St. Louis Rams: Week 6 Winners and Losers

The St. Louis Rams came into Houston last Sunday afternoon and outplayed the Texans on all three phases of the game. The Houston Texans came into this game losing three straight games and their quaterback, Matt Schuab has been playing terrible football. This was the perfect match up the Rams wanted, however most experts predicted the St. Louis Rams to lose this game.

The Rams persevered through all the scrutiny and purely dominated in every step of the game against the Texans. If you look at the stat sheets you would think the Houston Texans blew out the Rams as they had over 400 yards on offense and over 150 yards on the ground. The Rams had a merely 216 total yards on offense. The St. Louis Rams still came out with the dominating victory with the final score of 38-13.

With the 25 point victory it would be hard to find any Rams’ players that would under preform, but looking closely at the film there are things the Rams can still improve on in terms of individual production.

Here are Ramblin’ Fans Week 6 winners and losers for the St. Louis Rams.

WINNERS:

Zac Stacy

Rams’ fans can finally take a sigh of relief because it seems like the St. Louis Rams have finally found their new starting running back. It took the first month of the season for Jeff Fisher to realize that their 5th rounder in the 2013 NFL draft has the talent to be a starter in the league. The former Vanderbilt RB stands only 5ft 8in, but is a hard nosed runner who runs behind his pads. Stacy got his first NFL start week five versus the Jacksonville Jaguars recording 78 yards on 14 carries. Zac Stacy earned another start for the Rams and made the most of it against one of the NFL’s best defenses, the Houston Texans. Stacy had 79 rushing yards on 18 carries, and if you watched the game a good majority of his yards were after contact. With Zac Stacy now the starting runningback, the Rams offense finally found balance that wasn’t there the first four weeks of the season. Expect steady production and good numbers for Rookie RB Zac Stacy every week.

Sam Bradford

As of right now, St. Louis Rams starting quaterback, Sam Bradford is projected 3818 passing yards, 35 Tds, and only eight interceptions. Only Peyton Manning (22), Tony Romo (14), and Drew Brees (14) have thrown more TD passes than Sam Bradford (13). Bradford has been getting a lot of criticism for being to conservative and never throwing the ball down field. On Sunday versus the Texans, Bradford posted a 134.6 passer rating against what is supposed to be one of the top pass defenses in the NFL. Again with excellent starting field position and a steady dose of the running game, Bradford and the offense didn’t need to do much and at one sequence of the game, the Rams offense didn’t step on the field for almost 11 minutes, and the Rams went from 24-6 to 38-6. The dominance by the defense and special teams won’t come every game, but if we need Bradford to step and take over a game we all could expect him to do exactly that.

Michael Brockers

Michael Brockers has been relatively quiet so far this season. You can easily say he had one of the best games in his young career.

“This particular game was his best game to date as a Ram, “Jeff Fisher said. “He was clearly the best tackle on the field.”

This is the kind of game we expect from the former first round pick out of LSU. Returning to his hometown of Houston, Brockers recorded seven tackles, two sacks, and three tackles for loss. This kind of performance takes pressure off of the linebackers and safeties. Brockers has all the potential in the world to be one of the best defensive tackles in the game and with kind of production he could easily be put over the top.

LOSERS

Tavon Austin

The most explosive and electrifying offensive player in the 2013 NFL draft has been a disappointment and non-factor so far this season. The eighth overall pick in the 2013 NFL draft has failed to exceed expectations, however it’s still to early to label Tavon Austin as a “bust”. On Sunday, against the Houston Texans, Tavon Austin was only in on four offensive plays and recorded just one reception for three yards. The Rams must do a better job integrating Austin in the game plan and to get him involved because with the combination of a stable Tavon Austin, this offense can be very dynamic. Furthermore, through the first six weeks of the season, the Rams coaching staff must find a better way of getting Austin the ball in space and to let him breakout of this minor slump.

Rams Run Defense

The St. Louis Rams are ranked 31st in run defense this year. They allow over 130 yards a game on the ground and its been miserable to watch. With a front seven of Long, Brockers, Langford, Quinn, Dunbar, Laurinaitis, and Ogletree it’s very hard to believe this run defense ranks that low.

“There are some gap issues that need to be solved”, Chris Long said “Guys need to be more disciplined. Imagine how we’d be if we tightened it up on the ground.”

The past couple of weeks the Rams have been scorched on the ground and it didn’t change at all when they faced Arian Foster and the Texans on Sunday. Foster had 20 carries for 141 yards with a average of 7.1 yards a carry. In order for the Rams to succeed and to make a playoff run, it’s very crucial for them to sharpen up on the run defense and let the rest take care of itself.

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