neither Detroit nor the Rams are favored… right now this is a pick em game….. Hard to believe that Detroit is not favored by at least 6 points with 10 days rest facing the Rams offense

I wonder what the odds makers see? Can Case throw a 65 yard A-Rod hail mary…. just as important, do the Rams have anyone that can catch it?

BTW, the Rams have only beaten the Lions once since moving to STL….do you guys remember the Gus Ferrotte 4th down TD completion during the magical 1999 season? …. that one still hurts me…….it was right after the comeback that never was in Tennessee……..at least Kurt Warner won Marshall’s heart during that game…(Zooey, is that your Taje Allen reference?)

URL – http://www.stltoday.com/sports/football/professional/early-preview-rams-vs-lions/article_c68361eb-c536-5ffb-9162-cc424ac09108.html

COMING THIS WEEK

The Rams (4-8) will try to snap a five-game losing streak when they host fellow underachiever Detroit (4-8) in a noon game Sunday at the Edward Jones Dome. The Lions, who finished 11-5 and reached the playoffs a year ago, started this season 0-5 and 1-7. After three straight wins, they fell 27-23 to visiting Green Bay on Thursday on a 61-yard pass from Aaron Rodgers to Richard Rodgers on an untimed play to end the game.

PLAYER TO WATCH

Defensive end Ezekiel Ansah. Born and raised in Ghana, ‘Ziggy’ was cut twice by the Brigham Young basketball team and was with the Cougars’ track team before being persuaded to give football a try. Five years later, he’s one of the most disruptive young players in the NFL. At 6 feet 5 and 278 pounds, he possesses a mix of power and speed that few in the league can match. Selected fifth overall by the Lions in the 2013 draft, the 26-year-old Ansah has 12½ sacks this season — only Houston’s J.J. Watt (13½) has more — and he’s tied for the league lead with four forced fumbles.

HE SAID IT

“Hindsight’s 20-20,’’ Lions head coach Jim Caldwell said after the Packers rallied from a 20-0 third-quarter deficit to win in Detroit on Thursday.

Questioned about the defensive strategy on the game’s last play, Caldwell explained that he was expecting a lateral play instead of the desperation pass. On the play, the Lions rushed three, had Ansah, their best pass rusher, positioned near the 40-yard line and failed to employ 6-foot-5 receiver Calvin Johnson as a defensive back, something he’s done in the past.

“We had plenty of guys back there,’’ the coach said. “We just didn’t make the play. They did.’’

INJURIES

The Rams came out of Sunday’s 27-3 loss to the Cardinals with cornerback Janoris Jenkins and tight end Lance Kendricks in the league’s concussion protocol. In addition, safety T.J. McDonald hurt his shoulder and kicker Zach Hocker injured his quad in pregame. And then there’s defensive end Robert Quinn (back), cornerback Trumaine Johnson (thigh) and kicker Greg Zuerlein (right hip), who were unable to play on Sunday.

The Lions appeared to come out of Thursday’s gut-wrenching loss to the Packers without any significant injuries. They did play that night without starting center Travis Swanson and veteran receiver Lance Moore because of ankle injuries.

SERIES HISTORY

The Rams hold a 42-40-1 edge in a series that began in Cleveland in 1937. Since the move to St. Louis in 1995, the teams have met seven times, but just once — a 41-33 Rams win in 2006 — in St. Louis. The Lions are 4-3 against the Rams since 1995 and have won the last two, 44-6 in 2010 and 27-24 in 2012. In the 2012 season opener, the Lions’ Matthew Stafford shook off three first-half interceptions to throw the game-winning TD pass with 15 seconds to play.

Joe Lyons

NFL Lines For Week 14 – NFL Football Line Week Fourteen
NFL Line 12/10 – 12/14, 2015

Date & Time Favorite Line Underdog Total
12/10 8:25 ET At Arizona -7.5 Minnesota 45.5
12/13 1:00 ET At Cincinnati -3 Pittsburgh 49
12/13 1:00 ET Buffalo -1 At Philadelphia 47
12/13 1:00 ET At Carolina -7.5 Atlanta 46.5
12/13 1:00 ET At Cleveland -1.5 San Francisco 41
12/13 1:00 ET At Chicago -3 Washington 44

12/13 1:00 ET At St. Louis PK Detroit 41

12/13 1:00 ET At Kansas City -10 San Diego 45.5
12/13 1:00 ET At Tampa Bay -3.5 New Orleans 50.5
12/13 1:00 ET At Jacksonville -1 Indianapolis Off
12/13 1:00 ET At NY Jets -7 Tennessee 43
12/13 8:30 ET New England -3 At Houston 45
12/13 4:05 ET At Denver -7.5 Oakland 43.5
12/13 4:25 ET At Green Bay -7 Dallas 44
12/13 1:00 ET Seattle -9 At Baltimore Off

Monday Night Football Line

12/14 8:30 ET NY Giants -1.5 At Miami 47

• This reply was modified 9 years, 4 months ago by joemad.

Dak wrote:

Mistake after mistake after mistake.

I think that’s why I would be OK with moving on from Fisher. Let’s see if someone else can change the culture. I hate to do it again. I like continuity. Hell, I’d love for some continuity … but Fisher’s been here long enough to get a good idea of what he’s about. And, it’s always about inconsistency.

Penalties, penalties, penalties…. they had 100 yards in penalties AGAIN yesterday……….. Fisher’s team has NO discipline.

a statistical beat down by the Cardinals.

29 first downs for Ariz, 9 for the Rams….

and it’s all down hill from there….. WOW….

I saw that. Made me sick. I wonder what Kurt would say if the Rams made it back to Prime Time Thursday and faced the Cardinals?

BTW This GB vs Det game has me thinking about the Foles pre and post GB game thread… Packers haven’t fared much better than Foles since the Ram game in Lambeau

As I recall no one was putting those games on Foles. For example, if Kendricks had held on to the ball against the Steelers, Rams would have won.

Correct, penalties also a huge factor…… not many people pinned those on Foles, but Foles is not the guy go out to make a thrown to win a game or even manage a win…… he needs flawless execution from everyone for that to happen, as it did vs AZ and Sea… it also happened in GB and Minnesota but Foles did nothing to win those… he lost them…. but I can’t have it both ways, I feel if he played in Baltimore, or at least in the 4th quarter, the Rams win vs the Ravens……I was looking forward to see what Case had to offer in Baltimore, but after seeing him, I wanted Foles back….. Now I want Bradford back even more….

When I was growing up in central PA during the 70’s, the Rams weren’t highly regarded by a lot of people. I’m sure this was mostly due to the fact that we never got to see them play. On those rare occasions when we did get to see them they were usually losing a playoff game. The perception was they couldn’t win big games, so they garnered little respect. People had the impression that the Rams padded their record against the weaklings in their division (Falcons, 49’ers and Saints) and then were exposed in the playoffs. Of course,

1) Just like in the 80’s where you could predict the Lakers and Celtics would be in the the NBA finals, you could easily predict the divisional winners in the 1970’s NFL
2) The Rams had weaklings in the divsion, but so did the Vikings, and the Cowboys, as did the Raiders, the Steelers, and the Dolphins….. Folks tend to forget that there was football in Green Bay after Bart Starr and before Brett Farve, and it wasn’t very good. Bob Avelinni was the best QB the Bears had before Jim McMahon, and the most famous QB the Lions had during the 70’s was Alan Alda and who could forget the winless Bucs……… Same goes for the Giants and Eagles in the NFC East, Same with the Patriots, Colts, and Jets in the AFC East, same with the Oilers, Browns and Bengals in the AFC Central…..they were not very good teams for the majority of the 1970’s…

Sure, every once in a while, Air Coryell would work in STL and SD, but Tommy Prothro in SD and Gene Stallings in STL were not exactly Tom Landry…..

But, it doesn’t matter anyway: The only thing the owner is interested in right now is how he can get out of St. Louis. I wouldn’t think he’d change the head coach or GM until after he can make a move.

I think you’re correct on 2 points:

1) That was Stan’s M.O. in Denver with the Nuggets… kept George Karl for about 10 years… i think Stan likes stability at HC.

2) I think he likes Fisher to help manage a potential move like Fisher did when he replaced Jack Pardee in Houston when the Oilers moved to Tenn…..At this time, Stan’s priority is his potential real estate empire in LA to attract furture $$$$$

Jeff Fisher doesn’t cut it as a head coach in the NFL…..

Happy Birthday SD… I hope the boat is running well enough to troll for some monster fish!!!

Gurley never had a breakaway run; his longest carry was 7 yards, and the Rams did not seem likely to win under those conditions. They seemed even less likely while getting Gurley 6 carries over most of the second half of a game they should have been putting away.

I didn’t realize Gurley only had 6 carries in the 2nd half…. You’re up 13-3 in the 4th quarter, you need to get more than 6 carries to your feature back in the 2nd half.

Lance Kendricks (2-43) got wide open on the backside of a fake rollout play and put the Rams up 13-3 with a 30-yard TD catch…..The TD call to Kendricks was a sweet one I think Josh McDaniels ran a few times here. Fake play-action rollout, come back to the TE on the backside.

That play has worked well this season for the Rams, when they’re able to actually execute it…..

Cignetti definitely caught them expecting pass and got that drive off to a good start. Despite those moments, this just wasn’t a cohesive gameplan. Don’t get away from plays that work and keep going back to plays that don’t. Seems like that should be Coaching 101.

other than not utilizing Gurley with a 13-3 lead in the 4th, I’m not sure you can blame Cigs much… I mean, what plays can you call when your QB is in spaz panic mode and not throwing anything close to a completed pass during most of the 2nd and 3rd qtr?.. what exactly can you call when your QB is overwhelmed playing like that? Case did not look anything close to decent QB… very disappointing that this is the depth they have a QB…..horrible QB play this season

what was the substance that Bailey was suspended 4 games for?

TSRF wrote:

Thank god!

When I read the title, I thought I was going to find out he hurt his back in practice.

I had the same thought….

RAMS 25
BEARS 18

What was the substance that got Baily suspended.

Can Welker play QB?

this offense on 3rd down is horrible.

Just punt on 3rd down please, Hekker has a better chance at converting a 3rd down with the special teams unit than Foles does with the offense.

Foles doesn’t cut it……

it all depends on who the RAMS get for these draft picks.

I wasn’t happy when the Rams drafted Bradford, but he won me over his rookie season (ROY) and moreso in 2012. Right before he got hurt in Carolina, he was having a great season……

Only 5 starting QBs have a lower completion rate that 60% and Foles is one of them. Foles passing attempts is one of the lowest in the league, that’s why and his sack percentage is higher than Bradford’s.

I think Foles is not the long term answer….. I hope I’m wrong.

In regards to thinking if Bradford would have survived the Green Bay game, Foles certainly didn’t, I can’t remember seeing a Rams qb play that badly.