Rams situation now, according to Wagoner, Gordon, and others

Gordon: Rams must salvage season, credibility
• By Jeff Gordon

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The Rams have 15 weeks to prove this regime is not as hapless as the clown shows that preceded it.

Experts are understandably skeptical. The Rams just opened Year 3 of the Jeff Fisher/Les Snead era by taking a 34-6 beatdown from the Middling, er, Minnesota Vikings on their home field.

ESPN ranked the Rams dead last in its Week 1 power rankings, behind the Browns, Jaguars and Raiders. That designation was richly deserved.

Long shot Austin Davis is working with the first-team offense these days with Sam Bradford eradicated by another knee injury and back-up Shaun Hill hobbled with a quadriceps strain.

Defensive end Chris Long is off for surgical repairs on his ankle. His reign as Iron Man is over.

He hopes to return later this season, but when? His recovery could take eight to 10 weeks.

Given the fierce competition within the NFC West and the Rams’ daunting schedule outside the division, there is ample reason for pessimism as the Rams prepared to play at Tampa Bay.

“We’ve got a huge challenge,” Rams coach Jeff Fisher said after Wednesday’s practice. “We’ve got a similar set of circumstances, although the Bucs made a comeback late and had a chance.

“Nonetheless, both teams lost home openers. As coach (Buccaneers coach Lovie Smith) says down there, they’ve got a lot to improve on, as we do.”

The Rams talked about their team “24-hour rule,” requiring them to let go of a loss (or victory) and move on to the next challenge. But that easier said than done after Sunday’s meltdown.

“You want to remember how that felt,” middle linebacker James Laurinaitis said after Wednesday’s practice. “You never want to have that feeling again.”

The Rams did make some plays against the Vikings. It’s not like they got bullied from start to finish. They did not suffer endless physical abuse and humiliation, as previous Rams teams have done.

But they committed myriad blunders in most game facets, often at most inopportune times. This is a young team, true, but most of the core players have been around for a while.

There was no excuse for much sloppiness, especially at home after months of preparation.

“Everybody continued to make mistakes,” said William Hayes, who steps in for Long as the starting left defensive end. “The game wasn’t as bad as the score was.”

Yeah, well, we’ve heard that talk before from Scott Linehan and Steve Spagnuolo when they were hopelessly overmatched as head coaches.

Back in the exciting Mike Martz Era, got the “shoot, we’ll fix that” line week after week as the Greatest Show on Turf slowly deteriorated. (Alas, stuff did not get fixed.)

If the Rams can’t win some games and develop some more good young players, here are some of the questions we could be asking in December:

• Given Bradford’s injury history, why didn’t the Rams use one of the many good draft picks to draft one of the many high-end young quarterbacks in the 2014 draft?

• Why have the Rams invested so much money in veteran free agents that were either slowing down (Cortland Finnegan) or broking down (Jake Long)?

• Why hasn’t Tavon Austin become a big-time offensive weapon like so many of the receivers taken behind him?

• Why have the Rams had more luck drafting running backs late in drafts (Daryl Richardson, Zac Stacy) than in the middle of drafts (Isaiah Pead, Tre Mason)?

• How could this regime go into its third season with so much inexperience in the secondary behind the impressive front seven?

We could go on and on, but you get the point. The Rams will have a shot at winning at Tampa Bay, if they clean up their act.

They should compete against the Dallas Cowboys at home, based on how America’s Team looked in Week 1.

The bye could give them an early chance to regroup. But then their schedule turns ugly, putting Fisher and Co. on the spot.

Will the Rams have a powerful running game by then, taking some pressure off of Hill and/or Davis?

Will new defensive coordinator Gregg Williams have the Rams attacking from every angle to break down offenses?

Will the Rams consistently protect the ball, eat clock, avoid penalties and use their special teams to tilt the field against their foes?

We shall see. The journey from losing by four TDs at home to playing stout, mistake-free football against elite competition is long and difficult.

But that is the road awaiting a regime that arrived with great fanfare and then struggled to fulfill its vast promise.