So being here in New England I can tell you what's being said about the game this week. 99% of it is about the Patriots. They don't pay attention to the Rams in the media here but the 49 New Orleans dropped Sunday now has them really just convinced the Rams are the Browns. In fact one prominent sports talk show "has a moratorium on talking about the Rams" saying this game "is useless and annoying." If the Rams defense had played decently vs. the Saints- win or lose- I think there would be more conversation. But anyway...
The interesting thing is there's genuine concern about the Patriots locally and specifically about their defense. The talk is mainly about how the Patriots really haven't played anyone or beaten anyone of note. Their "signature wins" are at Pittsburgh (with Landry Jones at QB ) and at Buffalo.
By the way, no official word but I think it's highly doubtful Gronkowski plays.
Defensively, reality is settling in that the Patriots probably have a bottom 12 defense. They're saying if the Jets had taken even somewhat of a more aggressive approach and challenged their secondary vs. conservative inside runs, etc. the Jets probably would have won. The Patriots are 4th in points allowed but they are 20th on 3rd down, 21st in red zone defense, 23rd in turnovers, 24th in sacks and 15th in opposing QB rating.
An interesting note: 8 of the 11 QBs the Patriots have faced have had their highest QB rating of the year against them.
Their pass rush is bad. Their CBs apart from Butler are bad. Logan Ryan and Eric Rowe are not good. One analyst said "any team with three decent passing game weapons can beat them." Patrick Chung is their TJ McDonald- good run defender/box safety, bad in coverage.
Honestly, from what I've seen of New England and after seeing Goff in person at New Orleans I'd air it out this week. Their strength is inside with DT Malcolm Brown, DE Trey Flowers and LB Donta Hightower. I've seen several games at Gillette and it won't be as loud as the Superdome was. Let the kid sling it.
The 49 the Rams gave up last week was as disturbing to me as anyone but I still think it's a top 10 defense that for several reasons had a really bad game against the #1 QB in the league at home. A key player to me is Joyner who needs to have a really good game in the slot vs. Edelman. Also Alexander and McDonald vs. Bennett.
How do the Rams keep this game close? Zero turnovers, good pass rush on Brady, and let Goff be aggressive. I am in no way expecting a win but there is part of me, naive as it may be, that thinks they could cover the 13.5 point spread. If the defense comes out with a chip on its shoulder they could. I still remember going to the 2008 game here after Haslett had taken over. Steve Jackson was out and the Rams kept it close, losing 23-16.
Weather forecast is 43 degrees and sunny.
Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 11/30/2016 04:53AM by LMU93.
