Falcons @ Rams

[LeotheLion]

Good start. Got lucky with the Koo miss. 

Ramsey needs to wake up this year. 

[LeotheLion]

None of us wanted Skowronek on the roster but man does he look good at FB. Nick wrinkle. 

[Flounch]

Rams are winning but A Rob only 2 targets so far...

[Flounch]

Ramsey is so bad....

[MDY10]

This team is absolute trash it’s embarrassing 

[Flounch]

Yes we won but there is so much to say about offense, defense and ST....

[stl4life07]

The Rams really tried to blow this game but they held on to win. The Falcons fight hard we cant forget that. Its not like we played the Colts who looked hopeless against both the Texans and Jags.

I wouldnt say the Rams are trash. Their defense held up for the most part in this game. Stafford looked sharp outside of those two ints and then that bad throw to Skow which he missed and forced the Rams to punt which got blocked for a td. The run game was good. Kupp outside of the fumble was still the best WR in the NFL. ARob shouldve had two tds and caught a big time 1st down which help the Rams run more time off the clock late in the game. Higbee was huge too. So yes the Rams have alot of stuff to still clean up but we saw through the first 3 quarters they are still a very good football team. And thats with AD really not being called alot. Ramsey got the huge int that I think he needs to get his confidence up. We talk about AD closing out games well Ramsey closed out this game with that int.

Oh and lets talk about how great the OL blocked for Stafford. Banged up with backups and they looked great. The Falcons sacked Winston 4x and pressured him constantly last week so its not like the Falcons pass rush is nothing. They really didnt even touch Stafford and so we cant say the OL is horrible bc we see they can look good and that will give those young guys confidence. Like Sanchez said "Shelton is moving those defenders back quickly like a young teenager clears his browsing history" lol.

[stl4life07]

1 minute ago, Flounch said:

Yes we won but there is so much to say about offense, defense and ST....

Not all wins are going to look easy. Thats why the saying goes "its hard to win games in the NFL".

The Rams were up 31-10 in the 4th so there is alot to like what they did. There are alot to clean up too but its always good to clean them up in a win and not in a loss. I trust this team to get it together. Cant say the OL look bad bc it looked great. Cant say Akers and Henderson didnt look bad. They looked really good. Kupp was great outside that fumble. ARob had a td shouldve had two and he had a key third down catch. The defense held the Falcons offense down for the most part. Outside of Gay, special teams wasnt good on that block punt but Stafford shouldve hit Skow wide open which wouldve picked up a 1st down and that blocked punt for td wouldve never happened.

So yes we can point out the bad but there were good too. The bad can be fixed but my main concern coming into this game was the OL, the running backs mainly Akers, and the national concern was Stafford elbow and getting ARob more than one target. Well all those concerns were just fine in this game. So Im good and moving forward I think the Rams will be just fine.

[MDY10]

14 minutes ago, stl4life07 said:

The Rams really tried to blow this game but they held on to win. The Falcons fight hard we cant forget that. Its not like we played the Colts who looked hopeless against both the Texans and Jags.

I wouldnt say the Rams are trash. Their defense held up for the most part in this game. Stafford looked sharp outside of those two ints and then that bad throw to Skow which he missed and forced the Rams to punt which got blocked for a td. The run game was good. Kupp outside of the fumble was still the best WR in the NFL. ARob shouldve had two tds and caught a big time 1st down which help the Rams run more time off the clock late in the game. Higbee was huge too. So yes the Rams have alot of stuff to still clean up but we saw through the first 3 quarters they are still a very good football team. And thats with AD really not being called alot. Ramsey got the huge int that I think he needs to get his confidence up. We talk about AD closing out games well Ramsey closed out this game with that int.

Oh and lets talk about how great the OL blocked for Stafford. Banged up with backups and they looked great. The Falcons sacked Winston 4x and pressured him constantly last week so its not like the Falcons pass rush is nothing. They really didnt even touch Stafford and so we cant say the OL is horrible bc we see they can look good and that will give those young guys confidence. Like Sanchez said "Shelton is moving those defenders back quickly like a young teenager clears his browsing history" lol.

Only thing i can agree with is the depleting Oline playing very well. Akers and hendo looked much better than last week too.. that said it’s the falcons. If we played the Bills again this week, we’d have had no chance with yet another multiple turnover game by stafford, ST lapses, and a defense that can’t get off the field way too often. 
 

I’ll take the win… but this team has a lot of work to do. They are no where near a SB caliber team right now. They’re barely a wild card caliber team at the moment. The good thing is there’s a full season ahead and they need to get hot towards the end like they did last year. Still.. It was ugly. Stafford is making unbelievably dumb decisions again. There were some good things to take note of.. so I don’t want to be all negative, but today could have been a much less stressful day

[stl4life07]

Just now, MDY10 said:

Only thing i can agree with is the depleting Oline playing very well. Akers and hendo looked much better than last week too.. that said it’s the falcons. If we played the Bills again this week, we’d have had no chance with yet another multiple turnover game by stafford, ST lapses, and a defense that can’t get off the field way too often. 
 

I’ll take the win… but this team has a lot of work to do. They are no where near a SB caliber team right now. They’re barely a wild card caliber team at the moment. The good thing is there’s a full season ahead and they need to get hot towards the end like they did last year. Still.. It was ugly. Stafford is making unbelievably dumb decisions again. There were some good things to take note of.. so I don’t want to be all negative, but today could have been a much less stressful day

The Bills game Stafford started off what 6/6 for 50yds. The game was tied 10-10 at half. The game just got away from the Rams. In this game against the Falcons the Rams offense and defense was better. Yes Stafford threw 2 ints. I dont mind as long as he stays aggressive bc good things will happen more times than bad things. The first int he thought the corner would jump the Kupp route and Higbee would be open over the top. I can live with that. The 2nd int from what I heard Stafford didnt see the linebacker and he picked it off. Even Mahomes did the same thing in his game. He didnt see Samuel Jr. expect Samuel Jr. dropped the int so it didnt hurt Mahomes. It hurt Stafford. But Ill take the 3 tds, hitting Kupp and Higbee all over the field. Ill take getting ARob more involved and getting the ball to his backs out of the backfield.

As for the defense yes they are struggling and I expect that with young corners outside of Ramsey. But I thought they did well against the run, I felt like Mariota had to do alot just to make stuff happen. He even got lucky on that one 4th down where he fell. We dont think this Rams defense is like how it was last season bc they lost some guys. They lost SJD, Williams, and most importantly Von. I think they will get better as the season goes along. They might add someone like they did when they added Von who knows. So Im not writing off this defense. They gave up 19pts when they were on the field. Thats with the Rams offense turning the ball over three times. So the Falcons had three extra possessions and only scored 19pts. The other 8 came on special teams.

I agree though today turned stressful but its hard to win games in the NFL so Ill take this win and move on to Week 3.

[Dr LBC]

4 hours ago, stl4life07 said:

Not all wins are going to look easy. Thats why the saying goes "its hard to win games in the NFL".

The Rams were up 31-10 in the 4th so there is alot to like what they did. There are alot to clean up too but its always good to clean them up in a win and not in a loss. I trust this team to get it together. Cant say the OL look bad bc it looked great. Cant say Akers and Henderson didnt look bad. They looked really good. Kupp was great outside that fumble. ARob had a td shouldve had two and he had a key third down catch. The defense held the Falcons offense down for the most part. Outside of Gay, special teams wasnt good on that block punt but Stafford shouldve hit Skow wide open which wouldve picked up a 1st down and that blocked punt for td wouldve never happened.

So yes we can point out the bad but there were good too. The bad can be fixed but my main concern coming into this game was the OL, the running backs mainly Akers, and the national concern was Stafford elbow and getting ARob more than one target. Well all those concerns were just fine in this game. So Im good and moving forward I think the Rams will be just fine.

To be fair, the blocked punt should have been called back for running into the kicker.  They've called similar such contact in the past when a player the did successfully make a block came in from the side but still contacted the kicking leg of the punter.

This team is lacking the chip on its shoulder it had for the last half of last season.  Clearly we'd like to see it back, but I don't think it's a guarantee that it does come back this season; it may realistically take having some humbling moments and failing in a resounded goal of running it back to re-place that chip on the shoulders of some of these guys.

Also, as much as I know many of us would love to see OBJ back in horns, the cap space would, IMO, be better used if this season's (annual) trade is used to bolster the OL.

[LeotheLion]

A lot of good in this game but the inability to close out games has been a theme of this offense for years. Part of it is playcalling. McVay is calling 2-3 runs and punting. Part of it is execution as the players never get convert those calls into first downs. 

Stafford looked better, but his decision making at times is very suspect. It's a 28-3 with 20 minutes left and he is forcing a ball to Kupp that switches the momentum. Was also lucky he didn't get picked off in the endzone again lobbing it up to Kupp on 3rd down before the Gay field goal. The good news is he looks healthy, the OL protected well and we got a win. 

We have @ Cardinals, @ 49ers, Cowboys, and Panthers before the bye. 4-2 is very possible and will put us in great position for the "2nd half". 

[BStanRamFan]

I'm prepared to win 9-10 games this season and see the 49ers win the division now that Jimmy G is back.

The O-line is bad.

The defense has regressed, but could take time to get into a rhythm with new pieces. We also lack an outside pass rush.

I wouldn't be shocked to see us make a big move before the deadline for a pass rusher or RB. Kareem Hunt makes the most sense.

If we get in as a WC, we'll be the team NO ONE wants to face and I'm very content with that. 

[stl4life07]

7 hours ago, BStanRamFan said:

I'm prepared to win 9-10 games this season and see the 49ers win the division now that Jimmy G is back.

The O-line is bad.

The defense has regressed, but could take time to get into a rhythm with new pieces. We also lack an outside pass rush.

I wouldn't be shocked to see us make a big move before the deadline for a pass rusher or RB. Kareem Hunt makes the most sense.

If we get in as a WC, we'll be the team NO ONE wants to face and I'm very content with that. 

The OL played great on Sunday. Yes it was the Falcons but we saw what the Falcons pass rush did to the Saints. They harassed Winston really for most of that game. The Falcons only sacked Stafford once and hit him two other times.

Now the OL is hurt which is a concern but the backups showed they are more than capable of stepping up and doing enough to let Stafford move up and down the field getting the Rams scoring 31pts and winning.
 

I still see the Rams winning at worst 11 games. Winning the division matters but being healthy getting into the playoffs matters more. The Rams have showed they can win the Superbowl as a lower seed. They showed they can go to Tampa on 6 days rest and win in the playoffs. The Rams can win pretty and ugly. Stafford showed he can come through in the biggest games and moments. Same with Kupp and same with Donald. So overall it’s a marathon for the Rams and I have no doubt the Rams will be right there at the end again fighting for the NFC crown to get back to the Superbowl. And we have no pressure bc everyone has already counted us out bc it’s hard to repeat and through two games Philly, Tampa, SF, Minnesota, and even GB all look better in the NFC according to most people. We will see how all that shakes out in January.

[BStanRamFan]

21 minutes ago, stl4life07 said:

The OL played great on Sunday. Yes it was the Falcons but we saw what the Falcons pass rush did to the Saints. They harassed Winston really for most of that game. The Falcons only sacked Stafford once and hit him two other times.

Now the OL is hurt which is a concern but the backups showed they are more than capable of stepping up and doing enough to let Stafford move up and down the field getting the Rams scoring 31pts and winning.

We're currently ranked 8th in run blocking, 27th in pass blocking according to PFF. The injuries and shuffling will catch up.

 

22 minutes ago, stl4life07 said:

 

I still see the Rams winning at worst 11 games. Winning the division matters but being healthy getting into the playoffs matters more. The Rams have showed they can win the Superbowl as a lower seed. They showed they can go to Tampa on 6 days rest and win in the playoffs. The Rams can win pretty and ugly. Stafford showed he can come through in the biggest games and moments. Same with Kupp and same with Donald. So overall it’s a marathon for the Rams and I have no doubt the Rams will be right there at the end again fighting for the NFC crown to get back to the Superbowl. And we have no pressure bc everyone has already counted us out bc it’s hard to repeat and through two games Philly, Tampa, SF, Minnesota, and even GB all look better in the NFC according to most people. We will see how all that shakes out in January.

I can't see us getting to 11 based on what we've seen. Schedule is just too tough.

I just want to be a WC and have low expectations around the league. It's going to take a few weeks to get there as we're still defending champs, but once we settle close to .500 around Thanksgiving, we'll be an after thought. That's when we make a run in December and become a 5-6 seed. 

I'm guessing we'll be 4-4 heading into the Nov 13th game against Arizona. But then we have Chiefs, Saints, Raiders, Packers, Chargers. Maybe we get 2 of those if we're lucky? 10-7, 9-8 is where I'm landing.