 JUST WAIT UNTIL THE RAMS IMPROVE, BY RAMMED FOR
LIFE (Nov 14) |
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1.
THE CAROLINA GAME: CAR virtually never stopped us Sunday. We were stopped
more than anything else by badly timed holding calls. Also, Holc's fumble cost us a TD (I
am sure we would have scored) and Holt cost KW a TD. Our sputtering O hung up 21, enough
to win, but cost itself several chances to for more. I am going to STUDY those holding calls. I really think they are hard on our OL on calls and they let our opponents' OL get away with murder. (Of course I am biased.) I thought Coady looked great Sunday. And Bly make some plays too. Think about this: we lost 2 of our top 5 DBs today and never missed a step. Indeed, the secondary almost looked better when they came in. Very few people realize how much excellent depth we have! Still, those 3rd down conversions we gave up burn my butt. And I feel a lot of it is the play calling. On early downs, we play aggressive coverages and break up passes. Then on 3 down, we sit in soft zones and let people work the seams. On one late drive, we let CAR out of several holes again, then got a stop on 3 down in our own end. The coverage was much more aggressive--looked like a different team. I would also attribute a good deal of our running woes to play calling. I am so tired of slow developing draws and semi-draws in which Marshall approaches the LOS 6 seconds after Grutt snaps the ball. We had a key 3 and 1 and I called it on the chat board: slow, deep handoff. Marshall didn't get to the LOS. Learn to attack the LOS quickly or with counter action. Or pitch to the outside, which usually works. But Marshall is NOT an ideal I-formation tailback. 2. HIGH STANDARDS. There I go, griping after a 25 point win! Our standards sure have risen What a luxury, to complaining about a comfortable win! It's just remarkable how far our perceptions have been altered since last year. Think of how we would have felt last year if the game had unfolded the same way, play for play! We would have felt as if the lads had achieved an amzing feat! You could say we are spoiled, but it is our team that has spoiled us. Even the D, which was spotty today, was essentially successul. They PERSONALLY outscored their opponent! And the O is just SO GOOD that I feel we were horrible on every series on which we don't score! Amazing.! We came into this season hoping for improvement: 9-7, maybe 10-6. Some people thought 8-8 would be great. Those attitudes were very "reasonable" in an abstract way. But this team has defined a new set of standards that blows those out of the water. Since about Week 2, I have been saying that 10-6, with THIS TEAM and THIS SCHEDULE would be a serious under-achievement! When we lost 2, no one knew what to think. There were issues there. I think there still ARE issues. But if we as fans really meant it when we said the 6 wins were not an illusion, then it follows that the last 2 weeks were unacceptable. The results were not up to the standards THIS TEAM HAS SET FOR ITSELF! I am SURE the team feels that way. My feeling is this--and it sounds bizarre: This offense is underachieving! I honestly believe that---DESPITE the fact that it is playing record-breaking football. Only one QB IN NFL HISTORYhas more TDs-only one!--than KW has had in the 1st 9 games of a season. And still I feel we are missing on a couple of cylinders. We drop footballs. We get dumb penalties. We fumble for no reason. SELDOM does a D come up and stop us. Generally, we just blow plays or select poor play calls (Az on a flanker Double Option? Really!). I think we are playing offensive football at about 64% of capacity. A well-lubricated O purrs along at about 89%, does not mistakes, and scores inexorably. I think OK to hold the Rams to that standard---at least in a good-spirited, supportive way. It is the standard they have set for themselves! And I love it! 3. RAMS OWN THE NFC? There is NO ONE in the NFC who should beat us in a big game! I will now list the names of the traditional powers in the conference. You have full permission to laugh: Dallas, San Francisco, Green Bay, Washington--these teams are DRECK! (Yes, I do know what "dreck" means in Yiddish!) Now consider these sterling clubs: Philly, AZ, NY, NO, Chi, CAR. Sorry, not in our class. OK, then you have 2 solid clubs: TB and Det. I like aspects of both of them. Det is the better, but TB has a better D. If it had a QB, it would be a contender. But come on--can we beat these guys? I think so. That leaves 1 scary team, a team that send fear into the hearts of all old-time Ram fans: MN. Again Sunday, for the 125th time in recent memory, MN played like complete idiots against a lesser team and needed 15 outright gifts from the Bears and the refs to win. But they DID win. And I think they will win the Central again. Any team with Jeff George throwing to C Carter and Moss with an OL that tough is scary. If they EVER get their heads together offensively, they would be tough to contain in a playoff game. Yet their D is really poor. The Bear QB threw for 400 yards Sunday. If we played them, I would want to be at home. If our D played solidly, I think we could win, maybe 39 to 27 or something. But there is NO ONE in the NFC with the combination of O and D talent that we have. If we execute, the conference is ours! |
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