After last night, I have 100% confidence this team can win anywhere. They lost last night on some BS calls - one that's never been made in the 105 year history of the NFL. They put up nearly 600 yards on what is one of the best defenses in the league. With Adams back for the playoffs (hopefully), our red zone play is nearly unstoppable. Just have to man up on defense a bit.
Win the Division and Be Number 1
- Thread starter Tano
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fearsomefour
Legend
The only odds that improved last night were Shula not being hired as a HC.
The last two weeks his defense has given up 65 points and 700 yards to offenses with pocket passers and a running game to worry about.
If you think Atlanta is going to be a walk in the park I beg to differ.
But, the road to the Super Bowl just got massively harder.
The last two weeks his defense has given up 65 points and 700 yards to offenses with pocket passers and a running game to worry about.
If you think Atlanta is going to be a walk in the park I beg to differ.
But, the road to the Super Bowl just got massively harder.
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #23
I said it in another forum - the Rams are gonna be one pissed off team and take it off on Atlanta.
Kirk Cousins is an old man and has lost a lot of mobility.
Rams are going to sack him like crazy.
And their defense is just so so.
42-17 Rams
fearsomefour
Legend
Could well be.
I can also see the Rams up 27-10 and Shula going soft coverage again. Cousins ends up with 360 yards of check down throws and the Rams win 34-31.
I can see it going both ways.
Either way, just win.
Nah in the scenario I outlined the records going into the final week would be:
Niners - 11-5 (losing one of their next two)
Seahawks - 13-3
Rams - 12-4
A Niners win in this scenario gets us the division (assuming a win against the Cardinals at home) - but if you're the Niners, as you can see, a win for them does next to nothing. They can't catch Seattle if it plays out like this.
So the question then becomes, do the Niners care which wildcard seed they are? The difference between 7 and 6, I would argue, is negligible. You're either going to Philly, Green Bay or Chicago. All cold weather cities, all flawed teams - AND, you probably have no idea which one anyways, until kickoff.
The ONLY caveat in all this is, the 5 seed is clearly better - and IF the Cardinals were to beat us, and the Niners beat Seattle, they would be the 5 seed.
So the question is this:
If you're Shanahan and have the most injury prone team in the history of the NFL, do you play your starters in the off chance that the Cardinals can go into LA and win?
My answer to that would be hell no.
Ill be at that game. After Carolina Ill just take a win and move on....
No the rams lost because Shula calls plays like it's madden, and 3 TD's and 3 2-point conversions in the matter of 13 minutes.
Last night was for the number one seed. We lost. We're most likely playing on the road. Simple as that. Can we get to the Superbowl with that? Sure. But the road just became much harder. Our best bet is earning the 5 seed and playing at Carolina or Tampa. Won't be freezing cold like Chicago, GB or Philly. And a team we should beat. After that, well, who knows?
The top seed ship has sailed. If by some miracle it happens, cool. But at this point we are at least in the playoffs and we are going to be on the road as usual after the wildcard round.
So from here what matters most is unfucking the problems. Getting teams right. Getting that run defense back to high efficiency. Finding some goddamn pass pro efficiency.
All that run potency has been great to see. However it only matters if you have the defense that can hold in a low scoring game. And when it cannot, then what you require to win is pass pro. Stafford played pretty fucking well in spite of the pass pro. I think the consecutive three 'n outs that lost us the game late were probably related to that mentality of sitting on the lead, which obviously was a mistake. But I don't want to take too much away from Seattle and how well they played.
From here on out what matters is finding that team again who are the group you do not want to play in the playoffs. The one who will come into your house and piss all over your playoff dreams.
So from here what matters most is unfucking the problems. Getting teams right. Getting that run defense back to high efficiency. Finding some goddamn pass pro efficiency.
All that run potency has been great to see. However it only matters if you have the defense that can hold in a low scoring game. And when it cannot, then what you require to win is pass pro. Stafford played pretty fucking well in spite of the pass pro. I think the consecutive three 'n outs that lost us the game late were probably related to that mentality of sitting on the lead, which obviously was a mistake. But I don't want to take too much away from Seattle and how well they played.
From here on out what matters is finding that team again who are the group you do not want to play in the playoffs. The one who will come into your house and piss all over your playoff dreams.
Stop looking past the obvious lack of quality at corner. We have discussed that problem ad nauseum. Nothing has changed. We simply faced a quality team last night and that low quality at corner hurt us.
There is a path to the title if they can get the rush back to dominance. But if/when the front gets handled at the line of scrimmage this secondary is gonna get BBQd and what the call is doesn't matter one fucking iota.
The Horns have already clinched a playoff berth. All they have to do is win out and hope for the best. Winning the #1 seed was the best scenario but not the only one. We won the Super Bowl last time by playing through WildCard Weekend, and we can don so again if necessary. It would be nice to have some of our injured warriors back in time for the playoffs. Nevertheless, our backups simply have to man up and play like they are starters, because they are! until our Walking Wounded return. 
Kentuckyrams
Hall of Fame
I am trying to do that whole balanced perspective approach:
Glass half-empty:
Glass half-empty:
- Special teams play has been bad for several seasons now, near league bottom statistically. With McVay's excellent assistant coach history - look at how many have been poached - why can't we find a good (heck, even average) ST coach?
- Why did we not tackle CB harder in the draft or FA this off-season? Did we just assume the pass rush would cover the weaknesses there?
- This year's Rams have beaten themselves as much as have the opponents. We have been in every single loss but just couldn't avoid that killer moment. (Blocked FG against Eagles, goal-line fumble against the Whiners, last drive fumble against the Panthers, failing to stop a two-point conversion X3 against the Hawks.) I can't remember a season where you could point at just a small but ugly handful of critical mistakes that stopped us from being possibly undefeated with clear top seed. Now we are on the road, possibly in a cold weather game, and we have had tough road losses vs. Packers, Lions, and Eagles in recent years. Sucks, because it was totally avoidable. If we fall in the playoffs, you can really look back at those critical mistakes in those four losses.
- When this team is on, they can beat anyone. Stafford, other than one off game, has played at MVP level, Puka has been amazing, and McVay has rediscovered the TE position. Defense has been solid, even with an outlier here and there.
- We are in the playoffs, where anything is possible, again! I try to remember that horrific spell between the phantom sack and the Warner miracle season, and that even worse stretch between the demise of the GSOT and McVay's arrival. We didn't sniff the playoffs, and we were on early draft watch year after year, and now we pretty much expect to be in the hunt every year.
- We've played many of the other NFC contenders (SF, Sea, Car, TB, Det) and either won or had chances to win, so I do not see any team we can't handle.