Tag: nick foles

So long for just a while, Nick Foles

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Sooner or later, it had to happen. The St. Louis Rams passing offense ranked near the bottom of the league. Jeff Fisher kept saying they would fix things. They would work on things. Well, you can’t work on crap.

NFL: Preseason-Indianapolis Colts at St. Louis Rams
Mandatory Credit: Scott Kane-USA TODAY Sports

After a terrible effort where he made Jay Cutler look like Tom Brady by comparison, Nick Foles has lost his job as starting quarterback. The only thing he has right now is financial security. Two thirds of his preseason minted three year/26 million dollar extension is guaranteed. He will be a high paid clipboard holding scout team running quarterback for a few weeks. Foles earned that spot.

People weren’t too excited to see Case Keenum get the keys because they think he is a Foles clone. Well, until I see Keenum, a former Houston Texan, overthrow or all together misfire eight different throws in a single game, he is an upgrade over The Philly kid. If Keenum can connect on a ten yard pass or hit a deep route, he’s golden. If he doesn’t find a way to miss the gigantic body of Jared Cook on a wide open play, Keenum will be okay against the not what it once was Baltimore Ravens defense.

Maybe Foles should start against division rivals only. His best games in 2015 were against Seattle, Arizona and San Francisco. He had quarterback passing ratings of 115.8, 126.9 and 101.9 against those guys. In those games, he threw five touchdowns and zero interceptions. Did he make a special sandwich the night before? Wake up on the right side of the bed. Get shave. Have a good cup of coffee. Hit up Mom’s Deli before the game. There’s no telling, but in the other games he was average at best and terrible often. He threw two touchdowns and slung six picks. He had a 23.8 rating against the Green Bay Packers when sensational running back Todd Gurley was carrying him and the offense on his not so broad shoulders. He had a 68 PR against the Minnesota Vikings and a 53 rating against the Bears. Foles could mess up a wet dream.

He’s done. For now. I don’t think we will see Foles for three weeks at least. The Rams can’t afford to completely quit on him. Keenum has to prove himself.  Behind him, it’s Sean Mannion, their recent quarterback draftee. They traded the oft injured Sam Bradford(who hurt his shoulder again and was concussed Sunday) for Foles, a Chip Kelly prodigy who apparently his good arm up East. This guy is bad. Stinky bad. He’s not hurt like Sam, but he might as well be missing something.

It comes down to making throws my friends. Your receivers may drop a few and kill a couple drives but a good quarterback has to be able to overcome his receivers mediocre lot in life and find a way to connect. For nine pitiful games, Foles showed zero consistency. He was the Rams ineptitude over the Jeff Fisher regime. Not good enough. Not even close.

Can Keenum produce better results? He can’t do any worse. The receivers will publicly rally around Foles while quietly celebrating the change. This is a money game. Receivers want to get paid. They can’t do that trying to impersonate Shaq. Keenum may not be Aaron Rodgers but he will be something different. For now that’s good enough.

 

 

Why St. Louis fans should care about the Rams

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If you care about football in St. Louis, you should care about the Rams. It’s as simple as that as the Rams have their second home game against the Pittsburgh Steelers today. There’s an old saying that I can’t let go as I creep up in age. Don’t let something that you can’t control affect you. The situation with the Rams and how the team arrived at this fork in the road is not a fault on the fans and that is why they shouldn’t give up just yet.

For the past 10 years, while losing teams and miserable times mounted around the Edward Jones Dome and Rams park, they showed up to watch something begin again. Unlike most fan bases of losing teams, the Rams fans never gave up and whatever owner Stan Kroenke “didn’t” say, the attendance was respectable. Watching this Rams team play football the past decade is the equivalent to watching a car suddenly lose power steering and go screaming off a cliff, rolling down the nearside hill hitting every bump on the way down. It hasn’t been easy.

Yes, the owner has something to do with that. Kroenke makes Harrison Ford on a talk show seem chatty. He doesn’t say a word but he sure does speak volumes with headlines. He pushes pawns all across the board, wages the future of his football team on a dream lot in California, and doesn’t say a word to fans. He helped bring the team here and waited for his opportunity to snag ownership of them back. He’s never fully invested in this team in St. Louis. If Stan played poker, he’d make even more money. His poker face is a 24/7 gauntlet. Don’t even try to read it. I’ll sum it up. It reads, “I don’t care about you.”

That doesn’t mean stay away from the games downtown. Do St. Louis a favor and SHOW UP. Cheer for your team. Show them that you care. That is the best and only way to hurt Stan’s plan. Show that the city is a viable place for NFL football. Pack the dome. Light up the city on Sunday mornings and afternoons. Don’t let the hard work of stadium task force leaders Dave Peacock and Bob Blitz die in vain. Create a frenzy and see what happens. If the team does leave, at least you can say you did something about it. You did your best. As a football fan pleading for its team to remain in St. Louis, it’s the only thing you can do.

The Rams team is a young group once again. A bunch of young men trying to create something special out of improbable parts. Their quarterback, Nick Foles, is a transplant from Philadelphia, looking to start anew. Their running back corps consists of a few bodies. The receiving core is a group of men still trying to find their true potential and seeing their 4th or 5th different quarterback throw passes towards them. The defense is the white snake of this plaza. Powered by defensive end Robert Quinn, defensive tackle Aaron Donald and linebacker James Laurinaitis. Their front seven is among the best in football, a feared group of tacklers that dares opposing teams to run the ball.

Yes, the secondary isn’t exemplary and the offensive line will need patch work throughout the season. With a new offensive coordinator comes hope of a more exciting system but also the dreaded Jeff Fisher override. Will the passing game be opened up? Will Tavon Austin and Brian Quick be turned loose? Or will the Rams die via check down boredom? All of that is up in the air.

Here’s what is known. There are 16 games to play, and eight of them are at home. The fans need to show their pride one more time. Stand up for not only the Rams but the prospect of NFL action in St. Louis in general. Instead of grunting about Stan and his evil ways from your chair in St. Louis county, get down there and mix it up with the fans. Tailgate, barbecue, scream, shout and cheer. This young team will be empowered by it. This fanbase will seem stronger than ever. The city of St. Louis may just fly on it.

It’s all we can do. Show up, make our presence known and see what happens. It all starts today.

Nick Foles makes a grand entrance with Rams

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The mark of a great quarterback is refusing to give in when the stakes are set high against your team and the momentum isn’t pointed in your direction. The great ones create their own momentum and bring their team back against adversity. On Sunday in front of a fiery St. Louis crowd begging for something to hang their pride on, Nick Foles brought the Rams back, steering them towards a 34-31 upset victory over the NFC champion Seattle Seahawks.

Instead of taking to Twitter to promise victory like Russell Wilson did, Foles just went to work when the whistle blew. After a few hiccups early including a sack strip and fumble return for a touchdown and a few ill-advised throws, Foles was dynamic in the second half in reversing another fate that would have been labeled “Second Half dooms Rams again.”

For years, that has been the Rams motto. Start fast and deflate quicker. Foles wasn’t going to have any of that Sunday. He went 18-27 for 297 yards, throwing the game tying touchdown to Lance Kendricks late in the 4th quarter and also rushing for a touchdown earlier in the game. He completed 66 % of his passes and didn’t think twice about the Seahawks aggressive defense. Some young players may have let the early troubles get to them and mentally shut down, but it seems like the harder the situation became Sunday, the tighter the focus Foles showed.

This is a quarterback driven league and every team treats their QB like a general, rather they are a star or not. The defense can play a great game, but if the quarterback can’t do something with the ball in their hands it all goes to waste. The offense needs him to guide them down the field. Be their navigator at all times. If the QB fails, the operation is finished. Forget the flags, the coaches, the head sets and the practice.

It hasn’t been easy for Foles. He was set up behind Michael Vick in Philadelphia and had to wait for his opportunity to shine. When he did in 2013, winning 8 games and throwing for 27 touchdowns, the credit was given to Chip Kelly’s offense and not Foles. He came into his first game with St. Louis with a 15-9 record but little respect and credit given. He was looked at as injury prone for damage taken to his shoulder in 2014. Any Rams fan that had reservations about the trade for Foles isn’t holding them today. The 26 year old has turned heads with his performance.

Sure, it’s only one game. It’s just a blip on the schedule for most NFL teams. For the Rams, it was oxygen to the brain and blood flow to the heart. The fans needed this. His teammates needed him to be sharp. Foles’ unsung hero work in the second half against the Seahawks may not make the Sportscenter highlight reel or get a four minute speech from Jon Gruden about mental toughness, but it will be remembered by anybody who was in attendance Sunday. Along with a stout defense that stopped Marshawn Lynch and Russell Wilson when it mattered, Foles was the X-factor in the Rams first win.

His postgame Twitter comments was more team oriented.

The rest of the schedule won’t be easy but the Rams have all the confidence in the world at the moment. To them, the possibilities are endless. That is the power of a huge Week 1 victory. The fanbase is energized and the rest of the schedule doesn’t look at tough. Nick Foles will probably have a few bad games and rough moments with the Rams. It’s a team pre-requisite to suffer through harsh times. However, Sunday’s play showed a taste of what the man brings to this team and why the Rams extended him before the first snap.

Nick Foles has something to prove and that is he can produce results in any offensive system and with any team. He’s off to a good start in St. Louis.

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