Game Of The Year?

[JGfromtheNW]

For that reason alone any comparisons to this years Rams teams and the JF coach Rams teams should be taken with a grain of salt.

Except for that whole part where they're returning the majority of their roster and somewhere in the neighborhood of 16 starters from last year.

 

[NJlargent]

This is a huge game. We have all the reasons to need to win and cannot afford to chalk this up as an OK loss due to a "slow start." We need and should bring our best game. This game will clear up a lot of questions

 

[671hawk]

Is the LA Coliseum grass or turf?

 

[NFSeahawks]

Big game for sure. Losing Avril and Carson was huge, and maybe Lane as well.

Coleman is a better slot CB, it was a blessing in disguise.

We have loads of depth on the line with Marcus Smith coming and now getting Quinton Jefferson back.

Rawls will resume his place as starting RB, were lucky for depth this year.

 

[NFSeahawks]

For that reason alone any comparisons to this years Rams teams and the JF coach Rams teams should be taken with a grain of salt.

Except for that whole part where they're returning the majority of their roster and somewhere in the neighborhood of 16 starters from last year.

Their defense sucks. The Rams gave us trouble when their defense was playing lights out.

That being said, who knows what team shows up in LA it's always a coin flip.

 

[Cc5674]

For that reason alone any comparisons to this years Rams teams and the JF coach Rams teams should be taken with a grain of salt.

Except for that whole part where they're returning the majority of their roster and somewhere in the neighborhood of 16 starters from last year.

A quick check of the Rams roster shows 19 new faces out of last years 53 so roughly a 36.8% roster change. Most importantly at the key positions on offense the Rams have a new All Pro LT, New veteran center and two accomplished veteran wide outs to go along with a rookie wide out who leads all rookies in catches and Td's. So as a little research would have shown you this is not the 2016 JF Rams.

 

[thegreeninyoureye]

A lot of people were calling goff a bust. Guy was a rookie and didn't have much to work with. I kinda got roasted when we played him last year and I said he looked like he had a good arm. Well guess what he may be more dangerous than a lot of people thought. Should be a good game. They look like they are playing very good on offense this year amazing what a coach can do huh.

 

[sutz]

Is the LA Coliseum grass or turf?

Grass, which is not good news for us. Maybe because we have already played two games on grass, we'll have learned to compensate by now.

I don't call many games "must win" before November, but that is premised on being within 1 game of .500 by then. If we lose, we'd still be 2-3, but 2 games back in the Division. Tough call, but we're getting close to "must win" this week. Especially after losing Carson, the team needs to gut out a win for the psychology of it all.

 

[Ramfan128]

Hey RamFan128,

What do you see as the biggest reason for Goff's improvement. Better OL play? Coaching? Just another year under his belt? He seems to be playing really well from what I have seen. Any areas where he is still making mistakes?

All of the above. IMO it's been incremental improvement by Goff across the board - but the major difference is the insane amount of talent this year versus last year. I was telling some of my fellow Rams fans before the season that this year had a 1999 feel to it.

Had a star offensive player that was wasting away on bad teams (Isaac Bruce/Todd Gurley)

New offensive system in place that year

Traded a 2nd round pick for established offensive weapon (Faulk/Watkins)

Influx of talent at skill positions (Faulk and Holt; Woods, Watkins, Kupp, Everett)

Unproven QB (Goff/Warner (or even Green - he was decent but looked much better with the Rams than he did the Skins)

Of course, Gurley/Watkins/Woods are nowhere near Faulk/Bruce/Holt - but then, our defense is actually more talented than it was in 1999 (even though we finished 5th in total D that year). So in a way I kind of saw this coming, but the PTSD from Fisher still has me hesitating.

The really crazy part is the upgrades over last year:

Watkins/Woods vs. Britt and Quick....my God we were terrible..

Whitworth is the best OL we've had probably since Pace.

Everett was a headscratcher on draft day, but he's made some plays. Kupp is someone everyone's already hearing about.

The interesting thing about this offense is how every game somebody steps up. Kupp in week 1, Everett in week 2, Watkins (and Woods) in week 3, Gurley in week 4 - although Gurley has been good every week. The OL has been stellar.



Which is why I'm so interested in this game Sunday. I feel much better about the Redskins loss after seeing them play the Raiders and Chiefs...but still, beating the Colts is nothing to write home about. The Niners...who knows? Their defense played really well against the Panthers, Seahawks and Cardinals - but their offense lit us up. It all points to who the hell knows..

I've picked the Rams wrong every week, except for week 1 which was easy..

 

[bigskydoc]

What's over the top is thinking that "must win" games can only happen later in the season. Week one is as important as week 17. This isn't baseball.

This. Can any game, at any point in the season, be more important than defeating a division rival who is likely to be competing for the divisional championship?

It took the Rams a year longer than I thought to get here, but they are our primary competition in the NFCW now. I was so mad when they got Kupp. Been watching him at Eastern Washington, and really didn't want him to be picked up by another NFCW team.

We need this win in a big way.