OXNARD, Calif. – The Rams headed up the 101 freeway to the Cowboys' training camp site for a joint practice Thursday, one that featured extensive team work with some individual drills and special teams mixed in. Los Angeles' pass rush had some nice moments throughout, and defensive back Kam Kinchens continued to shine.
Before diving into those items and others, some important context:
- For the second joint practice, I spent the majority of the time watching the Rams defense, given they would be going against a Cowboys offense led by QB Dak Prescott with a few experienced pieces around him.
- Dallas' offense was missing wide receiver CeeDee Lamb, who remains in a holdout with the Cowboys over his contract. Additionally, their offensive line was without All-Pro guard Zack Martin, who was given a veteran rest day. That being said, Dallas' starting five still features what Trench Warfare publisher and OL/DL analyst Brandon Thorn regards as one of the NFL's elite guards in Tyler Smith (top 15 left guard) and a top-15 right tackle in Terence Steele.
With that in mind, here are 10 things that stood out from the session:
1) Kinchens' physicality, concept recognition on display: The rookie defensive back on one play broke up a Cooper Rush pass that resulted in the deflected ball getting corralled by Rams linebacker Troy Reeder for the interception. He also delivered a big hit that drew some "ooohhhs" from the crowd.
2) Pass rush gets after it: The Rams were able to consistently apply pressure on Prescott throughout the afternoon. On some plays, that resulted in incompletions on all three levels of the field; on others, Prescott would be flushed out of the pocket but still manage to complete the pass out of structure. In the latter situations, Prescott connected most often with wide receiver Brandin Cooks.
3) Self-TD: The most interesting play of the day was Stafford collecting his own pass as it bounced off one Cowboys defender's hand, then another's helmet to score a touchdown.
4) Put it in re-Verse: During one-on-ones, Rams rookie outside linebacker Jared Verse bull-rushed Cowboys offensive lineman Asim Richards with so much power, Richards fell on his back. On the very next rep – these were conducted back-to-back – Verse won with ease, and using a different move than the bull-rush.
5) No blocking B.Y.: Second-year outside linebacker Byron Young decisively won each of his pass-rush reps in 1-on-1s and had arguably the best performance of any Rams player in that drill. He was also consistently generating pressure in team drills.
6) Skirmishes die down quickly: There were a few – all on the field with the Rams defense and Cowboys offense – but they dissolved fairly quickly, seemingly aware of the potential consequences.
7) Forced fumble: Besides Kinchens and Reeder's play, another takeaway generated by the Rams defense came when defensive back Quentin Lake ripped the ball loose from wide receiver Jalen Cropper's grasp after Cropper caught a pass from Prescott and moved upfield.
8) Good day for WR Demarcus Robinson: One of his best catches came on a back-shoulder fade that resulted in a touchdown in the corner of the endzone.
9) Offensive line gets another good test: The Rams again were without Alaric Jackson (ankle), Jonah Jackson (shoulder) and Rob Havenstein (ankle), so Joe Noteboom, Zach Thomas and Warren McClendon Jr. were once again tested by a pair of experienced pass-rushers in the Cowboys' Micah Parsons and DeMarcus Lawrence.
Parsons in particular was used all over the Cowboys' formation by defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer.
"We were saying, 'wherever he (Parsons) is, you find him and you slide to him,'" Rams head coach Sean McVay said post-practice. "I mean, we didn't game plan. I thought they did a really good job of having him in a variety of spots, but it's a good test, you know. And I think DeMarcus Lawrence is an excellent player, and they've got some good players on the interior. They got excellent players on the second and third level."
10) DT Braden Fiske leaves practice early after getting poked in the eye: That's what McVay said he was told by Rams Vice President of Communications Artis Twyman after practice.
