zn wrote:

RedAlice Week 10: Monday Night Football! Dolphins at Rams The 3 week winning streak has given us life … onto getting the 4th win. Dolphins are currently 2-6, but they gave the Bills some troubles last week before losing the game. Rams are only 2.5 favorites at home. Rams have played the Dolphins 14 times and have only won twice (1976 & 2001).

The Dolphins should have beaten the Cards and the Bills.  They outplayed both of them, in which case they would be 4-4 and right back in the hunt like the Rams are.

Now, at 2-6, the pundits are saying their season is over, but I doubt the players feel that way.

The Rams have lost to far worse Dolphin teams than this one.

Zooey wrote:

nittany ram wrote:

So YOU’RE why Trump won. I agree. I don’t know how you fight the system when it has so much influence and power over every aspect of daily life. This has to be unprecedented. No society in history has been under this much control while not realizing they are under control. Like you, what bothers me the most is the effect this is having on the environment. Propelling the “6th Extinction”. However, I get some relief knowing humans will be dead before the planet is. Earth will get the last laugh

I dunno what you mean by “the planet.” I think in 100 years, give or take a coupla decades, the only living thing on this planet will be those freaky things that live on the bottom of the ocean along the volcanic vents. We are headed for a hard reset.

Well, yes, we have the ability to ruin things for us and the majority of the creatures most similar to us, but as Stephen J Gould pointed out, we couldn’t destroy all life on Earth even if we wanted to.  Life (even higher life forms) have survived global catastrophes greater than we can bring about.  We are here indirectly as a result of the last one.  And ultimately, our efforts would destroy us before we could exterminate everything else.

Yea, wv is right, it isn’t possible to fix what end stage capitalism has wrought, and the long term outlook for the ecosphere is pretty bleak, but I think zn is right too.  In the short term, Trump’s victory is going to make things much worse, especially for the poor, minorities, women, immigrants, etc.

wv wrote:

Is there a throw that better exemplifies the essence of Stafford, more than that one? The gunslinger. Ice-water. Assassin. Reckless. Pinpoint power-accurate. Stubborn. Tough. I wish some football expert would go over the details of that pass. The TD will get all the press coverage, but the pass to TJ was as interesting a play as the Rams will have all year.. w v

Someone on twitter quipped that if Mahomes had made that throw, there would already be a one-hour televised special about it on NFL network.

I watched the Commanders/Bears game.  The game was sorta ho-hum until the 4th quarter when the Bears finally woke up.  The Commanders were in front the entire game but with 22 seconds left the Bears took the lead.  Then the Conmanders won it on a Hail Mary.

Caleb Williams struggled until the 4th quarter when he finally found his rhythm. He looks like he will be special.
Jayden Daniels already is.

Kupp responds to trade rumors:

Cooper Kupp comments on rumors that he could be traded by Rams

The Rams look ugly, but, if there is a positive in that, they usually force their opponents to look ugly too.

They’ve lost to some of the best teams in the NFC – the 5-1 Lions, 5-2 Packers, and 4-2 Bears…which one of those teams looked particularly impressive against the Rams?  They uglied their way to victories over the extremely talented, but weirdly inconsistent 9’ers, and the hapless Raiders.

The only team that looked great against them was the Cardinals, but that was a case of Kyler Murray taking out years of frustration against a Donald-less team that didn’t look ready to play.

That said, they could easily get rolled by the Vikings this Thursday.  But I wouldn’t be surprised if they got enough ‘ugly’ on the Vikes to make the game competitive.

Defense is stinky-poo.

Two rookies that had been struggling had their coming-out parties against the Rams.

Hard to know how much of this can be laid at Shula’s feet.  Secondary is horrible and I’m sure it wasn’t his call to trade Earnest Jones.

Zooey wrote:

I can’t help but think about all those redshirts swaggering into “Levi South” and gloating for the first 57 minutes of the game, only to have drive 6 hours back to SF stewing on that finish and the $500 they spent to attend the game. A couple more victories in LA for the Rams, and the 9er faithful will be more reluctant to make that trip.

I think most of those redshirts live in LA.

The Rams next four games are against the Cards (away), 49ers, Bears (away), and Packers.  Assuming there are no more injuries to key starters, they could go 3-1 against that schedule, especially if Jordan Love can’t play.   The injuries have been catastrophic but it isn’t panic time yet.  After the bye they could still be sitting at 3-2 with all/most of the starters back facing a very bad Raiders team.

Proud of the way they battled given all the adversity.

I hope Puka, Noteboom, and Avila are able to play next week.

Zooey wrote:

wv wrote:

From the vid — …with all the talent, (Kittle, Purdy, Shannahan, Deebo, Aiyuk, etc) the 49ers had, they went 0 and 3 without Trent Williams. 12 and 2 with him. With him they scored 32 points a game. Without him 17 points a game. Both Kimes and her guest agreed Williams had a serious claim to being the NFL MVP. w v

Top Secret Update from my incognito position, deep in the heart of 49er territory: On the flagship radio station this morning, there is some serious concern. Trent Williams is the glue, decidedly. They broke down all the other OL on the 9ers, and apart from Williams, the belief is that the OL is resembling the OL that Russell Wilson suffered behind in Seattle. While they value Aiyuk, and want him back, they don’t think his absence sinks the season. They do think that no Trent Williams = Lost Season. Here’s the situation: Williams has no guaranteed money on his contract. Unlike Aiyuk, Williams is not making a scene. He’s in Texas. He’s told the 49ers that that is where he will be until he gets a new deal. No fanfare. Nothing. But the way Williams sees it, he’s the best LOT in the NFL, and he should be paid that way. The wrinkle is that the 49ers are going to have to give Purdy $60m/year at the end of this season, and Williams – with no guaranteed money – is an easy cut because ALL of his money would be freed up. No cap hit. So that’s his position, and not surprisingly, he doesn’t find that situation acceptable. Signing Williams is going to cost some other guys on the roster, though (next year). Bottom line is that the window is closing on this group, and a rebuild around Purdy is on the way. And they have a shaky OL heading into this season. For those of you who don’t know much about football, shaky OLs are not helpful.

I don’t think that Purdy is going to get that kind of money.

He has great numbers because he’s a decent QB benefitting from Shannahan’s brilliance and the elite talent around him.

But Purdy himself isn’t elite.  He’s a coached-up Case Keenum.  He isn’t worth top shelf QB money.

Maybe the Rams would be more interested in extending him if they didn’t have Hacksaw Speights in their back pocket.

“Out of town” is code for “court-mandated community service” no doubt.

Congrats, Mack.

Billy_T wrote:

Thanks for the concern, folks. I had some health stuff to deal with, and am still in recovery mode. Not going to post a lot here or elsewhere for a bit, but may throw in my two cents about the draft down thread. Hope all of you are well.

Get well, BT and please don’t be a stranger.