No Excuses For Rams: It’s Now or Never
Bernie Miklasz
http://www.101sports.com/2015/10/23/no-excuses-for-rams-its-now-or-never/
Really, coach Jeff Fisher and the Rams are way, way overdue in putting together a winning stretch of football. There have been too many false starts for this regime, and I’m not talking about the usual jumpy offensive linemen and their penalties.
Every time the Rams win a game, you start to think that this will be it. Finally: the beginning of consistent, dependable, successful football and proof that they’re headed in a positive direction. And then … sigh … the Rams squander a game they should win and walk backwards again.
Well, the any reasonable degree of patience expired a long time ago. By the fourth season of the Fisher and GM Les Snead rebuilding project, the Rams should be more than just another mid-pack team, sitting there at 2-3. No one wants to hear about the youth of the team, or the inexperienced offensive line, or the injuries. If this is the NFL’s youngest team for the fourth year in a row, it’s because Fisher and Snead wanted it that way. If the young O-line gets overrun too often, that’s on Fisher-Snead for declining to put a more experienced group in charge of protecting quarterback Nick Foles. And injuries? Give me the name of one NFL team that hasn’t been damaged by injuries.
In his first 32 games as the Rams head coach, Fisher went 14-17-1, a winning percentage of .453 that ranked 20th in the NFL over the 2012-2013 seasons. Considering that he’d taken over a smashed pumpkin of a franchise that had lost 65 of the previous 80 games, Fisher’s first two seasons were respectable.
By Fisher’s third season, 2014, the Rams should have been on a more impressive trajectory. Yes, even with the knee injuries that put QB Sam Bradford out of action. (Could we please stop pretending that the Rams would have gone on some dynamic, unstoppable run with a healthy Bradford at QB?) Instead, since the start of the 2014 season the Rams are 8-13, a winning percentage of .381 that ranks tied for 25th in the league.
Let’s see:
A .453 winning percentage in your first two seasons and 32 games.
And a .381 winning percentage over the next 21 games covering all of 2014 and the first five contests of ’15.
When you rebuild a football team, isn’t it supposed to be getting better? I’ve only been covering the NFL since 1982, but that’s my understanding.
By Year Four whatever is supposed to be happening — winning streaks, division titles, a wild-card playoff spot, some postseason victories, and dare we say a conference championship or Super Bowl — should be happening. No one is asking Fisher to build the Great Pyramids here, so he doesn’t get 20+ years to complete the project.
It’s time — no, it’s beyond time — for the Rams to win more than a football game or two per month.
I looked at the Fisher record on a individual monthly basis. Not counting the current month, the Rams have played 13 separate months of football with Fisher in charge. And they’ve had only three winning months out of 13. And each winning month came in a different season: the final month of 2012, November 2013 and Nov. 2014. That’s it. And each winning month was followed (naturally) by a losing month.
Fisher had a three-game winning streak late in his first season here, but hasn’t been able to repeat it. He’s had five mini-winning streaks — two games — since the start of the 2013 season.
Here’s the good news — well, at least on paper:
Home game vs. Cleveland.
Home game vs. San Francisco.
Road game at Minnesota.
Home game vs. Chicago.
Road game at Baltimore.
There will be other invitations to string together wins later in the season, including consecutive home games that bring Detroit and Tampa Bay to St. Louis. But for now I just wanted to put the focus on the next five games, and not look too far into the distance. Because if the Rams stumble around and lose when they should win and fail to significantly take advantage of the next five games on their schedule, the rest of the season will be just another extension of 2012, 2013, 2014.
Cleveland, San Francisco, Minnesota, Chicago and Baltimore are a combined 10-20 this season.
A quick look at the next five opponents:
— Cleveland has a good offense but ranks 24th in points allowed and is the league’s worst defense at stopping the run, plundered for an average yield of 150 yards rushing per game. The Rams have a young line — but a massive line. The Rams also have the most exceptional and exciting Todd Gurley to give this offense a new identity. These people should be able to run block, right? They did it in junior league, high school and college football, correct? We’re not asking this O-line to split the atom; just split the Browns’ defensive front and give Gurley a cutback lane. This is Football 101, so I don’t want to hear a damned thing about how the Browns were doing this, doing that, making it difficult for the Rams to set Gurley free.
— San Francisco still puts a respectable defense on the field but the offense is last in the NFL in points per game (14.7) and 31st in yards per game. The ‘Niners have lost five of their last six games, getting outscored by 99 points in those five defeats. QB Colin Kaepernick is near the bottom of the league in passer rating. Jim Harbaugh is coaching Michigan. Frank Gore is running the ball for Indianapolis. Much of that once-ferocious defense has retired, been suspended, or splintered by free agency.
— Minnesota does have a winning record (3-2), and is 3-0 at home. But two of the home wins came against two of the league’s sorriest teams in 2015, Detroit and Kansas City. And while the Vikings have played very well defensively so far, their offense has sputtered — ranked 29th in points per game (19.2) and 30th in yards per game. If the Rams’ defense is as good as just about everybody says it is, then Gregg Williams’ wolf pack is surely capable of winning a game or two during this stretch if the Rams’ offense drifts and stalls.
— Chicago is 1-2 on the road, lost at Detroit, and fields a defense that ranks dead last in the league in points allowed (30 per game) and is 27th at stopping the run. Plus: Jay Cutler is the Bears’ quarterback and if Robert Quinn and his merry marauders can’t rattle Cutler then they should donate their game checks to charity.
— Baltimore is one of the biggest surprises of the season, but not in a way that delights my old bunkies in Bawlmer. The Ravens are 1-5 and have lost their teeth defensively, getting pushed around by opponents for an average of 27 points per game, which ranks 27th.
There’s another important aspect to this five-game stretch: the Fisher’s Rams need to collect wins away from the NFC West mosh pit. The Rams have been plenty tough against NFC West brethren Seattle, San Francisco and Arizona, going 9-10-1 with Fisher as coach. But outside the division, the Fisher record is 13-20-1.
That’s awful. That needs to change. Now. Four of the next five games will be played beyond the borders of the gates of the NFC West. If the Rams want to pull themselves out of mediocrity and become a winning team and a postseason presence, it’s time … it’s past time.
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Agamemnon
