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Rams quarterback Jared Goff, right, heads for the sideline but doesn't get there before he is hit by Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman, left, knocking him from the game in the fourth quarter Thursday. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
SEATTLE – What, you thought getting rid of Jeff Fisher was suddenly going to transform the Rams into the ’85 Bears?
Not that kind of party folks.
The makeover will begin after the New Year. There is a new coach to hire. A fresh vision and culture to usher in.
The offensive line needs to be rebuilt. The receiving corp needs to be overhauled.
That takes time. Could be years, even.
No matter how bad it had gotten under Fisher, no matter how much everyone wished the hopeful voice of interim coach John Fassel would be the catalyst to a Rams renaissance, that was unrealistic.
Three days after letting Fisher go, the Rams were the same old Rams in a 24-3 loss to the Seattle Seahawks Thursday night under a dark, cloudless Pacific Northwest sky that offered a cold, uncaring shoulder to a fragile team reeling from unmet expectations, another season gone sideways and the sudden dismissal of a coach for whom fondness never translated into consistent winning.
It all looked so familiar.
“The mistakes. The constant inconsistencies,” Rams tackle Rodger Saffold said, solemnly. “It’s just very frustrating. It’s crazy.”
And into this sad saga anxiety crept, as rookie quarterback Jared Goff got leveled by Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman along the sideline on a fourth-quarter gallop toward the end zone. A wiser Goff will learn to get out of bounds or slide when presented with a similar circumstance. But this time he gallantly stayed inbounds in pursuit of more yards.
Sherman cleanly slammed him to the ground. A wobbly Goff rose and walked back to the Rams huddle, but the game officials opted to call to the Rams sideline to come take Goff off the field.
Goff was eventually taken to the locker room to be evaluated for a concussion.
It would have been ironic had it not been so poignantly Rams.
Goff was piecing together his best drive of the season, flashing the quick thinking, potent arm and accurate passing that earned him the distinction as the best quarterback in the 2016 draft.
But just a few yards away from delivering a touchdown and some hope for the future, Goff got body slammed to the ground. His night was finished as a result.
And so the beat goes on.
Different coach.
Same results.
More dropped balls by receivers – including a would-be impact bomb from Goff that Michael Thomas let slip through his hands to the turf.
In the first quarter, even, with the outcome still uncertain and momentum up for grabs. Goff unleashed a ball that traveled nearly 40 yards in the air as Thomas slipped behind his defender.
An entire stadium gasped.
But with a chance to make a big play, deliver statement and lend a helping hand to a rookie quarterback still finding his way, Thomas couldn’t hold onto the ball.
“One bad thing happens, a hundred more (start) coming,” said Rams wide receiver Tavon Austin.
Same old same old.
Defensive penalties that helped move the Seahawks down the field. Missed assignments that needed little explaining to a national TV audience.
Like left tackle Greg Robinson looking silly on a whiffed block in which he came up with air when he should have laid his body into Seahawks end Cassius Marsh.
Marsh flew unimpeded into the Rams backfield as a result. Then crashed into an unsuspecting Goff for a crushing sack.
It was a game-long theme, as Goff took a vicious beating operating behind an offensive line that got overwhelmed by the Seahawks.
“We just aren’t getting it done,” Austin said. “And there’s a whole bunch of fingers to point, if you want to be honest.”
The beat goes on indeed.
For another two weeks any way. At which point the Rams’ triumphant first season back in Los Angeles will mercifully be put to rest. To be laid alongside the lost season a year ago.
And the one before that and the one before that and the one before that.
The finish line is near.
These Rams under Fassel are tasked only with gracefully getting across it.
Then the real work begins.
“This is the last time this locker room is going to look like this,” Saffold said. “That’s just to be honest. There’s a lot of guys that aren’t going to be here next year.”
Contact the writer: vbonsignore@scng.com
Bonsignore, Much work to be done
Mod edit: Please remember to include a link.
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/rams-738630-goff-seahawks.html
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