What was the most disastrous moment/event/decision in Rams history?

[jrry32]

As I recall - it was a botched last second field goal that allowed us to beat the Browns and lose out on Luck.

Just checked. Good memory. Dawson missed a 22 yard FG with about 2 minutes left. What the heck haha. Freaking Browns.

 

[CGI_Ram]

Just checked. Good memory. Dawson missed a 22 yard FG with about 2 minutes left. What the heck haha. Freaking Browns.

I remember this one at the time thinking it was a bad deal for us.

I only recall one other time like that in recent years... It was back in the Martz era, we had a huge blowout win over SF in week 17.

I think that win pushed us down many spots due to tie breakers. It might have been the year we ultimately took Tye Hill or Jimmy Kennedy. Urg.

 

[jetplt67]

No question the beginning of all issues was the death of Carroll Rosenbloom

 

[RamDino]

The most disastrous moment? Easy..., the Patriots field goal kick to win the Super bowl. The most disastrous event? Talking Vermeil into retirement because they didn't want to lose Martz. Worst decision? Letting Kurt Warner go in his prime. But think of all those great players we let go... Kevin Greene, London Fletcher, Jerome Bettis, Eric Dickerson... ugh!

 

[FRO]

I'm not sure we pick Luck if we had the top pick. The bounty would have been even bigger and harder to pass up. Knowing what we know now, sure you sit and pick, I'm just not sure if that's what would have happened.

 

[CGI_Ram]

I'm not sure we pick Luck if we had the top pick. The bounty would have been even bigger and harder to pass up. Knowing what we know now, sure you sit and pick, I'm just not sure if that's what would have happened.

You probably are right. Maybe we thank Cleveland for preventing us from being the franchise who traded away the rights to Andrew Luck.

 

[Athos]

1. Losing to the Patsies in a rigged SB
2. Basically putting Kurt Warner down like the dog in old yeller. It's been basically QB purgatory since then.

 

[DaveFan'51]

The Dickerson trade.....that was painful. Along with Georgia taking over.

I have this as a very close 2nd to letting Jack "Hack-Saw" Reynolds go to the 49ers!!

#1

#2

 

[DaveFan'51]

Georgia taking over the team instead of one of Carrolls sons or selling the team to a serious owner.

You've "Nailed it!!!!"

 

[RhodyRams]

There is a lot to pick from with this franchise... What everyone else said, and this:

October 17, 2005.
Bulger went down in Indianapolis in a game the rams seemed to be winning... lost that game, lost Bulger, the season tanked, the rest is a sad history. To me that was a one of the defining moments, downward.

was a Monday night game.....Bulger threw a pick and lowered his shoulder to make a tackle/block..game over, season over

 

[Dagonet]

letting London Fletcher go so we could bring in Jamie Duncan. ???

 

[Shawnbb158]

Getting rid of Warner for bulger....

 

[DCH]

The '01 Super Bowl, which was shenanigans from start to finish

Firing Martz

Letting Martz do his own drafts early in his HC career

Letting the OL deteriorate under Martz, which led to the destruction of Kurt and Marc

Choosing Marc over Kurt, although Brenda kinda forced that one

Lawrence Phillips - Eddie Kennison vs. Eddie George - Marvin Harrison

The Ultimate Rebuild Draft becomes Damione Lewis, Adam Archuleta, Ryan Pickett, Tommy Polley, Brian Allen, Milton Wynn, Brandon Manumaleuna, Jerametrius Butler and Francis St. Paul... vs., for example, Marcus Stroud, Nate Clements, Reggie Wayne, Kris Jenkins, Roberto Garza, Floyd Womack, Manumaleuna, Butler and Who Cares (Please note: this is a 100% hindsight draft, but if we hit on, say, two of the "right" picks... I mean, just getting Garza instead of Brian Allen leaves us with a solid center for the past decade, maybe even keeps "Bulgerized" from being a thing)

Letting John Greco walk (yeah, that hurt a ton)

Jason Smith

 

[LesBaker]

With only 4 winning seasons in the last 26 years, there are a lot to choose from. I don't want to be overly negative, but to me the most disastrous moment was Dick Vermiel's "retirement". Yeah we would have lost Martz, but Vermiel did very well in Kansas City with Al Saunders as OC. Martz was a genius offensive mind, but he wasn't great at managing games and structuring well rounded teams. I feel if he would have stayed we would have at least won another super bowl. Orlando Pace shared the same sentiment. Vermiel did a better job at identifying and developing talent. I also believe had Vermiel been here we wouldn't have given the 2 time MVP and super bowl MVP the boot. I think his "retirement" really sent this organization in the wrong way and it has never recovered. Thoughts?

This was exactly what I was thinking. DV retiring changed gears for this team..........sadly.

 

[Lesson]

Just checked. Good memory. Dawson missed a 22 yard FG with about 2 minutes left. What the heck haha. Freaking Browns.

Had more to do with the long snapper messing up the snap by snapping it into his ass or hitting his guard's leg then it did Dawson shanking it

 

[DCH]

This was exactly what I was thinking. DV retiring changed gears for this team..........sadly.

Yeah... although firing Martz hurt a lot, too.

I wonder what Vermiel could have done had Martz been hired away instead of Dickie being forced to retire. Vermiel understood the importance of good coordinators. And of good offensive linemen. That was always my biggest complaint with Martz - he seemed to think you could run 5- and 7-step drops every passing down with your WRs running slow-developing complex routes 15+ yards downfield without continually investing in top-tier OL talent. The GSOT had Pace, Nutten, Gruttaduria, Timmerman and Miller. They had McCollum on the roster.

After that, though... Martz inherited this amazing OL from Vermiel. But he seemed unable or unwilling to draft young OL talent once he took over.

2000 draft - St. Clair in the 3rd, Noa in the 4th, Andrew Kline in the 7th
2001 - no OL selected
2002 - Travis Scott (the wrong Travis Scott) in the 4th, Massey (good LS pick) in the 7th
2003 - Scott Tercero in the 6th
2004 - Larry Turner in the 7th

Now you've reached the point where guys are getting old and hurt, or leaving via FA. McCollum is 34, Timmerman 33, Pace is starting to get dinged up, and you've never filled the RT hole after Miller and then Tucker were allowed to leave via FA. You brought in Turley, but he's more noted for screaming about who our QB is than actually playing great RT. Plus you're still running the Mad Mike offense, which has just led to a season in which Marc Bulger was sacked 41 times. So...

2005 draft - Alex Barron in the 1st (not a RT), Incognito in the 3rd, Claude Terrell in the 4th

Bulger gets sacked 26 times in just 8 starts. Ends up on IR. Not an upgrade.

Martz is fired after the 2005 season. Things continue to go downhill. The new regime is no better:

2006 draft - Mark Setterstrom and Tony Palmer in the 7th.

Bulger gets sacked 49 times. The "Bulgerization" process is in full swing.

2007 draft - Dustin Fry in the 5th
2008 draft - John Greco (WHY DID WE LET HIM GO!!!?!?!?) in the 3rd, Roy Schuening in the 5th
2009 draft - Jason Smith fucks us all
2010 draft - Saffold in the 2nd
2011 draft - No OL selected
2012 draft - Rok Watkins in the 5th
2013 draft - Barrett Jones in the 4th
2014 draft - Greg Robinson in the 1st, Mitch Van Dyk and Demetrius Rhaney in the 7th
2015 draft - DRAFT ALL THE LINEMEN!!! Havenstein in the 2nd. Brown in the 3rd. Donnal in the 4th. Wichmann in the 6th.

Ugh. This started as a complaint about how Martz de-emphasized OL talent while running an offensive passing scheme that desperately needed it, and turned into a full-on "Holy Shit the Rams have spent 15 years being unable to reliably add OL talent in the draft, or totally not even trying to do so."

And folks wonder why every freaking draft season I go ga-ga over the latest and greatest OL talent.

 

[MTRamsFan]

Too many to list, but there has been so many bone-headed drafts over the past 10 years, bad coaches, an owner who doesn't give 2 sh*ts about this team, the city of St. Louis, and the fans. So, maybe Kroenke taking over as owner was the worst decision.

 

[Leuzer]

KILL MEEEEE...

 

[SuperMan28]

Hands down, outing the legend Kurt Warner. Beginning of the end, right there.