Poor execution all around. Andrew Whitworth of all people taking costly penalties. Goff looking spotty all night. Kupp playing by far his worst game as a Ram - I never thought he'd miss two catches for TDs in the same game. Embarrassing tackling by our defence. Sloman missing an extra point. All in all, a pretty pathetic performance. The 49ers clearly wanted it more tonight. Despite that, given their injuries, the Rams have no excuse not to have came away with the W.
Sloman needs to be cut. You can't miss an easy FG and/or extra point every single game. I don't want to hear about Sloman being young and needing patience. The Rams are supposed to be a contender. We need a kicker that can be competent *today*. We don't have time to let Sloman learn on the job. We had that luxury with GZ because when he was drafted, the Rams were years away from doing anything. This kicking fiasco will cost us games. And it's on McVay.
Speaking with McVay... another subpar coaching performance on his end. Complete with his patented brutal time-out usage. I suspect a high-school student could manage the Rams' timeouts better. In the best interest of the team, McVay needs to delegate time-outs to an assistant. ASAP. It has been several years now. He is not going to learn. I'm not even sure he wants to - this is not the type of problem that should persist for years.
Throwing twice on the goal line when the entire drive was Henderson running the ball (7 plays to 0!) to great effect? Why? It's even stranger as the plan was to go for it on 4th down. And that failing to score with a run pins the 49er deep. Pass-happy-McVay at it again.
As much as it pains me to say it, Kyle Shanahan is a better coach than McVacy. We saw that tonight, and we've seen it regularly recently. Every head-to-head match-up, Shanahan schools McVay. Our recent wins over the 49ers mostly came when they had no talent. And before I sound too harsh on McVay, I actually like him. I think he has some flaws that are arguably fatal. But I cannot think of more than a handful of coaches I'd take over him, so I don't advocate for a change. I don't think we'd have much luck finding an upgrade.
Malcolm Brown is a solid addition to the RB room but needs to be firmly behind Henderson and Akers. I am unsure if Akers is truly back to 100%. If he is, the RB usage was troubling.
Still way too early to tell, but so far, our first two 2020 draft picks seem as if they would have been better spent on the defensive side of the ball...
I am still not sure what to think of Staley. His halftime adjustments have been solid. And new schemes take time to learn. But his coverage is way too soft, the run defence is atrocious, and the tackling is embarrassing. I do not think he is maximising Ramsey's talents, either. Time will tell.
I am luke-warm on the 2020 Rams thus far. Games like this happen. We arguably should have been undefeated coming into tonight, but for a bogus PI call vs. Buffalo. And divisional games are always unpredictable. As bad as we played tonight, some better execution and we likely come out on top On the other hand, we've yet to beat a a quality opponent, and this team appears to have some serious flaws. I could see 8-8 or 9-7 as much as I could 12-4. It'll be interesting to see how it shakes out.
