Los Angeles Rams Need to Strongly Consider Starting Jared Goff

Time and again, the NFL has proven to be incredibly fickle. Kind to a team or player one week and unceremoniously unkind to either the next; just ask the Los Angeles Rams and their quarterback, Case Keenum.

After their Monday Night opening loss to the San Francisco 49ers, a performance that couldn’t conjure up enough negative superlatives to begin to summarize such display, the Rams managed to fool the entire league by defeating the ever-talented Seattle Seahawks without scoring a single touchdown. Keenum and company carried that momentum into two consecutive victories over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Arizona Cardinals the following weeks in which they averaged 27 points.

And if that wasn’t impressive enough, Keenum compiled 456 yards and four scores through the air against a single interception in the process.

Against everything that qualified as normal, the Rams were scoring and actually winning through the air as Keenum continuously made better decisions with the ball and began to take (necessary) chances after proving to be as conservative as possible.

Since, it’s all been for naught as the team lost a very winnable matchup against the 2-2 Bills after a very “Jeff Fisher” decision cost them a chance at victory. While Keenum Completed 67 percent of his passes for 271 yards, he failed to find the end zone and threw two costly interceptions, thus beginning his current slide in production.

Box score scouting would suggest Keenum lit the Lions up and shredded their secondary, but his 84 completion percentage was unbelievably inflated by numerous underneath throws that have become the staple of their passing game. While he was taking more chances down the field, Keenum wasn’t throwing his receivers open and had to rely on their ability to separate or manipulate defensive backs with double moves.

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With a 1:09 left in the game on the Lions’ 45, Keenum doesn’t have be aggressive despite not having any timeouts-there is plenty of time to get into even a comfortable field goal range to allow Greg Zuerlein to tie the game. The play call is less than ideal, but there is still opportunity for success. With Detroit’s single-high safety playing the field side, Keenum can exploit that by keeping his left when dropping before coming right on his third step to manipulate that safety; doing so leaves far too much field for him to realistically cover and thus allows Keenum to throw the seam with better trajectory rather than trying to squeeze it into that window.

Following his four interception performance against the Giants, Fisher has elected to keep Keenum as the guy and opted to blame the receivers for such a downtrodden stat line. When watching the tape, I find it very difficult to believe the receivers are at fault for what the offense failed to do as they have thoroughly executed their assignments and given Keenum his chances albeit limited ones downfield due to his vertical limitations.

The reality facing Fisher and his 3-4 team is the fact that Keenum has now tossed seven picks over the last three games, the majority of which have come in pivotal moments in the games. We’ve undoubtedly seen that Keenum can play within the confines of the offense, but the recurring issues have been avoidable at best. I wouldn’t put it past Fisher to be bluffing and trying to light a spark under the receivers in anticipation of Jared Goff‘s presence, but it’s telling of Goff and the coaches if he’s truly not ready to go.

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