Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
All right, guys, welcome back to Downtown Rams. As always,
I'm Alexis Kraft. Join here with my co host Jake
ellen Bogan, and we are coming to you live this
Monday evening to recap our Rams win over the New
Orleans Saints thirty four to ten yesterday. Jake, it was
a solid Rams win, which was very exciting. It's always
(00:24):
nice to get the win, especially so after our bye
week where we had to go a whole week without
Rams football. It was excruciating. It's always a sad time
for us. I know, during the bye week when it's
like Sunday and we're like, oh my god, the Rams
aren't playing. It feels very very weird, very strange. But
we waited it out and we were rewarded with a win. Jake.
(00:46):
I felt like this just really was a solid team
win all around. It wasn't a perfect game by any means,
but I think offensively, especially it was really nice to
see this offense continuing to operate in all cylinders, get
multiple people involved. What were your thoughts just on this
game overall?
Speaker 2 (01:04):
I thought this was a complete win. Obviously. You know,
we could talk about the kicking game, and we will,
but I thought all three phases did contribute for this win,
because say what you will, the Rams are actually third
in the league in terms of their kicking unit. Now
I'm talking about kicking the field goal, but I'm the
kickoff unit. So there are some good things to take
(01:26):
away from, you know, the kicking team, but the defense
playing like one of the best in the league. I mean,
just the sheer dominance of the Saints. It's a season high, Alexis.
I don't know if you saw. It's almost forty four
minutes time of possession in this game. If you were
a Saints fan hoping to see Tyler Shuck throw the football,
(01:49):
you didn't really get much because the Saints barely had
the football sixteen minutes in a sixty minute game is
absolutely diabolical. And the Rams defense dominated the secondary was great.
We saw the best game of his career in Emmanuel Forbes.
He showed up, Nate Lambman had to punch out Braydon
(02:09):
Fisk had his first sack of the year. But then
you look at the offense, and the offense continued. And
the thing that I love the most is this was
coming off of bye. This was coming off the fact
that they hadn't been in LA for quite some time
because they stayed on the East Coast. After beating the
Baltimore Ravens. They actually stayed in Baltimore. They practice in
(02:30):
a baseball field, and then they went over to London.
Took care of business against the Jaguars, and you know
how normally teams kind of come out of the buy
and they're feeling a little rusty cough cough the Detroit Lions. Yeah,
the Rams didn't do that. They took care of business.
So this team looks like it's really coming together at
the right time. And I mean, I've been saying they're
(02:51):
the best team in the league since the start of
the year, but they really feel that. I understand they
played a bad Saints team. You could say the Jaguars
aren't the best team either the Ravens, but I think
it's just a sign. I mean, when you're able to
go and just dominate the Jaguars and the Saints, I mean,
the good teams really blow these teams out. And while
(03:11):
we were talking to win is a win against the Ravens.
Those blowout games you can't minimize. So you know, Matthew
Stafford has nine touchdowns through two games. He has sixteen
touchdowns no interceptions his last five and he's been the MVP.
He's the best quarterback right now in the National Football League.
(03:32):
And now he's getting on the same page with DeVante Adams,
who you and I were talking about earlier in the season.
They haven't really been able to get things going and
they were really forcing those targets. Well, now it's coming naturally,
and you can see those guys have developed a serious rapport.
And then you have Puka Akua sounds like he's gonna
be okay. You got Kyron Williams going over one hundred yards.
(03:55):
It's a really good spot to be in right now.
And it's a weird spot where I don't know if
I would make a trade at the deadline. I'm not
against it, but I don't know if I would change
anything about this team currently except for the special teams coordinator.
But we'll get to that.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
I agree. I definitely agree with you there, and Jake,
I think something that's so heartening kind of to see
about how these Rams have played the past few games
is really offensively and you kind of touched on it
with DeVante Adams, right, and I think it speaks to
a bigger problem with the Rams had earlier this season
in the red zone. Really really struggled in the red
(04:33):
zone to start the season, really weren't able to score
hardly at all. I mean, if they were, you know,
I mean running in with Kien Williams, right, they kind
of just couldn't really figure it out. And it seems
that the Devonte Adams has become the red zone guy.
I mean just that one play, you know, him one
on one with the corner. It seems to be automatic
(04:54):
every time, right, you know, him and Stafford have really
worked out the timing of that perfectly. But I think
a even outside of the red zone, we're starting to
see more guys get involved, which is something that we
really wanted. To start the season. It felt like, you know,
pukin Akua and then DeVante Adams and Kira and Williams
were the only three guys that were getting any targets
and for some games that worked, right, I mean we
(05:16):
obviously pokin Akua is automatic, right, He's wide receiver one
very reliable. Kiraen Williams was really reliable in the running game,
and then he also has come into his own as
a receiver, so he had some receiving touchdowns as well,
and then you know Devonte Adams. It took a while
to get that connection going, but now they've got it going.
But we really wanted to see like tight ends get
(05:37):
involved some other receivers like at Jordan Winnington to too
at Well who unfortunately is now in ir but earlier
in the season, you know, getting like Momfield involved, right. Uh,
then looking at your other tight ends, Davis Allen, Terence Ferguson,
who we've been screaming to get involved.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
They he only got two targets, which quite frankly, I
didn't think was enough. We could talk more about that later,
but I would like to see him utilize more and
more because when he is good things happen. But really,
I mean, the Rams had four different tight ends that
they use, right, I mean that's crazy considering earlier in
the season we were begging for more tight end usage. Right.
(06:15):
I remember posting a meme was Michael Scott meme. I
think it was like week two, three or four. I
posted the meme where I was like, Wow, it's so
nice seeing other teams utilize their tight ends. I'd love
to be part of one one day, you know, that
offs meme because it was like, for a while, it
just felt like they weren't doing anything like especially you know,
(06:35):
in Tyler Higbee's absence, it was kind of like the
Rams weren't really sure how to get that going. But
now look at what they've done. You've got four separate
tight ends being utilized. So it's really really nice to see.
It feels like this Rams offense is getting more fluid,
they're building more chemistry, they're getting more creative. I think
Sean McVay has kind of diversified his playbook and his
(06:57):
play calling a little bit, and it feels a little
bit more balanced. So that's really really nice to see,
and that's something that I felt like was really apparent
against the Saints offensively. Jake, I mean, I don't know
if there was any critiques you had of the way
that the offense, you know, is run. I kind of
brought up Terrence Ferguson. I'd like to see him utilized
a little bit more. I don't know how much of
(07:17):
that is like a valid criticism and just me wanting
to see him play because they do have four tight
ends running. I thought that the run game looked pretty solid,
and you know I have some thoughts on that, but
what do you think?
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Yeah, I mean, I have no complaints with the offense
saw more thirteen personnel, three tight end sets. Just want
to give a huge shout out to Davis Allen. I
think he's made significant strides as a blocker. It's allowing
them to do different things. Parkinson, we know can do
both things. We know Tyler Higbee and now Terrence Ferguson
is showing he can do both things. When you have
(07:51):
four tight ends in that room that are able to play,
and it's interchangeable, whether you use them in line, use
them out wide. You can, you know, use them as
a receiver. You can use them as a blocker, whether
it's pass protection or you know, run blocking. It really
creates different looks. And you know what you'll see is
the first play of the game or the first touchdown
(08:12):
of the game to Tyler Higbees wide open and people
are wondering how the hell did that happen? And I
saw a lot of Texans fans were like, Nick Kayley,
what are you doing? Why aren't you doing that? Right? Yeah,
I'm sure you saw that. So point being you have
three tight ends, what that does now is it creates
kind of like that bunch set where you have, you know,
(08:33):
just jam packed at the goal line. Makes it look
like you're more opt to run. Well now, it also
creates a lot of havoc and it creates a lot
of traffic. And so you have those three tight ends
on the right side of the formation, and if anybody
doesn't follow their man, then you only have a limited
amount of time to cover because that is a pitching
(08:55):
catch touchdown. And you could see one of the Saints
players just clearly doesn't see Tyler Higbee leak out and
go for the past and he's left wide open. And
that of course is done. Because you have put on
film you're not afraid to run the football at the
goal line. You did a ton last year. Kyra Williams
was like essentially your cash in right. He just you
(09:18):
could always go to him when you needed a score
in the red zone. Well this year they're not doing
that as much, but it's still out there on tape
and the resume is just out there. People know, hey, okay,
they can run with Kyron Williams. We have to watch
out for that. So when you're in thirteen personnel, the
last thing teams are expecting you to do is throw
the football at the goal line. They're expecting you to
(09:40):
run with extra beef up front, extra blocking, and they
don't do that. And so now, oh my god, they
were ready for the run, they're not ready for the past.
Tyler Higbee leaks into the end zone, touchdown, Rams go up.
And that was just the start of it. But when
you put that out on tape against the Saints or anybody,
(10:01):
now the next team is going to see that and
be like, we're not going to let that happen. And
this is where you start to you know, they zig
u zag type thing, where now the forty nine ers
are going to be cognizant of the fact that the
Rams are going to use more thirteen personnel. This is
not something they did at all the last time they
faced the forty nine ers. So now the forty nine
(10:21):
ers are going to have a heavy emphasis on that.
Robert sala is going to be like, hey, watch out
when we go in the red zone, expect them to,
you know, do this. And now this is where Sean
McVay can you know, it's kind of pick your poison
and if you want to be creative here you can
get emotion going and that's the thing. And we've seen that,
and they start to use more motion with Davis Allen.
They were using motion with you know, Terrence Ferguson. There
(10:44):
was a play in particular didn't actually go anywhere, but
they had a man deep down the field. It was
DeVante Adams. It's an incomplete pass. It is what it is.
It's shot play. You're not going to hit one hundred
percent of them. But when you attempt a shot play,
you're taking a shot down the field. Shots like a
roll of the dice. And Matthew Stafford's such a good
thrower to the football, they're not really worried about it
(11:05):
getting picked. You're either like he's either going to overthrow
him strategically, or he's gonna put it right where it
needs to be. It's gonna be a catch. Well, that
was brought on because they used Terrence Ferguson to motion
to the left. When he motions to the left, you
can see almost instantaneously the team, the whole defense is
starting to worry. Oh, they're going to go to eighteen.
And now you've created that on film where guys are
(11:27):
worried about a rookie tight end who we've been begging
to get the football, and now because he's out there,
teams have to be aware, oh crap, they're gonna throw
to him. He had fifty plus yards in this game
on two catches. He's catching everything, and now he's learning
how to block. So Alexis I think the big thing
here about this offense, about this passing attack, is that
(11:50):
they're passing to set up the run. They didn't run
a ton to start. They end up with over forty
carries in this game for one hundred and seventy one
yards on the ground, and some would say that it's
not a lot, but the Saints have a lot of
guys up front. You know, you got a Cam Jordan,
you got you know, a Granderson, right, I almost say
Curtis Granderson, that's baseball. But you got Carl Granderson, you
(12:13):
got Cam Jordan, you got Brian Bressi, right, you got
to Mario Davis. These are good players. I think people
forget the Saints are probably the worst team in football
right now. I think it's mainly because of the quarterback decision.
I don't think Shuck is even better than Rattler. But
that said, they still have talent and you'll get that
defense and there's a lot of talent all over that defense.
So it's a little bit harder to run the football
(12:35):
when they know you're going to continue to run it.
And that's what I thought was so impressive. When you
watch Kyral Williams, you watching play Corum, these guys are
still getting yards later in the game, despite the fact
that Saints, no, they're just trying to get out of
there with the win. They're ready to play the forty
nine ers. We've already won this game, right, we don't
want anybody to get hurt. So now it becomes harder
to run the football because they're expecting you to run
the football. I don't think people talk about that nearly enough.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
Well, right, and I thought, I mean Kyrien Williams had
one hundred and fourteen, Yeah, he was great yards, one
hundred and I should yeah, one hundred and fourteen rushing yards.
I mean that was great against you know, the Saints defense.
And I think that's something that the Rams, I think,
are finding a little bit more balanced with in the
run game. You know, I think that there's been times
(13:21):
where the Rams have abandoned the run game. Right, We've
talked about a lot on this show, and it really
hurts the team. So to see this balance attack between
rushing and passing has been really really fun to see
in kind of a relief to see from this Rams offense.
But yeah, I mean you look at like DeVante Adams right,
another multi touchdown game with two. Kukunakua had a great
(13:41):
touchdown Tyler Higbee. Then you see Kyrien Williams, you know,
fourth and one by the way, which was crazy. That's
kind of what I figured they were going to do
there to throw the Saints off. But I mean still
fourth and one rushing touchdown. A little bit crazy there,
but it works, so we can't complain. So you see
all these guys getting touchdowns and this is I think
(14:01):
what the Rams destiny has been this entire season. It
just took them a little bit longer, I think, to
figure it out. So I think that now that they're here,
I think it's only going to get hotter and hotter
and hotter, and they're gonna have a really big test
against the division rival, you know, next Sunday against the
San Francisco forty nine ers, who when we played them,
And we'll do a whole other episode about the forty
(14:22):
nine ers. This is simply just to recap, you know,
the Sands game. But you know when we played the
forty nine ers earlier this season, right, it was just
like one of those weird games where you know, unfortunately
the forty nine ers did a really good job with
Mac Jones and that, like dink and dunk on the defense,
and I don't think that the defense is gonna allow
that to happen this time. I don't think that they're
(14:44):
I think that this defense is also very much like
our offense, getting hotter, and I think that they're getting
more chemistry, and I think they're figuring things out as
they go as well. So I think that you know,
what we saw from this defense against the Saints, and
let's be you know, it was a rookie quarterback right
as his first NFL start. I'm against this kind of
a struggling Saints offense. You know, we're not going to
(15:06):
pretend that that's not true. But this defense showed that
they have all the tools to be consistent and to
put together four quarters of consistent defensive football, which earlier
in the season we didn't always see. Right, you know,
games like Philly and the forty nine ers. The two
losses were a little bit up and down from both
the defense and the offense. But I think it's been
(15:27):
really interesting to kind of see how the defense have
put things together. Jake, looking at how the defense played yesterday,
what were your thoughts on that? Oh?
Speaker 2 (15:37):
I loved watching it, you know, I love so Darius
Williams doesn't play. And there's some people that were concerned
it's like you're playing the Saints. I hate to be
that guy, but you can't lose to the Saints in
so far, you just can't and you're not gonna lose.
I knew right away when they benched Rattler, who by
the way, played about six good games out of eight,
and then they just kind of made him the scapegoat.
(16:00):
I knew right away when they benched Ratler they had
no chance of winning this football game. None. And I
don't even think Shuck was that bad. I just don't
think he had a chance. That's the thing.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
I mean.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Ratler was not afraid to throw down the field and
be a gunslinger. Shuck didn't really get a chance to
do that. And he's just not the quarterback that Rattler is.
Because Ratler had seen eight games, so shuck had only
been thrown in last week, and then I was watching
the tape and I'm like, he made some really good throws.
I'm not trying to hate on him, but he's also
like twenty seven as a rookie, so there's that too.
(16:33):
But I think the big thing here is that you saw.
I mean, this is key. Darius Williams is inactive. So
what happens well now slides in Emmanuel Forbes and while
they're using a bit of a rotation going into this game,
Darius Williams being out means there's not going to be
(16:53):
a rotation. And I thought, you know, Emmanuel Forbes was
the one that stood out to me the most because
I think he made the most of this, you know,
this opportunity and being the starter for the first time
since week one, really where he didn't have to look
over his shoulder. He was named the starter with a
Kello Witherspoon, and he gets his first interception of his
(17:15):
NFL career, and that's crazy because he had tons of
interceptions in college. But he just hasn't been able to
play with, you know, that confidence. He hasn't been able
to play with that urgency, that instinctive nature, the thing
that made me such a fan of his coming out
of college, and so you finally started to see it's
(17:35):
clicking a little bit with him. And how how so
I mean it's just a you know, oh yeah, he
made a nice interception. It wasn't just that. I mean,
you see the tackle he makes on Taysom Hill and
you're thinking, I mean, they call this guy the slim Reaper,
and here he is going up and making a tackle.
But how about Forbes three pass breakups in this game.
I just that is the game ball to me. Obviously,
(17:58):
Landman punching it out was huge, you know, Like I said,
Braydon Fisk getting his first sack of the year was huge.
I thought, Byron Young, you know, obviously getting the sack
is the penalty. I'm not gonna get too much into it, fine, whatever,
but I like that. You know that Rep. Kobe Turner
should have had a sack, and I saw his father
(18:19):
advocating for it on Twitter, and I agree with him.
If it doesn't matter if it is a wide receiver
an offensive lineman. Whoever, if you take a direct snap
and you are tackled behind the line of scrimmage and
you do not move forward. That's a sack. That's it.
I don't care. That needs to be a sack. So
I think Kobe Turner deserves a sack for that. I
(18:43):
liked what I saw. Tyler Davis had a nice batted
pass to the line of scrimmage. I thought Quinton Lake
played well. I thought Cameron Kinchins was everywhere. Five solo
tackles tied for the lead because they were hardly on
the field. So yeah, I thought the defense played spectacular.
And how about Landman not just throwing the punch on
(19:05):
the ball, but like not hitting the helmet while doing it,
unlike some other people, So shout out to him.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Yeah, I mean he has perfected the peanut punch. He
he really, he really has got that like timing down
and just seems to find those opportunities where you just
see him wind up and get it. Yep, just popped
it out. Beautiful to see. Yeah, this defense just really
(19:32):
is fun to watch. And like like I said earlier,
I think they're getting better and better each game, and
they're getting hot. They're finding the chemistry, especially in that secondary.
There's been a lot of shuffling around, right, and we're
going to see Roger McCreery come in probably next week,
you know, against the forty nine ers, So another new face,
so to see what they've been able to do kind
of and with kind of change and moving around, but
(19:56):
still keeping this consistency and still getting better to really
make Rams fans happy that they seem to be kind
of figuring it out and they are putting together really
really solid games. So, Jake, we've talked about the offense,
we've talked about the defense. That leaves one unit left
to talk about, and that is special teams. And this
(20:18):
has been the rams achilles heel this season. I mean,
if you look at the two losses we had, and
I don't think you know if we're being genuine or
we're being honest, the two losses that the Rams had
this season, there was multiple things that went wrong. I'm
not gonna sit here and say the special teams is
the only reason we lost to Philly and the forty
(20:39):
nine ers, right, that's not true. Both of those losses
had like just so many things go wrong, right that
they were just bad losses, but special teams really hindered
those performances. And there's been other moments in other games
that have almost cost us with special teams, and you
look at the NFC, and you just look at the
(20:59):
NFL as a whole. You are not going to make
it very far if you can't do like the basic
things right, you just aren't because the other teams aren't
going to make those mistakes. So Jake, looking at special teams,
looking at the kicking unit, what is your prediction for
what's going to happen here and what do you think
(21:22):
the biggest problem is and what do we do about it?
Because it just can't keep happening going forward.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
I love that you brought this up. You team me
up perfectly. I don't know if he saw my tweet,
but I do kind of have a feeling of what's
going to happen. So I believe, And I mean, I'm
not saying I've talked to people about this. I probably
should have, but I didn't reach out about it yet.
I'm going to. But this is just my gut is
that they are not going to fire Chase Blackburn. It's
(21:53):
hard to justify firing somebody that you go on record
saying I've been very pleased with the job that he's done.
Sean mcvagh did that about Chase Blackburn today and Ben
Cottwicca caught Wicica I don't even know how to say
his name, but he is the assistant special teams coordinator.
What I find interesting though, is that he said that
(22:14):
he was pleased with both coaches, but he also said
something has to change. Enough is enough, and he used
all of Monday because it was a victory Monday, so
all the guys are really doing I think he said
modified victory Monday. So what the guys are doing is
they're coming in and they're lifting weights. There's not a
huge walkthrough there, there's not a practice like it's just
a victory Monday. So that said, I feel like they
(22:39):
used today, and I mean he basically told this, they
used today to kind of go over and try and
fix the kicking unit, which I love. Here's the thing.
If you say you're pleased with somebody, I don't think
you're going to fire them. But if you say something
has to change, enough is enough, I don't necessarily And
by the way, he said he has a lot of
faith in uh Josh Cardi. That's just that's like empty calories.
(23:04):
If you're gonna just cut Josh Carty, you're not gonna
say that, you'd be like, yeah, we're kind of we're
evaluating everything, right. He said that, but he also says
I have a lot of faith in Josh. So I
find it interesting. So I went back to twenty twenty
and I found the last one that I could find.
I mean, maybe it's happened before. This is the precedent
(23:24):
that I've found. Back in November of twenty twenty, the
Chargers demoted their special teams coordinator. George Stewart was in
the role from twenty seventeen to twenty twenty. They didn't
fire him. They actually ended up promoting assistant special teams
coordinator Keith Burns in the middle of the season, so
they ended up keeping George Stewart as the assistant head coach,
(23:47):
and he was on the coaching staff as an offensive analyst,
so they realigned that they reassigned rather his job and
Burns took over. That's kind of what I think the
Rams are going to do. And if they don't do it,
say they don't make Ben the special team's coordinator, right
(24:10):
then what I think is gonna happen is we've seen
it before. There's a bunch of I mean, if you
go on the Rams dot Com and you look at
the coaching staff, there's now the passing game coordinator, the
pass rushing coordinator, the there's all sorts of coordinators right.
Everybody has a different role. It's a way of promoting
by creating new roles. So what I could see them
(24:31):
doing is making Ben Katwika the kicking operation specialist. And
that way, if you're pleased. I'm not saying you at home, folks,
I'm not saying I understand you're not. But Sean McVay
told us he's pleased with both of them. He mentioned
Chase Blackburn. He thinks he's doing a good job. Something
(24:54):
has to change. This is something Chase Blackburn could even
keep the reins as the special teams coordinator. But he
focuses on what the Rams are good at right now,
third in the league, on the kickoff unit, and that
is what he does, and he does things like that,
and he focuses on that and he manages that while
(25:15):
Ben Kottwika takes over the field goal operation. That alexis
is what I would expect to happen. I think we
find that out either tomorrow or Wednesday. I don't get
the vibe they're going to make a trade tomorrow, but
stranger things have happened. I think the most important thing
(25:35):
is this unit. And I also think a really important
thing here is not having a knee jerk reaction that
is going to cost you down the road. And to me,
a knee jerk reaction would be to cut Josh Cardy.
I don't think it's based in reality. Think about it.
Monday just happened. Sorry, guys, we're on a Tuesday, Tuesday, Tomorrow, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday,
(25:58):
forty nine ers. You can't sit there and tell me, yeah,
this forty nine ers game is so important. We got
to get the kicking right. And then you cut Josh
Carty on a Tuesday and you give not even a
full week for the next guy to come in and kick.
And who is that going to be? I think if
they went out and got anybody, I think I would
(26:18):
go after Young Wayku, who is on I believe the
Giants practice squad currently, but I don't think anybody out
there's better than Josh Carty. And I think it's unfair
if we're gonna sit here and say, yep, the kicking
unit's an issue. Special Teams Coordinator is an issue. The
protection's an issue, the snap was an issue, the hold
was an issue. That were like, I think everyone deserves
(26:41):
to keep their job except for Josh Carty. That's ridiculous.
So I'm not gonna make that knee jerk reaction. I
hope the Rams don't. I don't think they are. I
do think they're gonna reassign Chase Blackburn, not fire him,
and Ben Kottwika is gonna take over this unit. I
think that's the best move for the Los Angeles Rams
moving forward.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
Well, I also am not convinced that Josh Carty is
the problem. I know that there's a lot a lot
of people, you know, are just kind of reducing the
issue to Josh Carty. But when you look at what's
happening with these kicks, very rarely is it actually on
Josh Carty. You know, the first miskick from yesterday, the
laces were towards him. That's a holder problem. So that
(27:24):
has nothing to do with if you kick the football perfectly,
but the laces are faced towards you and you hit that,
that's going to skew your kick, right. The other one
I don't believe was blocked, but it was close to
being blocked, and he had a guy right up in
his face as he was kicking. So that obviously is
going to impact your vision and startle you. Right, that's
(27:45):
not supposed to happen. So that's a blocking issue. So
if you go back and you watch most of the
miskicks from this season, the vast majority of them are
not on Josh Carti. So I know that it's easy
to kind of scapegoat the kicker when there's a miskick, right,
it makes but I mean the blocking has been horrendous.
I mean it's been absolutely horrendous. And you know, the
(28:07):
holder has made a couple of mistakes, which you know
wasn't a problem last season. Josh Carty wasn't a problem
last season, right, So it just it's it's something has
to give, and it is very puzzling, you know why
this unit has just struggled so much on these kicks
as a whole. But mcveigh's right, something has to change,
(28:27):
and so maybe that is changing up the coaching unit.
But I still am just convinced that it's just the
guys that are out there. It's just it's not good enough,
you know, and it can't happen. It's a very you know,
one of the most basic things that you can do
right in the NFL, and it's a very routine and
all teams do it, and for some reason the rams
can just not figure it out. So we'll see. I'm
(28:51):
not convinced a coaching change even fixes that, unfortunately, because
the coaches aren't the ones on the field. But I
think it's more symbolic if anything made you put a
new guy in there who lights a fire under everybody's ass, right.
I don't know what if that's the idea or what
it is, but it's the guys really just need to
step up and they need to get it together. And
I also just think at this point, if any if
(29:13):
there's any concern with Cardi, it's not really his skill.
It's the psychological aspect of it.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
Right.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
You as the kicker now can't trust when you go
up to kick an extra point that your team's going
to block for you, or that your holder is holding
the ball right right like that can't be good. And
then all of a sudden that becomes a problem psychologically
when you go to kick the ball. So it's just
it's turning into it's spiraling and I think that, you know,
this RAMS team is way too good to have this problem.
(29:40):
So we'll probably have a lot more to say on
this when we record our episode Friday night to prepare
for the forty nine Ers game. I'm sure more information
will be out by then. But yeah, I mean, it's
just it's not good enough. And you know, thankfully, this
was a game that you can afford to have those
(30:01):
little mistakes happen, but against a team like the forty
nine ers you can't. So hopefully they play better next week.
But Jake, before we get into Supers, do you have
any closing thoughts?
Speaker 2 (30:15):
Yeah, real quick, because we'll get a word from Sleeper.
Of course, who's the sponsor of today's show. I wanted
to address Josh Cardy and how long he's taking to
kick field goals. I have to admit, I do think
there's some merit there, just like I thought there was
some merit with him kicking the knuckleballs, you know, and
(30:39):
now all of a sudden notice he's not doing that anymore.
I think there's a reason for that. When Pat McFee
brought that up, I don't think he was just you know,
shooting the breeze. I this is somebody who's been a
special teamer, like he's one of the best, like he knows,
and I do tend to believe that that was messing
with his kick. And you saw the trajectory. I mean,
(31:02):
guy's a leg and especially with these new footballs, I mean,
Cam Little just hit a sixty eight yarder yesterday, broke
the brecort. So I have to believe that Josh Carty,
whose longest is a fifty eight yarder, that he absolutely annihilated.
Josh CARTI could hit a seventy yard field goal if
he got all of it right, I have no doubt.
(31:22):
But there's something up. And obviously, I think to your point,
to have all sorts of variables, that's like, oh, well,
even if I kick it perfectly. And now I think
there are people starting to wonder, well, what if Josh
Carty's taking too long a kick and the guys are
getting there too quick. That's certainly possible. I do feel
(31:44):
like Josh Carty's taken a little bit longer than maybe
I've seen in the past from kickers. He's definitely taken
longer than the guy in San Francisco Aty Pinero. I
watched him. He nearly slips every time he kicks it.
He just hits lion drives like he's Jean Carlo Stanton
in the Major League Baseball Like they're not pretty, but
they go through the upright, so who cares? And he
(32:05):
has a missed one. But it's really interesting to watch
because you know, he doesn't have any sort of precise
like it doesn't look pretty, Josh Carti. It looks like
everything's together. He just takes a little bit longer than
some of the others. But that could just be me,
that could just be you, that could just be This
is what happens when you watch a guy get blocked
(32:25):
and now all of a sudden, every time he kicks
it looks like he's taking longer than other kickers. This
was an issue last year though, so it makes me
wonder because he hit twenty five twenty six in a
row coming into this season, and that's where the people
that are like Josh Carty has to go. I'm like, okay,
do you want to go back to Lucas Haversick? Do
you want to go back to you know, Maher? I mean,
(32:47):
come on, like understand, like, let's be rational here, Let's
not just be knee jerk and have a crazy reaction
and do something that will potentially regret, because I'm sure
the Rams regretted kick, you know, cutting Cameron Dicker, who
was one of the better kickers in the league. I
mean they had him, they signed him as a UDFA,
and they kept hit. They got rid of him and
(33:08):
they kept Tanner Brown. They've made mistakes. I mean, I'll
be honest. I think Sean McVay let his ego get
to him and got rid of Coach Bones because he
went for it behind his back against the Cardinals, and
you knew right then and there you knew he was
getting fired after that. I don't think the Rams have
ever had a great special teams coordinator since they fired
(33:29):
Coach Bones, or they at least let him go. So
I don't think you want to make a decision that
you're gonna regret, And personally, I think you'd absolutely regret
a decision cutting a young kicker who has the talent
Josh Cardi has. You can fix it. I'm not saying
hold on to him. To the point where when we
saw the forty nine ers, they probably should have won
(33:49):
a super Bowl one of those years, and a big
reason they didn't, let's be honest, was Jake Moody. So
if he gets to that point, you don't want to
hold on to him to that point. But I think
he's been too good over his career and we should
stop acting like this is his rookie year and he
just looks terrible and doesn't have like any sort of resume.
(34:10):
He's got a resume. His rookie year was great. Yet
eighty five percent of his kicks, like I said, he
made twenty five or twenty six in a row. So
I think it's important. There's a lot of variables here.
If it gets to the point where Sean McVay is saying,
you know what, I think we fixed this kicking unit.
I think the coaches are doing a great job and
you just gotta make the damn kicks, then at that
(34:31):
point fine, But until I hear that from him, I'm
gonna assume that there's a lot more layers to this,
and that's just gonna be my take on it. But Lexis,
we have sleeper You guys can click the link in
the description below. You'll get a one hundred percent bonus
(34:51):
match up to one hundred dollars and a twenty dollars
free entry. You don't even have to deposit to get
the twenty dollars free entry. Use code JKB at sign
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have our Dynasty League on there. You guys have daily
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(35:11):
all that good stuff. Be sure to check out our
friends over at Sleeper Again. JKB is the code. I
think we got a super chats we do.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
I have a quick word before Superchats. Yes, I want
to give a shout out to a company called Homage.
They sent me some awesome Rams gear. Nice guys can
see that I got a couple pieces from them. They
were very very kind to send this to me. And guys,
I'm not kidding. This is the softest hoodie I own, legitimately,
(35:44):
straight up, I'm willing to put my word on that
if any of you guys check out Homage's stuff. They
have really really cool Rams gear. This is like that
old Rams logo. I love the yellow. It's that classic
soul yellow that I wish the Rams would make your
He's out of this color again, I missed the color,
but guys, this is from Homage and it's great and
(36:07):
I love it and I've been wearing it and I
also got some teas from them too that I'll wear
on the show. But I wanted to give them a
shout out because it's very nice for them to send
me some stuff to wear on the show, and I
appreciate it and everyone should go check it out. Get
matching hoodies with me.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
Yeah, it's great. There goes a Lexus again, mispronunciating, mispronouncing.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
What did I say?
Speaker 2 (36:28):
Homage?
Speaker 1 (36:30):
How do you? How do you say it?
Speaker 2 (36:32):
It's homage or oma homage?
Speaker 1 (36:34):
Homage? Okay, you're true. Yeah, I don't know how to
say it because I had like three people say it
differently to me.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
It's all good. I'm just messing with you. But I'm
only messing with you because it's been there's been precedent
on this show, and you've literally pulled yourself out and
be like, yeah, I don't know how to say his name.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
Well, I also with names. Here's you know what my curses? Yeah,
I am so good with name. I'm bring people's names,
but I do not remember pronunciations, which I would rather
just not remember the names.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (37:08):
Because I will like with players especially. I have really
good recall, but not on the pronunciation.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
You say kiro Williams right. My brother calls him Kyraene,
and I cannot stand it. I feel like he does
it on purpose to bother me.
Speaker 1 (37:22):
I do say Kiroen Williams right. I also have the
same problem with like cities, Yeah, where I will remember
like a city and like how it's spelled, and I
can picture in my mind, but then I don't know
how to pronounce it.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
I call it Chicago Chicago, so there you.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
Go in Chicago. Well right, But like, and I don't
call I'm from Missouri. I don't call it Missouri.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
Oh see, you're you're missing out. You gotta call it Missouri.
Speaker 1 (37:46):
Some some people from southern Missouri call it Missura. Yeah,
but like, you know, that's like a but that I
feel like is understandable. But like no, I do the
same thing with cities, where like I will know a
city and then I will just completely butcher how I
say it. It's a I wonder I need to look
into that. It's like a visual I'm really good visually,
but not audibly, Like audibly, you know how some people
(38:07):
like are more visual learners or whatever. Yeah, I'm self
deprecating about it because I don't like it, but homage,
however you want to say it, go check out the
Uh I really love this.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
I really like it too. I have a few from them. Yeah,
I got a RAMS one like the throwback like the
skull like you have but it's like yellow. And then
I got the new logo, and then I got a
Yankee one so like the old school Yankees. So yeah,
it's cool. I love them, and I honestly I think
(38:42):
they're they're long sleeve like what do they call them, thermals.
I don't know. Oh, yeah, they're the best. Like I
love the qualities so if yeah, so if you're rocking
a hoodie, I would imagine as the same quality and
that thing I worried at the last two times I've
(39:04):
been in La. I've actually at the games, both games,
the Eagles one and the forty nine Ers one. I
wore an homage whatever thermal, so.
Speaker 1 (39:17):
I mean the one they have really cool like they
do like characters. So they've got like Simpsons, like if
you guys watch the Simpsons, they got like the Simpsons
and Rams like collabs, and they do like a lot
of like brand like collabs with NFL teams, so it's
really really cool. But yeah, I was really excited to
get this and I love it, super soft, highly recommend
(39:39):
and if any of you go grab one, take a
picture and send it to me where we can be twins.
Speaker 2 (39:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
So okay, just want to shout them out real quick
because uh, they're They're very nice and they're very high
quality too. If you guys check them out.
Speaker 2 (39:55):
Hell yeah, now I can attest to that because I
have myself a few. I also have like an NFL
jam one with Aaron Dollda Cooper. I've worn it on
here before Cooper Cup. Yeah, it's cool.
Speaker 1 (40:08):
They still they've still got some Aaron Donald gear up
on their website, I think.
Speaker 2 (40:14):
So now, since thank you for the five just showing love, Ramiley,
I hope you're having a wonderful day, including everybody in
the chat. Keep training, Jake horns Up, appreciate you, Nuisince.
What am I training for exactly? Oh my god. There
there was a thing in the comments section for yesterday's
live stream and people were like, Hey, I think I'd
(40:35):
rather have you at kicker, Jake. I'm here to tell
you I couldn't hit a nine yard field goal. So
you don't want me kicking you, Alexis, you're a former
soccer player.
Speaker 1 (40:46):
I did. I was a college soccer player. I could
hit a nine yarder, Okay, probably, well, I don't know.
My ankles are pretty bad now. But like in theory,
I don't think I could hit it consistently hit field
goals in the NFL, especially with those grown men running
at me like that, especially with the way that the
(41:10):
Rams kicking units blocking right now, I don't I think
that would go very poorly. But no, Unfortunately, like I
don't think I could hit, you know, like a fifty
yard or something cool like that. Even a thirty yarder,
I don't think so I don't have the leg strength
for that.
Speaker 2 (41:27):
I could probably hit a twenty yarder, that would be
like pushing it. And keep in mind I could probably
hit a twenty yarder, I don't know if it'd be
the one that was in the game. So like, well, right,
I might hit one out of like twenty kicks, but
by the time that happens, I'm already cut.
Speaker 1 (41:48):
So yeah, it's the consistency thing. Like the chat I'm
seeing Alexis for kicker, done will sign you Alexis, it
would not go well. I would be in for not
even a quarter. I don't think a quarter of an
NFL game because because like it's the consistency thing. It's
like I could go out there and probably hit one maybe,
(42:10):
but to do it repeatedly during a live game, just
no chance, guys. Just I know my limits. I'd have
a better chance of like doing a trip play and
scoring a touchdown because I would just sneak. I'm so tiny.
I would just you know, run off to the side,
and that'd be my dream.
Speaker 2 (42:28):
Yeah, I would. I would probably be better off as
a quarterback, and that's probably not a good thing because
I can well, I used to be able to throw.
I could throw like forty fifty yards, but could I
hit a far hash throw? Probably not.
Speaker 1 (42:45):
I couldn't see over the offensive line, like no shot.
Speaker 2 (42:49):
To be Kyler Murray kind of running around and picking
my spots.
Speaker 1 (42:52):
But yeah, no, I don't. I don't think, unfortunately, there's
any position in the NFL that I would thrive out.
Speaker 2 (42:59):
Oh okay, Silver is saying he said, keep training because
you mentioned you are working out and being healthy. Yes,
I appreciate that. Definitely, New Year knew me I already
hate myself for saying, but you appreciate that, Alexis. You've
been training too. I have.
Speaker 1 (43:19):
I'm trying to get better.
Speaker 2 (43:20):
Yeah, like you're killing it right, You're getting up at
five am and doing all that.
Speaker 1 (43:24):
I've been trying to do five am workouts.
Speaker 2 (43:26):
Guys.
Speaker 1 (43:27):
It sucks. It's not but see, I think once I
get into the routine of doing it, because that's my problem.
It's it's getting it done, where like I will start
doing a couple and then like right now, it's like
I haven't been hitting them. Then I'll hit it again
and then I'll be like okay, And so it's just
getting it. Takes a while to just continually get up
(43:49):
at four thirty in the morning. And then once you
do that, then it's great. But I'm in this. I'm
trying to get consistent.
Speaker 2 (43:56):
So yeah, you're kind of told on yourself.
Speaker 1 (44:00):
Didn't have to, no, because I want to be on
I don't want to pretend that like.
Speaker 2 (44:03):
Yeah, I know, transparent, Alexis. It's a good quality. That, Yeah,
transparency better call Saul. Still haven't seen that I should,
But I like the name Humphries. Thank you for the
five Humphries. Will let that Saint defender get by him
so easily, and Cardi pancake panicked, panicked. Blocking is ninety
(44:24):
percent of the issue. I would say Cardi needs to
speed up his kicks.
Speaker 1 (44:28):
I agree, and I definitely agree with that. I definitely agree.
I think the blocking is ninety percent of the issue.
And my take on Cardi to speed up his kicks,
I unfortunately think it's psychological. I think he's watching the
holder and he's looking at the ball, so he's taking
I think he's freaked out now because things have been
going so poorly that I think instead of just going
(44:50):
going through his motion, I think he's quite literally looking
down at the ball and he's afraid of what happened
the first kick yesterday where the laces were. And I
think that's what he's been doing. But I also just
think psychologically, even aside from the just I think the
timing of everything is thrown off, and I think he's
just taking that extra second, extra two seconds to like
(45:13):
check his surroundings, which you can't do. So he does
need to speed it up, but it's not the reason
he's missing the kick. No, it's not the reason the
blocking's bad. But I think it's just all bad.
Speaker 2 (45:25):
Yeah, just it's it's definitely frustrating. I will say it's
definitely frustrating, but they'll I have a feeling they'll figure
it out. And one quick thing I'll say about Sean McVay,
he has had an issue with every single part of
football except for special teams, like an issue I'm talking
(45:46):
that was like catastrophic, And I feel like it's good
that he's going through this. This is the last step
to Sean McVay being like a full on complete coach,
having gone through all of the situations he's been through
the one which golf in the offense twenty twenty two
without you know, Matthew Stafford and you're rolling out, you know,
Bryce Perkins and John Woolford and you know, getting Baker
(46:08):
Mayfield on twenty four hours notice and he's playing in
a primetime game like they went through that. The defense, right,
the defense, Wade Phillips ends up getting let go all
that and now the special teams, and I just think
it's just making Sean McVay a more well rounded, better coach.
I already think he's the best head coach in football.
(46:30):
And another thing coming off of by the way, they did,
no lackadaisical moment, just ready to go. Love to see it, going,
you know, to London and asserting your dominance, playing on
the East coast, playing efficiently on the East Coast, and
then two blowouts in a row, something Sean McVay teams
(46:52):
don't normally do. So hey, if it's a changing of
the guard here for Sean McVay, and he's a sending
if you're a Pokemon fans, he of if he's evolving,
man like, I don't know how you're beating Sean McVay
if he's evolving, because he's already so much better than most.
That's why I don't know, give it five years in
(47:13):
the entire league, we'll have coaches, head coaches that'll be
tied to his coaching tree. It's pretty wild when you
think about it. But yeah, I mean half the league.
I would say almost half the league, so it's crazy. Also,
we're getting old. Kellen Moore was hugging Matthew Stafford and
I just realized, oh my god, that's right. Kellen Moore
(47:36):
played on the Lions with Matthew Stafford. I can't, I
just can't. But anyway, we don't need to just tell
everybody how old we are. Deb thank you for the
ten late to the live as always, but want to
say hey to my faves. And it was nice to
(47:58):
be at the game yesterday. You know, my guy is
on a heater, that's for sure. I'm glad you were there.
You know they robbed him of five touchdowns. To be fair,
that fifth touchdown, I mean, I know, I know it
was a face mask and can't do it, but how
often do they call that?
Speaker 1 (48:15):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (48:16):
And then that was the one where Cardi missed the kick,
So yeah, I mean that was the game to be at.
You love Matthew Stafford and man number nine. He is
the MVP of the league. I'm just I'm so tired
of seeing Patrick Mahomes rad ahead it. Patrick Mahomes was
so bad yesterday against the Bills. If he was even average,
(48:36):
they win by a touchdown. They instead lose by a touchdown.
He was horrendous. So I don't really know what we're doing.
Drake May really like him. They're seven and two. They
were my surprise team. They were my sleeper team. I
said they'd go to the playoffs. But as much as
I like Drake May, I'm gonna be honest. Here he
tried to give away that game against the Falcons, like turnover,
(48:58):
awful interception. Stafford hasn't thrown on five games, and Drake
May is playing against probably the easiest schedule I think
I've ever seen. Did you see the strength of schedule.
It's like three point fifty three.
Speaker 1 (49:11):
Yeah, but it's still not as easy as the forty
nine ers schedule.
Speaker 2 (49:15):
No, it's easier. It's crazy.
Speaker 1 (49:17):
Well, I mean I didn't know that statistically. I'm just
being sarcastic.
Speaker 2 (49:20):
No, No, I get what you're saying.
Speaker 1 (49:21):
I'm mostly just annoyed because of the forty nine ers schedule.
Is like, we'll talk about.
Speaker 2 (49:27):
It next week, Yes, yes we will.
Speaker 1 (49:29):
I'm foreshadowing, guys, I'm spoiling the next episode.
Speaker 2 (49:34):
Yeah, I mean it'd be like that, Deb. We really
do appreciate you always tuning in.
Speaker 1 (49:39):
Thank you, Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (49:41):
One of our all time faves. Not hiding it, Andrew,
thank you for the five. Imagine how good you'll be
when a Kello comes back. Puts a spile on my face.
You're damn right. I mean, right now, they're playing so good.
PFF has them rated as the third best coverage grade
covered team in the league. When a Kello comes back,
(50:04):
what that's going to do, It's it's going to give
him an opportunity to match up with any type of receiver,
and that is awesome. And it's not just that Akello
is the best corner on this team. I firmly believe
that Darius Williams was bawling out before the injury. Hopefully
he keeps doing that. Kobe Durant's playing well, Roger McCurry
is a starting caliber player, and Emanuel Forbes is coming
(50:24):
off the best game of his career. So basically, stock
up for the cornerback room. The safety room we already
knew was really deep, and I still think it's the
best in the league. Cam Kinchins is a baller, Cam
Curls a baller. Quinton Lake has become a star. Jaylen
McCullough like, then you have Landman, then you have Omar
Spates who just absolutely decleted Alvin Kamara, and then you
(50:48):
have that defensive front that everybody talks about. So yeah,
it's it's a really good sign. When a Kello does
come back, it is going to be so fun to
watch because that is the final form of this defense.
They're just missing a kellow. That's it, so appreciate. Andrew
totally agree, and then Rusty, thank you to the five,
(51:10):
jac and Alexis. I've been very critical of Cardi for
his inconsistency, but the blocking is pathetic. Either one guy
or many do horrible jobs. Feels that way, man, We agree.
Speaker 1 (51:23):
Unfortunately, it's true.
Speaker 2 (51:25):
Yeah, it's hard to watch. Yeah, it's hard to watch
when a guy's just sitting there and the ball snapped
and he only has X amount of time to kick,
and then all of a sudden you already see guys
coming through. It's like all right, And then I mean,
who knows. They have to have the analytics in, you know,
in house to know if Josh Cardi is taking too
(51:46):
long or if he's just he's totally fine and not
taking too long and they're just that bad because there's
it's one of the other.
Speaker 1 (51:54):
Well, and also, he hasn't been taking this long if
you look at this is like a recent issue, So
it's not that he has been taking too long to
kick this entire season. They started having these really bad
special teams blocking problems and then he started taking too
long to kick. So I think it's it's a result
of that. And you know, like I said earlier, I
think that he's quite literally checking the ball before he
(52:16):
kicks it. And I also think just psychologically, his timing
and his rhythm is thrown off because his the blocking
is so bad that I just think that he doesn't
know what's going on, and now it's turned psychological, and
so like, that's obviously not good.
Speaker 2 (52:32):
No, it's it's just becomes psychological. I mean, that's how
the best kickers flare out. So obviously rooting for him
to turn it around, I'm a believer in his not
I'm going to die in this hill, I really am.
I think he's going to turn it around, and I
think we're going to look back and be like, wow,
can you imagine if we gave up on this guy? So, yeah,
(52:54):
those are my thoughts on that. But uh, I think
that's it. I think that's the sort of thing you got.
Another one from Zaylor Swift. Thank you, Zaylor, Thank you
for the five. Can we afford two first rounders next
year while having to pay Pooka Lake Vy, et cetera.
This is a great question because first round picks are expensive.
But I'll tell you right now, they're nowhere near as
(53:16):
expensive is when the Rams got Sam Bradford, that's for sure.
The rookie wage scale was changed in the new CBA
after of course, the Rams got the last grandfathered in
ridiculous contract with Sam Bradford, but the rookie wage scale changed.
That's why draft picks are more valuable than they've ever been,
(53:36):
because they're pretty easy and cost effective to manage two
first rounders. They're going to need at least i'd say
fifteen million dollars in cap space with everything, so you
could be honest something. I don't think they trade one
of the first rounders at the deadline, but I don't
even know who you were trade for. But yeah, I
(53:58):
do think they can afford too first rounds. I do,
so that's my take.
Speaker 1 (54:02):
Yeah agree, Yeah, well, Jake, I think you're right. I
think that's going to do it for us. You know, obviously,
really fun to celebrate a win on Victory Monday. We
won't be Victory Monday without a win, so it's just
fun to celebrate Victory Monday in general. But guys, we
appreciate all of you tuning in tonight. We will be
(54:25):
back Friday night to preview our matchup against the forty
nine ers, so make sure to tune in Friday night.
But guys, as always, until then, if you like what
you hear, please like and subscribe. You can follow us
on social media at Downtown Rams. You can follow me
on Twitter slash x at the Alexis Kraft. You can
follow Jake at JK Bogan and guys will see you soon,
(54:46):
but until then, stay safe, take care, and go Rams
All right, guys, welcome back to Downtown Rams. As always,
I'm Alexis Kraft. Join here with my co host Jake
ellen Bogan, and we are coming to you live this
Monday evening to recap our Rams win over the New
Orleans Saints thirty four to ten yesterday. Jake, it was
a solid Rams win, which was very exciting. It's always
(00:24):
nice to get the win, especially so after our bye
week where we had to go a whole week without
Rams football. It was excruciating. It's always a sad time
for us. I know, during the bye week when it's
like Sunday and we're like, oh my god, the Rams
aren't playing. It feels very very weird, very strange. But
we waited it out and we were rewarded with a win. Jake.
(00:46):
I felt like this just really was a solid team
win all around. It wasn't a perfect game by any means,
but I think offensively, especially it was really nice to
see this offense continuing to operate in all cylinders, get
multiple people involved. What were your thoughts just on this
game overall?
Speaker 2 (01:04):
I thought this was a complete win. Obviously. You know,
we could talk about the kicking game, and we will,
but I thought all three phases did contribute for this win,
because say what you will, the Rams are actually third
in the league in terms of their kicking unit. Now
I'm talking about kicking the field goal, but I'm the
kickoff unit. So there are some good things to take
(01:26):
away from, you know, the kicking team, but the defense
playing like one of the best in the league. I mean,
just the sheer dominance of the Saints. It's a season high, Alexis.
I don't know if you saw. It's almost forty four
minutes time of possession in this game. If you were
a Saints fan hoping to see Tyler Shuck throw the football,
(01:49):
you didn't really get much because the Saints barely had
the football sixteen minutes in a sixty minute game is
absolutely diabolical. And the Rams defense dominated the secondary was great.
We saw the best game of his career in Emmanuel Forbes.
He showed up, Nate Lambman had to punch out Braydon
(02:09):
Fisk had his first sack of the year. But then
you look at the offense, and the offense continued. And
the thing that I love the most is this was
coming off of bye. This was coming off the fact
that they hadn't been in LA for quite some time
because they stayed on the East Coast. After beating the
Baltimore Ravens. They actually stayed in Baltimore. They practice in
(02:30):
a baseball field, and then they went over to London.
Took care of business against the Jaguars, and you know
how normally teams kind of come out of the buy
and they're feeling a little rusty cough cough the Detroit Lions. Yeah,
the Rams didn't do that. They took care of business.
So this team looks like it's really coming together at
the right time. And I mean, I've been saying they're
(02:51):
the best team in the league since the start of
the year, but they really feel that. I understand they
played a bad Saints team. You could say the Jaguars
aren't the best team either the Ravens, but I think
it's just a sign. I mean, when you're able to
go and just dominate the Jaguars and the Saints, I mean,
the good teams really blow these teams out. And while
(03:11):
we were talking to win is a win against the Ravens.
Those blowout games you can't minimize. So you know, Matthew
Stafford has nine touchdowns through two games. He has sixteen
touchdowns no interceptions his last five and he's been the MVP.
He's the best quarterback right now in the National Football League.
(03:32):
And now he's getting on the same page with DeVante Adams,
who you and I were talking about earlier in the season.
They haven't really been able to get things going and
they were really forcing those targets. Well, now it's coming naturally,
and you can see those guys have developed a serious rapport.
And then you have Puka Akua sounds like he's gonna
be okay. You got Kyron Williams going over one hundred yards.
(03:55):
It's a really good spot to be in right now.
And it's a weird spot where I don't know if
I would make a trade at the deadline. I'm not
against it, but I don't know if I would change
anything about this team currently except for the special teams coordinator.
But we'll get to that.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
I agree. I definitely agree with you there, and Jake,
I think something that's so heartening kind of to see
about how these Rams have played the past few games
is really offensively and you kind of touched on it
with DeVante Adams, right, and I think it speaks to
a bigger problem with the Rams had earlier this season
in the red zone. Really really struggled in the red
(04:33):
zone to start the season, really weren't able to score
hardly at all. I mean, if they were, you know,
I mean running in with Kien Williams, right, they kind
of just couldn't really figure it out. And it seems
that the Devonte Adams has become the red zone guy.
I mean just that one play, you know, him one
on one with the corner. It seems to be automatic
(04:54):
every time, right, you know, him and Stafford have really
worked out the timing of that perfectly. But I think
a even outside of the red zone, we're starting to
see more guys get involved, which is something that we
really wanted. To start the season. It felt like, you know,
pukin Akua and then DeVante Adams and Kira and Williams
were the only three guys that were getting any targets
and for some games that worked, right, I mean we
(05:16):
obviously pokin Akua is automatic, right, He's wide receiver one
very reliable. Kiraen Williams was really reliable in the running game,
and then he also has come into his own as
a receiver, so he had some receiving touchdowns as well,
and then you know Devonte Adams. It took a while
to get that connection going, but now they've got it going.
But we really wanted to see like tight ends get
(05:37):
involved some other receivers like at Jordan Winnington to too
at Well who unfortunately is now in ir but earlier
in the season, you know, getting like Momfield involved, right. Uh,
then looking at your other tight ends, Davis Allen, Terence Ferguson,
who we've been screaming to get involved.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
They he only got two targets, which quite frankly, I
didn't think was enough. We could talk more about that later,
but I would like to see him utilize more and
more because when he is good things happen. But really,
I mean, the Rams had four different tight ends that
they use, right, I mean that's crazy considering earlier in
the season we were begging for more tight end usage. Right.
(06:15):
I remember posting a meme was Michael Scott meme. I
think it was like week two, three or four. I
posted the meme where I was like, Wow, it's so
nice seeing other teams utilize their tight ends. I'd love
to be part of one one day, you know, that
offs meme because it was like, for a while, it
just felt like they weren't doing anything like especially you know,
(06:35):
in Tyler Higbee's absence, it was kind of like the
Rams weren't really sure how to get that going. But
now look at what they've done. You've got four separate
tight ends being utilized. So it's really really nice to see.
It feels like this Rams offense is getting more fluid,
they're building more chemistry, they're getting more creative. I think
Sean McVay has kind of diversified his playbook and his
(06:57):
play calling a little bit, and it feels a little
bit more balanced. So that's really really nice to see,
and that's something that I felt like was really apparent
against the Saints offensively. Jake, I mean, I don't know
if there was any critiques you had of the way
that the offense, you know, is run. I kind of
brought up Terrence Ferguson. I'd like to see him utilized
a little bit more. I don't know how much of
(07:17):
that is like a valid criticism and just me wanting
to see him play because they do have four tight
ends running. I thought that the run game looked pretty solid,
and you know I have some thoughts on that, but
what do you think?
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Yeah, I mean, I have no complaints with the offense
saw more thirteen personnel, three tight end sets. Just want
to give a huge shout out to Davis Allen. I
think he's made significant strides as a blocker. It's allowing
them to do different things. Parkinson, we know can do
both things. We know Tyler Higbee and now Terrence Ferguson
is showing he can do both things. When you have
(07:51):
four tight ends in that room that are able to play,
and it's interchangeable, whether you use them in line, use
them out wide. You can, you know, use them as
a receiver. You can use them as a blocker, whether
it's pass protection or you know, run blocking. It really
creates different looks. And you know what you'll see is
the first play of the game or the first touchdown
(08:12):
of the game to Tyler Higbees wide open and people
are wondering how the hell did that happen? And I
saw a lot of Texans fans were like, Nick Kayley,
what are you doing? Why aren't you doing that? Right? Yeah,
I'm sure you saw that. So point being you have
three tight ends, what that does now is it creates
kind of like that bunch set where you have, you know,
(08:33):
just jam packed at the goal line. Makes it look
like you're more opt to run. Well now, it also
creates a lot of havoc and it creates a lot
of traffic. And so you have those three tight ends
on the right side of the formation, and if anybody
doesn't follow their man, then you only have a limited
amount of time to cover because that is a pitching
(08:55):
catch touchdown. And you could see one of the Saints
players just clearly doesn't see Tyler Higbee leak out and
go for the past and he's left wide open. And
that of course is done. Because you have put on
film you're not afraid to run the football at the
goal line. You did a ton last year. Kyra Williams
was like essentially your cash in right. He just you
(09:18):
could always go to him when you needed a score
in the red zone. Well this year they're not doing
that as much, but it's still out there on tape
and the resume is just out there. People know, hey, okay,
they can run with Kyron Williams. We have to watch
out for that. So when you're in thirteen personnel, the
last thing teams are expecting you to do is throw
the football at the goal line. They're expecting you to
(09:40):
run with extra beef up front, extra blocking, and they
don't do that. And so now, oh my god, they
were ready for the run, they're not ready for the past.
Tyler Higbee leaks into the end zone, touchdown, Rams go up.
And that was just the start of it. But when
you put that out on tape against the Saints or anybody,
(10:01):
now the next team is going to see that and
be like, we're not going to let that happen. And
this is where you start to you know, they zig
u zag type thing, where now the forty nine ers
are going to be cognizant of the fact that the
Rams are going to use more thirteen personnel. This is
not something they did at all the last time they
faced the forty nine ers. So now the forty nine
(10:21):
ers are going to have a heavy emphasis on that.
Robert sala is going to be like, hey, watch out
when we go in the red zone, expect them to,
you know, do this. And now this is where Sean
McVay can you know, it's kind of pick your poison
and if you want to be creative here you can
get emotion going and that's the thing. And we've seen that,
and they start to use more motion with Davis Allen.
They were using motion with you know, Terrence Ferguson. There
(10:44):
was a play in particular didn't actually go anywhere, but
they had a man deep down the field. It was
DeVante Adams. It's an incomplete pass. It is what it is.
It's shot play. You're not going to hit one hundred
percent of them. But when you attempt a shot play,
you're taking a shot down the field. Shots like a
roll of the dice. And Matthew Stafford's such a good
thrower to the football, they're not really worried about it
(11:05):
getting picked. You're either like he's either going to overthrow
him strategically, or he's gonna put it right where it
needs to be. It's gonna be a catch. Well, that
was brought on because they used Terrence Ferguson to motion
to the left. When he motions to the left, you
can see almost instantaneously the team, the whole defense is
starting to worry. Oh, they're going to go to eighteen.
And now you've created that on film where guys are
(11:27):
worried about a rookie tight end who we've been begging
to get the football, and now because he's out there,
teams have to be aware, oh crap, they're gonna throw
to him. He had fifty plus yards in this game
on two catches. He's catching everything, and now he's learning
how to block. So Alexis I think the big thing
here about this offense, about this passing attack, is that
(11:50):
they're passing to set up the run. They didn't run
a ton to start. They end up with over forty
carries in this game for one hundred and seventy one
yards on the ground, and some would say that it's
not a lot, but the Saints have a lot of
guys up front. You know, you got a Cam Jordan,
you got you know, a Granderson, right, I almost say
Curtis Granderson, that's baseball. But you got Carl Granderson, you
(12:13):
got Cam Jordan, you got Brian Bressi, right, you got
to Mario Davis. These are good players. I think people
forget the Saints are probably the worst team in football
right now. I think it's mainly because of the quarterback decision.
I don't think Shuck is even better than Rattler. But
that said, they still have talent and you'll get that
defense and there's a lot of talent all over that defense.
So it's a little bit harder to run the football
(12:35):
when they know you're going to continue to run it.
And that's what I thought was so impressive. When you
watch Kyral Williams, you watching play Corum, these guys are
still getting yards later in the game, despite the fact
that Saints, no, they're just trying to get out of
there with the win. They're ready to play the forty
nine ers. We've already won this game, right, we don't
want anybody to get hurt. So now it becomes harder
to run the football because they're expecting you to run
the football. I don't think people talk about that nearly enough.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
Well, right, and I thought, I mean Kyrien Williams had
one hundred and fourteen, Yeah, he was great yards, one
hundred and I should yeah, one hundred and fourteen rushing yards.
I mean that was great against you know, the Saints defense.
And I think that's something that the Rams, I think,
are finding a little bit more balanced with in the
run game. You know, I think that there's been times
(13:21):
where the Rams have abandoned the run game. Right, We've
talked about a lot on this show, and it really
hurts the team. So to see this balance attack between
rushing and passing has been really really fun to see
in kind of a relief to see from this Rams offense.
But yeah, I mean you look at like DeVante Adams right,
another multi touchdown game with two. Kukunakua had a great
(13:41):
touchdown Tyler Higbee. Then you see Kyrien Williams, you know,
fourth and one by the way, which was crazy. That's
kind of what I figured they were going to do
there to throw the Saints off. But I mean still
fourth and one rushing touchdown. A little bit crazy there,
but it works, so we can't complain. So you see
all these guys getting touchdowns and this is I think
(14:01):
what the Rams destiny has been this entire season. It
just took them a little bit longer, I think, to
figure it out. So I think that now that they're here,
I think it's only going to get hotter and hotter
and hotter, and they're gonna have a really big test
against the division rival, you know, next Sunday against the
San Francisco forty nine ers, who when we played them,
And we'll do a whole other episode about the forty
(14:22):
nine ers. This is simply just to recap, you know,
the Sands game. But you know when we played the
forty nine ers earlier this season, right, it was just
like one of those weird games where you know, unfortunately
the forty nine ers did a really good job with
Mac Jones and that, like dink and dunk on the defense,
and I don't think that the defense is gonna allow
that to happen this time. I don't think that they're
(14:44):
I think that this defense is also very much like
our offense, getting hotter, and I think that they're getting
more chemistry, and I think they're figuring things out as
they go as well. So I think that you know,
what we saw from this defense against the Saints, and
let's be you know, it was a rookie quarterback right
as his first NFL start. I'm against this kind of
a struggling Saints offense. You know, we're not going to
(15:06):
pretend that that's not true. But this defense showed that
they have all the tools to be consistent and to
put together four quarters of consistent defensive football, which earlier
in the season we didn't always see. Right, you know,
games like Philly and the forty nine ers. The two
losses were a little bit up and down from both
the defense and the offense. But I think it's been
(15:27):
really interesting to kind of see how the defense have
put things together. Jake, looking at how the defense played yesterday,
what were your thoughts on that? Oh?
Speaker 2 (15:37):
I loved watching it, you know, I love so Darius
Williams doesn't play. And there's some people that were concerned
it's like you're playing the Saints. I hate to be
that guy, but you can't lose to the Saints in
so far, you just can't and you're not gonna lose.
I knew right away when they benched Rattler, who by
the way, played about six good games out of eight,
and then they just kind of made him the scapegoat.
(16:00):
I knew right away when they benched Ratler they had
no chance of winning this football game. None. And I
don't even think Shuck was that bad. I just don't
think he had a chance. That's the thing.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
I mean.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Ratler was not afraid to throw down the field and
be a gunslinger. Shuck didn't really get a chance to
do that. And he's just not the quarterback that Rattler is.
Because Ratler had seen eight games, so shuck had only
been thrown in last week, and then I was watching
the tape and I'm like, he made some really good throws.
I'm not trying to hate on him, but he's also
like twenty seven as a rookie, so there's that too.
(16:33):
But I think the big thing here is that you saw.
I mean, this is key. Darius Williams is inactive. So
what happens well now slides in Emmanuel Forbes and while
they're using a bit of a rotation going into this game,
Darius Williams being out means there's not going to be
(16:53):
a rotation. And I thought, you know, Emmanuel Forbes was
the one that stood out to me the most because
I think he made the most of this, you know,
this opportunity and being the starter for the first time
since week one, really where he didn't have to look
over his shoulder. He was named the starter with a
Kello Witherspoon, and he gets his first interception of his
(17:15):
NFL career, and that's crazy because he had tons of
interceptions in college. But he just hasn't been able to
play with, you know, that confidence. He hasn't been able
to play with that urgency, that instinctive nature, the thing
that made me such a fan of his coming out
of college, and so you finally started to see it's
(17:35):
clicking a little bit with him. And how how so
I mean it's just a you know, oh yeah, he
made a nice interception. It wasn't just that. I mean,
you see the tackle he makes on Taysom Hill and
you're thinking, I mean, they call this guy the slim Reaper,
and here he is going up and making a tackle.
But how about Forbes three pass breakups in this game.
I just that is the game ball to me. Obviously,
(17:58):
Landman punching it out was huge, you know, Like I said,
Braydon Fisk getting his first sack of the year was huge.
I thought, Byron Young, you know, obviously getting the sack
is the penalty. I'm not gonna get too much into it, fine, whatever,
but I like that. You know that Rep. Kobe Turner
should have had a sack, and I saw his father
(18:19):
advocating for it on Twitter, and I agree with him.
If it doesn't matter if it is a wide receiver
an offensive lineman. Whoever, if you take a direct snap
and you are tackled behind the line of scrimmage and
you do not move forward. That's a sack. That's it.
I don't care. That needs to be a sack. So
I think Kobe Turner deserves a sack for that. I
(18:43):
liked what I saw. Tyler Davis had a nice batted
pass to the line of scrimmage. I thought Quinton Lake
played well. I thought Cameron Kinchins was everywhere. Five solo
tackles tied for the lead because they were hardly on
the field. So yeah, I thought the defense played spectacular.
And how about Landman not just throwing the punch on
(19:05):
the ball, but like not hitting the helmet while doing it,
unlike some other people, So shout out to him.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Yeah, I mean he has perfected the peanut punch. He
he really, he really has got that like timing down
and just seems to find those opportunities where you just
see him wind up and get it. Yep, just popped
it out. Beautiful to see. Yeah, this defense just really
(19:32):
is fun to watch. And like like I said earlier,
I think they're getting better and better each game, and
they're getting hot. They're finding the chemistry, especially in that secondary.
There's been a lot of shuffling around, right, and we're
going to see Roger McCreery come in probably next week,
you know, against the forty nine ers, So another new face,
so to see what they've been able to do kind
of and with kind of change and moving around, but
(19:56):
still keeping this consistency and still getting better to really
make Rams fans happy that they seem to be kind
of figuring it out and they are putting together really
really solid games. So, Jake, we've talked about the offense,
we've talked about the defense. That leaves one unit left
to talk about, and that is special teams. And this
(20:18):
has been the rams achilles heel this season. I mean,
if you look at the two losses we had, and
I don't think you know if we're being genuine or
we're being honest, the two losses that the Rams had
this season, there was multiple things that went wrong. I'm
not gonna sit here and say the special teams is
the only reason we lost to Philly and the forty
(20:39):
nine ers, right, that's not true. Both of those losses
had like just so many things go wrong, right that
they were just bad losses, but special teams really hindered
those performances. And there's been other moments in other games
that have almost cost us with special teams, and you
look at the NFC, and you just look at the
(20:59):
NFL as a whole. You are not going to make
it very far if you can't do like the basic
things right, you just aren't because the other teams aren't
going to make those mistakes. So Jake, looking at special teams,
looking at the kicking unit, what is your prediction for
what's going to happen here and what do you think
(21:22):
the biggest problem is and what do we do about it?
Because it just can't keep happening going forward.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
I love that you brought this up. You team me
up perfectly. I don't know if he saw my tweet,
but I do kind of have a feeling of what's
going to happen. So I believe, And I mean, I'm
not saying I've talked to people about this. I probably
should have, but I didn't reach out about it yet.
I'm going to. But this is just my gut is
that they are not going to fire Chase Blackburn. It's
(21:53):
hard to justify firing somebody that you go on record
saying I've been very pleased with the job that he's done.
Sean mcvagh did that about Chase Blackburn today and Ben
Cottwicca caught Wicica I don't even know how to say
his name, but he is the assistant special teams coordinator.
What I find interesting though, is that he said that
(22:14):
he was pleased with both coaches, but he also said
something has to change. Enough is enough, and he used
all of Monday because it was a victory Monday, so
all the guys are really doing I think he said
modified victory Monday. So what the guys are doing is
they're coming in and they're lifting weights. There's not a
huge walkthrough there, there's not a practice like it's just
a victory Monday. So that said, I feel like they
(22:39):
used today, and I mean he basically told this, they
used today to kind of go over and try and
fix the kicking unit, which I love. Here's the thing.
If you say you're pleased with somebody, I don't think
you're going to fire them. But if you say something
has to change, enough is enough, I don't necessarily And
by the way, he said he has a lot of
faith in uh Josh Cardi. That's just that's like empty calories.
(23:04):
If you're gonna just cut Josh Carty, you're not gonna
say that, you'd be like, yeah, we're kind of we're
evaluating everything, right. He said that, but he also says
I have a lot of faith in Josh. So I
find it interesting. So I went back to twenty twenty
and I found the last one that I could find.
I mean, maybe it's happened before. This is the precedent
(23:24):
that I've found. Back in November of twenty twenty, the
Chargers demoted their special teams coordinator. George Stewart was in
the role from twenty seventeen to twenty twenty. They didn't
fire him. They actually ended up promoting assistant special teams
coordinator Keith Burns in the middle of the season, so
they ended up keeping George Stewart as the assistant head coach,
(23:47):
and he was on the coaching staff as an offensive analyst,
so they realigned that they reassigned rather his job and
Burns took over. That's kind of what I think the
Rams are going to do. And if they don't do it,
say they don't make Ben the special team's coordinator, right
(24:10):
then what I think is gonna happen is we've seen
it before. There's a bunch of I mean, if you
go on the Rams dot Com and you look at
the coaching staff, there's now the passing game coordinator, the
pass rushing coordinator, the there's all sorts of coordinators right.
Everybody has a different role. It's a way of promoting
by creating new roles. So what I could see them
(24:31):
doing is making Ben Katwika the kicking operation specialist. And
that way, if you're pleased. I'm not saying you at home, folks,
I'm not saying I understand you're not. But Sean McVay
told us he's pleased with both of them. He mentioned
Chase Blackburn. He thinks he's doing a good job. Something
(24:54):
has to change. This is something Chase Blackburn could even
keep the reins as the special teams coordinator. But he
focuses on what the Rams are good at right now,
third in the league, on the kickoff unit, and that
is what he does, and he does things like that,
and he focuses on that and he manages that while
(25:15):
Ben Kottwika takes over the field goal operation. That alexis
is what I would expect to happen. I think we
find that out either tomorrow or Wednesday. I don't get
the vibe they're going to make a trade tomorrow, but
stranger things have happened. I think the most important thing
(25:35):
is this unit. And I also think a really important
thing here is not having a knee jerk reaction that
is going to cost you down the road. And to me,
a knee jerk reaction would be to cut Josh Cardy.
I don't think it's based in reality. Think about it.
Monday just happened. Sorry, guys, we're on a Tuesday, Tuesday, Tomorrow, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday,
(25:58):
forty nine ers. You can't sit there and tell me, yeah,
this forty nine ers game is so important. We got
to get the kicking right. And then you cut Josh
Carty on a Tuesday and you give not even a
full week for the next guy to come in and kick.
And who is that going to be? I think if
they went out and got anybody, I think I would
(26:18):
go after Young Wayku, who is on I believe the
Giants practice squad currently, but I don't think anybody out
there's better than Josh Carty. And I think it's unfair
if we're gonna sit here and say, yep, the kicking
unit's an issue. Special Teams Coordinator is an issue. The
protection's an issue, the snap was an issue, the hold
was an issue. That were like, I think everyone deserves
(26:41):
to keep their job except for Josh Carty. That's ridiculous.
So I'm not gonna make that knee jerk reaction. I
hope the Rams don't. I don't think they are. I
do think they're gonna reassign Chase Blackburn, not fire him,
and Ben Kottwika is gonna take over this unit. I
think that's the best move for the Los Angeles Rams
moving forward.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
Well, I also am not convinced that Josh Carty is
the problem. I know that there's a lot a lot
of people, you know, are just kind of reducing the
issue to Josh Carty. But when you look at what's
happening with these kicks, very rarely is it actually on
Josh Carty. You know, the first miskick from yesterday, the
laces were towards him. That's a holder problem. So that
(27:24):
has nothing to do with if you kick the football perfectly,
but the laces are faced towards you and you hit that,
that's going to skew your kick, right. The other one
I don't believe was blocked, but it was close to
being blocked, and he had a guy right up in
his face as he was kicking. So that obviously is
going to impact your vision and startle you. Right, that's
(27:45):
not supposed to happen. So that's a blocking issue. So
if you go back and you watch most of the
miskicks from this season, the vast majority of them are
not on Josh Carti. So I know that it's easy
to kind of scapegoat the kicker when there's a miskick, right,
it makes but I mean the blocking has been horrendous.
I mean it's been absolutely horrendous. And you know, the
(28:07):
holder has made a couple of mistakes, which you know
wasn't a problem last season. Josh Carty wasn't a problem
last season, right, So it just it's it's something has
to give, and it is very puzzling, you know why
this unit has just struggled so much on these kicks
as a whole. But mcveigh's right, something has to change,
(28:27):
and so maybe that is changing up the coaching unit.
But I still am just convinced that it's just the
guys that are out there. It's just it's not good enough,
you know, and it can't happen. It's a very you know,
one of the most basic things that you can do
right in the NFL, and it's a very routine and
all teams do it, and for some reason the rams
can just not figure it out. So we'll see. I'm
(28:51):
not convinced a coaching change even fixes that, unfortunately, because
the coaches aren't the ones on the field. But I
think it's more symbolic if anything made you put a
new guy in there who lights a fire under everybody's ass, right.
I don't know what if that's the idea or what
it is, but it's the guys really just need to
step up and they need to get it together. And
I also just think at this point, if any if
(29:13):
there's any concern with Cardi, it's not really his skill.
It's the psychological aspect of it.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
Right.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
You as the kicker now can't trust when you go
up to kick an extra point that your team's going
to block for you, or that your holder is holding
the ball right right like that can't be good. And
then all of a sudden that becomes a problem psychologically
when you go to kick the ball. So it's just
it's turning into it's spiraling and I think that, you know,
this RAMS team is way too good to have this problem.
(29:40):
So we'll probably have a lot more to say on
this when we record our episode Friday night to prepare
for the forty nine Ers game. I'm sure more information
will be out by then. But yeah, I mean, it's
just it's not good enough. And you know, thankfully, this
was a game that you can afford to have those
(30:01):
little mistakes happen, but against a team like the forty
nine ers you can't. So hopefully they play better next week.
But Jake, before we get into Supers, do you have
any closing thoughts?
Speaker 2 (30:15):
Yeah, real quick, because we'll get a word from Sleeper.
Of course, who's the sponsor of today's show. I wanted
to address Josh Cardy and how long he's taking to
kick field goals. I have to admit, I do think
there's some merit there, just like I thought there was
some merit with him kicking the knuckleballs, you know, and
(30:39):
now all of a sudden notice he's not doing that anymore.
I think there's a reason for that. When Pat McFee
brought that up, I don't think he was just you know,
shooting the breeze. I this is somebody who's been a
special teamer, like he's one of the best, like he knows,
and I do tend to believe that that was messing
with his kick. And you saw the trajectory. I mean,
(31:02):
guy's a leg and especially with these new footballs, I mean,
Cam Little just hit a sixty eight yarder yesterday, broke
the brecort. So I have to believe that Josh Carty,
whose longest is a fifty eight yarder, that he absolutely annihilated.
Josh CARTI could hit a seventy yard field goal if
he got all of it right, I have no doubt.
(31:22):
But there's something up. And obviously, I think to your point,
to have all sorts of variables, that's like, oh, well,
even if I kick it perfectly. And now I think
there are people starting to wonder, well, what if Josh
Carty's taking too long a kick and the guys are
getting there too quick. That's certainly possible. I do feel
(31:44):
like Josh Carty's taken a little bit longer than maybe
I've seen in the past from kickers. He's definitely taken
longer than the guy in San Francisco Aty Pinero. I
watched him. He nearly slips every time he kicks it.
He just hits lion drives like he's Jean Carlo Stanton
in the Major League Baseball Like they're not pretty, but
they go through the upright, so who cares? And he
(32:05):
has a missed one. But it's really interesting to watch
because you know, he doesn't have any sort of precise
like it doesn't look pretty, Josh Carti. It looks like
everything's together. He just takes a little bit longer than
some of the others. But that could just be me,
that could just be you, that could just be This
is what happens when you watch a guy get blocked
(32:25):
and now all of a sudden, every time he kicks
it looks like he's taking longer than other kickers. This
was an issue last year though, so it makes me
wonder because he hit twenty five twenty six in a
row coming into this season, and that's where the people
that are like Josh Carty has to go. I'm like, okay,
do you want to go back to Lucas Haversick? Do
you want to go back to you know, Maher? I mean,
(32:47):
come on, like understand, like, let's be rational here, Let's
not just be knee jerk and have a crazy reaction
and do something that will potentially regret, because I'm sure
the Rams regretted kick, you know, cutting Cameron Dicker, who
was one of the better kickers in the league. I
mean they had him, they signed him as a UDFA,
and they kept hit. They got rid of him and
(33:08):
they kept Tanner Brown. They've made mistakes. I mean, I'll
be honest. I think Sean McVay let his ego get
to him and got rid of Coach Bones because he
went for it behind his back against the Cardinals, and
you knew right then and there you knew he was
getting fired after that. I don't think the Rams have
ever had a great special teams coordinator since they fired
(33:29):
Coach Bones, or they at least let him go. So
I don't think you want to make a decision that
you're gonna regret, And personally, I think you'd absolutely regret
a decision cutting a young kicker who has the talent
Josh Cardi has. You can fix it. I'm not saying
hold on to him. To the point where when we
saw the forty nine ers, they probably should have won
(33:49):
a super Bowl one of those years, and a big
reason they didn't, let's be honest, was Jake Moody. So
if he gets to that point, you don't want to
hold on to him to that point. But I think
he's been too good over his career and we should
stop acting like this is his rookie year and he
just looks terrible and doesn't have like any sort of resume.
(34:10):
He's got a resume. His rookie year was great. Yet
eighty five percent of his kicks, like I said, he
made twenty five or twenty six in a row. So
I think it's important. There's a lot of variables here.
If it gets to the point where Sean McVay is saying,
you know what, I think we fixed this kicking unit.
I think the coaches are doing a great job and
you just gotta make the damn kicks, then at that
(34:31):
point fine, But until I hear that from him, I'm
gonna assume that there's a lot more layers to this,
and that's just gonna be my take on it. But Lexis,
we have sleeper You guys can click the link in
the description below. You'll get a one hundred percent bonus
(34:51):
match up to one hundred dollars and a twenty dollars
free entry. You don't even have to deposit to get
the twenty dollars free entry. Use code JKB at sign
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have our Dynasty League on there. You guys have daily
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(35:11):
all that good stuff. Be sure to check out our
friends over at Sleeper Again. JKB is the code. I
think we got a super chats we do.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
I have a quick word before Superchats. Yes, I want
to give a shout out to a company called Homage.
They sent me some awesome Rams gear. Nice guys can
see that I got a couple pieces from them. They
were very very kind to send this to me. And guys,
I'm not kidding. This is the softest hoodie I own, legitimately,
(35:44):
straight up, I'm willing to put my word on that
if any of you guys check out Homage's stuff. They
have really really cool Rams gear. This is like that
old Rams logo. I love the yellow. It's that classic
soul yellow that I wish the Rams would make your
He's out of this color again, I missed the color,
but guys, this is from Homage and it's great and
(36:07):
I love it and I've been wearing it and I
also got some teas from them too that I'll wear
on the show. But I wanted to give them a
shout out because it's very nice for them to send
me some stuff to wear on the show, and I
appreciate it and everyone should go check it out. Get
matching hoodies with me.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
Yeah, it's great. There goes a Lexus again, mispronunciating, mispronouncing.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
What did I say?
Speaker 2 (36:28):
Homage?
Speaker 1 (36:30):
How do you? How do you say it?
Speaker 2 (36:32):
It's homage or oma homage?
Speaker 1 (36:34):
Homage? Okay, you're true. Yeah, I don't know how to
say it because I had like three people say it
differently to me.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
It's all good. I'm just messing with you. But I'm
only messing with you because it's been there's been precedent
on this show, and you've literally pulled yourself out and
be like, yeah, I don't know how to say his name.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
Well, I also with names. Here's you know what my curses? Yeah,
I am so good with name. I'm bring people's names,
but I do not remember pronunciations, which I would rather
just not remember the names.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (37:08):
Because I will like with players especially. I have really
good recall, but not on the pronunciation.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
You say kiro Williams right. My brother calls him Kyraene,
and I cannot stand it. I feel like he does
it on purpose to bother me.
Speaker 1 (37:22):
I do say Kiroen Williams right. I also have the
same problem with like cities, Yeah, where I will remember
like a city and like how it's spelled, and I
can picture in my mind, but then I don't know
how to pronounce it.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
I call it Chicago Chicago, so there you.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
Go in Chicago. Well right, But like, and I don't
call I'm from Missouri. I don't call it Missouri.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
Oh see, you're you're missing out. You gotta call it Missouri.
Speaker 1 (37:46):
Some some people from southern Missouri call it Missura. Yeah,
but like, you know, that's like a but that I
feel like is understandable. But like no, I do the
same thing with cities, where like I will know a
city and then I will just completely butcher how I
say it. It's a I wonder I need to look
into that. It's like a visual I'm really good visually,
but not audibly, Like audibly, you know how some people
(38:07):
like are more visual learners or whatever. Yeah, I'm self
deprecating about it because I don't like it, but homage,
however you want to say it, go check out the
Uh I really love this.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
I really like it too. I have a few from them. Yeah,
I got a RAMS one like the throwback like the
skull like you have but it's like yellow. And then
I got the new logo, and then I got a
Yankee one so like the old school Yankees. So yeah,
it's cool. I love them, and I honestly I think
(38:42):
they're they're long sleeve like what do they call them, thermals.
I don't know. Oh, yeah, they're the best. Like I
love the qualities so if yeah, so if you're rocking
a hoodie, I would imagine as the same quality and
that thing I worried at the last two times I've
(39:04):
been in La. I've actually at the games, both games,
the Eagles one and the forty nine Ers one. I
wore an homage whatever thermal, so.
Speaker 1 (39:17):
I mean the one they have really cool like they
do like characters. So they've got like Simpsons, like if
you guys watch the Simpsons, they got like the Simpsons
and Rams like collabs, and they do like a lot
of like brand like collabs with NFL teams, so it's
really really cool. But yeah, I was really excited to
get this and I love it, super soft, highly recommend
(39:39):
and if any of you go grab one, take a
picture and send it to me where we can be twins.
Speaker 2 (39:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
So okay, just want to shout them out real quick
because uh, they're They're very nice and they're very high
quality too. If you guys check them out.
Speaker 2 (39:55):
Hell yeah, now I can attest to that because I
have myself a few. I also have like an NFL
jam one with Aaron Dollda Cooper. I've worn it on
here before Cooper Cup. Yeah, it's cool.
Speaker 1 (40:08):
They still they've still got some Aaron Donald gear up
on their website, I think.
Speaker 2 (40:14):
So now, since thank you for the five just showing love, Ramiley,
I hope you're having a wonderful day, including everybody in
the chat. Keep training, Jake horns Up, appreciate you, Nuisince.
What am I training for exactly? Oh my god. There
there was a thing in the comments section for yesterday's
live stream and people were like, Hey, I think I'd
(40:35):
rather have you at kicker, Jake. I'm here to tell
you I couldn't hit a nine yard field goal. So
you don't want me kicking you, Alexis, you're a former
soccer player.
Speaker 1 (40:46):
I did. I was a college soccer player. I could
hit a nine yarder, Okay, probably, well, I don't know.
My ankles are pretty bad now. But like in theory,
I don't think I could hit it consistently hit field
goals in the NFL, especially with those grown men running
at me like that, especially with the way that the
(41:10):
Rams kicking units blocking right now, I don't I think
that would go very poorly. But no, Unfortunately, like I
don't think I could hit, you know, like a fifty
yard or something cool like that. Even a thirty yarder,
I don't think so I don't have the leg strength
for that.
Speaker 2 (41:27):
I could probably hit a twenty yarder, that would be
like pushing it. And keep in mind I could probably
hit a twenty yarder, I don't know if it'd be
the one that was in the game. So like, well, right,
I might hit one out of like twenty kicks, but
by the time that happens, I'm already cut.
Speaker 1 (41:48):
So yeah, it's the consistency thing. Like the chat I'm
seeing Alexis for kicker, done will sign you Alexis, it
would not go well. I would be in for not
even a quarter. I don't think a quarter of an
NFL game because because like it's the consistency thing. It's
like I could go out there and probably hit one maybe,
(42:10):
but to do it repeatedly during a live game, just
no chance, guys. Just I know my limits. I'd have
a better chance of like doing a trip play and
scoring a touchdown because I would just sneak. I'm so tiny.
I would just you know, run off to the side,
and that'd be my dream.
Speaker 2 (42:28):
Yeah, I would. I would probably be better off as
a quarterback, and that's probably not a good thing because
I can well, I used to be able to throw.
I could throw like forty fifty yards, but could I
hit a far hash throw? Probably not.
Speaker 1 (42:45):
I couldn't see over the offensive line, like no shot.
Speaker 2 (42:49):
To be Kyler Murray kind of running around and picking
my spots.
Speaker 1 (42:52):
But yeah, no, I don't. I don't think, unfortunately, there's
any position in the NFL that I would thrive out.
Speaker 2 (42:59):
Oh okay, Silver is saying he said, keep training because
you mentioned you are working out and being healthy. Yes,
I appreciate that. Definitely, New Year knew me I already
hate myself for saying, but you appreciate that, Alexis. You've
been training too. I have.
Speaker 1 (43:19):
I'm trying to get better.
Speaker 2 (43:20):
Yeah, like you're killing it right, You're getting up at
five am and doing all that.
Speaker 1 (43:24):
I've been trying to do five am workouts.
Speaker 2 (43:26):
Guys.
Speaker 1 (43:27):
It sucks. It's not but see, I think once I
get into the routine of doing it, because that's my problem.
It's it's getting it done, where like I will start
doing a couple and then like right now, it's like
I haven't been hitting them. Then I'll hit it again
and then I'll be like okay, And so it's just
getting it. Takes a while to just continually get up
(43:49):
at four thirty in the morning. And then once you
do that, then it's great. But I'm in this. I'm
trying to get consistent.
Speaker 2 (43:56):
So yeah, you're kind of told on yourself.
Speaker 1 (44:00):
Didn't have to, no, because I want to be on
I don't want to pretend that like.
Speaker 2 (44:03):
Yeah, I know, transparent, Alexis. It's a good quality. That, Yeah,
transparency better call Saul. Still haven't seen that I should,
But I like the name Humphries. Thank you for the
five Humphries. Will let that Saint defender get by him
so easily, and Cardi pancake panicked, panicked. Blocking is ninety
(44:24):
percent of the issue. I would say Cardi needs to
speed up his kicks.
Speaker 1 (44:28):
I agree, and I definitely agree with that. I definitely agree.
I think the blocking is ninety percent of the issue.
And my take on Cardi to speed up his kicks,
I unfortunately think it's psychological. I think he's watching the
holder and he's looking at the ball, so he's taking
I think he's freaked out now because things have been
going so poorly that I think instead of just going
(44:50):
going through his motion, I think he's quite literally looking
down at the ball and he's afraid of what happened
the first kick yesterday where the laces were. And I
think that's what he's been doing. But I also just
think psychologically, even aside from the just I think the
timing of everything is thrown off, and I think he's
just taking that extra second, extra two seconds to like
(45:13):
check his surroundings, which you can't do. So he does
need to speed it up, but it's not the reason
he's missing the kick. No, it's not the reason the
blocking's bad. But I think it's just all bad.
Speaker 2 (45:25):
Yeah, just it's it's definitely frustrating. I will say it's
definitely frustrating, but they'll I have a feeling they'll figure
it out. And one quick thing I'll say about Sean McVay,
he has had an issue with every single part of
football except for special teams, like an issue I'm talking
(45:46):
that was like catastrophic, And I feel like it's good
that he's going through this. This is the last step
to Sean McVay being like a full on complete coach,
having gone through all of the situations he's been through
the one which golf in the offense twenty twenty two
without you know, Matthew Stafford and you're rolling out, you know,
Bryce Perkins and John Woolford and you know, getting Baker
(46:08):
Mayfield on twenty four hours notice and he's playing in
a primetime game like they went through that. The defense, right,
the defense, Wade Phillips ends up getting let go all
that and now the special teams, and I just think
it's just making Sean McVay a more well rounded, better coach.
I already think he's the best head coach in football.
(46:30):
And another thing coming off of by the way, they did,
no lackadaisical moment, just ready to go. Love to see it, going,
you know, to London and asserting your dominance, playing on
the East coast, playing efficiently on the East Coast, and
then two blowouts in a row, something Sean McVay teams
(46:52):
don't normally do. So hey, if it's a changing of
the guard here for Sean McVay, and he's a sending
if you're a Pokemon fans, he of if he's evolving,
man like, I don't know how you're beating Sean McVay
if he's evolving, because he's already so much better than most.
That's why I don't know, give it five years in
(47:13):
the entire league, we'll have coaches, head coaches that'll be
tied to his coaching tree. It's pretty wild when you
think about it. But yeah, I mean half the league.
I would say almost half the league, so it's crazy. Also,
we're getting old. Kellen Moore was hugging Matthew Stafford and
I just realized, oh my god, that's right. Kellen Moore
(47:36):
played on the Lions with Matthew Stafford. I can't, I
just can't. But anyway, we don't need to just tell
everybody how old we are. Deb thank you for the
ten late to the live as always, but want to
say hey to my faves. And it was nice to
(47:58):
be at the game yesterday. You know, my guy is
on a heater, that's for sure. I'm glad you were there.
You know they robbed him of five touchdowns. To be fair,
that fifth touchdown, I mean, I know, I know it
was a face mask and can't do it, but how
often do they call that?
Speaker 1 (48:15):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (48:16):
And then that was the one where Cardi missed the kick,
So yeah, I mean that was the game to be at.
You love Matthew Stafford and man number nine. He is
the MVP of the league. I'm just I'm so tired
of seeing Patrick Mahomes rad ahead it. Patrick Mahomes was
so bad yesterday against the Bills. If he was even average,
(48:36):
they win by a touchdown. They instead lose by a touchdown.
He was horrendous. So I don't really know what we're doing.
Drake May really like him. They're seven and two. They
were my surprise team. They were my sleeper team. I
said they'd go to the playoffs. But as much as
I like Drake May, I'm gonna be honest. Here he
tried to give away that game against the Falcons, like turnover,
(48:58):
awful interception. Stafford hasn't thrown on five games, and Drake
May is playing against probably the easiest schedule I think
I've ever seen. Did you see the strength of schedule.
It's like three point fifty three.
Speaker 1 (49:11):
Yeah, but it's still not as easy as the forty
nine ers schedule.
Speaker 2 (49:15):
No, it's easier. It's crazy.
Speaker 1 (49:17):
Well, I mean I didn't know that statistically. I'm just
being sarcastic.
Speaker 2 (49:20):
No, No, I get what you're saying.
Speaker 1 (49:21):
I'm mostly just annoyed because of the forty nine ers schedule.
Is like, we'll talk about.
Speaker 2 (49:27):
It next week, Yes, yes we will.
Speaker 1 (49:29):
I'm foreshadowing, guys, I'm spoiling the next episode.
Speaker 2 (49:34):
Yeah, I mean it'd be like that, Deb. We really
do appreciate you always tuning in.
Speaker 1 (49:39):
Thank you, Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (49:41):
One of our all time faves. Not hiding it, Andrew,
thank you for the five. Imagine how good you'll be
when a Kello comes back. Puts a spile on my face.
You're damn right. I mean, right now, they're playing so good.
PFF has them rated as the third best coverage grade
covered team in the league. When a Kello comes back,
(50:04):
what that's going to do, It's it's going to give
him an opportunity to match up with any type of receiver,
and that is awesome. And it's not just that Akello
is the best corner on this team. I firmly believe
that Darius Williams was bawling out before the injury. Hopefully
he keeps doing that. Kobe Durant's playing well, Roger McCurry
is a starting caliber player, and Emanuel Forbes is coming
(50:24):
off the best game of his career. So basically, stock
up for the cornerback room. The safety room we already
knew was really deep, and I still think it's the
best in the league. Cam Kinchins is a baller, Cam
Curls a baller. Quinton Lake has become a star. Jaylen
McCullough like, then you have Landman, then you have Omar
Spates who just absolutely decleted Alvin Kamara, and then you
(50:48):
have that defensive front that everybody talks about. So yeah,
it's it's a really good sign. When a Kello does
come back, it is going to be so fun to
watch because that is the final form of this defense.
They're just missing a kellow. That's it, so appreciate. Andrew
totally agree, and then Rusty, thank you to the five,
(51:10):
jac and Alexis. I've been very critical of Cardi for
his inconsistency, but the blocking is pathetic. Either one guy
or many do horrible jobs. Feels that way, man, We agree.
Speaker 1 (51:23):
Unfortunately, it's true.
Speaker 2 (51:25):
Yeah, it's hard to watch. Yeah, it's hard to watch
when a guy's just sitting there and the ball snapped
and he only has X amount of time to kick,
and then all of a sudden you already see guys
coming through. It's like all right, And then I mean,
who knows. They have to have the analytics in, you know,
in house to know if Josh Cardi is taking too
(51:46):
long or if he's just he's totally fine and not
taking too long and they're just that bad because there's
it's one of the other.
Speaker 1 (51:54):
Well, and also, he hasn't been taking this long if
you look at this is like a recent issue, So
it's not that he has been taking too long to
kick this entire season. They started having these really bad
special teams blocking problems and then he started taking too
long to kick. So I think it's it's a result
of that. And you know, like I said earlier, I
think that he's quite literally checking the ball before he
(52:16):
kicks it. And I also think just psychologically, his timing
and his rhythm is thrown off because his the blocking
is so bad that I just think that he doesn't
know what's going on, and now it's turned psychological, and
so like, that's obviously not good.
Speaker 2 (52:32):
No, it's it's just becomes psychological. I mean, that's how
the best kickers flare out. So obviously rooting for him
to turn it around, I'm a believer in his not
I'm going to die in this hill, I really am.
I think he's going to turn it around, and I
think we're going to look back and be like, wow,
can you imagine if we gave up on this guy? So, yeah,
(52:54):
those are my thoughts on that. But uh, I think
that's it. I think that's the sort of thing you got.
Another one from Zaylor Swift. Thank you, Zaylor, Thank you
for the five. Can we afford two first rounders next
year while having to pay Pooka Lake Vy, et cetera.
This is a great question because first round picks are expensive.
But I'll tell you right now, they're nowhere near as
(53:16):
expensive is when the Rams got Sam Bradford, that's for sure.
The rookie wage scale was changed in the new CBA
after of course, the Rams got the last grandfathered in
ridiculous contract with Sam Bradford, but the rookie wage scale changed.
That's why draft picks are more valuable than they've ever been,
(53:36):
because they're pretty easy and cost effective to manage two
first rounders. They're going to need at least i'd say
fifteen million dollars in cap space with everything, so you
could be honest something. I don't think they trade one
of the first rounders at the deadline, but I don't
even know who you were trade for. But yeah, I
(53:58):
do think they can afford too first rounds. I do,
so that's my take.
Speaker 1 (54:02):
Yeah agree, Yeah, well, Jake, I think you're right. I
think that's going to do it for us. You know, obviously,
really fun to celebrate a win on Victory Monday. We
won't be Victory Monday without a win, so it's just
fun to celebrate Victory Monday in general. But guys, we
appreciate all of you tuning in tonight. We will be
(54:25):
back Friday night to preview our matchup against the forty
nine ers, so make sure to tune in Friday night.
But guys, as always, until then, if you like what
you hear, please like and subscribe. You can follow us
on social media at Downtown Rams. You can follow me
on Twitter slash x at the Alexis Kraft. You can
follow Jake at JK Bogan and guys will see you soon,
(54:46):
but until then, stay safe, take care, and go Rams
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