The 2014 St. Louis Rams: A Plagued Season, A Plagued Team

By Blaine Grisak | Oct 28, 2014

The St. Louis Rams made the trip to Cleveland anxious to see how Sam Bradford would perform coming off of a torn ACL. One 21 yard completion to Brian Quick and then another beauty delivered to Jared Cook that was nullified because of a penalty. The Rams offense was rolling.

Nine plays later disaster struck, and Bradford went down, once again tearing his ACL. Little did the Rams know, it would be the story of their 2014 season. With Chris Long, Jake Long, and even Brian Quick now lost for the rest of the year because of injuries, the St. Louis Rams lead the NFL with $42.9-million of their cap space on injured reserve. The next closest team? The Washington Redskins with only $23.6-million on IR.

What if the St. Louis Rams never made the trip to Cleveland? Would things be any different? Would the Rams be in the middle of the playoff hunt instead of in the middle of being in contention for a top-5 draft pick?

2014 was supposed to be the year, the year that the Rams finally got back on track and made some sort of legitimate push at a playoff spot. The year that Bradford would finally stay healthy and lead this team like the franchise quarterback that he supposedly was.

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What if the Rams had never made the trip to Cleveland, the disastrous game in which Jake Long got beat leading to Bradford once again tearing his ACL, and Trumaine Johnson spraining his MCL. Ever since that game, the Rams haven’t been able to escape the injury bug.

With the Rams in pivotal year-three of the Jeff Fisher/ Les Snead era, fans were optimistic that St. Louis was poised to breakout and finally make the postseason, instead it looks like they will endure an 11th straight season without a winning record and Bradford has played his last down as a St. Louis Ram.

The 2012 hiring of Fisher was supposed to aid the Rams in their return to being a competitive team. Instead, the Rams have become more mind-boggling than ever before and continuously hurt themselves in games with mental errors.

This isn’t something that Rams fans aren’t used to, after having high hopes that the Rams could make the playoffs in 2011 after coming one win short the season before, the team dealt with injuries and instead finished 1-15. This season is nothing Rams fans can’t get over.

However, with the possibility of losing a franchise that’s been in St. Louis nearly 20 years, the fans can’t be at fault for not filling an outdated stadium and not supporting a losing product.

It’s just the same story, only a different season for Rams fans. High hopes and dreams that this young team with so much promise can finally turn it around, being crushed and being forced to the saying they’ve rehearsed too much in the last decade, “Well, there’s always next year.”