[R4L]

So... the line was good for two years by.... magic.

Saffold was here along with Havenstein. Kromer's first year they signed Whitworth and Sullivan and they picked up Blythe off waivers. So these were established guys.

When it's time for him and his legendary "coach em up" the guys he was supposed to coach up played like shit. He's overrated. End of story for me.

[dieterbrock]

So you don't think they asked their oline coach if he thought they could win with Noteboom and Allen as starters? Of course they did.

Well to be fair, Kromer was busy with his new role, masterminding that uber-effective run game.
Oh, wait a minute

[R4L]

Okay. I'm over it.

McVay's keeping him. That's all I need to know to understand what happened last year.

It's all good. I hope he comes through like you say.

[PARAM]

I do know this much. If Noteboom, Allen, Evans, Edwards, Blythe (if they keep him), Havenstein.....and anybody else they may add to the group fails, there's going to be a lot of Ram fans from this thread blowing their "I told ya so" horns. If the aforementioned offensive lineman play well, I hope those same folks give Kromer a bit of credit. On the other hand this discussion seems to be at an impasse. Was it Kromer or wasn't it? I don't believe it was but at this point I no longer give a shit what the correct answer is, so long as the OL plays well and the Rams make the postseason next year. Now get some more OL depth and a couple of big linebackers!!!!!

[R4L]

I do know this much. If Noteboom, Allen, Evans, Edwards, Blythe (if they keep him), Havenstein.....and anybody else they may add to the group fails, there's going to be a lot of Ram fans from this thread blowing their "I told ya so" horns. If the aforementioned offensive lineman play well, I hope those same folks give Kromer a bit of credit. On the other hand this discussion seems to be at an impasse. Was it Kromer or wasn't it? I don't believe it was but at this point I no longer give a shit what the correct answer is, so long as the OL plays well and the Rams make the postseason next year. Now get some more OL depth and a couple of big linebackers!!!!!

I will gladly come back and say I'm wrong. I hope I have to because that will mean the Rams are back on track.

[CanuckRightWinger]

Couple things....facts actually,
Andrew Whitworth is not a flake.....and he stated on the Cowherd air waves that the idea that Boom & Allen could perform at Saffold & Sully levels was unreasonable. I think the ProBowler OL vet's opinion should count for something. For me, it confirmed what I saw with my peepers from our 2019 OL in SF game #1, vs Baltimore, at Dallas, etc etc. Soft, non-dominating, missed blocks, heavy on penalties...…
yielding lousy 2019 Ram rush production and Goff resembling a black&blue piece of veal most weeks.

Oh, and secondly....this notion that based on the last half of the 2019 season's Rams OL performance, post ByeWeek, that somehow now we're acers for the 2020 OL with Corbett, Evans, Edwards and Blythe???
….and let's not forget Jemil Kromer's#1SwingGuy Demby eh!!

I don't know what movie some of you guys were watching (Dick!).....but here are some facts.
Of the 8 games we played Post ByeWeek, Los Ramos were 4-4.
AND.....
Only 3 of those 8 games were against 2019 Playoff Teams (Seattle, Baltimore, and SF).
The other 5 were versus Zona (twice), Chicago, Dallas, and Pittsburgh.
So after Kromer worked "his magic" ......yeah, we were 4-4 versus 3 Playoff teams and 5 irrelevants…..averaging 20.6 Offensive PPG over that 8 game stretch!
….and guys are confident to go into 2020 with Kromer's Yutes???!!!
Not me!

I forecast it before, and I reiterate it now, that I predict that McSnead will spend Draft treasure and/or FA Dinero on OLine help, early and often, for 2020......because playing .500 football versus mostly non-playoff squads is not gonna win the NFC West in 2020!! Duh!

Stan Kroenke will not tolerate another non-Playoff season for 2020.....not with all the Billion$ he's poured into his new WorldClass Stadium and Sports/Entertainment Mecca! …...and McSnead know this, so there is no way they are going to repeat their mistake of this past season and go into 2020 with a suspect OLine!!

Beefing up the 2020 Ram OLine is the smart move for McSnead…..it's that old showing-the-boss-that-you've-learned-from-a-previous-mistake thingee!

[safer]

We certainly did not play like a playoff team.
I just went back and looked at our results.
In four out of 16 games, our Oline got dismantled by the Niners (game 1 vs them)--cost us the game; the Ravens (everybody sucked that week); Steelers (it cost us the game); and the Dallas game where, like vs. the Ravens, our entire team sucked.
In our 2nd game vs. the Niners, they play very, very well, not giving up a single sack and we put up 31 points. Looking back on this season, I think the Oline, in and of itself, cost us two very winnable games IF they had played reasonably well in them. YES, that was enough of a difference to cost us the play-offs. For sure.
When you mention how low our rushing avg, and yardage was, you bring up good points. But, as much as you see the Oline, I see Todd Gurley, and how our "idiot" (hey, he said it, I didn't) HC didn't use him correctly. I hope I'm wrong on this, but I'm not so sure he will ever approach what he was just over a year ago. Henderson hasn't help us yet, so we were down to Brown, a power back who doesn't have the speed to stretch a D.....remember all those stretch running plays we ran with Saffold where the fear of Todd's speed forced olber's and D/E's to overplay it and allow for Todd to get inside them? We just did NOT have a speed back, this year, that would have forced D's to respect our stretch plays. Have you noticed we let our running back coach go?
I do agree that Oline needs more help...Big Rob needs to lose weight and play quicker, his feet were very slow---I hope we try him at LG challenging Corbett; keep Edwards at RG, andEvans at RT. Those TWO really did close out the year well, especially for two rooks, playing side by side. Blythe, to me, was pretty solid at center. DRAFT (early--maybe even two of them) a potential LT guy to compete with Joe, and let the best five start. As young as this entire group is, I really do expect to see most of them perform better this year.

[PARAM]

Isn't the thought that ANYBODY believed Noteboom and Allen could "play like" Saffold and Sullivan a huge over reach? Of course Whitworth is going to point a finger at that. But is he saying "Kromer is incompetent" because of that? Or is he simply pointing out the loss of Saffold (mainly) and Sullivan is the reason the line didn't perform as well as 2017-18? Did Whitworth say "Aaron Kromer assured Sean McVay he would have those two second year guys playing like 10 year vets"? It was a cap move letting them go and that puts a sour taste in the mouths of remaining vets. Really, we have to wake up to the fact this was a business decision....more than likely with EVERYBODY on board....Snead, McVay, Kromer and Demoff (our cap manager). Its easy to point the finger at one guy when in fact nobody pointing that finger really knows how it went down or what was expected, exactly. IMHO Whitworth is doing two things and neither of them are throwing Kromer under the bus. He's complimenting Saffold and Sullivan and saying (perhaps to Ram fans) lay off of Noteboom, Allen and Kromer. Is this a case of Whitworth calling out his position coach or an assumption by fans who make that reach using 'facts' about our lousy rushing numbers? How far we've come when we are so devastated by a 9-7 non-playoff season to the point we want all the heads that helped us go 24-8 the previous 2 year to roll!!!!! Again, I ask, in that case, how come McVay gets a pass?

[aeneas1]

We certainly did not play like a playoff team.
I just went back and looked at our results.
In four out of 16 games, our Oline got dismantled by the Niners (game 1 vs them)--cost us the game; the Ravens (everybody sucked that week); Steelers (it cost us the game); and the Dallas game where, like vs. the Ravens, our entire team sucked.

the rams offense got stuffed in the final game of the 2018 season (super bowl) by a defense that would rank #1 the following year, and they also got stuffed by the #1 ranked defense in 2018 belonging to the bears, altho weather clearly contributed.

in 2019 the rams offense averaged a very meager 12.8 points per game against the five top 10 defenses in offensive points allowed they faced, including games in which they scored just 3, 6, 7 and 17 points, they went 1-4 in these games - against defenses ranked outside of the top 10 in offensive points allowed the rams offense averaged close to 28 points per game and went 8-3 in these games, losing two despite scoring 29 and 34 offensive points.

point is, i think mcvay just got out-coached against the better defenses last year, and in the super bowl, he just didn't seem to have an answer in these games, leading up to the games or during the games... but he did show that when he did come into a game with a solid plan of attack against a strong defense, as he did against the niners the second time around, the rams could roll with the oline they had in place, to the tune of 31 offensive points, 24 first downs and close to 400 yards of offense.

[CanuckRightWinger]

Hey PA....the same Kromer Defense League argument has been used already on me, you know the one....

it was the total Rams Politburo (including McVay, Snead, Demoff, Pastoors, even Kroenke's personal trainer, Vinny Goombotz ) who pushed Noteboom and Allen onto Kromer.....it was all Salary Cap Business decision stuff.......he just had no choice, that poor Kromer guy!!

That argument falls kinda flat when you can say the same stuff about how Ram defensive personnel decisions were made by others with a higher pay grade than Wade Phillips.....also mindful of tight NFL Salary Cap business considerations ....

yet when the D tubes in some 2019 games, like the OLine tubed in some 2019 games.....Wade doesn't get thrown under the bus by his defensive players either......

but Wade NFLReveredMoreThanKromer! Phillips does get terminated by the Rams at season's end. Fair??


As you know, I wanted Wade gone too.....just seems odd to me that Wade NFLCoachingLegend Phillips get shyte-canned,
yet Aaron ShuffledHereFromBuffalo Kromer gets retained.

Also, since your parsing Whitworth's comments to Colin Cowherd.....um, where does Whit say "and boy, lemme tell ya Colin, we've got a super human being and big time great leader as our OLine Coach in Aaron Kromer!"

Somehow I seemed to have missed that Kromer tribute part from Whit.....

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

**For the millenials....Vinny Goombotz was Rodney Dangerfield's doctor.
Rodney: Doctor, I wake up every morning, I look in the mirror....and I feel weak-kneed and nauseous!!! Doc...what's wrong with me???
Dr. Goombotz: I dunno....BUT YOUR EYESIGHT IS PERFECT!!!