Holy sh!t!! So many things to be happy about today.
- Instead of playing down to their competition, as the Rams have done so many time in recent years when facing an opponent like today's Colts team, they totally walloped them the way they should have. Everybody came to play.
- Gawd, it was so awesome watching an offense execute a modern scheme, instead of one from the horse-and-buggy era that the Rams have run since Spags took over and continued through Fisher. No more of that.
- People said if Goff had time to throw and had decent receivers, he could play well. He sure as hell proved that today. He looked very good.
- I never really had any concern that there would be a dropoff in the defense transitioning from William's D to Wade's ... and today emphatically demonstrated that any concern was ill-placed. They looked incredible, even when factoring in for the current state of the Colts. Great plays by both Tru and Joyner on their pick sixes.
- How awesome is it to see real NFL receivers, running good routes, making tough catches, and so on? Pretty damn awesome if you ask me.
- Here's the catch to all that - for all that went right today, the Rams didn't play their best game or a perfect game by any means, and yet still won in resounding fashion. The team we saw today isn't as good as it can be.
- Watkins is still not fully integrated into this offense. Tavon isn't either due to the missed time. What is going to happen when those guys are fully up to speed? What are defenses going to do then? We've already seen that Kupp can get alone-in-his-own-zipcode open in this state, what happens when Watkins is playing at full speed with this offense? And what about when Everett starts to get some experience under his belt as well?
- Run blocking wasn't as good as it could be, still needs work (although it seemed at times like the Colts schemed as if they were playing last year's Rams). What happens when the run blocking gets better? And what happens when teams really start accounting for the weapons in the passing game and Goff's ability to utilize them?
- As good as our defense looked today, there is an elephant in the room covered with flashing neon - Aaron Donald (ps Aaron, sign the deal, dammit). How much better will this defense be when he's fully back in the fold and teams have to start double-teaming him every play?
In short, what we say today was an excellent performance by a team that still has a lot of room for improvement, and a coaching staff that looks like it can bring out that improvement. There will be ups and downs to be sure, but I think this team is just now scratching the surface of its potential. The Rams could end up being really good.
