"The cause of the outlier should be considered and perhaps investigated."
I made a point of saying that our season was an accurate reflection of our team. It clearly was and it was a mediocre team. You cannot disagree with that.
I was also made a nuanced point: people tend to use the term "outlier" to justify discarding or ignoring a data point. That why I stated that the cause of the "outlier" should be investigated.
Your research into one of the causes of the team's record showed that we had unprecedented OLine injuries. You're right, that isn't excuse making, it's showing one of the causes for the mediocrity. Based upon the data you and others posted that cannot be denied. I. e you did what I said should be done: "investigate." Proving that we had a bad OLine was kinda like singing to the choir; everybody who follows the Rams already knew this. Having a busted up and out of sync Oline is usually going to be a weak link.
As you alluded to in your post there were other causes for the mediocre season. Here are some:
Rams ranked last in team offense (Certainly the mangled OLine is a big part of that).
Rams ranked 27th in scoring (OLine is a part of that bad performance as well)
Rams ranked 27th in rushing, (" ...)
Rams ranked 27th in passing, (" ... )
Stafford ranked 22nd as a QB, (he only started 9 games but as a whole he was mediocre). Mayfield seems to rank just above Stafford. Wolford and Perkins are way down on the list.
Rams ranked 19th in team defense (slightly below average)
Rams ranked 22nd in pass. defense. (below average)
Rams ranked 23 in Special Teams.
Rams ranked 19th in Turnover differential
Our impulsive and impatient Head Coach admitted that his effort this year was "professional failure."
"With one game left, McVay spoke about whether this season has changed him, and while he won’t go that far, he does see it as a humbling experience – one he can certainly learn from. Personally, he views it as a “professional failure” based on what he was able to control.
I’d like to think that you use it as a growth experience. To say that I have learned a lot of things about myself, both good and bad, I think that would be fair to say,” McVay said Wednesday. “However you want to look at it, you realize how fortunate and blessed I’ve been to be in a situation where you’re surrounded by so many good people, and we’ve been able to stay relatively healthy and that’s led to us having fairly consistent results. This year has been, in my opinion from just what I can control, professional failure. That’s been humbling, it’s been challenging. I think it’s revealed some things that maybe I wouldn’t have known about myself that you have to be able to deal with and acknowledge accordingly, but if you do it the right way, I do believe you can be stronger.”
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When the bigger picture is examined it shows that the Rams had more weaknesses than just a bad OLine. I agree with you that the OLine was the biggest source of the mediocre season, but not the only one. It would be disingenuous to blame the cumulative work of 11 men on only 5 or 6 of those men. Historically some QBs have excelled even behind poorly performing OLines. Our below average showing on the defensive side and Special Teams, coupled with the head coach's admittance that he didn't do as good of a job as he should have were also contributors to the mediocre season.
Is the huge amt. of OLine injuries an outlier? I think so.
Would I call this season an outlier? No because you can't call an entire data set an outlier. Would I call the Baker Mayfied engineered last minute drive for a victory over the Raiders, an outlier? Yeah.
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but actual facts should not
be cast out or dismissed,
They should be considered as the simple, obvious reason for the
offensive struggles, coupled with injuries to the QB and the star
WR and then late in the season the star DT.
At some point, it has to be realized the outlier was an injury outbreak
that has not been seen in the last 55-60 years.
That is your outlier.
