The piece by Sam Farmer hit me right in the feels. I love that Stafford is the Rams quarterback. What a remarkable performance last night.

Ronnie Rivers! I meant to ask when he was expected to return. I couldn’t even remember if he was gone for the full season. I had liked how he was progressing before his injury, but now I have come to appreciate the big back that Freemen is. I haven’t thought about Zach Evans for a long time.

Zooey wrote:

zn wrote:

‘Gosh dang, I can’t believe that you made this throw,’” Kupp said.

Wow, I had no idea that Kupp has such a potty mouth.

That made me laugh.

zn wrote:

Okay, so, Rams took Baltimore to overtime, which no one expected. Last week they beat the Browns, who at the time had the #1 defense but were starting Joe Flacco. This week the Browns, with Flacco at qb, beat the 8/4 Jaguars to make them 8/5. Lawrence started for Jacksonville.

Hopefully the playoff committee takes that into consideration with their rankings this week.

The usual shaky spots had a hand in this loss. The young secondary and special teams have had me watching some games through my fingers this year. A inconsistent pass rush isn’t doing the db’s any favours but we’re some costly blown coverages in this game. The special teams since Fassel left has reminded me of the special teams under Martz, minus Jeff Wilkins, so worse I guess. Hopefully, a lot of these problems are related to the youth and these experiences will result in some big wins in the future. On a positive note, Davis Allen looks like he might be a gem,  and Puka  and KyrenWilliams just keep on impressing. I sure appreciate meaningful football in December after my expectations in August. Shoutout to Demarcus Robison as well.

My prediction for the Rams back in August was 3 to 5 wins, so they have officially exceeded my expectations for the season. The Rams offense seemed dead in the water during the middle third of the game. That could have been because of Nacua being out for some of it, but the multiple false start penalties didn’t help either. That said, the Rams didn’t give up a sack all day, so there is something to be said about that. Stafford got bailed out on a couple of potential INTs, one of which looked like a pick 6. The Rams secondary looked vulnerable on both of the Browns scoring drives. Seems like a healthy offense with a quality quarterback should be able to inflict some damage against this unit. Yeah, they only gave up 19 points though, so I guess I should be happy.  This season has gone better than I thought it would. I love Puka Nacua.

nittany ram wrote:

Short, stocky, not very fast, but shifty

.

Yes, shifty. Before the injury Williams was having a great season based on his work inside the ten yard line alone. He just seems to find the smallest of creases to work his way across the goal line.  A huge weapon when the Rams are in scoring position. If the Rams can get him consistently rolling outside of the redzone, things will get exciting.

“Instead of feeling happy, I feel sort of let down.” – Charlie Brown

After yesterday’s loss the Rams would currently pick 9th in the draft. Arizona has the first pick.

https://www.tankathon.com/nfl

Zooey wrote:

That’s kind of a bleak outlook. I think they will win more than just that game. They will beat AZ, probably. I think they have a better than 50-50 chance of beating the Commies and Giants. 50-50 to beat the Packers, Saints, and Seahawks (they just own Seattle the way SF owns them). They should lose to Dallas, but Dallas has a way of getting in their own way. Ravens, Browns, Niners…losses. I still think they are going to end with 8 or 9 wins (which is what I thought before the season started).

Well the Rams certainly have been competitive in every game so far, and that’s why I’m not calling this season a disappointment. So perhaps they can snatch a couple of more victories along the way. I just won’t be expecting it to happen  on those game days

“I wear black in the outside because black is how I feel on the inside.” – Morrissey

• This reply was modified 1 year ago by canadaram.

Zooey wrote:

The Rams are 15-10-2 all time against the Steelers. They started out 12-1-2 against them. The Steelers have owned them since the Super Bowl. Last time the Rams beat the Steelers was 20 years ago.

I was about to correct you and remind you of when Torry Holt had that huge first half against the Steelers in Pittsburgh and the Rams won with relative ease. Then I remembered where I was living when I watched that game.  Then I remembered in what year I was living there.  Then I realized that it was in fact 20 years ago. Then I got depressed.

I love to see a solid running game. They seemed particularly effective running to the right side. One specific moment where not running the ball seemed costly in the first half was the drive where Nacua had his endzone drop. Williams has repeatedly proven himself a weapon deep in the red zone. I assumed that a run was coming, but instead it was all passes and the Rams had to settle for the FG. I had a sense of impending doom at that moment.

I also had an uneasy feeling after the Kupp TD. Arizona was moving the ball easily through the air on their next drive. Kendricks had another big penalty to help them out. Seems like a weekly thing with him. Thankfully, Dobbs bailed out the Rams and Rozenboom was able to hold on to that ball. Ernest Jones is having a very good season.

The Rams have already reached the low end of my 3-5 win season prediction window.

zn wrote:

Highlights: Kyren Williams’ Best Plays In His 106-yard Game vs. Colts In Week 4

zn wrote:

Highlights: Kyren Williams’ Best Plays In His 106-yard Game vs. Colts In Week 4

I understand that that highlight package was to showcase Williams’ offensive output but I would have added his blitz pickup on Stafford’s TD pass to Nacua. Stafford got the ball out so quickly that the block may not have been needed but Williams stood in there and got trucked by the Colts defender. Definitely slowed him down though. I’ve moved from being unsure about Williams to being a huge fan.

Zooey wrote:

canadaram wrote:

Of all the Rams teams that I had no expectations of, this might be my favourite ever. Love the young guys. Love Stafford. Great to see a 100 yard rusher again. Williams is a TD machine inside the ten. A fun, fun win.

That’s an interesting comment. If this team has a rival in this regard, it’s ’99. So it’s been a long, long time since I had a team exceed expectations as much as this team has. I thought they would be better than everyone was saying, but this team is giving glimpses of playoff potential. I was hoping for .500. Like Nittany said, there’s a lot of talent. More than I hoped for with so many youngsters in the starting lineup. This is an all-time great draft, by the looks of it. Nacua and Avila are off the charts for rookies, and they’re getting help from Young, Turner, and some of the 2nd year guys. They are ahead of schedule in their refurbishment, that is certain. Today’s weakness seems to be penalties. I haven’t looked at the stats yet, but it sure seemed to be a problem. Welp. This is going to be an exciting season, not just an interesting one, looks like. Let’s catch Philly by surprise next week.

Pretty silly of me to forget 99 and the low expectations that I had then. That would be the gold standard. Maybe I forgot about my low expectations after Green went down. I don’t know what I was thinking.

This is definitely looking like an all-time great draft. To hit on multiple players on both sides of the ball is rare indeed. Great job by the coaches in developing these guys.

Forgive me if this topic has previously been discussed,  but one thing that just dawned on me – not sure why it took this long – is that the Rams follow up this MNF road trip with an away game in Indianapolis. I don’t care how weak the opponents may or may not be, that’s a tough test in the NFL.