 15 WAYS OF LOOKING AT A LIONS GAME, BY VARIOUS
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[Excerpts. Edited by
zn.] ************ I just got back from Detroit, Posted by 402Ram on 11/8 What A Game! I sat at the 37 yard line in the first row directly behind the Lions bench. It was a dog fight and the Lions knew it. I could hear everything the Lions defensive line and coordinator were saying, since I was only about 10 feet away. These guys were exhausted and beat up much like our line probably was on the other side of the field. Without exception, every Lion on the sideline was dejected and had given the game up for lost when it was 4th and 26. 2 more minutes of time on the clock and we would have won. That's just the type of game it was. For what it is worth before the game on the Lion's radio show it was brought up several times that they believed our greatest weekness was our corners. They said how they hoped to attack them and see what happened. At the end of the game Brock Olivo came running up to me pointing and yelling "F" the Rams. I imagine he and the rest of the bench could hear me rooting for the Rams throughout the game. I just laughed at him and told him "see you in St. Louis for the playoffs." ************ Some initial thoughts on the game, Posted by wv ram on 11/7 The Rams are 6-2, in first place, have Leonard Little waiting in the wings, have everyone healthy (except for Tuten), have an easy schedule, and have a chance to get home field throughout the playoffs -- so I'm still happy...but.... * I thought the offensive line got their butts kicked. Another 5 or 6 sacks to go with last weeks 6 sacks, and they did not create ONE single hole the entire game for Marshall Faulk. This is now my biggest concern. (as opposed to the Middle East) Maybe the number one pick next year should be an offensive lineman. They gotta replace the center or Miller next year. * I thought this was Warner's worst game. He missed open receivers. He looked a little antsy in the pocket at times, and at times he threw too early when he didnt have to. The Titan players said he seemed rattled last week and AT TIMES he seemed that way this week too. I still love the guy and I think he can win big games if given protection, but he does not "sense" the rush very well and he doesnt help the O-line much with his "feet-in-concrete-tunnel-vision" style in the pocket. Even gimpy Dan Marino senses rushers and moves to sidestep and evade them, and he can barely walk. Warner has to improve on that. (I'm not saying Warner played a "bad" game.) *AZ is dangerous for BOTH teams. Today was a perfect example. He fumbled AGAIN, and dropped a critical pass AGAIN and he scored on a long TD pass AGAIN. He would drive me nuts if I were coaching him. IMHO, he should not be returning punts unless the team is desperate for a score. * I didnt like the way the defense "celebrated" after a big play on THIRD down today. They acted like the game was over. I remember thinking, 'they better get their heads in the game' -- next play 4 and 26 -- they got burned. There's a lesson there somewhere. I hope they learn it. * My second biggest concern is the paucity of turnovers created by the defense. This is NOT a great defense; its a "good" defense. I dont care what the statistics say. (The stats are skewed because of the big leads the Ram offense created in the first six games and the lame QBs the Rams have faced). This defense needs to do a better job creating turnovers if they want to win a super bowl. ************ Now We Can See What We Want, Posted by Bama RamFan on 11/7 What do I see? A team that went on the road, and lost two games, both in the last 30 seconds, by a total of 7 points. Hardly the stuff of crumbling teams. The saying goes "you are never as good as your best game, or as bad as your worst game." Well, we have played our worst game (choose either of the last two weeks) and we still don't look ALL THAT BAD!!! Remember, at least 1/2 of the teams in the NFL struggle EVERY week to score 21 points. That is our season LOW. Just look at the other scores and see. Another trend. The Rams have a physical presence against every team. They really take it out on the other team, physically. Now for the trend. Every team the Rams have played this year has LOST the game after playing the Rams. (Tenn 0, Miami 17 with 1 minute to go) So don't get all excited that Detroit will roll to 6 more victories, they were getting really beat up at the end, which they knew, and which makes their win even more special to them. Another thing about the Lions, they still have most of their remaining in division games on the road. ************ Vermeil has one more game to lose! Posted by BigDawg on 11/8 I stated at the begginning of the season that Vermeil was going to be personally responsible for losing 3 or 4 games. Well the way I see it, poor coaching lost the last 2 games.The Rams have the best team in all of football this year and probably won't win in the playoffs because of his coaching. I might be wrong but that is my opinion! ************ Our Illusions, Posted by SactoRam on 11/8 That's the only special thing we've lost up to this point is the illusion of greatness. This team is doing the same stupid things that it did in the blowouts---stupid mistakes---except they are *higlighted* by the losses. It's the same team with a different result. Really, the only thing that has *changed* has been poor coaching decisions the last two minutes. And that's not really a change because the other games were blow outs---they didn't need to coach in the last two minutes. Improvement occurs in a zigzag upward trend, not a skyrocket. That's realistic. All this stuff about Ram "greatness" was totally unrealistic to begin with. Shottenheimer on ESPN alluded to this fact prior to the Rams loss "streak" when he talked about the Rams being a young team and typically a young team doesn't know how to deal with winning. Well, he hit it right on the button. ************ The Rams ARE good, Posted by TomatWork [Lions Fan] on 11/7 WOW!! What a game! You guys have an excellent team, and to be honest, I was surprised the Lions pulled it out. I really didn't think you guys were for real, but now I do! Faulk coming out of the backfield is an incredible weapon! I can see why you are beating the snot out of everyone. I hope we meet again in the NFC championship game, so we can see which team progressed further the second half of the season. (It will be the LIONS, I hope!) Good luck to you, and keep that great offense rolling! ************ Key stat... Posted by Randy Karraker on 11/7 The Lions threw 36 passes today, and the Rams were credited with 5 passes defensed. None by the safeties, one each by Allen, Lyght, McCleon, Carter and M. Jones. They have to knock down more passes. I was surprised they had that many, because it sure seemedlike they didn't play the ball much. ************ Little to be positive about, Posted by Rammed For Life on 11/7 We played like losers today. Not like champions. We screwed around with the game for 3 quarters, then put up a comeback of a sort, then collapsed on 4th and 26. We have played 2 top notch teams. Both of these teams have taken us decisively out of our game and rhythm. Both of these teams have HURT us, stomped us, made us pay. In both cases, we found ways to lose. Now we play an array of solid, dangerous, but limited teams. We may find some ways to lose some of those games, too .Even if we don't, we will go into the playoffs (though nothing must be assumed at this point) without any clear knowledge that we can play tough games like winners. We are a team that is now filled with doubts. We have question marks all over the place: CB, LOG, ROT, LWR (Holt is not getting it done). We are not sure we can come out and take games by the throat except against weaklings. It will take weeks to build our way out of all that. I see very little to be positive about. *********** Perspective, Posted by Rams 22 on 11/7 The Rams lose another game to a division leader....not blown out but actually a nail-biter. Yes, the WRs were unusually ineffective and McCleon was burned bad in the end...but the Rams played well enough in a hostile environment to win...yet again. Next week the Panthers are coming to St.Louis ...hopefully they will get the rude reception from fans WHO STICK WITH THEM and still believe . It's easy to be a fan when your team is 6-0 , but...have we all forgotten the 4-12 days? This team did very well in Tennessee and Detroit.....but I think they need a dose of hometown lovin...not hate. I'm greatful for where the Rams are ..... ************ ARE WE PRETENDERS? Posted by Bum Rap on 11/7 We are going in the wrong direction and I am not sure what the fix will be. We legitimately won the games we won but we have not shown that we can win through adversity. Our defense showed signs of collapse throughout the game. * Coaching took our edge away from the start. First offensively, then defensively. * Our WR corps is overated. We have not been nearly as productive for weeks not just in 2 losses. * Our defensive backfield is not getting better and our defensive schemes are now suspect. Where is Bush? Allen, what was that?! * Our OL may have been exposed, but our play calling needs to take advantage of our weaknesses and what the D will do to exploit us. * Warner is learning but he has to be more aware on the field. We needed to go down field. * This team seems to be weakening mentally. We have two concerns now. If these losses get into our lil heads and our coaching staff continues to choke we can just be happy that we have improved our Win loss record 10-6 suddenly seems like something a goal not a reality. Rap On ************ We Are Still 6-2, Posted by GRITS on 11/7 Yeah its a tough loss to take, but, last year at this time it wouldn't have been that tough a loss. Everyone would have shrugged their sholders and said "oh well." You know why you don't this season? Cuz they know this a good team. The best team the Rams have had in years and they are 6-2 and I don't care what guys think of the schedule the Rams have played. The fact is that nobody has pushed this team around. Yeah they lost. So what?! There is a whole half a season to go! The team will learn from these losses and play better. The Rams fought hard and Warner for the second week in a row showed he can bring a team from behind. Some don't seem to recognize the great job Kurt Warner and the offense did in putting the Rams ahead with a little over two minutes to play. Yeah, McCleon blew it. So What?! Hey! The game was in the Rams hands. They played well enough to have a say at the end. Nobody, not the Titans, and not the Lions, nobody has pushed this team around. There are 8 games left and the Rams are in good shape cuz the Steelers knocked off the whiners so the Rams still have a 3 game lead. They are 6-2, in first place, and in the playoff hunt. 8 games to go and the Rams are playing meaningful games in November. What else do you want?! ************ you want to see bad coaching? Posted by eternal Ramnation on 11/7 In the ninth week of the season you'd think you could get the play in without burning timeouts !To have this preseason glich still a problem is inexcusable and definitly a "coaching thing". Where was the defensive adjustment ? Crowell was shredding McToast all day. I do have to say though that that pass really suprised me. I had no idea Gus had that kind of arm. The sloppy penalty ridden play has been in every game. It just seems to get worse and worse. I'm starting to think the RAMS aren't the big suprise this year,its how bad the niners, falcons, & saints are. I'm not sure any team can come back from two defeats like this. Especially if DV keeps rationalizing the problems in stead of fixing them. ************ Some more analysis, Posted by CapeG Ram on 11/7 * The Dline and Lbackers should get A's for today. It is funny, what was thought to be weaknesses, are actually strengths. Fletcher, Carter, Winstrom, Farr, etc. Even the backups are good. * McCleon does better w/ the big possesion wrs is a step slow for the speed guys. * How come Robinson seems to get himself open much more often than Roland, playing way fewer downs. Ok, make that 2 weaknesses on the 'O', Roland and Fred (although I think Fred could be a decent tackle w/ his ethic and tools). * Play action and motion are super important, but we are starting to get a little gadgety, and it seems that it was taking too much time for some of the plays to develop in the 1st 3 qtrs. ************ The Dome, Posted by Old Hacker on 11/8 The team comes home after 2 big hard games. If we as fans learned anything it's that a noisy, loud crowd does make a differance. The 12th man. So for all those who are going to the Dome it's time for us to really show the guys how proud we are of them. Let's show those other teams how to get StL Cowtown loud. Yeah we lost 2 close games to 2 good teams in the final minutes. Does any real Ram Fan think that we would have lost either game in our HOUSE? Get real---we're still heading for the play-offs. So, I say let's not get down on this team. We have what we have.....it's up to the fans to let the team know we're still 1000% behind them. Go Rams! ************ Thanks Rams for Making Football Fun Again ! Posted by BigRam on 11/7 In the midst of all of my agony over these last two losses, I stopped and thought about my experiences as a Rams fan (been a fan since the mid 70's but as a youngster all I cared about was how cool Roman Gabriel looked). By this time in previous years I have been disinterested, disenchanted, apathetic, and already scouring the draft lists for high draft choices to help a poor team. This season I am looking forward to the football shows, enjoying EVERY game win or lose, and am proud of a team that is not perfect but you don't have to be ashamed to wear their jersey. Sure we could have won the two games we lost, sure we've made mistakes, sure the coaching stunk at times... but tell me.. what other team in the league could you be rooting for now and have as much fun? We've got an amazing story at QB, an exciting RB in Faulk, a lineman finally playing to All-Pro level (Pace), fast and shifty wide receivers out the kazoo, we've got controversy (Horne and Little), we've got defenders coming into their own (Wistrom and Fletcher), we've got youngsters making crazy mistakes (McCleon), we've have potential impact players lurking in the background (Little, Bly, Horne, Amp). No matter what happens the season has been fun, and I just want to say no matter what happens from here on in... thanks Rams for making my Sundays (and the rest of the week) more interesting! |
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