Quote
JamesJM
In that they have reached a point where they know they 'can'. It's not overconfidence, or anything like that. Not brashness, ego, haughtiness, and certainly not 'mission complete'.
It's simply the factual recognition that they 'can'. And should they not I very much doubt their reaction will be anything other than 'unacceptable'. Their character has been remolded. - JamesJM
I think that's true, JM. And while we can't really pin it on just one coaching regime -- the Rams have had several losing coaches/staffs recently -- I think Fisher typifies that mentality. The one that seems to say, at least implicitly, it's okay to lose. It's okay to be middling. And it's also okay to play chippy, undisciplined football in the process.
McVay isn't that guy. I get the feeling it's just flat out
not okay with him, and the team is buying into that so far.
Some may think this is really unfair, but I think Bradford typified the problem when he was with the Rams. In a sense, he symbolized what had happened to this storied franchise, especially from the 1990s on (with that all too brief interlude under DV and in 2001 with Martz). Gifted athletically, loaded with talent -- IMO, more so than Goff -- and by most accounts, a great guy, he just carried himself in a defeated manner most of the time. Hung his head on a sidelines. Showed little urgency getting up to the line, during the play, or afterward. For me, he's like the Uber-Ram during their losing years -- before, during and after he was actually on the team.
I just don't see that now. I don't see Rams acting defeated before the game even starts. And that's the first step. Gotta believe all the way, even up to the last second of each game. A game as intense and competitive as NFL football? It's gotta be crazy enough as it is, without adding the neuroses of eternal defeatism. They seemed to have defeated the defeatism.
