The St. Louis Rams ended the season with a 19-16 loss to the San Francisco 49ers this past Sunday. The Rams entered the game with a 7-8 record with hopes of at least finishing the last month of the schedule 4-0, and prevent another losing season. But, as usual with the Rams, they couldn’t seem to get out of their own way.
There is no rationale for them playing down to a 49ers team that was sitting at 4-11 and on the verge of firing their own head coach Jim Tomsula. The Rams looked flat, especially on defense. The tackling was poor, and gap assignments were non-existent. 49ers running back DuJuan Harris popped some big runs at the right time and led all rushers in the game.
The Rams had something to play for besides their jobs for the 2016 season. Yet they can’t get over that proverbial hump. Rams players kept pretty much the same mantra about their love for playing for coach Jeff Fisher from jump. And I don’t doubt one second the love these players have for Fisher. He’s been tabbed a “Players Coach,” but that hasn’t translated to a damn thing, honestly.
For the fourth straight season under Fisher, the Rams underachieved and were at times just flat-out undisciplined. That’s one of the main reasons why they are watching playoffs, instead of competing.
All we’ve gotten was a tease of the possibility of .500 football, and that seems to be just enough for Jeff Fisher to get by. Rams owner Stan Kroenke was not going to fire Fisher no matter what his record was. Judging by what he’s paying Fisher, it accumulates to $1 million per win, because that’s what he’s making – $7 million per season.
Fisher was excited about the progress of the team, and he should be. The Rams did a lot of good things on the football field, yet they have no tangible proof where it really counts. And that’s the win-loss column. It’s all about wins and losses. You can talk all you want about how much better the team is and what have you, but when you can’t even mentally prepare to face a fading team devoid of playmakers and QB Blaine Gabbert (Parkway West), you deserve to finish where you are.
Many Rams players said they were treating the game against the 49ers as a playoff game. Well, okay. I mean, whatever it takes. With the exception of linebacker Akeem Ayers, none of the Rams starters has any playoff experience.
Todd Gurley didn’t play against the 49ers due to a foot injury, and Tre Mason replaced him in the starting lineup. The results were not good. Mason only averaged 2.4 yards a carry, but did manage to score a rushing touchdown. At times it was looking like Mason was searching for a running lane, as if looking for a light switch in a dark room. He had lanes to run through, but it looked like he was trying to set up a big run instead of taking what was there. Mason is a good RB, but you saw the difference in having Gurley as the premier back.
QB Case Keenum misfired on several passes and was not in any kind of rhythm, and didn’t give the receivers a chance to make a play. It’s not often Rams receivers get open and, when they did, the football was either floating out of bounds or careening off the fingertips of TE Jared Cook twice in the game. He targeted Cook four times and missed him badly all four times.
After the game, Fisher said he expects Keenum to return, according to Nate Lasch of Scout.com. I wouldn’t put a lot of stock in that. However, I will say that Keenum proved that he can manage a football game. He did post a 3-1 record and has only thrown one interception and came close to 1,000 passing yards during his short stint as starting QB.
But if he’s your starting QB in September, well, get ready, folks, for more madcap, ground-and-pound, fake-end-around plays, and take the top off the special teams defense with that gunslinger punter Johnny Hekker.
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