Ep.567: How did the Rams BLOW a 26-7 LEAD in Philadelphia?

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
All right, guys, welcome back to Downtown Rams. As always,
I'm Alexis Kraft. Join here with my cost Jake ellen Bogan,
and we are coming to you the night after our
twenty six to thirty three loss to the Philadelphia Eagles
in Philadelphia.

Speaker 3 (00:16):
It was a.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
Brutal, brutal loss. Let's not sugarcoat it, Jake. Every loss hurts,
but the manner in which this loss went down, especially
to the Eagles, which is a team that we faced
for the third time in the course of a year,
just was heartbreaking. I mean, to lose with a second
on the clock blocked kick returned by a touchdown by

(00:42):
Jordan Davis, I mean, it doesn't really get more painful.
So we're just gonna rip the band aid off here
to start the episode and acknowledge that the game that
we're discussing this evening is a wound. We'll call it that, Jake,
We'll call it a wound for so many of us. Know,
so many people are still very heated. I'm seeing some

(01:04):
comments come in. This is a live episode, so you know,
we are seeing live comments. So I'm seeing people saying
they're heated, they're devastated, you know, I understand these emotions,
and so we're gonna get into the game really quickly.
Before we do that, Jake has a word from a sponsor.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Shout out to Sleeper for sponsoring this show. As always,
be sure to check out Sleeper. Link is in the
description below. JKB is the code. You're gonna get one
hundred dollars deposit match up to one hundred dollars. So
if you believe that, you know, let's just say Jordan
Wittington next week. You know he's gonna have X amount

(01:45):
of yards whatever, put your money where your mouth is
and sign up JKB and you'll have a chance to
very much double, triple, quadruple your cash. So be sure
to check it out again JKB over at Sleeper And
if you're looking for the best spot to play fantasy football,
Sleeper Also it's fantasy sports in general. I mean, I

(02:07):
have a Dynasty Basketball league as well as NFL.

Speaker 3 (02:11):
Be sure to check that out. But yeah, alexis back to.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
You, thanks Jake. Yeah, I mean I'm kind of laughing
a little bit because you know, Jake and I prepare
obviously for Downtown Rams, right, and we rewatch the game
and look at stats and all that fun stuff. And
I'm typically not somebody who writes down my notes. I

(02:34):
usually am a digital type of girl. But I was
awake at five am this morning. I don't know if
I told you this, Jake, but I started my five
am workouts again this week, So I was up at
five am. Love that, and I took physical notes. Everyone
was just by the way. This notebook that I have
is called my add Doodle and Ramble notebook, so it's

(02:58):
not everyone to know that this is where I like
write a lot of notes. So I took notes on
this game physical Style one, two, three, four or five
back on a sex because I was not screwing around. Listen,

(03:19):
this had to be dissected. There's a lot of narrative
around this game. There's a lot of talk. I see
a lot of you know, fans obviously kind of arguing
about what is the reason that we lost, or did
X happen? Did what happen? So I was like, you
know what, I'm going to go through every single drive
offensively and defensively and have a note on pretty much
everything that went down because I needed to understand myself

(03:41):
what went wrong here. Jake, and you and I have
talked a little bit since the game, and for the
most part we agree. I think I think most ramstands,
probably for the most part, are like agreeing on bits
and pieces of he abandoned the run game? Or what
was this play call? Or clock management here. Obviously there
was a lot of calls, uh from the ref there's

(04:04):
a lot of penalties. I should say that we're egregious
that was also part of it. However, I'm just gonna
be straight up not the reason we lost, in my opinion,
I don't. I'm not, you know, somebody who typically believes
that referees can decide the fate of a game. Usually,
I think that there was a lot of miscalls that
had they not happened, things would have gone differently and

(04:26):
then we could have won the game. But I mean,
we were up twenty six to seven and lost the game.
So I'm just gonna get out there and say that that.
You know, when we talk about the refs, I'm very
much not on board with that narrative. But Jake, I mean,
there's a lot and we're gonna hear me. We're gonna
hear me ferociously flipping the papers super yeah, oh yeah, AMR.

(04:51):
Just like I'm gonna stop talking and then.

Speaker 3 (04:55):
You gotta you gotta, you gotta lick the.

Speaker 1 (04:57):
Yeah, lick the fingers. That that doesn't come across condescending.
I know I should have worn my glasses for this episode.
I really missed an opportunity to do a good character bit.

Speaker 3 (05:11):
It happens.

Speaker 1 (05:12):
I can't believe I didn't think of that till just now.
But now it's too late. But Jake, do we you
I'll let you decide how we kind of run through
this game, because we kind of switch it up when
we talk about games at times. You know, there there
recap episodes where we kind of go drive by drive.
We could talk more abstract about, you know, certain things

(05:34):
that we think went wrong. However you want to do it,
I'm prepared to do it. I mean, it's going to
be painful either way, so we need to just dive
into it and just rip the band aid off and yeah, guys,
it hurts snife in the chest, but we gotta do it.
We gotta dissect it.

Speaker 2 (05:54):
Hey, the the dtr army in the chat. It's going
to be sad either way. So just understand we need
this to move on to week four and that it's
going to be that. So I think we should talk
and we should go backwards because you know, I think
when we think about it, like you go from the
offense and then moved to the defense, and I think

(06:14):
I want to talk about the defense first. First off,
just just real, you know, let's just summarize, right, feel
really good about the defensive line. Okay, they had twenty
one pressures in this game against Jalen Hurts against a
really good offensive line. I know, I know that Lane
Johnson went down. Trust me, every Eagles fan on Twitter's

(06:35):
letting you know that, because there's always got to be
an extra curricular there. Lane Johnson went down. Fred Johnson,
on the other hand, didn't go down. He actually went
in and played really well. They switched him in the
second half and he was great. To be fair on
the right side, it just got done watching the all
twenty two. So give him credit. Also throw some shade

(06:56):
at the Jaguars for giving him away for free essentially,
you know, right before this season. So another Howie Roseman
folice job. But I thought the defensive line was great.
I thought they came with a great game plan, very
reminiscent to what they did against Ezekee Elliott in twenty
eighteen in the divisional round of the playoffs at the Coliseum.

Speaker 3 (07:17):
Elliott was all week.

Speaker 2 (07:19):
Everyone was talking about how Elliott's gonna run all over
this Rams defense, and he simply did not do that.
They sold out to stop the run. Well, guess who
was a part of that coaching staff, Chris Shula. So
I thought they did a nice job of that. The
second thing, I thought they did a nice job in
the first half of creatively blitzing, mixing your pitches. Okay,
you can win with four, you can win with five,

(07:40):
right when you don't have a kello Witherspoon at corner.
I don't care what anyone says. Now we know, right,
I mean we already knew you and I, but now
everybody knows how important four is to this defense. Not
having a kello meant that Chris Shula had to man
up and be a little Greg Williams, you know who
was the Saint Louis Rams defensive coordinator as well as

(08:02):
the LA But they had to be a little you know,
creative and how they they operated. And I thought the
way that they utilized guys like Tank McCullough and you know,
they were blitzing, you know, cam kinchins and what have you.
I thought it was stellar in the first half. That said,
in the second half, those blitzer don't get home. The
pressure wasn't getting there as much in the first half.

(08:24):
I still think they played a really good game up front.
So because of that, now you have more time and
I felt like the secondary was exposed, and I don't
want to say secondary, I felt like the corners were exposed.
My biggest issue with the corners wasn't the coverage right.
People are gonna get on Emmanuel Forbes. He allowed the
game winning touchdown. Personally, I didn't like the call to

(08:45):
be there in that position. I thought they probably should have,
you know, called a completely different play and just leaving
him on an island one on one.

Speaker 3 (08:53):
Didn't love the call.

Speaker 2 (08:54):
But the biggest issue I had with the corners Alexis
was not coverage related. It was the fact that when
they gave up a play a third down, AJ Brown
would turn that into twenty after the contact because what
are they trying to do? Well, Darius Williams is trying
to rip the ball out and Emmanuel Forbes is trying

(09:15):
to rip the ball out. You gave up the ten yards, Okay,
it's over. You have the opportunity because when you look
at AJ Brown and he is on the comeback, well,
now he's in position to tackle. But when you go
to rip the ball out and you're tackling high, guess
what you do. You twist him around and now you've

(09:36):
recalibrated and repositioned AJ Brown. But that's a big bodied receiver.
Now he's ready to go, he's ready to run after
the catch. You've basically set him up. They did that
twice on the final drive. Inexcusable. I believe that was
forty five total yards. That's half the football field almost
so didn't like that. I thought Quentin Lake was a

(09:59):
star in game. I thought he was a star last week.
I think he is truly becoming one of the best
players on this team. Currently leads the NFL and DB's
pass breakups with five. He is stellar, and of course
he is a alumni whatever we want to call him.
Friend of the show of DTR came on twice. That said, though,
before I throw it over to you, because the linebacker

(10:21):
play was fine, they called a better play. I think
the Eagles did with Dallas Goddard. It was a seambuster
and the Rams were just in a completely different personnel
to not really defend that and kind of froze them.
But I thought, Nate Landman, you know, the fumble recovery
was huge, and I just think the reality is this
defense has a lot to feel good about. This game

(10:43):
was really frustrating. I do think there are some things
that they have to adjust, and one of those being
I think AJ Green needs to get opportunities. They don't
have size on the outside, so when you go up
against an AJ Brown, you're gonna need that more bigger corner.
In fact, AJ Green also came on the show. Uh.
But anyway, I think that the Rams need some mass

(11:06):
on the outside. And does that mean going out and
getting stuff on Gilmour Maybe? Maybe, maybe not. But I
do think we saw those corners were exposed tackling in coverage.
They were bullied by more physical receiver like an AJ Brown.
But the linebackers, the defensive front, the edge defense, like
I thought, everything looked great. I think Chris Shuley got

(11:27):
a little blitz happy and when it wasn't working, I
think he should have pulled back. When he didn't pull back, well, now,
Jalen Hurts is pitching and catching with just a man
that's wide open because you sent somebody on a blitz.
So that was really my take. I thought that the
defense showed you they can be the best in the
league in the first half, and the defense showed you
that without Akello Witherspoon, this is not going to be easy.

(11:51):
They are going to have to try and figure this
thing out because other teams are going to watch this.
And you know, you got Michael Pittman Junior next week
who is a physical receiver, and you know you're gonna
have some other guys as well that could pose issues.
So as far as the defense is concerned, those are
my thoughts.

Speaker 1 (12:08):
Yeah, I mean, I thought the defense, you know, at
least in the first half, played a perfect game. You
could not have asked for more from your defense against
this Philadelphia Eagles offense. You know, in the first half,
there was that touchdown drive, which you know wasn't great.
But when you look at that touchdown drive, you know,
you had the false start on the Toush push right

(12:31):
that we all saw that wasn't called. You know, you
got that flag on Lake in the end zone, which
I thought was questionable. They were able to capitalize and
turn that into a touchdown. But I mean defensively in
the first half, I mean that I don't think you
could have asked for more. The defensive front shut down
Saquon Barkley, which I think was the biggest concern for
fans going into this game, looking at Barkley to do

(12:52):
us twice last season. I mean, they were not messing
around with Saquon Barkley. They absolutely shut that down. And
they did what you and I talked about on the
preview episode. We said, they need to force Jalen Hurts
to have to make throws. Don't let him run, don't
let Barkley run. Force Jalen Hurts to be able to throw.
And in the first half that worked. You know, Jalen

(13:13):
had a really hard time. He was able to kind
of move around, you know some plays you know in
the first half. But overall, I mean, you had Puna
Ford sack, that McCullough sack, which was brutal on Hurts.
You had the Verse strip sack, and the Lamban recovery
which we were able to capitalize on. I mean, the
defense did their jobs for I would say seventy five

(13:36):
percent of this game seventy percent of this game. The problem,
I think is that the Eagles were able to adjust
and figure out that there was some things on our
secondary that they could take advantage of, and that I
think is a glaring spot for the Rams, and that
I think a lot of fans now are realizing, is
that the secondary we are hurting. At the corner position

(13:57):
we don't have. I think that shut down corner one
that we might need to go against some of these teams.
But Jake, defensively, you know, I it's it sounds maybe
a little weird to some because again, the defense is
on the field when Philadelphia scores, right, but the defense
wasn't why we lost this game. You know, we can't

(14:18):
pin a ton of liability on the defense. We can
for certain plays, but overall, I think my frustration, and
I think most fans frustration with this game falls upon
how we executed offensively and both on the field and
the play calling offensively. And then also, you know, we'll
get into some some calls by the refs that you know,

(14:39):
we didn't appreciate and that I thought were trying to
think of an appropriate word to say, but they were garbage.
Say that, so Jake I don't know if there's anything
else we need to tie up, you know, defensively here,
But I just want to give kudos to this Rams
defense that absolutely stepped up for the majority of this
game and show that they have the talent to be

(15:02):
a top defense, you know, in the NFL, at least
the defensive front. And you know, we were able to
give a Philadelphia Eagles offense for the majority of the
game and we dominated them, you know, and we saw that,
you know, going into halftime. So is there anything else
that you want to touch on defensively before we get
into the offense, which I think is where majority of

(15:24):
what we're going to discuss lies.

Speaker 3 (15:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (15:28):
I mean the you mentioned the PI. I'm glad you did.
I think that's a terrible call. Quinton Lake had four
pass breakups in this game. He's been called for some
bs the last few weeks, so I don't know why
he has this kind of you know, I don't know
the target on his back or whatever, but Quinton Lake,
he is playing the Star, which is essentially a hybrid

(15:51):
of a safety, corner linebacker, right, and you have a
guy who can cover anybody. My biggest issue with the
Rams defense silly is that at the end of the
game they opted not to go and put Quinton Lake
on AJ Brown. Had they done that and had they
had him shadow AJ Brown?

Speaker 3 (16:13):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (16:14):
If the Eagles win this football game. I just I
don't know. AJ Brown did nothing with Quinton Lake on him.
No one did anything with Quinton Lake on him, right,
So I think it's time for us to start singing
the praises of thirty seven. I mean, he he is
the best guy right now in the secondary, not remotely close,
and without a Kello Witherspoon, he has to step up

(16:36):
in a big way. He has, but I don't feel
like they put him in the best position to succeed
down the stretch. So I think, you know, that should
have been their Emmanuel Forbes. I also want to talk
about him, So Emmanuel Forbes. They ended up deciding to
go with him, Darius Williams backed up and you know,

(16:58):
he rotated. I do feel like that was a mistake.
Emanuel Forbes is gonna learn, He's gonna grow. He's got
a lot of talent. I believe in him. I'm not
out on him, but I did say all week in
this game, I said the lack of I guess progression
and how raw he is. I don't know if this

(17:18):
is the best fit for him. I don't know if
this is the game I'd be playing him in, and
if you do, maybe play him sparingly. Not started, and
so unfortunately, I think the Rams got away with one
in the first half with those guys because of the
pass rush getting there, the blitzing. But again when the
pass rush doesn't get there now the second half, those
guys get exposed, and I just think, Forbes, you know,

(17:42):
he really needs to be better. But at the same time,
I think the Rams should have known late in the
game you're relying on a guy who, let's just put
it lightly or put it like this, you know, he's
not even starting for this team. Last year, he plays
only Week eighteen and they didn't use him aside from
the game where they sat all their starters. So this

(18:04):
is a guy that was cut like. He's got a
lot of talent. But you don't want to rush, You
don't want to expedite all of this to try and
get him to play because you feel like he can
if he's not ready, and I feel I do think
he's ready, but being ready to play in an NFL
game and being ready to go up against one of
the best receivers in the National Football League are two

(18:27):
different things. And yeah, I just wanted to say that.
I think last thing I really want to shout out
Jared Verse looked excellent. People said that he was washed
after two weeks. No idea why he wasn't. The tape
shows that this week the pressure showed up Byron Young
continued to look good. Puda Ford was absolutely insane. Was

(18:47):
his best game of you know, his rams Young career.
And then of course got to give a shout out
to Josiah Stewart, who does not look like a rookie,
looks like probably their pick of the draft, and with
Terrence Ferguson not soon up for this game, obviously we'll
see what ends up happening throughout the year, but it
looks like he's going to be the pick of this
draft class the way he's going, because it is impressive

(19:09):
to watch number ten, even though that's an ugly number,
and edge to.

Speaker 3 (19:14):
Watch number ten do his thing.

Speaker 2 (19:16):
He's a special talent because he's smaller, but he's quick,
and just because he's small doesn't mean he doesn't get
great leverage in the run game. He does a great job.
He had three pressures on fourteen pass rushing reps. I'm
very excited, very bullish on his future with the Rams.

Speaker 1 (19:35):
Yeah, he looked great, and yeah, I mean I really
am proud of the defense. Obviously, you know, the last
couple defensive drives, you know, didn't go our way. But
I think overall, the defense really stepped up and made
this game you know, competitive, and did their job. Really
it's the majority of the game. But I want to

(19:57):
talk about the offense now, Jake. I think this is
this is where a lot of the leaving points on
the board against a team like Philadelphia, against the reigning
Super Bowl champions, who you've lost to twice in the
course of a year, is unacceptable. And I think there's

(20:20):
a couple different reasons why we did that, but it's,
in my opinion, the reason we lost the game. You
leave points on the board with at least three of
these offensive drives that just can't happen. You know, we've
talked about for a long time on this show red
zone play calling and the Rams struggles to score in
the red zone that continued this game. That hurt, you know,

(20:42):
and then obviously there's you know, a drive Kien Williams
touchdown call back because of that penalty and Coleman Shelton
that ar do I think in I think it is
a penalty, But do I think I don't know? When
I rewatch it, I can see why it was called

(21:03):
what I have called it, I don't know. I think
it's frustrating more like.

Speaker 2 (21:08):
A slow motion Well they showed it in slow motion. Yeah,
it looks like a penalty. But I think my thing is,
how is that any different than what Kyron did in
past protection when he leveled Jahad Campbell right? And furthermore,
and I'll toss it back over to you that that
just that ticked me off because furthermore, if we're taking

(21:30):
that away because that you know, player safety whatever, that's
really the issue with that that play, even though it
wouldn't have mattered Kyraen was scoring whether that guy didn't
get blocked or not. But my issue is if it's
a player safety thing, then let's be honest here. Okay,
let's just address the elephant in the room. The tush

(21:50):
push is no different than what he did. It's actually
way worse, diving into defender's knees. It's not even a
real play. It's a it's a beast scrum. And I'm
I've actually said they don't need to ban it, they
just need to officiate it correctly. But if you're gonna
allow all of these offensive linemen to dive into defender's
knees and who is even talking about the neck issues

(22:14):
that we've seen in this league over the years with
guys like Damar Hamlin and Ryan Chaseier, and you're gonna
allow that where it could affect somebody's neck. We saw
Chris Jones affected by it in the Super Bowl. And
you're telling me right that you're gonna allow them to
dive headfirst in the knees. But Coleman Shelton can't barely
lift the guy off his feet when he already had leverage.

(22:37):
He can't lift the guy off his feet and drive
him to the ground. I just to me, I thought
that was a really bad call, and you know it
costs the Rams a touchdown.

Speaker 3 (22:48):
They end up settling for a field goal.

Speaker 2 (22:50):
I'm glad you brought it up because I didn't even
bring it up earlier.

Speaker 3 (22:54):
I hate that call.

Speaker 2 (22:55):
I don't think that call needs to be made if
that was at the twenty yard line, you know, earlier
in the you know, early on in the game, and
down the field whatever.

Speaker 3 (23:06):
But we're talking at the goal line. Do you know
how many of those things happen.

Speaker 2 (23:10):
It's so ridiculous to call that and that that to me,
I'm not one of those people that says all the
fix was in whatever?

Speaker 3 (23:17):
Right?

Speaker 2 (23:18):
That to me, when people do complain and they say
that it looks like the officiating had an angle, I
totally understand it when you call shit like that.

Speaker 1 (23:29):
Yeah, I mean I didn't love that that call either,
But you know, to the bigger issue and just the
scoring in the red zone, I think, like so many
of these calls. I'm not I would never blame a
loss on the refs, but I think when you're already
having these struggles and then you add on top of it,
it just the odds are stacked against you further, right,

(23:51):
because the Rams already have a problem in the red zone.
Then you finally, you know, you get that touchdown and
then it's called back. Okay, well you need that. And
I mentioned earlier my notes, guys, my very detailed notes
that I took in Rage right, my six pages and notes.
You know when you look at all of these drives

(24:11):
and you look at kind of like what happened, Jake?
I mean you look at the first offensive drive, right,
Kien five yard run, screen to Kyen, who gets the
first down for eight yards, screen again to Kyen, Stafford
through in front of him. Stafford then forces a throw
to Adams intercept it. Okay, that's just a bad drive, right,
Stafford's fault interception, which was a bad interception. We don't

(24:33):
have to get into it because we've got a lot
of bad things we need to cover this episode. But
it was bad. Okay, he looked off second offensive drive.
This was, you know, Kien Williams six yard run, Karen
Williams five yard run, Kien Williams eleven yard run, Quorum
zero yard run. What happens after that? You have a
good throat in Nukua for eleven yards, then you're incomplete
to Whittington, that honestly was the offensive line's fault, which

(24:56):
we're going to talk about the offensive line as well.
Short completion to Nikua, in complete the at Well field goal.
You abandoned the run game after Quorum's zero yard run. No,
I'm not going to go through all these in order,
because I'm not just going to be yelling stats at everybody,
but what I'm seeing with a lot of these, and
this is what I'm trying to get into in my
aggressive notes that I've now attempted to do ASMR with

(25:20):
which I won't, but that's for a select a few
group of Downtown Rams faithful who really like the ASMR
stuff that I know. I want to talk about abandoning
the run game because we're gonna I want to talk
about leaving points on the board in a couple of
different ways. A large part of that is clock management,
which if you follow me on Twitter, I was furious with,

(25:42):
particularly going into halftime, but I want to talk about
that after this. Jake, Kyron Williams and Blake Korum looked
really good against the Eagle Sea Funds. Karen Williams particularly,
who had a lot to prove, I think against this team,
looked really good against this Seagos defense. And when you

(26:03):
go through these offensive drives, there are very few tackles
for a loss. There are only two tackle two runs,
one by Kyron and one by Quorum. I believe that
we're just a zero yard gain.

Speaker 2 (26:19):
Now.

Speaker 1 (26:19):
They weren't all pretty, right. I mean you had a
couple runs, you know, like Kyron had I think an
eleven yard run, thirteen yard run. You saw a Blake
I think had an eleven yard run as well. But
most of these runs were like five, six, seven yard gains.
It's not like pretty, but you're gaining positive yardage. And
what I noticed when I was going through all these
offensive drives is like, right as we would find a rhythm,

(26:41):
we're back to forcing throws again to DeVante Adams that
are incomplete, or to Nukua that are incomplete, or Stafford's
missing a throw, and then we're kicking a field goal.
And I had so many times during that game was
like I would run the ball every single play. I
don't care if I get stuffed for zero yards. I
would go again. Because the way that they were having
success in the run game, I would have just kept

(27:02):
running the ball until they basically told us you can't
do it anymore. There was no stretch of time where
the Philadelphia Eagles proved that they could stop the run
game two consecutive plays in a row. So I was
very frustrated when we were having a lot of success
with Kyron and Blake just to see some of these
calls come in where we're forcing the throw, particularly in

(27:24):
the red zone. I mean, in my opinion, if you're
the Rams historically with this offense, and you're within ten
yards of the of the end zone, I would run
the ball at least two downs in that drive. You're
gonna have success. Particularly with Kien Williams. That's you know,
everyone who doesn't like Kyrien Williams, they all say, oh,

(27:46):
goal line merchant or whatever, like red zone, you know whatever,
using that touchdowns?

Speaker 3 (27:52):
Wow?

Speaker 1 (27:52):
Yeah, oh no, I can't believe.

Speaker 3 (27:55):
I know.

Speaker 1 (27:56):
So that's the thing. It's like, so fine, And then
you should agree, if you're one of those weird people,
that we should be using him in the red zone. Instead,
we're forcing the ball to DeVante Adams and Puku Nakua,
And that's another argument. Why can we not throw it
to anybody else? I mean, Davis Allen, I guess has
had some touchdowns, but you look at the percentages you're
forcing the ball the Nukuan Adams most of the time.

(28:17):
It just that became a problem. Jake I felt like
against the Eagles and abandoning the run game wasn't the
only issue, but it was very clearly the thing that
worked the most against Philadelphia, and I really don't understand
why we got away from it.

Speaker 2 (28:34):
Yeah, it was incredibly frustrating. People Forget Kyra Williams ran
well against Philadelphia, and I understand, you know, he had
the fumble in the postseason, but he ran well against Philadelphia.

Speaker 3 (28:45):
He ran well.

Speaker 2 (28:45):
When I was at the game in La he ran
well to start that game. Also had fumbles in that game.
But Kion Williams looks like a better running back. And
what I'm going to say is not probably going to
shock you, Alexis, but might shock some people, is that
you're already seeing why he's not fumbling, okay, and Blake
Koram's gonna have to learn this. Because Blake korm has

(29:07):
the ball out like this, you can see Kyron as
soon as there is contact, he goes from this to this,
he covers up and it is evident on film every
single time he clearly already having that down in Week three.
He's going to last a long time in this league.
Not only is he an excellent pass protector. We brought

(29:28):
up the Jahad Campbell play, but he is just you know,
really impressive. Just how much he's learned. And it goes
back to what I was saying. You said, oh, yeah,
he's injury prone, even though he got injured on the
first play of his NFL career on a freak play
where on the kickoff a guy barrel rolls into his ankle.

(29:51):
Right then they say he's injury prone in twenty twenty
three because he gets hurt in a RAMS offense goes
down the two.

Speaker 3 (30:00):
So, well, guess what he did last year.

Speaker 2 (30:02):
He had the most And think about this, he had
the most touches for a RAM when you include postseason
ever outside of Eric Dickerson.

Speaker 3 (30:12):
That is saying something. This guy is special.

Speaker 2 (30:15):
He really is, and he's the right guy to be
a captain in your locker room. It's why they paid him.
So what we're seeing with Kyron is he put weight
on to be a little bit more powerful. We saw that, Hey, Alexis,
you know how everybody brings up you know you rushing
yards over expected To discredit Kyra Williams, he had fourteen

(30:36):
rushing yards over expected in this game. I don't even
remember him having more than like one, and then last
week he got one. So now he's been over the
rushing yards over the expected, which I have I have
skepticism with. But be that as it may. He had
the fourteen that's more than Bejon Robinson had last this week. Right,

(30:59):
he average four point seven yards per carry. He looked
way better than say Kwon Barkley, and he faced a
stacked box twenty percent of the time. Now keep this
in mind, that's still a lot for Kyron. Okay, that's
still a lot. He's facing a stack box twenty percent
of the time in week three. Guess how much he

(31:19):
faced in week two. You look at Kyron, He's actually
he ended up facing a stack box thirty five percent
of the time. So why is this happening? Our teams
buying into Kyrien Williams more as a running back or
is it something that has to do with something else?
And that's what it is. It's the latter. The Rams

(31:40):
are running twelve personnel now more than ever. Twelve personnel
is great to run out of. Kyroen is having more
of those gap runs. Go to a spot, hit the
hole and then we know your vision is good enough
you can make plays. And then they're using Blake Korum
as kind of that outside zone guy. Right, So outside

(32:00):
zone versus the gap, so they're actually complimenting each other. Well,
here's the problem, though, when you run twelve personnel, that's
two tight ends out there. The defense now is keyed
in on the fact that you're likely going to be
running the football, so you're going to go up against
deeper fronts and that is what is happening. So with

(32:21):
that said, they one hundred percent need to run it more.
With Kyron and Blake, I'd like to see a dual
backfield split back formation. I know we'll never get it,
but I'm always going to beg for it. If we
didn't get it with Todd Gurley and Darryl Henderson, I
don't know if we ever will, but be that as
a man, I figured I throw it out there. But
alexis the biggest thing about twelve personnel. It's not even

(32:44):
about running the football. I was talking to Blaine about
this earlier today and he brought it up, and I
think it's spot on. I'm noticing it more than never.
The Rams are so dependent on throwing to Puka Akua
or Devonte Adams, but when you're in twelve personnel as

(33:06):
much as you are, teams can key in on that
right and guess what, do you know? What makes a
really good twelve personnel offense the usage of the tight ends.
If you're gonna have two tight ends out there and
you're not gonna throw to them. And Tyler Higbee has
four catches on the season, they all came last week.
Tyler Higby had zero catches for zero yards in this game.

Speaker 3 (33:28):
Zero.

Speaker 2 (33:29):
Davis Allen's had two touchdowns two weeks in a row.
But Davis Allen is kind of like a dump off option.
They're not trying to like run the offense through the
tight end. The tight ends coach, hear me out, let
me have you grasp this this way. The former tight
ends coach for the Washington Redskins, Sean McVay, is not

(33:52):
utilizing the tight ends in the passing game. And mind you,
he's been around some good ones. So I don't really
understand what's going on there with the offense, and I
do ultimately believe it's really holding back their operation. They
don't feel as potent as they could be, and I
think we're seeing that in the red zone. You know,

(34:12):
you see the play where Stafford throws it away. The
target ironically is Tyler Higbee. But on that play when
he throws it away. Everybody's blanketed on that play. You
know why, because they know that they're going to either
Pukinakua or DeVante Adams. Guess who was opened by the
way in the flat. Kien Williams probably would have jogged
in for his second touchdown of the day, actually his

(34:35):
third until they took that away. But yeah, they need
to run the ball more. That's the good news. The
run is back. Okay, if you take anything away from
this game offensively, take away the fact Matthew Stafford is
not going to play like this moving forward. He doesn't
have games where he goes nineteen of thirty three and
misses multiple layup throws. He just doesn't do that. Kyron

(34:58):
Williams ran for ninety four yards on twenty carries. He
had sixty six yards in back to back games. That
means the run game is starting to come alive. I
think a big reason for that is you have Kyra
Williams and Blake Orum. It gives defenses different looks. With
those guys getting off the ground this week and this
run game starting to find itself. This is only going

(35:20):
to make the offense better down the stretch. But the
biggest issue that I have right now is how they're
not using two two out Well and they're not using
Jordan Whittington. And you know, they use Whittington as a blocker,
and they used at Well as a clearout guy. To
be fair, at Well more of a long developing type
of receiver, long developing play, you need to have better

(35:40):
pass protection Alexis. So we'll see, like when Steve Ovula
comes back and they're still not throwing at Well, then
I'll be concerned about his role moving forward. But the
way I see it is, at the very least, Jordan
Whittington has to be utilized. If you're not going to
use the tight ends, Jordan Whittington has to be utilized.
It's really that simple. So yeah, I think they're a

(36:01):
little too one dimensional, and I think they have a
lot of different weapons and they're only using two of
them right now most of the time. In Pukinaku and
Davante Adams.

Speaker 1 (36:12):
I agree, you know, I think, and a lot of
those passes to DeVante Adams, in my opinion, have also
been very forced. I'm just going to be honest. There's
a lot of plays where Stafford is trying to force
it to atoms and they're just not good looks and
they're not on target either, So that's frustrating to watch.
And again I think it plays into why do we

(36:33):
keep abandoning the run for this? Going through these offensive drives,
I would run the ball every single play for a
six yard seven yard game to win the game. And
there are so many of these offensive drives where they
just abandoned the run, and I think the game would
have turned out differently, to be quite honest, if they
hadn't done that. But Jake, I want to talk about

(36:55):
one particular offensive drive and this haunts me and makes
me so far frustrated. And this is the sixth offensive
drive of the game, right before halftime. So the Rams
get the ball with one fifty two left in the clock,
with three timeouts, three timeouts, I think you're.

Speaker 3 (37:16):
Muted, Jeeke, I know where you're going with this.

Speaker 1 (37:21):
Oh the clock management here. And it wasn't just me,
the broadcasters, everybody online was like, what is happening right
now with this? I mean, you very clearly were playing
for a field goal. The Rams were very clearly playing
for a field goal. They were not trying to get
a touchdown, which I think is a mistake. I think
that you know, you're up sixteen to seven against the

(37:44):
Super Bowl champions again, who you've lost to twice in
the course of a year. You should not be leaving
points in the field, especially when we've already seen in
this game that we struggle to score in the red zone.
You know, obviously take the field goal if you can
get it. But that's a lot of time. Minute two
is a lot of time, and you've all three timeouts.
I'm pretty sure they got the ball around the fifty

(38:05):
I didn't write where they got it. I thought I did,
But they get the ball around the fifty yard line. Okay,
So you start off with the Kyron Williams twelve yard run,
because shocker, we just talk about the run game, right,
You start off with a twelve yard run by Kian Williams.
Then you get an eight yard pass to Adams. Then
on second and two, the run is blown up, the

(38:26):
offensive line folded. Not a great look. Okay, clock is
still running. You now have fifty two seconds left on
the clock. You don't call a time out. Third and
second incomplete to Nikua, clock is stopped. That was snapped
at eighteen seconds. Fourth and two, you take a field goal.
I want to know why there wasn't a timeout used

(38:48):
anywhere there. Oh yeah, I can't believe it. I was
watching that and watching the clock run. The offense wasn't rushing,
they were taking their time, and they were very clearly
playing for a field goal with one fifty two and
three timeouts. And listen, you get the field goal. Cool.
Now you're up nineteen to seven and a half. But
that's a game that we've, as we've talked about, probably

(39:10):
should have been up thirty one to seven at halftime
with the way the Rams played and without some of
those calls, and if they had been able to execute
in the red zone a little differently. I could not
believe what I was watching. It felt like they were
like checked out before half and they're like, oh my god,
we're winning the game. Let's get out of here. I'm like,
you've got a minute fifty two left on the clock

(39:31):
and three timeouts. I've rewatched it. I've tried to justify it.
I've tried to empathize, and I simply cannot empathize. The
only thing that I can think of is that at
that second and two you get the run blown up
you know the offensive line just got beat badly. Is
then maybe you panic. I don't, It doesn't matter. I

(39:54):
think you take you take the time out there regardless
you didn't even take a time out. Yeah, So it
just it was very very piss poor clock management. And
again I think it goes down to this bigger argument
of not just this play, but of leaving points on
the board, whether it's in the red zone, whether it's
clock management, however you're doing it. I just thinking it

(40:18):
against a team like Philly, you gotta at least try
because in this you could have at least if you
try here to go for the touchdown, maybe if you
still end up with a field goal anyway, right with
three seconds left on the clock or whatever. But I
mean you didn't. They basically told us after one one
botch play on second and two that they were just

(40:40):
going to go for a field goal.

Speaker 3 (40:42):
I agree completely with you.

Speaker 2 (40:44):
I see where I actually do see where they were
coming from. I think it's wrong, but I see what
they could have thought. You get twelve yard run from Kiren,
that's kind of setting up your drive. We're gonna run
it here. If they stop him, Okay, we're gonna be
very conservative. If they don't stop him and he runs
for a first down, we're gonna go for it. So
the next pass is to div our. Next play is

(41:07):
a pass to Devonte Adams. It's no huddle out of
the shotgun, right. Then they run it right because it's
second and two when they get stopped, now it's third
and two. So I think that they were too worried
about And again I do not agree with this, so
let me make that very clear. It's fifty seven seconds, right,

(41:27):
and they get stopped, and now the clock runs down,
and they don't decide to call a time out because
they're looking at from a perspective of they're at this
Philly twenty eight right. They're looking at from a perspective
of Philadelphia. We get the ball with about fifty seconds, right,
if they kicked a field goal, and you don't want

(41:49):
to give them the ball at all because you're already
in that kind of that two minute offense and everything.
They could go down and get a field goal of
their own. So that was the worry from their perspective.
Here's why it's wrong. And I do believe it is
wrong because I understand playing on the road, and I
also the thing that came out beforehand. They're like, oh,
Sean McVay isn't gonna play it's safe today, And he didn't.

Speaker 3 (42:09):
He really didn't.

Speaker 2 (42:09):
This is the only time I really felt like he
totally played it safe, to be fair. But as you
brought up, how much different is this game if it's
a twenty three to seven game going and a half,
then a nineteen to seven game, And so I do
agree with you wholeheartedly. It was a mistake because they're
looking at third and two now they're like, Okay, we

(42:32):
let the clock run down enough so if we don't
get it, they don't have enough time. And guess what,
they were right, they don't have enough time. But who
gives a rip? I don't care because there ends up
being one play and they kneel it down right, there
was ten seconds left for Philly. The problem I have
is that on third and two you have to have
the confidence that you are going to make it. Just

(42:54):
go for the play, call the time out, go for
the play. That is what I I honestly, I agree
completely with you. Cardi hit a forty six yarder. You know,
now there's ten seconds. They kneel it, but guess what
do they kneel it if they missed, you know, the
throw and it's fifty seconds probably not. You know what,
I still don't care. To your point, this is where

(43:16):
you got to step on the neck with that boot
and not let go. Okay, this is where you got
to kill this team. And I think I agree. I
think they. I'm not gonna say, I'm not gonna go
as far as to say they lost the game when
they didn't do this, But this, this changes everything, because
I mean, again, nineteen to seven doesn't feel as bad
as twenty three to seven. When you get into the

(43:38):
twenties and you're you're down twenty three to seven going
into a halftime, that's a little brutal. But that said,
that Stafford throw has to be completed. To Nikua. My
biggest issue is they ran that exact play to beat
and actually, you know, lock up the game against the Texans,
right they ran that bootleg. You saw Nikua lines up

(44:02):
like looking like he's gonna be a tight end. He
releases through the trenches, sneaks by, there's nobody there. If
he hits them in stride, he's probably gonna be around
the ten to five yard line. That still isn't a
guarantee with say nineteen seconds left, that they're gonna be
able to have a touchdown there, but it is going

(44:24):
to be a first down and you will have an
extra set of downs now with nineteen seconds, So I
understand where they were going with I think it would
have been much better if they called the time out.
Had that time, I think they got flustered, and to
be honest with you, I probably would have ended up
going for it on fourth and two because I think

(44:44):
that's the type of aggression that you're gonna need to
beat this team. And the thing is, you can ever
look at it like this, we're kicking the ass now,
you know every which way that'll be there in the
next half. I don't think so, and obviously it wasn't.
So yeah, it's it's one of those things where obviously
Stafford missed Nikoua on the third down. By the way

(45:07):
that said, excellent play call, it's just poor execution. And
I want to distinguish that between the two because I
think a lot of the time when people say Sean
McVay calls a bad play, I think they're talking about
the execution more than Sean McVay. You can call a
play that has a low percentage shot of having great execution,

(45:30):
But when he calls the play like the one to
Nikua that he already called against the Texans and he's
wide open and Stafford misses the throw, that's just poor execution.
So Alexis, I'm glad you brought that up. Yeah, that
was just that was really frustrating because you have one
minute and fifty two seconds when Kyron takes the carry.

(45:51):
Now you're down to one minute in twenty seven seconds.
So you could argue even if they didn't call a
time out after that second Kiren run with fifty seven seconds,
why didn't they call it after the first kir and
run when then they threw it to Adams, they went
no huddle, shotgun to then throw an eight yard pass.

Speaker 1 (46:11):
You know, Yeah, I just I think, you know, the
fact that they didn't even use one time out kind
of was like so puzzling to me. And I think,
just you know, you're going into the second half where
you know that you don't start with the ball, right,
you know, the Philly gets the ball back to start
the second half, And I just couldn't and still can't

(46:34):
wrap my head around it. I think it was you know, listen,
No one drive makes her break the game. But I
really felt like after that it sent a bigger message
about the leading points on the board and the frustration there,
particularly after a first half where you're already struggling in
the red zone and then you know, you go into
the second half right and set the second half started

(46:57):
well for the Rams. Oh yeah, because that was the
you know, the first we talk about Phil. You know,
Philly gets the ball back right start the second half.
That was the drive with the verse strips act. So
we start off hot and it's like, okay, maybe for
a second we can be like, all.

Speaker 2 (47:12):
Right, then Kyri now they use him in the passing game.
Oh my god, he scores a touchdown almost on touch.

Speaker 1 (47:19):
And yeah, then right after that capitalized first play screen
passed to Kiri Williams for a touchdown. Now you're up
twenty six to seven, which hurts in retrospect because again
you're up twenty six to seven, and we know, you
know what happened. But then looking at the offense again
and we don't have to keep talking about it. But
when I have this listed out, just the abandonment of

(47:40):
the run game in some of these play calls. I
just thought we're not good enough in the second half,
and it would not have been a big deal if
you would have capitalized in the first and those plays
that we talked about. So I just think it was
really frustrating. And I think, you know, when you look
at this loss to the Eagles, had it hurt, it
hurts worse. I think because of the history we have

(48:02):
with Philadelphia, because the Rams and the Eagles are both
top teams in the NFC, and this now hurts us
with seating hurts our record. Obviously we had a chance
to go through. I know we should be three and
o right now, but it's too many things went wrong
and it was really the Rams fault, and I think
that that's what hurts. I know that there's like these

(48:24):
things with like the refs and whatever that people are
upset about, but really the Rams could not close it out,
and it's frustrating. But I think, you know what silver lining,
You know, I don't really like doing this whole silver
lining when you lose, But in theory, right, it shows
that the Rams can compete with the Philadelphia Eagles, and

(48:44):
they can they're good enough to beat them. Pure talent wise.
I mean, we we dominated the majority of that game.
I think unfortunately play calling and some poor execution offensively
at the wrong moments did us in. And also we
got to give credit to Eagles. They're a good team.
This has nothing to do with with you know, me
trying to pretend that the Eagles are one of the

(49:06):
best teams the NFC, because they are, so I'm going
to give them their credit there. But it is frustrating.
You know, now you're two and one, you have that
loss to Philly, which can come back to haunt us potentially,
and I think that the Rams will learn for it
from it. But I really hope going forward offensively, we
can fix these mistakes. And Jake, I want to see

(49:27):
more receivers involved than Niku and Adams. I mean, you
get Kiring involved a little bit in the receiving game,
and you know he did good there. You have, you know,
some catches from Davis Allen, but like, there are too
many people on this offense that are supposed to be
contributors that aren't being utilized and that is frustrating.

Speaker 2 (49:45):
Yeah, and I'll say this, nine to twenty seven left
to go in the third, I had this jot down.
Matthew Stafford sacked at Philly forty nine for zero yard.
Now he wasn't sacked. This is the run, right, great
play by Jordan Yeah, Jordan Davis chases him down. Why
on third and two, Sean McVay, Sean mcvaye, I want

(50:09):
you to listen to me right now. Why on third
and two is Matthew Stafford in the shotgun? You just
had a six yard run two plays ago with Kyraen Williams.
I don't understand. I don't get it. I hate shotgun.
I hate it, truthfully, I hate shotgun. Matthew Stafford had

(50:30):
plenty of you know, drop back passes last week, looked
really good in the shotgun here, I don't get it.
So now he has to run for his life. No
one is open. That was a bad play call. That
was a bad play call. And then deciding to punt
it Ethan Evans didn't exactly. I mean he punted thirty

(50:55):
six yards right, so he brought it down to the
Philadelphia what thirteen? It wasn't like he brought him down
to one yard line or whatever. So I don't know
if I even would have punted it either. With the
way this game was going that was the first punt
of the day. So I want to give you know,
the Rams and Sean McVay credit. That was the first
punt of the day in the third quarter. Right that said,

(51:17):
the Eagles then go on to have a huge drive
after the punt, And it really makes you pay there
because the Eagles end up after the punt. They go
thirteen plays eighty seven yards and eat up six minutes
and twenty seven seconds. And now here we are on
the fourth quarter of the Rams have the turnover on
downs to the Kyron Williams run. Now, to be fair,

(51:38):
he was running right guard for most of the game. Uh,
but running when bo Limmer is that right guard is
completely different than Kevin Dotson. So that was really frustrating. Also,
the deep throw on third and one at the Philly
forty six to Adams. I didn't love the play call.
I understood it. Stafford normally hits that throw. He missed it.
You have to hit the throw. If you're gonna call

(52:00):
down third and one, you have to hit the throw.
Then the Rams defense. Then the very next drive, the
Rams defense forces a turnover on downs, which the Philadelphia
Eagles did not deserve. To win this game for one reason,
one reason only. They had a moronic, absolutely maronic decision
to go for it on fourth and seven at their fifty,

(52:23):
so it was third and four. Jalen Hurts gets sacked,
then Cam Jurgens gets hit with an offensive holding. Sean
mcvagh declines it. So now they're at the fourth and
seven right and Jalen Hurts has an incomplete pass to
aj Brown Cam Kinchens on the coverage. They went for

(52:46):
it on fourth and seven. It's not like this team
doesn't really they don't really extend drives on fourth down
unless it's fourth and short. Fourth and seven. That was stupid.
I hate the most that they got away with that
because then the Rams go down the field and they
had a pretty nice drive and then they stalled out.

(53:07):
It was the Adams throw red blanket. Ship is tugging
on his dreadlocks all over him, doesn't turn around and
play the ball. I don't know what a pass interference
call is, because they told us that if you don't
turn around and play the ball and actually go and
see the ball, and you face guard and you hit
the receiver before the ball gets there, it's p I

(53:29):
no idea what that was but that's not called on
a third down. But regardless, they get down to the
Philadelphia eighteen, they got to kick a field goal. The
field goal is blocked heads up play by Josh Carty.
By the way, Carty, I don't know if you guys
know this. Cardy gets the ball and throws it, and

(53:49):
there were people like, what he picked it up and
threw it. Isn't that like a forward pass?

Speaker 3 (53:54):
No, it's not.

Speaker 2 (53:56):
So it's a different type of play. You can't look
at like it's an offensive player. If the kick is
blocked and then the kicker picks it up, as long
as it's not past the line of scrimmage, then the
kicker can throw it. The kicker can kick it again.
By the way, I don't know if you knew this,
Alexis you could actually kick it again. He could punt

(54:16):
it if you wanted to. But he can throw it
to anybody. Anybody is an eligible receiver at that point.
So it was actually heads up thinking for him to
throw it back wasn't really heads up that people didn't
realize what the What happens is that the Eagles can
actually then pick up that ball and run with it.

(54:37):
But either way, be that as it may, Josh Carty
was insanely good in this game. Should have been the MVP.
Had they have not blocked his kicks, he would have
been the MVP because the knuckleball he had on the kickoff.
I don't think people realize how important that was for
the Rams defense. The Rams defense started all of those

(54:58):
drives like way back into their you know, Philly's own territory.
It's incredibly difficult when you're you're constantly starting at the
eight yard line, ten yard line, right. It was the
knuckleballing kicks. I really believe that. So I saw people
blaming Josh Carty. I don't know how you could blame him.
And also, let's not overanalyze this situation. It's not just

(55:24):
bowl Limmer haven Stein, all those guys. They didn't get
it done, they didn't block the kick was blocked right twice.
We're not going to overanalyze and say, well, the trajectory
from this angle means I think Josh Carty was about
to shank it. You have no idea, you have zero clue.
We don't know, we never will know. There's no analytics

(55:47):
out there to prove that Josh Carty was gonna shank
it or make it. We do know he never got
an opportunity to That was the frustrating part and the
last thing before I passed it.

Speaker 3 (55:57):
On to you, Alexis I am. I'm not going to go.

Speaker 2 (56:01):
Too crazy about this. There's two things I see on this.
The kicking was frustrating because Dani Rolovsky brought it up
on his show earlier today. This had been creeping up
on the Rams the whole game. Early on in the
game they almost blocked one. There was an overload there
and the Rams just didn't do well at adjusting to it.

Speaker 3 (56:26):
The other thing I'm gonna say is this leverage.

Speaker 2 (56:30):
I think it's like the dumbest penalty ever. It's some
like thing that they added. It's the reason why the
Broncos lost to the Colts. It's the reason why the
Colts to the Rams will play this weekend are three
and zero. The Colts actually lost the game to the Broncos.
They missed a sixty yard wasn't even remotely close. However,
on the call there was leverage. What does that mean?

(56:52):
The defensive player took his hand and leaned on the
long star to try to get up higher and bat
the ball down so did they bat the ball down? No,
but they called a fifteen yard penalty. Now a sixty
yarder becomes a forty five yarder and the Colts win

(57:14):
how much? So literally, the score bugs showed the Broncos
were two and oh, and they lost with the score
bugs showing two and oh. I went through and I
saw that there were people saying that they did that
the entire game. I can say without a doubt they didn't.
But on the final kick there was leverage. They didn't
call it because honestly, I hate the rule and it
should probably never be called. But they didn't call it,

(57:37):
and it was just given, you know. And this is
really what it comes down to. And this is why
I don't want to go over the top, you know,
about taking away credit from the Rams because they blew
blew the lead. I think there are ways to look
at this. The Rams have to be better, for sure
at finishing games. They they deserve a lot of credit
for dominating most of this game against the you know,

(57:59):
division at the division, but the NFL champions it essentially,
And they deserve a lot of credit for coming back
in a game that they threw an interception on their
first drive. Of the game, most teams would have folded
like a lawn chair, and they came back in hostile
territory and dominated the game. So there's a lot of

(58:21):
good to be had here. But at the same time,
it also goes to show you it took all of
that and the calls that people are talking about, whatever,
everything had to happen for the Eagles to win this game.
They would have lost in pretty much any other situation.
They're two kicks. The odds of blocking two kicks very

(58:44):
very very small, odds, slim chance, hardly none. Right, there
are a lot of things that had to happen for
them to win this game. So you give them credit,
But you also can say that the Rams shouldn't be
slept on now because they lost to the Eagles. It's
so meaningless to be like, oh, they're two and one

(59:07):
the forty nine ers or three and oh, yeah, the
forty nine ers just had a hard time finishing off Arizona.
I'm not worried about the forty nine ers, nor.

Speaker 3 (59:14):
Should you be.

Speaker 2 (59:15):
Well, the Seattle Seahawks blew out the Saints. Yeah, impressive win,
but it's also the New Orleans Saints where zero and three,
like so yeah, the Rams went as a West Coast
team to the East Coast, and they did not look
like they were overmatched, and they didn't look like they

(59:37):
weren't ready. Say what you will about how the game ended,
but that's what we got to talk about. And I
think that, you know, should the Rams have won one
hundred percent, But if anybody is worried about this team,
I think that's misplaced.

Speaker 1 (59:53):
I agree. I think, you know, we talked about a
few of these things that I think ended up costing
the Rams this win. But one of the bright spots
I think just is this team in the chemistry that
they have and the momentum that they're building, and if
they could address some of these issues and execute a
little bit better and maybe change up the play calling

(01:00:15):
in some areas, I think this is a very dangerous team.
I think anybody who watched that game who might have
been sleeping on the Rams isn't anymore. And you know,
there are no moral victories in football. Really, I don't
believe that. I maybe it's a little old school, but
if there was one, I would say that again, this
proves that the Rams are one of the top teams

(01:00:35):
in the NFC, and they are forced to be reckoned with,
and I hope that they take this fuel, you know,
this rage from this loss and they turn it into
productivity and can go through the rest of the season.
It's only week three and use this to get better,
come back stronger, and sharpen up some of these things
they need to sharpen up. And it'll be very interesting

(01:00:58):
to see if they do that. And obviously we hope
they do, and Jake, I know we have some supers,
so we want to get to those.

Speaker 2 (01:01:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:01:03):
But I just think in closing, you know, it was
a devastating loss. It was a heartbreaker. It's a loss
that should not have happened for all intents and purposes.
You know. I didn't think that the Rams played the
majority of the game in a way that would have
warranted this, and they just could not close it out.

(01:01:25):
And there was there were too many moments where they
came up short, and unfortunately that happens in pro sports.
But it doesn't make it hurt any less. But going forward,
I feel good. I feel good, and I think that
they're going to bounce back from this, and that's all
we can hope for.

Speaker 2 (01:01:41):
Yeah, And I think they are, you know, there's a
thing Blake Korum said that, you know, there was a
nice quote and basically he was saying, how they're built
for this, and you know, the feeling in the locker
room is that they're you know, they are going to
fight through it because you can either something like this happens.

(01:02:03):
You can either fold or you know, you can step
up to the occasion. This might end up as painful
and as frustrating, as much as I hate, it might
end up being better for the Rams. It might push
Sean mcvahn a direction to be a little bit more
imaginative with the offense. You have way too many weapons.
Maybe we start to see guys like Terrence Ferguson and

(01:02:23):
Jarqui's Hunter getting action. I don't know, But what I
do know is that anybody that is out on this
team you have paying attention. This team only loses to
the Eagles, Like the same breath of the Eagles being
nineteen and one in their last how many games take
away the Seahawks game the starters didn't even play and

(01:02:44):
they still almost won. This team only loses to the
Philadelphia Eagles. It's it's insane, truthfully, So yeah, frustrating, absolutely
one hundred percent. But at the same time, you know,
there's a lot of good to take away, and this
team is legit. They're one hundred percent legit. Anybody that

(01:03:05):
says otherwise, well doesn't really matter. But yeah, super Chat time,
so let's do it. Zaylor Swift love the name as always.
Can we please move on to the Colts. Rams fans
have been getting cooked all day. Not the end of
the world, and the Colts are on fire right now. Yeah,

(01:03:27):
but to be fair and appreciate the super chat, but
to be fair here, right, this just happened like you
just went to Philadelphia, you kicked their ass for we'll
probably say three quarters, and you lost on an improbable

(01:03:48):
play that doesn't normally happen in games, although it happened
three times on Sunday for whatever reason. But block field
goals like you don't normally see that, so that's how
you lost. I understand why people are upset at this,
and I mean, if you're like me, we've been waiting
since January for this game, Like, you know, I had
the Rams losing this game in the preseason, like before

(01:04:09):
I made you know, like before it got to this point,
I had the Rams always losing this game. But then
when it got to this point and we were talking,
I was like, I'm watching this Eagles team against Jeeves,
I'm watching them against the Cowboys, and I'm not as
impressed as some other people. And I was saying, you
could throw on this secondary. They're going to be able
to potentially run the football. This team they can beat

(01:04:32):
and I had them winning twenty four to twenty one.

Speaker 3 (01:04:35):
So yeah, I.

Speaker 2 (01:04:36):
Will just say let people deal with a loss however
they want to deal with it. Again, I like, I
understand your point and everything, but yeah, the Colts game
will talk about I think really, Monday is the day
you talk about the previous day. Tuesday you can still
talk about it, but you start to get ready and

(01:04:57):
then Wednesday you're on to next week.

Speaker 3 (01:04:59):
That's kind of how I it.

Speaker 2 (01:05:00):
That's always how I've seen it since I've been covering
in the NFL. So those are my thoughts. But appreciate you,
Taylor Swift. Do you have anything to add there?

Speaker 3 (01:05:07):
Alexis I know in agreement? All right?

Speaker 2 (01:05:14):
Vic, thank you for the two. This one hurts, guys, Yes,
it does?

Speaker 1 (01:05:18):
It does?

Speaker 3 (01:05:18):
It does? It just made me think of Jalen Hurts.
I want to say something.

Speaker 2 (01:05:26):
I've always defended Jalen Hurts, but like the praise that
he gets is a little ridiculous. He played, he had
negative one passing yards in the first half. No one
cares now, but then again it is. It's very reminiscent
to Tom Brady coming back from twenty eight to three.
No one cares that he put them in the hole
to begin with. If you get yourself out of it,

(01:05:46):
which I get. You know, winners win and you talk
about the winners. But there's something that's like, I don't know,
I'd prefer you to play a consistent game all around
and just be dog shit for the first half of
It's me personally, but appreciate you. Saylor Swift. Refs were
on demon time. Long Snapper needs to be evaluated. He

(01:06:09):
just stood there both times. Stafford and Adams need needed
to make plays and they didn't.

Speaker 3 (01:06:15):
What are your thoughts on this?

Speaker 1 (01:06:20):
I mean, the refs weren't great this game. Uh, for sure,
a lot of calls that I disagreed with Stafford and
Adams needing to make plays. You know, I think it
speaks a larger issue that Stafford is trying to force
the ball to Adams A lot. He's trying to force
the ball the Nukua and Adams both a lot, and

(01:06:40):
he needs to kind of diversify. I think his you know,
targets in that regard, and he also wasn't super accurate
just in general this game unfortunately in a way that
is a little bit unusual in terms of the long snapper. Jake,
I'm curious to hear your thoughts on this because I
too watched that play. But it there's a rule about

(01:07:06):
the long snapper, right, and I wasn't familiar about this
is why I'm not going to speak out about this,
and I could be wrong, but I was starting to
see some talk about people trying to justify why the
long snapper had no one in front of him, because
I too was like, I saw a really good tweet
by d I'm blanking on her user name right now.

(01:07:30):
Her Twitter name is d and she's awesome, and she
said he was out there blocking Casper. I thought that
was funny, and I wish I could remember her username
right now to get her credit. But I think the
thing about the long snappers, I don't want to say
anything ignorant about it, because I was pretty harsh on
him too. But then apparently there was a reason that

(01:07:53):
he was.

Speaker 3 (01:07:53):
Where he was.

Speaker 2 (01:07:55):
Yeah, I'm not really privy to the information the way
I know it, and I mean I could be wrong,
but the long snappers entire job is to snap the football,
you know, making it out to be like he could have.
I mean, Alex Ward is not I don't care what

(01:08:16):
anyone says. Alex Ward is not blocking Jalen Carter, Yeah,
you know, and uh in Jordan Davis like that. I'm
Jordan Davis is three hundred and thirty pounds, Okay. I
don't think people realize. Also, long snappers are not big
because you have to be an athlete, right, you have
to actually be athletic. And I believe Alex Ward is

(01:08:40):
like two forty tops. Yeah, he's six four, two forty one.
I mean, probably would have been a great offensive lineman
back in the fifties or sixties. But that's neither here
nor there. Point being is that offensive lineman they need
to be that weight because they're always blocking, right. But
when you're the long snapper on the kicking team, okay,

(01:09:04):
but think about it, you're also the long snapper when
you're punting.

Speaker 3 (01:09:07):
So when you're the long snapper. When you're punting, you
have to.

Speaker 2 (01:09:10):
Play like the field coverage, right, you have to play
coverage and you still have to move. And so that's
why they don't just make the long snapper the center normally,
although maybe they should on the kick. It's an interesting thing,
but I don't know. I'm not I'm not too worried

(01:09:31):
because he wasn't the reason they lost. The snap was fine,
the hold was good, the kick was up, and it
got blocked because Rob Havenstein was on his ass. Bo
Limmer was on his ass. I mean, they got absolutely destroyed.
And yeah, it's just it's frustrating for sure, Gardner Johnson.

(01:09:53):
We have the picks and the Jets suck. Respectfully, our
offensive line play was not ideal. Steve Avula, come on, man,
always hurt.

Speaker 1 (01:10:03):
I mean, the offensive line is a concern. It just is.
I think that you know, to pretend that it's not. Yeah, yeah,
but in past protection, you know, definitely concern. And then
Stafford not making those throws. I mean, and also I
think they can go hand in hand. I think Stafford

(01:10:27):
reasonably got a little bit rattled at times. You know,
we saw the offensive line collapse and the depth. I
mean you got Limmer out there a guard, So I
think something's got to change at least there because that's
not working.

Speaker 2 (01:10:47):
Yeah, no, I agree with that, Sailors back at it.
Also automatic replay sus two that was a catch.

Speaker 1 (01:10:56):
Yeah, yeah, that was crazy. At least they got it eventually,
but like that was concerning.

Speaker 3 (01:11:02):
Well, it was concerning.

Speaker 2 (01:11:03):
And then for people saying again, so that was the thing,
when did the catch happen where the Rams like clearly
ahead because there were people saying, oh, they're just trying
to keep Philly in it and on that play because
it wasn't even close. And the thing that bothers me
is that was called a catch on the field, so

(01:11:26):
replay assist overturned what was obviously a catch and then
made Sean mcvah and the Rams review it, so they
had to use a challenge, which is just insane. I
believe that was on the same play. Yes, that was
on the drive where Kiring got stuffed, you know, going

(01:11:47):
to the right side.

Speaker 3 (01:11:48):
Okay, So.

Speaker 2 (01:11:51):
There were concerns at this point in the game because
it's twenty six, twenty one and the Rams are on
a third and eight here and Stafford's about to get
the ball knocked out of his hand. He somehow delivers
it to Nikua. Nikua juggles it but it never hits
the ground, and then he catches it, gets the first down,
huge first down. Right the next play, Stafford hits Nikua

(01:12:14):
for twenty yards. This is all about momentum here, Okay,
I don't care what anyone says. This about momentum. He
hits them for twenty yards. And then Nikua does this
and everyone gets offended, I guess because flags come out.

(01:12:35):
It's called taunting for flexing, which is he does this
all the time. A twenty yard gain ends up just
being an eight yard gain because of the penalty. Absolutely
terrible penalty. Cannot call that. Then they go to Nikua
again on the first and ten they get six. Then

(01:12:55):
they go to Davis Allen they get three. And then
on third and one they go with the deep pass
to Adams incomplete, and then Kyron gets stopped un fourth down.
But I saw the percentages, the rams percentage of scoring
a touchdown that drive drop fifteen percent when they called

(01:13:15):
that taunting penalty on Nikua. And my thing is this,
if you don't want people to question the integrity of
the game, don't call stupid shit like that, because that
is going to have people wondering what's going on. It's
not taunting. It shouldn't be called. You know, the Eagles
did nothing to deserve a free fifteen yard gift and

(01:13:39):
it ended up hurting the Rams. So I'm glad you
mentioned that, Zailor, because I can't believe we almost went
without even talking about the taunting penalty.

Speaker 3 (01:13:50):
Awful, just awful, awful call.

Speaker 2 (01:13:52):
But anyway, refs hate us Rams fans because we well,
come on, go Rams.

Speaker 3 (01:14:02):
Thank you for the super there, Zailor.

Speaker 2 (01:14:06):
Yeah, no words on that one, Chris, thank you for
the twenty. Do you think the block kick is on CARDI?
I feel it's on the guards. Still in shock, hope
he bounced back me another cornerback.

Speaker 1 (01:14:22):
Thank you, Christopher. No, I don't think that's on CARDI,
not at all. I agree it's all on the guards.
I mean, they just absolutely collapsed. I mean, in a way,
I'm laughing because it's bad. It's so bad. I mean,
they they collapsed, and that that was the entire reason
that that happened. I mean, it just could not have

(01:14:43):
gone worse in terms of corner I agree. I think
we need to explore some options at corner.

Speaker 2 (01:14:50):
Yeah, no, I think aj Green needs to be added
to the roster. Yeah, I mean start there and then
if you need to. Maybe you see what Stephlan Gilmore
is doing. I will mind you. He is more of
a name at this point. He did take a tremendous
step backwards last year. But that's what I would say.

(01:15:12):
But Chris appreciates you as always. Zaylor's sauce Gardner save us. Yeah,
you're not getting sauce Gardner. He just signed a deal
with the Jets. No idea why, but he did. Due's
Falco appreciate the ten.

Speaker 3 (01:15:26):
I'm gonna be honest. I was livid after the loss.

Speaker 2 (01:15:28):
I watched the game again, and I know McVeigh will
be calling place differently from now on. Culture next horns up.
That was my takeaway as well. I felt like, you know,
unfortunately losing the game, it sucks, but you know, I
think he's gonna learn from these. You know, he's still
always learning. McVeigh is always he makes mistakes, he learns

(01:15:49):
from them. Even in wins. You make mistakes. Why is
it that every time you know you're getting one of
the locker room, you know, one of the locker room speeches.
What they always say, we got a lot, we got
to clean up, but this is a good win. We'll
do that during the week. Every time, it's always we
got a lot to clean up. And then you're sitting

(01:16:09):
there and you're like, I just watched the whole game
and I think they played mistake free football. And even
the coach is saying they got a lot to clean up.
Coaches will never say anything, you know, it's all perfect
because there's always something that you can improve at and
get better and upgrade. So yeah, but when you lose,
you lose a lot. You learn a lot more in
your losses than you do in your wins, that's for sure.

(01:16:30):
Zaylor Eric Weddle says position should be evaluated.

Speaker 1 (01:16:35):
He's talking about the long snapper. That was after we
talked about the long snapper. Really, hmm, I didn't hear
that from what all.

Speaker 3 (01:16:45):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:16:47):
I don't know personally. I'm not gonna sit here and
act like I know what a long snapper really is
supposed to do. I have the general basis, but I
have never played long snapper. I feel like that's a
position that you need to play to know. Yeah, and
I don't want to sit there. And you know, I'm
not going to bash Alex's word. I don't like that

(01:17:07):
he's being thrown under the bus. He's not the reason
they lost. And again, so if they put him out
in front or whatever, like, what is that going to do.
He's getting steamrolled. He's two hundred and forty pounds, guys,
and he's not two hundred and forty pounds like you know,
like a Derreck Henry's two hundred and forty pounds like
he's he's not built like that. So uh, Aiden, thank

(01:17:30):
you for the two. A Kello would have made a
big stop on third down. Yeah, for all those that said,
you know a Kello, you know, wasn't that good or
wasn't that big of a loss?

Speaker 3 (01:17:44):
They learned.

Speaker 2 (01:17:46):
They learned he held aj Brown in the playoffs to
one catch for five yards. They'll tell you. Eagles fans
will say, well it was because it was snowing. Well,
then why did Puginik, who will play as well as
he did, how did Stafford throw for three hundred and
twenty No, you got shut down by a Kello Witherspoon,

(01:18:07):
just like you shut down Nico Collins and probably would
have shut down AJ you know, AJ Brown again, So yeah,
frustrating for sure, no idea when they'll get him back,
hoping it's sooner than later. But right now, the Rams
I know aren't gonna have him for the next like say,
seven games, so they're gonna have to figure it out.

(01:18:28):
And then Saylor Swift at the last Super Coach JB
show he co hosts interesting, So.

Speaker 1 (01:18:39):
Yeah, well, thank you for all the super Zaylor.

Speaker 2 (01:18:41):
Yeah, appreciate it. A lot of soupers tonight. We appreciate
you guys, And that's that's gonna do it, I believe,
unless you have anything else you want to add.

Speaker 3 (01:18:52):
Alexis, I think we've no just this game up in
a bow.

Speaker 1 (01:18:55):
Yeah, let's let's move on to Colts Week. Let's shake
it off. You know, like I showed everyone in my notes,
and I didn't I did not get into them as
much as I wanted because I just realized after a
bit that like I'm not gonna go through like there's
no point We've talked. We lost and it sucks, and

(01:19:19):
you know where it was a bad loss. They happened.
We're gonna move on, very good football team that we have,
and I'm excited for the rest of the season going forward,
and I'm excited to come back to downtown RAMS and
preview our matchup Friday night. But until then, as always,
if you like what you hear, please like and subscribe.
You can follow me on Twitter at the Alexis Kraft.

(01:19:41):
You can follow Jake at j K Bogan, and we
will be back at eight pm Eastern time five pm
Pacific time a Friday night to preview our matchup against
the Colts this upcoming weekend. But until then, guys, as always,
stay safe, take care, and go Rams.