St. Louis Rams Can’t Sustain Hot Start, Lose 34-31 to Dallas Cowboys
Things looked so good for the first 27 minutes of the St. Louis Rams’ Sunday bout with the Dallas Cowboys. Quarterback Austin Davis was running the offense as efficiently as any quarterback St. Louis has seen in roughly a decade, throwing touchdown passes to Lance Kendricks and Brian Quick while leading the Rams on 80 and 65-yard scoring drives.
Shortly after that, cornerback Janoris Jenkins recorded his first interception since October of last year and his first touchdown since his rookie year to put the Rams on top 21-0. After that, however, things began to fall apart. After a calculated 80-yard drive by the Cowboys, an embarrassing series of events, started by a botched Scott Wells snap which caused a turnover and continued by a ridiculous 15-yard roughing the passer call against Eugene Sims, put the Cowboys in position to get a Dan Bailey field goal and shorten the lead to 21-10.
Failed defensive assignments on the Rams’ part gave Dez Bryant the opportunity to get wide open and jog into the end zone for a 68-yard touchdown after halftime. A series of long, successful drives left the score at 27-24 in the Cowboys’ favor until Davis threw a costly pick to Bruce Carter which was run back for a touchdown and seemingly iced the game for the Cowboys. Though Davis led the Rams back down the field on an 80-yard drive which put the score at 34-31, he iced the game for the Cowboys on the Rams’ next drive by throwing another interception.
Despite the fact that Davis failed under the pressure of the fourth quarter, he had a very good day overall. The 25-year-old Southern Miss product went 30-for-42, throwing for 327 yards while attaining a quarterback rating of 98.0. Most importantly, Davis executed things smoothly, and he did a fantastic job of managing the hurry-up offense and moving the offense down the field.
Despite the fact that the team looked pretty good overall on Sunday, there were serious problems with the Rams’ pass rush, or rather, their lack of it. The only player who got to the quarterback was Sims, and both of his big plays were called back, first by the roughing the passer call, and then by a bizarre defensive holding penalty which the officials later attributed to Sims’ apparent restriction of a receiver in motion on the play.
With the exception of a coverage sack against Tampa Bay that was originally attributed to both cornerback E.J. Gaines and Sims but since has been credited to Aaron Donald, the Rams have had no pass rush at all. That’s pretty embarrassing for a defensive line which drew “Fearsome Foursome” comparisons during the offseason and was marketed as “Sack City”.
The Rams definitely need to find a way to get defensive end Robert Quinn, who they just gave a $66 million-dollar contract, back into the swing of things. Quinn had 19 sacks during 2013, but this year his pass rush has been nonexistent, and he’s also been far less noticeable as a run defender.
It might be wise for defensive coordinator Gregg Williams to re-examine some of the schemes that the Rams have been specific. One look particularly stands out as a dud: the Rams have been running a dime package with Donald lining up over the nose as the sole defensive tackle, with Quinn and another end on the outside. This package has continually failed to result in any pass rush, and it’s made things harder on the secondary.
Beyond on-field issues, Sunday was particularly concerning in terms of the progress of the Rams’ long term goals. The team ran two sets of plays where they brought an extra offensive lineman onto the field to boost the run blocking attack. The two linemen who came on the field to play as extra tight ends were backups Tim Barnes and Mike Person, not rookie second overall pick Greg Robinson. In addition, left guard Rodger Saffold came out of the game for a short time in the first half with an apparent equipment issue, but it was Person, not Robinson, who replaced him. Just three games into his NFL career, it’s foolish to even consider using the “b word” to describe Robinson, but it’s kind of alarming that he appears to be falling down the depth chart.
In addition, third-rounder Tre Mason and fourth-rounder Mo Alexander did not dress for the game. Meanwhile, undrafted rookie Trey Watts officially jumped Mason on the running back depth chart, as he saw his first action from scrimmage and ran five times for 24 yards.
Things were certainly odd following the game as well. Firstly, a late-game incident involving tight end Jared Cook, Davis, and defensive end William Hayes had to be addressed. Following a costly drop which cost the Rams a touchdown, Cook returned to the sidelines and very visibly shoved Davis before being confronted by Hayes. After the game, however, all three players wrote off the incident as a heat-of-the-moment issue and said it wouldn’t be a lasting problem.
More puzzling was head coach Jeff Fisher‘s continued total support of Shaun Hill as the Rams’ starting quarterback. Despite the significant success that Davis has had over the past two games, Fisher declared in his postgame press conference that Hill would be the quarterback when healthy. Considering that the grizzled veteran warmed up for the Dallas game and was the only active backup, it would be shocking if he wasn’t the starter when the Rams return from their bye week and face the Philadelphia Eagles.