SP: Film Review DEFENSE - Week 2 at STL Rams

[RedskinsParadigm]

Danny Amendola will go down as the hero of the game for St. Louis (deservedly so), but if I was going to pick the unsung heroes of the game for that franchise, they would have been RG Harvey Dahl and RT Barry Richardson. The word “dominate” does not begin to describe what those two did in the rushing game. Their primary target? Kedrick Golston.

In non-goal line, short-yardage situations, the St. Louis Rams rushed the ball 19 times (not including QB scrambles or kneel-downs). Here is the summary of those rushes:

The Rams ran the ball at Stephen Bowen six times. In those six rushes, the Rams gained 13 yards for an average of 2.17 YPC.

The Rams ran the ball once directly up the middle at Barry Cofield. That run went for 1 yard.

The Rams ran the ball at Jarvis Jenkins when he was lined up at LDE three times. Those three rushes netted 0 yards.

The Rams ran the ball at Kedrick Golston when he was lined up at LDE nine times. Those nine rushes went for 117 yards, or 13.0 YPC. That included a 53-yarder, a 20-yarder, and a 14-yarder.

Now, it’s not fair to completely pin all of those yards on Golston. During the 53-yarder, Perry Riley got cut down by the FB as he pursued Richardson toward the edge. Riley hitting the turf created an obstacle for London Fletcher to hurdle, which threw off his angle of pursuit. Dejon Gomes took an absolutely atrocious angle of pursuit from the secondary as Richardson hit the second level (as did Ryan Kerrigan), and Deangelo Hall was unable to shed his block and make a play. Nearly half the defense screwed up on that play, allowing what should have been a 5-10 yard gain turn into a 53-yard gain. It was reminiscent of Rob Gronkowski breaking 67 arm-tackles and carrying three defenders on his back as he single-handedly marched into the endzone during the 2011 game against the Patriots.

Read more here.