Well Rams fans, I decided I wouldn’t do a GB&U column and took the bye week off.  Why wouldn’t I do a GB&U column?  Because we won and I wasn’t going to spoil our victory.  1-7 is just so much better than 0-8, and I’ll leave last week at that.  I will offer up some midseason notes, grades, surprises and disappointments in anticipation for the visit by the New Orleans Saints on Sunday.

Let’s start with the grades, position-by-position:

Quarterback: Marc Bulger hasn’t turned the ball over.  That’s good.  He also hasn’t been making many plays.  That’s bad.  He’s been a leader out there, really fighting hard for this ball club but he just hasn’t helped this team.  He hasn’t hurt them too much either.  There have been a lot of so-so moments, and much of this isn’t his fault directly – more of a showcase of the conservativeness of the playcalling early in the season and the bungles by the wide receivers.  Still, he’s missed some throws and hasn’t been who we’ve seen him be.

Kyle Boller has shown himself to be exactly what we signed him to be – a viable backup.  He’s not going to win you games, but he won’t necessarily blow them either.  He performed admirably in a relief role after Bulger got hurt, but he’s not a solution to the offenses woes.

Grade: C+

Runningback/Fullback: Steven Jackson is on pace for a monster yardage year, in the only year he hasn’t gotten hurt so far and missed games since 2006, and the only year where he is truly the sole offensive weapon on the team.  Teams are overloading the box and he still averages better than 4 yards a carry.  He continues to beat up the opposing teams’ defense, just grinding out tough yards, even when the game is out of reach.  Part of this has been due to the resurgence of Mike Karney, who’s done a pretty good job of opening up holes for Jackson during the last 4 games or so.  The offensive line isn’t giving him as much help as he’d like, but it doesn’t matter.  39 has said he wanted to be the man and he’s showing exactly why he should be, as the lone bright spot on this dismal Rams offense.

Grade: A- (we only have 1 TD on the ground, that’s a problem)

Wide Receivers/Tight Ends: Where do I start?  The problem was we didn’t have anybody who could scare people on the outside, except for maybe Donnie Avery.  We traded for Laurent Robinson, who showed to have excellent promise.  Randy McMichael is healthy and ready to go.  And then it all goes kaput.  McMichael has a nasty case of the drops, Avery wasn’t healthy for roughly the 1st 3-4 weeks of the season recovering from that foot injury he suffered in the preseason (watch the tape – he may not be limping but he’s certainly not fully healed), Robinson goes on IR with a broken leg, and guys cannot seem to get open.  The rookie, Brooks Foster, also hits IR, making things thin.  A couple of good things to note though are Keenan Burton’s emerging presence as a half-decent WR, and Daniel Fells becoming a solid pass-catching TE.  All in all though, this unit is seriously lacking and deserve a pretty big portion of the blame for the offensive woes.

Grade: D+ (it’s hard but it’s fair)

Offensive Line: Are we finally going to see the line gel a little bit?  In my mind, that was the key problem going into the season – the insertion of rookie Jason Smith so late into the starting lineup, at RT instead of LT, no less.  Granted, his pass blocking skills left something to be desired early on, but if he’s going to be the franchise LT, you have to put him in a position to learn at some point, right?  Either way, this line didn’t really gel and it didn’t get the up-front push we needed to run the football effectively.  Pass protection has been spotty at times but overall not terrible (this line is better than the Packers, that’s for sure), and I attribute that to C Jason Brown’s presence.  He’s smart, he’s tough, and he’s good.  Smith’s injury that forced him out for a couple of weeks probably hindered his development, but he’s got what it takes to become something special in the NFL.  LT Alex Barron has been a mystery to me.  He doesn’t false start anymore, but, at least to me, he doesn’t scream “Keeper!”  His blocking has improved over the course of the season and he could very well prove me wrong, but it’s worth noting the offensive line has improved over the course of the season.  They’re starting to sync up, and it may be the difference in the Rams getting a couple of wins or not.  G Jacob Bell has been admirable, playing through concussions and whatnot.  Kudos.

Grade: C+

Defensive Line: Where’s the pressure?  Where’s the pass rush?  Leonard Little is aging and James Hall is aging and yet they’re the best pass rushers on the team.  Adam Carriker going down with an ankle injury for the year hurt depth, as did the season-ending injury to Gary Gibson, who started with Carriker hurt.  Cliff Ryan is playing decently, and there are moments this part of the squad will hold up against the run.  Then there the moments when they get gashed horribly.  The big bodies just aren’t there to keep the linebackers clean, and it’s becoming an issue.  Also, can someone issue a missing persons report for Chris Long?  I haven’t seen him since he was playing for UVA a couple of years ago.  Supposedly the Rams drafted him 2nd overall two years ago, but I haven’t really seen much of him.  Seriously though, credit the coaching staff and Ken Flajole for coming up with packages to get Long into different pass-rushing positions, but Long has got to make some sort of an impact for this team to make a move.  Kudos to Leonard Little for playing with strep throat and having his best game so far against the Jaguars, including that amazing pick-six.  For that reason alone, I’m making them between a C and a C- as opposed to just C-.

Grade: C(-)

Linebackers: So we had Will Witherspoon on the weakside, where he needed to be, and rookie James Laurinaitis in the middle, where he needed to be, and Chris Draft playing the strong…nope, we let him go.  So David Vobora, you’re up…until you had a substance use suspension.  So who’s next at musical Sam LB?  Larry Grant and Paris Lenon, the latter of whom was signed midseason.  And just to sweeten the pot, we’ll trade away Will Witherspoon, who had a phenomenal training camp but hadn’t had it translate to the field, and get a rookie WR who won’t play!  (Irony, Witherspoon goes to the Eagles in the trade and has been lights out since then.)  Besides “Baby Animal,” nobody seems to be playing at a high level in the LB corps, and it shows.  There’s nobody intimidating in the front 7 as a whole, and I’d prefer it to come from the LBs.  Laurinaitis has played his ass off and it shows, but he’s the lone bright spot in a very lackluster front 7.

Grade: C

Secondary: This was the part of the defense I thought would play their asses off.  O.J. Atogwe and James Butler at S, Ron Bartell and Tye Hill at CB.  Things seemed pretty well covered…until Tye was dumped to Atlanta in the preseason, Butler was hurt for a few weeks, Bartell hasn’t been the corner we’d hoped he’d be, and Atogwe has disappeared since Week 1.  That’s easily the surprise of the season on defense – the ballhawking, turnover machine known as O.J. Atogwe hasn’t done that.  James Butler has made some good plays, but who runs outside of the endzone and tries to double back into it?  Tsk, tsk, tsk.  The other corners not named Bartell have been so-so at best, and also sustaining injuries, including rookie Bradley Fletcher, who was apparently playing a great game against the Colts before he got hurt.  Justin King, Quincy Butler, and Johnathan Wade really haven’t done much to distinguish themselves from one another.  This was supposed to be the saving grace of the defense, and comparatively speaking, they’ve done their job better than the front 7, but this hasn’t been what we’d like to see overall.

Grade: C+

Special Teams: Again, in preseason I said this would be a pretty damn good kicking unit.  Until Josh Brown started missing easy field goals.  Donnie Jones has been punting well like normal, except for one pretty bad game, so overall not too bad from the kicking game.  The return game has been revived with the addition of Danny Amendola, a little guy who runs with heart but isn’t playing dumb.  Returns have been better, as has field position.  Kudos to Amendola, and also to the special teams coach Tom McMahon, who called a terrific fake FG pass play from Brown to Fells for a touchdown against the Lions.  Maybe they weren’t so bad after all.

Grade: B(-)

Coaching: So a rookie head coach and two rookie coordinators did spell a smidgen of trouble.  Ken Flajole, the defensive coordinator, has dialed up aggressive schemes all year that can help make up for a lack of talent, but the schemes haven’t produced all the time.  Still, not too shabby playcalling by a first year coordinator, and it’s more fun to watch than the old times when we’d always just send 4 on 3rd down and the QB would have all day to throw.  Offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur, on the other hand, needed some help.  I understand the Rams are deficient on talent on the offensive side of the ball, but good God, the first chunk of the season had some really conservative playcalling.  If you’re not good, get aggressive!  The playcalling really held back the offense sometimes as much as poor on-field performance held back the offense sometimes, but as the season has gone on, Shurmur has opened up the playbook a little bit more and things are getting better.  Slowly.

Head coach Steve Spagnuolo has been about as calm as a coach could be for starting 0-7.  He never batted an eye, and really was just unflappable.  Clock management has been a problem, but kudos to him for keeping composure the entire time.  He will be tested the remainder of the year, but his ability to keep his composure will continue to help this rebuilding process and the roster to buy into what he’s selling.

Grade: B (I would have given a B+ but we did lose a few winnable games, @ Washington and @ Jacksonville.)

So, now that the grades are out of the way, let’s talk about the surprises and the disappointments from the 1st half.

Surprises: Laurent Robinson, before he was hurt, was the Rams’ leading receiver and was using his long frame to get open across the middle and caught the 1st touchdown of the season, a fade route against Washington over DeAngelo Hall.  This offense might be different with Robinson healthy, but what was a long shot pickup became very fruitful early for the Rams.

Daniel Fells, with his 3 TD receptions, has really come on as the best receiving TE on the roster.  He’s done an excellent job of getting open, and while he doesn’t have the speed McMichael does, his hands are better right now and he’s been fairly reliable (except for that fumble in the redzone).

James Laurinaitis was a surprise to me, also.  I wasn’t sure if we’d picked the right MLB in the draft, but he’s showing he’s worth every penny he’s getting.  Brett Favre has only thrown 3 picks this year – Laurinaitis has 1/3 of them.

Danny Amendola also has been a surprising boost to what has been a worthless return unit as of late.  He’s the 3rd leading return man in Texas Tech history, so who knows what we may have in store in the near future.

Disappointments: Randy McMichael, you have disappointed me.  Donnie Avery, you were disappointing me but you’re doing better now, please keep it up.  Alex Barron, you’d disappointed me severely but have been improving, please keep it up.  Chris Long, you’re disappointing me.  Defensive line, you’re disappointing me.  O.J. Atogwe, you’re disappointing me.

So, that’s the Rams midseason wrapup from my eyes.  Think I got it wrong?  Tell me about it!  I want your feedback, Rams fans!  I’ll be back soon with the W2W4 for Saints @ Rams in the next day.