What we saw from our defense the second half of season is that stopping anyone is a low percentage play
GAME DAY NFC Championship - Rams at Seahawks
- Thread starter CGI_Ram
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So.. the game.
Stafford and McVay were incredible. Do people forget what kind of defense they were playing on the road? If you told me they would score 27 points (and it would've been 30 if they weren't down and had to go for it on 4th).. I would've taken that.
The Oline was absolutely awesome. Just awesome. Stafford was sacked only once and rarely pressured. This is an oline starting a UDFA at LT, 2nd round pick at LG, UDFA at C, a 4th round pick at RG and 5th round pick at RT. Fucking amazing. AMAZING.
The Dline was fine.. it wasn't great.. but it was fine. Seattle has invested a ton in their oline.
The secondary.... stinks. That's just reality. Need at least 2 new corners.. and I'd be sniffing for a real athlete to play safety possibly as well.
Speights limitations were in full play today, unfortunately.
Xavier Smith.. goddamnit. I've been such a fan, rooting for the guy as he kept improving and contributing. Hate to say it, but he just choked. A total bummer and the single biggest factor in the loss.
I don't thing the Rams should use both first rounders unless each one is a day-one starter who is a difference maker. I'd rather trade back and start building depth and future replacements for guys like Dotson.. imagine what this team will look like if they have another draft like 2023! If they nail their picks like that year, they will go to the Super Bowl next year.
Just a bummer to lose when the team had so many things going right. Damnit.
Stafford and McVay were incredible. Do people forget what kind of defense they were playing on the road? If you told me they would score 27 points (and it would've been 30 if they weren't down and had to go for it on 4th).. I would've taken that.
The Oline was absolutely awesome. Just awesome. Stafford was sacked only once and rarely pressured. This is an oline starting a UDFA at LT, 2nd round pick at LG, UDFA at C, a 4th round pick at RG and 5th round pick at RT. Fucking amazing. AMAZING.
The Dline was fine.. it wasn't great.. but it was fine. Seattle has invested a ton in their oline.
The secondary.... stinks. That's just reality. Need at least 2 new corners.. and I'd be sniffing for a real athlete to play safety possibly as well.
Speights limitations were in full play today, unfortunately.
Xavier Smith.. goddamnit. I've been such a fan, rooting for the guy as he kept improving and contributing. Hate to say it, but he just choked. A total bummer and the single biggest factor in the loss.
I don't thing the Rams should use both first rounders unless each one is a day-one starter who is a difference maker. I'd rather trade back and start building depth and future replacements for guys like Dotson.. imagine what this team will look like if they have another draft like 2023! If they nail their picks like that year, they will go to the Super Bowl next year.
Just a bummer to lose when the team had so many things going right. Damnit.
Not getting a first down to extend our drive and then a muffed punt. That's the game. The end of the first half and start of the second. I know there is a lot after those drives but those two drives alone gave them 14 points. HUGE!If it is 13-10 at half time me we win the game. I was so angry at that game management before the half.
Infuriating.
… just as infuriating as the inconsistency of the refs and Kupp playing for the Seahags. I’ll be hibernating for the off season.
Yeah it’s supposed to be a bummer dude. Football is weird, you can’t take these opportunities for granted when you make it this far because there’s no telling how long it will be until you make it to that point again.
After we lost to the Patriots in 2001, you couldn’t tell me everything wasn’t going to be okay. You couldn’t tell me we weren’t going on another SB run the next season. Instead the Rams essentially sucked for the next 15 years until we landed McVay, Gurley, and Aaron Donald.
The real bummer in this for me is that (to your point), this is one of the more talented Rams teams I’ve seen. And every single game they lost this year was due to unforced errors.
I for the life of me hope we run it back next year with an upgraded roster and win it all, so that this year can be forgotten. But honestly, if not, this will go down as the greatest “what if” season I’ve ever seen from the Rams.
It's a moot point. We didn't have the time. We would have lost either way.
This is where we differ.
The Rams are an excellent organization now... they were not an excellent organization when they won the Super Bowl in 99.
They have a ton of young talent, 50+ million in cap space and an extra first rounder. I think they'll compete at the highest level again next year.
And.. unforced errors and weird shit. I'm not "blaming the refs"... but when I look at the season, I'll happily note that if just two calls go different, the Rams have homefield advantage. That's crazy. Like you said.. a real "what if" season.
I wouldn't have. The reason being is I wouldn't want us to lose the FG lead if we scored a TD. 34-31 is better than 32-31 or 33-31 if we score that late TD, instead of getting stopped on 4th down.
Don't get me wrong.
McVay is an extroardinary football coach.
Combined with Matthew Stafford, Puka, our offensive line and the remainder of the offence personnel, the Rams offence is virtually unstoppable and McVay's play design and game planning have a lot to do with it.
We tore apart the Seahawks defence with ease, but we couldn't overcome our own defensive deficiencies and Xavier Smith's blunder.
But someone has to get in McVay's ear and give him another opinion about specific in-game decisons.
McVay's decision to forego chip shot field goals have had a lot to do with our late regular season losses to the Seahawks and the Falcons, and we barely survived his not taking the points against the Bears and the Panthers.
In tonight's game, after unsuccessfully going for it on 4th down, we had no realistic chance of driving the whole field to get a touchdown on our last drive when we finally got the ball back.
But the Seahawks would have had to take more chances and throw the ball if we were down by only a point, as the Rams would have been in a position where a field goal could have won the game for us.
McVay is an extroardinary football coach.
Combined with Matthew Stafford, Puka, our offensive line and the remainder of the offence personnel, the Rams offence is virtually unstoppable and McVay's play design and game planning have a lot to do with it.
We tore apart the Seahawks defence with ease, but we couldn't overcome our own defensive deficiencies and Xavier Smith's blunder.
But someone has to get in McVay's ear and give him another opinion about specific in-game decisons.
McVay's decision to forego chip shot field goals have had a lot to do with our late regular season losses to the Seahawks and the Falcons, and we barely survived his not taking the points against the Bears and the Panthers.
In tonight's game, after unsuccessfully going for it on 4th down, we had no realistic chance of driving the whole field to get a touchdown on our last drive when we finally got the ball back.
But the Seahawks would have had to take more chances and throw the ball if we were down by only a point, as the Rams would have been in a position where a field goal could have won the game for us.
You're just looking at the outcome, after the fact.
That is an incorrect way of judging the wisdom of a decison because it doesn't reflect how the game and playcalling are subsequently impacted by the decision to gamble on 4th down.
At the end, our defence didn't make an early enough stop to get us the ball back with enough time, but McVay's decision to forego the points took a lot of pressure off the Seahawks.
Taking the field goal would have put us within one point and the situation would have been different. The Seahawks couldn't have just run the ball because the Rams would have been within a field goal of winning the game.
The Seahawks would have been under much more pressure if we had taken the points.
It was a bad decision, period
They had them backed up at around the 10 yrd line up 4. That was just as much pressure as getting it at the 35 after a kickoff up 1.
We are in our superbowl window and could be for a long time if we find another great QB once Stafford is “full”. I don’t see him retiring after that loss, so let’s surround him with even more talent and stay positive. Special teams was our Achilles heal so let’s also prioritise that this offseason. It pains me to say it but Seattle outlasted us and, despite us having Stafford, deserved it. If the key plays had gone the other way, we win. Those are the breaks in a tight one between the best two teams in the NFL this season
I'm looking at reality. McVay went after the lead. Stafford was cooking. We came up short. We had the Seahawks taking over deep in their territory. We had three timeouts and ample time to go win it if the defense got a stop. Instead, the defense let Seattle march down the field and nearly run the clock out.
In order for kicking a FG to work, the defense would have had to get a stop. We saw what the defense did when it had that opportunity. It. Did. Not. Get. A. Stop. You can invent a fantasy world where we kick a FG, Seattle crumbles under the pressure, and we win the game. But in the real world, Seattle didn't crumble under the pressure, and our defense didn't get the stop we needed to win it.
We weren't winning that game with a FG on that drive. McVay made the right call. And the armchair QBs complaining about it are wrong.
Yep. You don't win by gifting the other team possessions. They gave us one of them back with the taunting penalty, but in the end it just wasn't enough.
