The fact that Rams seldom win in DC makes this a big game.

It will not be an easy game at all this week. McCoy threw for three TDs and almost 400 yards in their defeat against the Colts. At this point the Rams are 2 or 3 point favorites. Pretty close. Could be a tight game. Rams D better be ready.

It’s big like every NFL game is big. And, no road game is a gimme.

I don’t expect a rout, but I do expect the Rams to show that they can win on the road against an inferior opponent. It’s time.

wv wrote:

Dak wrote:
It’s big like every NFL game is big. And, no road game is a gimme.

I don’t expect a rout, but I do expect the Rams to show that they can win on the road against an inferior opponent. It’s time.

At Wash
Arizona
NYGiants

That road game and those
two home games are about as
“winnable” as games come in the NFL.

So, we’ll see.

w
v

I think so, too. Which probably means they’ll lose 2 of 3.

Really? Colt McCoy?

I think this Rams D-Line would like to beat that dead horse…

CwutIdidthar?

This was ugly. New Year’s Day massacre….They just beat Dallas in Texas the week before, then got killed in DC.

Those 80’s Rams teams rarely had playoff games at home.

The Redskins crushed the Rams by scoring on their first five possessions to build a 51–7 win, the largest margin of victory in any game in their team history.

Washington drove 65 yards in eight plays on their opening possession, including Joe Theismann’s 29-yard completion to Charlie Brown on third down and 5, while John Riggins rushing six times for 23 yards and scoring with a 3-yard touchdown run. Five minutes later, quarterback Joe Theismann threw a 40-yard touchdown to receiver Art Monk. An interception by Anthony Washington then set up kicker Mark Moseley’s 42-yard field goal with less than a minute left in the first quarter. Then early in the second period, Nick Giaquinto returned a punt 48 yards to set up a one-yard touchdown run by Riggins to give the Redskins a 24–0 lead with nearly 14 minutes left until halftime.

At this point, LA finally managed to response with Vince Ferragamo’s 32-yard touchdown pass to Preston Dennard, cutting the score to 24-7. But this was as close as it would get, as the Redskins added two more touchdowns before halftime, a 21-yard catch by Monk and a 1-yard plunge by Riggins.

Moseley’s two field goals were the only scoring in the third quarter. Then in the fourth quarter, defensive back Darrell Green intercepted Rams quarterback Vince Ferragamo’s pass after it bounced off running back Eric Dickerson and returned it 72 yards for a touchdown.

Riggins recorded 119 yards and three touchdowns. Theismann completed 18 out of 23 passes for 302 and two touchdowns with no interceptions. Brown caught 6 passes for 171 yards. Meanwhile, Ferragamo was limited to just 20 of 43 completions for 175 yards and a touchdown, with 3 interceptions. And Dickerson, who led the league in rushing during the regular season, was limited to only 16 yards on 10 carries, and 9 yards on 6 receptions.

Mackeyser wrote:

Here’s hoping the Washington team is in the middle of dysfunctional mess with Gruden maybe bailing out and the Rams win in a rout.

It REALLY would cause the NFL to take notice if the Rams won two routs in a row…

I could live with that.

I would bet on the Rams this week. I never bet. But, if I did, I think the Rams would be worth a wager.

Coming from me, that’s saying something. It’s not easy or natural for me to actually predict a positive outcome. Indeed, I am experiencing waves of superstitious doubt. Make a prediction about the Rams and you doom the lads to failure, right?

But, it’s time. Barring a catastrophic wave of injuries, I think this team takes a step tomorrow. I think they play up to their ability, not down to the weakness of the opposition. More importantly, they win a game that matters.

It doesn’t matter a lot. It’s a very small step. But it’s the sort of step over which they have consistently stumbled and crashed over and over again in the last 2.7 years.

See, they have a chance to win a 2nd game on the bounce against a bad team, a game which would get them within 1 game of .500 against a vulnerable division leader. Next week, especially on Thursday night, would be the real test of whether this team was learning to win meaningful games.

But to get to next week, we need to beat a bad WASH team. OAK was bad, and we smoked them. But WASH is different. Not because of WASH. But because it would be 2 in a row and a step toward near-relevance. Under Fisher, we have repeatedly shown that we can win the odd game in isolation. We have never, however, shown that we can win connected games leading to competitive relevance.

I think tomorrow we take that small step leading to the bigger step against AZ. I think things are set up well for us and against WASH. I think we’ll get it done.

I don’t think it will be enough for this year. We dug too deep a hole in Weeks 1-4, and then in KC, AZ and SD. We ain’t going to the playoffs this year.

But there is no earthly reason why we can’t be at least a .500 team. We ought to aim, seriously aspire to, 9-7. Honestly. We OUGHT to do that. If Fisher’s vision and program are leading to anything, then it should be that.

OK. So let’s do it. Last week was nice, but it was not a chance to build something. It was just a one-off. This week? This week is a chance to actually build something …

Fish … Williams … Schotty …

Players …

You can do this. So do it. We expect nothing less than success tomorrow.

LOL! I always keep my money in my wallet.

In 1969, I bet a classmate on the Ram-Viking playoff game. 50 cents!

I hated how it felt losing that bet. Hated it. I haven’t bet on an outcome of anything since.

Rams are 3-3 at home, and 2-4 on the road.

But then they only played one losing team on the road. Tampa (2-10).

They beat SF (7-5).

They lost to Phil (9-3), KC (7-5), ARZ (9-3), and SD (8-4).

So the average record of teams they played in their road losses is 8.25-3.75.

Washington is 3-9.

Their qb situation is infamous. But they have a very good OL, plus good weapons even if D.Jackson doesn’t play–Garcon and Morris.

Their defense is another Haslett paradox–11th in yards, 27th in points.

But still, that 11th in yards is deceptive. In their last 4 games their defense has averaged:

1.75 sacks ( extrapolated, would be ranked 25th)
1.75 turnovers (would be ranked 11th)
30 points (would be ranked 32nd)
388 yards (would be ranked 30th)

In some respects, it’s like they are the reverse mirror image of the Rams last 4 games on defense.

Though they remain a darn good rushing defense. If anything, in the last 4 games, they have gotten better. If you look at the 12 games average, they ranked 9th on rushing defense. But in the last 4 games, if you extrapolated their numbers, they would be ranked 3rd.

Denver ranks 2nd and the Rams ran on them, but that gets us back to the issue of road games…..