After watching the 2nd half the whole game comes into focus and here's my takeaways (GIFs to follow)
1) Rams adjusted after Lawrence had strip on first play of half. They let him go 1 on 1 to see if he could do it again and once he made one game breaking play they didn't chance it. However either Marinelli is WAY WAY over conservative on his rotations or something is wrong with Tank. Way too many plays he was on the bench for 4-5 straight plays even when ball had Rams backed up.
2) And it's obvious the biggest problem with defense is unlike Brockers/Donald for Rams there is no one that gets consistent penetration. Only time run got stopped was when Durant was blitzing off Tank's side. Marinelli would try to bunch the other three guys on the line away from Lawrence hoping he'd be doubled and so it'd be an overload on the other side and it didn't work.
3) Dak was not under an insane amount of pressure like it seemed on Sunday. To me he got a little trigger happy and needed to hold on to the ball a 1/2 second- full second longer. That's what he did on TD drive. He wasn't afraid to take the hit. Earlier in half he was unloading early not allowing routes to develop. He also did this on the final play of the game. He should have escaped left to let guys scramble.
4) Linehan was having guys come open on passing plays but Dak either got rid of it too early before it developed or the throw was off. Dak also had Dez on a dig route that was low and Dez didn't bring it in.
5) Marinelli is well aware of how bad Heath is. After the TD pass to Gurley where Heath falls down, he is benched for Frasier but then Frasier misses an open field tackle 2 drives later. Don't know why we didn't see more of Woods.
6) Overall Zeke showed good vision but the Rams just kept getting the penetration the Dallas line doesn't. Wasn't awful in my opinion just not the dominant line we're used to. Linehan adjusted by having Switzer fake end around to move the linebacker which allowed for a good gain by Zeke.
7) The nonsense about Beasley being covered all game can stop. He was only completely doubled once in first half and then bracketed another time and in second half was bracketed 2 or 3 times. He just wasn't on the field much because of 12 personnel to try to create running lanes.
8) On Hanna's TD it was completely the fault of the Rams LB. He carries Hanna to the sideline and lets him go thinking there is a safety there. There wasn't.
