Ah. Now doesn't that feel more like our Ramies? One week after getting to .500 and a tie for first place in the NFC West, the Boys in Horns walked into an "easy" game on the schedule, and got blown out 6-44. Somehow, the winless Lions made the Rams look completely foolish, and even made the media think twice about annointing this STL team as the NFL's best surprise.
In a game that handed Detroit their largest margin of victory in 15 years, my boys looked like a joke. A 105 yard TD return for in the second by Detroit's Stefan Logan started the avalanche, and their was no turning back. We can partially chalk our poor offensive showing up to Mark Clayton's first quarter injury. Bradford's favorite target fell to the ground while running his route, and collapsed in what looks to be a pretty serious injury. Tough to use that as an excuse, though, as it could have been a time for the other receivers to shine. It wasn't. The icing on the cake may have been Ndamukong Suh picking Bradford off, making us all think...wait, what were we so excited about?
The Lions were up 24-6 at the half, sparked by that long TD run after a first quarter ending Rams game tying field goal, and they continued to pour it on in the second half. It must have felt good. The Rams did have the bright spots of going 6 for 14 on third downs and winning the penalty yard battle 40-78 (40 being the low number, and thus the winner), but when you have 3 turnovers and don't get a single one back, you just aren't going to win. Sam Brad finished 23/45 for 215, 2 picks, and zero TDs, in most likely the worst game of his career. Steven Jackson tried his best, amassing 115 yards rushing and 12 yards through the air, but he couldn't do it all (though I think we should have relied on him more, rather than throwing 22 incomplete passes). With Clayton gone, Amendola picked up the receiving load, getting 95 yards, but no other receiver had more than 32. Mardy Gilyard had 2 catches for 22, and depending on how long Clayton is out, Gilyard should probably become the #1 option. By the way, Gilly also forced a fumble. On defense, Laurinitis was back on top with 7 tackles, and Selvie had the lone sack.
It just wasn't good. But, even as bad as it was, it's just ONE loss, and in this year's NFC West that isn't that big of a deal. It will be the coaching staff's job to help the players buy into the fact that a loss is just a loss, even if you lose by 38 to the only team worse than you in recent history. And they had better get the boys to buy into it quickly, because we only have a couple of days before our clash with the San Diego Super Chargers. It may be a battle of two 2-3 teams, but clearly the Chargers are a far superior squad. A win for the Rams on Sunday would not only shock the NFL World, but it would shock Rams Nation. The Bolts, coming off a loss to the Raiders (I wish I could talk trash on that), are 8.5 point favorites, and even though it's a Rammie home game, it'd be hard to bet against SD in this one. I'm hopeful, though, that I'm wrong.
Currently, standings-wise, the 2-3 Rams are only 1 game back of the 3-2 first place Cardinals, 0.5 games back of the 2-2 Seahawks, and a whopping 2 games up on the amazingly 0-5 49'ers. You see? It was a big loss in terms of points, but hardly a big loss in terms of our standing within the division.
So, with Clayton going down to a potentially bad injury on Sunday, who should be Sam Bradford's new go to target? Our options will come from those who caught the ball in the Lions game, but we'll leave Jackson off the list (as he should just be the overall #1 offensive weapon). The list of possible targets include, Danny Amendola, Daniel Fells, Brandon Gibson, Mardy Gilyard, and Laurent Robinson. Just by looking at the names, I'd like to see Gilyard and Robinson make a huge impact, while realizing that Amendola is probably the #1 guy. But, I thought it'd be fun to compare the players based on value and performance stats to see who may actually deserve it.
Amendola: As far as value, Danny is PosRank (Fantasy ranking for his position) 40th for WRs in the NFL, has a career AV (approximate value, which is similar to baseball's WAR/RAR/VORP, and as an example an AV of 19 was Steven Jackson's best season of his career. Career AV weighs your best seasons more than lesser seasons to derive a total value stat) of 2, is currently 4th in the league in receptions and punt returns and 8th in punt return yards. This season, he's put up 9.2 Y/R (yards per reception) and 60.6 Y/G (yards per game).
Fells: First off, he's an Anaheim native, so there's that. Felly Fell is PosRank 24th among TEs has a career AV of 3, and is the first player on the list with an actual receiving TD this year (sorry, Danny). He currenty sits at 10 Y/R and 28 Y/G.
Gibson: A PosRank of 66 and a career AV of 2, our WaZu grad could be an underrated stud. A 14.6 Y/R, 39 Y/G, and a receiving TD all make him a possible candidate to take over as the new #1.
Gilyard: Gilly may be PosRank 113 and have no AV yet because of his rookie status, but this guy seems like the real deal to me. In his 5 career games, he has 8.4 Y/R, 8.4 Y/G, and ranks 10th in the NFL in kick returns. I'm telling you, if the Rams use him more, he will be a success. Maybe Clayton's injury will finally open the door for that.
Robinson: With a PosRank of 91st and a career AV of 5, Laurent Robinson was supposed to be our big shot this year. He was finally supposed to come into his own. Instead, he's made just 5 catches in three games. His Y/R is 6.6 and his Y/G is a lowly 11, but hopefully that can change at this point.
I think we have a couple of take home messages here. First, I joined all Rams fans in the preseason by lamenting that our WR unit was weak. I was overjoyed to see Clayton putting up some numbers, only to overlook that we may have some seriously underrated talent who can catch a ball or two. Second, it's time for Bradford to figure out how to throw the ball to other players.
And with that, here is my list of our current WRs left on the team in order of best-worst:
1. Robinson
2. Amendola
3. Gilyard
4. Fells
5. Gibson (TE)
And, here is my list of how I think the Rams probably see it:
1. Amendola
2. Fells
3. Gibson (TE)
4. Gilyard
5. Robinson
Maybe reading my post will spark a change. At the very least, I know that Bradford is going to have to find a new weapon in the air, and it'll be fun to see how that goes.
Let's decharge the Bolts!
-- Sent from my Palm Prē
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