*Have you ever typed a bunch of a post and then lost it? Yeah, that's what happened to me on this one. I only hope I can capture the greatness of my original attempt.
The Rams have come to a point in their season where they need to win games against teams they are supposed to beat. They need to win games against teams from the division. Guess what? They did. My Ramies beat the Cardinals 19-6 yesterday, keeping pace with the shared-first place Seahawks, and getting their win total from this year equal to the win total from the previous three years combined.
Sure, they didn't blow the hapless Cards out. They didn't even really play that well themselves (only one TD was scored in the game). But I did really appreciate the way they used Steven Jackson (finally). S Jack ran for 102 total yards, 27 of those came on a sweet TD run from the no huddle that resulted in the celebration pictured above (he is just 15 yards away from his 6th straight 1,000 yards rushing season). Jackson was not the offensive MVP of the game, though. Kicker Josh Brown booted 4 balls throguh the big yellow uprights to set a career high. St. Louis was within field goal range as time ticked away, as well, and he revealed after the game that he was hoping he could rub it in, "I was kind of begging for that fifth one, quite honestly. The coaches didn't want to do that." Classic quote.
The Rams stellar defense may have been the overall top story, as usual, however. With Arizona putting a 6-0 lead together to start the game, the Rams scored 19 unanswered points, as the defense held tough against all 3 Arizona QBs. Anderson was benched after four straight incompletions were forced by the aforementioned Rams defenders to start the second half, and his backup was sacked and picked off by Bradley Fletcher on the next two plays. He ended up getting hurt on a fumble later, which brought about the third QB. Yeah, they're a team in shambles, but the win was still important. The Rams held the Cards to a 1 for 11 third down conversion mark, got two turnovers, four sacks, and held Arizona to about 8 less minutes of possession.
Sam Bradford didn't really have the game of this life, going just 18/29 for 187 with 0 TDs and 1 INT. Really, really not good. As mentioned, Jackson went for 102 yards and a TD, with a 13 yard catch added on. Gibson led the way in the air with 54, and was the only receiver with more than 3 catches. Oh yeah, I've been forgetting that we don't have good receivers (Amendola keeps fooling me). What happened to focusing on our TE, Billy Bajema (2 for 39)? On defense, Dahl and Fletcher had 2 INTs, and Dahl led with 7 tackles. Robbins had 2 of the 4 sacks.
So, the Rams are 6-6. Deadlocked with the Seahawks atop the NFC West. 4-8 San Francisco are 2 games back, and 3-9 Arizona are now 3 games back. We still sit back in point differential, at -5 (-0.5/game), which ranks 16th in the league. However, our takeaway/giveaway is still +5, good enough for 10th. That's an important stat, not because it is a real factor in winning games, but more because it is our only positive team stat. The SRS is currently running at -5.3 (average is 0.0), but our defense is finally above average again (+0.3). This is all happening with a well-below average strength of schedule of -4.9 (again, against a 0.0 average).
As we sit just 4 games away from the end of the regular season, I though it'd be a good time to examine our chances of finishing above Seattle (pretending that SF and AZ are out of it, which they really aren't). We'll look at the remaining schedules of the two top teams, and see what we're dealing with. First, let's see who has had the more difficult road to get to 6-6.
Rams SoS: -4.9
Seahawks SoS: -3.7
Seattle has had a harder schedule, and we know this first hand because they had to face a tough team like the Rams back on October 3. And, if memory serves me right, the Rams beat the Seahawks 20-3 that day. But, forget about the past, let's look at the future.
Rams remaining schedule:
@ New Orelans (9-3)
v Kansas City (8-4)
v San Francisco (4-8)
@ Seattle (6-6)
Total opponent record: 27-21
Seahawks remaining schedule:
@ San Francisco (4-8)
v Atlanta (10-2)
@ Tampa Bay (7-5)
v St. Louis (6-6)
Total opponent record: 27-21
It's an interesting set of games. I see it going this way in all honesty:
Game 13: Rams lose, Seahawks win
Game 14: Rams lose, Seahawks lose
Game 15: Rams win, Seahawks lose
Game 16: Rams beat Seahawks.
That kind of finish would put the Rams at 8-8 and the Seahawks at 7-9, thus sending my Ramies right into the playoffs! The glory days are back! Woo! Of course, we'll really need to take care of SF and SEA to make it happen, but I'm still feeling pretty good about our chances (and if San Fran surprised Seattle next week, that'd be nice too).
As for next week, despite our cheering and hopefullness, I'm pretty sure we're all ready to get shelled by the Saints, right. Okay, just checking.
-- Sent from my Palm Prē
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