St. Louis Rams Sacked 28-6 In Finale

Well the St. Louis Rams did not disappoint today. In one of the most boring games ever watched (be thankful it was blacked out) The Rams were sacked 8 times, and blown out 28-6. The Rams not only lost their 15th game of the year and 42nd in 3 years, they also set the record for worst record in Rams franchise history going 1-15.

As bad as the St. Louis Rams have been on offense they managed to be worse today. Even with Steve Jackson playing the Rams could not do anything. On their first five drives of the game the Rams totaled 3 yards! Three! How bad was this game? The Rams who only had 72 yards of offense in the first half went into halftime with a 3-0 lead over the San Francisco 49ers. Never fear the Rams second half offense showed up as it always does. The Rams longest drive of the second half was 8 yards! Did I mention the Rams could do nothing on offense? Poor Donnie Jones was forced to punt 11 times. The Rams totaled 109 yards for the game!

Former Missouri stand out Justin Smith burned the Rams for 3.5 sacks, he had only 2.5 for the entire season. I don't care how many players are hurt on this team, they absolutely can not block. From the center out to the TE's and back to the running backs none of them can block. Unless Suh can play O-line as well as D-line this team is still going to have serious issues in 2010.

The 49ers who looked disinterested in the first half managed 28 second half points once they started testing the Rams secondary. It amazes me that teams do not just pass play after play against the Rams corners. Alex Smith who had 23 yards passing at half time finished with 222 yards, a TD, and a QB rating of 97.6.

The Rams season is finally over. Are we any better than in 2008? We cleared out some veteran players that is about the only difference I see at this point. We still have holes at every position except RB, where we still need a quality back, not a quality back up, a quality back. It is still too early for Devaney, Spags, and the other coaches but I am not impressed so far. For a closing thought, please do not tell me the Rams played hard today, that should be a given, the Chiefs scored 44 points on the road in a game they could have written off. That is playing hard, please see the difference.

Minnesota Vikings Bury St. Louis Rams 38-10

Well it only took the Minnesota Vikings seven minutes to bury the St. Louis Rams Sunday at the Edward Jones Dome. I was not expecting much with the Rams facing the undefeated Vikings and that is about what I received, although some others will tell you how close it could have been. Here we are going to go with the truth. The defense which we keep hearing is playing well and getting better opened the game by letting the Vikings walk down the field 80 yards to take a 7-0 lead early. This is the defense we continue to get when we need a stop. The Rams actually opened on offense with a nice play action pass to the missing in action Randy McMichael who made his 11th catch of the season. Four plays later the Rams were on the Vikings 36, Kyle Boller dropped back to pass, was sacked and fumbled. Jared Allen picked up the fumble and ran 52 yards for a TD, and a 14-0 lead for the Vikings. Game Over.

You will hear the Rams put up 400 yards of offense, we held Adrian Peterson to 69 yards, we led in time of possession, if only we did not make any mistakes. Well I am tired of the too many mistakes. Bad teams make mistakes and this team is awful. Bottom line is the Rams lost 38-10. Next week the game starts 0-0 and the Jacksonville Jaguars who lost 41-0 today could care less how well you think you could have played. How much better are we playing? We lost 38-10 at home, we have lost 7 straight at home, and 15 straight overall, are we really playing better?

Early in the 3rd quarter with the Rams trailing 17-3, they pinned the Vikings deep on their own 10 yard line. If we can stop them we would have great field position and another shot to get back in a game. Did the defense step up? No, the Vikings drove 90 yards in only 7 plays to go up 24-3. I don't want to hear they played hard, they played until the end, the effort is there, who cares. Everyone on the field is a millionaire they should all be trying, giving 100%, fighting to the end, etc. Why is the other team scoring more and allowing less? We need to find the answer to that question not worry about telling us how a TD that makes the game 31-10 shows they are not quitting. Let's hope they are not quitting. Shouldn't we expect more?

Steve Spagnuolo gets Shit on 28-0

Steve Spagnuolo now knows what he was getting into or on him by taking the St. Louis Rams coaching job. The Rams were once again shit on by a divisional foe, this time 28-0 by the Seattle Seahawks who were 4-12 last year. It only took one play for the Rams to make a mistake on Sunday. On the opening kickoff Donnie Avery ran up the middle and immediately fumbled once contact was made and Seattle's Herring recovered. My first question of many today would be why was Avery back there? Avery returned one kick all of 2008 and that was due to an injury. Stanley and Gado were back there through the preseason so why Avery today, why your starting wideout on a team with no depth at wideout? Well that turned out to be the least of our problems today. The Rams shot themselves in the foot all day long. The Rams had a penalty on every offensive possession during the 1st quarter.

In the first 11 minutes and 49 seconds of the game the Rams defense was flying to the ball like in the preseason and managed to force two interceptions and a fumble recovery. The early interception by James Butler kept the Seahawks off the board early and gave the Rams hope. James Laurinaitis recovered a fumble on the Seattle 38 to set the Rams up in scoring position midway through the 1st quarter. After a bad penalty and a bad snap the Rams were only able to move the ball 3 total yards to the Seahawks 35 yard line. I thought the Rams would go for the long FG and try to take the lead but instead they pinned the Seahawks deep. The next drive O.J. Atogwe intercepted Hasselbeck and that was about it for the defense. They gave the offense 3 opportunities but were unable to cash in with any points.

After that the comedy or errors just got worse from that point on for the Rams. John Carlson caught a TD pass from Matt Hasselbeck to complete a 73 yard drive and put the Seahawks up 7-0. Then came the play of the game. With Seattle driving late before halftime the Rams forced a 4th and 5 and Seattle went for a field goal. With 1:05 left in the half C.J. Ah You broke in and blocked the kick, which was recovered and returned for a touchdown by Quincy Butler. The Rams had tied the score! We were going to be in a 30 minute battle to win a game. But wait, they seem to be reviewing the play which came inside the last two minutes of the half. What could they be reviewing? Turns out the Rams had 12 men on the field and the TD would not count. To make matters worse it was 4th and 5, and the 5 yard penalty gave the Seahawks a first down. Well you know what happened after that, Matt Hasselbeck completed the 72 yard drive with a 12 yard TD pass to Nate Burleson. Within 53 seconds we went from being tied 7-7, to being down 14-0 at the half.

The Rams seemed discourage starting the second half as they were manhandled in the 3rd quarter. Seattle tacked on 2 more touchdowns and almost 200 yards of offense in the 3rd quarter alone to put the game out of reach at 28-0. The Rams only managed 41 yards and 3 more Donnie Jones punts in the quarter. The rams had 93 yards of total offense through 3 quarters, and almost as many penalty yards. The Rams wasted timeouts, had false start penalties, and two 15 yard personal foul calls on our friend Richie Incognito. Steven Jackson had 3 carried for 8 yards in the 3rd and was basically a non-factor on the day.

The numbers do not lie the Rams are just a bad football team. The Rams have lost 11 straight regular season games. You have to go back to October 19th 2008 for the Rams last victory, a 34-14 win over the Dallas Cowboys. The Rams have lost 11 straight division games. The Rams have lost 9 straight games to the Seattle Seahawks. The Rams have only 5 wins in their last 33 games. The Rams have cut a lot of dead weight off the roster but they still need to add some stars and talent.

There were not many bright spots for the Rams. They played hard to the end and Donnie Jones was great other than that the same issues were still there. The new offensive line only allowed 3 sacks, but they had their normal false starts and the run blocking was nothing to write home about. The offense was plain vanilla and was unable to get anything started or provide the defense with many breaks. The defense started off fast but faded. They once again allowed a lot of rushing yards (167) and one big run. The secondary played well but at times players were wide open. Hasselbeck was able to throw for 179 yards, 3 TDs, and a QB rating of 96.9.

The Rams will now travel to Washington to take on the 0-1 Redskins who lost 23-17 to the New York Giants today. Hang in there coach Spagnuolo, we believe in you but it will take some time. For now wipe off your shoulder and put those boys to work.