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http://www.ocregister.com/articles/rams-734561-fisher-goff.html
LOS ANGELES – The Rams being back in Hollywood and all, it seems only appropriate to tie their current situation into the essential elements of script writing and movie making.
Specifically, Rule No. 1.
Every spoken line and scene must be written, constructed and acted in a way that moves the story forward.
Any line or scene that isn’t advancing the story, no matter how clever or entertaining or cinematically brilliant it might be, is a complete waste of time and needs to be immediately cut.
You’ve got 90 minutes and 110 pages to tell your story. So make everything count.
Which brings us back to Jeff Fisher and Case Keenum and Jared Goff and how the Rams are clinging to ego and false hope while letting another season circle the drain.
Even when an opportunity to cease wasting precious time and thrust this franchise forward is so close and obvious that most of the 86,109 paying customers at the Coliseum not only saw it Sunday, they loudly and emphatically pleaded with Fisher to reach out and seize it.
“We want Goff. We want Goff,” their chants echoed across the stadium, their frustrated voices urging Fisher to finally make the switch from Keenum to Goff at quarterback and salvage a lost season into something worthwhile and productive and meaningful.
You know, as in move the story forward by expediting the development of Goff to better set him and the Rams up for next season and beyond.
Only for the stubborn Fisher to say he didn’t hear the fans’ chants after the Rams dropped their fourth straight game Sunday, and along with it any legitimate hope of winning their division and making the playoffs.
Right.
Sure he didn’t.
Anyway, the hows and whys of Sunday’s loss were agonizingly predictable and by now almost laughingly pointless.
The Rams defense delivered another performance worthy of a victory and a game ball while holding Cam Newton and the powerful Carolina Panthers to one touchdown and 13 points.
The problem – recurring as it is – was Keenum and the offense stumbled about for much of the afternoon and scored only 10 points.
Spoiler alert: This isn’t an indictment on Keenum, a tough, hard-nosed kid who’s playing his guts out right now.
So, urging Fisher and the Rams to make the move from Keenum to Goff is in no way laying the blame for another frustrating season at the feet of Keenum.
A point Fisher continually misses when rationalizing the decision to stick with Keenum by insisting his play isn’t to blame for the Rams 3-5 record.
“Case is not the reason we lost this game today,” Fisher said.
On that, everyone actually agrees. And that makes it even more bloodcurdlingly baffling when Fisher continually references it when defending his reluctance to at least consider a quarterback change.
“I don’t think Case’s play today was indicative of raising that question,” Fisher said, missing the point as usual.
This isn’t about Keenum and how big a piece of the blame pie he deserves.
It’s about saving a season from complete failure before it’s too late.
Makimg the switch to Goff right now makes this season relevant and purposeful.
Maybe in an extraordinary way. But absolutely in a worthwhile way.
When the Rams made the move up from 15th in last April’s draft to No. 1, they made it clear they didn’t play their way into the top pick – i.e. lose their way – they strategically moved up from a position of strength.
The theory being, they were fairly strong across the roster and by improving the quarterback position they could elevate the team as a whole.
In Goff they saw such a quarterback.
And even if he wasn’t ready to take the field to start the season – and he wasn’t – they were comfortable Keenum could move the team forward as a game manager.
That was important with Fisher entering the final year of his contract and likely needing to move the Rams beyond the 7-9 teams they’ve continually been under him to keep his job.
The later hasn’t happened, obviously. The Rams are once again staring down the barrel of another mediocre season. Fisher’s future with the team could be in jeopardy as a result.
Nevertheless, if the Rams still believe in the team they’ve built around the quarterback, why stick with the guy who isn’t raising the bar when the quarterback taken first overall might?
Isn’t that reason enough to give Goff a chance, the possibility he might immediately play like a first overall pick and turn the Rams’ season around?
But even if Goff struggles as rookie quarterbacks inevitably do, there is future value in him playing and learning and developing in actual games.
Even if the Rams lose every game from here on out with Goff at the helm, he’d begin next season better off for the experience.
So too will the Rams.
It’s amazing that 86,000 fans can see that.
But the head coach either can’t or won’t.
