Open air is also necessary to keep the Dome a viable facility for non-football functions. A new dome would be in direct competition with the old one, making it obsolete and financially unsuccessful.

Grits,

I cannot remember, after Los Angeles was awarded an expansion team in 1997 how did they end up losing it to the now Houston Texans?

I really enjoy reading Elmore Leonard’s westerns, and the Virgil Cole ones by Robert B. Parker are good too.

Thanks ZN. All of this is giving me Alzheimer’s.

I tend to be optimistic, so I look forward to next season. But I am concerned about the o-line. I think with a solid o-line they are a playoff team because we have good RBs and WRs that can get open. But who will they have next season? Long and Wells are probably gone, maybe Joseph too? Robinson had some tough moments this season. Will he improve enough to be a good LT? How well will Saffold recover from shoulder surgery? Barksdale played all 16 games but wasn’t great. Will he be back? Should he be back? We don’t know much about Person, Barnes, Jones.

The Rams quite possibly could have only Robinson and Saffold back for the starters. And neither one of them are reliable linemen. One because he is still learning and the other because he is often injured.

zn wrote:

OahuRam wrote:
other teams found their QBs (Seattle) and rebuilt their OLs (Dallas) so Fisher has to be held accountable for not having done that to this point. He also has to be held accountable for the faux-toughness. The trash talking and cheap shots have to go. McDonald almost decapitated Gaines yesterday because he was trying to layout Beckham when the pass had already been made incomplete.

I agree about the trash-talking. I feel exactly the same way.

On the OL? They signed Long, they signed Wells, they found Barksdale, they drafted Jones, they drafted Robinson. Both Long and Wells played fine when first signed. What they encountered was a series of injuries. Demoff has even said that OL injuries are the Rams achilles heel. Because of injuries, Long is done, Robinson is at LOT instead LOG as a rookie, and Saffold Wells AND Joseph are playing banged up. And Jones is no use to them because he had back surgery and lost muscle because he could not lift after the surgery.

And they didn’t have to find a qb, they had one. He then became the 1st qb we have ever heard of in all NFL history who injured the same ACL in under 12 months.

I thought they would have won yesterday even with the banged up OL because Hill, though he started shakey, settled in. So I don’t think qb was the issue yesterday. They lost because of a rare special teams turnover and then a regression into the “blown coverages” scenarios from earlier in the season.

I hear you ZN but there were concerns about those signings when they happened, so it was Fisher and Snead’s choices to go with who they got. It was often said that the Rams got ‘inexpensively,’ and the Dolphis let go of, Long because of injury concerns. My buddy that is a Packers fan chuckled when I told him we signed Wells. Barksdale has not had a good year this season. Why draft Jones if he has to “bulk” up, and then the bulking up led to him getting hurt and needing back surgery? The Raiders apparently knew what they were doing in not signing Saffold because of his shoulder. So I understand that the Rams have been unfortunate with all the injuries, but they chose all of these guys despite them all having question marks. So the Rams have to shoulder some of the blame.

Regarding yesterday’s game. In the moment I was very unhappy but know that the turnovers prevented the Rams from having a chance to win. Now I could argue that the turnovers, although unusual, were commited by questionable personnel that the Rams chose to have on their team. T. Austin has been a major disappointment to me and his missed catch was just another example to me that he cannot play in this league. Cunningham has been a good KR so I cannot really fault him too much for his fumble. He has been pretty good with ball security since that phantom fumble he had last year.

For QBs, yes they had their QB but it could be argued that despite Bradfor having good numbers last season he still was not winning enough games. He was not a difference maker. He still needs to prove that he can be a reason they consistently win. I like Bradford and want him to be a 16-game starter for the Rams next season. But up to this point he has not proven himself. I think they should have had a better back up plan for the future. For comparison it will be interesting to see what the Cardinals do with QB this offseason because Palmer now has had 2 ACLs.

I don’t know. I have not really thought much about this game since we have been eliminated and we have no chance at a winning season. I suppose it would be nice to see the defense bounce back and stop the run. It would also be nice to see if someone can step up and start projecting toward “difference maker” status. For example, it is great that Bailey shows flashes of becoming a dependable receiver but it would be great if he could start making plays that win games.

• This reply was modified 10 years ago by OahuRam.

PA Ram wrote:

The Rams can still get the Wild Card if Seattle, Detroit and Philly all finish 9-7. Go play with the playoff machine: http://espn.go.com/nfl/playoffs/machine

The Rams can still get the Wild Card if Seattle, Detroit and Philly all finish 9-7. Go play with the playoff machine: http://espn.go.com/nfl/playoffs/machine

Yeah, I watch every game. Even when it gets really bad.

zn wrote:

I don’t see this team as “bad.” I see it as astonishingly unlucky. For example, not every team has had a 2011 to cope with–and Football Outsiders said the 2011 offense was the single-most injured offense since 2002 (which is as far as they went back).

So not many teams have a 2011.

This one has had two, within 4 years.

That’s just freaking weird heavy bad, bad luck.

The effect is the same as “being bad.” But still.

It’s… the curse.

–

With the injury argument I will give you the thumping we will take for the rest of the season. But not games 1-6. Bradford and Long were the only ones missing. We got good QB play from Davis so Bradford’s injury was covered. Unless you think losing Chris Long made them lose all those games, I don’t think we can use the injury bug to explain the first 4 losses

• This reply was modified 10 years, 1 month ago by OahuRam.

I am concerned about this. Charles look like Marshall Faulk right now.

Good stuff Mike. Thanks.

zn wrote:

To me there is a main culprit here. Team psyche. Now…that gets close to “psych 101″ posts but I don’t know, I think I have a feel for this particular issue. You can tell if a group has a “mental issue” and I think this group does.

Let’s assume for a sec that the bad call on Cook started them down the slippery slope. Interesting, did you notice that after that call Cook started just sucking as a player? Whole 2nd half. So did the bad call undermine them? If it did, and I think it did, that’s bad. A good, solid, veteran team with confidence overcomes setbacks like that.

So that to me is the key. This is a team with fragile confidence. Mistakes have killed them even though they knew they could have had a couple of games. When confidence goes, so does steady play.

The Rams need a dramatic win to give them team confidence. The paradox of course is that lack of confidence undermines them.

I dont know. They got the three big wins last season and it did not last or carry over to this season. Why do you think that is? Is it because of the turnover in QBs?: Bradford, Clemens, Bradford, Hill, Davis?

The other thing I like is the pass distribution. Davis completes passes to many different players each game. I think that is a good thing. I hate the drops though.