St. Louis Rams Kick Their Way To Victory

The St. Louis Rams just won their first game since a victory December 2nd 2007, 28-16 over the Atlanta Falcons. After eight straight regular season loses the Rams got off the mat, and beat the Washington Redskins at FedEx Field 19-17. Josh Brown nailed a 49 yard field goal as time expired to give the Rams their first win of the 2008 season.

I would first like congratulate the St. Louis Rams on pulling off this shocker and winning their first game. Also after going off on Jim Haslett constantly I would like to congratulate him as well. However I am not a hypocrite so I will continue to voice my opinion that I want him removed from the Rams after the 2008 season. Some fans will want to sign Haslett to a five year contract after this week but let’s make sure you actually watched the game. Again congrats to the Rams.

Now lets get back to how did the Rams actually pull this off? The Rams had 200 net yards, and 79 yards in penalties, so that is a net of 121 total yards! The Rams averaged 5.2 yards per pass play, and 2.9 yards per rush. Before the last Rams drive their longest run was 9 yards and their longest completion was 15 yards. So how did they pull it off? For once the Rams made and received some breaks. In addition it helped that the Redskins coaching staff might have done a worse job than the Rams. I say the sheer fact the Scott Linehan karma was gone caused the football Gods to treat us right!

It seems the Redskins should have been able to throw at will against Craft, Manning Jr. and Wade but they did not. It seems the Redskins could have match up Chris Cooley against the Rams linebackers and safety’s but they did not. It seems like the Redskins should have tested the Rams deep but they did not. It seemed like Clinton Portis could run at will which he pretty much did at 6 yards per carry but somehow the Rams still won.

The Rams finally made “the plays.” The Rams basically pulled this game off with two plays. The first was a play right before half time. The Redskins were moving in for a late score to make it 10-3 or 14-3 when Jason Campbell’s pass was tipped up in the air and for some reason offensive lineman Pete Kendall decide to catch the ball and take off for a jog. Pisa Tinoisamoa went to topple over Kendle when out popped the ball. The ball took a nice bounce toward the sideline were Oshiomogho Atogwe scooped it up and raced 75 yards untouched down the sideline for the touchdown that gave the Rams a 10-7 lead at half time. I believe this stunned the crowd and the Redskins, but we have seen this before everyone knows the Rams get outscored badly in the second half of games under Scott Linehan. Don’t look now but Linehan is gone and a new era has begun. The Rams were only outscored 10-9 in the second half Sunday and that was good enough. The second huge play was late in the game with the Rams facing 3rd and 13 from their on 41. Marc Bulger was forced to roll out and before getting sacked he heaved the ball down the field. Donnie Avery who was well covered made a sweet cut inside the corner back toward the middle of the field and came up with the ball. Just like that it was over and the Rams had their first victory of the season.

Not so fast. You knew it could not be that easy. Avery came down with the ball at the Redskins 16 yard line with over a minute left to play. After letting the clock move down to 39 second and a Washington time out Bulger kneeled down. Nobody could even have a nightmare as bad as what happened next. Richie Incignito got up from the pile and got into a shouting match. This ended with him having a shouting match with the referee! I can’t read lips well but at the end I believe he told the ref or a Redskins player to kiss his @$$. Incognito was flagged for a 15 yard Unsportsmanlike Conduct penalty moving the ball back to the 32 yard line. After a Steven Jackson run up the middle Josh Brown was called on to make a clutch last second 48 yard field goal on the road. Josh nailed the ball through the up rights for a huge Rams victory.