wv wrote:

Zooey wrote:

I hated them because they deliberately tried to injure opponents.

I’m pretty sure every defensive player was murderous back then. Deacon. Butkis. Lambert. Mike Curtis. Tatum. Etc.

Luckily, America has become a kinder, gentler nation.

w
v

I think that’s probably true. Plus we’ve since had Bountygate, and it seems probable that other teams beyond the Saints did similar shit and just got away with it, unlike Payton. That’s another reason my hatred for the Raiders faded. As a kid, I just assumed NFL players were “playing football” the way I played it. And that illusion was stripped from me over time.

Zooey wrote:

It has allowed an explosive kick or punt return in four straight games, the latest leading to Grupe’s injury.

This, to me, is by far the biggest problem with STs.

wv wrote:

Perhaps they will run the ball and outscore the Raiders.

And maybe Garrett will be back in 2 weeks, and Kobie will be back in 4 weeks, and Adams will be back in 6, and maybe the Rams win all those games anyway, and they get a wild card, and run the table.

Personally, that’s what I hope for.

But so far the season resembles a moon rocket that hits an iceberg in outer space.

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/rams-2026-schedule-2-4-start-super-bowl-hopes/

Rams face historic Super Bowl challenge after stunning 2-4 start, but schedule offers path back
By Carter Bahns
2m ago
•
4 min read
When the Los Angeles Rams put together the most impressive offseason of any team in the NFL, it would have taken an extreme amount of imagination to picture them opening the year at 2-4 and sitting in last place in the NFC West. The Rams were preseason Super Bowl favorites by a hefty margin, but just six weeks into the campaign, they find themselves forced to overcome historically long odds in order to deliver on those expectations.

No team in the Super Bowl era has won its conference after opening the season with a losing record through six weeks. Not only do the Rams have a losing record, but they are two games back from .500 at 2-4.

Winning the NFC was once a Super Bowl prerequisite that many expected the Rams to accomplish without much pushback. Now they would carve their name into the history books if they achieve it.

The volume of talent on the roster is ample enough that nobody would bat an eye if the Rams caught fire, rattled off a prolonged winning streak and peaked at the right time on their way to a championship. The coaching staff is as heralded as they come, too. Nearly all of the pieces are in place, and the ones that are not — like Myles Garrett as he works his way back from knee surgery — will be in due time. This has the makings of a loaded team that simply has not yet gelled, and once it does, it could be a monster that obliterates everything in its path.

At the same time, Los Angeles stands at the bottom of its division for good reason. Its special teams EPA is the lowest in the league, and its kicking woes were directly to blame for the Week 5 loss to the Buffalo Bills. Matthew Stafford regressed noticeably from his MVP form, leading to a sharp downturn in explosive plays and general offensive consistency. The pass rush clearly misses Garrett, because the defense’s sack rate is the sixth-lowest in the NFL. There are real discipline questions, too, as penalties and turnovers rear their ugly heads.

The Rams cannot turn their season into a success over the next month (they can only do so by pulling off the historic run to the Super Bowl), but these next four games will determine whether it is a complete failure or if they can turn things around.

Rams’ remaining schedule

The most difficult stretch of the 17-game slate is complete. The Rams’ schedule was always projected as front- and back-loaded with a soft filling in the middle. That central part is even cushier than anticipated, and the home stretch seems nowhere near as grueling as it looked on paper heading into the year. Even with three of their next four games coming away from home, they will be sizable favorites in each of them. Taking care of business would put them at 6-4 entering the bye week.

Week 7 at Raiders Winnable

Week 8 vs. Chargers Highly winnable

Week 9 at Commanders Winnable

Week 10 at Cardinals Winnable

Week 11 BYE

Week 12 vs. Packers Toss-up

Week 13 vs. Chiefs Losable

Week 14 at 49ers Highly losable

Week 15 vs. Cowboys Winnable

Week 16 at Seahawks Toss-up

Week 17 at Buccaneers Winnable

Week 18 vs. Seahawks Toss-up

Once the Rams emerge from their week off, they face a handful of division title contenders. The Packers and Cowboys have glaring issues but remain well within striking distance of the NFC North and NFC East leads, respectively, and beating them will be critical in the Wild Card race. And, of course, the divisional rivalry games against the 49ers and Seahawks could be where the NFC West is won or lost.

Resetting expectations for Los Angeles

If the Rams continue to play at the same level they performed in Weeks 1-6, they cannot be trusted to even beat their overmatched opponents in this favorable upcoming four-game stretch, let alone the more formidable squads that line the back half of the schedule. They deserve the benefit of the doubt because of the supreme talent on their roster and Sean McVay’s track record as a superstar coach, but they had better correct course during this next month of advantageous matchups, because their goodwill is running low.

Success from here on looks like this: Stafford pulls out of his slump as he faces more manageable competition, Garrett returns before the bye week and uplifts the defense as he nears midseason form and the revitalized units mask the unfixable problems on special teams.

If those elements come together, the Rams should be in ideal shape to attack the back half of their schedule and clinch a playoff spot. Once they reach the postseason, all bets are off. It becomes a one-game season, and their talent will stack up favorably against anyone they see.

The Super Bowl is still an attainable goal, but there is a reason no team in this position has ever won it. The difference between the Rams and those who came before them, though, is that this is as stacked of a roster as the league has ever seen. If anyone is capable of pulling off the turnaround, it has to be them.

Grupe ACL. Out for the season.

Grupe on IR.

Can’t post well atm bc I’m on my phone.

Probably everyone already knows this – and it doesn’t much matter to Rams fans at this point – but Jalen Hurts is out for the season. They found more blood clots in both lungs. Hopefully, he will follow in Jackson’s footsteps and recover.

How the Rams are trying to ‘eliminate bad football’ and fix special teams

By Nate Atkins

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles Rams special teams coordinator Bubba Ventrone knows what he needs to fix.

“Eliminate bad football,” Ventrone said.

He knows his units have had some of that.

“Bill Belichick would always say, ‘Let’s eliminate the bad football. Let’s stop from losing,’” said Ventrone, who played and coached special teams under Belichick with the New England Patriots. “When we can all put it together and play collectively as a unit, I feel like the results have been good. We just have to get back to no self-inflicted wounds to a certain degree.”

Ventrone was hired this offseason to improve a special teams unit that cost the Rams in nearly all six of their losses last season, including the NFC Championship Game defeat to the Seattle Seahawks in which Xavier Smith muffed two punts. Ventrone’s track record had mixed results. Ventrone’s units with the Cleveland Browns struggled at times with punts and coverage, while his Indianapolis Colts units created splash plays and produced multiple All-Pro players.

Through five games in Los Angeles, his units have combined for a concerning product: The Rams rank last in the NFL in special teams DVOA, which measures units against the league average. With a DVOA of minus 15.3 percent, the Rams are on pace to be the worst special teams unit in the history of DVOA rankings. Though those numbers stabilize over the course of a season, their rating is the 11th-worst through the first five games of a season since 1977.

The Rams have replaced two starters in just the past three weeks, releasing punt returner Smith and cutting kicker Harrison Mevis. They have allowed an explosive kick or punt return in three straight games, including a 70-yard kick return to the Buffalo Bills on Monday night in which Jaylen McCollough left his gap early and created a sideline lane.

“I think it comes down to the fundamentals and the techniques that we’re coaching and applying them to the next rep,” Ventrone said. “We open the game, and we don’t execute the kick well enough. We don’t play a technique right from a certain position. Next thing you know, you’re giving up an explosive return to start the game. We come back, we correct it, and now we’re tackling everything inside the 35-yard line. Then we make a few decent plays on that phase.

“I think it’s being able to get on top of it early and just be consistent with what we’re doing schematically.”

How special teams veered off course again
It’s still early, but this is not how this season was supposed to go.

The Rams hired Ventrone because they were drawn to his energy and ability to teach fundamentals. They wanted to give him some familiarity, so they hired his assistant from the Browns, Kyle Hoke, and signed long snapper Joe Cardona and coverage player Grant Stuard, both of whom Ventrone has coached before.

They then moved special teams to the start of practice and began playing offensive and defensive starters on those units. The idea was to put greater emphasis on special teams and not have them feel like an afterthought. Coach Sean McVay believes that part has carried over.

“You have a lot of moving parts because when you get injured on defense and offense, it has a trickle-down effect,” McVay said. “The attention, the sense of urgency, I’ve been very appreciative of that. I think then you’re just continuing to figure it out. Obviously, we didn’t want to have to make some of those changes, but we felt like it was the best thing for us. … I think you lean into the process, and I have seen the intentionality from the group that I’m looking for.”

The performance hasn’t reflected it, and as the Rams look to correct a weakness to climb out of a 2-3 hole, they’re forced to reckon with a question: Is the issue the system and the coaching, the lineup or a mix of both?

Their words and actions suggest they see it as more of a roster issue. They have already released two starters in Smith and Mevis and replaced them with return man Alex Bachman and, from the New York Jets’ practice squad, kicker Blake Grupe. Both players joined the roster in the past two months.

The Rams signed two of Ventrone’s trusted veterans this spring in Cardona and Stuard, but they chose not to select any players with special teams backgrounds with their five draft picks. That went against the model the Colts used to build Ventrone’s best units, when they involved him in the scouting and selection process for players such as Ashton Dulin, Zaire Franklin, Bobby Okereke and EJ Speed, who began their careers on special teams before developing into offensive or defensive starters.

It continued Rams general manager Les Snead’s trend of drafting for future offensive or defensive roles rather than for immediate special teams contributions. Last year, the Rams traded up in the fourth round to select running back Jarquez Hunter. He played 22 special teams snaps as a rookie before the Rams traded him this preseason.

“A lot of the players that we’ve been using have been on the roster,” Ventrone said, while acknowledging that Stuard and Cardona have been helpful additions.

Still, the Rams believe in Ventrone’s ability to work through adversity and develop the unit. Unprompted, McVay said this week the Rams will not make coaching changes.

It’s notable that the only other assistant on staff who could take over amid a change would be Hoke, Ventrone’s personal assistant. That differs from last season, when the Rams fired coordinator Chase Blackburn after a late-season loss to the Seahawks and promoted Ben Kotwica, who had been a lead coordinator with the Denver Broncos and Atlanta Falcons. The change improved some issues such as penalties, but the playoffs still featured lowlights, including a blocked punt against the Carolina Panthers and Smith’s two muffed punts against the Seahawks.

Last season was a window into how difficult it is to overhaul an area such as special teams once a season has begun. Special teams reflect a roster’s overall construction and depth, and there are too many impacts across four different core units for one or two transactions to dramatically fix the group.

Can the Rams fix this?
Right now, the Rams are looking for whatever in-season solutions they can find.

They signed Grupe because of his demonstrated accuracy from under 40 yards, which is over 90 percent. His accuracy from more than 40 yards is just 73 percent. If that trend sticks, it could allow McVay to strategize on when to let Grupe kick versus going for it on fourth down or punting when at a trickier range.

It’s also possible that Grupe, who is 27, is still improving. Last season as a fill-in with the Colts, Grupe was 4-for-4 from beyond 50 yards and 11-for-11 on field goals overall.

“Those six weeks in Indy were big for me, big for my career,” Grupe said. “I was able to get the ball rolling and show what I could do.”

The signing of Grupe and the elevation of Bachman, a career practice squad player, show the Rams are erring on the side of predictability from veterans over potential upside from newbies. That’s also a reflection of the current options outside the building. Great kickers and return men aren’t often looking for jobs in October, and the league is still a week or two away from when struggling teams tend to sell off pieces ahead of the trade deadline, which this season is Nov. 10.

As that date approaches, the Rams could look to swing a trade. They saw the model up close and painfully last season. The Seahawks traded fourth- and fifth-round draft picks for Rashid Shaheed, an electric return man whose 58-yard punt return touchdown against the Rams helped erase a 16-point deficit. That play helped push the Seahawks to the Super Bowl and contributed to Los Angeles firing Blackburn days later.

The Rams have time on their side, potentially. Though 2-3, they have a five-game stretch coming against the Arizona Cardinals twice, the Las Vegas Raiders, the Los Angeles Chargers and the Washington Commanders. The Rams will likely be heavy favorites in every game. If they perform at that level, they could work through the sort of special teams mistakes that played into last-second losses to the Broncos and Bills.

Elsewhere, the Rams have enough to believe in themselves as a Super Bowl contender. Matthew Stafford has turned it on over the past five quarters with the return of Puka Nacua, who has 26 catches in the past two games. Running back Kyren Williams is enjoying his best season to date. The defense ranks third in yards allowed and expects to get Myles Garrett back before long.

But they know from last season that they must find a way to improve their third phase if they want to play in another Super Bowl at their home stadium this season.

“Last year and this year, they’re different, but there is a sense of urgency of being able to really fix and have more consistent production from a unit that the majority of the points go through,” McVay said.

“… Let’s have solutions and let’s give our players a chance to be able to have 11-as-one executed in each phase as consistently as possible. That’s what we’re going to keep striving for, and I’m hopeful that it does happen so I don’t have to keep talking about it with you.”

Jeremiyah Love is out.

Don’t think it makes much difference anyway because he isn’t exactly a ROY candidate. He’s been averaging 49 yards/game, and has 2 carries for 10+ yards in five games so far.

wv wrote:

Rams open as 12.5 point favorites. Dunno if this takes into account the Left Tackle situation.

Btw, who plays LT for the next two games ?

Do we know anything about Myles Garrett?

w
v

Yes, we know that regardless of health, Myles Garrett will NOT play OT.

zn wrote:

There were a few series in the 2nd half where the Rams just drove down the field play after play, in spite of often starting with poor field position. In his last 2 series, Stafford went 13 of 16 and got a TD then set up a FG (that should have won it). One of those drives tied it with less than a minute on the clock when the drive started. Both drives were masterful examples of 2 minute offense. Only of course to be marred by the missed FG in overtime.

In the drive that tied it, the Rams moved with urgency and focus.

On the drive that should have won it, they did not operate with the same urgency and focus.

They had no answer for Josh Allen scrambling. Haven’t seen a QB carve up the Rams scrambling like that in a long, long time.

wv wrote:

Did you know – Matt Stafford was part of a 19 game losing streak.

Lions were 0-16 in 08. Drafted Stafford in 2009 and started him game one. Lions lost first three.

Stafford had 6 INTs in his first four games in 2009.

They won 2 games that year.

w
v

Wow. Scary. He has 6 INTs in his first four games this year, and has won only 2 games. Coincidence?

So, of course, I had the Cowboys at 16 in my conference pool,and JAX at 15, demonstrating that, once again, I know nothing about football.

Naturally, I had Dallas as my top-ranked winner in my confidence pool. I’m now at -16 points for the week after one game.

How TF do you lose to TB, with a rookie backup QB, on a short week at home?

Same old Cowboys. Good on paper; bad on the field.