First off, I would like to apologize to Bluestang for not getting to his observations on the Harris touchdowns. I didn't have time today to process his information and ask it of Couchscout. But I'll post his observations here and hopefully Couchscout can answer them.
Now, on to the transcript:
The Emperor: Let's go ahead and get things started. Dwayne Harris. Two touchdowns. He did a great job, didn't he? How much of them were due to skill and how much of them were due to, as Pacman Jones said, "It's the Rams, dude"?
Couchscout: Well, real quick before we get started on that, I just want to go ahead and say I got a Twitter account @thecouchscout, so I'm going to try to tweet tomorrow during the game and see how it goes. So any feedback on the types of tweets I put out or any information they want or don't want is welcome. I just wanted to say it's @thecouchscout. So, on to Dwayne Harris. I don't like "It's the Rams, dude," personally. And I'll tell a real quick stories. My dad drives race cars, drove for a real, long, long, long time -- 30 years plus. And he's got this young guy who bought a car from him and they been racing together. And he's learning; they're doing a little better. My dad was in the same heat race with this same guy a few weeks ago and my dad and the other fast car in that heat race got into each other a little bit and cut down their tires and they both had to come off. And so the young kid, he won the race. So he's coming off the track and he's down on himself. He's like, "Oh, I won by default." And I kept telling him: it don't matter. There's no such thing as "won by default." You won the race. And I don't care who else was playing. He [Dwayne Harris] was playing #1's in an NFL game and he produced. That's all that matters. So as far as that's concerned, I don't like, "It's the Rams, dude." He did a great job, and part of that is -- did you read that Tony Romo story that they did today with him playing in high school and all of that?
T.E.: Is it going to be the same one where Romo says, "Yeah, and nobody listened to me when I was a sophomore but when I was a senior, everybody listened to me"?
C.S.: No, that's not what I was going to say. There was a story where one of the things Romo talked about or must have been said recently -- and I don't know. It may not have been that. I read so many things today about the Cowboys. He said at some point during the day that those two guards, if he could get just a split second, just an extra half-second, we could do a lot of stuff on offense.
T.E.: Right! That was in the Peter King article.
C.S.: Yes, the Peter King article. That's what it was. That's what happened. He -- twice -- got that little split second extra that he wouldn't have got last year. Kyle Kosier would have got beat or whoever we were trotting out there at left guard would have gotten beat. Or Phil Costa would have gotten beat. Or Tyron Smith would have had a mental -- or Doug Free -- somebody was messing up there last year one time, and that's all it took was one guy. And, you know, you can't get those downfield attack passes like that. And I credit some of it to that, the offensive line. But like I said: Dwayne Harris was going against #1's, and we're talking about the best middle linebackers in the league and a #1 cornerback in Janoris Jenkins, who he beat on that first long touchdown. He did a great job. And he's just taking more snaps away from Ogletree. I still think that Olgetree will still be "the number three." But Beasley and Harris are taking snaps from him constantly. And it's nothing Ogletree's doing. It's just what those guys are doing.
T.E.: Okay, so, Dwayne Harris -- he did a good job. It's not, "It's the Rams, dude." It is Dwayne Harris.
C.S.: Yeah, I think he did a very good job. And it's not just those two. It's was the pass -- I believe it was in the second quarter -- when it was 3rd and 8, 3rd and 9 or something. And he ran a dig route and he ran it right into coverage, the quarterback put it right on him, and he caught it, lowered his shoulder, and got the first down. Took a shot when he lowered his shoulder and stuff. You've got to do that sometimes. If he's going to be willing to do that, it's going to tell him, "Now, we're going to put Beasley in this play." Or, "No, we're going to put Ogletree in this play."
T.E.: Right. So we have that versatility. That's good to hear. Moving on to Kevin Ogletree -- on that slant pass there, some of the fans say he alligator-armed it. What really happened, because from my vantage point, it looked like it just bounced off his hands. I didn't see any alligator-arming.
C.S.: I think the pass got on him a little quicker than he was expecting. Now, that's not an excuse for the guy. You're running a slant route. You better be ready for it. But he didn't alligator-arm it. It hit him right in the hands. He just didn't have his hands in the football-catching position yet. He just barely got them up high enough and, you know, that happens sometimes. He wasn't expecting it to be there that quick. I don't know if that's he's used to running with the #2's, so he's not used to Romo's arm strength over -- I don't know what the reason was but it seems like he wasn't quite ready for that pass then.
T.E.: Yeah, to me, it looked like what would happen to Roy Williams.
C.S.: Yeah. *chuckles* That guy sucks.
T.E.: Yeah, well, he's out. Cole Beasley's somebody we didn't have to give up the farm for. We got him as an undrafted free agent. And we got him this year. And it's amazing. He seems to have that same sync with Romo that Crayton and Robinson had. Is that just my optimism getting in the way? What do you think?
C.S.: It's a pretty good observation. I don't think there's really so much of a thing as the "sync with Romo" as it is the other two guys you named knew their playbook. They knew what route they were supposed to run every time. And they went out there and ran that route. And you could trust Beasley to do that. It's very clear already that he's another guy that just every time they throw the ball to him, he's telling the coaches, "I want some of Ogletree's snaps." And the coaches are just going to have to go, "I think we're going to have to give you some snaps." Especially against zone-man. Beasley is good against zone defenses. He finds them little creases and those little seams in the zone defense. I think he's going to do some stuff for us this year. But, yeah, him and Romo -- it's not even him and Romo. Him and other quarterbacks. Because the other quarterbacks know the play. And they have to; that's their job. So Beasley is the one receiver that every single time, he don't make mental errors. He goes out there and he's supposed to be where he's supposed to every play.
T.E.: Did Livings and Bernadeau make David Arkin look better? Because that's the theory. Those two guys do such a great job, then they'll make Costa look better. Well, they should make Arkin better, shouldn't they?
C.S.: Well, what do you mean by theory? I will say this: there was one person who made Arkin look better in that game and the same person made Arkin look worse in that game at times. Do you know who that person was?
T.E.: #62.
C.S.: David Arkin. Correct. I'll tell you what: he can do some things. There are some things he can do. He gets to the second level, he eliminates his guy on the second level. He did it about -- I think I charted him with 5 times in that game where got to the second level and just completely obliterated his guy or walled him off away from the runner completely. So when he gets that free release to the second level, he's very good. He's kind of the opposite in Costa in that when they line up somebody directly over top of him, he gets pushed into the backfield every single time. That's what Costa's good at. If you line up somebody over Costa, he's going to blow you off the ball every single time. But if Costa has to go left or right, he's just going to cause -- he's not terrible at it; he's just not very good at it. And Arkin is pretty good at it. He's pretty good at helping in run blocking. Now, in pass blocking, when he didn't have anybody that he was assigned to block and that's why they called the pivot because the center is supposed to pivot right there and choose somebody to block -- most of the time he just sat there bouncing on his heels and never actually touched anyone. If you watch the other centers in the league, they'll turn and hit somebody. They'll help one of the guards. But he just kind of watched, you know. So he's not ready. That's just -- he's a good player. He can be -- I don't want to say he is. He can be a good player. He can be a good player for us. He's not quite ready.
C.S.: But if you're asking about Livings and Bernadeau, they both did a very good job. I'm not worried about the guard position. As a lot of people have been saying recently, I'm more worried about the tackles at this point.
T.E.: Yeah, I was talking with a friend of mine on Monday about the Cowboys. He lives up there in Michigan. He doesn't really get to see the preseason games. And he said he heard some trash about Free. And I told him what you shared on this program last week, which is the footwork thing and his hand strength. They've zeroed in on that as his weakness and they exploit him for it.
C.S.: Yep. Yep. And don't get me wrong. It's not that he's terrible. Neither he nor Smith are terrible, and they're both getting better -- have gotten better every game as far as I'm concerned. But both of them seem to have just one play out of nowhere where they do just fine -- you know, they've been just fine and all of a sudden they get beat so bad you think they've been struggling the previous four plays. You go back and watch the previous four plays and they did just fine. And you go go, "How did that happen? How did he all of a sudden completely lose it?" So I got to imagine Callahan is working with them on that, and, you know, staying focused and whatever they've got to do. I don't think it's going to kill our season, but I would say that they have a bigger chance of killing our season than the guards as long as those two start, Livings and Bernadeau.
T.E.: I want to finish out the questions I have for you. Let's move on to Bruce Carter. Does he have a ways to go?
C.S. *Sigh* Yeah. Yeah, Bruce Carter has a long ways to go. From a man coverage standpoint, he's pretty good. I was watching him in that game. He was just eliminating the tight end when he was assigned that guy as his man. From a zone coverage standpoint, all of our linebackers were lost. We don't have one good coverage linebacker. Lee is average at it. Everyone else is below average. So I don't think we're going to run a lot of zone this year. We've accumulated a whole bunch of good man defenders. So I think it's going to be a man-based defense anyways. He needs work in zone defense. His run support is -- *sighs* -- it's pretty bad, honestly. There was times where he would line up on the left side of the defensive formation and Lee would line up on the right side of the defensive formation and the ball would have been run to the defensive left and before Carter had moved, Lee had already crossed his face. He had already read the play before Carter had even diagnosed what was going on. So, I mean, he needs some work in that area. But as a pass rusher and a man defender, he's going to be very good, which works out well. Because I'll explain a green dog in case your audience doesn't know. A green dog is basically when you're assigned somebody who could potentially be a pass blocker -- so a tight end or a runningback -- that's your man. Then, that guy blocks, and you blitz. That's called a green dog. So from that standpoint, you can make him do a lot of green dogging. So, okay, I've got the runningback. Okay, he's blocking, I'll blitz. So you even up the pass rush versus blockers thing again, as he'll be very good at that. So it's not like he'll be a huge liability, but he's not very instinctive.
T.E.: Okay, so then the alternative, Dan Conner, he seems to get beat in pass coverage. So then that seems like a cause for concern. "Oh, it's Brooking and James all over again." How's Dan Connor doing? Is he a viable alternative?
C.S.: Yeah, from a run support standpoint, he's much better than Carter. He ought to be good at least. But he's better than Carter. So you want to see that. So that's definitely a good thing. He's not great in man coverage down the field. He's good enough when the backs are coming out the backfield doing flair routes and when the tight end does that turn around stick play that a lot of teams are running these days. He can cover that. But when they do the big, deep flat route, he's getting beat on that. So, you know, you gameplan around that. You try not to put him in that situation. But I will say this: he's got beaten twice in the preseason. He got beat by the fast tight end that the Rams have -- Kendricks. And he got beat by the fast tight end that the Chargers have -- I don't remember his name off hand. So that's not -- he's gotten beat twice. Like, it's not like he got beat like a drum. He got beat twice. And on the play against the Rams, Lee was assigned one of the runningbacks, and I can't even tell watching the tape, but they split and run two different directions and he doesn't follow either one of them and stands there in the middle like he's confused and didn't know what to do so Bradford could throw it to either one of those for a ten yard gain on that play. So it's not like Connor's the only one.
T.E.: I got to know. Victor Butler's preseason effectiveness -- is that going to carry over into September or is he another Mr. August?
C.S.: Well, I guess that depends on how much Rob Ryan is going to play him, doesn't it?
T.E.: Yeah, but, if he gets out there, you know, is he just going to -- you know, run into the tackle and then not get outside and blitz -- I mean, pass rush the guy? That's what I mean, which is when he's on the field, how effective is he going to be?
C.S.: Well, I'll say this: last year, they started putting him over the guard in the nickel lot, which I thought was interesting because he's so small that he's not going to be really good standing up against the run against, you know, real mauling guards. So they obviously are trying to get him on the field in pass rushing situations. It is definitely what he's good at. He does have a knack for it. But he's one of those guys that -- he's one of those guys. They're all like that. Pretty much every elite pass rusher from Freeney to Ware to Allen -- all of those guys. They'll get a sack here and then you don't see them for 12 or 14 plays. Then they get a pressure and you don't see them for 15 more plays. And then they make the quarterback roll out and you don't see them for 8 more plays. And Victor Butler is no different. So it becomes a point where how much do you take Spencer off the field to put Butler on the field when his effectiveness only really shows up ever so often? And because he's not that great of a run defender, and Spencer's not that great of a run defender. So it's -- I hope he sees the field more. I hope he's effective. I don't know on him -- honestly.
T.E.: Yeah, we'll just have to wait and see. Well, we're going to take the phone callers here on The Imperial Report. We're going to go to area code 803. Hi, you're on the air.
jobberone: Hey, it's jobberone. How are y'all?
*Cacophony welcoming jobberone*
JO: I got in a little late, but I heard most of what you talked about in the last few minutes. I pretty much agree with everything Scout has talked about. The offensive line -- I only looked at 10 minutes of the first quarter and got busy, sidetracked. Yeah, I agree the tackles are a problem. Smith's effort didn't seem to be -- I wasn't impressed with it, but I think it's going to pick up once the regular season starts. He was kind of loafing at times and getting beat. I'm not too worried about him. Free looks like he's slower than I've ever seen him. He's getting beat with quick guys, especially when they do a countermove outside of him and then back inside. He just can't keep his balance and stay on the block. He did that two or three times. And then he'll got three or four plays where he does a good job. And I kind of feel like I saw that with everybody. I didn't get as good a look at the guards as I did the center. Arkin, I agree he's good at the second level. He's mobile; he's athletic. He wasn't always getting to the blocks, but he looked like he's just a step away and a few games away from being able to do that. But he just did not have his strength. He just gets pushed into the backfield way too often. He's just not ready. I agree with Couchscout. He's just not ready. But he's not going to be playing; Costa's going to be playing. So I think we're going to be okay with center. We just don't have any depth at center.
C.S.: Yeah, and I think that's why Pat McQuistan is going to make the team. Because he's actually going to come in at center if Costa were to go down. He's going to be the backup right tackle/center, which is a strange thing. You don't hear that very often. But I think that's what's going to end up happening.
JO: I had him making the team too.
T.E.: Why didn't we see McQuistan at center during preseason then?
JO: You had to evaluate Arkin to find out what you had. And all of these injuries, especially to Kowalski, really set the plan back. They just had to regroup and say, "What the heck are we going to do now?" They just didn't have a good backup plan after that. And they kind of rolled the dice by not getting a veteran center. I still wouldn't be terribly surprised if someone they like gets cut near the end of camp that they could possibly bring somebody on. I don't think that's as likely to happen as not, but I think it's possible.
C.S.: Yeah, it's possible. You could do some things. There's a couple spots on the roster that you could open up for a pure backup center. There's a possibility. I like that.
JO: That idea is more feasible after the first game. Because I don't think they're going to want to bring somebody on and guarantee their salary just because of how desperate they feel about the depth there. Because if Costa goes down, we're in big trouble.
C.S.: Yeah, it would be a pretty bad situation.
JO: But I agree with McQuistan. I think people underestimate him. He's a journeyman. He's a marginal guy, but he's experienced and we really don't have that much experience. They must feel something about him to be even talking about him being a center. And he has had some experience. I just don't know if he's started at center in the league. I don't think he has.
T.E.: Whenever we had him in Dallas one of the last times back in 2008, he came in at the left guard position to fill in for Proctor in the Week 17 loss against the Eagles. But, yeah, I don't think he's played center at any of his stops.
C.S.: You know, and that's a possibility. They could be thinking if Arkin goes down, we could move Bernadeau to center and put Proctor in at right guard.
T.E.: There we go. That's probably what's going on there.
C.S.: Not Proctor -- McQuistan. McQuistan! Not Proctor. *chuckle*
T.E.: Yeah, Proctor and Gamble. That's probably what's going to happen. That's the connection there, Couchscout, which is they'll take -- you have it exactly right. Because I was thinking: McQuistan at center. That doesn't make any sense. Why didn't they give him some snaps there?
C.S.: Well, if you think about it, if you're thinking of a last-ditch plan like that, you don't want to spend a lot of time working on that because you're hoping it doesn't happen. You put McQuistan in at center during some practices and you go, "Oh, okay. Yeah, he can do it. He's not very -- he can do it." Get back out at right tackle, and if he can do it in a game, we'll let you know. There's no point in --
JO: He can play right tackle. He can play guard.
C.S.: He can play on the right side of the offensive line. You don't want him on the left side.
JO: Yeah, that's right. Exactly. And we don't want him out there at all if we can help it! But you know, in a pinch, I think he can start at right tackle and do okay. We'll probably have to give him some help out there. But, you know, that's...
C.S.: I think he would be fine for a couple of games. But you just don't want to get him in a long stretch because they'll figure what his weaknesses are at tackle.
JO: Those people will figure out how to attack him and then the game will be open. Um... Carter. I agree 100% with you about Carter. I was hoping his instincts were going to kick in a little bit better. If he had Lee's instincts, he would be All Pro almost. He would be unbelievable. He does need to -- I don't know whether he's not strong enough, which I don't think that's -- I don't think -- he's probably strong enough. He's having trouble when he gets caught inside. He can't get; he's not able to shed blockers and get to the ball. And your comment about Lee beating him to the ball -- that's just right on. Lee's right there, even though he doesn't have the speed and burst that Carter has. But he's right there because he's got the instincts and he doesn't waste any steps. He's just there. Carter's got a ways to go. I don't have a feeling about coverage the way you do, because I don't have the film you do, but I'm disappointed in that. Because I was thinking, you know, maybe that was something he could do.
C.S.: Yeah, let me tell you real quick why it seems like he's not strong enough, because I'm sure that's not the case. He's got plenty of case. It's that he's still standing when the guard gets there. He's flat-footed when the offensive lineman gets to him, because he hasn't diagnosed the play yet. There's not middle linebacker in the league strong enough to get off the block at that point. You're still standing flat-footed and you've got a 320-pound guy coming at you, and he gets paid too; he's good too, and you're still standing there and you haven't figured out if it's a run or a pass yet, and all of a sudden, this guy is hitting you. You're done. It's already over. You lost. That's what I'm talking about: he's got a long, long ways to go in terms of that. So, you know, we'll see.
JO: You can't teach that, really. I played linebacker, and you just have to have it. You're either on the ball. You know exactly where the ball snaps where you've got to go, or you don't. And he's just got to play. He's just got to play and get that or maybe he'll never get it. I don't know.
