What happened?

[blackbart]

Are the injuries the underlying cause of this team falling from the team that got ripped off by the refs against the Bills? The team the dismantled the Pats? The team that beat the Bucs on the road?

 

[dang]

What didn’t happen A: Offense: 1) Regression of Goff. 2) No deep threat at WR. 3) Instability at RB (due to injuries).

 

[Ellard80]

Are the injuries the underlying cause of this team falling from the team that got ripped off by the refs against the Bills? The team the dismantled the Pats? The team that beat the Bucs on the road?

its been this way for two years now.... and its a lot of things -


We don't have much team speed on offense.
Goff has regressed
McVay isn't dialing up any miracles.
cant keep running back heahtly.
shitty special teams this year.
offensive line is average.
alot of money tied up in a few players making it a tough balancing act.

there are prob more but that is what i can think of atm.

 

[madrid311]

It's the rams. It won't change, just hopefully it won't be as bad as it's been before.

 

[jrry32]

I really don't know. We've hit some adversity. Hopefully, we overcome it on Sunday, Goff comes back for Seattle, and we get right. This team is still capable of great things. The struggle is figuring out which version will show up.

 

[Zodi]

I have zero faith in our offensive line to pass protect or consistently open running lanes.

And the complete lack of deep threat has been painfully obvious this year.

 

[dieterbrock]

The Rams top 2 running backs are hurt, and the Rams want to be a primary running team

 

[kurtfaulk]

Are the injuries the underlying cause of this team falling from the team that got ripped off by the refs against the Bills? The team the dismantled the Pats? The team that beat the Bucs on the road?

Honestly, i have no Fucking idea what happened the last couple of weeks.

Mcvay has a lot of work to do in the off season. His offense looks like a hunk of junk.

.

 

[leoram]

I called it early in the season. This is a pretty good team. Not great. Just pretty good. Several very good and a couple great players with very good coaching. The OLine was protected by condensing the offense. That has been exposed. I believe the WR are plenty fast enough. Four are faster than Jerry Rice ever was. Goff was given more responsibility and at times did well with it and often not so much. The defense has improved but the rules prevent any defense from being dominant anymore. There's more work to do but McVay will accomplish that. It's just not this year.

 

[TexasRam]

I called it early in the season. This is a pretty good team. Not great. Just pretty good. Several very good and a couple great players with very good coaching. The OLine was protected by condensing the offense. That has been exposed. I believe the WR are plenty fast enough. Four are faster than Jerry Rice ever was. Goff was given more responsibility and at times did well with it and often not so much. The defense has improved but the rules prevent any defense from being dominant anymore. There's more work to do but McVay will accomplish that. It's just not this year.

Fair statement. I do like a deep threat but really, if you rebuilt the Oline to give the QB time you can run so many deeper plays with the current WR’s.
But realistically none of them are going to go up and get the ball like Hopkins, Adams, Evans. And none can run by everyone like Tyree Hill or Metcalf.

We don’t have that type of WR.

But rebuild the Oline and your back to 2018.

 

[Oregonram]

Man, I know this is coming in from way out of left field, but we have really struggled at center after John Sullivan retired. I know he got handled in the SB, but his presence and physicality has not been replaced at all. The last few weeks, and every time we play the Niners, we have turnstiles at the Center position.

 

[TexasRam]

Man, I know this is coming in from way out of left field, but we have really struggled at center after John Sullivan retired. I know he got handled in the SB, but his presence and physicality has not been replaced at all. The last few weeks, and every time we play the Niners, we have turnstiles at the Center position.

Agreed. Sullivan was one of the best run blocking Centers around. He struggled vs the Fletcher Cox's in pass pro but Gurley was a solid blocker.

With Saffold and Sullivan we were a powerful run team especially around the goaline. It then opened up the pass as well.

Edwards has been real solid but doesnt get the same push Saffold could in the run game.

Blythe is a good backup and always has been. Over a 16 game season it really starts to show.

But Higbee and Everett have really been bad in run blocking at critical moments. Higbee has been playing injured quite a bit so that may be a big part of it. Kupp has really stepped up his blocking but Reynolds is still a problem.

 

[FrantikRam]

We've made some bad decisions:

Letting Saffold go and keeping Fowler/Floyd instead.

Trading for Cooks.

Signing Gurley.

Signing Goff.

Signing Kupp.

Signing Woods.

Saffold is obvious - although it means our defense/pass rush is worse, IMO we should have signed him.

I did not think signing Gurley was the right move then and certainly dont now - analyzing Gurley vs Saffold as well, should have been easy. Even aside from the injuries TG had nowhere to run last year.

Goff/Kupp/Woods - grouping them together because next year we will be paying $65 million for an underperforming QB, and WRs who are scheme fits.

 

[ottoman89]

Add a piece to the OL like Iowa C Tyler Lindenbaum (sp), add a deep threat and some more competition at Ol and offense is fixed.

Fire the STC, they've been a crippling group all season. Don't set up offense with good field position and set up defense in bad spots.

 

[ProGen]

I really think McVay is struggling to get juice out of this offense with Goff at the helm. However...it can also be argued that Goff is struggling to get any production from this offense with the cast around him. It is hard to say what the exact cause is.

For next year, we really need to fix this offensive mess out, because we currently have an offense that does not scare anyone, and almost has no identity. If we stick with Goff, it is imperative that we build a dominant run game for McVay's offense to be at it's best (which, yes, can obviously be said for any offense). So much of what McVay does, and so much of what suits Goff is built off the running attack.

At this stage, a drive almost feels over if we have a false start (or even worse - a holding) penalty.
It also feels like we can only score and move the ball in a limited number of ways. We don't feel threatening, like many top offenses do, which is why many are clamouring for a field stretching WR to open up the field for all our talent (Kupp, Higbee etc) in the short-to-mid range.

I also echo the sentiment that other posters have brought up - we have made some sizeable errors with signings, trading and cap allocation.

 

[OnceARam]

What went wrong is that we have a pocket passer who can't step into a throw without threat of breaking his thumb on the helmet of an opposing player. With the way the interior of our offensive line has been playing for the past two seasons, Goff's injury was only a matter of time.

 

[tklongball]

I posted this in another thread, and it applies here as well...


With the Gurley and Cooks issues coming into this season, both money and big pieces of the offense changing, I have looked at this as a mini rebuild season all year. I think deep down most of us expected that, to some degree.

But, we stated 4-1, and almost 5-0, thanks to a shitty NFC East, and I think that changed a lot of peoples expectations for the season. Add to that the amazing defense we have this year, and I think people stated thinking we were a legitimate playoff team/super bowl contender.

Honestly, with the short comings of this team, I am amazed we still have a shot at the playoffs. Goff has been bad, our center is really bad against power and stunts, our OL doesn't open up run lanes consistently, and doesn't give a clean pocket very often or for very long. All this adds up to not being able to throw the ball down the field, and defenses crowding the run game and the short and intermediate stuff.

I have quite enjoyed the Rams exceeding my expectations this year. The fact that we can still make the playoffs sounds great to me. I hoped we would be around 13-3 this year, but I knew we had major issues. I mean we had almost $38 Million in dead money this year.

I believe that the Rams have the 4th most dead money behind the Jaguars, Jets, and Panthers (Quite the Who's Who of NFL Power houses this season).

Now Goff is out. OK, Lets see what Wolford has. Fingers crossed. Maybe we still back into the playoffs. Maybe we even win a playoff game. Certainly possible. And, I would love to see what this Defense can do in the playoffs. Hell, maybe we even make a deep playoff run. Who knows.

And if not, and we lose and are out. I promise you guys... life will go on.

 

[Ramstien]

alot of money tied up in a few players making it a tough balancing act.

They should have never given Goff that big of a contract and now it depilating to the welfare of the team. Of course it will never happen but he should give some of this money back to the team for underperforming. His pay next year and thereafter should be based on his performance. Blame whoever you want but Goff has truly sucked which has also pulled McVay and the rest of the offense down with him. Ultimately Mcvay's head should roll along with Goff, for allowing this to happen.

 

[thirteen28]

Too many changes from two years ago. Any one of them could have been compensated for, together they forced significant adjustments to the offense, not least among them the dialing back of a lot of things we were doing successfully in 2017-18. What we were doing early in the season worked by hiding some of the limitations we now face, but teams have adjusted and there has been no counter-adjustments. Maybe Wolford's mobility can provide a bit of a counter-adjustment for what's left of this season, but long term we will need more.

 

[Mackeyser]

its been this way for two years now.... and its a lot of things -


We don't have much team speed on offense.
Goff has regressed
McVay isn't dialing up any miracles.
cant keep running back heahtly.
shitty special teams this year.
offensive line is average.
alot of money tied up in a few players making it a tough balancing act.

there are prob more but that is what i can think of atm.

Our starting position was abysmal in the Seattle game. That REALLY affected the game plan.

Also, not sure why, but the more and more we've gone on this season, the more our offense has shrunk its operating area. Defenses no longer have to defend each blade of grass and they know it. They can put their deep safety only 20 yards downfield because we almost NEVER throw deep

I think in the last two games, the terribad play of the offense has affected the D in a way that it hasn't before in the season. AD has gone back to making mistakes he wasn't making under Staley... the biggest was a play where they had AD on the left edge and he made an inside move. Well, that broke contain and the second RW saw that, he bounced outside and had no one near him for 20 yards. ANY edge has to maintain contain first, ESPECIALLY against RW. I honestly think that if we can score points with Wolford, the D will feel comfortable going back to doing what it was doing best.