Donald Was Rusty and It Showed

[Safety Blitz]

The holdout proved one thing: players can't miss all of training camp and pre-season without having their performance suffer at the beginning of the season.

We haven't seen the best of our defense. In week 1 the d line was the weakest unit: the linebackers and secondary were better.

The more this line plays together, the better they should be.

[NN1Badboy]

i’m throwing the bullshit flag on that one. Maybe he wasn’t at the top of his game, but he was in the backfield the entire night. That penalty on the sack was a joke. No way that should have been a roughing the passer call. I think the refs called a lot of penalties on the Rams. Some were good calls, while others were really iffy.

[HellRam]

Hmmm...

I wouldn't say they were the weakest link. I do expect more from Donald and Suh in the future but overall the D line controlled the tempo for the most part. I do agree Donald did not look like his old self on Monday night. But that should change in the next week or two.

[Tenacious T]

I agree that Donald didn't look as dominant as we've seen in the past, but he did have his moments. It's absolutely insane that officials don't throw more holding flags on the opposing offensive lineman because Donald was mugged all night. I expect the D-line to keep improving as the season rolls.

Michael Brockers played a much better game than Donald & Suh Monday night.

Let's hope Sam Bradford get's our lineman back on track this Sunday...I suspect that he will.

Go Rams!

[RamPower]

I agree that Donald didn't look as dominant as we've seen in the past, but he did have his moments. It's absolutely insane that officials don't throw more holding flags on the opposing offensive lineman because Donald was mugged all night. I expect the D-line to keep improving as the season rolls.

Michael Brockers played a much better game than Donald & Suh Monday night.

Let's hope Sam Bradford get's our lineman back on track this Sunday...I suspect that he will.

Go Rams!

Brockers never quits during a play - love the guy. He keeps his eyes active until the whistle, and is always moving toward the ball. He's great at moving back laterally to a ball carrier.

[Raminec]

Don’t agree. Aaron Donald’s presence was felt. Oakland did not attempt a deep pass all game. Aaron Donald and Suh were bringing interior pressure along with Michael Brockers. Derek Carr was rattled and it resulted in some picks and some wasted throws. If the Rams secondary could have tackled better on Cook Oakland’s offense would have had nothing. Donald forced a couple of holding calls and played virtually the whole game against a very good Raiders interior Offensive Line. I think he played much better than his statistics show.

[Timking124]

Watch that game again. AD consistently beat his man, Raiders were just throwing the ball within 2.5 seconds and it's almost impossible to get a sack unless a defender is unblocked with that time. Our dline caused several holding cause even with the quick passes.

Also it's not like AD didnt get home in this game it was just called a penalty on the hit.

[69RamFan]

The holdout proved one thing: players can't miss all of training camp and pre-season without having their performance suffer at the beginning of the season.

We haven't seen the best of our defense. In week 1 the d line was the weakest unit: the linebackers and secondary were better.

The more this line plays together, the better they should be.

You must of been watching the Jets/Lions game and getting confused...

AD was in the backfield a lot,, getting double team by two Pro Bowlers,,, and at the same time getting Hold all the time... which the Refs weren't calling... I didn't see any rust...

[Safety Blitz]

We haven't seen the best of him yet. I expect to see a vastly improved AD, SUH, and Brocker's unit this week and beyond. My main point is that not being there in the off-season weakend the cohesiveness of the unit. Imagine if this trio were practicing together for months before the Raiders game---no question they would have been better. The opening drive by The Raiders made the d-line look mamby-pamby as Lynch just bulldozed through the defense.

[Safety Blitz]

LA TIMES wrote:
If anything was apparent Monday in the Rams' 33-13 victory over the Raiders at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, it was that the made-over defense needed at least a half to come together and knock off any rust. And there's still plenty of room for improvement.

"That's just the first game jitters man," cornerback Marcus Peters said after the game. "You know how things go."

The Rams appeared out of sync from the start, as the Raiders amassed 254 yards of total offense in the first half, including 113 receiving yards by tight end Jared Cook, and took a 13-10 lead into halftime.

"I think that tempo kind of caught us off guard," Peters said.

[Jack85Youngblood]

The negativity continues

[Safety Blitz]

Fair and balanced, Bro.

[Cornell29]

One of the ol had AD around the neck and the refs didnt call it.

[Safety Blitz]

Fair and balanced, Bro.

After facing Raiders Pro Bowler Rodney Hudson last week, Ndamukong Suh gets a rookie center from the Cardinals this Sunday. Mason Cole was the 97th overall selection. PFF gave him an opening grade of 60.1 (19th at his position) in the opener.

[Dick84]

So.... explain the poor performances by teams that played their starters?

Sorry... doesn’t carry any weight.

[sanbagger]

I kind of thought the same thing. AD is on a different level, so he gets graded on a different level so to speak.

AD played like a good DT against a good interior offensive line....he didn't play like a dominant DT against a good offensive line.

That was not AD at his best...that is yet to come....but it was still good and better than what they would have put in his place if he were inactive, and that's why the decision was made to activate him.

[29TheBest]

Just being in the lineup made the Raiders pay him the attention he commands if he had been in camp the whole time

[UplandRam]

AD is held more than any DL I have ever seen. On the replay they showed, they showed three plays, on each play he was being held. The Rams need to send that game film to the NFL.

[Clovis]

Aaron Donald’s presence was felt. Oakland did not attempt a deep pass all game. Aaron Donald and Suh were bringing interior pressure along with Michael Brockers. Derek Carr was rattled and it resulted in some picks and some wasted throws. If the Rams secondary could have tackled better on Cook Oakland’s offense would have had nothing. Donald forced a couple of holding calls and played virtually the whole game against a very good Raiders interior Offensive Line. I think he played much better than his statistics show.

Solid. I think Gruden went into the game with a plan that Donald and Suh were not going to beat him. He's a good coach and had a good plan. Carr is no fool either. They avoided the interior pass much as much as possible. Stats don't tell the whole story. If Talib has a goose egg for passes defended it's not because he had a bad game, it's because he had his man covered.

[malibu]

Every team is game planning against AD for starters.

I disagree with your premise. Did you see who we played the best or 2nd best oline in football. They had their hands full with AD and company. Did you see how many holding penalties. Also the quick 3 step drop and throw within 2 seconds can directly be attributed to AD, Suh and Brockers. They know if they sat back and held the ball to try and throw deeper longer developing routs AD would get to them or at least disrupt their timing causing a errant throw.

AD had a sack taken away from him on a legit take down. Just because you don't see him getting to the QB you automatically assume he is having a bad game. Stars aren't everything especially when the opponent changes up what they do to make sure AD doesn't get to their QB.

Given a the circumstances an all pro oline, the QB throwing within 2 seconds and a ton of holding penalties I would say AD was awesome. Wait to the Rams start playing really inferior olines and see what is going to happen then. It will be an AD field day.

[harkin]

Watch that game again. AD consistently beat his man, Raiders were just throwing the ball within 2.5 seconds and it's almost impossible to get a sack unless a defender is unblocked with that time. Our dline caused several holding cause even with the quick passes.

This - what game was OP watching?

On the penalty, while I dont think AD intentionally did anything wrong, his helmet did hit Carr in the knee and the refs were trying to set a boundary. If it was a Raider D-lineman and Goff, many here would have said the Raiders were trying to take him out.

[Slickjack]

That was quite a reversal, going from a sack to a roughing the quarterback. However, we got lucky on a couple of those long pass interference plays to make up for it.

[69RamFan]

Every team is game planning against AD for starters.

I disagree with your premise. Did you see who we played the best or 2nd best oline in football. They had their hands full with AD and company. Did you see how many holding penalties. Also the quick 3 step drop and throw within 2 seconds can directly be attributed to AD, Suh and Brockers. They know if they sat back and held the ball to try and throw deeper longer developing routs AD would get to them or at least disrupt their timing causing a errant throw.

AD had a sack taken away from him on a legit take down. Just because you don't see him getting to the QB you automatically assume he is having a bad game. Stars aren't everything especially when the opponent changes up what they do to make sure AD doesn't get to their QB.

Given a the circumstances an all pro oline, the QB throwing within 2 seconds and a ton of holding penalties I would say AD was awesome. Wait to the Rams start playing really inferior olines and see what is going to happen then. It will be an AD field day.

+1

Totally agree....

[99rams]

AD did fine and will be great this year. One bad call on a sack would have given him the one sack he usually gets and the QB pressure was there all night. The weakest unit? The one charged with covering one TE who burned Rams for 180 yards. Wow. I hope we figure that out. Cook will never do that again.

[rong]

I do think it showed a little and I'm sure he'll be in the DPY conversation a few weeks from now