Opening Day… 2011… St. Louis… Eagles…
Some quick table-setters:
Rookie Dion Lewis (above) will return kicks… DeSean Jackson will return punts…so it is written, per Sonny Moonbeam, circa 2011…
Let the smartest Eagles fan posters in the world take over the commentary here on Livefyre… a virtual “live blog” on the game… nice
Just a few last-minute scouting reports—
I dialed up Will Horton at RamsHerd.com for some final thoughts on the blitz schemes the Rams will be throwing at the Eagles today… here’s what Will had to tell us:
“While Spagnuolo cut his teeth in Philadelphia under blitz-master Jim Johnson, his philosophy with the Giants and now with the Rams is to try and generate as much pressure as possible using just the four down linemen. He uses the blitz as a luxury rather than a necessity to get into the pocket. While Chris Long, Fred Robbins, Justin Bannan and James Hall are the starters, Spags rotates players in and out of the line at will. One player to watch is rookie Robert Quinn at the right defensive end, who is likely to see time on obvious passing downs.”
“That said, when we do blitz, our linebackers aren’t known for their pass rush acumen. You’re likely to see as much extra-man rush coming out of the slot from nickel corners Al Harris and Justin King, or speedy safety Darian Stewart, than from the linebackers. “
To my question of whether the Rams would spread it out on offense against the Eagles or bunch things up:
“On offense, the McDaniels M.O. changes from week to week, depending on the opponent. (The Rams came out running on their first seven plays against the Chiefs in Preseason week 3, for example.) But the primary offensive scheme appears to be a spread offense with a lot of 2-TE sets similar to the way the Patriots’ offense looked last year. Considering our interior receiving weapons in Danny Amendola, Lance Kendricks, and the rookies Greg Salas and Austin Pettis, I think the goal will be to stress the interior of the Eagles’ defense, rather than trying to test your cover corners on the edge.”
“Of course, it would be pretty easy to counter this by loading up in the box and playing defense against the Rams in much the same way that opponents did last year. I think you’ll see a lot of attempts by the Rams to cross up the defense by running out of pass formations, and passing out of “jumbo” run formations. You’ll also see a lot more variation in route depth than we did under Shurmur last year, which were very predictable and easier to defend as the season wore on”
What about the Rams’ kicking game?
“Our place kicker is the veteran and former Seahawk Josh Brown, who appears to be really kicking well this preseason. He nailed a 60-yarder in the first week of the preseason against the Colts. However, the Rams recently waived their long-time long snapper, Chris Massey, in favor of a rookie named Jake McQuaide. Rookies make me nervous in the kicking game, so I’m hoping this doesn’t come back to bite us.”
Thanks, Will, that’s up-to-the-minute scouting info directly from St. Louis and we appreciate it…
Now let the games begin… and we turn it over here to the smartest Philly fans in the known blogosphere… JB99 says Spags is going to bring it big-time on blitz pressure against Vick and the Eagles today… I’m anxious to see how well we counter…
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