If they improved after and (seeing it as a wake-up call) BECAUSE OF the SF game, then, including the SF game in team numbers distorts the real picture.
Now it may turn out that the SF game is a regular potential for this team and that they will repeat it now and then.
My own view is that yes, it was a wake-up call and that the team not only improved AFTER it they improved BECAUSE OF it. That means the players looked themselves in the eye (players only meeting) and that the coaches changed some things (we know that's true on defense).
Though frankly it;s probably too soon to say that definitively though. But it's possible.
Still, any stat you look at, the Rams are better than the SF game. Sometimes just partially, sometimes substantially.
Take third down conversions for example.
Last year the Rams were ranked 32nd on third down conversions, at 25.9%.
This year presumably they are ranked 26th on third down conversions, at 33.3%.
But since the SF the Rams are 21st on third downs at 38.5%. Which is edging up there.
In the SF game they were 20% on third downs which would rank lower than 32nd. (Meaning, the lowest so far is Miami with 27.3%, which is bad...20% would of course be far worse).
That's real if and only if they improved and changed after and because of the SF game. If you don't believe that, then, it's just fiddling with numbers.
I will say though there's one thing I really like about the current situation. Besides them winning, which I always like regardless, something has happened. Used to be some people would say, you are what your record says you are. I would always say, that can be deceptive---records can be what they are for different reasons. You have to actually examine contexts.
Well, now that they're 3-1, this whole you are what your record says you are thing has been dropped. Now, for some, the record is deceptive...it does not give a true picture of the team. Well I am not sure about that myself. But I will take debating the reason for the record over the dull mantra that "you are what your record says you are." So I am glad many have dropped that. Yes a record is something to interrogate, it's not a dead giveaway. You can have a good record and it's deceptive and you can have a bad record and it's deceptive. To find out which it is you have to look past the record. And that invariably means debate because different people will read that differently.
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/08/2016 06:28AM by zn.
