With 10 seconds remaining on the clock, the Rams found a way to lose. It takes a special kind of team to do that. Tampa Bay QB Josh Freeman led an end of game march, and connected with Cadillac Williams for a 1 yard TD pass to ice the game for the Bucs. We're just lucky that there weren't that many fans at the Ed Jones Dome to see it (a whopping 23,000 shy of a sellout, to be accurate).
While the Rams started out slow, trailing 0-3 after 15 minutes, they opened up the second quarter with a 17 point show. Following a field goal 5 second in, the Rams got TDs on drive ending passes to Amendola (5 yards) and Hoomanawanui (2 yards, and say that five times fast). That was it, though, as Sam Bradford showed his true rookie colors for probably the longest stretch we have seen in a game this season. He wasn't accurate, wasn't able to hit the audible receiver, and wasn't able to keep the offensive show rolling. That allowed TB to stick around, as they drilled 3 FGs before the end of the third, and then put together the game winning drive to wrap things up. Yeah, it sucked even worse than it sounds in type.
So, what went wrong? It was just a lack of finishing. I mean, the Rams went 50% on their 3rd down conversions, had just half the penalties of Tampa, and only allowed one sack compared to getting 3. This game simply reminded me of what I feared would happen with the game against San Diego the previous week. We got a lead, and then kind of just expected that the lead would hold up. We were lucky that it did against the Chargers, and against Tampa Bay we found out what happens when you don't go for the throat.
Of course, not everything was working as well as I make it sound. Bradford finished just 13/26 for 126. He did have 2 TDs and 0 INTs, but we're really only passing for 126 yards? Even Steven Jackson's 110 on 22 carries, which broke the Rams all-time rushing record over Eric Dickerson, couldn't compensate for the lack of passing offense. Steven Jackson was also the top receiver in the game, and he only nabbed 2 catches for 35 yards. Denario Alexander, hailed as a steal and big time star for the Rams last week, had just 1 grab for 6 yards. What a waste! Speaking of not finishing things, the defense shares in the blame of this late collapse. Allowing 2 out of 2 fourth down conversions, the defense just couldn't finish the job, and they are the strongest part of our team! Laurinitis led the squad with 8 tackles, while Hall, Long, and Ah You (nice name) each had sacks. Despite that, the defense (especially the secondary) looked really, really vulnerable out there, especially late.
We're under .500 again! At 3-4, we now look back and remember what was when we pretended we were good at 3-3. Lucky for us, we play in just an awful division, and we're only 1.5 games off the lead. Seattle leads at 4-2, Arizona sits second at 3-3, then us, and finally the 9'ers at a thrilling 1-6 (didn't ESPN pick them to win the division?).
Isaac Bruce is going to have his number retired before this Sunday's game against Carolina, and I thought it would be fun to kind of do a "see where he ranks" journey through his career. In his 14 years with both Rams organizations (we choose to forget the 2 years in the Bay), Brucey amassed 14,109 receiving yards and 84 receiving TDs. He finished his Rams career averaging over 15 yards/reception, with his best season seeing 1,471 yards in 2000 (even though he led the league in 1996 with 1,338). His AV (approximate value, as covered in many previous Rams posts) for his career in Horns is 128, with his single best season getting him an AV of 17. He was sent to 4 Pro Bowls and ranks second all-time in receiving yards. He ranks 9th in receiving TDs and even 25th in TDs overall. His VBD, which is a stat showing value over a baseline player is an astounding 499. Truly he is one of the greats, and I'd say quite underrated when people are making a list of the greatest WRs of all time. Congraulations on the acknowledgment, Brucey.
The actual game on Sunday is the main attraction, and will feature our boys going head to head with Jimmy Clausen (on the bench) and the 1-5 Carolina Panthers. Carolina's lone win of the season came last Sunday against the sad 49'ers, 23-20. Outside of that, the Panthers (clearly still trying to "figure out who they are with the loss of Delhomme") lost to the Giants by 13, the Bucs by 13, the Bengals by 13, and the Bears by 17. If I was a bookie of some kind, I'd have to say the line should be Rams by 13.5, right? I'm not really scared of Carolina, and fully anticipate heading into our bye week with an even 4-4 record. However, if we again fail to pour it on with the score in our favor, I will not be surprised to watch us fail in the second half yet again. Remember, keep pushing for points until it's all over! It really simple stuff.
Let's pacify the Panthers!
-- Sent from my Palm Prē
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