Tell me why. Why?

This is not a well coached group of players.

58 penalties, tied for 3rd. These penalties are huge momentum turners. It happened again Sunday.

Tavon on special teams. Doesn’t it seem that this guy always calls for a fair catch inside the 10 on a punt? He did it again on Sunday.

the miscommunication on the last play. All this bullshit is lack of coaching.

They should have won the last 3 games but these guys are not well coached to do the little smart things to win games.

I can’t blame the playing calling too much, the Rams have had some decent time consuming drives while converting 3rd downs…although I was very surprised on the pass to Tavon in double coverage that was picked in the end zone only because they called the exact same play one play sooner when Quick mistimed the jump to make the catch…

Case hasn’t been too bad, bottom line though is he hasn’t been blessed with clutchness..he wasn’t clutch last year in Baltimore (concussion didn’t help) or SF, nor this year in any of the past 3 games where he was in position to deliver.

I think Case could be though, he fielded a bad shotgun snap to convert the 4th and 10 on the final drive and put the team in striking distance.

Needbetter coached players to close a game out. I think all RAMS fans saw that final play and thought WTF?

The Rams are there in talent, very close….Kicking and punting have been great, defense is solid, WR play has been very decent and starting to show signs of consistency, which will open up the running game.

Need better discipline and coaching to ensure the little things are done right to win these close games.

i’m also concerned about the turnovers given up and turnovers forced. defense can’t get any offense keeps coughing them up.

InvaderRam wrote:

i’m also concerned about the turnovers given up and turnovers forced. defense can’t get any offense keeps coughing them up.

Great point. turnovers have been the killer.

The good guys have been in every game except 1, and in those types of games the turnover at the critical juncture is the turning point and that’s been the demise.

CK has been a big culprit but TG has dropped it c acouple of times and TA gave the D a tip drill INT so…it’s been a team thing with CK leading the pack.

I think zooey’s original post was great. Great questions and commentary.

Personally, i dont have it all figured out. It seems there’s a different problem every week.
One week the D plays well but the O falters. Another week the O looks great and the D gives up too much. There have been times the running game actually worked, btw — in the first half at Detroit it was working.

I guess its a lot of things.
Out of syncness at times. Probly due to offensive changes.
Playing a quality back-up QB.
Quinn, Brockers and Hayes playing hurt or not playing at all (think about that one, long and hard),
Tru being out cost them big in at least one and maybe two games.
The Mystery of this OLine — who is GRob? Why cant they runblock anymore?
The Move also probably affected them in that first game, at least.
Flat-out Personnel weaknesses — Tavon’s weaknesses (bad hands) cost them big-time in the Giant game. Quick will never be Jerry Rice. Britt is up and down.

And then there’s Jeff Fisher. Its year five. What do we make of him and his coaching this year? I dunno.

They could easily be 5-2 this year if you subtract a pick6 here and a penalty there, etc.
But, ya know, we say that every year.

One peculiar aspect of all this is — this is not the team of the future. Whatever we say about this team, wont be true next year, cause this is the year of Keenum. And next year is the year of Goff. This is just an odd year, a transition year.

They can still be a lowlevel playoff team if they eliminate one or two dum plays per game, and if Quinn, Brockers, Hayes get healthy, and Tru comes back. They can still do it.

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sanbagger wrote:

Part of being a game manager is limiting mistakes…he has to be better with his decision making IMO.

I still look at all the games this year and they have been in every one of them except the niner game…this team is close and still not firing on all cylinders…tells me they are underperforming.

————-
Well said.

I’d also add, that ‘because’ they are not firing on all cylinders and underperforming,
there is hope. Cause those things can change.

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Zooey wrote:

Now, I don’t think Keenum IS the reason the Rams are losing, but I don’t know for sure. I don’t know what the calls are, and if he is going through his progressions, or just checking down to the safe stuff. In other words, I don’t know what he ISN’T doing, only what he IS doing. But I assume he is not just throwing 2 yard passes and ignoring open WRs 13 yards downfield. Because if he was doing that, the coaches would be pissed. So I assume he is more or less doing what he is asked to do, and it seems to me, that he is doing that adequately. As has been said many times, he is a good #2. Nothing more than that. He isn’t a strength, and he isn’t a trainwreck. He will be employed in this league for years to come.

You say a lot of things in that post I agree with. Basically, a solid running team with a good defense was going to get by with a game manager qb who didn’t have to carry the team.

And it has been the opposite. Keenum is stretched past his normal limits trying to carry a team that can’t run and has an up and down defense.

I will say this though. Keenum’s problems show up in the clutch when it all hinges on him to come back from behind. They were in that situation 5 times and won just 2 of them.

BUT in relation to the specific paragraph I quote, in spite of the shortcomings, no Keenum has done okay outside of those clutch, end of the game situations.

That’s really visible in the numbers.

IF you agree that they improved and changed on offense, at least passing, since games 1 and 2, then you see some startling numbers. They WOULD be ranked, for example, 5th in both 3rd down conversions and yards per attempt … pretty big milestones since they’ve been bad at both for a long time.

But I don’t make that about just him. The passing game has to be constructed, gameplanned, and game day called right for those things to work like that. I see CK as just effectively executing what they ask him to.

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Zooey wrote:

What?

Am I reading that right?

Throw out the SF and SEA games, and they are 5th in 3rd down and YPA?

Yes. You read that right.

Third down conversion percentage.
First 2 games: 22.2%. So bad it is below the current 32nd ranking.
Last 5 games: 46.2%. Last I looked that would be 5th.

YPA.
First 2 games: 4.13. So bad it is below the current 32nd ranking.
Last 5 games: 7.8. Last I looked that would be 5th.

BTW, and I don’t have a first 2/last 5 breakdown on this, here’s another stat. “Big passing plays” of 25 yards or more (this metric includes RAC, it’s not all “ball in the air only.”) On this stat, Rams are tied for 3rd in the league.

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