It’s not how you start...

[leoram]

...it’s how you finish.

if there’s a time to suffer injuries, it’s early in the year when the backups have time to develop, starters get time to heal, and the team has time to make moves.

Like everyone else, I found the optics of this offense flailing and a couple games where the defense couldn’t stop the bleeding as an enormous disappointment most of us didn’t see coming...at least not to this extent. Sure, the OLine would need to gel, but to see all five regress was unprecedented.

The silver lining? McVay and Kromer have time to adjust the scheme to fit the players. Wade gets to use Jalen as a centerpiece to revamp the defense to his liking. The returns of JJ and Talib will add flexibility. There are simply too many players who have All Pro talent and drive for a 3-3 record to produce a total collapse. Without a few fluke plays, the Rams beat the Hawks and 9’ers even though they were truly outplayed.

A three game losing streak at the end of a season coupled with key personnel losses spell doom for most teams. Occurring early in the season is an opportunity to become something more than originally planned.

 

[SteveBrown]

Previous to Jalen, I had thought the Rams had no chance of the playoffs because of
O line---because every team sees what a joke their offense is now....really, that game against the 49ers wasn't even college level offense.

WHy does Jalen change that?
Well, the Rams can hold a many teams to 19-23 points now, so the offense doesn't ahve to produce so much. In case you haven't paid attention, the Rams run defense is doing a decent job, and SJD and doing an aweomse job. So, they are not weak against the run--and sometimes, just sometimes, very stout. Their pass defense should be a lot different now with Jalen. Though I do have to say, losing JJ is huge...so who knows how that changes things.

Jalen's helpe is huge this year, because we don't know what the offense will produce week in and week out.....Whit won't make the entire 16 games is my guess...so, we will be in flux on offense the entire year because of him and Gurley not being 100% anymore. Next year he will be huger--lol

However, the good thing is that teams like The Ravens and Bears whos offensive lines could have man handled the Rams but now can't with SJD; when the Rams want, you can see on film they can stop teams. ..when they want. Have you seen SJD playing lately? He man-handled Richter, the SF center, who is a very good player, almost every play. He made it happen big time. He has played well almost every game (excpt game #1). SO, there are some games we may win that I didn't think we could have in the first week.

With all that said, the Rams Offense don't have the physicality to go and beat any team on any week like we did in 2018 Edwards will hep a lot, but Goff looks nothing like he has looked in '17-18. IF GOff looks like his old self, we can beat any team in the NFC. WHich team is really good? NOt SF, not Seattle, not the Bears, not Dallas, not the Eagles; maybe the Packers; only the Saints can beat us--and when Goff is "on", the Saints have no chance against us.

However, the Chance of Goff being "on" =60% for me. He needs more time than any QB...and he hasn't gotten time against good D lines---see Browns and 49ers. Whit made a comment about the "health" of someone in the O line---very vague....so, maybe it is Hav, because he is missing something. Maybe it is Blythe.

THough Noteboom was looking a lot better the last 2 games, he was no match for 330 lb guys, but Edwards might be. So, Edwards is an upgrade....yes, an upgrade in the next 10 games---after he gets in sync in a few weeks.

Jalen Ramsey might not have an impact for a few weeks.....he hasn't run hard for 3 weeks, so he will be rusty a bit.

Ramblings....sorry not so understandable.

 

[snackdaddy]

Its not how you drive, its how you arrive. Kinda like that?

 

[Merlin]

Yeah I am not willing to throw in the towel yet. We might miss the playoffs but if you don't enjoy rooting for your team even when the odds are stacked then you're not getting the most out of the fan experience. We're supposed to be a little myopic and homer-ish.

I'm concerned of course. But I also love this year's team and hope they get a chance to show in the playoffs and IMO if their defense starts playing up to their roster quality they have a good chance to get in.

 

[RamBall]

The whiners still have the saints, packers, seattle twice and us again. Anyone not see 3 losses maybe more in that 5 games? Its a big if but if the Rams can get right over the next 2 games we are right back in the conversation as long as we have no more hiccups like the tampa or sf games.

IMO the sf game helped Wade convince McVay that he needs some horses to give the Rams a D that can get off the field. We are doing pretty well against the run, it was the damn underneath passing game against the 10 yrd cushions that doomed us against SF. If the D gets off the field the O gets more opportunities to find their rythm.

 

[Elmgrovegnome]

As long as they get the OLine straightened out they have a chance. Even if the line is average they will have a chance. The three teams that the Rams lost to didn't have great Olines.

 

[snackdaddy]

Yeah I am not willing to throw in the towel yet. We might miss the playoffs but if you don't enjoy rooting for your team even when the odds are stacked then you're not getting the most out of the fan experience. We're supposed to be a little myopic and homer-ish.

I'm concerned of course. But I also love this year's team and hope they get a chance to show in the playoffs and IMO if their defense starts playing up to their roster quality they have a good chance to get in.

Even if we don't make the playoffs, I have a feeling we will be in the mix all the way to the final week. A far cry from the days before McVay when we were making our draft strategy by Thanksgiving.

 

[Mackeyser]

Even if we don't make the playoffs, I have a feeling we will be in the mix all the way to the final week. A far cry from the days before McVay when we were making our draft strategy by Thanksgiving.

That's being generous. We typically were in full swing before Halloween...