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- Apr 22, 2016
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First, every game is important for a young team, especially one with a history like the Rams over the past decade or so. A winning season, playoffs or not, would work wonders for this team, especially with a first year coach trying to instill a new and better culture.
But this game is important for a lot of other reasons:
1. Big game for Goff and the offense. They struggled last week, both in terms of turnovers and putting points on the board. We went too heavy through the air against a good D, and this Jaguar D has some of the same strengths as Seattle (decent rush, ball hawking secondary). Another poor performance like last week could rattle a young qb's confidence, whereas a good outing could really be a great bounce back.
2. A loss would bring us back to .500, and a lot of these players probably remember we were 3-1 last year, too, before everything basically imploded. A win keeps us with a winning record, which is great for any team obviously, but especially a young one without a history of winning.
3. This is a winnable game, and winning teams, especially playoff quality teams, find ways to win these. Last week's loss really hurt, because winning the division this year was (hopefully is) a possibility, with Arizona trending down and Seattle not as dominant as in recent years. It might take a division win for the Rams to make the playoffs, which would be an incredible rebound from last year. The wild card battle is going to be tough, though - yes, I know there's a ton of season left, but right now, the Eagles, Packers, and Falcons seem strong enough to capture their respective divisions, which leaves the West, and then a lot of strong wild card contenders (Carolina, Detroit, Washington being our biggest competition at the moment, with Minnesota, Dallas, and Arizona maybe a tier below). However, 10-6 or 11-5 might do it in the West this year, which really makes that Seattle home loss sting - we still have Seattle away, a tough matchup with the Eagles, and away games with Minn, Tenn, and Ariz.
Hopefully our chance of a winning season or even playoffs didn't bounce off Kupp's hands in the closing seconds of last week's loss. But tomorrow is a huge game, and one we can win. After a tough loss in a game we could have won, but shouldn't have even been close to salvaging after 5 turnovers, this game is a pivotal one.
But this game is important for a lot of other reasons:
1. Big game for Goff and the offense. They struggled last week, both in terms of turnovers and putting points on the board. We went too heavy through the air against a good D, and this Jaguar D has some of the same strengths as Seattle (decent rush, ball hawking secondary). Another poor performance like last week could rattle a young qb's confidence, whereas a good outing could really be a great bounce back.
2. A loss would bring us back to .500, and a lot of these players probably remember we were 3-1 last year, too, before everything basically imploded. A win keeps us with a winning record, which is great for any team obviously, but especially a young one without a history of winning.
3. This is a winnable game, and winning teams, especially playoff quality teams, find ways to win these. Last week's loss really hurt, because winning the division this year was (hopefully is) a possibility, with Arizona trending down and Seattle not as dominant as in recent years. It might take a division win for the Rams to make the playoffs, which would be an incredible rebound from last year. The wild card battle is going to be tough, though - yes, I know there's a ton of season left, but right now, the Eagles, Packers, and Falcons seem strong enough to capture their respective divisions, which leaves the West, and then a lot of strong wild card contenders (Carolina, Detroit, Washington being our biggest competition at the moment, with Minnesota, Dallas, and Arizona maybe a tier below). However, 10-6 or 11-5 might do it in the West this year, which really makes that Seattle home loss sting - we still have Seattle away, a tough matchup with the Eagles, and away games with Minn, Tenn, and Ariz.
Hopefully our chance of a winning season or even playoffs didn't bounce off Kupp's hands in the closing seconds of last week's loss. But tomorrow is a huge game, and one we can win. After a tough loss in a game we could have won, but shouldn't have even been close to salvaging after 5 turnovers, this game is a pivotal one.
