What is Different this Year?

[Loyal]

With a new coaching staff and new players as a given, that has not meant anything in the first years of Linehan, Spags and Fisher. Fisher created teams meant to beat the Hawks, Cardinals, 49ers, and almost no one else. He wasn't successful last year against the horrid Niners at all. So what's different?
1. We are 4-2 for the first time since 2006.
2. We are 3-0 on the road.
3. We beat the Niners and lost to the Hawks
4. We see in game adjustments
5. We are 3-1 against teams outside of the NFC West

Significant change. We lost to the Hawks but beat a playoff team last year in the Cowboys. This team is so unlike the Fisher teams, where EVERYTHING was centered on divisional games. I like beating teams within the division like anyone else, but 10 games outside of the division are more important to win. I think we beat the Cards this weekend, but it's not catastrophic if we don't. The before mentioned 4-2 team in 2006, only went on to win 4 of 10 games after that. Let's hope we can at least beat that record!

 

[nighttrain]

5-2 come Sunday night
train

 

[RamWoodie]

What's different is...is a better offensive philosophy and approach with a stronger offensive line. Fisher was caught up in the old offensive approach...wanting to run the ball and play solid defense. That's the old NFL! The rule changes have given the offense the upper hand...and Fisher simply didn't adapt to that.

McVay has an offensive mind...Fisher had a defensive mind. His teams had strong defense but he just never made the transition from a "ball control" offensive philosophy.

Mike Martz learned the hard way...he had offense and ignored defense. He finally realized he needed to get a good DC and he got Lovie Smith.

Fisher never went after a top flight OC...and it got him fired. THAT'S THE DIFFERENCE!

 

[Loyal]

What's different is...is a better offensive philosophy and approach with a stronger offensive line. Fisher was caught up in the old offensive approach...wanting to run the ball and play solid defense. That's the old NFL! The rule changes have given the offense the upper hand...and Fisher simply didn't adapt to that.

McVay has an offensive mind...Fisher had a defensive mind. His teams had strong defense but he just never made the transition from a "ball control" offensive philosophy.

Mike Martz learned the hard way...he had offense and ignored defense. He finally realized he needed to get a good DC and he got Lovie Smith.

Fisher never went after a top flight OC...and it got him fired. THAT'S THE DIFFERENCE!

Linehan was the OC for a playoff team last year and had/has an offensive oriented mind and was the Rams HC in 2006..still only 8-8 in 2006?

 

[Oregonram]

Well, I guess we could technically finish 8 and 8 this year as well, but I hope not. I don't remember who Linehan had as his DC, but it was no one like Wade. But let me add a dimension that no one has talked about in this thread. It's something Sean calls "neck up" players. There seemed to be a concerted effort by the front office to go after players who were football smart instead of just stud athletes. It shows. I think Les said, we started this offseason needing to get rid of undependable players because they make us an undependable team. There is more to do, we still have too many players who make life hard with very dumb penalties... lining up in the neutral zone etc. we are on a good trajectory. Go Rams!

 

[jap]

What's different is...is a better offensive philosophy and approach with a stronger offensive line. Fisher was caught up in the old offensive approach...wanting to run the ball and play solid defense. That's the old NFL! The rule changes have given the offense the upper hand...and Fisher simply didn't adapt to that.

Fish played defense and special teams and knows both fairly well. Through him we ended up with the best special teams battery in the entire league: future hall of famer, Johnny Hekker; Greg the Leg, who has missed all of one FG this entire season thus far; and longsnapper, Jake McQuaide, the Invisible Man, who is so good and so consistent, the commentators never call his name. However, Jeff does not know offense, at least certainly not the modern passing game, and therein lay his downfall.

Sean came in with a fully integrated plan to bind all the coaching minds together in an ongoing effort to produce the best results. He protected his weaknesses by hiring the best DC available in the SonOfBum and retaining the Horns best coach from the last coaching regime in Bones. He inherited the 2016 #1 overall draft selection, Jared Goff, and went several steps further than Fish in supersaturating Jared with layers of solid QB coach talent with QB coach, Greg Olsen; offensive coordinator, Matt LaFleur; and himself, a bonafide QB whisperer. He obtained the services of the best OL teacher available in Andrew Kromer to coach Jared & Todd's bodyguards and hired Eric Yarber to get Jared's fly guys up to speed with the new offensive philosophy. Both Bones and the SonOfBum took care of their own selections for coaches in their units.

Fisher never went after a top flight OC...and it got him fired. THAT'S THE DIFFERENCE!

I am not entirely sure that is true. The Fisher King had a disgusting habit of placing his own personal stamp on any offensive scheme---despite his lack of and real offensive creativity. He may have well gone after top flight OCs, but what top fight OC with better alternatives available would allow Fish to mess up their resume by preempting their play calls with his (Fish's) usually bonehead offensive play calls?

 

[Zodi]

Well, I guess we could technically finish 8 and 8 this year as well, but I hope not. I don't remember who Linehan had as his DC, but it was no one like Wade.

 

[JackStraw]

Just from watching on Sundays what stands out most is frequency of our QB executing on throws to (new) pass catchers in the middle of the field leading to shameless trespassing in that previously exclusive country club in first down town.

Starting to wonder if Woods and Kupp are simply just running routes 8+ years worth of Ram's WRs/coaches failed to attempt.

I can't wait until our TEs fully develop. We have a really good thing going. A two TE scheme is optimal for this squad. Would love McVay's first ever pick's legacy being first ever TE(a position of frustration since Roland Williams and Conwell) to lead the league in yards per catch.

I know everyone has heard it by now, but he really does run like a RB when the ball's in his hands.

 

[SanAnRam]

I think we beat the Cards this weekend, but it's not catastrophic if we don't.

Amen!

 

[Young Ram]

When your HC is pissed for winning a football game is when you know that we’re headed in the right direction.

 

[JackStraw]

1st half defense with a lead or tie and 2nd half defense while trailing are two very different things.
Our second half defense outside of the Niners game has been crippling. They're poised and fight hard to keep games a one possession lead. It's not just the usual suspects you've got salute Phillip's for his DL substitutions. Limiting fatigue trusting low ego'd reserves to buy in and make plays is coaching, if anyone asks.

I know Longacre is a guy I never wanted to see line up but when he's in the game, I know it. Can't ignore penetrating the pocket and always ending up within striking distance of the QB or ball carrier. Being the only big white guy kind of gives him away too. I thought he played great vs Seattle despite only playing 35% (24 of 68) of defensive snaps.

 

[wolfdogg]

I think it's obvious. ..Im hammered by the end of the 1st quarter instead of late in the 4th quarter. It going to pants-off before halftime that is making this team a playoff contender. You're welcome, McVay.

 

[den-the-coach]

Linehan was the OC for a playoff team last year and had/has an offensive oriented mind and was the Rams HC in 2006..still only 8-8 in 2006?

That year, Rams were 4-6 after ten games, Linehan turn the play calling over to OC Greg Olsen (now Rams QB Coach) and the Rams went 4-2 in their last six games.

 

[jrry32]

We finally figured out where the end-zone is. Even Mapquest couldn't help us find it last year.

 

[jrry32]

I know Longacre is a guy I never wanted to see line up but when he's in the game, I know it. Can't ignore penetrating the pocket and always ending up within striking distance of the QB or ball carrier. Being the only big white guy kind of gives him away too.

Hey, let's not forget Morgan Fox!

What's different is...is a better offensive philosophy and approach with a stronger offensive line. Fisher was caught up in the old offensive approach...wanting to run the ball and play solid defense. That's the old NFL! The rule changes have given the offense the upper hand...and Fisher simply didn't adapt to that.

Personally, I still think that philosophy can be quite effective in a NFL where teams have designed their defenses around stopping the pass. There were three problems with Fisher's execution of his philosophy:
1. His OLs sucked - If you're going to use the run the ball and grind out wins philosophy, you need to have an OL that imposes its will in the trenches.
2. His OCs sucked - With that philosophy, you don't have much margin for error. You can't have bad play-callers. That's all we had after Schotty left (he was just a below average play-caller).
3. His QBs (and offenses) turned the ball over - You gotta have game managers who protect the ball and can step up and make a player when needed. Instead, we had turnover-prone QBs who loved to give the other defense points.

The real problem is that Fisher preferred to hire friends rather than qualified people. On the offensive side of the ball, that killed us. Imagine if we had a guy like Aaron Kromer picking and developing our OLs with Fisher. Now, imagine Kromer and a quality OC like Hue Jackson. We'd have had good football teams. But Fisher didn't like to hire people that he couldn't control.

 

[OC--LeftCoast]

What’s really different?

My take is we finally, finally have a real offense and a staff who realizes the importance of supporting your franchise budding superstar quarterback, this is the beginning of good times boys!

 

[CGI_Ram]

The big difference is we can score now.

1. McVay is a superior playcaller
2. Goff has developed as expected
3. Offensive line play is markedly improved
4. Better weapons in the passing game with Woods, Watkins, Kupp, and Everett all superior to those they replaced

I’d put Gurley on the list, except I believe his improved play is just an outcome of those listed above.

 

[LesBaker]

What's different is...is a better offensive philosophy and approach with a stronger offensive line. Fisher was caught up in the old offensive approach...wanting to run the ball and play solid defense. That's the old NFL! The rule changes have given the offense the upper hand...and Fisher simply didn't adapt to that.

McVay has an offensive mind...Fisher had a defensive mind. His teams had strong defense but he just never made the transition from a "ball control" offensive philosophy.

Mike Martz learned the hard way...he had offense and ignored defense. He finally realized he needed to get a good DC and he got Lovie Smith.

Fisher never went after a top flight OC...and it got him fired. THAT'S THE DIFFERENCE!

I mostly agree with this though the style you pin on Fisher was in large part due to playing with backup QB's. Fishers first year, when he had Bradford the pass/run ratio was 557/410. He was forced to change because he had Clemens, Hill, Austin and Keenum as his QB's for the large part of 4 years.

I do agree that his downfall was not filling the OC spot with someone good, but that's hard to do when you have a backup QB and few weapons. It's hard to attract someone. It was an organizational failure, or at least on Fisher and Demoff.

Linehan was the OC for a playoff team last year and had/has an offensive oriented mind and was the Rams HC in 2006..still only 8-8 in 2006?

Linny is reviled by Rams fans but he is a stellar OC.

 

[CanadaRam]

There are many reasons that the Rams are better this year,
Their is one play best represents the difference between last year and this.

http://theramswire.usatoday.com/201...-rams-chargers-andrew-whiworth-melvin-ingram/

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap30...33pound-andrew-whitworth-turn-on-the-boosters

Preaseason games are meaningless.
It does not matter who wins and who loses.
They lost that meaningless game.

Still the play shows me so much on shy the 2017 Rams are so different (and better) than past Rams teams

 

[majrleaged]

Well, I guess we could technically finish 8 and 8 this year as well, but I hope not. I don't remember who Linehan had as his DC, but it was no one like Wade. But let me add a dimension that no one has talked about in this thread. It's something Sean calls "neck up" players. There seemed to be a concerted effort by the front office to go after players who were football smart instead of just stud athletes. It shows. I think Les said, we started this offseason needing to get rid of undependable players because they make us an undependable team. There is more to do, we still have too many players who make life hard with very dumb penalties... lining up in the neutral zone etc. we are on a good trajectory. Go Rams!

yeah, that lining up in the neutral zone I don't get. Does it make that much difference sacking the qb? Back the fuck up. Quinn does it at least once a game.