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Starting the season without Michael Brockers in the lineup is not ideal. The St. Louis Rams at least got a little break when it was revealed that their first-round pick had a regular ankle sprain rather than a more complicated high ankle sprain, the kind of injury that proved to be a nagging problem for Sam Bradford last season.
MRI reveals only an ankle sprain for Rams pick Michael Brockers. 2-4 week injury. Could've been much, much worse
— Jason La Canfora (@JasonLaCanfora) September 3, 2012
Brockers is expected to miss somewhere between 2-4 weeks to start the season. Considering that the Rams play at Detroit, home against Washington, at Chicago and home against Seattle. All four of those teams are dealing with suspect offensive line play, some more than others. The duo of Brockers and Kendall Langford could be a very major problem for the Bears and the Lions.
It looks like Langford and Kellen Heard, as the run stuffer in the middle, will get the call instead. It is what is, and the Rams will have to deal with it.
Let's go back to the play where Brockers was injured. It was a cut block, and many felt like it should have drawn a flag.
You can see from the GIF above that Brockers was engaged with another lineman, the center, when the guard went down on him, which would have made the play illegal. It looks an awful lot like a high-low situation.
I'm no fan of the replacement officials. They were embarrassingly bad in this game. However, this is one of those plays that doesn't always get called when the usual refs are on the field. More importantly, drawing flag for the play would have done nothing to keep Brockers' ankle out of a walking boot.
My fear with the replacement refs is that players will try to get away with these kinds of plays more often, taking advantage of the scab crews to get an extra edge.