Rams Up Shares a Quick Reaction to the Rams 2nd Preseason Game, a 13-9 win over the Chargers

[Music] welcome back Ram fans going to share my quick reaction to the Rams 139 win over the Los Angeles Chargers at Sofi Stadium preseason game number two Saturday evening and the Rams seem to be developing a personality on defense keeping teams out of the end zone giving up seven field goals over two games and they're finding a way to get one touchdown a game one big touchdown a game just enough to win and they did it again and uh good thing to see now the first thing I'm going to do is go over the things that I hope to see going into this game there are four things on offense four things on defense the first thing I wanted to see on offense was some steady some improvement from STS and Bennett after a four interception game against the Cowboys last week and I think we did I think overall it was a a slightly better performance from STS and Bennett he finished 17 for 31 for 213 yards early in the game really missing on some passes thrown behind wide receivers and tight Dan Hunter long must have been pretty frustrated I think he had two or three opportun unties but STS and through behind him in each case and uh you know that throw in the end zone the interception you have to think about it this way you know fourth down um you got to throw the ball if no one's open you got to get rid of it you got to do something it's much better than taking a sack so you know you got to put some of that on ston but uh hey was anyone open on that play I'm not sure I have to find out what Ian has to say on it but um I wouldn't call all that a horrible play a fourth down fourth and goal trying to get into the end zone you throw an interception what else you going to do run around until you get sacked throw the ball up in the air hope someone catches it that type of thing it's a preseason game you know not the best look but overall you know it's certainly better than last week do I feel comfortable with STS and Bennett coming in as the Rams back up in weeks one or two at this point not quite there but I feel a little bit better and the other thing I wanted to see from our offense is Zack Evans I wanted him to get some snaps and that certainly happened R really had no choice uh especially after Boston Scott I think he got hammered pretty good picking up that Blitz on the one play so Zach ends up with 16 rushes for 62 yards and looked pretty good you know there was a lot of plays where he was just running into a wall it looked like it didn't really create very well but then he also had some nice runs uh is he going to make this team not so sure I really think the Rams need to pick up another running back for this third preseason game though um you know we were down to Zach really and then Boston Scott came back fortunately I don't know what the Rams would have done if uh Zach remember he he walked off looked like he got tinged up a little bit uh in the upper body I'm guessing so we had two running backs that were prepared to play they were they were planning on playing and both of them left the game for short periods of time pick up another running back guys the third thing I wanted to see was offensive line domination now last week they played really good but you know they're playing against second stringers themselves so if we really want to get excited about Logan brass and Zack Thomas and uh these guys Warren McLendon AJ a curry coming in and you know if someone goes down one of the starters goes down they can really step in and play well they need to dominate as unit against these second stringers and I thought they really did they well they did very well against the pass rush they protect it very well I wouldn't say they dominated it but they kept stits and Bennett pretty clean the running game Hit or hit or miss really there was times where we were getting no movement along the front there but um so I think we fall short of offensive line domination but I still feel pretty good about these second stringers and the fourth thing I wanted to see I called it hey it's X time Xavier Smith time let's see what he can do in the return game and receiving and he had a pretty darn good game five catches for 45 yards had a really nice return and this is evident of the fact that I hate to say it but 2 two Atwell may very well be Expendable Our receiver our receiving group is pretty darn good Tyler Johnson still looking good Jordan Whittington was out there I don't know why he was actually our leading receiver five catches for 52 yards I was surprised we saw him at all when we got JJ lop and some other guys that can step forward as we saw uh no more Jordan Whittington plays I loved watching him play but I'd rather he took a seat at this point but back to Xavier he's proven I think that he can take over return duties and he's proven that he can be a fourth or fifth wide receiver as well what did I want to see on the defense I I wanted to see this Edge rusher battle continue and you know what I think we saw I think we saw I think we saw evidence that Nick Hampton has made this roster as the fifth Edge rusher we have Byron young Jared verse brandan Jackson and Michael Hoy and you can add you can add um Nick Hampton to that group now we saw Osan matys uh Zack van balk ber out there a lot uh Kier Thomas played a heck of a lot and we didn't really put the quarterback under a lot of duress like we did last week a little bit but not much it was I think Carlos Watkins had actually had the sack the newly acquired defensive lineman so um the battle along the edge may be over are they going to carry a 61 I don't know man it's going to be a numbers game at the end here I think we may have our five Edge rushers at at this point and what else do I want to see I wanted to see the um the quarter the cornerbacks and the safeties uh I wanted to see those battles progress as well see if anybody emerges and if any players take a step back and we did see some separation I think couple players doing pretty well a couple guys that we have to be concerned about I'll talk about that in the next segment we learned a few things about our cornerbacks and safeties and that's what we were hoping to see it's not all good but hey it's preseason that's what these games are for and I wanted to see some uh uh this inside linebacker battle settle down a little bit at least maybe get some ideas of what the Rams are thinking and you know what Jake hmel Omar Spates and uh Neil all played really well and this battle is going to continue in training camp I think you know Hummel is proven that he's a great open field tackler he can cover wide receivers uh he did just about everything right in this game and then Omar Spades comes in and he's flying around knocking people around uh covering receivers making tackles and maybe they both end up making it now the announcers called uh Rose Boon's name once by the way this was the charous announcing team they were wrong it wasn't Rose boom it was Neil but I pretty sure I thought I saw number 56 out there earlier I'm probably wrong I have to go back and look wanted to get this out as quickly as possible though so the other two things I wanted to see in general and I think I nailed this you know I think this Chargers offense is not the best to put it mildly and I think they're going to struggle even with their first teamers out there and I wanted this Ram's uh defense to shut them down and I was hoping uh under 10 points 10 points at the most and they they did it held him to nine points three field goals and I obviously wanted to um see something from Joshua cardi that puts my uh concerns to rest a little bit and and we did he you know hit two field goals one of them 48 yard he pushed the 50 yard right but I'm okay I'm good with where we're at with Josh Joshua cardi at this time uh would have been a really nice if he had hit the 50 yard he had the distance just started it right and it didn't come back so um those those are the items I wanted to see I was hoping to see and that's basically what happened kind of learned a lot about our team um there is a few things where you know I need to see more we'll have to see more and uh it's a lot of this is going to be settled in Camp not even in these preseason games so we're not going to see everything we want to see in these preseason games we're not going to get all the answers we just get some Clues maybe to what's going to go down come come cut down day okay whose stock is up after this game quick reaction you know Ian and Paul are going to be looking at tape and we'll have a round table about this and we'll get more details better insights based on what Ian and Paul see but hey you know what our wide receiver room is pretty darn good um I think our fourth fifth and sixth wide receivers might have been better than anybody that this Chargers could have put out there today and you know maki's out there um the rookie SEI from UCLA uh looked really good but this is a really good wide receiver grp um you know you start with Cooper cup pukan nakua Demarcus Robinson 22 Atwell Jordan Whittington Tyler Johnson Xavier Smith man I'd be comfortable with any three of these guys you know I want cup and puka out there obviously but if you had to throw any one of these other guys out there with them we'd be in good shape if we had to throw two of them out there and roll with cup and two of those guys or puka into two of those guys we'd be in okay shape that's how I feel about our wide receiver room and I feel like our inside linebackers you know Ernest Jones sounds like he's going to be okay Christian Rose boom is our number two guy Troy reader has apparently made this roster and we have some options here backing those guys up I'm really impressed with how Hummel and Spates are playing especially Jaylen Maka I think his stock is up continues to play well he just shows up doesn't he and I already mentioned Joshua cardi took a minor step forward one step forward into establishing himself as a reliable NFL kicker need to see a lot more though who else Carlos Watkins our newly acquired defensive lineman he's got a real shot at making this team um were a little thin as far as the backups go Cory Duran deshuan Johnson um you know uh Ty Tyler Davis did play Early in this game which surprised me so um we'll have to see what happens with Carlos Watkins I think he has a good chance of making this team and Jason Taylor kind of stood out a little bit to me we kind of forget about second year safety really competitive back there but he did uh step up on a couple plays had a a couple pass breakups and some tackles again this is just a quick reaction I'll hope to go back and look I'm probably going to watch a lot of this game again over the course of tomorrow and see what I see and uh we'll share that uh during our round table and Zach Evans again there were times where he he maybe needed to be a little bit more patient but as the game were on you know he was sprinkling in some really productive runs there so you have to be happy about that who am I down on well unfortunately Trey Tomlinson you know third and 19 and to bite on that move and then commit the penalty and almost gave up a big touchdown you know not a good luck I think cam McCutchen continues to struggle as well these are guys that are you know working themselves uh Tomlinson's probably working himself onto the bubble and McCutchen may have already worked himself off the bubble on the negative side uh Ethan Evans man not a good look not a great day for our punter and our run blocking still leaves something to be desired um you know Zack Evans did have some productive runs but there are a few plays where our offensive linemen were um getting pushed back from the line of scrimmage no movement at all we were losing that battle too many times I thought uh um but those are the things on the downside um not a long list but a few things to be concerned about and I'm not going to throw too much shade on these players and tell you guys have just uh blown their chances of making this roster but I think the guys I mentioned did not help their cause I mean Ethan Evans isn't going to get cut but maybe he needs to you know get out of the waight room and work on his fting that's all I'm going to say about that go over some quick stats and some final thoughts Whittington as I said our leading receiver five catches for 52 yards JJ Lop the big touchdown reception was at 47 yards from Bennett ended up with two catches for 50 yards good for him how cool is that maybe his uh his his last time you know he'll probably get some opportunities next week but if it is his last catch in the NFL good for him that's pretty cool and Xavier Smith five catches for 45 yards uh Omar Spades was our lead leading tackler seven combined tackles followed by Jacob Hummel he had four combined team stats Rams held the Chargers to 259 total yards not bad Rams only had 338 themselves so that's my quick reaction to this Rams Chargers game Rams win 13-9 uh Joshua cardi has a couple field goals uh ston Bennett connects with JJ Lop you know what going into this game I might have called him JJ lap but the Chargers announcers were calling them Lop so I'm running with that JJ Lop JJ Lop with a big touchdown reception Rams come out with a 13 to9 win and they move on to Joint practices with the Texans and a final preseason game with the Texans we will be back Tuesday night Wednesday morning with our next round table with Ian and Paul we have a do a much deeper dive into this game hope you enjoyed this don't forget to like And subscribe to this Channel and to the podcast Please Subscribe out here from Rams up