a coupla "time for Rams to do it" articles including one by Wagoner

Strauss: Progress not enough for Rams now

• Joe Strauss

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/columns/joe-strauss/strauss-progress-not-enough-for-rams-now/article_2b1f21a2-500b-5200-988e-65378215fb9d.html

The Rams today throw open their third training camp under the regime of head coach Jeff Fisher and general manager Les Snead. Now, finally, it’s appropriate for this administration to measure itself against the rest of the NFL rather than the franchise’s sorry recent history.

The word “progress” is no longer a substitute for entry to the postseason. The Rams have reached the third summer of a three-year plan that leaves them one of the NFL’s youngest rosters but one that can no longer lean upon inexperience as a crutch.

“Your goal should be … win the division,” Snead said without hesitation Thursday. “Now you get into the tournament and that’s a different strategy. The key is to win your division. That’s a championship. You start there. You want to consistently compete for division championships.”

The Rams insist there are no advanced metrics that can state accurately where last season’s team would have landed had its starting quarterback been available for 16 games. There is no grid equivalent of baseball’s “wins above replacement.” What Snead calls “the ultimate team game” may lend itself to a coach’s grading system while proving resistant to much of the calculus that permeates baseball, an individual game disguised as a team sport.

Everyone should fully realize the Rams’ 7-9 mark in 2010 was illusory, a byproduct of a single-ply schedule that allowed a dysfunctional franchise to keep alive its playoff hopes until it lost to a backup quarterback on the season’s final Sunday. That Rams team stayed relatively healthy within a division that produced an 8-8 champion. Its coach was fired within 24 hours of the 2011 finale.

If that Rams team received undeserved benefit of the doubt, last year’s team should have heightened expectations. Missing Sam Bradford for more than half a season did not preclude a second consecutive seven-win season. The pass rush matured. Fisher’s return to a more ground-and-pound offensive philosophy helped avoid disaster after a 1-3 start. Movers and shakers could suggest rationally that a healthy Bradford likely would have been the difference in narrow home losses to Seattle and Tennessee.

Perhaps Rams fans felt they were subjected to bait-and-switch after the aggressive selection of West Virginia receiver Tavon Austin with the draft’s No. 8 pick. Fair enough as Austin became mostly a hood ornament on a vehicle that lost several gears. But Austin also conceded the playbook read like Spanish. No comprende. He said time serves as its own interpreter.

Rookie running back Zac Stacy was a forgotten man for four weeks then blossomed when Fisher ordered a more straight-ahead philosophy. Stacy’s average carry of 3.9 yards was negatively influenced by a makeshift offensive line the final weekend against Seattle. He gashed the eventual Super Bowl champions for 134 yards behind the A-Team at the Edward Jones Dome.

The Rams have made themselves even deeper on both lines. Offensive guard Greg Robinson may be something of a first-year project as he acclimates to pass protection, but he’s considered a road grader blocking for the run. Aaron Donald should offer immediate impact as an interior pass rusher after spending four years at Pittsburgh. The intriguing selection of Heisman finalist Tre Mason hints at a more diverse running attack. We’ll also quickly learn whether the receiving corps’ stalled development in 2013 had more to do with Bradford’s absence than misjudged ceilings.

No professional sport is more affected by schedule. The Kansas City Chiefs became a playoff team largely because of a soft-serve array of non-divisional cupcakes. Depleted by injuries as well as stiffer competition, the Indianapolis Colts were similarly exposed by the Rams, among others. The Seahawks, whom the Rams challenged with backup quarterback Kellen Clemens in late October, bullied the wet-legged Denver Broncos from the Super Bowl’s first snap.

Only the Carolina Panthers played a more challenging schedule than the Rams last season. The fact that the locals could go 7-9 against 137-117-2 competition without Bradford suggests they no longer be evaluated on a curve when whole.

Based on last year’s records the Rams face the NFC’s toughest schedule (.564) this season. Of course, the grown-up NFC West boasts the conference’s four most difficult schedules largely because of six cage matches against one another. If the Rams project themselves as a playoff team — and that expectation has taken root in Earth City — then another 1-5 record against the Seahawks, San Francisco 49ers and Arizona Cardinals is no longer acceptable. Their 4-1-1 record against those teams in 2012 offers proof.

“Looking at the data … we’re still going to be young. We should still spill a glass of milk,” Snead said, adding, “We’ve beaten all those teams. Our goal is to win the division. We’ve played San Fran. We’ve played Seattle. And we’ve played Arizona. We’ve beaten them all the last two years with these guys. All they’re doing is getting better and more experienced.”

Replicating the Cardinals’ rise from last place to 10 wins but without a postseason berth would not be its own reward, according to Snead.

“You would have a winning season, but at the end there would be some hollowness if that didn’t parlay into at least a tournament appearance,” he said.

Yes, the Rams again skew very young. They’re again a lock to rank among the league’s three youngest teams. Of 90 players in camp, 68 entered the league after Fisher’s January 2011 hire by the Rams. Of those, 24 were drafted by the current administration. However, youth does not equate to inexperience.

In the five seasons before Fisher and Snead arrived, the Rams were 10 wins shy of the league’s second-least competent franchise. Fisher and Snead stepped on fallow ground and initiated a roster turnover that made it almost unrecognizable by last July’s camp. Now there exists a shred of continuity and 14 wins the last two years. Legitimacy has replaced salesmanship. Hiring exiled defensive coordinator Gregg Williams brings baggage but also promises an identity.

The Rams are no strangers to an identity. For most of a decade they staffed a clown show with an endless string of punch lines. They now enter the third season of a confidently drawn three-year plan. It’s time for this regime to play against its own backdrop rather than the faded one of three rings, clumsy trapeze acts and carnival barkers. It doesn’t have to be The Greatest Show. But a January presentation would be appropriate.