An excellent post and I agree on almost all of it.
One small thing, and it's more a refinement than a real disagreement.
You say:
"And the worst thing is coming up short on key drives, a recent and alarming trend. One of these cost us the NO game"If you just measure that in terms of 4th quarter comeback drives, like when the Rams had a chance to come back from 30-35 with minutes left against the Saints, it's partly true that they come up short. But overall, covering the last 2 seasons, the Rams have actually done well in the 4th quarter comeback situation (I know that's not all you meant by "key drives" but still, it's part of it).
The Rams are at 40% wins so far in those situations across 2017-18. That's a good rate. It's not the top (which is 50% or better) but it's good.
The problem is, they haven't come through (so far) in big games against top NFC opponents when things like HFA are at stake. That includes the Eagles game last year, and the Saints game this year. In both games they put up impressive numbers and points on offense, but then did not come through in the crunch.
Two games isn't a trend but it's a possible symptom.
If you toss in last year's Atlanta game, then along with the Eagles last year and the Saints this year, that's 3 of their biggest games in both 2017 and 2018 combined...so it's possible the Rams still have to turn the corner to become a reliable and consistent big game contender.
So anyway all I did was refine the details here.
Rams HAVE won games in the crunch, but
so far they can wilt a bit in the really big games. Sometimes it's in the 4th; against ATL it was for a half (and included special teams TOs).
....
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/14/2018 05:27AM by zn.
