Jumbled and disconnected thoughts after last night

For me, last night was a strange game. Rarely do I recall a PS game with such a range of virtually contradictory tell tails.

Like many of you, I saw some exciting positives and some deeply worrying negatives. I don't know really how to sort it all out.

Let me say that the comeback in the 2nd half means a lot more, IMO, than it would in the vast majority of cases. Two reasons for that. First, we have an offense desperately searching for a passing game. And that comeback showed us emerging talent in a couple of key places:

Back up RBs: you guys know the drill on this. But we really need some quality depth behind TG and Benny.
Spruce: listen, I don't care a fig who he was playing against. That guy is a player. And I'll tell you right now: I'll pick him every time over Tavon, who is a gimmick that we don't really need.
Mannion: we need better than Keenum sharing the duties with Goff. Mannion showed me throws Keenum can't match, including some fine medium-length darts that moved chains and scored points. He'll make a superb backup and I think he deserves a chance to move ahead of Keenum.

So, to me, the comeback actually mattered. The emerging talent, in my view, significantly changed the dynamic of our offense. Of course, they'll have to do it against front line opposition. But remember that our offense has gaping holes. It's not like these are 3rd stringers with no chance to play. Spruce could play a lot. Brown has a good chance to be in the RB rotation. Mannion could offer us a higher offensive ceiling than Keenum can if Goff isn't ready. (I think he will be.)

Now, like everyone else, I am drooling over Higbee. He has a chance to be our 2nd ORY in a row. Honestly. The value of a TE like that is very, very high. The guy could buy us 3-4 1st downs a game and 8-10 red zone TDs in the year. Imagine the difference that would make!

As for Goff, I like many here felt he did very well. That throw up the middle that was dropped ... it wasn't just accurate. It was a decisive read and he thre a ball on a flat trajectory that got there in plenty of time. Keenum cannot make that throw, and he isn't the only starting QB. Goff played very well ... and was let down by WRs.

Which brings us to the negatives. To me, the big negatives are deeply woven into Fisher's inadequacies as a coach. What we saw last night, as others have said already, was a Ram team ill disciplined and ill prepared by Fisher. In other words, same ole, same ole.

Consider the defense. I haven't hung around here much the last few years. But guys in another venue know what I think of Fisher's sloppy inattention to competitive defensive discipline. We run fundamentally unsound defensive packages that, for example, yield tons of running yardage despite having a DL that gets upfield and disrupts as very few units do. What did we see last night? A defense that couldn't stop the run and couldn't get off the field.

How about the secondary? Well, to me, it's damn hard to determine how much was on the players and how much was a matter of indecisiveness arising from an unsound scheme. Fisher generally approaches a game like this playing vanilla defense with little game plan. And yet, it isn't really vanilla. Soft coverage, Stunting DL and LBs leaving gaps to be exploited. I get so sick and tired of seeing our DL get penetration that by all rights ought to blow plays up watch RBs go right past them and QBs get off throws to wide open receivers. We've seen this movie hundreds of times over the last few years. The names and faces change, but the underperforming malaise of an immensely talented unit doesn't.

Now, someone in another thread said that Fisher gets better as the year goes on. I'd say it differently. I'd say he coaches erratically and gets erratic results. This is horribly true of his defenses.

Fisher hired Williams to coach one of the most talented defensive rosters in the league. And the results are ridiculously erratic. Williams has days when his exotic schemes work perfectly and he pitches shut outs, sometimes against top offenses. Then, the next week, he'll run an ill-considered scheme that is picked apart by mediocre units. You guys can all remember cases like the Giants in the dome or the DC team the week after the season opening win.

So, last night, we saw the defensive unit lay a big egg. In the usual way. Yielding the run. Failing to get to the QB. Playing soft coverages. Yielding 3rd down conversions. Yes, I agree--we weren't ready. Fisher and Williams played a unit less prepared that the Cowboys were. And they will get better. There will be games when they appear to be the best unit in the game. But those stretches will be following by comically inept failures. Keep in mind the statistical facts: our defense does not record truly elite results over a season. It plays up and down, and ends with not very impressive statistics.

Last night warns us to expect just that this year. I have never seen any evidence that a Fisher Rams team can learn to play with consistent competitive discipline. And last night suggests that this pattern will continue.

For 4 years, Snead has steadily raised the talent level of the roster. I think he's done it again. But Fisher's teams always slide back into comfortable mediocrity. Adding players isn't enough. If the team doesn't learn competitive discipline, all the talent in the world won't get a winning record.

And yet ...

We won that game last night. For a Fisher team, I think that might matter some. No, it wasn't the starters. It was just 3s against 3s. And yet, for a mediocre team that is mired in the habit of softly surrendering to tough going, a game like that is an important step toward competitiveness. I mean, I'm still thinking that a Fisher led Rams team will once again stumble to a 7-9 record, losing 4-5 winnable games along the way. And yet, watching those youngsters assert their will to execute and win ... well, I felt stirrings of hope.

More fool me ...