The main reason we lost.

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majrleaged

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Many years ago the Magic led Lakers lost to the Celtics the first time they met in the finals because they were not prepared for the physical nature of the Celtics game, the willingness to do what ever it takes to win bar nothing, their ability to raise their level of competition and the fact that the refs let it go. I believe this is what happened to our team. Especially most of our receivers. The Lakers learned from that series and never again did they loose for those reasons. Our Rams just got their first lesson in play off football, NFL style. I hope they learn from it. We should be very happy that in just one season our team was able to get to this point and experience this.
Now I know some of us thought they saw similarities to the 99 Rams and thought this might have the same outcome. The fact is the 99 Rams had home field advantage because they were the best in the regular season and a passing system no NFL defense had really seen run like that before and this team, well if we are honest, this team had some holes, plus our timing on some teams we played was advantages. I am not down on anything that happened last night. I am of course disappointed, but I am happy for the experience our team got this year. I had a great time all season, all the way up to the end of the game last night. And this off season will be different than so many before it. So do not disparage my Rams in your disappointment. Look back on this year with fondness and look forward to more seasons where the Rams will give you excitement and hope for the Super Bowl because this is just the first step of many. Enjoy the journey.
 

LesBaker

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The Lakers played the 76ers who were WAY more physical and hard hitting than any Celtics team of that era.

I agree a lesson can be learned, but the Show had already run up against some very hard teams before they met the Celtics.

The West back in those days was "take no prisoners" more than the East until the Pistons just flat out played dirty ball.

I get what you are saying though.
 

majrleaged

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The Lakers played the 76ers who were WAY more physical and hard hitting than any Celtics team of that era.

I agree a lesson can be learned, but the Show had already run up against some very hard teams before they met the Celtics.

The West back in those days was "take no prisoners" more than the East until the Pistons just flat out played dirty ball.

I get what you are saying though.
They dominated the 76ers because they had way more talent. The Celtics were way dirtier. The close line of Rambis for instance. No the Celtics leveled anybody that came thru the middle. The threw elbows as a mater of course. The Lakers stood around complaining to the refs to no avail and when they retaliated the refs called fouls on them. They totally took the lakers out of their game. Completely different type of series than magic's first championship. But I'm glad you get my point.
 

JoeBo21

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Atlanta's best player last night was Pharoah Cooper..

you can say one play doesn't win it or lose it, but in the playoffs.. yup. and the muffed punt and fumble were the difference
 

Zodi

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Atlanta's best player last night was Pharoah Cooper..

you can say one play doesn't win it or lose it, but in the playoffs.. yup. and the muffed punt and fumble were the difference

But Pharoh Cooper doesn't play defense, and he didn't allow the Falcons to go 52 yards on a bubble screen down to the redzone to go up two possessions in the 4th with the game still in reach. He also didn't allow the Falcons to possess the ball for 38 minutes, opposed to the Rams 22 minutes. Falcons had 40 rushing plays. Cooper also didn't drop crucial passes on third down, or in the endzone, or have a cutback block that negated a huge play.

It was a team loss. Those two turnovers hurt, definitely, but we were still in it after the fact. It's never as cut and dry as one player, one play, whatever, losing a game.
 

JoeBo21

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But Pharoh Cooper doesn't play defense, and he didn't allow the Falcons to go 52 yards on a bubble screen down to the redzone to go up two possessions in the 4th with the game still in reach. He also didn't allow the Falcons to possess the ball for 38 minutes, opposed to the Rams 22 minutes. Falcons had 40 rushing plays. Cooper also didn't drop crucial passes on third down, or in the endzone, or have a cutback block that negated a huge play.

It was a team loss. Those two turnovers hurt, definitely, but we were still in it after the fact. It's never as cut and dry as one player, one play, whatever, losing a game.

well, yeah he kinda did :ROFLMAO: those two turnovers gave the ball right back to Atlanta to eat up more clock
 

Farr Be It

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you can say one play doesn't win it or lose it, but in the playoffs.. yup. and the muffed punt and fumble were the difference
Cooper was not responsible for the muffed punt, unless you think he should have yelled "poison" sooner, alerting Countess. It was a fluke bounce off Countess' foot. Indicative of the bad bounces the Rams experienced most of the night.
 

Zodi

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well, yeah he kinda did :ROFLMAO: those two turnovers gave the ball right back to Atlanta to eat up more clock

Those put them in the redzone. Those two turnovers resulted in drives that lasted 1:27 and 4:41.

The offense's inability to sustain drives early and the defense's inability to stop the Falcons in the third, however, were the main reasons behind the disparity in time of possession between the teams; coming out of halftime, Atlanta had a 16 play drive pretty much taking up half of the third quarter. The Rams drive immediately after that? A whopping 25 yards in 90 seconds followed by a punt.

But if you wanna blame one player go ahead. I guess Cooper was also the sole reason we won against Jacksonville, since his opening kickoff return for a TD was the difference.
 

SAK11

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well, yeah he kinda did :ROFLMAO: those two turnovers gave the ball right back to Atlanta to eat up more clock

Yeah, kept Atlanta's offense on the field for something like 12 minutes in around a 14 minute span. 24 offensive plays by Atlanta compared to 4 by LA in that time. Easy way to wear down a defense.
It's not a one player loss, but man did Cooper ever hurt us last night.
 

Zodi

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Yeah, kept Atlanta's offense on the field for something like 12 minutes in around a 14 minute span.

Nah.

Those two turnovers resulted in drives that lasted 1:27 and 4:41.

The first one happened with 8:40 in the first left, the second happened with 1:15 left in the first quarter.
 

Jacobarch

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Yeah, kept Atlanta's offense on the field for something like 12 minutes in around a 14 minute span. 24 offensive plays by Atlanta compared to 4 by LA in that time. Easy way to wear down a defense.
It's not a one player loss, but man did Cooper ever hurt us last night.

It's amazing that some fans don't understand this simple concept.

Dude the defense sucked because they couldn't make a stop in the 2nd half.

Well no shit
 

Ellard80

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The special teams turnovers undoubtedly were the most costly issue in the game.

But they were not the ONLY issue- however you take away those 10 pts of turnovers and the game looks vastly different.
 

Zodi

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It's amazing that some fans don't understand this simple concept.

Dude the defense sucked because they couldn't make a stop in the 2nd half.

Well no crap

Like I said, both turnovers happened in the first quarter, and both turnovers resulted in drives lasting a combined six minutes. It's amazing how some fans don't understand the concept of a play by play, drive chart.

Those turnovers weren't as significant to the time of possession game as the offense's inability to sustain drives. And Atlanta's longest drive-- lasting half of the third quarter-- was the drive coming right after halftime.

But one player is responsible for it all. What a ridiculous mindset to have.
 

SAK11

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You can say nah but it's the truth. Atlanta got the ball with around 11 minutes left in the 1st quarter. They punted it and got the ball right back because of the muffed punt. That led to their field goal. Then, LA had a drive that lasted under 2 minutes. Atlanta's next drive led to another field goal, and on the kickoff Cooper fumbled, leading to Atlanta's touchdown which was scored with 11:34 left in the 2nd quarter.
So total it all up, it was around 11 minutes of the 1st quarter plus just under 3 and a half minutes of the 2nd quarter. Rams only drive during that time lasted under 2 minutes. Rams D was on the field for way too long during that time.
 

Riverumbbq

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TEAM wins, TEAM loses.

Some Rams players made mistakes, even our exalted young H.C. hurt us in this one. McVay must learn to rely on his rush game and not always hope the passing game will bring him big yardage. When you are lucky enough to have a Gurley on-board, you use him to help open up the passing game. We all knew this 2017 Rams team was in a developmental phase, ... young players, new players, new coaching staff, new scheme & system. We were the 2'nd youngest team in the league with the youngest HC ever, both will learn from this loss and we will be better for it in 2018. Wade Phillips will finally have HIS players ready and in place next season, and we will compete like mad dogs now that they have had a taste of the play-off meat. jmo.
 

majrleaged

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Yeah, kept Atlanta's offense on the field for something like 12 minutes in around a 14 minute span. 24 offensive plays by Atlanta compared to 4 by LA in that time. Easy way to wear down a defense.
It's not a one player loss, but man did Cooper ever hurt us last night.
One play, not the muff. That hit countess not cooper.
 

Classic Rams

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Actually the Lakers Pat Riley had to give them the "stand your ground, kick some ass" speech and they had to play scrappier because the finesse game worked on the Sixers but not the Celtics. The 1980--82 Sixers were NOT more physical on the Lakers than the Celtics were in 1984. The Lakers did not have to adjust their game much to beat the Sixers then, who didn't have enough pre-Moses to dethrone the Lakers. Injuries to the Lakers plus Moses and a strong Sixer bench beat the Lakers in 1983.

And they threw the ball away in game 2 (1984) and could've gone up 3-0. Pharoh dropped the ball, so in both cases the turnovers had a huge effect.
 
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LARams_1963

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The main reason we lost is because we got out played.....
 

Zodi

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You can say nah but it's the truth. Atlanta got the ball with around 11 minutes left in the 1st quarter. They punted it and got the ball right back because of the muffed punt. That led to their field goal. Then, LA had a drive that lasted under 2 minutes. Atlanta's next drive led to another field goal, and on the kickoff Cooper fumbled, leading to Atlanta's touchdown which was scored with 11:34 left in the 2nd quarter.
So total it all up, it was around 11 minutes of the 1st quarter plus just under 3 and a half minutes of the 2nd quarter. Rams only drive during that time lasted under 2 minutes. Rams D was on the field for way too long during that time.

Rams - 3 & out, lasting 1:34
Falcons - 3 & out, lasting 1:04
Rams - 3 & out, lasting 1:27
Falcons - 3 plays, 4 yards, lasting 2:15, punt @ 8:56
Rams - Cooper/Countess miscue
Falcons - 4 plays, 6 yards, lasting 1:27, FG @ 7:17
Rams - 4 plays, 8 yards, lasting 1:32, punt
Falcons - 9 plays, 57 yards, lasting 4:12, FG @ 1:28
Rams - Cooper kickoff fumble
Falcons - 8 plays, 32 yards, lasting 4:41, TD @ 11:40

I said "nah" because it's not like the turnovers were the sole reason as to why the time of possession favored the Falcons early. ("[the turnovers] kept Atlanta's offense on the field for something like 12 minutes in around a 14 minute span.") The Rams offenses couldn't sustain a drive. They had three opportunities that resulted in 10 plays, 17 yards and only took around 4 minutes off the clock. If the offense has two 4-5 minute drives, that also limits Atlanta's number of possessions in the first quarter. But by half time, all of that was irrelevant.

The two special teams miscues definitely didn't help, but they were a thing of the past by the time half time rolled around and the score was 13-10. Defense gets 15 minutes off, comes out and lets Atlanta run the clock for 16 plays, 8 minutes. And then the offense fails to produce on multiple occasions. Yet people still single out Cooper.

The special teams messed up twice, but the offense failed to sustain drives for a number of reasons. And even when fresh, the defense couldn't stop the Falcons, who kept the clock ticking by running the ball and utilizing a very efficient passing game.

It was a complete team loss. It's amazing that some fans don't understand this simple concept.