What's left for the St. Louis Rams in 2014/Wagoner

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RamBill

Legend
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Jul 31, 2010
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8,874
What's left for the St. Louis Rams in 2014
By Nick Wagoner

EARTH CITY, Mo. -- With their 12-6 defeat to the Arizona Cardinals on Thursday night, the St. Louis Rams lost more than just a game.

The Rams' minuscule but still existent postseason hopes disappeared, their chance at their first winning season since 2003 evaporated and their opportunity to put together their first three-game winning streak of the season also went by the wayside.

Now sitting at 6-8 and mathematically eliminated from the playoff chase, the Rams have two games remaining with the New York Giants visiting St. Louis on Sunday and yet another season finale in Seattle the following week.

So, with nothing left to play for in the season's final two weeks in terms of meaningful football in 2014, let's take a look at what the Rams could still gain from the last two games.

-- After finishing the first two of coach Jeff Fisher's years in St. Louis with seven wins, the Rams still have a chance to get to eight victories. They do have a winnable game this week against the Giants but beating the Seahawks in Seattle, especially when they could be playing for home-field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs, will be extremely difficult. Still, the possibility exists that the Rams could get to eight wins and that would represent at least some tangible improvement over the first two seasons under Fisher.

-- Should the Rams be able to get to 8-8, it would represent the first time since 2006 they had that many wins and reached .500 for the season. They have only been .500 twice since their last winning season in 2003.

-- They have an opportunity to disrupt the playoff apple cart by knocking off Seattle. The Seahawks meet Arizona this week with the winner taking firm command of the NFC West division. If Arizona wins, the Cardinals will be poised to stay at home throughout the playoffs. But if Seattle wins, the Seahawks would go into the final week needing to beat the Rams to nail down the No. 1 seed. Again, it will be a major uphill climb for the Rams to pull that upset on the road but the opportunity to keep the Seahawks from enjoying their massive home-field advantage in January would be appealing.

-- Fisher has made it clear he doesn't intend to use the final two weeks to give guys tryouts. The Rams are already playing plenty of young players. It'd be nice to see guys like Barrett Jones or Tim Barnes get some chances on the offensive line but Fisher and the Rams are going to play to win. Still, considering the amount of young players already playing, the additional game reps will be valuable moving forward.

-- Similar to last season when defensive end Robert Quinn was chasing the sack title and the Defensive Player of the Year award, the Rams have another defensive lineman chasing some hardware. Defensive tackle Aaron Donald leads all rookies with eight sacks and has one in each of his past five games. He doesn't have the big tackles numbers of guys like Baltimore linebacker C.J. Mosley or San Francisco linebacker Chris Borland but Donald has been one of the team's most dominant players. Should he get to double digits in sacks, his chances to become Defensive Rookie of the Year will greatly improve.

Rams fans, what else are you looking to see over the final two weeks?
 

CodeMonkey

Possibly the OH but cannot self-identify
Joined
Jun 20, 2014
Messages
3,449
Priority number 1 for this season was and still is to destroy the Seabitches in their house in week 17.
 

Ky Ram

Pro Bowler
Joined
Sep 30, 2013
Messages
1,918
I'd like to see a wide open playbook on offense. Show me a taste of unpredictably- something that blows the doors off folks.