At the Jeff Fisher celebrity softball game, which ended in a 22-22 tie, coach Fisher took the microphone and said kiddingly, “I told Brian Schottenheimer if he can score us that (22 points) per game, we’re gonna make the playoffs.”
The fans at GCS Ballpark cheered and screamed. I saw fireworks. It was a Rams Revival. I had my microphone taken by Rampage, the Rams mascot. The only thing was missing was Pastor Kearney Thomas on BET and his magic five dollar prayer hanky.
However, I kept replaying that over and over to Arlington Lane II, who was standing next to me on the field. “If he scores that game, we’re gonna make the playoffs.”
Not to belabor the past, but the Rams’ offense averaged 21.8 points per game in 2013. They were 27th in passing, 30th in overall yards, while the defense was ranked 13th and special teams were ranked 10th in kickoff and punt return yardage, according to Pro Football Reference.
The Rams need to be more efficient on offense. I’ve read or have heard that it’s “make it or break it” for Sam Bradford. Shouldn’t that also include Brian Schottenheimer? Why not? The Rams made improvements on defense and special teams. The special teams struggled with penalties, but played a lot better as the season went on and were a catalyst in two blowout wins.
The defense, ranked 13th last year, will most likely improve with Gregg Williams. But will the offense get better? Will he draw up more plays for Tavon Austin? Austin needs to have his hands on the ball as much as possible. How many times did you see Tavon line up in the backfield, or standing shotgun in running formation? Schottenheimer has to get him involved and get him going. The talent of the player is unquestioned. The creativity of the offensive coordinator is questioned.
Tavon has to catch the ball as well. All the receivers need too.
Isn’t it ironic that Schottenheimer played quarterback in college at Florida during the 1990s, and now runs a Don “Air” Coryell-type offense as am OC? With this wealth of offensive knowledge under his cap, you can justify the scrutiny.
But it’s only June. We’ll see in a couple of more months what this offense is made of. In the meantime, coach Fisher likes the idea of 22 points a game. So I guess that means the defense will have to crack the top 10 in fewest points allowed in order for the Rams to win and finally make the playoffs.
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