Ramblin' Fan » Bye Week

Any Chance For Rams Against Pack?

Justin Stine — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 11:35:27 +0000

Pretty much everyone in the world right now is saying the Rams don’t have any chance to beat the Packers this Sunday in Green Bay. In fact, I would guess most people would say that the Rams are going to lose by 30 or 40 points. So, I’ve unfortunately asked this before, but it needs to be asked again. Is there any chance the Rams can contain Aaron Rodgers and the Packers?

The short answer is no. The longer answer is that, although anyone in the NFL can win on any given Sunday (great movie by the way), the Packers offense is an absolute nightmare matchup for the Rams defense right now. Our secondary has been decimated as we all know, and the Packers probably have the most explosive, uncoverable passing game in the league. Even if the Rams can generate a pass-rush and put some pressure on Rodgers, he is good enough to get passes off and our secondary isn’t good enough to cover. I’m not sure what scenario would have to take place for the Rams to pull an upset win, but I would imagine it would involve controlling the ball for big chunks of time on offense and forcing some timely turnovers on defense. Again, it’s possible, but highly unlikely.

Maybe the Rams will surprise everyone. I mean, they are coming off the bye and the Packers could be looking past them after a big win in Atlanta last week. Maybe the Rams will sneak up on them and bring a great gameplan in and shock the world. I guess anything is possible.

Bradley Fletcher Out For The Season

Justin Stine — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 06:57:08 +0000

I thought things were about as bad as they could get after Sunday’s loss to the Redskins, and I was really hoping this bye week was going to be the start of some good things for the 2011 version of the St. Louis Rams. So much for that. Rams cornerback Bradley Fletcher is going to miss the remainder of the season after tearing his ACL during practice Wednesday on a collision with wide receiver Mike Sims-Walker. Honestly, I don’t really know what to say anymore. Things were already awful on the corner depth chart with Ron Bartell and Jerome Murphy gone for the year, not to mention the fact that Justin King was already seeing far too much time on the field.

Now, the man who was our top corner after the injuries and who was already the number two behind Bartell heading into the season is done as well. That means that our corner group will look something like Al Harris, King, Rod Hood (signed last week) and Josh Gordy (practice squad). This secondary was already awfully bad, and now the one bright spot we had (in addition to Quintin Mikell) is gone. Read more on next page…

JT Chat Recap: Rams Coaches On Hot Seat

Justin Stine — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 08:50:48 +0000

Rams beat writer Jim Thomas held his weekly chat on Tuesday, and to no one’s surprise most of the questions revolved around the status of the Rams coaches, specifically head man Steve Spagnuolo and OC Josh McDaniels. I’ve stated here before that I’m not about to call for Spags’ head this early in the season, but it sounds like much of the Rams Nation isn’t quite as forgiving as me. I was a little surprised at how quickly the fans have turned on McD after how much love he received when he came here this summer, but I can’t blame anyone for throwing blame his way.

I think part of the problem is the offensive line hasn’t played nearly as well as the coaches expected, and if the entire offense was based around the idea that the O-Line would be able to at least be adequate in pass-blocking, then I don’t think you can throw all of the offensive blame on the coach. I certainly think the coaches are partly to blame, but if McD spent an entire offseason developing an offense and his line completely underachieves, I don’t know if it’s all on him. With that being said, at some point there has to be an adjustment made based on what we have to work with. Continue reading on next page.