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The St. Louis Rams take to the field for their second game of the 2010 season in just a little bit more than 24 hours form now. Let's get a Saturday morning update on the team and the players.
First, let's go back to week 1 with Pro Football Focus' write up on the game featuring a few points worth discussion. I won't give it all away because you should read what they have to say about Sam Bradford and the Rams secondary. The points I'll bring up here have to do with the two lines.
The Rams offensive line graded out pretty well, with Jason Smith earning praise of allowing just one hit on 58 pass drop backs. Smith was their highest rated OT last week. Those wanting to see progress from last year's first round pick didn't have to wait long. On the other side, rookie Rodger Saffold fared pretty well too. The weakest link was Jason Brown who faced a tough AZ interior line; it's also consistent with the offensive line's relatively poor showing opening running lanes in the middle of the field.
On the other side of the ball they turn their lens to DE James Hall, who moves inside to RDT on passing downs. There's a reason for that: Hall, 33, does not get around the tackles well. On the inside he can at least generate some pressure. All of this makes rookie George Selvie an important player for the Rams, since he comes in at RDE on passing downs. The Rams front four on passing downs looks like this: Selvie, Hall, Fred Robbins and Chris Long. They did a good job against Arizona and have another favorable matchup against Oakland this week, but you can see the cause for concern...unless Selvie can build on his strong showing in the preseason.
PFF named their all-week 1 team which included Rams CB Ron Bartell. Targeted 11 times, Arizona QB Derek Anderson completed just 1 pass against Bartell. This is good news signaling that the Ron Bartell of 2008 is back.
Be sure to check out the PFF rewind on the Oakland game from last week. In short, their offensive line was terrible, save for Robert Gallery who is out this week, but their defensive front was strong, particularly rookie LB Rolando McClain. Still, they did allow Vince Young to post a QB rating of 142.8....Vince Young.
The PD has a look at the Rams new special teamers this week.
Spagnuolo prepares for playing in Oakland, for the first time in his career. Something tells me that the Oakland experience won't be quite the same; they didn't even sell out the game this week.
Turf Show Radio is coming up tonight at 6 p.m. ET, 5 p.m. CT. Tune in, turn on and drop out...or something like that.