Rams expect time together will be beneficial to reconfigured offensive line

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Rams expect time together will be beneficial to reconfigured offensive line

2024-09-26 10:39 Last Updated At：10:40

LOS ANGELES (AP) — With a win under their belt and no new injuries to account for, the Los Angeles Rams can focus on getting better instead of trying to make sure things don’t get any worse.

“It’s been a while since that’s been the case,” quarterback Matthew Stafford said Wednesday. “Obviously, we got guys behind the scenes trying to get back as fast as they possibly can, but nice to go from one week to the next and not have any changes. So we can kind of try to build off of what we did.”

The Rams (1-2) see the offensive line as the position group particularly likely to benefit from the newfound continuity. They have three of their projected starters — left tackle Alaric Jackson, right guard Kevin Dotson and right tackle Rob Havenstein — back in action while rookie center Beaux Limmer and first-time starter at left guard Logan Bruss got better as the game went on against the San Francisco defensive line on Sunday.

Dotson felt like the group came together in the fourth quarter, helping the Rams overcome a 10-point deficit to win 27-24. The offense gained 126 of its 296 yards in the final 15 minutes, averaging 7.88 yards per play and getting into the red zone three times.

“I felt like it was no hesitation in our play,” Dotson said. “And it felt like we understood what had to be done to get where we wanted to go. Everybody just put their head down, trust the guy next to him, and just play.”

Working together is the only way for an offensive line to come together, Dotson said. But the Rams benefited from some previous experience among the current configuration that helped jumpstart the process.

Limmer and Truss played next to each other as reserves during training camp, and then Limmer, the sixth-round pick from Arkansas, got time as the first-team center during a joint practice with Houston.

“As far as moving everybody around, it’s kind of real comfortable in there,” Limmer said.

That week in Houston was also important in allowing Limmer to get comfortable with Stafford, who in turn has been able to use his 16 years of experience to help expedite the working relationship between quarterback and the new center.

“So far everything’s going real smooth, and he helps me out with all the protections, all the spots, everything when I need it, so it’s been great,” Limmer said.

Dotson also expressed the value in the new starting five being able to spend time together off the football field, which is equally important with how quickly the unit had been shuffled.

Steve Avila, who had been expected to start at center but was moved to left guard for the season opener in Detroit, is likely out through October because of an MCL injury. Jonah Jackson, who alternated between center and left guard for the first two weeks, is on injured reserve after aggravating a shoulder injury he sustained in camp. Havenstein missed one game because of an ankle injury, and Alaric Jackson was suspended for two games.

“I haven’t been on a team where it all happened that fast or having that many people out at one time,” Dotson said.

Even with the victory over the 49ers under their belt, there is plenty of room for the offensive line to improve. The run game has yet to top 98 yards or 3.8 yards per carry. Stafford has been sacked 10 times. Those areas will have to be addressed against the defense of the Chicago Bears (1-2) on Sunday.

Coach Sean McVay thinks time together is what can allow this iteration of the offensive line, and the Rams as a whole, to be at its best.

“I do think that the best units, whether it’s offensively or defensively, there’s continuity,” McVay said. “There’s a rapport that’s established. There’s kind of an unspoken ability to work in concert and in combination with one another, and that’s what I’m hopeful to start to see us be able to develop, whether that’s offensive line, Matthew with the receivers, backs getting comfortable with some of the different things that we’re doing, and same thing on defense.”

NOTES: The Rams do not plan on designating CB Darious Williams to return from injured reserve this week. Williams strained his hamstring in training camp.

Hennepin County prosecutor calls on the public to share Renee Good shooting evidence with her office

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty on Friday called on members of the public to send any video or other evidence in the fatal shooting of Renee Good directly to her office, challenging the Trump administration's decision to leave the investigation solely to the FBI.

Moriarty said that although her office has collaborated effectively with the FBI in past cases, she is concerned by the Trump administration's decision to bar state and local agencies from playing any role in the investigation into Wednesday's killing of Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis.

She also said that despite the Trump administration’s insistence that the officer who shot Good has complete legal immunity, that isn’t the case.

“We do have jurisdiction to make this decision with what happened in this case,” she said at a news conference. “It does not matter that it was a federal law enforcement agent.”

Moriarty said her office would post a link for the public to submit footage of the shooting, even though she acknowledged that she wasn't sure what legal outcome submissions might produce.

The prosecutor's announcement came on a third day of Minneapolis protests over Good's killing and a day after federal immigration officers shot and wounded two people in Portland, Oregon.

Good's wife, Becca Good, released a statement to Minnesota Public Radio on Friday saying, “kindness radiated out of her.”

"On Wednesday, January 7th, we stopped to support our neighbors. We had whistles. They had guns," Becca Good said.

“I am now left to raise our son and to continue teaching him, as Renee believed, that there are people building a better world for him,” she wrote. “That the people who did this had fear and anger in their hearts, and we need to show them a better way.”

The reaction to the Good's shooting was immediate in the city where police killed George Floyd in 2020, with hundreds of protesters converging on the shooting scene and the school district canceling classes for the rest of the week as a precaution.

On Thursday night, hundreds marched in freezing rain down one of Minneapolis’ major thoroughfares, chanting “ICE out now!” and holding signs saying, “Killer ice off our streets." And on Friday, protesters were out again demonstrating outside of a federal facility that is serving as a hub for the immigration crackdown that began Tuesday in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Authorities erected barricades outside the facility Friday.

City workers, meanwhile, removed makeshift barricades made of old Christmas trees and other debris that had been blocking the streets near the scene of Good's shooting. Officials said they would leave up a shrine to the 37-year-old mother of three.

The Portland shootings happened outside a hospital Thursday afternoon. Federal immigration officers shot and wounded a man and woman, identified by the Department of Homeland Security as Venezuela nationals Luis David Nico Moncada and Yorlenys Betzabeth Zambrano-Contreras, who were inside a vehicle, and their conditions weren't immediately known. The FBI and the Oregon Department of Justice were investigating.

Portland Mayor Keith Wilson and the city council called on ICE to end all operations in the city until a full investigation is completed. Hundreds protested Thursday night at a local ICE building. Early Friday, Portland police reported that officers had arrested several protesters after asking the to get out of a street to allow traffic to flow.

Just as it did following Good's shooting, DHS defended the actions of the officers in Portland, saying it occurred after a Venezuelan man with alleged gang ties and who was involved in a recent shooting tried to “weaponize” his vehicle to hit the officers. It wasn't immediately clear if the shootings were captured on video, as Good's was.

The Minneapolis shooting happened on the second day of the immigration crackdown in the Twin Cities, which Homeland Security said is the biggest immigration enforcement operation ever. More than 2,000 officers are taking part and Noem said they have made more than 1,500 arrests.

The government is also shifting immigration officers to Minneapolis from sweeps in Louisiana, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press. This represents a pivot, as the Louisiana crackdown that began in December had been expected to last into February.

Good's death — at least the fifth tied to immigration sweeps since Trump took office — has resonated far beyond Minneapolis, as protests happening in other places, including Texas, California, Detroit and Missouri.

In Washington, D.C., on Thursday, a woman held a sign that said, “Stop Trump’s Gestapo,” as hundreds of people marched to the White House. Protesters in Pflugerville, Texas, north of Austin, banged on the walls of an ICE facility. And a man in Los Angeles burned an American flag in front of federal detention center.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, President Donald Trump and others in his administration have repeatedly characterized the Minneapolis shooting as an act of self-defense and cast Good as a villain, suggesting she used her vehicle as a weapon to attack the officer who shot her.

But state and local officials and protesters rejected that characterization, with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey saying videos show the self-defense argument is “garbage.”

Several bystanders captured footage of Good's killing, which happened in a neighborhood south of downtown.

The recordings show an officer approaching an SUV stopped across the middle of the road, demanding the driver open the door and grabbing the handle. The Honda Pilot begins to pull forward and a different ICE officer standing in front of it pulls his weapon and immediately fires at least two shots at close range, jumping back as the vehicle moves toward him.

It is not clear from the videos if the vehicle makes contact with the officer, and there is no indication of whether the woman had interactions with agents earlier. After the shooting, the SUV speeds into two cars parked on a curb before crashing to a stop.

The federal agent who fatally shot Good is an Iraq War veteran who has served for nearly two decades in the Border Patrol and ICE, according to records obtained by AP.

Noem has not publicly named him, but a Homeland Security spokesperson said her description of his injuries last summer refers to an incident in Bloomington, Minnesota, in which court documents identify him as Jonathan Ross.

Ross got his arm stuck in the window of a vehicle whose driver was fleeing arrest on an immigration violation. Ross was dragged and fired his Taser. A jury found the driver guilty of assaulting a federal officer with a dangerous weapon.

Attempts to reach Ross, 43, at phone numbers and email addresses associated with him were not successful.

Associated Press reporters Steve Karnowski and Mark Vancleave in Minneapolis; Ed White in Detroit; Valerie Gonzalez in Brownsville, Texas; Graham Lee Brewer in Norman, Oklahoma; Michael Biesecker in Washington; Jim Mustian and Safiyah Riddle in New York; Ryan Foley in Iowa City, Iowa; and Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed to this report.