First off, as a mental health therapist, I obviously know that the actual diagnosis is called "Dissociative Identity Disorder," but that didn't really sound as cool in the title. One week after getting flat out embarrassed and forgotten on the National stage after a huge loss to Detroit, the Rams came out and upset the Chargers 20-17 to shock the world. Not only did we get the win, but it was a Nationally televised win (by which I mean that I actually got the feed on regular ol' CBS out here in Southern California). It was an amazingly strong first half that had to carry us through, but the defense held tough to stop the San Diego comeback late, as the Rammies surprisingly cruised to victory at home.
This game has a ton of story lines. Sam Bradford looked impressive as all heck out there, most impressive on two incomplete passes, in my opinion. Twice in the shotgun, the Rams center air mailed the snap well over Bradford's head, but Sam was able to collect the loose ball, and throw it away despite pressure and being on the run. He looked poised out there. The Rams also had another rookie stud making waves, as Danario Alexander (brought in off the practice squad after nobody wanted the Mizzu grad due to four knee surgeries) made his debut. Alexander laid fully out for a 38 yard TD catch from Bradford that was a thing of beauty. Steven Jackson, quickly approaching Eric Dickerson's all time Rams rushing record, had huge carries on the final drive to keep the ball out of the Chargers' hands and keep the win in ours. Danny Amendola was awesome on kick and punt returns, taking one kick 42 yards before he got brought down. Nice to see him slicing and dicing his way up the field on special teams. Defensively, the Rams came up huge, sacking Rivers 7 times. It was the most sacks we've pulled off in a game since 2003, and it shows how the different blitz plays the Rams roll with really works. At least it caught the Bolts offguard.
All in all, it was Alexander's catch, a strong 7 yard diving run by Steven Jackson, and two field goals that did the trick to get us the points and put the Chargers away. Going 7 of 17 on third downs was a huge help, and even outgaining San Diego's top ranked offense by 13 yards was pretty amazing. While the penalties evened out, the Rams clearly won the turnover battle (1-0), sack battle (7-3), and possession battle (+7 minutes).
Equally impressive to all that team stuff was Sam Bradford's ability to take a hit and pop right back up. The rookie QB even had his helmet ripped off on one play, a helmet to helmet hit that went uncalled (although, there was a makeup call on the very next play), and he still popped up and carried on. Not as soft as everyone thought, eh? He finished 18/31 for 189 yards with 1 TD and ZERO INTs. With Clayton gone, newbie Danario Alexander was the main target, getting 4 balls for 72 yards. Mardy Gilyard, who injured his hammie in the game, had a huge 21 yard snag that clearly showed his potential. Jackson finished with 109 yards on the ground on 29 carries, and was the only Ram to rush the ball, outside of Bradford who accidentally got 8 on 6 "carries." Meanwhile, on defense, team captain Oshiomogho Atogwe nabbed the pick in the end zone to save 6 points, Grant, Hall, and Long each had 2 sacks, and Fletch-Daddy led the way with 8 tackles. What a difference a week makes!
At 3-3, the Rams are doing more than enough to make all of us fans happy. Trailing 3-2 Seattle and Arizona and leading the 1-5 49'ers, the Rams are impressing the heck out of me this season, and clearly still have an opportunity to win this weak division if they can keep this .500ish play up. Despite getting blown out by Detroit last week, their point differential is only -1.7/game (-10 overall). While their SRS (Simple Rating System, similar to the NHL's, where 0 is average and the number is calculated on strength of schedule and point differential) is -4.7, their defensive SRS is 1.8. It's nice because it feels like the defense is doing well, but it's so much better to have that eyeball test validated with statistics.
Everyone around the NFL media, not just Ram Nation, seems to like to talk about how Sam Bradford is progressing from week to week. I'm just wondering how true that is. I mean, when you watch the games, it seems like he is, but does it come out that way in the statistics? We'll compare completion percentage, yards/attempt, QB rating, and TD/INT ratio to examine his development over his first six games.
1. 58.2%, 4.60, 53.1, and 1/3 (Loss)
2. 56%, 6.68, 86.6, and 2/1 (Loss)
3. 62.2%, 6.35, 78.1, and 1/1 (Win)
4. 56.1%, 7.05, 84.3, and 2/1 (Win)
5. 51.1%, 4.78, 46.1, and 0/2 (Loss)
6. 58.1%, 6.39, 87.8, and 1/0 (Win)
While it's clearly not a steady line up from that season opening loss to Arizona, we can look at the numbers such that we see a probable progression. I think it's fair to remove the loss to Detroit as an outlier, meaning that everyone can have a horrible game that isn't like the usual game you'd expect, and I don't think that should count against them when determining their progress necessarily. After removing that loss, if we just look at completion percentage, we see:
58.2%, 56%, 62.2%, 56.1%, and 58.1%.
While it goes up and down, it is at the very least, a sign that he's staying fairly consistent. When we look at his QB Rating after removing the Detroit loss, we see:
53.1, 86.1, 78.1, 84.3, and 87.8.
I think this stat more clearly shows his progress, as his first start sees his lowest rating and his most recent start his highest, with middle range values in between. His yards/attempt, which I like a lot more than yards per reception, shows a somewhat similar pattern. So, is Bradford really progressing? I leave that up to you.
Next weekend, the Rams throw down against the 3-2 Tampa Bay Bucs. The road game for STL currently sees the Bucs as 2.5 point favorites, but I'm not really quite sure why. Sure, Tampa Bay are a 3-2 team, but is it an impressive 3-2? They've beaten Cleveland, Carolina, and the Bengals, three teams with a combined record of 3-13 this season. When they've played good teams, like Pitt and New Orleans, they've gotten blown out. Sorry, but the three wins the Bucs have picked up are clearly overrated. The team stats help to clear this up a little, as the Bucs have a SRS of -7.8 and a Strength of Schedule of -1.6 (with 0 being average for both). Besdies, why should I be scared of Josh Freeman?
Buck the Fuccaneers.
-- Sent from my Palm Prē
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