The St. Louis Rams Do’s And Don’ts Against The New York Jets

Nov 11, 2012; Seattle, WA, USA; New York Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez (6) and New York Jets quarterback Tim Tebow (15) participate in pre game warmups against the Seattle Seahawks at CenturyLink Field. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-US PRESSWIRE

This game against a struggling New York Jets at home, has found the Rams to be the favourite by a fair margin. It’s been a long time since the Rams have come into a game being the obvious favourite. Are the Rams in a position to be considered the outright favourites to win the game? Of course not. The Rams, being the youngest team in the NFL, should approach each game as the under dog. The Jets’ performance has fallen in the past two years while the Rams have risen in talent and confidence, now allowing both teams to see each other eye to eye in terms of their records (Jets- 3-6 and Rams 3-5-1) and point differential (-53 and -49 points respectively). Despite the costly injuries on both sides of the ball, the Jets are a fairly well drilled team and should never be under estimated.

DO’s

• Wear down the Jets’ defense. The Jets’ defense against the Seahawks held their ground for three quarters, until giving up 14 points in the last quarter. This was because the Seahawks had the ball for 36:11 minutes as opposed to the Jets only having it for 23:49 minutes. In order to take control of time of possession, the Rams must get their running game going – just like they did against a stout 49ers defense.
• Stop the passing game. If the Rams are able to be incredibly stingy in the secondary, this will result in the already vanilla Jets offense to be predictable. Some teams can get away with being predictable, such as Packers or the Patriots on obvious passing downs, but the Jets don’t have that luxury.
• Keep Sam Bradford on his feet. There’s no doubt Bradford hasn’t reached his full potential, due to the lack of talent blocking for him. Although the Rams’ strength certainly isn’t the offensive line, there are times when it certainly looks like it. The Rams only gave up one sack in regular time and one sack in overtime against a dominant 49ers defense. Bradford for the majority of the time was up on his feet and was able to have one of his best games to date, this included an 80 yard bomb that didn’t count.
• Rams must get a defensive turnover. Turnovers allow the defense to get a much needed brake. The Rams haven’t won a game in four games and have failed to get a defensive turnover in four weeks and this is no coincidence. The Rams need to get a turnover to win this game.

DON’Ts

• Rams should do themselves a favour and stop giving up frustrating penalties. The Rams have essentially lost at least two games from their own mistakes. The Rams threw the games away against the Dolphins and 49ers because of too many penalties. 13 penalties for 85 yards against the 49ers, can’t happen again against the Jets. Rams can’t afford to give the Jets any chances.
• Don’t underestimate any team. The Rams are favourites by a fair margin against a struggling Jets, but can’t afford to have that mentality going into the game. Yes, the Rams are a red hot favourite, but the season is still on the line. No team that has three wins going into week 11 should be an obvious favourite.
• The Rams can’t allow the drawn game against the 49ers to bring them down. The Rams should instead be optimistic about the result against the 49ers and go into the Jets game with momentum.

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