At least OUR head coach has his priorities straight. First, win the game. Then have a kid.

Btw, if the Seahawks beat the Rams, and the 49ers beat the Seahawks, the 49ers could still get the #1 seed.

That team is a problem.

wv wrote:

They noted Aiden Hutchenson ran 18 mph and Colby was going 20.

.

Your healthy ostrich will give you 43.

InvaderRam wrote:

zn wrote:

And I think it was Brady who said this. His super powers that make him something more than just a solid receiver are “in the phone booth” type skills. Hands, sheer combative will, extraordinary body control, quick thinking, pure athleticism, timing, instantaneous reactions–-all combined, all in the phone booth space at the moment of the catch.

but again the same can be said for kupp. as well as this kupp had the same kind of physicality and attitude that made me worry about his durability. yet i don’t quite get the same feels as i do with him. and i’m not quite sure why that is. maybe it’s cuz kupp was much more of a technician. a professional. not that nacua doesn’t work at his craft. but when he’s out on the field it’s like he’s just having fun as opposed to kupp where it was much more cold and analytical. precise. i don’t know.

I think they let Kupp go because he and Puka are the same guy, but Puka is younger, bigger, and cheaper.

And the reason I like Puka better is because he has infectious enthusiasm and is seemingly happy all the time. And I have enough dreariness around me, so I tend to be drawn towards people who have a Phd. in happiness.

Both teams control their destiny. All either team has to do is win out, and they are the #1 seed.

Personally, I am hoping that it’s the Rams who do that.

I seriously have no ambition to see the Rams play in Chicago, or GB, or Philly. Or Seattle, either. Make the run to the SB go through the Rams.

This is the way.

zn wrote:

Nacua is good at every level as a receiver–blocking, routes, field awareness, hands. He’s not the magic dancer Adams is, but he’s solid. On top of it he’s enthusiastically physical. But that’s not what makes him special. Yeah sure when he’s wide open he catches it, etc. etc. He’s good at every phase of the game as a receiver, but that’s not what makes him special.

And I think it was Brady who said this. His super powers that make him something more than just a solid receiver are “in the phone booth” type skills. Hands, sheer combative will, extraordinary body control, quick thinking, pure athleticism, timing, instantaneous reactions–-all combined, all in the phone booth space at the moment of the catch.

I am trying to think of another receiver in NFL history that had that kind of “in the phone booth at the moment of the catch” specialness.

Yes. All that. AND…you have to be fully committed to tackling Puka Nacua because he has no interest in surrendering before the whistle. (“enthusiastically physical”)

And that is not something you see in many players, especially not WRs. I, too, was running comparisons through my head this week to GSOT (other thread), and remember how Bruce and Holt used to get insulted by opposing fans for sliding or running OB. And I just thought, “Okay, fine. Whatever. No need to get banged up to stretch a 16-yard catch into an 18-yard play when they’re just going to knife you for another 15 or 20 on the next play anyway.”

But Puka just adds 8 yards after initial contact because he can.

And I love that. I also worry about that, and think – as much as I love that – he would probably be on the field more if he chose his spots for that more selectively.

zn wrote:

Stafford missed a wide open Ferguson today. Was it just a bad throw by the qb? Ferguson has had other misses like that in other games. Is their chemistry not there yet? Is it Ferguson? Is their timing off?

I wondered the same thing, and I have to lean towards that being a misread by Ferguson. I mean…Stafford knows what he’s doing. He misfires sometimes, but he doesn’t make WTF throws like Goff used to do.

And, btw, I think that is the loudest I have ever heard SoFi for the Rams.

Yeah, Tutu’s catch was memorable. And Puka is just astonishing. That man is going to be expensive soon. Very expensive.

I don’t usually love going for it on 4th down, especially in FG range, but I grudgingly had to admit McVay was right with the way that game was going in the first half. I don’t know what the Rams did at half time, but forcing consecutive 3-and-outs on the Lions was a good coaching decision that I fully support. Somehow the Rams took a “Oh, crap. This game may slip away, and it’s supposed to be the easier of the two” into “Yeah, we’ll just blow you out now.” They got better pressure on Goff in the 2nd half, and Stafford got his aim back. And that pressure was coming up the middle, and Goff hates that.

That Lions team is trouble on offense, and Aidan Hutchinson is a load. What an athletic play that was. And was it Ferguson who ran him down? Not bad for a TE. For all the good it did them. That felt like a 14-point swing.

So Adams goes down with a clear hammy, and a moment later the season flashed before my eyes when Nacua dropped like he’d been shot.

Colby Parkinson is starting to remind me of Ernie Conwell. Even his number matches. He seems to have figured out how to play in the past 6 weeks or so. Tyler Higbee Who at this point. The TE room has just become another strength in an offense that isn’t lacking anywhere. Two very good RBs, perhaps the best WR tandem in the NFL, an OL that pushing people out of the way, and a QB who makes a couple of shots a game that would impress Meadowlark Lemon.

Xavier Smith scared me with that one punt catch. The whole return game seems solid, if not spectacular. It’s nice to have Tony Horne and Az-Zahir Hakim returning kicks, but what you really really have to have is a return game that doesn’t screw up which kicks to field, and holds onto the damn ball. That doesn’t try to do too much. I’m okay with the return game. Kicking game seems set. Evans nearly nailed another punt at the 1-yard line. Mevis has been perfect (And I just checked: Karty is no longer on the roster. I didn’t get that memo).

Time to start getting apprehensive about Thursday, I suppose. No time to lose.

InvaderRam wrote:

we must have the best pair of guards in the nfl. i haven’t looked at the entire list, but dotson and avila both rank in the top 5.

and then you got mcclendon at right tackle who ranks 11th and jackson at 7th. both among all tackles.

even coleman shelton ranks 9th among centers.

wow. and avila is the highest drafted player among the five. he was drafted in the second round. a testament to the players listed as well as the oline coach.

stafford and williams should be buying these guys some nice christmas presents this year.

I don’t think the Lions are better than the Rams.

I do think the Lions are better than the Panthers.

I think all three teams have to be thinking that they have to win out. The Rams have to beat both Detroit and Seattle to win the inside track in the playoffs, and that matters a lot because they do not want to travel to Seattle or GB. So I see the next two games as Must Wins.

We gonna have a wild 5 days.

zn wrote:

I don’t agree that the kicking game is a problem. They not only replaced Karty, they replaced their long snapper, and if you look at inactives lists, you see that they shuffled the blockers on the FG/XP kicking unit.

The fact that they have not kicked that many FGs is not because they’re avoiding kicks. Bizarrely, the article seems to hint at that. Naw they have not been kicking FGs because the offense is on such a tear right now. They are first in the league in points scored in the first quarter. They are 3rd in this very important stat: NFL Team Red Zone Scoring Percentage (TD only)

They have not needed to kick FGs.

That does not mean the kicker is a problem, it means we don’t really know where he stands. Mevis does, however, have a good history.

I agree with that. I don’t think “kicker is a problem.” As I said earlier, I think it’s a “question,” only because Mevis hasn’t “done it” yet for the Rams.

I had the same reaction to that writer that you did. I suspect the article was actually written by Nittany Ram because it seemed to lean into Seattle on a flimsy premise.