We have all been burnt for so long that we're not sure how to react when we're given a winning team.
Here's the thing; the Rams really don't have to "prove" anything. They are a good strong young team on the up-trend. On any given Sunday they can play with anyone. And on most Sundays they are going to win.
Naturally as we approach Thanksgiving, the NFL begins to divide into playoff contenders and not-a-chance teams. Rams are clear playoff contenders. But when you begin to play other playoff contenders, something has to give.
The Rams haven't just been beating teams, they've been destroying teams. I don't care who they've played, the other team is paid to play, too. The measure of a dominant team is a combination of their record and the scoring differential. The Rams have a great record and lead the league in scoring differential.....and it's not even close.
The first 3 or 4 games of the year, most teams are getting into the flow and sorting things out. That's why 2-1, 2-2 teams either start stringing together wins, or losses, and then 8 games a picture begins to emerge. The Rams had ONE down game against a super good team: the Seahawks. And when you look at the game the Rams were in position to win, but didn't. It was disappointing but sure not embarassing.
Outside of that, in the past 4 games the Rams have scored 33, 51, 33, 27. In their first 4 the Rams scored 46, 20, 41, 35. About the same really.
But the Defense has really come around. The last four games: 7, 17, 0, 17 against. The first four games: 9, 27, 39, 30. See the trends?
The Rams can score with anybody; in fact the problem is that not many can score with the Rams.
And, our Defense has become excellent.
So, to me the way to look at it is that the only thing left for this young Rams team is to learn how to win "the big games". Usually that's an uneven process. However, every now and then a team comes along in which everything falls in line and just jells. Like our 99-00 GSOT team.
What we're about to find out over the next month is where this good Rams team stands.
Are they ready for the playoff step?
But they certainly aren't a mirage and even if they lost the next 3 out of 5, that doesn't change my attitude about this team and its future. That said, I believe they'll do fine. They didn't have their best outing against Houston and yet beat them thoroughly. I'm hoping that their outing against the Vikes is more up to their standards and they get a solid victory. But should they not, then so be it. I still like their chances against the Saints the following week. One game does not define this team.
That's the beauty of this new regime and team; we can go back to safely holding high expectations fully expecting our guys to be victorious even knowing that in sports they won't always be. We can be real fans again truly believing that should we lose one week, we have a strong chance of winning the next.
