reactions to the Rams @Bengals game

2 things.

First, the offense started to struggle when Jackson went out.

Second, early, when they were moving the ball, they settled for FGs in the redzone because IMO they weren’t running the ball in the RZ. So Rams dropped from being 2nd in the league in touchdown percentage in the RZ

You got to convert those early red zone opportunities…you need to run the ball

Rams went into panic mode way too early. Only down 7 points with 10 min left in the game and they gave up on the run.

13 total rushing attempts. Stafford was clearly struggling, please run the ball….

I wonder why they gave up on the run so early? I think only 2 or 3 carry’s in the 4th qtr

Rams offense played stupid today. That OSK was stupid too…

The Rams did a lot to beat themselves in this one, including going 1-for-11 on third down and turning it over twice. Situational football was atrocious. https://t.co/4iYEdUoqfo

— Cameron DaSilva (@camdasilva) September 26, 2023

This looks about right:

Not sure there's much to come away from this game feeling good about:

– OL was dogshit
– terrible on 3rd down
– bad in the RZ
– no adjustments made to help OL/run the ball/stop getting picked on defense
– losing to a QB who cannot move
– untimely penalties

This is just ugly.

— Sosa Kremenjas (@QBsMVP) September 26, 2023

This is just a year where the smallest defiency will have massive effects. They’re young so not very deep.

But on this one a lot of it was coaching, I agree with that. As we know, McV can be inexplicably erratic at times.

zn wrote:

We knew the season would be up and down, but self-inflicted wounds shouldn’t be the reason for a loss.

Seems to me, on the contrary, that the youngest team in football will lose that way more often than not.

But this one felt more like actual wounds (Jackson). Losing Jackson changed the game (whenever that happened). The Rams won the first quarter, and the defense was solid throughout. Although Cincy won the TOP and ran 22 more plays than LA did, they scored only 19 points, and they got some lucky bounces.

Their defense (Cincy’s) deserves credit. They played well; they took advantage of Jackson’s injury, and they got more aggressive once there was blood in the water. I don’t understand why Noteboom didn’t take over at LOT (who did, btw? I never saw the guy, and the announcers didn’t seem to think it was important).

I hope Jackson is not seriously hurt.

(And SCREW this sh!t about needing to subscribe to 6 different streaming services in order to watch football! This is such BS. I actually broke down and bought youtube this year, and so far, it’s been of no use to me the first 3 weeks).

Zooey,

I agree about all those streaming services. Far too many. Twas, basically, a bait and switch for consumers.

Since you went with Youtube, did you also go for the Sunday Ticket?

As an East Coaster, without the Ticket, I’m back to the bad old days of seeing the Rams, perhaps, four games a year. When they’re a contender, it’s more, of course.

NFL Gamepass seems to have raised their prices. Hoping they discount soon for a partial season. Despite the likelihood of a tough year, I’d like to see the Rams more than a few more times in 2023 . . .

The Rams inexplicably went away from the offensive formula that worked so well against Seattle and SF.  In those games they stuck with their new power running game, even though it wasn’t always working. They were patient.

Against the Bengals they were impatient They pressed.  Even though going into the game Cincy had not been good against the run, they wouldn’t stick with it – especially in the RZ.

Then lineman started getting hurt and it was game over.

wv wrote:

I think Cincy is a very talented team, despite their record, and they wanted it bad.

I agree with that. Cincy is a very good team, and they needed this game in a bad way. They were bound to come out laser-focused, and nobody on that team was going to relax and take a down off. They gave it everything they had, and they won.

And even so, the Rams had the upper hand until Jackson went AWOL.

Zooey wrote:

I am under the impression that YouTube IS Sunday Ticket now. I don’t know what Gamepass is. I don’t know what anything is. I’ve always watched over local broadcasts, or streamed it from Moldovia, or something. I hate this. When I was a kid, I used to pull in 3 different stations that would broadcast games, and they had local control, meaning that different stations in the same network did not necessarily show the same game. It was up to the local station. So I saw the Rams every week. And there were still plenty of commercials, and I believe everyone involved still got fed. But now, you know, you’ve got Kirk Freaking Cousins pulling in $40 million/year, so that money has to come from somewhere. All of which you know. Everybody knows. And I hate it. I wish games were pay-per-view, I guess. And that’s not a sentence I ever would have said at any time in the past 40 years, but this sucks.

Apologies if you actually do know all of this:

Sunday Ticket is an add-on. Google purchased it from the NFL for a coupla billion, if memory serves. So they actually increased the price tag (for customers) over what it was when DirecTV had it, which was how I accessed it in the past. Google, via Youtube, is charging something like $300 for the service, on top of what you’re paying for the regular streaming TV, which, I think, is $70?

Before AT&T bought DirecTV, I could count on getting the Sunday Ticket for “free” every year. I’d just call into Retention and say I was cancelling the regular TV service, and we’d haggle a bit, and then they’d give it to me for free. Again. It wasn’t a bluff, so I thought that was fair. I was perfectly willing to follow through and cancel, fer real, etc. AT&T did that for a coupla years, too, but then stopped allowing it, so I dropped the service altogether.

So, basically, you can have Youtube streaming TV and not get the Sunday Ticket. If you have the Ticket, your bill is gonna be $300 higher, give or take.

Billy_T wrote:

Sunday Ticket is an add-on.

It’s also a Stand Alone. I bought the Sunday Ticket (for about $250 during the Spring “sale” period), but I don’t have the basic YouTube tv streaming service. Maybe I would get ESPN if I did? I dunno.

So far I haven’t used my YouTube subscription, so I’m not going to resubscribe next year at full price.

yeah. what everyone else is saying still frustrating though. hopefully jackson isn’t out too long and kupp isn’t out more than four weeks.

Other thoughts:

The announcers kept saying they needed to help Thomas out at LT, and that never seemed to happen. I’ve been calling for the Rams to use extra linemen for years . . . at least an extra TE. They needed to do that and run the ball more . . . but, given what we’ve learned about Williams’ excess snaps, they really need to mix in other backs.

Disappointed that Zack Evans hasn’t even suited up. Thought he might potentially surprise this season, in a positive way.

Also wish the Rams could find a battering Ram runner. Just get bigger, more physical, create mismatches all over the place. Can’t help but see the current team as a bit too light, and not powerful enough. Want them to dominate, across the board. Not finesse it. Avila is a nice step in that direction. But they need to make that happen all over the place.

I don’t think the Rams have ever surpassed the dominance on the O-line and front seven from the late ’60s thru the early ’80s. On D, especially before the Deacon left, etc . . . but they were really tough all through the ’70s.

Back then, they were usually one play-maker short of winning it all, or a QB. But in this century, it’s usually been the trenches where they fell/fall short.

Hope I live long enough to see a return to ’60s, ’70s, and early ’80s physicality.

Well they missed Jackson.

But then…think about what that means, in terms of the Rams finding Jackson. They held SF to 1 sack. Bengals got 6. The Cincy DL may be as good as the SF DL but it’s not better.

With Jackson the Rams stand a chance. And he was a UDFA. They found a solid starting LOT as a UDFA.

So, even the darkest hurricanes can contain a silver thread.

Now…hope he’s back soon.