Not all onside kicks are created equal

by Ryan Van Bibber on Oct 13, 2010 2:44 PM CDT in 2010 St. Louis Rams season

It's Wednesday, and the St. Louis Rams decision to start their week 5 game against Detroit with an onside kick should be dead and buried by now. But I just can't let it go without one more comment.

You'll recall that the Chiefs also opened their week 5 game with an onside kick, also unsuccessful. Here's what Peter King said about that:

I don't care if it didn't work. I liked the Chiefs' onside-kick on the first play of the game at Indy. You won't beat the Colts without taking some chances.

That may very well be the case. The Colts won that game, and I suspect were heavily favored going into it. The Rams made the same call, against the Detroit Lions, an 0-4 team that the Rams should have been able to compete against using the same formula that beat Washington and Seattle. Things didn't quite work out that way.

ESPN's Mike Sando also brings up that fateful onside kick to remind readers that Steve Spagnuolo put himself on the hot seat with the Rams' blowout loss to the Lions this week.

Spagnuolo justified the onside kick to get his team off to an aggressive start on the road. Unfortunately, adversity dogpiled the Rams after that kick when they lost Mark Clayton and fumbled a catch inside the 10-yard line. Any hint of aggressiveness was gone after that series. The offense dried up and the defense got away from the creative blitz packages even when five Detroit blockers were able to contain the Rams' front four.

The best way to make people forget would be a win this week.

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LOL! that should win the caption contest....

:onside kick commences lions recover:
…/homer voice on

DOH!

/homer voice off

by leadhead on Oct 13, 2010 3:09 PM CDT reply actions

Not only is our team young...

…but so is our coach. Generally, I like being aggressive, but I don’t see the need to do that against the winless Lions.

I’m sure Spags learned something there

by Oski Bear on Oct 13, 2010 3:29 PM CDT reply actions

The onside kick

Had nothing to do with the outcome of the game. The D held them to 3 points. We lost by 38. That kick must have stopped the D line from putting pressure on Shaun (own the Rams) Hill. Huh ? That kick must have been on Bartell’s mind so bad to make him drop a gimme int. They should have saved it for the kickoff return that went for a TD. Its easy to second guess Spags but it was bigger problems out of that game to worry about than the onside kick. ( Drop passes , fumbles in the red zone , penalties , dropped INTs)

by RamMan1 on Oct 13, 2010 3:41 PM CDT via mobile reply actions

+1

Football players, like prostitutes, are in the business of ruining their bodies for the pleasure of strangers. ~Merle Kessler

by mlkgandhiv2k on Oct 13, 2010 3:41 PM CDT up reply actions

IMO

the Amendola fumble in the red zone is what really turned the game momentum to the lions

"Twin-headed infinite swirling vortex of grotesque suckitude known as Tony Clark and Eric Byrnes"

by sergey606 on Oct 13, 2010 4:11 PM CDT up reply actions

+2

by Pekka for Predator Pontiff on Oct 13, 2010 5:29 PM CDT up reply actions

The effect onside kick has ben over blown.

It was the first play of the game. He took a chance. So what? We still had to play football for 60 minutes and we didn’t. Anyways, the defense held them for only a feild goal even after the kick. The “momentum” that the onside kick gave the lions has been over blown.

Football players, like prostitutes, are in the business of ruining their bodies for the pleasure of strangers. ~Merle Kessler

by mlkgandhiv2k on Oct 13, 2010 3:41 PM CDT reply actions

the main reason i hated the decision to kick an onside so much

is because our offense blows. i mean even if we recovered there’s a good chance we wouldnt of scored any points and that failure would rile up the crowd. not to mention our defense is clearly our strength and they won us our games so why not let them lead

by Buck Nasty87 on Oct 13, 2010 4:31 PM CDT reply actions

Another Spaggs weakness is time clock management

by Thomas W on Oct 13, 2010 7:12 PM CDT reply actions

I have no problem with the onside kick

after our defense held them to 3 points even after the failed kick I think the momentum was even if not in our favor. I definately don’t blame amendola for this loss either, he had a great game, fumbles happen. The real problem was Clayton’s injury and our defence’s inability to create turnovers for us in response.

Steven Jackson .... Boss

by Swatsky on Oct 13, 2010 7:21 PM CDT reply actions

I liked the idea

I actually think the main reason it didn’t work was because of the little Josh Brown sneak attack move. When the front line guys see that, they know somethings up. If they just lined up regularly and went to kick regularly, the other players may have been caught more off guard. But once he tried his sneak attack, they knew it was coming.

Darcy needs to go because:
Onobun > Gates... And because Darcy sucks.

by Carneros on Oct 13, 2010 8:18 PM CDT reply actions