wv wrote:

Is Atlanta just a better team?

I only saw hi-lites. Didnt see the game. Looked like Atlanta just played better.

w
v

Partly. The game-killer was the 2 fumbles on special teams. Put them behind from the start. They struggled to come within distance, and the offense was going against a very tough defense, and the defense was getting dragged down into TOP hell. In a lot of ways it was the Minnesota game again.

Ellard80 wrote:

The more I think about how people (including myself) weren’t really giving much value to experience.

I didn’t look up all the exact numbers but.

only 3 2nd year QB’s have won a super bowl (warner, big ben, brady). No rookie QB has ever won a super bowl.

Only 2 first year coaches in the history of the super bowl era have ever won one. (2 in 50 years)

We had a great young team.. but if you really look at it reasonably it almost never happens.

It also makes me realize what a miracle team the 1999 team was.

Rams weren’t ready for all that happened when the Coliseum lights came on

VINCENT BONSIGNORE

link: https://www.dailybreeze.com/2018/01/06/bonsignore-rams-werent-ready-for-all-that-happened-when-the-coliseum-lights-came-on/

LOS ANGELES — It was bound to get weird. That much was a given.

A Saturday night in Los Angeles. The sun long set over the Pacific Ocean. A dark, cloudless sky ominously hovering above to create a sinister, menacing atmosphere.

L.A. after dark, y’all. Yeah, it was bound to get weird. And it didn’t take long before the bizarreness began to unfold.

Or for the Rams to figure out it was going to take more than the electric atmosphere provided by the biggest and most engaged crowd of the season and all those trips down memory lane, as one former L.A. Rams great after another was paraded onto the field, to overcome all the weirdness.

Not to mention the experienced opponent standing proudly across from them in the defending NFC Champion Atlanta Falcons.

When the sun went down and the bright lights turned on and curtain lifted and the strangeness commenced the Rams, well, were nowhere to be found.

Not in the way we grew used to in the remarkable turnaround season they provided us with this season, anyway.

All of which came to an abrupt, screeching halt Saturday night in a bitterly disappointing 26-13 loss to the Atlanta Falcons in which the Rams never quite found their way out of the darkness.

Todd Gurley rushed for more than 100 yards on just 14 carries but, oddly, never even seemed a factor.

The normally spectacular Rams special teams uncharacteristically contributed two killer turnovers on punt returns, resulting in two first quarter scores for the Falcons and a hole the Rams could never quite dig out from under.

Pharoh Cooper, the Rams Pro Bowl punt returner, muffed one punt and coughed up another.

He’s been steady all year while emerging as a dynamic weapon in the Rams return game. On Saturday he looked like a wide eyed youngster.

“I’m sure he’d like to have a couple of those plays back,” said Rams head coach Sean McVay.

Jared Goff, so poised and efficient during his bounce back from suspected rookie bust to second-year Pro Bowler struggled to complete 24 of 45 passes for 259 yards and just one touchdown.

McVay, who masterfully stayed a step ahead of the posse all years with his game planning and play calling, could never quite figure out how to consistently generate positive yardage on early downs. The result was far too many off schedule second and third situations in which the Rams had to gobble up too many yards to keep the chains moving.

A defense that played proudly and fiercely all season was unable to come up with desperately needed stops as the Falcons marched down the field on two time-consuming second half drives.

The two scoring drives resulted in just a measly pair of field goals, but the Falcons erased more than 12 minutes from the clock while building a 19-10 cushion.

And by the time they tacked on a fourth-quarter touchdown, their lead was 23-13 and the Rams, essentially, were done.

It will take an entire offseason to figure out why and how a team that marched through the regular season while dropping more than 30 points on almost everybody they faced stumbled about all night like a guy trying find his way to the bathroom out of a pitch-black bedroom.

Only to stub his toe, bang his knee and slam head first a couple of times into the wall.

Was Inexperience a factor?

It’s hard to just dismiss it.

Only six players on the Rams have ever spent time on a playoff roster, none of them named Goff or Gurley or Robert Woods or Sammy Watkins or Cooper Kupp or Aaron Donald. Their young core, one of the greenest in all of football, had never experienced a winning season before this one, let alone stepped onto a stage as big as the NFL postseason.

But that sounds more like an excuse. Especially with the equally playoff inexperienced Tennessee Titans — who the Rams decisively beat two weeks ago — strolled into Kansas City earlier Saturday and beat the Kansas City Chiefs.

The fact is, the Rams just happened to pick the worst possible time to play their worst game of the year.

“I don’t think this game was too big for our players,” said McVay said.

And he’s absolutely right.

Nevertheless, it would be a double waste of this remarkable season if the Rams don’t reflect back on the moment and not grow from it.

“These are all learning opportunities and examples we can draw,” McVay said.

The Rams are built to last, and as set up as anyone to carve out a nice future for themselves. They didn’t go out this year and rent a bunch of veterans to help get L.A. excited about them in their second season back home.

They have a young core that, provided everyone stays healthy, should be around for quite some time together. Their coach is the youngest in NFL history. And while Saturday was certainly an end of sorts, more than anything it seems like a step along the way the something special.

To better insure that, the Rams must learn what just happened.

It got weird. That was to be expected when the sun set on Los Angeles on a Saturday night.

But the Rams just weren’t ready for it.

The hope is, someday soon they will be.

#LARams LIVE: Jared Goff Postgame Press Conference https://t.co/f0i8kOIhmk

— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) January 7, 2018

Pro Football Focus‏@PFF
Aaron Donald led ALL defenders in total pressures!

Myles Simmons‏@MylesASimmons
Donald played 14 games in 2017.

Alden Gonzalez@Alden_Gonzalez
Really curious about how my own playoff inexperience will cost ESPN today.

Rams are expecting something in the neighborhood of 73,000 and 75,000 fans today. It'll be a season high, and it'll be made up almost entirely of Rams fans. Doesn't seem like too many Falcons fans made the trip.

— Alden Gonzalez (@Alden_Gonzalez) January 6, 2018

Almost no red and black on the Coliseum concourse today @CVRamsClub pic.twitter.com/LZKfjBFYUa

— Joe Curley (@vcsjoecurley) January 6, 2018

InvaderRam wrote:

we have no clue what is going to happen in the future.

gurley has maybe 4 good years left in him if he’s lucky.

any long term success will be dependent on goff, and we still have no clue how good he can be. he could be a flash in the pan.

we also have no idea how mcvay will turn out. this league is littered with “offensive geniuses” who fizzled out as head coaches in a few short years. i’m still waiting for mcvay to become a complete head coach.

we’ll see.

I think everything you say is true, but, I probably have more longterm faith in McV than you do at this point, based on what he has already done. I think he IS a head coach and a good one. I think he has all the right instincts. I already like him better as a HC than (to limit it to the guys who were not simply 2/3 years and done) Robinson, Martz, Fisher, and Knox II. He could be Vermeil’s equal if not surpass DV. I don’t even mean just in terms of winning. I mean just in being a head coach, a leader and big decision maker. I think he’s Captain Kirk except not played by Shatner.

Also, as a nomad, I have to say…VB’s big stadium love is lost on me. To me that stuff either doesn’t register at all or, sometimes, I think of it in a negative light as something whose entire value system I don’t share (be bigger, shinier, be Jerry Jones and then some). I also imagine that most Cal fans probably don;’t feel that way, so folks should just look at this from me as just a vote in an informal poll, not as a gauntlet throwdown.

Who They’re Picking — Rams vs. Falcons

Kristen Lago

http://www.therams.com/news-and-events/article-1/Who-They%E2%80%99re-Picking-%E2%80%94-Rams-vs-Falcons/a224b040-9b09-47c6-9036-b1e79302e900

The Rams are just 24 hours away from welcoming the Atlanta Falcons to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for this year’s NFC Wild Card round. Los Angeles will be making its first playoff appearance in over a decade and will be looking to keep things rolling after an incredible 11-5 season.

And with the playoffs just around the corner, we took to the sports media landscape to figure out who the top sports analysts are picking in Saturday’s contest:

Bleacher Report: Rams

Prediction — Rams 27, Falcons 24

“No one in the NFL is as hot as Los Angeles Rams running back Todd Gurley following two incredible performances against the Seattle Seahawks and Tennessee Titans to close his regular season. Now he faces an Atlanta Falcons team that hasn’t fared well against pass-catching running backs. Per Football Outsiders, Atlanta ranked just 21st of 32 NFL teams in DVOA (defense-adjusted value over average) against running backs through the air.”

CBS Sports, Pete Prisco: Falcons

Prediction — Falcons 5.5 at Rams

“I think the playoff-experienced Falcons can go on the road and win against a Rams team with little playoff experience. So if you are going to give me that many points, I will grab them. In fact, I am calling the Atlanta victory as they run on the league’s 30th-ranked run defense when it comes to per-carry average. Upset special.”

NFL.com, Elliot Harrison: Rams

Prediction — Rams 28, Falcons 20

“Taking the Rams at home in what should be an entertaining Saturday night game. While these defenses are fairly even (slight edge to Atlanta), the Rams’ multi-barreled attack will be too much.”

Pro Football Talk, Mike Florio: Falcons

Prediction: Falcons 27, Rams 23

“The Rams are believed to have wanted to slide to No. 4 on the playoff tree, so that they’d face the Panthers instead of the Falcons this weekend. It didn’t work out that way. The Rams may be the best team playing this weekend, but they also may be the home team most vulnerable to losing. If the Falcons can hold a fourth-quarter lead.”

Pro Football Talk, Michael David Smith: Rams

Prediction: Rams 32, Falcons 21

“The Rams have been perhaps the most fun team in the league this year, with exciting young players on offense and defense, not to mention an exciting young coach. It’s a shame that they still haven’t really caught on in Los Angeles, but maybe a playoff win will do the trick. They should win this game handily, as they’re a better team than the Falcons on offense, defense and special teams.”

Yahoo! Sports: Rams

Prediction — Rams 31, Falcons 26

“Over the last six weeks the Falcons have given up 23 points or fewer in each game; that included two games against the Saints and single ones against the Vikings and Panthers, all potent offenses. The irresistible force of the Rams offense — led by Todd Gurley, who led the NFL in combined rushing and receiving yards — should still be too much.”

New York Times: Rams

“The Rams got an M.V.P.-caliber season from running back Todd Gurley II, and when he was not chewing up yardage as a rusher and receiver, quarterback Jared Goff stretched defensive backfields with a receiving corps led by Robert Woods, Sammy Watkins and Cooper Kupp.

The Falcons playoff experience might overwhelm the youthful Rams, but more recent performances suggest the Falcons will be overmatched.”

ESPN.COM Analysts:

Prediction — Seven out of 10 ESPN NFL analysts picked the Rams to win the NFC Wild Card round.

Downtown Rams@DowntownRams
Rodger Saffold beat out by Andrew Norwell and only by one vote for 1st team All-Pro. But yeah no need to put him in the Pro Bowl or anything.

Playoff experience won’t matter when your Head Coach is a wizard. I think the @RamsNFL are gonna be just fine b/c their Head Coach is SPECIAL!! @LATimesfarmer @DowntownRams #larams #RamsNation @jacobu @ArashMarkazi @RamsNationNFL pic.twitter.com/Rs9iMwIztE

— Dan Orlovsky (@danorlovsky7) January 3, 2018