BTW I read somewhere (or heard) that there has never been an entire playoff season that had 4 games end on the last play. Last weekend, all 4 did.

Also, got to thinking how much this game must have hurt Bucs fans. You know, when your team is losing the entire game, you start to reconcile yourself to the defeat well before it is over. To go through what they did – reconciling themselves to defeat – only to have actual real life hope that they would win after all – only to have it ripped away from them…man. Bucs fans have to hate that. And any of them as old as we are that saw 70 and 99 and 22…they must not like the Rams a lot.

Los Angeles had no football team for 20 years.

Many Rams fans were pissed, and opted out of “following” them to St. Louis, and picked another team. An entire generation grew up with no team around, and they have picked another team, or grown up agnostic about football.

It will take a decade or two, I would think. A Super Bowl victory would help.

As far as attendance goes, the tickets are expensive. I think when you have Paris Hilton going to games, you aren’t going to get the same level of noise. I don’t know the demographics of all the ticket buyers, but I think that price point probably leads to a more casual fan who is attending for motives beyond love of the game. Just speculating, though.

Noteboom did not practice today, but it was a walk through, so that doesn’t mean anything much.

Rams fans rally to send diehard Matthew Stafford fan from viral video to NFC title game

Matthew Stafford:

Certified Soul-Stealer

— JayBur 🐊 & 🐏 (🥇NFC West) (@Jaybur352) January 25, 2022

wv wrote:

I would say the 49ers did the rams a big favor by beating the Packers in Lambeau. I think it unlikely the Rams would have won there. Would be nice to take the 49ers souls in gratitude. w v

Yeah, it’s far more likely that the Rams will beat SF at home than it would have been for them to beat GB on the road, with a high of 23 degrees.

SF radio was relishing the upcoming game last night as I drove home. They think they are going to pulverize the Rams. They also refered to SoFi as Levi’s Stadium South. Lotta back-slapping self-congratulations going on.

Remember that Stafford and Suh were teammates for a number of years.

I think they benefited from gagging up the lead in Week 18 to the 49ers.  I think they learned a solid appreciation for playing the full 60 minutes, and that helped them the past two weeks, too.

Should they lose to the 49ers, I will be unhappy.

I am fully on board for a Lombardi this year in a way I have not been in a long, long time. And what’s weird is that, if you had asked me 4 weeks ago, I would have thought winning two playoff games was about the high expectation.

Not any more. Minus the uncharacteristic flurry of unforced errors in the 4th quarter, the Rams have played dominantly in all phases of the game, and I think they are the most talented team left in the playoffs.

wv wrote:

Some of the celebrity-sports-experts argued that “just knowing Tom Brady was on the other side” made the rams ‘tight’ and caused those mistakes.   Dont shoot the messenger.   Just passing that along.

After reviewing the Kupp fumble, the ruling from me is that it was also self-inflicted. The only one of the TOs that the Bucs can take credit for is Suh’s attack on the ball on Akers’ second fumble.

Celebrity sports experts are paid to fill minutes of airtime.

If the Rams were tight because of Brady, it would be the Defense, not the Offense.

wv wrote:

Whitworth status? w v

CBS site says “Questionable.” But it says that for Deebo, too.

If I had to choose, I’d take a healthy Whitworth over a healthy Deebo. TBH.

Boy, this is going to be an intense game.

I think you should watch this one live, wv.

wv wrote:

So, does McVay go for the win with 35 seconds to play, with Jarod Goff?

I dunno, but even if he does, I doubt Goff throws it to the guy on the “for the love of the game” route.

You know that guy who threw deep into double and triple coverage and got picked off earlier this season?

That’s the guy who made the biggest throw for the Rams since Warner to Bruce in XXIV.

Billy_T wrote:

It goes without saying that the Rams can’t turn over the football against the Niners. They can’t. And, at the same time, they need to cause the Niners to turn the ball over. The Rams’ D obviously has the personnel for that.

This is a thread for the next game, not the last game, but I have to say something.

The Rams’ D played fantastic yesterday. If it weren’t for 3 terrible TOs that gave the Bucs very short fields, the final score would have reflected the Rams’ complete dominance yesterday. They beat the crap out of the Bucs. And they were destined to do that with the Bucs’ offense so depleted. It was a mismatch on that side of the ball.

Looking forward to next week – yeah – the Rams can’t do that again. They almost couldn’t get away with it Sunday.

I like the Rams’ chances to beat SF, for reasons I’ve already given, but if they turn the ball over like that, they won’t survive. They aren’t going to dominate SF. It will be a nerve-wracking game, probably.

I checked the injury report this morning, and Kittle is not on it. Deebo is listed as Questionable. Mohammed Sanu is listed as “Expected to return Week 21.” OTOH the Rams have SJD, Jones, and Rochell on the “Expected to return” list. So it looks like both teams are approximately full strength for this time of year.

zn wrote:

Good job. It’s all completely new. Lots of new additions.

Yeah. Well, it’s really great all these changes going on here, and all, and nobody consulted us because this isn’t an anarcho-syndicalist commune, or anything.

Just a bunch of dictatorial changes perpetuating the social and economic differences in our society.