Zooey wrote:

Fascinating how you leave the 1970s Rams defense out of that. Have you been drinking?

It’s about knowing your audience.

What would 9’er fans like you and wv know about the 70’s Rams defense? I’m surprised it was even in your rather tiny orbit.

I couldn’t use a 9’ers defense as an example of a defense that could completely stone an offense, because they never had one.

So I did the best I could.

Kudos for mentioning the great Rams defense of the 70’s, though. It demonstrates a knowledge of football history that rests squarely on the rudimentary level which is much higher than I gave you credit for.

The announcers mentioned that the Rams ‘utilize’ their TEs less than any other team. I presume they meant that they throw to them less than other teams throw to their TEs.

Many pundits including Rams podcasters and reporters seem to be of the opinion that TE is a weakness for the Rams.

Maybe they aren’t a weakness so much as McVay just likes to use use them differently.

Goff outplayed Rodgers in an ‘away game’ environment.

I’ll take it.

The Packers were in a dime defense for most of the game.

In an effort to slow the Rams’ offense down, defenses are loading up against the pass and inviting the Rams to run.

And it’s been working to an extent, but the Rams have been able to overcome it eventually. I wish the Rams were more effective running against it early though.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 5 months ago by nittany ram.

Zooey wrote:

Is Green Bay the biggest game so far?

I’m thinking…probably not. They are about as capable of beating the Rams as the Vikings and Chargers were, and they are coming off a bye week. But I think the Vikes and Chargers – neither of whom have lost since the Rams beat them – are probably a notch better than Green Bay.

The Rams should win. But they should win every game. I mean…they will be favored in every game the rest of the season in the betting line.

A win sets up an 8-0 team going into New Orleans. That would be some kind of story.

I am in favor of that scenario, so put me down as voting Yes on that.

I don’t think Green Bay is very good. If they had a normal QB I think they would be in the bottom 1/3 of the league.

But they do have Rogers so they’ll be dangerous.

But I wouldn’t be surprised if the Rams won fairly easily.

LOL the weekly pendulum swing of emotion. Fans are so reactionary. The calls to fire Shanahan and Lynch because the team is losing in the wake of all those injuries are so ridiculous. They’re music to my ears but they are so over the top…

The team has been competitive in every loss sans this one, fer chrissakes.

zn wrote:

nittany ram wrote:

After today, the names Goff and Brock may forever be entwined in Rams lore as symbols of gridiron dominance and supremacy.

Well I’m not that big on football history, but, it seems to me the 85 Rams relied less on Brock than they did on that Dick Erickson guy. The running back. The one who got 1000 yards.

You’re thinking of Derick Ickerson, whose bizarre short-stepped, foot-dragging running style was nicknamed the ‘Icky Shuffle’.

I’ll let you in on a little secret. He never existed.

He’s a myth, like Bigfoot or The Beatles.

He was a story invented by unscrupulous front office execs who wanted to undermine Dieter Brock’s legendary status so they could install their sycophant, Jeff Kemp at QB.

Okoronkwo is wearing number 45?

You can’t be an effective edge rusher with a lame number like that.

OLBs should wear a number in the 50s or 90s. Never 40s. What? He thinks he’s some sorta’ full back or safety?

If he can’t demonstrate better numbering aesthetics than that, I have little hope Okoronkwo can be the player the Rams need him to be.

If they leave LA I doubt they would go Anaheim. They would run into the same issues they have in LA there.

I doubt they move to any other country either.

I doubt they move at all.

Sorry, but John Lithgow is no Herman Munster.

The​ announcers were too​ dim-witted to notice​ but​ the Broncos​ wisely​ letting Todd​ Gurley​ run​ the​ ball up and​ down the​​ field resulted in the Rams being below average in scoring points.

I wondered about this during the game. I remember Belicheat talking about how they wanted the Rams to run in the Super Bowl. I remember him saying that they felt if Marshall Faulk got over 100 yards, then the Pats would have a chance.

What made me wonder about that was that for all the success Gurley was having on the ground, then play action should be working, but it wasn’t. Whenever they showed a replay of one of Goff’s incompletions it seemed like every Rams receiver was locked up with a defender. Play action passing isn’t going to be effective when the defense ignores the “play action” part – which is what a defense can do if they aren’t vested in stopping the running game.

So, what do the Rams do if other teams try to limit their scoring by giving them the running game and taking away the pass?

Then they need to take what the defense is gives them. Run it. But scoring TDs in the redzone becomes more of a priority, so McVay can’t be as impatient as he was against Denver. And the defense needs to get off the field. They have to tighten up the pass defense.

And that might not be as difficult as it seems.

I don’t think the Rams pass defense was that bad against Denver. Hill gave up a coupla big plays, but that last Denver drive to get to within three points never should have happened. A Denver receiver committed a blatant pass interference penalty against Hill that the refs completely missed. Then there was the phantom facemask penalty on Countess, and the bad interference penalty on Shields on what was arguably an uncatchable ball. The Broncos likely don’t score if they weren’t aided by those bad calls and non-calls.

The biggest problem with the Rams pass defense is the lack of a pass rush. Sure, Donald and Suh are great at hurrying the QB, but the QB just rolls away from pressure and finds a receiver. They need to find an edge rusher that can keep the QB in the pocket. Hopefully Ogbonnia Okoronkwo can help. The fact that Matt Longacre sees extensive playing time as an edge rusher is an indictment of the talent the Rams have at that spot.

I saw this movie yesterday. I agree completely with your take.

Here there be spoilers…………….

PA Ram wrote:

My only negative comments center around the emotion of the film. It is not emotionally gripping because the protagonist is not emotionally gripping. The film is still stunning in its own way, but it lacks the attachment to character that “The Right Stuff” and “Apollo 13” had and there is very little or no humor. I do wish the film had opened up a bit to include a bit more Buzz Aldrin. He seems like he may have been the more interesting character but it isn’t his story and he’s just a minor character in a story which he obviously played a major role.

Still, it is a fine film–the best I’ve seen this year in terms of drama.

It’s a long film but I didn’t mind it. I thought it flowed well enough.

As I said–this is the missing film in the space race trilogy and it was needed.

After seeing the movie, I watched a NASA historian’s take on the film, because like you, I was puzzled by the lack of emotion expressed by Armstrong in the film. I mean, yeah the guy was said to be stoic, but c’mon, how can you not express emotion given what he was experiencing?

The historian didn’t really like this aspect of the film. SHe says she has read every flight transcript of every NASA mission, including all those with Neil Armstrong, and she said the film overplayed his stoicism, especially while in space. The film also didn’t show the camaraderie that existed among the flight crews. These guys weren’t necessarily friends on earth but in space there was a camaraderie that existed among people whose lives were in each other’s hands. This is evident in the flight transcripts, which show Armstrong joking around with his crewmates.

The other flaw is the long silent interlude that Armstrong experienced on the moon when he dropped his daughter’s bracelet into the crater. It was a moving scene, but it never could have happened. According to the historian, there was hardly a moment while the astronauts were walking on the moon that their helmet radios wouldn’t have been filled with chatter from Mission Control. They were only going to be walking on the moon for a short period and there were many questions to be answered and a lot of work to get done. The radio chatter was by design. NASA was afraid the astronauts could become overwhelmed by where they were and what they were doing, so they were constantly talking to them to keep them focused and on task.

On the other hand, my wife saw an interview with Armstrong where he said the decent to the moon in the lander and walking on its surface was rather dull, so… maybe the film does have Armstrong pegged. 🙂

PS…the historian said the best film that shows what astronauts were like as people and how they interacted with each other remains Apollo 13. She wasn’t sure why First Man chose to depict Buzz Aldren as an insensitive asshole. She said he was/is nothing like that.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 6 months ago by nittany ram.

Even if they go 3-3 against the highlighted teams on that schedule, the path to having HFA throughout the playoffs is wide open to them. The Saints schedule is tougher IMO.

Barring injury, they’ll have to really choke to mess it up.

The Non-GMO Project is a for-profit organization that awards the rights to display that label to any company that’s willing to pay for it.

Even when its a product that contains no genes, like the water pictured above. There’s even Non-GMO Project Verified table salt.

I do my best not to buy products that contain that ridiculous label, but it’s getting harder and harder to do so.