So, Sam Bradford made his debut with the Rams tonight. The Vikings smacked the Rams 28-7. Bradford was sacked 4 times. He had most of the first string offensive line in front of him, most of the time. The Vikings did not put all their 1st string defenders against him, at least not on all plays.
What do you take from these events? How about this line from Football News Now: The real story, however, is the lack of protection the Rams' offensive line provided their new leader. There you have it ladies and germs: The real story line is the lack of protection the Rams' offensive line provided Sam Bradford.
What did I tell you? What did I say? What have I warned of a thousand and one times? What did my last post on BleacherReport.com say?
What I am saying to you now I say in anger, and not with gloating: YOU'D BETTER FIX THAT OFFENSIVE LINE! I MEAN NOW! I don't give a fuck what you have to do. Trade players. Mortgage the future. Give up picks. Pay money under the table. Shtoomp female owners if that is what it takes. Get some offensive linemen in ASFAP.
Folks, it is worse than I thought it would be. I expected them to be pretty loose and sloppy. Disorganization was what I expected. I saw some of that, but that isn't the real story here. I did not expect them to look this... bad. They look plain overwhelmed at the point of attack by much superior athletes. The Viking D-Line did not win the battle at the line of scrimmage. The Vikings utterly annihilated the Rams at the line of scrimmage. That is damn scary.
Now, whilst I do not buy into the Viking theory, you just read my praise for the Viking D-line recently. Yes they are talented. No they are not that talented. This is only the 1st preason game. They should not be this hot at this point. The Ram line should not surrender 4 sacks all game long, much less in less 2 quarters of play.
What I saw set off a lot of major alarm bells. Even VanRam--who is a major apologist for the Rams' offensive line--is now showing real signs of worry. You can attempt to downplay it all you want, but you are wrong. Jason Smith looked more like the human sieve than the #2 overall pick from 2009. Jamie Dukes drew particular attention to Smith's case. The guards looked pretty bad also.
You should have read the expression on Dukes' face. It was somewhere between disdain and horror, and that came from a former center. He also warned of the lack of talent elsewhere on the field, something I am very cognizant of.
I am surprised the kid completed 6 of 13 passes for 57 yards. Considering the wretched protection he got, that was damn impressive. As Mike Florio said, the only good news for the Rams is that no joints on Bradford's body exploded like popcorn.
Billy, I want you to take a deep breath and write on the dry erase board 1,000 times: "David is never, ever wrong about the Rams. I need to get some offensive linemen right now."
Nah, skip it and just get the fucking linemen! I don't need to be proven right anymore. Just fix it!
