as much as Dawson might have been pointing to help him out because you got to realize that dude was injured and he wasn't very good like he's going to be selling insurance tomorrow like so you know what I mean like he might have been pointing and the other side might have already had it down because they have the chemistry so that might have been the object too so that's the only thing I can think of is that it's easier to talk to a tackle than a center to talk to a tackle because of the silent count yeah I I will say that the one uh Silver Lining on all of these injuries is that um the starting left guard aeric Jackson is not injured he is only suspended uh for two games so there is a finite period for that although he was he did have an ankle injury during training camp so we'll see where exactly he is with that come week three so uh plenty of plenty of injuries um but on the other side Warren McLendon was in for Rob havenstein who was out with an ankle injury as well um pukaa goes out um I mean it's hard to speculate the severity of injuries just from from what we saw but you know 2022 Vibes real strong right now and no nobody likes that so I mean you just got to hope for the best at this point until till we find out more about the the actual severity of these but I I've got two more like Doom and Gloom points and then then we'll we'll try to do some more maybe some positive stuff but and and Coach I want to ask you this specifically too since you you were you know you weren't you at the college level but still recruiting and roster building um you know there's been years with the Chargers and the Niners I can think of specifically just cuz we're we're within LA and obviously those teams we cover the Chargers but Niners are very I know have a lot of friends and there were many years when both teams have had a lot of injuries in the P Chargers seem to always have injuries in the past Niners went through a really big spell I feel like two three years ago they had a ton of injuries and and that was always kind of like an excuse I'm not calling anyone out but like fans were like well if you were just healthy like you look what we could do but they were always injured and like I I kind of have this thought that there's there's flukes and then there's maybe not culture but there's actual decision making roster building and practice regiment that can actually either Aid or um assist I guess in those injury continuances happening and obviously in the roster building Wise It's when you draft or sign injury prone players that's an obvious one but then in the practice thing it's like okay how do you practice are you practicing way too soft so when you get to the game it's very easy for these soft tissue injuries to happen are you pushing guys too hard are you pushing weight regimens where they're above their weight limit where they should be so they're playing above their weight and they're actually hurting joints and stuff like that and and so I I did a lot of research on and you looked at some of the Chargers in the past and and like Derwin James for instance like I was talking to an actual doctor two three years ago and it's like yeah he was probably playing like 15 pounds over what he should have been playing and since he slimmed back down he he's actually been relatively healthy over the last 18 to to you know two years 18 months to two years and and the Niners now have been relatively healthy you know most recently so I say all that because we can see this Rams right now as a fluke or we can see it as a did they poorly build this roster with players that have injury history and we know for a fact that their training is pretty soft in terms of very light no hitting they don't play anyone in preseason and so when you get in that first game action was it just like that I'm not saying the players were shocked but that actual like physical change in uh that just causes these soft tissue injuries to happen much more frequently so anyway a lot of word vomit there but yeah relevance to that you think so let let's start here um the preseason is not their fault as scheduled by the NFL and and it's mostly Regional if you look at who they play in the preseason they try to keep it Regional if that makes sense they try to play the I just mean the fact the Rams literally don't play a single starter oh oh oh yeah and we were actually talking about that about like what the rookie quarterback's like a lot of people don't play their starters anymore and they're not getting the game experience and the top quarterbacks that picked today weren't you're right not even not even starters like Joe Noom is the backup and didn't play in preseason right he should have played in Pras yeah and so so and then there was like a brag thing about how big the o line is now and it was kind of an issue that I bought up on my podcast BEC on our podcast because Essie gained all this weight I'm like well I'm slightly worried because too much weight can mean you can move slow that means you bear an extra weight that you don't need even though it's muscle it it had me a little bit worried neither here nor there if you see SE game these dudes are flying around they look really good they might be bearing too much weight now like I said they're trying to change their run game up and they're trying to go to this tough team but they don't have what we call they don't have the bark they haven't built the bark you know what I mean when you think of sham M's offense you don't think of Jim Harbaugh's offense right like you're not gonna think power and and something tough so you're you are right twoo much weight can can be issue not having a tough practice one of the things that they say about the Chiefs is their Camp is one of the T toughest camps in the NFL Believe It or Not Andy Reed tell one um douge P one of the toughest camps Buffalo Bills have one of the toughest camps Detroit Lions Detroit Lions have a very tough Camp even the Ravens have a tough Camp so it's something that you just it's a me it's a mentality that you have to build and when Shan McVey was first hired and a couple one of some of my good friends I was like I just don't like the culture that he's presenting because a lot of players like him but it's not football you know what I mean he he want to be liked but he they won't run through a wall for him like I love him as a coach but they won't run through a wall for him okay he use the example Aaron Donald Aaron Donald's an outlier you know what I mean let's use uh rap how how much will rap run through a wall and put his body on even though he's gone now but how much would he have put his you know what I mean those are the questions that you have to get and and when I say that just use let's use this comparison how many chiefs will run through a wall for Andy Reid and how many Rams will run through a wall for Sean McVey and I and I understand the culture is good and I and I get where but just think just think about that who will run through a wall for sha McVey who will run through a wall for Andy Reid those are things and so to answer your and to go to that to answer your roster building question I have the privilege to coach with Cam Cameron Cam Cameron Super Bowl winning offensive coordinator with the Ravens very good guy um he was the head coach of the Dolphins didn't pan out very well and pro experience he said when we build a roster we build a We compare to the best team in the NFL and or how much better are they at those spots and how close can we get to those spots right so if we use the Rams the best team in the NFC right now on paper are the 49ers and the Eagles so if I if we go and look at the roster spot for spot how many spots are they better than us at they're better than us in the o line they're better than it's at the linebacker spot they're better than it's at the receiver spot they're better than it's at the running back spot we're better at quarterback we're better at defensive backs a couple of those positions they're better we're they're better than us at defensive line right now a couple of those positions really matter they're o line dline linebacker right the receivers and the running back the guys who score right we have the better quarterback they didn't build the roster to win the NFC West until when the NFC they built the roster to try to change it but they never took into consideration what they have to beat now I'm not saying this isn't a playoff team but this isn't Super Bowl teams either right they they're good enough to go to the playoffs we just saw that because they just competed with the Lions but are they really good enough to beat the 49ers are they good enough to beat the Eagles they didn't do that to put their roster in a position and depth matters and we talk about depth all the night all the time with lute to Troy how good is their death a good example is the Ravens Ravens preseason they always say there's like 50 Scouts here trying to recruit trying to sign the guys that get cut the um Chiefs also have the same problem there's 50 scouts at the preseason games looking at the guys that they're going to cut because their depth is so deep if somebody gets hurt on the Ravens it's like nothing ever happens you have to create that depth and I don't think the Rams sign the depth depth always matters even though it's a 53 man roster and it's a little bit tougher I've always built unlimited rosters right because we have this number amount of scholarships we can feel it but 53 is a little bit tougher but who's the next best person out there that is a Band-Aid which we call like you could put a Band-Aid on he plays three or four games you never even notied that our guy was out we get back in and we get so much better that's what happens with the 49ers that's what happens with the Chiefs that's what happens with the Ravens that's what happens with the Eagles those Band-Aid players could play three four games and the Chiefs are Chiefs Eagles 49ers Ravens are still competitive but when those dudes come back off injury they go light years ahead because their starters are so much better than the dep if that answers your question does answer or was it too deep no no no um yeah I'll toss to you Ron yeah I just think there was definitely some moves that we've seen that are like we unfortunately saw play out in this in this game and um and what you said earlier you know I I don't necessarily fully disagree but I think most of these guys would run through wall for for McVey I just think at this point most of them would probably break a bone and and be injured and out on the IR pretty quickly after So based on that but just skny any relevance to what I what I said in terms of just the way you guys don't agree you guys don't agree what I'm saying by the lick of my face and I have no idea what I'm talking about even though I got paid to coach so I'm just reading the comments these fans are way different from SC fans um yeah well the question was about how the the team is currently constructed and and is that what you were thrown to me Ryan yeah yeah yeah it's you know it's a it's an inter interesting question with the 53 you know every everybody's got the same amount of money to work with everybody's got the same amount of players to work with um you know I I can never tell if it's if I'm just too close to this team if I just uh pay I'm paying attention too much but there are times when you look at certain positions and you go you know if that guy goes down they're gonna be in a lot of trouble yeah and I don't know I don't know if you know every every analyst uh you know looks at their team that way but you know um I've always saw this team as one working on on a tight RPP on thin margins um that the plan that they lay out has to work plan it's plan a we don't practice F you know we don't we don't have a plan B there's no there's no papaya uh uh uh strategy for those F1 fans out there um you know it's it's plan a or you know it it's going to be tough um and but you know I'm just going to go back to what I was originally saying was I thought plan a had something to do with with Kiren Williams and and and Blake corm and um that mitigates a lot of this you saw the Lions best drives um where they took a ton of time off the clock and they're running the ball effectively pushing people around and you know I I think I'm changing the subject here but like I thought that was a game plan and and now we're now we're back to the 2021 game plan where you know Shawn McVey openly said they could not run the ball in 2021 when they won the Super Bowl um and but you know even watching the League this year week one is so much different than 2023 you know with the amount of low-scoring games and there's there's a lot of there's a lot of millu that we could dig into if if we had a if we had a different podcast but um the league is changing um defense has a bit of an upper hand right now with this kind of um Mike McDonald Jesse Minter kind of strategy playing out and I thought the Rams were meeting that moment with how they were building their team big bulky front uh offensive front couple of couple of little powerful Runners just gonna bust through those nice Gap Gap scheme Duo uh run R run things and so you know for that team building for that game plan I like how they've built this team defense that's a different story still have plenty of question marks on there on that side uh but offensively um you know the the the game plan is has changed apparently you know yeah ask this question because you guys have followed him more I just want what made him change from The Zone scheme and made him go to Gap scheme I just that's the part that I don't understand like he's had so much success in his career being a Zone scheme guy West Coast offense guy which har balls are West Coast offense guy but they just used Gap scheme off of it what made him go to Gap scheme and switch from The Zone scheme do you guys know or just he woke up one day was like I want to be a power football guy yeah and and skinny chiman too but I don't know if there was a a moment where he decided to CH it just happened when he hired Michael Flur and Brian Wendell as as the offensive line coach and I don't know if that was just a conversation they had based on the roster that they wanted to shift um but I can't remember an instance we just said like this is why we're changing this mode d i I almost remember it was like last year week one like oh this looks a little different than what we've seen it just all of a sudden it was what it was but do you remember anything differently happening skinny you know I he likes to you know uh kind of pack in around how he gets beat so the the fangio uh defense shut him down in 2018 goes out and hire hires Brandon Staley a couple years later uh instills some of those uh influences into that you know he's you know San Francisco the way they beat him is pushing him around in in the in the trenches and you know I think he just got tired of that and he saw that there was a benefit to that you can take a ton of time off the clock taking you know four yards at a time uh then then that opens up the passing game in a different way and last year when when this team was humming that's exactly what it looked like so I mean I you know I don't know exactly why I do think that the league is moving in that way where the fangio uh defense uh lightens up the boxes they don't like their linebackers they for some reason they don't like that second level guy they they don't believe that he offers anything uh they lighten up the boxes which you know the the analysts and the pundits will say this team is daring this team to run and if you if you can't if you can't meet that defense in that way um you you you have you're you're you're missing an opportunity there and you know I've said it before there's you you know as an offensive play caller you have all these tools in your belt and if you're not using the right tool at the right time you're you're you're missing opportunities and and you know he like you were saying he's stubborn he leans into things so heavily you know he was leaning into in 2021 he was leaning into the into the pass so strongly um and you know it comes out that he he just didn't believe in his running backs and I think he just he he wanted to put something back in that tool belt where he could use it and I think that um you know for the you know the different kind of backs that you need for the different kinds of running systems um I think it's a little bit easier to find those Gap scheme guys because they're just um this is where the play is going hit get there get there you know there's no waiting around there's no trying to figure out where you need to go just get there and that's what Kiren Williams did yeah you know it almost and and obviously it's week one so there's a long time and this team was three and six last year right made the playoffs so I mean this is this is a lot that can change change and I still want to believe like what you were saying skinny that the identity that we were kind of sold which you know we're not owed anything I'm not saying that but the identity that it seemed like this team was this offense was building not even seems I mean it's where they put their money in and their draft capital in was to be this kind of running play action type team take the pressure off Stafford it almost just seems like because of the injuries that occurred and I don't like using the word panicked is a a great coach and play caller and been around he's been around long enough but if we're being harsh it almost felt like he panicked and was like all right I'm just going to rely on the arm of Stafford like we got a third string tackle as I mentioned second string right tackle rookie Center like I don't trust kind of like what you're were saying with the running game in 21 like I don't trust these guys to get it done in here I trust Matthew Stafford so we'll just drop back and sling it around the yard and and you know see what happens and guess what they went to overtime against a Super Bowl contending team in Detroit on the road and played a a very good football game so I know this this entire live show has been seeming seemingly somewhat negative in reality they went toe-to-toe with this team very very injured and still went to overtime kind of what we're alluding to is that's not sustainable over 17 games and if that's going to be the identity of what this team is this will not be a playoff team like they a they need to get healthy but B they need to identify who they want to be on off offense and defense and kind of stay in that lane and if it's going to be Stafford's going to throw it 50 times a game I don't think they're going to be a playoff team personally that's just me I I people can call me out they want I just don't think you can sustain that with the physicality of what these defenses as you mentioned skinny with these Jesse Minter defenses these Mike McDonald defenses I mean watch watch the NFL in week one some of the physicality of these defenses and granted there was a lot of rookie quarterback play today so that made it look a lot worse um but you can have games like this can you have 10 game stretches last year like you said when they almost won eight games in a row it's because the running game was humming they were really leaning into that and playing well and then that opened things up for Matthew Stafford to be Matthew Stafford so um it's it's an identity they needed they thought they were gonna be we thought they were gonna be they I truly believe they need to do that and hopefully when they get allic Jackson back in two weeks Rob havenstein hopefully will be good to go next week we don't know the severity of of um Aila but I don't it doesn't seem like it's severe based on everything we've heard so hopefully you know hopefully they'll be at full strength by week three and then it's like okay then we can really see what this is going um but yeah I'll leave it at that on that so uh one one positive we'll wrap up here soon any question I see people chatting but any questions you guys have or anything drop them in here but uh shout out Tyler Johnson what a game right d Johnson a Golden Gopher I thought he had a great game uh practice squad guy ends up getting in the starting I thought he was going to break that one of the house there in the was that late third quarter early fourth quarter uh skinny we praise him a lot 63 y yeah just your thoughts on his game yeah no it's it became quite apparent that the reason that he was in there behind pukan a COA uh which is great to see you know I kind of thought that maybe Jordan Whittington would be in that after the preseason he had uh but Tyler Johnson had a great game and um yeah any anybody that can be in there to take a bit of pressure off of Cooper cut because even in this game even with those 21 targets I started to get worried about Cooper cup and his and his tender Li ligaments and uh so yeah um you know for all of our team building hand ringing uh for this season uh the one thing that the the Rams seem to be able to do is find good receivers and um at at really good prices even Demarcus Robinson who's playing on a on a one-year deal uh shoest string budget there as well so they keep finding guys they find pukan AA you know we'll see what ends up with uh Jordan Whit Whittington this season as a former sixr rounder so yeah I mean you gota gotta be super encouraged by you know they're they're they're still good at what they do you know you know McVey can can dial up those beautiful passing plays where he just finds guys space and and and open room for them to catch and run the with the the ball so gotta love that yeah let's uh let's answer this question from Steve I think Bo limmer has almost cemented his place as starting center going forward what say you guys coach I'll throw it to you yeah I mean it's it's it if you play well and it's still hard to determine what you're going to do with the offensive line right we're they're missing two guys on their offensive line they're missing the backup and it's three guys right they're missing the backup they're missing a guy on suspension they miss a guy that got Hur yeah four guys so like it's it's hard to say where they're going to be offensively and offensive line wise but he played a very good game you know what I mean like it was just is that the rookie yeah yeah so I mean he played a good game he didn't give up any sacks that's all that matters right like I said about Caleb today Caleb didn't throw any picks he had 94 yards but he didn't throw any picks he kept the ball on the Chicago Bear side so I mean it's a long way to go for him but he did a good job and and I think he'll get better for him when he gets help he didn't have any help today with the injury so I think it'll be a lot better for him when he get help and you'll see him play better with the experience around him so yeah I don't see any reason why he would change it now yeah we we talked about this skinny what two weeks ago and it seemed La almost laughable back then but here we are two weeks and we kind of we kind of literally said the scenario we like what if what if Bo limmer is your actual starting center and maybe they end up moving Avala to like a tackle he played like some snaps at TCU but anyway your thoughts on limmer and what he could be if these injuries keep coming up I mean you kind of touched on it with your with your comment there it's like who are you going to move off the guy you just signed for a whole bunch of money uh Jonah Jackson Steve avula who is I mean who knows what his injury is but uh you know he's he was great last year um so you know he could be worth a trade you know to somebody that needs a center but I yeah I don't think he's right I think I think he looks great uh I thought he looked fantastic didn't allow a sack uh you know need to see what he looks like in the running game more would love to see some more uh you know tape on that but great draft pick great sixth-rounder yeah s s is the hardest position to play by the way also a lot of people don't understand that Center is the hardest position to play I've always thought that it's legit the hardest and you have to be the most athletic person have most athletic person on the offensive line to play it because you're iding the mic you're telling people where to go to on the slide if the quarterback and a lot of times in NFL a lot of times in NFL they have was they have check with M or you hear them a lot of times saying kill kill kill so in the Huddle they're legit calling two plays a pass play and a run play whatever look they get they're either gonna go with the first play or the killer go the second play now the center has to tell the offensive line hey we're now running power to the left make sure you check him there's the mic let's ID everybody and get it moving I now have to snap the ball which is 80% shotgun now either have to dece up to the second level either have to block down on a guy because somebody's pulling like Center is the hardest position on the offensive line so for a rookie to do it in the six round I mean against this defensive line I mean that's that's pretty good keep it up let the rest of line get healthy let's see where he goes from there yeah I mean if if healthy it's a good problem to have four four guys that can all play the interior we haven't seen Dotson at Center but you basically have aala Jackson and limur they can all play center or guard essentially so I mean yeah yeah those are the swing guys that I were talking about now you're creating the dep and those are the Band-Aids that I were talking about so if one of them does get hurt and you have to use one of those guys that say say Bower does get hurt now you have two more centers you just need to decide which one's the best one it's a two week two week thing you get back now you're way better oh we got our Center back we could move all our guys into our regular position so I guess I didn't know what I was talking about huh you guys walk me right into it thanks a lot and if all if all goes south they can call up Justin diit from the from the P practice squad fight on here we go and he was at he was at the collie last night saw him on the field said what up he was uh looking great wearing like a nice Hawaiian shirt nice uh those like chubby shorts that are like short like guy's on roster right now looking great he made the he made the he made the practice squad yep yeah that's pretty good as you should have versatile guy so um yeah hats off fight on Justin diit but all right last one for me and then you guys can toss anything else out but I feel like we got to bring this up again I hate I hate being negative but we got to talk tutu out we we talked all off season year four skinny you and I talked on many shows like is he worth a roster spot we saw what zavier was able to do as a special teamer and a receiver I know preseason is not everything you're not even playing with the starters but he looked like a nice versatile piece that had uh the ability to play on offense and special teams Tut two makes the spot we didn't see anything from him tonight special teams or zero catches um I I haven't I didn't T up the snap counts I don't know exactly how many snaps he played but it wasn't many and it's just a you know nothing against the person great guy we're always rooting for him but continues to take a roster spot and has continues to seemingly have zero impact on the game I'll start with you skinny just your thoughts on on 2 two and the decision to to keep him you know on the roster this year here here's my uh corkboard with the pins in it in the in the in the lines always sunny Philadelphia guy yeah what tutu atwell's on the roster Xavier Smith isn't on the roster uh Kiren Williams is returning kicks it's like yeah Cut 2 two put Xavier returning kicks and protect your very important supposedly running back that's I mean that's all I can say about it it's like from a team play 53 people on this roster everybody's got to contribute everybody's got to have a role we don't know what his role is I don't know I don't know what else to say about it so I mean yeah we said like on a on a positive level even if he's not H like isn't coming up in the stat sheet if he's at least clearing things out and being that weapon that that teams fear and have to account for and keep a safety over the top that opens up the middle stuff then fine that's great be a decoy and a nice second round pick expensive decoy that's great but it's not like he's not even being used for that again it's one week we'll see if that changes but I didn't see that all tonight coach did you no and he he can't do that that's why they don't do it with him I'm I'm just I'm just being honest it's just he can't do that the defensive backs are just as fast as him he can't do it have we ever have you seen him do it yet he's might have done I should say this have you seen supposed to do yeah but have you seen him do it at a high percentage level when you be like oh it's time to take a shot Here Comes tutu's play have you been able to see him do that no that's what we've been saying yeah that's what I'm saying so like and so my question for you is here's my question for you are the Rams still in capill because I know for a little bit they were in cap Hill have they escaped it yeah yeah pretty yeah they're good so I don't understand why they didn't cut them because the did the the cap hit for to cut him was 1.8 million which is chump change when it comes to solid caps and things like that so I don't know what his roster spot is and for that is the I think that's the the one thing missing from this offense right and Super Bowl year they had somebody to take the top off when he first got there they had somebody to take the top off these past few years with tutu Atwell they have not have anybody to take the top off and everything is mid intermediate routes so when I say intermediate routes everything is 10 to 20 yards he there's two Atwell has no big plays over 20 yards there's nothing to take a shot down the sideline Cooper cup does it every now and then but we just talking about a guy a big play to a touchdown wide open he burns everybody they don't have that and that's one of the key factors for the West Coast offense you know what I mean and when you look at it Andy Reid has it uh the 40 the 49ers has it right uh who else is a wco's offense guy the Chargers don't have it right now but I'm pretty sure the Chargers will get a guy who has it like um when you look at those teally have it with 's Darius Darius Davis yeah t yes so like you know what I mean like the so just real quick I'm sorry so the West Coast offense passing scheme is layered there's a short route there's an intermediate route and there's something deep and it's all based off a play action which is why you need to run the ball so you run play action to set up the pass that's like the basis very basic of West Coast offense 101 now yes it has advanced with where we are with offenses today but that found Foundation still stays there that's why Andy and Kyle and and Jim and John and Shan McVey run the ball a little bit more than you than than the rest of the NFL but they'd like to take shots right how often do you see the Chiefs take a shot how often do you see the Chargers take a shot how often do you see like the Ravens take a shot with like a z flowers or something like that how often did the Rams take any Shots tonight just a straight go route of going to get it can you remember the Rams taking a shout that's I can't remember any last year you see what I'm saying soever yeah yeah they need yeah yeah no no no I'm no it's just it's just the question that just trying to explain to you so like the as soon as the Rams get somebody who could that they could take a shot like iie first play of the G first play of the year I think sham M's first year is when deshun Jackson got there and they ran the play action oh it's Matt Stafford's first year yeah they ran that play action they ran that they very first play they took a shot right um they need somebody that they could get to go take a shot and they don't have that once they get somebody that they could take a shot with their offense expands a lot and you start to see more running you start to see more passing because now you have to Def both I want to mention one quick thing skinny to you never heard me say this but you can't never stop the run if you're not plus one in the Box Ryan hear me say that all the time and I don't know why the NFL's never plus one in the box and it just drives me crazy uh well spin a little positiv into this whole thing I'm on ra I'm on Raw St Brown three catches 13 yards on six targets yeah so you're just going because he's a Trojan no uh you know it was It was kind of one of our keys of the game was um you know who who do you keep in check on on the offense and Ryan would say just let Alan ra eat um and part of it was I don't I don't think Jed gof had his best game um no seemed like he had uh some unforced errors there but also I think you know you gotta give you gotta give credit where credit is due I thought I think that um you know they moved him out of the slot quite a bit more than I thought they would um and that would put that would put the that would have put them in the position to go up against Troy reer or Christian roseboom or Quinton Lake we thought Quinton wake got cooked by Jameson Williams uh on that one on that one Crosser um but uh you know you know good on the secondary for shutting down uh one of the one of the Premier uh wide receivers yeah oh speak that the lions were in West Coast and they took a couple of shots today yeah you see that and they run and they one of their shots they took off of a play action so like a lot of people say he didn't have time the play action buys you the time right if they rerun and freezes them buys you the time you do it you set up it's all there's foot work behind it but even the Lions who's the West Coast you know what I mean like at the time go ahead exactly I wanted shout out Jason love Jason always one of our guys um and I'm not saying this just to sound like I I know more than anyone and for sure I don't know more than you coach but I think there's a misconception of how much time you need to hit a deep shot now for sure Stafford did not have a lot of time I'm not saying I'm not saying the offensive line was giving him the time a day but when you have that deep threat speed guy you can release that within two seconds and catch and throw yeah it's it's like a five step drop boom you're it's not like the guyy standing back there for eight nine seconds you need all that time um it's usually a fstep sometimes seven step drop I'm not Stafford had that on every snap but there was opportunities to do it they just didn't whether and if you if or put it like this the rule of thumb is when you're in the shotgun you're already five steps so you can catch and throw right so if I need a seven step drop I take two more steps and I can throw if I'm up under Center there's five there's a three five that hasn't gone anywhere right so if I'm under Center in in tonight's situation if it was me calling offense I would have ran ran ran and took the shot off the play action easy just out side zone or any type of power play action just set up turn around and throw off the footwork and that's five six and a half yards I just need him to go I need to take the shot the reason why you take the shot is it loosens up the defense yeah the lions were able to stay tight all day because there was nothing to keep them loosen to loosen them up like shot loen yeah definitely and just think think mathematically about it right now now we're real nerdy but think mathematically about it these these top speed guys run their 40s in what 42 43 44 seconds if you're giving two second to release the ball which is not a that's a pretty quick pass rush if you're releasing the ball in two seconds but if you're in shotgun with a two to three step drop from that you got to release the ball before the guy's at 40 yards you got to release it in two seconds just to meet him 40 to 50 yards down the field that's if you have a Canon arm to get it 40 50 60 yards down the field with only the best quarterbacks have so two seconds is really all you need if you have the correct receiver and the correct play call to push the ball down the field that's all I'm trying to say and and if he's a speed threat think about this oh the Dolphins too with Mike mcdel they're also a West Coast team if he's a speed threat you give him the ball now and he's a he scares you you know what I'm saying I.E Tyreek Hill how did he get his touchdown today all he ran was a curl missed tackle he went 80 you know what I mean like so a true speed threat doesn't always have to be a shot but it's always something that you have to pay attention to like oh man what am I going to do with this like all right he's I can't let him get open so it LO fast people loosens up your defense and that's and that's what I think drives us us crazy and again I hate bagging on people because it's not what I want to do but these are professionals now but that's what Tut two's supposed to be yes but he's not like he he's literally on the roster to do that and yet we have literally never seen it we've probably he's probably I the Saints game was that last year or two years ago where we had that 60 yard catch touchdown and then May and then maybe won against the ners last year here's the thing here's the thing too here's the thing too yeah here's the thing too Ryan you you're going to miss right and they missed on tutu and I and I understand where you're coming from you're coming from the point of like all right you missed on him let's release him let's go find somebody that's good enough to do it so we can move forward and understand everyone else Ernest Jones is off the team and he wasn't a Miss like what are we do yeah you never know what the front office yeah you never know what the front office is doing that's an professional sports you don't you don't know what they're doing and will never understand what they're doing so don't even try to guess yeah exactly like that's our that's our job is to like talk and guess but in reality like these guys are obviously smarter than Martin me I will always admit that but in my little mind I don't know man I think we could go run the Giants front office I don't know thanks to Hard Knocks thanks to that yeah it's like maybe these guys aren't actually that no but then like you you you go and you see the Giants right and you're like all right cool like the Giants front offic is just complete idiots and then you go and look at the Chicago Bears and you look at like the legitimate like process that they put together to try to create a good team like Ryan P's a great GM and you understand what he's trying to do yeah and like I guarantee you after tonight he's like all right our next goal is to go find the offensive line we got the defense together we got the weapons we got to protect Caleb we got to get him time to get the ball out there like let's go get offensive line guarantee you the Giants if it was the Giants they would have just said well we gave $40 million to Dan Jones so I guess we'll be all right so definitely yeah yeah I I shout out Ryan Paul because he he got a lot of heat after because he was in his first year when they took trabis um and he was seen as like a a terrible GM and he's really turned that thing around so um good for him but that that's off topic well anything else you guys got or else we can we can wrap up we're pushing an hour here I don't know if there's anything else you guys want to add no no thank you guys for having me it's always good to see you skinny T I ain't seen you in a while man oh it's always good to be seen by you man uh we tried to have you on to talk some uh dline specifically before the season uh just because it's all it's all brand new um Ryan Ryan FL Ryan flaked on me I told him to hit me up on a Friday he never did what you talking about out of town or something I don't think I flake no I think you were just just to tie this all together um USC r RS I came across a interesting uh little trivia question when was the last time the Rams drafted a USC Trojan it was uh 2013 TJ McDonald any guesses yeah Ryan said 2013 TJ McDonald ding that's the winner I wouldn't know that I don't know that stuff skinny I don't know any of that stuff I just I it's just incredible to me that you know uh this amazing school that's right down the right down the the block so yeah 2013 TJ McDonald 2006 Dominic bird and then before that 1986 Elbert Watts defensive back oh the Rams did dra Dominic bird troj in the last 50 years uh well a couple in the 80s so in the last 40 years there's been six 50 we're in 2020 50 years 80s that's like oh no no no I was born in 83 41 all right my bad my bad my bad you're right you're right I go toe myself there but yeah well hopefully this changes this year because the Trojans are looking back with Talent level so hopefully we're not ready we're not ready for any of them to get drafted yet we only only one oh I'm about to say only one could go we could lose Miller because we have a backup quarterback but everybody else needs to come back hey how how fun would that be if somehow the Rams get Miller Moss to be the the era parent to Matthew Stafford that'd be fun that would be fun I like that a lot like that a lot a lot uh quick last thing you see kayin bolock interception today all what's where's he at Houston right just another product of of that Grinch almost ruined but is actually a good player no so all right real quick I'm sorry and I know you I know you had a long day me and madman did a show and we said the best place for him to go is to the Houston Texans because there's a lot of experience at safety and he's has he has a very high ceiling and he'll be around good people that will make him very good and he end up starting he's like starting and getting picks and stuff got a pick in week one I called it like God dang oh by the way Ryan skinny T if you didn't know Lincoln Riley watches our podcast and have have Ryan tell you about it he watches he for sure watches it you know I have a feeling that Les needed watches ours I've I've for a long time called the the Rams skinny the most influential Rams podcast yeah there's certain things that we say then like even the big names don't say it and then we absolutely see it happen and we're like man that's that's pretty and it's it's a high percentage just Ryan what do you say about 65% maybe it's a high percentage of things we say that pop up we're like that's really interesting I'm gonna have to start watching your show I'm just G I'm just I just think he watches our show I'm I'm and I'm gonna stick with that I'm G die on that heel and die on that hill I'll die a happy man even though I'm wrong yeah I still think Les Sneed watches this show too skinny because we were I don't want to say the only but that I know of with like the Rams content Community we were the only ones during the draft that were like steadfast nope they're gonna go defensive line orh whatever and they did we thought lot lot to but uh you know yeah I mean we had a different player but we had the position how did he do tonight did he do well lot to I don't know jar no yeah yeah yeah he got got a sack got a sack yeah is he playing is he playing back backside or is he he's front side backside he's he's playing rushan I think so yeah wow I didn't expect him to be a rushan when he got uh when he got drafted I thought he was gonna be a front side guy I thought he was gonna be Ed well yeah he played hand in the dirt at Florida State but they're having him more stand upb Oh okay that's cool got a sack go all right well earn his money all right enough talking with that thank you everyone two 250 in here throughout almost the whole time we appreciate you we know it's late 10 p.m for us angelinos out here on the West Coast which is like 10 P p.m. is late for us angelinos like all the East Coasters are up till 3 like out here it's like 10 10:30 11 it's like time to wrap it up but uh thank you everyone tough loss for the rans but you know I I know overall throughout this hour we talked a lot of like concerns I don't want to say negative but just kind of concerns and r Flags but I think overall the Rams still have a lot of good things in front of them if they a get healthy and then get that identity established on offense and defense I think this is still a very very good football team and can do a lot of good things this season so we'll obviously talk about it all week long on the Rams skinny on the Rams lfb YouTube channel so make sure to check that out and subscribe please lafb network.com is where you can find all of our Rams content and for any Trojan fans listening check out the USC lfb YouTube channel with uh myself coach row and the madman and obviously all that can be found at LF network.com as well for skinny te for Coach to row I'm Ryan Dar thanks for hanging out with us on this Sunday evening talk to everyone here in just a couple days