Before the season started, we put our finger in the air to get a sense of approval ratings for some of the Rams new leadership. With one game in the books, let's shift our focus a little bit and see where fan opinion stands with regards to some of the players.
I will say this is National Jump to Conclusions Week. It doesn't mean the results you saw in Seattle on Sunday will be the same thing you see all season long. Ram_rod and I talked a little bit about Marc Bulger last night on Turf Show Radio, and I know some fans have a pretty strong opinion of the QB either way. This morning, let's jump into the fray and talk about the Rams QB.
Was the sputtering offense his fault? He completed just 17 of 36 passes last week for 191 yards. He didn't throw any TD passes, but he didn't throw any INTs either. It wasn't anything special to be sure. Then again, it wasn't enough for lots of fans to finish putting the nails in the career coffin, yet. (CaliRamMan has a good post arguing to withhold judgment on Bulger just yet). Yesterday, PD columnist Bernie Miklasz had this to say about Bulger's performance:
Bulger had 19 incompletions in the game, and according to STATS LLC, only four were the result of poor throws. That was better than most NFL quarterbacks in the first week. One pass was dropped. One was hit at the line. Eight were broken up by defenders. Three passes were intentionally thrown away. The other two incompletions weren’t categorized. Bulger was good on fiirst down throws (10 of 15) and not so good when he faced 2nd down and a distance of 8 yards or more (3 for 9). Bulger was 1 for 5 passing in the red zone. Only one of his third-down passing attenpts resulted in a first down. Bulger was more effective against the blitz (5 for 9) than throwing in non-blitz situations (12 for 27). There wasn’t much difference between his shotgun-formation passing and non-shotgun passing. When the Rams went with 4 WRs, he completed 3 of 4 for 65 yards.
Completely and totally "meh." For me the Rams QB hasn't done enough to merit shipping him out just yet, but he hasn't done anything to live up to expectations for him this year either.
So let's open it up. Ready to pronounce Bulger DOA yet or not? Why?