Originally posted by jonnydel:
Another fun film to watch - as we won 
Several things stood out to me - CK played one of the best - if not the best game I've seen him play, as far as throw with anticipation, read of the defense, climb the pocket, and feeling the pressure.
His only terrible decision ended up not costing us at all because of a horse-collar penalty. Greg Williams and the Rams blitz more than any team in the league and we were able to identify the blitz, block well and gain over 340 yards through the air.
Part of that was -what I call, the Frank Gore affect. The Rams were run blitzing most of the time - so it was more about filling gaps than it was about trying to generate pressure - so their lanes weren't spread out like they would be in a pass blitz. However, there were several obvious passing situations where they blitzed and we still did a great job of pickup and execution. However - St. Louis is a historically bad pass rushing team right now - I think the worst in 40 years or something. 1 Sack through 6 weeks.
I have started to notice something else though - which came to mind after A.J. McCarron's recent comments regarding Alabama's recent offensive struggles.
It does seem that we have a lack of leadership on the offensive side of the ball - from the players.
It isn't any more evident than when you look at the defensive side of the ball. We've had injuries galore, a huge suspension, and a lot of turnover in the secondary. However, the defense has still maintained an elite level of play. When the defense plays poorly - it's always for a very short stretch. Then, they'll get things straightened out. What you see from film is - it's not so much about changing any calls or making a lot of adjustments from a coaching standpoint - it's like a switch flips and the players buckle down and execute their assignments better. I think leadership among the players has a lot to do with that. We have Patrick Willis on that side of the ball who has emerged as a leader the last 4-5 years. I don't think we have that on offense. When we have a negative play of any kind - it's almost a certainty that the drive will stall.
It reminds me a lot of the 94 niners. If you watch the "America's game" on that year, Steve Young talked a lot about how the players really didn't accept him as a leader until that year. It didn't matter how many things he could do and achieve on the field - they weren't fully bought into him as a leader until the Eagles game where he went off on George Seiffert.
But, back to the film. As usual - I'll start with the Positives and work to the negatives starting with Offense to defense.
Offense:
Positives: O-line protection was good for the most part - there were some pressures they gave up which led to incompletions, but, no sacks. Which is the first time that's happened in over 16 games with CK. Brandon Lloyd has been a huge boost for the offense. He's not a burner by any means, but, his ability to make the spectacular catch and his savvy as a route runner make up for a lot of that. It just goes to show, that speed isn't the most important part of being a deep threat. It's the ability to attack the defender in a way to open up your deep threat.
I mentioned it earlier, but, saw some great anticipation throws from CK that are real exciting to see. Also saw much better pocket awareness than before - which led to a couple really good conversions. It was great to see him climb the pocket and make some tough throws.
VD is gonna get an honorable mention in the positives but will also be covered in the negatives - his presence alone does make a big impact on the offense. There were several plays where the attention he gets opened other guys up.
I liked some of the creative things Roman did in the passing game to get favorable matchups and force the Ram's hand. It was more in how he used personnel in different formations. He'd come out in a 12 personnel sometimes and spread it all out, or in a 21 personnel and spread it out so that we'd get WR's matched up on LB's in zone coverage or LB's against RB's in pass coverage. He really went after the LB's a lot in this game.
Negatives:
It was a struggle to get the running game going after Iupati left. Looney got pushed around for a bit. He started to settle in a little better near the end - but, I didn't like his leverage for a while
Vance McDonald not only had the big fumble but, blew several key blocks in the run game. I haven't been all that impressed with him this year. I'm not sure what's keeping him ahead of Carrier in the depth chart - maybe it's the playbook as I know he tends to play a different position than TE - usually a "U" back position. Which has a lot more assignments that go along with it.
VD had a terrible game. Dropped several passes and also missed some key blocking assignments in the run game.
Defense:
Positives:
Even with all the injuries, the defense is playing well. They only gave up 3 points in the final 3 quarters. That's a win for any defense against any team. We were able to generate more pressure on the QB than we had all year. We didn't necessarily blitz more than normal - we put a lot of pressure on the RB's to stand up against LB's(inside and outside) often. Austin Davis did a good job against us early in the game - he stood tall against pressure and made some great throws, but, the pressure seemed to be cumulative. The later in the game it got, the worst he got as the pressure affected him more and more.
Vic Fangio continues to blow me away as a D-coordinator. I really do think he's the best D-coord in the league. We finished that game with only 3 starters from last years defense playing and we still did an outstanding job. He did a lot of things to create pressure. Sometimes it was with stunts, sometimes with blitzes and sometimes it was by a mixture of where the stunts were coming from and alignments. One way play in particular, he lined up 3 guys to the right side of the center and had Justin Smith alone on the left side. Because of the stunts - the LT didn't get any help from the LG. This put Justin Smith 1-1 with the LT who couldn't hold his ground against Smith's bullrush.
Our D-line continues to impress. They have an ability to stay engaged with the O-lineman through to the point where they should disengage and then are able to schuck these guys off and either make a play or turn the play back towards a LB.
Our coverage units also did a good job throughout the majority of the game - especially Perrish Cox. He had two bad plays from what I saw, but, one - he was in a really tough position, the other was negated because of offensive PI.
Negatives:
Not too many here - the injury to Willis will hurt though. Borland did an ok job, but he's not the physical presence Willis is at all. But, we can't expect him to be. Unfortunate that it comes the week we're going to play Peyton.
Chris Culliver was the biggest disappointment on defense. He played with poor technique a couple times and completely blew his assignment on a TD.
Other than that, not much else to say. As usual, breakdowns to follow.
I agree that Fangio's been insanely good, but the matter of how many starters are remaining from the end of last year can be a bit misleading (and it's actually 4. not 3: Smith, McDonald, Brooks, Reid - though maybe that was just a typo) because Bethea is just as good if not better than Whitner, Cully and Cox are just as good if not better than Rogers and Brown, and Williams is arguably playing as well as Dorsey.
My favorite throw of the night.
