The St. Louis Rams do not have a winning mentality anymore

The St. Louis Rams subjected their fans to another evening of abject misery on Sunday, with a 16-13 road loss to the Baltimore Ravens. The AFC North hosts gave up 137 yards on penalties, gave the Rams defense two interceptions, had a quarterback in Joe Flacco who finished with a QBR of just 70.2 and were 3 of 5 on field goals attempted. The Ravens were bad. Yet, the Rams still managed to come away empty-handed from what should have been a sure win.

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So where does the fault lie? The internet has gone mad with offerings on this. Was it the play of Case Keenum? The man who is (apparently) a better bet than Nick Foles, Sean Mannion or offseason casualty Austin Davis. Keenum fumbled three times and had a sub 50 percent completion rate. While he did have the agility to evade some of the incessant pass rush and extend plays, when he was pushed wide he never looked likely to actually complete a pass.

Was it the offensive line? Greg Robinson has taken the majority of the heat for his performance yesterday. The former number two overall draft pick has drawn comparisons with draft bust Jason Smith, and leads all offensive tackles in the league with nine offensive holding penalties and an average of 8.5 penalty yards conceded per game this year. Running back Todd Gurley only managed 66 rushing yards at an average of 2.6 per carry Sunday. He struggled to get any momentum going, in part, due to the inability of the line to make any sort of running lanes for him.

While commentators can point the finger at individual players or units, the truth goes deeper. The Rams looked utterly inept all day, as they did last week against Chicago. The problem, in this writers opinion, goes back to the overtime loss the previous week against Minnesota.

Sep 20, 2015; Landover, MD, USA; St. Louis Rams tackle Greg Robinson (73) lines up against the Washington Redskins at FedEx Field. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports

Prior to that game RamblinFan highlighted how much of a make-or-break fixture that was against a team St. Louis would likely by contesting for a wildcard spot at the end of the regular season. The Rams have never recovered from that loss, and it is showed against both the Bears and Ravens.

Therein lies the problem. In the last two games there has been no real fight in the Rams. There is no sense that the Vikings loss was just a blip to come back stronger from and push on for a playoff spot. The Chicago and Baltimore performances seemed to be living out a self-fulfilling prophecy that the Rams would be doomed to yet another season sitting out the postseason. And that, fellow fans, comes down to the head coach.

The St. Louis Rams do not have a winning mentality. There is a culture of failure around the organization, which it is Jeff Fisher’s job to eradicate. He has not done so.

Despite numerous opportunities to fix this team through a multitude of high draft picks from the Robert Griffin III trade and more losing seasons, the story is “same old Rams”.  Very few teams go 16-0. Until the locker room believes it can come back and win following a tough loss, there is simply no hope. Fisher has only 6 winning seasons in his 20 as an NFL Head Coach, and looks to continue the trend with the Rams in 2015.

The Rams have a truly special player in Gurley, a potentially dominant defence, an exciting playmaker in Tavon Austin and other untapped talent in Brian Quick and Kenny Britt. No-one expects a Super Bowl victory with the current roster, but there is no reason for the Rams not to be at least taking a wildcard spot.

Get the team used to expecting to make the playoffs, then take the team to the next level. A good comparison would be Cincinnati, who were poor for many years, spent a few seasons qualifying for the postseason but exiting early and now seem to have finally made the leap, looking very good value for their 8-2 start to the year.

The sad truth is that the Rams seem to have reached their ceiling with Jeff Fisher. If, as now seems inevitable, St. Louis will again miss out on the postseason in 2015. The time has surely come for a change at the top. The man has had enough chances.