Rams weren't ready for Torrey Smith

**Kyle Cactus** · 09-26-2011, 07:04 AM

I had a blast yesterday watching Torrey Smith carve up the Rams secondary. Clearly, they weren't ready for Smith, and why should they have been. He hadn't shown up until now. Some observations:

Smith's 1st TD
Rams lined up with 2 safeties. The safety on Smith's side came down to cover an underneath route, and the safety on the opposite side was the only one dropping into deep coverage. Coming from the opposite side of the field he had no chance to help out on Smith.

Smith's 3rd TD
Both safeties were playing only 7 yards off the line of scrimmage near the middle of the field. Smith was isolated 1-on-1, after he had already burned them twice for TDs. With no help over the top, Smith was not well accounted for and burned them with another TD.

As I said before, the Rams had no idea what they were in for with Smith. They continually left him in 1-on-1 coverage w/o sufficient help overtop.

We already knew Smith had playmaking potential. How much of this was Torrey Smith and how much of it was the Rams not being ready for Smith? I have a feeling that without Lee Evans in the game the Rams discounted the possibility of us atticking them downfield. Would the rookie have continued to look lost against a different game plan, or is he starting to take that next step?

Either way, it was an awesome performance, and now teams will have to respect the deep ball when he's on the field.

**Irish Raven** · 09-26-2011, 07:37 AM

Not to hijack your thread but if the Rams ever watched a Ravens game they'd see the checkdowns to Ray Rice.
He was getting loads of space out there, often not covered at all

Great performance but very surprised at Steve Spagnuolo, he's a good coach after all

**wickedsolo** · 09-26-2011, 07:39 AM

The Rams just don't have the defensive personnel yet to really stop a good offense.

I was just really surprised that they let Flacco throw it 48 times.

**Kyle Cactus** · 09-26-2011, 07:41 AM

Originally Posted by Irish Raven

Not to hijack your thread but if the Rams ever watched a Ravens game they'd see the checkdowns to Ray Rice.
He was getting loads of space out there, often not covered at all

Agreed. Not sure how you can't account for that.

**highwater** · 09-26-2011, 07:55 AM

Originally Posted by Kyle Cactus

Agreed. Not sure how you can't account for that.

I think it's okay to say that the Rams coaching staff did not seem to have their team very well prepared for this game. I don't blame them for not being ready for Smith (really, who saw that game coming?), but not accounting for Rice is hard to figure.

**alienrace** · 09-26-2011, 09:05 AM

I don't think it was a matter of the Rams being unprepared by being incompetent, but more than the Ravens surprised everyone by attacking through the air so much, and so aggressively. Most people, myself included, expected a huge dose of Ray Rice, given the Rams were so inept at stopping the run.

**GOTA** · 09-26-2011, 09:19 AM

The Rams just don't seem to be coached very well. They self destructed against the Giants and were completely out of sorts against the Ravens. I can understand not taking Smith seriously on the first TD but after he runs right through the defense you don't let him do it again. I understand the personnel isn't great but there are ways to scheme against it.

**ExiledRaven** · 09-26-2011, 09:25 AM

Originally Posted by GOTA

The Rams just don't seem to be coached very well. They self destructed against the Giants and were completely out of sorts against the Ravens. I can understand not taking Smith seriously on the first TD but after he runs right through the defense you don't let him do it again. I understand the personnel isn't great but there are ways to scheme against it.

Definitely.

It's probably also worth mentioning that one the second TD, the safety seemed frozen for a moment between sticking with smith or giving help on the coverage of Boldin. I really enjoyed seeing defenses have to make tough choices like that against our offense as compared to previous years it was all quite obvious.

**Meh.** · 09-26-2011, 09:25 AM

Originally Posted by highwater

I think it's okay to say that the Rams coaching staff did not seem to have their team very well prepared for this game. I don't blame them for not being ready for Smith (really, who saw that game coming?), but not accounting for Rice is hard to figure.

They accounted for him, but a LB can't cover RR. When they did bring a safety up to help, Joe recognized it and made them pay deep.

Same goes for Wes Welker's monster game yesterday. He had a LB on him. Good luck with that. When Buffalo brought up the safety Brady hit Gronkowski over the middle for a TD.

**CoverD** · 09-26-2011, 09:30 AM

Its kinda unfortunate we unleashed Torrey Smith to the world yesterday...it would've been nice to save him for the Jets. Oh well, it was worth it to set a record. :)

**Meh.** · 09-26-2011, 09:31 AM

Originally Posted by CoverD

Its kinda unfortunate we unleashed Torrey Smith to the world yesterday...it would've been nice to save him for the Jets. Oh well, it was worth it to set a record. :)

I bet we see Revis on Torrey and Cromartie on Boldin. Torrey will have zero catches and zero balls thrown to.

**Irish Raven** · 09-26-2011, 09:38 AM

Cromartie may be out, hard to say.
Left the game with a rib injury

Main site now saying it's bruised lungs which I hadn't heard of before but sound serious to me