Rams hope reinforcements and resilience can lift injury-filled offensive line vs. Cardinals

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Rams hope reinforcements and resilience can lift injury-filled offensive line vs. Cardinals

2024-09-13 09:58 Last Updated At：10:00

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles Rams had to completely reconfigure their offensive line because of injuries during a 26-20 overtime loss at the Detroit Lions.

With a few days to process the situation and bring in reinforcements, the Rams (0-1) expect to be in better shape when they visit the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday.

“I thought the guys did a great job of fighting and grinding and trying to claw one out,” said right tackle Rob Havenstein, who missed the season opener because of an ankle injury. “Obviously there’s stuff to clean up and get better at, but for the guys in there, they were fighting. There was no letdown.”

Havenstein was limited Thursday but is optimistic he can be back in the starting lineup and begin his 10th season with the Rams this week.

“Feeling good, ready to go,” he said. “Just gotta clean up some technique stuff. Luckily, it’s Thursday, and it’s not us playing tonight.”

Havenstein would be a welcome addition after the Rams lost left guard Steve Avila and swing tackle Joe Noteboom to knee and ankle injuries against the Lions. Both were put on injured reserve Wednesday.

Right guard Kevin Dotson sustained a foot injury in Detroit and missed his second straight practice, putting his availability in question. Left tackle Alaric Jackson has to complete a two-game suspension this week.

Those absences had the Rams loading up on reinforcements this week. They signed rookie Dylan McMahon off the Philadelphia Eagles’ practice squad and free agent Geron Christian on Wednesday after bringing back 38-year-old Ty Nsekhe one day prior.

McMahon, a sixth-round pick out of N.C. State, found out about his new destination late on Monday night and has been working tirelessly since arriving in town to get up to speed.

“There’s some familiar faces around the locker room,” McMahon said. “Got a decent amount of N.C. State presence around here, and just some of the guys I’ve gone through the draft process with, like (rookie center) Beaux (Limmer). I know Beaux just from the combine and draft process and everything, so it’s been good. Everyone’s willing to help out and learning the offense has been good.”

McMahon, who had a solid offseason in Philadelphia but got caught in a numbers crunch at roster cutdowns, was not watching the game on Sunday night when Rams head coach Sean McVay had to tear up his game plan as the bumps and bruises piled up.

McVay turned to quick passes and other avenues to help the likes of Limmer and practice squad call-up AJ Arcuri at tackle. It nearly worked as the Rams scored 17 straight points in the second half to take a late lead.

As McMahon reviewed film of the game this week, he said the level of preparedness across the offensive line stood out.

“At the end of the day, when stuff like that happens, you just fall back on what you’ve been doing,” said McMahon, who will likely backup Limmer this week. “Obviously they were ready for that if that stuff happened, and they did it really well.”

Offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur said the players who came off the bench were just as responsible for the production as the strategic shifts.

“Players are resilient. I’d like to think coaches are too, but players are really resilient,” LaFleur said. “We have so much trust in the guys, and some guys got an opportunity to show why we can trust them, why their teammates trust them.”

NOTES: Starting CB Cobie Durant (toe) missed practice for the second straight day.

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Hezbollah leader says more Israelis will be displaced as the militants extend their rocket fire

2024-10-08 19:53 Last Updated At：20:00

Sheikh Naim Kassem, the acting leader of Hezbollah, said its military capabilities are still intact and that it has replaced all of its senior commanders after weeks of heavy Israeli airstrikes across large parts of Lebanon, including targeted strikes that killed much of its top command in a matter of days.

He also said Israeli forces have not been able to advance after launching a ground incursion into Lebanon last week. The Israeli military said a fourth division is now taking part in the incursion, which has expanded to the west, but operations still appear to be confined to a narrow strip along the border.

The Israeli military says it has dismantled militant infrastructure along the border and killed hundreds of Hezbollah fighters. On Tuesday, it said a strike in Beirut had killed Suhail Husseini, who it described as a senior commander responsible overseeing logistics, budget and management of the militant group.

There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah, and no way to confirm battlefield claims made by either side.

“We are firing hundreds of rockets and dozens of drones. A large number of settlements and cities are under the fire of the resistance,” Kassem said in a video address, speaking from an undisclosed location. “Our capabilities are fine and our fighters are deployed along the frontlines."

He said Hezbollah's top leadership was directing the war and that the commanders killed by Israel have been replaced. “We have no vacant posts,” he added.

He said that Hezbollah will name a new leader to succeed Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in a bunker in Beirut last month, “but the circumstances are difficult because of the war.”

The Israeli army said 85 projectiles were launched from Lebanon toward northern Israel on Tuesday.

Israel’s aerial defense intercepted most of the rockets, the military said. A 70-year-old woman was moderately wounded by shrapnel and Israeli media aired footage of what appeared to be minor damage to buildings near the coastal city of Haifa.

The military also said that it struck Hezbollah targets in the southern Beirut suburbs, known as the Dahiyeh, where the militant group is headquartered.

Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, the day after Hamas' surprise attack into Israel ignited the war in Gaza. Hezbollah and Hamas are both allied with Iran, and Hezbollah says its attacks are aimed at aiding the Palestinians. Israel has carried out airstrikes in response and the conflict steadily escalated, erupting into a full-fledged war last month.

The Lebanese militant group has said it will stop the attacks if there is a cease-fire in Gaza, but months of diplomatic efforts on that front have repeatedly stalled.

Israel has inflicted a punishing wave of blows against Hezbollah in recent weeks and says it will keep fighting until tens of thousands of displaced Israeli citizens can return to their homes in the north.

More than 1,300 people have been killed in Lebanon and over a million displaced since the fighting escalated in mid-September.

Since then, Hezbollah has extended its rocket fire into central Israel, setting off air raid sirens in the country's commercial hub of Tel Aviv. Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have also launched missiles that reached central Israel. Most of the projectiles have been intercepted or fallen in open areas, disrupting life in Israel while causing few casualties and little property damage.

Last, week Iran launched its own barrage of some 180 ballistic missiles at Israel, in what it said was a response to the killing of Nasrallah, an Iranian general who was with him at the time and Ismail Haniyeh, the top leader of Hamas, who was killed in an explosion in Iran's capital in July.

Israel has vowed to respond to the missile attack, without saying when or how.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant is in Washington this week to meet with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. The Biden administration says it is opposed to an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear facilities, which could escalate regional tensions even further.

The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed around 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities. They do not say how many were fighters, but say women and children make up more than half of all fatalities.

Palestinians say heavy fighting is underway in northern Gaza, where Israel has ordered another wholesale evacuation and launched a ground operation.

The north, including Gaza City, was the first target of Israel’s ground offensive. Entire neighborhoods have been reduced to rubble and the region has been largely isolated by Israeli troops since last October, when Israeli evacuation orders led up to a million people to flee to the south.

Hundreds of thousands have remained in the north despite the harsh conditions, leading Israel to order another total evacuation in recent days. Israel has barred residents from returning to the north.

Israeli forces are battling Hamas militants in Jabaliya, a densely populated urban refugee camp dating back to the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation. Palestinian residents said Israeli warplanes and artillery were pounding Jabaliya as well as Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya, towns near the border.

The Israeli military said it killed around 20 militants in airstrikes and ground fighting in Jabaliya. It said troops located a large quantity of weapons, including grenades and rifles.

The nearby Kamal Adwan Hospital said at least 15 people, including two women and four children, were killed Tuesday in the fighting in Jabaliya. It said the dead included four people who were trying to retrieve bodies.

“The situation is extremely difficult. The bombing and explosions haven’t stopped,” said Mahmoud Abu Shehatah, a Jabaliya resident. “It’s like the first days of the war.”

Goldenberg reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writer Samy Magdy in Cairo contributed to this report.

Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war