The thing that bothers me most is that this team just keeps struggling with the same issues week after week. Penalties continue to kill us, and not just penalties, but stupid, undisciplined penalties at bad times. I know that no team is perfect and everyone makes mistakes, but in my opinion there’s no excuse for the false starts. That’s got to be on the coaching staff. They might not be the ones jumping, but it’s their job to make sure it doesn’t happen.

I was at the game again this week, and the first three quarters were just plain awful again. That’s pretty much 7 straight quarters, and probably more than that going back to the Monday Night Game, that the Rams have been inept on both sides of the ball. The fourth quarter was a different story today, however, at least for the defense. I thought the players on that side of the  ball really showed some life in the second half, but unfortunately the offense was still unable to sustain any kind of regular ball movement. They did manage a touchdown on a nice pass from Sam Bradford to Steven Jackson, but the thing that really bothered me was the way the offense operated after the James Laurinaitis interception that set them up on the Redskins 19-yard line with over five minutes left down 17-10. You have all the momentum in the world after the score and pick, the crowd is finally getting into the game for the first time since Week 1, and not only do you not tie the game, but your mistakes push you out of field goal range and you leave with nothing. I don’t know if the Rams would have kicked if they hadn’t moved backwards since they were down 7, but the point is that, for the most part, the offense was unacceptable again today. Read more after the jump…

The St. Louis Rams with nine minutes left in the game against the New England Patriots were up 16-13, and the Arizona Cardinals were down to the Carolina Panthers 24-23 at the time. This was probably the most excited Rams fans have been in over three years for a Rams game. Could it be possible that the Rams would pull within one game of first place only 14 days after firing Scott Linehan. Unfortunately the Rams ran out of gas in the 4th quarter.

The Rams first two drives in the forth quarter resulted in minus two yards and two straight three and outs. This spelled doom for the Rams defense as not only did they not get much rest but the Patriots next two drives started on their 47 and 48 yard lines. With only 81 yards of offense the Patriots were able to get 10 points and go up by a score of 23-16.

With 3:13 left on the clock the Rams started their last drive on thier own 10 yard line after another bad kick return and a penalty by Eric Bassey tacked on. It was time for Marc Bulger to rally the Rams and pull on out. The Rams were able to drive to the Patriots 33 yard line but after a 5 yard false start penalty against Richie Incognito the Rams faced 3rd and 15 from the 38 yard line. Bulger forced a deep out to Keenan Burton who was well covered and the ball was intercepted by Deltha O’Neil.

The Rams gave it a good shot and a great effort which is a Rams fan was great to see. With Steven Jackson out with quad injury and Leonard Little out early in the first half with a hamstring injury you have to be pretty happy wih the effort if not the result.

The Rams are still two games out of first place in the NFC West and will take on the Kurt Warner and the Arizona Cardinals at the Edward Jones Dome next Sunday. This will be a huge game and one that the Rams can win. Lets get behind them and bring the noise on Sunday. There are still about 2000 tickets left for the game. Do not let the Cardinals have get them. There are tickets selling for as low as $18 check them out here.