Rams fans need to tap the brakes on Goff, McVay

After a week where the Los Angeles Rams have received unprecedented praise for a solid showing in Oakland, many believe the rough times are in the rear view mirror. Fans may want to tap the breaks a bit until the games count for real.

Los Angeles Rams fans have been deluged by all the positive attributes of a good and solid first half of football last Saturday night.

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It’s deserved.

But one half of preseason football has limited currency when the games begin for real on September 10. Even Week 3 of the preseason, which begins tonight for some teams, will give fans their best look at what we’ll probably see next month.

Just don’t expect that to be the definitive word on the Rams.

No doubt, Jared Goff looks better, as did Todd Gurley, perhaps the two biggest question marks for Los Angeles. But in a year where there was no where to go but up, it was absolutely reasonable that under a new head coach, the Rams would and should be better.

By all appearances, they are.

But is Goff really a dark horse candidate for an MVP?
Is Cooper Kupp a lock for Rookie Offensive Player Of The Year?
Will Gurley be Comeback Player Of The Year?
Will Sean McVay be NFL Head Coach Of The Year?

What we have now is the hyperbole when the pendulum swings the other way.

I liked what I saw Saturday night in Oakland. It was promising. But so was the three-game winning streak the Rams staged by beating Tampa Bay, Seattle, and the Arizona Cardinals early in the 2016 season. They were 3-1 at that point, and it looked to all the world Jeff Fisher had them going in the right direction.

We all know how that ended.

In fairness, this isn’t that team, Goff isn’t Case Keenum, and  McVay isn’t remotely like Fisher.

This newest edition of Los Angeles Rams football is, and will be unique unto itself, and it should. It is for all intensive purposes, a new and young team. It’s a McVay and Goff team.

And it might be pretty good.

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But one half of preseason football won’t settle that.

Wait for 16 games to make that argument.