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| ARI at CAR | ATL at PHI | BUF at MIA | CIN at HOU | CLE at JAX | IND at TEN | KC at NYJ | NYG at PIT |
| OAK at BAL | SD at NO | SEA at SF | STL at NE | TB at DAL | WAS at DET | ||
Week 8 Game Recap: St. Louis Rams 16, New England Patriots 23
What you need to know
| St. Louis Rams |
Marc Bulger had his best game of the season and the Rams still lost. He eclipsed 300 yards passing against the Patriots, in equal parts due to a suspect running game and the continued emergence of rookie wide receiver Donnie Avery.
Torry Holt looks like a possession receiver these days. The deep balls all went to Avery. Only one other receiver, Dante Hall, got any looks worth mentioning, and all of those came on the final drive.
The running game was sub-par but not atrocious. Starter Steven Jackson was inactive, and so Antonio Pittman took most of the carries, while being spelled by Travis Minor often on third downs.
The Rams defense is not as bad as you think they are.
| New England Patriots |
Matt Cassel appears to have developed some chemistry with his receivers. He was locked on to Wes Welker early, and then found Randy Moss later in the game on a number of short throws that allowed him to gain a good amount of yards after the catch. This is obviously playing more to Cassel's strength than the old Brady-Moss hookup with the deep ball.
The Patriots were also short at running back. With Laurence Maroney already out for the season, they added Lamont Jordan and Sammy Morris to the day's inactive list. Kevin Faulk and BenJarvus Green-Ellis took on most of the carries, with Faulk posting over 100 combined yards. Green-Ellis scored a TD, but otherwise did not make much of an impact.
Moss and Welker got most of Cassel's attention, with a few planned screen plays to Faulk thrown in for good measure. The Patriots used a lot of crossing routes and comeback patterns, and seemed to get better at finding space as the game wore on.
What you ought to know
| QB Marc Bulger, Pass: 18 - 34 - 301 - 1 TD / 1 INT |
Bulger had his best day of the season statistically, but it wasn't quite enough in the end. Three long passes to Avery counted for nearly half of his total yardage. While he was successful with this newfound connection, he was clearly too locked on to one or two receivers, which eventually worked against him as the Patriots started to figure him out. He also appeared hesitant on too many occasions and was sacked a couple of times for a lot of yards because of it. For the most part, Bulger had time in the pocket, but too often was unable to find an open man.
| RB Antonio Pittman, Rush: 19 - 83 - 0, Rec: 3 - 22 - 0 (3 targets) |
Pittman took over for the injured Steven Jackson and received most of the carries for the Rams. They gave him the ball early in order to establish the running game, with mixed results. He was able to break off a couple of nice runs (12, 18, 17) but the rest were all for very limited yardage. Late in the game, he had his two receptions, both for first downs.
| RB Travis Minor, Rush: 4 - 8 - 0 |
Minor played backup to Antonio Pittman and got only four carries on the day. With Jackson out, there was a lot of question as to who would see the carries and it was clearly Pittman in this game.
| RB Dan Kreider, Rush: 1 - 0 - 0 (1 targets) |
Kreider, the starting fullback, carried the ball once, and dropped the only pass that came his way.
| RB Steven Jackson |
Jackson's status was a game time decision, and he was inactive due to a quad injury.
| WR Donnie Avery, Rush: 1 - -1 - 0, Rec: 6 - 163 - 1 (11 targets) |
Avery was far and away the best receiver for the Rams. Bulger hit him three times for long gains, one of them a 69 yard score. Not to put a damper on his accomplishment, but once the Patriots figured out what they were doing with the deep ball (i.e.: throwing it to Avery) they shut him down, limiting him to a single 12 yard catch in the latter stages of the game.
| WR Dante Hall, Rec: 4 - 47 - 0 (3 targets) |
Hall was only looked to on the Rams final drive. It was a case of too little, too late, as the Patriots had already figured out -- and shut down -- the Bulger-Avery connection for a while at that point. For what it's worth, Hall did an excellent job of getting open and created two first downs. He also had a 75 yard kickoff return called back on a holding penalty.
| WR Torry Holt, Rec: 3 - 28 - 0 (6 targets) |
It just keeps getting worse for Holt. He was never a factor and caught only short passes when he was called upon.
| WR Keenan Burton, Rush: 1 - 0 - 0, Rec: 2 - 41 - 0 (6 targets) |
Burton was targeted three times in each half, but was only able to help out in the first half, with catches of 14 and 27 yards.
| TE Daniel Fells (2 targets) |
Fells appears to be taking over the role of pass catching tight end. Well, not literally. But he did have two targets, which is two more than any other Rams tight end.
| PK Josh Brown 3 - 3 FG, 1 - 1 XP, 10 points |
Brown was sharp on field goals of 20, 25, and 44 yards.
| STL Rush Defense |
Overall, they did a great job of shutting down the run. It's hard to gauge how meaningful that is, however, due to the fact that it was the regular 3rd down back (Kevin Faulk) and some guy who is only a few weeks removed from the practice squad (Green-Ellis).
| STL Pass Defense |
Their coverage was tight, which meant at first that they were giving up a lot of catches, but no yards after the catch. As the game progressed, the Patriots exploited their coverage for a lot of catch and run yardage.
| QB Matt Cassel, Pass: 21 - 33 - 267 - 1 TD / 2 INT, Rush: 7 - 22 - 0 |
Cassel had a pretty good day, though his final line shows more interceptions than touchdowns. He was able to find Moss and Welker all over the field, mostly on short routes, and they helped him out by adding yards after the catch. The game plan appeared to be rooted in simplicity; when he tried to do too much, it backfired. He showed good decision making, but poor awareness (for example: scrambling away from the rush, he slid to the ground while in no danger of getting hit, a full two yards short of the first down. While another time, same situation, he had passed the first down marker and took the hit instead of going down).
| RB Kevin Faulk, Rush: 13 - 60 - 0, Rec: 4 - 47 - 1 (7 targets) |
Faulk had a combined 107 yards and the game winning touchdown. He was used more as the game went on, and he really turned it on in the 4th quarter, rushing for four consecutive first downs (on gains of 4, 14, 7, and 5 yards) and then following it up with a 15 yard TD reception.
| RB BenJarvus Green-Ellis, Rush: 9 - 16 - 1 |
Green-Ellis was as advertised: a north-south runner who doesn't do much lateral running. He scored a short TD, but otherwise found no room, which meant that he saw less action as the game went on.
| WR Randy Moss, Rec: 7 - 102 - 0 (11 targets) |
This is not the Randy Moss we are used to seeing. No jump balls, no real deep attempts of any kind in fact. Moss instead proved adept at taking short passes and turning them into longer gains. Though he went without a touchdown, he was targeted three times in the end zone -- one a glaring drop that was very uncharacteristic -- and five of his seven catches were for first downs.
| WR Wes Welker, Rec: 7 - 79 - 0 (12 targets) |
In the first quarter, it seemed as if Welker were the only receiver the Patriots had. Cassel eventually evened out the throws between both Moss and Welker, both of whom had productive days but no touchdowns. Like Moss, Welker got first downs with all but two of his catches.
| WR Jabar Gaffney, Rec: 1 - 17 - 0 (2 targets) |
Gaffney caught one pass early in the game, and then went missing.
| TE Ben Watson, Rec: 1 - 13 - 0 (1 targets) |
Neither tight end was a big part of the passing game.
| TE David Thomas, Rec: 1 - 9 - 0 (1 targets) |
Neither tight end was a big part of the passing game.
| PK Stephen Gostkowski 3 - 3 FG, 2 - 2 XP, 11 points |
Gostkowski hit the mark on field goals of 30, 27, and 42 yards.
| NE Rush Defense |
Not spectacular, but good enough to stop the Rams backup running backs.
| NE Pass Defense |
The pass rush, while not scary, was formidable, and kept Bulger on his toes just enough to make a few key mistakes. Richard Seymour was seemingly everywhere. The secondary gave up a few deep balls (all to Avery) but improved as the game went on.
