our reactions to the Ravens game

Ramsfsninmd

My Game Day Experience: Rams vs. Ravens

I have been a Ram fan for over 40 years and always manage to make it to their games in Baltimore, only missing the 1996 OT loss to Vinny Testaverde to Michael Jackson in the back of the end zone in OT, 37-31. I was also there for the 22-3 drubbing in 2007 (I told my father in law before that game, “But RB Brian Leonard had 102 yards last week…” Rams dropped to 0-7. Good times. Then, Jeff Fisher’s snatching defeat from the jaws of victory against the Raven in 2015, 16-13. Ahhh…bliss…

Anyways, we left early (three hours before kickoff) and arrived at our parking pass area around 11am. I could not believe how many Rams fans were there. I saw probably 50 Aaron Donald jerseys. I even saw a color rush Greg Zuerlien (!) #4, some Goffs, Kupps (#10 and #18) and even saw Odell Beckham Jr’s parents come in through general admission. She was wearing a Mama Bear #3 Rams jersey with matching blue and yellow Nikes and OBJ Sr. had on a LSU OBJ, Jr. jersey. We could not catch up to them to chat. His orchestrating his son out of CLE was not exactly classy, but boy, he has breathed life into his sons career good or bad.

We grabbed some food and immediately proceeded to the field for warm ups. OBJ was all over the place catching passes, fielding punts, he really seemed happy. Cooper Kupp is big; much bigger than you would think. He is all business. Ben Skowronek is also a really big dude. Leonard Floyd came out alone, did some drills and that dude is BIG. Looks like a power forward. Big Whit came out by himself and walked around the perimeter of the field the whole way waving hi to the Rams fans. Johnny Hekker was punting and I can tell you he still has a leg. He kicked a couple 60 yarders with no trouble. He must be being coached to cover punt coverage deficiencies. John Wolford through a lot of passing drills, Matthew Stafford came out later; barely threw. AD99 and Ramsey came out late, AD was all business, Greg Gaines was also out a lot by himself. Ramsey seemed stoked. Jake Funk went to the University of Maryland and had a good time chatting with some UM fans who had a poster he posed in some cell shots. Couple guys gave their gloves to fans (Kupp, Von Miller came out and signed a few autographs). The Rams looked confident.

I won’t go over the game too much; most of you watched it and it is better on television as replays are huge and I will watch it later today. I did not even see the Rapp/Ramsey scuffle until halftime on my phone. I did notice Rapp and Ramsey were on opposite sides of the bench the whole second half with no interaction. Stafford kinda keeps to himself. He is not a rah rah guy. The Rams seemed into it, even though our seats were on the other side of the stadium from their bench.

I can tell you the fans were not into until the fourth quarter and it was LOUD. LOUD. I did not realize Stafford was 14/14/162/2TD in the second half. That is the difference between him and JG16. Goff would not recover from some boneheaded throws and a fumble. It looked like OBJ ran the wrong pattern on the pick six and the safety Chuck Clark broke off right away as he read Stafford’s eyes. I did not even see the finish of the return as I sunk into my seat with my son also putting his heads in his hands as the crowd went NUTS. The fans around us were nice, the guy behind me flew to this game FROM LA and his son was a huge Ravens fan with a Justin Tucker jersey and he was a die hard Rams fan.

I thought the defense did a good job except for the quick passes which are hard to defend (why Ravens OC Greg Roman went away from that is a mystery) and I did not think they held contain well on a few runs and on Huntley’s scrambles. That stop to keep it 19-14 was huge. The crowd was nervous as they knew it was a one possession game. The Rams D held their own and only gave up four field goals. I cannot complain about the D; they made the stops and were resilient. The Rams offense finally got their footing and it looked like in the final drive McVay decided deep throws over the middle was going to get them a TD. Stafford threw three darts to Tyler Higbee, Ben Skowronek and Kupp. DARTS. I did tell the fans around us that Stafford is scary deep in his own end (cue the pick six a few plays later) and how I hate the empty set (cue the fumble). That crowd was loud.

When they were getting the kickoff down 19-14, I turned to my son and the Ram guy from LA and said, “Stafford can make up for his mistakes right now.” My 14 year old could not believe how loud it was on that final drive and we were very close to the end zone where OBJ made that incredible fourth down catch and the TD. I have never heard a crowd go so quiet in person. It was amazing.

Our legs were still shaking when the Ravens had the rock with the best kicker ever, but the sack by Miller was HUGE and you knew it was over then. I don’t know how I did not have a heart attack, but a gutsy win (please read Peter King’s MMQB” piece today, a great feature on the Rams win).

It was an amazing day and I was so tired, I did not make to halftime of the GB-MIN game. What a day; Rams first win in Baltimore against the Ravens.