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On twitter, I mentioned that this Rams team will turn me into an alcoholic and this game was a perfect example as to why. The 31-17 St. Louis Rams victory over the Arizona Cardinals did not come easily. To be honest, it was pretty fucking ugly. But in the spirit of a win, ya Rams (take that with a bit of sarcasm).
The game did have a few bright spots, and it just happens that some of them our on this here five player recap:
QB Sam Bradford
If Sam Bradford's first few drives didn't make you chug down a few beers, then I don't know what would.
Early on, he missed a open Brandon Gibson on two different long passes on the outside. If throwing passes out of bounds wasn't frustrating enough, in the first trip into the red zone, Sam threw into triple coverage and got picked off as a result.
Then, suddenly, we saw a different Sam Bradford throw a pass down the middle to Lance Kendricks for a 37-yard touchdown. He also had a few 'wow' completions here and there – 38-yarder to Amendola, 37-yard TD pass to Givens – but wasn't efficient.
All in all, Bradford was 8 for 17 for 205 yards with two touchdowns.
CB Janoris Jenkins
Oh, how the tables have turned.
For the past few weeks, we were used to seeing a quarterback take advantage of the rookie corner. Against the Cardinals, Jenkins took advantage of rookie QB Ryan Lindley, picking off the San Diego State-product twice and returning both for touchdowns.
So you Steven Jackson is done, huh? The man himself proved you wrong – racking up 139 yards on 24 carries for an average of 5.8 yards per carry. A big chunk of those yards, 46, came on a big run. The only thing that eluded the big man in this game was a touchdown.
C Scott Wells
Part of the early frustrations came from this guy. On one of those drives that resulted in a Rams' punt, Wells completely missed a blitzing Daryl Washington. In fact, Scott didn't even look in his direction; Washington just ran straight at Bradford. That was one of those "let me go pour me another Crown and Coke" moments.
We didn't hear Wells' name much after that incident, in his defense. Oh yeah, Steven Jackson had some pretty good running lanes too. Credit Scott Wells and the rest of O-Line.
TE Lance Kendricks
As noted before, Kendricks doesn't get his number called much in the aerial attack, but he sure did make it count today. His lone catch resulted in the offense's first TD of the game. The rest of Kendricks' time was spent blocking, and we knows he does that well.