Pre-Snap: 

The Rams come out in 11 personnel (1 RB, 1 TE) with two receivers split to the field.  Brandon Gibson is the single-receiver to the boundary.  He is working on the Lions 6^th round pick, Jonte Green, who had just entered to game to replace fellow rookie Bill Bentley.  Danny Amendola does an in-and-out motion typically used by the offense to read the coverage.  With the cornerback following Amendola in motion and with the Lions showing blitz, it indicates that most likely the Lions will be in man coverage.  As we see after the snap, the Lions are in Cover 1-man free and are bring the blitz.  The Rams keep in Lance Kendricks and Steven Jackson to pick up the blitz. 

After the Snap:

THE RECEIVER

There are really two keys to any go-route outside the numbers.  The first key is spacing with the sidelines.  The second key is winning at the line of scrimmage.  With regards to spacing with the sidelines, it is important to keep in mind that the sideline is the friend of every cornerback in man coverage.  A corner in man coverage will use the sideline as an extra defender by squeezing the receiver to the sideline and narrowing the window in which the quarterback fit the ball into.  Conversely, it is the job of the receiver to leave himself enough space to operate and to create room for any error on the quarterback’s throw. 

Gibson creates spacing with by his pre-snap alignment.  He lines up about a yard away from the bottom of the numbers which is ample space for him to work.  With this alignment and his technique (discussed below), it is nearly impossible for Green to squeeze him to the sidelines. 

The second key is winning at the line of scrimmage.  This requires great technique on the receiver’s release at the line.  Off the snap of the ball, Gibson does two things very well.  First, he does a very good job with the release using a technique known as foot-fire. 

Foot-fire release is a technique that helps the receiver recognize what press technique the defender is going to use.  All the receiver does is simply take his back leg and bring it even with his front leg, and begin to take small choppy steps, up field, at the defender.  At this point the defender will tip his hand either by attempting to jam, bailing, or attempting to leverage the receiver either inside or outside.  Gibson does a good job off the line by quickly closing the gap on Green and making Green tip his hand.  Green stays square on Gibson’s initial release meaning he will now planning to run with Gibson wherever he goes (e.g. man-to-man coverage). 

After jousting with the potent combination of Matthew Stafford and Calvin Johnson, the Rams will be faced with an even more formidable duo - Robert Griffin III and the tremendous trail of media hype he is generating in his wake. However, this may be one of the few occasions where the hype is fully justified. Watching the game replay of last week's Redskins - Saints game, I came away more impressed with Griffin's performance than with Andrew Luck's game against us in the preseason.

However, the matchup between the Rams and Redskins revolves around more than a single player, no matter the wattage of his star power. To get in-depth on Washington, I talked to Tom Threlkeld of DC Pro Sports Report, who was gracious enough to share his thoughts.

Q: After a slow preseason, Griffin and the Redskins' offense erupted out of the gate in week 1. How did that performance impact your expectations for this year? Can the Redskins contend for the East right away?

Tom: KC Joyner of ESPN, whom I respect a lot, thinks the Redskins can contend for the NFC East division crown right now. As much as I enjoy reading that, I've learned from bitter experience not to believe too much too soon in the Redskins.

Every year a few teams surprise us, negatively or positively, in week one and then revert to form the rest of the season. I picked the Redskins to go 7-9 or 8-8 and I'm not moving off that yet. Much has been made of Washington's tough schedule this season, but the rest of September is St. Louis, Cincinnati and Tampa Bay. If the Redskins get through that undefeated, I'll reconsider my prediction.

Q: RG3 looks like the real deal, but otherwise few apparent impact players appear to be in this year's draft. Is there a worry about the long-term cost of the deal Washington made with the Rams?

Tom: Well, the Redskins drafted Alfred Morris in the 6th round and he ran for about 100 yards and 2 TD on Sunday, so he might be a good find in the back end of the draft. Kirk Cousins looked very good in preseason and maybe the Skins can use him in a couple of years to swindle some team the way the Eagles swindled the Redskins with Donovan McNabb and the Cardinals with Kevin Kolb.

Other than that, it certainly looks like the RG3 draft. And that's fine. A franchise QB is worth more than a few high draft picks and if the Redskins can turn into a good team soon, those high draft picks will come a bit later in the first round.

If RG3 turns into a star, it's a great trade for both teams. If RG3 doesn't turn into a star, it's a great trade for the Rams and a debacle for the Redskins. But nothing the Skins would get from those draft picks would be as valuable as a star quarterback. That's what the NFL is all about now, star quarterbacks. Get one and you're golden. That's why you take them at the top of the draft, like RG3, Andrew Luck and Sam Bradford.

Note: We thank Tom for his charitable inclusion of Bradford in this list. We might argue the "and you're golden" conclusion he comes to, though... 

Nice job rookie(subtle pat given on the back side).  However, one game- a season does not make.

Redskins' rookie quarterback Robert Griffin III's week one numbers are undeniably amazing.  320 yards passing, two touchdowns and no interceptions as Washington beat New Orleans 40-32.   Plus, he dizzied Saints' defenders like a piñata at a 3-year olds birthday party.

The Griffin hype train now makes a stop at the Edward Jones Dome for a tilt with the Rams this Sunday.  But Griffin's head coach Mike Shanahan is hardly the engineer of that iron horse isn't running full steam ahead with the hype.

"Let's not get carried away with all this.  It was his first game," Shanahan said.

No love for the rook's skills?

It's just that Shanahan knows a thing or two about quarterbacks.  He coached QB John Elway in Denver when the Broncos won back-to-back Super Bowls in 1997 and 1998, and also knows that excellence is defined over time.  

The simple fact is, Griffin is no longer playing at Baylor, and his Heisman Trophy won't help block a lightning-fast defensive end from taking his head off on a bull rush.  This is the NFL.  A league where even the brightest star can be eclipsed by a well-prepared defensive coordinator's game plan. 

Griffin is walking into his second road game in a row. Tough for a veteran let alone a newbie like him.  Not only did the Rams' defense send Lion's quarterback Matthew Stafford seeing Rams jerseys in his sleep, but they let Detroit grab a sure-victory out of their hands after three and a half quarters of tough play.  

But that all changed on the Lions' final two possessions of the day, both of which resulted in touchdowns and ultimately a 27-23 Detroit victory.

In those final two series, six of Stafford's completions went for 18 yards-plus. After averaging 5.9 yards per attempt on Detroit's first nine possessions, he doubled that on the final two series — averaging 11.8 yards per attempt.

With that painful memory still very fresh in their minds, don’t look for Chris Long, Robert Quinn and company to give Griffin more respect than he deserves. And you can bet head Coach Jeff Fisher made that a focus in practice this week.

Here is a snippet from the St. Louis Post Dispatches Jim Thomas about just that.

"Guys were dropping a little bit (too deep), too concerned about the big play down the field to Calvin," Fisher said. "As a result, we allowed some chunks. So, we got that corrected."

We'll see if that's the case Sunday when Robert Griffin III and the Washington Redskins present their own kind of challenge in the Rams' home opener. The Redskins put 40 points on New Orleans in their opener, with Griffin throwing for 320 yards and two TDs and rushing for 42 yards in his NFL debut.

"We've got our hands full," said head coach Jeff Fisher.  "But our defense's focus is on their whole offense and not just the quarterback."

If Griffin is going have success against the Rams, he'll have to add some new tricks to his scrambling repertoire.  Something the signal caller already understands.

"Every offense has to evolve," said Griffin.  "You just try not to show the same thing twice."

 The one thing the Rams can ill-afford to do Sunday, if it's close late in the game, is let Griffin lead a last- minute drive like the Lions did last week.  Otherwise Griffin could be thinking this NFL gig isn't too hard after all while taking any positives the Rams may have held on to.

Beware, adjective overload to follow shortly.

The St. Louis Rams played one of their most inspired, passionate, hard-nosed games fans have seen in a while in Motown this past Sunday. The final two minutes not withstanding. However, the defense of the St. Louis Rams made a statement that should not be ignored . 

The defense was in midseason form against Detroit. This is a unit that I believe was the best thing about this team headed into the opener. Even without coordinator Gregg Williams on the sideline, I was confident about this group because of their combination of mental toughness and speed in the secondary. 

All in all this was a statement game for St. Louis, and they came to play. Defense was the name of the game throughout, especially in the third quarter. Only three points were scored, and the St. Louis secondary shut down Stafford on a few key third downs. 

Rookie cornerback and steal of the draft, Janoris Jenkins set the tone in the first quarter. In what was looking like a dominating first drive from Matthew Stafford and the Lions offense, Detroit had the ball inside the Rams' 5-yard line. Stafford dropped back to throw, and immediately let one loose towards tight end Tony Scheffler. Scheffler was a step too far behind the ball, and Jenkins had his first interception in the NFL. 

That kind of defense so close to the goal line is what the Rams needed to gain momentum. 

Moving on to the second quarter, Jo-Lonn Dunbar, the linebacker who signed with the Rams in April, and shortly thereafter earned himself a starting job on the weak side showed why. Dunbar and  the rams picked Stafford once again deep inside St. Louis territory. Stafford went back to throw, and looked towards Dunbar. The only problem was, he didn’t know it. Dunbar jumped the route near the sideline and intercepted the Lions QB for the Rams' second pick of the day. 

Interception No. 3 three was one to remember. Using St. Louis Rams recent history as a reference point for of course.

Heading into the matchup Calvin Johnson figured to have a Fantasy field day. Cortland Finnegan, who stands at 5'10", was slated to cover the All-Pro wide receiver. It was obvious to the Rams coaching staff that they would have to send double and sometimes triple coverage Johnson’s way. 

With just over a minute-and-a-half to go before halftime, the Lions had the ball at their own 23. Detroit led 7-6 and needed a quick spark before the half. Stafford dropped back in shotgun, just as apparently clairvoyant commentator Tim Ryan began to comment on Stafford’s accuracy issues on the day…he had some problems with his accuracy. 

The 2009 No. 1 overall pick out of Georgia fired one to the right sideline, where Johnson was seemingly uncovered. Finnegan was about five yards away from Johnson when the pass was thrown, but was able to sprint to the sideline and reel in his first interception as a Ram. He took the pick back 31 yards for the touchdown, and St. Louis led 13-7. 

It was the first pick-six on the road for the Rams since 1999. 

Finnegan was the star of the defense in this game, notching nine tackles and an assist. 

In the end, the defense was gassed by Stafford’s ability to force the ball down their throats on that final drive. However, the toughness and timeliness of the defense in certain spots kept this team in the game until the final seconds.

Ultimately, the Rams' upset bid of the Detroit Lions came down to this: a third-down and five play with 2:03 on the clock, just outside the red zone, tied up 20-all. Get the first down, and the Rams can control the clock and have the last shot at putting points on the board. But before we consider what the Rams did on that play, we have to consider everything that brought them to this point, standing on the brink of notching an improbable win against a playoff team. 

We have to consider a banged-up offensive line that lost Scott Wells (foot) and Rodger Saffold (head/neck) after finally being able to four of its ideal starting five on the field. We have to consider Sam Bradford's performance, who had to keep a cool head after taking a series of hits in the second half from an amped up Lions defense. We have to consider Brandon Gibson's redemptive performance after taking a boneheaded penalty in the first half. And we have to consider a series of shots to the gut delivered by the Rams defense to the Lions and their crowd.

Jeff Fisher made a statement to his defense from the start, putting them on the field to open the game against Matthew Stafford and Calvin Johnson. Naturally, Stafford put the offense in gear and motored them down the field, mixing runs and passes as they worked into goal-to-go territory. But Janoris Jenkins snuffed the drive with a brilliant little gamble, abandoning his trail position to step in front of a Stafford pass at the goal line, and claim it as his own.

Jenkins' pick was the first of three first-half interceptions that the Rams suckered Stafford into throwing. Jo-Lonn Dunbar and Cortland Finnegan provided the other two, with Finnegan running his in for a go-ahead touchdown that put the Rams in control of the game at halftime.

For most of the first half, a healthy offensive line featuring Robert Turner at left guard was able to fend off the Lions' vaunted front four and give Sam Bradford plenty of time to find receivers downfield. Bradford showed poise and efficiency, keying long point-scoring drives of 8 and 10 plays, but was unable to connect with rookie Chris Givens on his deepest strike of the day, and unable to get the Rams into the end zone.

Nevertheless, this was a game being patiently managed into a viable upset bid. But in the second half, things started to go haywire.

First, the Rams offense took the field without their starting center. Scott Wells was on the sideline with some sort of foot injury, putting Turner in the center spot and powerful-but-raw rookie Rokevious Watkins in at left guard. I'm a fan of Watkins, but the dropoff in pass protection against veteran DT Corey Williams was immediate and steep. Twice, Williams single-handedly blew up Bradford's protection to deliver a big hit, forcing a fumble on one that the Rams were lucky to recover.

Second, Matthew Stafford made a simple adjustment - he stopped throwing the ball to the men in white jerseys. The Lions offense sputtered for several drives, but managed to tie the game on a short field goal drive set up by a brilliant punt return by Stefan Logan.

Danny Amendola returned the favor with a nice return of his own, setting up Bradford with a short field. Five plays later, Bradford took a quick step back from under center and launchd a snap throw down the sideline to a streaking Brandon Gibson, who had just enough separation on the Lions' rookie corner to make a brilliant catch in the end zone.

The 20-13 lead was the Rams' third of the game, and the biggest. However, it was also the shortest-lives, and it came at a high cost, as Rodger Saffold collapsed mid-block after taking an inadvertent shot to the crown of his helmet.  Stafford came roaring back to answer with a touchdown drive of his own, taking just five plays and 2:26 off the game clock.

Sam Bradford got the ball back with an improbable mission: bleed the remaining time off the clock with a wheezing offense that was now starting two of the game's pariahs in Barry Richardson and Wayne Hunter at tackles, a career backup at center, and a rookie beyond his depth at guard.

Amazingly, that's exactly what he did over the next eleven plays and five-plus minutes of game time. With the Lions defense keying on Steven Jackson (as they had all day), Bradford completed four of five passes, each one for a first down, moving the chains and bleeding the clock and sucking the life out of the Ford Field dome.

One more completion, one more pass on a third and five, and the Lions would be unable to stop the clock, and would no longer be in control of their fate. The Rams would have consummated their upset bid and given Jeff Fisher a rare commodity as St Louis coach - a first-game win. The last coach to do that in St Louis, Scott Linehan, now stood across the sideline hoping to get his offense on the field one last time.

As we know from the game's outcome, Bradford couldn't complete that pass. Greg Zuerlein was brought onto the field to give the Rams one last lead, but the Lions cruelly took it - and the rest of the clock - away.

Instead of a win, we got the wrong end of a thrilling game. We got 58 minutes of excitement followed by a two-minute flashback of the last five years of futility. We got a loss that almost, but not quite, feels like a victory.

Almost, but not quite.

The Rams will be counting on heavy doses of Steven Jackson against a fearsome Lions' front four.

The 2012 season kicks off with a rematch of two teams that met in a basement brawl three years ago. A young Matthew Stafford was outdueled by Marc Bulger, 176 passing yards to 168, and Steven Jackson had one of his best games a pro to single-handedly carry the Rams to a 17-10 victory. It was the Rams' sole win of that awful season, and one of fourteen losses for the luckless Lions. 

A lot has changed for Detroit since then, as Stafford and Calvin Johnson finally erupted with a fully healthy season together and tore apart the NFC for 10 wins and a playoff berth. The Rams, meanwhile, find themselves crawling out of that basement once again. With Jeff Fisher in charge, though, this is a very different team than last year, and hope is alive again in Rams land. 

The Lions are thinking of bigger and better things this season, but coach Jim Schwartz knows he cannot overlook any team coached by his former mentor Jeff Fisher. But how good can this Detroit team be? And are there any achilles heels that could be exposed by a young and hungry Rams team? Let's talk with Ty Schalter of TheLionsInWinter.com to find out.  

RamsHerd: The offseason punditry has had mixed reviews of the Lions so far, with Peter King calling for a 2,000 yard receiving season from Calvin Johnson, but many analysts thinking that the Bears will leapfrog Detroit this season. What's your thought on this team's upside, and are you afraid of any regression to the mean? 

Ty: Football fans (and pundits) tend to think in terms of "last season's team, plus the new guys, minus the old." The Bears get Jay Cutler and Matt Forte back (with a newfound appreciation for both players), and added Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffrey to a dire receiving corps. Naturally, the assumption is that their offense will be much better and their defense will stay the same.

The Lions returned 21 of 22 starters from last season, and the guy who left (cornerback Eric Wright) was likely to be replaced anyway. It's popularly assumed the Lions will be exactly as they were as they were in 2011, since they neither added or lost significant pieces.

In reality, young "bench" players like defensive tackle Nick Fairley, wide receivers Titus Young and Ryan Broyles, running back Mikel Leshoure, and defensive linemen Willie Young, Sammie Hill and Lawrence Jackson are going to be key contributors in 2012, and some will surpass the veterans ahead of them. 

There are 17 rookies on the St. Louis Rams’ opening day roster, seven more players age 24 or younger and 31 in all on the 53-man roster who were not with the franchise last season.

It’s the youngest team in the NFL, with an average age under 26. A lot of kids for new coach Jeff Fisher to keep tabs on.

Fisher and new general manager Les Snead are prepared to live with the mistakes and they’ll have to. Fisher was at his sarcastic best when the topic came up after practice Wednesday.

“Well, look, I’m going to cut the cartoons off at the hotel,” Fisher joked. “Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Have Froot Loops for the pregame meal. How’s that?”

Beyond the sarcasm, it’s clear the new regime has embraced an overhaul so extensive that the so-called crusty veteran has become an endangered species. There are just five players over 30, compared with 13 for the season opener last year.

The 52-year-old Fisher was out of the NFL last year before tackling the task of transforming a franchise that was just 15-65 the previous five years — the worst five-year stretch for any franchise since the AFL-NFL merger. He has a five-year contract and can afford to build from the ground up.

“Well, it’s exciting. These guys are anxious and eager,” Fisher said. “I’d much rather coach a young team than an old team.”

All but one of the team’s 10 draft picks made the team, a new concept to Rams fans. Cornerback Janoris Jenkins and guard Rokevious Watkins are likely starters, kicker Greg Zuerlein won his job on draft day and defensive tackle Michael Brockers was set to start before sustaining what’s believed to be a high right ankle sprain in the preseason finale.

Wide receivers Brian Quick and Chris Givens will be in the mix for quarterback Sam Bradford, the first pick of the 2010 draft and already an elder statesman (and already on his 3^rd OC is three seasons). Bradford said he didn’t realize how many rookies were on the roster until Fisher spoke at a luncheon attended by the entire team earlier in the week. 

“I was like ‘Oh my god, that seems extremely high,” Bradford said. “But looking around, I think we’ve got a lot of young guys, a lot of rookies in this locker room who are going to help us.

“We’re better because they’re here.”

Defensive end Chris Long, entering his fifth season and just 26, likes the injection of enthusiasm and optimism. He remembers feeling that way after the Rams drafted him second overall in 2008, not knowing he’d be a part of only 12 wins his first four seasons. 

“One thing about being young is you’re not afraid of anything. You’re not afraid of losing,” Long said. “They haven’t been through the downs, so that’s kind of nice.

“We’re going into this thing fearlessly in Week 1.”

Entering his 17th season as an NFL head coach, Fisher said there’s no doubt that he’s never had a team so young.

“No ... Not even close.”

Fisher insists he didn’t have to alter his coaching style to fit the personnel.

“Nothing changes. You take the same approach preparation-wise, you just have to maybe spend a little extra time with the younger guys to let them know what the regular season is all about,” Fisher said. “With 17 rookies on this roster, there’s a good chance that quite a few of them are going to be in this ballgame.”

Certainly, one big positive is there’s no element of greed. Just kids waiting for their shot.