No Excuses For Rams: It’s Now or Never

[RamBill]

No Excuses For Rams: It’s Now or Never

Posted by: Bernie Miklasz

http://www.101sports.com/2015/10/23/no-excuses-for-rams-its-now-or-never/


Really, coach Jeff Fisher and the Rams are way, way overdue in putting together a winning stretch of football. There have been too many false starts for this regime, and I’m not talking about the usual jumpy offensive linemen and their penalties.

Every time the Rams win a game, you start to think that this will be it. Finally: the beginning of consistent, dependable, successful football and proof that they’re headed in a positive direction. And then … sigh … the Rams squander a game they should win and walk backwards again.

Well, the any reasonable degree of patience expired a long time ago. By the fourth season of the Fisher and GM Les Snead rebuilding project, the Rams should be more than just another mid-pack team, sitting there at 2-3. No one wants to hear about the youth of the team, or the inexperienced offensive line, or the injuries. If this is the NFL’s youngest team for the fourth year in a row, it’s because Fisher and Snead wanted it that way. If the young O-line gets overrun too often, that’s on Fisher-Snead for declining to put a more experienced group in charge of protecting quarterback Nick Foles. And injuries? Give me the name of one NFL team that hasn’t been damaged by injuries.

In his first 32 games as the Rams head coach, Fisher went 14-17-1, a winning percentage of .453 that ranked 20th in the NFL over the 2012-2013 seasons. Considering that he’d taken over a smashed pumpkin of a franchise that had lost 65 of the previous 80 games, Fisher’s first two seasons were respectable.

By Fisher’s third season, 2014, the Rams should have been on a more impressive trajectory. Yes, even with the knee injuries that put QB Sam Bradford out of action. (Could we please stop pretending that the Rams would have gone on some dynamic, unstoppable run with a healthy Bradford at QB?) Instead, since the start of the 2014 season the Rams are 8-13, a winning percentage of .381 that ranks tied for 25th in the league.

Let’s see:

A .453 winning percentage in your first two seasons and 32 games.

And a .381 winning percentage over the next 21 games covering all of 2014 and the first five contests of ’15.

When you rebuild a football team, isn’t it supposed to be getting better? I’ve only been covering the NFL since 1982, but that’s my understanding.

By Year Four whatever is supposed to be happening — winning streaks, division titles, a wild-card playoff spot, some postseason victories, and dare we say a conference championship or Super Bowl — should be happening. No one is asking Fisher to build the Great Pyramids here, so he doesn’t get 20+ years to complete the project.

It’s time — no, it’s beyond time — for the Rams to win more than a football game or two per month.

I looked at the Fisher record on a individual monthly basis. Not counting the current month, the Rams have played 13 separate months of football with Fisher in charge. And they’ve had only three winning months out of 13. And each winning month came in a different season: the final month of 2012, November 2013 and Nov. 2014. That’s it. And each winning month was followed (naturally) by a losing month.

Fisher had a three-game winning streak late in his first season here, but hasn’t been able to repeat it. He’s had five mini-winning streaks — two games — since the start of the 2013 season.

Here’s the good news — well, at least on paper:

Home game vs. Cleveland.

Home game vs. San Francisco.

Road game at Minnesota.

Home game vs. Chicago.

Road game at Baltimore.

There will be other invitations to string together wins later in the season, including consecutive home games that bring Detroit and Tampa Bay to St. Louis. But for now I just wanted to put the focus on the next five games, and not look too far into the distance. Because if the Rams stumble around and lose when they should win and fail to significantly take advantage of the next five games on their schedule, the rest of the season will be just another extension of 2012, 2013, 2014.

Cleveland, San Francisco, Minnesota, Chicago and Baltimore are a combined 10-20 this season.

A quick look at the next five opponents:

— Cleveland has a good offense but ranks 24th in points allowed and is the league’s worst defense at stopping the run, plundered for an average yield of 150 yards rushing per game. The Rams have a young line — but a massive line. The Rams also have the most exceptional and exciting Todd Gurley to give this offense a new identity. These people should be able to run block, right? They did it in junior league, high school and college football, correct? We’re not asking this O-line to split the atom; just split the Browns’ defensive front and give Gurley a cutback lane. This is Football 101, so I don’t want to hear a damned thing about how the Browns were doing this, doing that, making it difficult for the Rams to set Gurley free.

— San Francisco still puts a respectable defense on the field but the offense is last in the NFL in points per game (14.7) and 31st in yards per game. The ‘Niners have lost five of their last six games, getting outscored by 99 points in those five defeats. QB Colin Kaepernick is near the bottom of the league in passer rating. Jim Harbaugh is coaching Michigan. Frank Gore is running the ball for Indianapolis. Much of that once-ferocious defense has retired, been suspended, or splintered by free agency.

— Minnesota does have a winning record (3-2), and is 3-0 at home. But two of the home wins came against two of the league’s sorriest teams in 2015, Detroit and Kansas City. And while the Vikings have played very well defensively so far, their offense has sputtered — ranked 29th in points per game (19.2) and 30th in yards per game. If the Rams’ defense is as good as just about everybody says it is, then Gregg Williams’ wolf pack is surely capable of winning a game or two during this stretch if the Rams’ offense drifts and stalls.

— Chicago is 1-2 on the road, lost at Detroit, and fields a defense that ranks dead last in the league in points allowed (30 per game) and is 27th at stopping the run. Plus: Jay Cutler is the Bears’ quarterback and if Robert Quinn and his merry marauders can’t rattle Cutler then they should donate their game checks to charity.

— Baltimore is one of the biggest surprises of the season, but not in a way that delights my old bunkies in Bawlmer. The Ravens are 1-5 and have lost their teeth defensively, getting pushed around by opponents for an average of 27 points per game, which ranks 27th.

There’s another important aspect to this five-game stretch: the Fisher’s Rams need to collect wins away from the NFC West mosh pit. The Rams have been plenty tough against NFC West brethren Seattle, San Francisco and Arizona, going 9-10-1 with Fisher as coach. But outside the division, the Fisher record is 13-20-1.

That’s awful. That needs to change. Now. Four of the next five games will be played beyond the borders of the gates of the NFC West. If the Rams want to pull themselves out of mediocrity and become a winning team and a postseason presence, it’s time … it’s past time.

Thanks for reading …

–Bernie

 

[RamBill]

Are the Rams (finally) ready to roll?
• By Jim Thomas

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/foot...cle_4009e619-7642-5766-bab5-f07e1bce65b2.html

It was duly noted at Rams Park that the NFC West standings have tightened up. Since the last time the Rams played a football game, all three rivals in the West have lost.

Coach Jeff Fisher also pointed out to his players that in seven games over the Rams’ bye weekend, the outcome was decided by a touchdown or less.

The moral of the story?

“Really it’s up for grabs right now,” tight end Cory Harkey said. “So we need to figure out a way to just take it and run with it.”

Funny, there’s about 20 other NFL teams that feel the exact same way. Every year in the league, there are about a half-dozen teams clearly better than everybody else. And maybe a half-dozen team that are clearly worse than everyone else.

And in between — the great middle class. As the NFL enters its seventh week and November beckons, there are a ton of teams hovering around .500, give or take a game or two.

“Just struggling to find their identity, and really just looking to stack games and get on a roll,” linebacker James Laurinaitis said. “And you can either stack games and get on a roll, or you can lose multiple games and start to sink.”

And so here come the Rams, fresh off their bye week at 2-3, having gone through a crucible of contending teams, high-powered offenses, and marquee quarterbacks.

But their schedule now lightens up noticeably, with their next five opponents a combined 10-20. Six of their next nine contests take place at the Edward Jones Dome, starting with Sunday’s noon kickoff against the Cleveland Browns (2-4).

Stack or sink? What’s it gonna be?

“I really feel we’re at a breaking point right now,” Laurinaitis said. “We’re at one of those moments where it’s let’s go out there, let’s get our stuff together, let’s play good, consistent football and see if we can stack a couple together.”

“Exactly,” Harkey added. “We just need to get one. Put two together. Put three together.”

Combine the more favorable schedule with the fact that the NFC West appears less formidable in 2015, and well, opportunity is knocking. Are the Rams listening? Are they capable of answering the door?

Let’s face it, the Rams have been at similar junctures during the Fisher regime, only to disappoint a fan base aching for a taste of success. What was once referred to as the Lost Decade is now the Lost Decade-Plus.

No playoff berths since the 2004 season. Nary a winning record since 2003. (The Rams last made the postseason as an 8-8 wild card in ’04.)

But now, in Year 4 with Fisher as head coach and Les Snead as general manager, the Rams have to feel like they are capable of making a run in the NFC West, and a run at the postseason.

“I think everybody knows and feels it,” Harkey said.

“I think that’s something we’ve never lost sight of,” tight end Jared Cook said. “That’s something that’s been the goal ever since we stepped on the field during camp. And it’s something that’s gonna continue to be the goal as we take each week head on. And the next team is the Browns.”

Funny thing about the Browns. They’re probably thinking the same thing. They’ve had only one winning record since 2002. Until last season, they had gone six consecutive seasons without winning more than five games.

Under new head coach Mike Pettine, they started 7-4 last season ... only to lose their final five contests. This year, three of their four losses have been by seven points or fewer, including last week’s excruciating 26-23 overtime loss to unbeaten Denver.

At face value, they seem oh-so-close to escaping the great middle class, and as Laurinaitis puts it, stacking some wins.

“You can see it falling into place,” Fisher says of the Browns. “This is a legit team that’s playing in a very difficult division and has played three consecutive 3-point games.

“They’ve lost two (of those games) and they won one, so it doesn’t take a lot to convince your team about the opponent that you’re facing.”

Two weeks ago, the Browns rallied from a 21-9 third-quarter deficit to win a 33-30 overtime game at Baltimore. With journeyman quarterback Josh McCown throwing for a franchise-record 457 yards, it marked only the second time the Browns have defeated Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco in 15 tries.

It looked very much like one of those launching-pad games but the Browns couldn’t quite pull it off last week against a vulnerable Denver team.

“Knowing some of the guys on their team, they’re fighting to figure out what they are,” Laurinaitis said. “But they’re close. Not too dissimilar from us.”

It would be totally understandable if the Browns viewed the Rams as an inconsistent team that hasn’t been able to get much going on offense, even with rookie running back Todd Gurley bursting onto the scene lately.

Jump out early on the Rams, and things could go Cleveland’s way in a building where there figures to be thousands of empty seats, and thus not much of a home-field advantage.

In fact, the Browns could be viewing the Rams as the easy part of their schedule.

Like many of the Rams, Laurinaitis has been diligently ignoring talk about a softer schedule.

“I’ve been on one of those teams early in my career here where we were the ‘quote-unquote’ easy part of the schedule,” Laurinaitis said. “And New Orleans came to town (in 2011) and we whooped them.

“I’ve been on that side of that. So as a team, we can’t think about, ‘Thank goodness we’re past the tough part of our schedule.’ This is the NFL. Every Sunday’s tough. And from what I’ve seen on film with the Browns, this team, if we don’t bring our ‘A’ game, they will come into town and whoop us.”

 

[jap]

Let's see if these young kids can graduate to full professionalism and bring it consistently every single blessed weekend. Whether the Browns corral the Gurley Express! or not, the Horns need to start discovering what they have in TGII the receiving back, and they need to step up their efforts to exploit the passing offense off the attention Todd is drawing. Regardless, of how well the Browns D reacts, the Horns have to be prepared to switch gears to take advantage of what the D gives them.

The Horns D got to be poised to rock Josh McCown's world and make this the worst defensive experience of his season. A defensive TD or two wouldn't hurt as well as the Horns push to get their new offense going. It's one thing to back off Aaron Rodgers and flood the defensive backfield while respecting Aaron's arm. It's another to face a QB with a history of folding under pressure. Chris Long and 'Tree may be down, but we got extra resources to bury Josh.

The Horns special teams coverage units have to be extra vigilant against a potent Browns return team, especially at PR with young Travis Benjamin. Johnny has to bring his A game to minimize returns by kicking to the sidelines and bombing them high & long to give his coverage team time to arrive at the same time as the ball. Greg the Turbo Leg's three misses have come from beyond 50 yards, with one miss coming at 63 yards---all in the GB game. He definitely has enough leg, even with on the misses, with all remaining seven kicks splitting the uprights. Hopefully, he can convert those misses to makes, especially if we were to encounter Aaron and his Pack once more in the post season. Most opponents have been avoiding Tavon like the plague this season with only seven returns and two fair catches. It will be interesting to see how much confidence the Browns have in their coverage unit against the former Mountaineer.

 

[kurtfaulk]

.

If the Rams don't win this game i will be inconsolable.

And the profanity shall flow.

.

 

[CGI_Ram]

.

If the Rams don't win this game i will be inconsolable.

And the profanity shall flow.

.

The board might burn down....

 

[RamDino]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3ZOKDmorj0

 

[gabriel18]

No reason they can't go 4-1 in the next 5 weeks , but we all know not to count our chickens .

 

[Rams43]

Kinda cliche to say it's now or never. And yet it's probably true.

The Rams have already wasted golden opportunities against the Redskins and Steelers. Those are 2 games that should have gone into the win column.

After 5 games of experience, we need to start our playoff run. Otherwise, we remain in the 7-8 win mediocrity quagmire.

And we all know that it's squarely on the O. We live or die based on their performance.

 

[snackdaddy]

One thing we learned with this team, don't count on anything. Beating Seattle in the first game was awesome. Stinking up the joint in Washington was terrible. It seems like the last couple years its all on the offense. The defense has done its job for the most part. But the offense has kept them from winning. This year seems the same.