Battle Red Blog
The Day After the Day After…when the raw, immediate emotions from the aftermath of a game diminish into the realm of clarity and the proverbial (or literal) hangover no longer haunts the mind. With that, a review of Week 1:
Meet the new offense, same as the old: The offensive line faced consistent pressure, forcing Stroud to move around and throw the ball off-schedule. Even when he wasn’t under a ton of pressure, Stroud had an uneven game throwing. When Stroud got sacked, he lost a LOT of yards (37). The team struggled to execute in the red zone and failed to score in the second half. Also, injuries deprived the team of key contributors, especially in the passing game. The defense kept this game within distance, but the offense couldn’t get it done. So, what changed again? Yes, the Rams’ defense had something to do with that, but for a fanbase desperate to see new and improved, they got a lot of old and recycled. Of course, it is Caley’s first game as play-caller. He has 16 more games to show better flexibility/adaptability than his predecessor.
Road penalties. It is a feature, not a bug: Ryans’ teams play with passion and fire. The hitting in this game, especially with the Texans defense, was fierce. That passion can be an asset…but also a liability. The Texans have been among the league leaders in penalties since 2023. In particular, those flags flare up on the road. Facing a favored team on the road is tough enough. it is even more difficult to beat those teams when you keep drawing flags. A combination of over-aggressiveness and lack of focus results in a lot of work for the refs. In this game, it was 11 flags for 80 yards, to include some momentum-killing acts. Not that it was all home-cooking, as the Rams got flagged 7 times for 60 yards. It was one thing when Houston did this in the 1st year of the Ryans regime, but this is year 3.
Struggling with the new kickoff rules: Kickoffs were the best part of Houston’s day. On the opening kickoff, the Rams succeeded in getting the ball to hit within the landing zone, and Houston returners allowed it to bounce into the end zone. They were forced to take the touchback, but a quirk of the rule is that a ball that hits in the landing zone and bounces to the end zone only comes back out to the 20. Houston lost a lot of field position and suffered accordingly. Then, later in the first half, Fairbarin overkicked the ball, leading to it sailing one yard deep into the end zone, where the Rams player smartly knelt down. This time, since the ball flew directly into the end zone, it resulted in a touchback at the 35. The Rams took the gift of field position and leveraged that into a TD. Houston’s kick coverage was a bit inconsistent, surrendering 30 yards a return, not...
