Am I the only one who has an odd, peaceful easy feeling?

[PhillyRam]

I've always had a paradoxical emotional reaction to the Rams' success and failure.

When the Rams are winning and start most games as the favorite, I tend to get tense and a bit anxious. I worry that the team won't live up to expectations or will falter against an inferior opponent due to a few untimely mistakes.

By contrast, when the Rams are not expected to win, I'm much more relaxed and am able to go into each game with a vision of a strong performance and an upset victory.

Its why I enjoyed 1999, when we are an upstart nobody expected to go anywhere, so much more than 2001, when we were the prohibitive favorites throughout the season.

This year, we've experienced both. Early in the year, the expectations were tempered, growing with each win. Then, as the season wore on, the expectations grew. With them, so did my stress level (perhaps because, even at our best, I still had misgivings about an offense that can't seem to score 30 points with any regularity).

Now, in the blink of an eye, everything has changed. Our starting QB is down. We could be without out top 2 RBs. And we just lost the division title.

Only one thing... it ain't over. We still have one (very winnable) game left and multiple paths to the playoffs.

But there's no pressure in it. If we falter, nobody will be surprised given our injuries. If we succeed, though....

Don't get me wrong, even an optimist like me can't see this team contending for a title.

But, at least, in the next (hopefully) two weeks and (even more hopefully) beyond, I may not be screaming at the TV quite as much on Sunday. I may have a bit more of a peaceful easy feeling, confident that the Rams won't let me down.

I guess I'm already standing on the ground.

Yep, and the most gut wrenching game in 99' was the NFC championship gane when they were big favorites and it was an absolute slugfest.

My goal for the year, which I looked at as a retooling/ rebuild was to make the playoffs and possibly win a playoff game. That can happen.

And I saw again on Twitter yesterday that currently the Rams have the youngest roster in the league. Just need a few tweeks to the offense, maintain the defense, which has a lot of youth that can get better, and they will be fine.

 

[Flipper89]

And I saw again on Twitter yesterday that currently the Rams have the youngest roster in the league. Just need a few tweeks to the offense, maintain the defense, which has a lot of youth that can get better, and they will be fine.

This. If there’s any reason for optimism moving forward, it’s the fact that while yes, we’ve been painfully inconsistent this year, a lot of that can be attributed to the collective youth of the team and that the team will learn from the “playing down to the competition” all year long.

It can’t be that often that the youngest roster in the league goes 10-6, right??

 

[So Ram]

I've always had a paradoxical emotional reaction to the Rams' success and failure.

When the Rams are winning and start most games as the favorite, I tend to get tense and a bit anxious. I worry that the team won't live up to expectations or will falter against an inferior opponent due to a few untimely mistakes.

By contrast, when the Rams are not expected to win, I'm much more relaxed and am able to go into each game with a vision of a strong performance and an upset victory.

Its why I enjoyed 1999, when we are an upstart nobody expected to go anywhere, so much more than 2001, when we were the prohibitive favorites throughout the season.

This year, we've experienced both. Early in the year, the expectations were tempered, growing with each win. Then, as the season wore on, the expectations grew. With them, so did my stress level (perhaps because, even at our best, I still had misgivings about an offense that can't seem to score 30 points with any regularity).

Now, in the blink of an eye, everything has changed. Our starting QB is down. We could be without out top 2 RBs. And we just lost the division title.

Only one thing... it ain't over. We still have one (very winnable) game left and multiple paths to the playoffs.

But there's no pressure in it. If we falter, nobody will be surprised given our injuries. If we succeed, though....

Don't get me wrong, even an optimist like me can't see this team contending for a title.

But, at least, in the next (hopefully) two weeks and (even more hopefully) beyond, I may not be screaming at the TV quite as much on Sunday. I may have a bit more of a peaceful easy feeling, confident that the Rams won't let me down.

I guess I'm already standing on the ground.

Well as much as I wanted to put some blame on Kevin O”Connel as the OC from the season as a whole.That Jets lose was HORRIBLE!!

Losing the last 2-3 at SOFI! Now lossing 3 of 4 would be Really Bad.No team deserves to back into the Playoffs like that. That all said. I have hope & am excited to see how The Rams Offense looks with a QB that can make things happen outside the pocket,or even has a better feel for the pocket.
Copper Kupp is out so it hurts,because Josh Reynolds has been so disappointing.Brockers not as much,even though he has a as optè

 

[LARams_1963]

Wasn't it a Chicago win in 2000 that slipped us into the wild card spot? Pretty ironic that they could have our playoffs fate in their hands once again. Albeit that we need them to lose this time.....

 

[Mike]

Coach McVay has to call plays that Goff has the ability to run. I’m thinking it’s possible that on Sunday there will be plays called that will work to the strengths of Wolford. I watched his college tape and his AAF video. I was impressed, he has a gun for an arm and he can throw on the run. I believe Wolford is going to do well 10 and 6. An unrelated comment...I’m glad the Boobie thread and the bootie thread are usually next to each other.

I told you...Wolford was a baller today...well yesterday that is....

 

[AvengerRam]

Well, we made the playoffs, so no more riding fences, desperados!