If you re-watch the Niner game and then watch any of the games you are using for your stats I think your word 'illusions' will disappear from this debate. For me this is closer to this: A team doesn't throw a single long pass in a game then completes 10 in the next one... for you that's improvement.. for me it's just indicative of a different strategy. It 'could' mean improvement, I don't deny that, but it's not obviously that until better established.
Now I like to point out 'agreement'... in these things... so let me offer you this.. I think there has been improvement, but not at the level you are implying. Nearly every team 'improves' as the season wears on, with obvious setbacks due to extraneous circumstance (injuries the most obvious)... so yes, I think the Rams are getting better.
But, and as I've said, most teams get 'better'... practice has a way of doing that. Or lets hope so. We have a rather notable individual on the bench and we're all praying that's the case. The point is not that... but rather are they 'improving' at a rate beyond what can be written off to nothing more than TOJ. You see the step up in stats as proof. I see the step up as a radically different approach to the game which MIGHT, in part, be due to getting better, (I'm sure it is somewhat) but not indicative of 'improvement' in the sense that this debate is being discussed. - JamesJM
P.S. What the HELL are you doing up so late?