Week 20, 2018 is better than Week 20, 1999

I've had this conversation privately with some folks, but I want to share it with my bros (and a beloved big sister) here, too.

1999 was beyond special. Kurt Warner, from HyVee to Hero and NFL superstar over the course of just 17 games. Spanking the Vikings and sending Randy Moss home sulking was so much fun. And then, here comes Tampa Bay. They were a really good football team. Their QB wasn't special, but he was just good enough to shepherd a dominant defense to greatness. Sapp. Lynch. Maybe they weren't legends yet, but they would be. Still, you felt, going into it, that these Rams, who blew out team after team after team, could not be stopped. So when the Bucs stymied us for most of the game, it was just frustrating. We *should* win this. Losing was just out of the question. And in the end, we did win. It was stressful and tough... but it felt like... this is what was supposed to happen.

2018.

McVay had won 2017 Coach of the Year and everyone knew his offense would come out swinging. Meanwhile, we picked up Suh, Talib, and Peters on defense, and Cooks to make the offense cook even more. Rams started as Vegas odds favorites to win the Super Bowl. And for the first two games the script played out. Inevitability looked certain.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the big fight.

The defense that was supposed to be invincible, showed some visible cracks. They didn't get significantly better against the run. The pass defense took a huge hit when Talib went out in Week Three, and struggled over the stretch. At times, the Rams seemed to play in such a way as to constantly let the opponent stay in the game. And then, at 9-0, they suddenly looked beatable against elite competition. Not only that, when they played two other future playoff teams late in the season, these Rams looked like they were losing momentum just when it mattered most. You had to wonder if the Charger Choke had somehow gotten contagious when they came to LA with us. Although the Rams lost to the Saints in Week 10, they had two opportunities to still end up with the better record, and they came up short both times against tougher-than-average competition.

So was it really a surprise when most everyone picked the Cowboys to win? Wasn't it obvious the Cowboys were more physical? Wasn't it obvious they would outmuscle the finesse Rams who won more on the cerebral trickeration of McVay's cerebellum than on physical football fundamentals?

And more than a few Rams fans blinked. I don't blame them.

What the media missed, and many Rams fans underestimated, was what McVay had built here. "We not me," "Be your best when your best is needed." And the Rams, who heard all week how the 'Boys would teach them some real football... they laid the wood. It was the Rams who showed how physical they could be. It was the Rams who came out and played old fashioned ground and pound. Down went the Cowboys.

But could they do it in New Orleans? Could they go in against the #1 run defense and exert their will? Could they slow down future HOF QB Drew Brees, who was undefeated in the Superdome in the playoffs? Down 13-0 at the end of the first quarter, it looked like the Rams had been exposed once again as just not tough enough.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the big fight.

How easy it is to see weakness in those close games all season long instead of recognizing it was actually conditioning. It was actually making the Rams stronger, preparing them for this very moment. The big plays that got the Rams here taught them that it's never over until it's over. Plays like John Franklin Meyer sealing it against the Seahawks. Plays like Samson sacrificing it all on the big stage. Plays like Donald destroying QB's for the strip-sack when it was needed most. Maybe the Rams didn't win pretty every time. Maybe they played too many close games. But maybe it was just the right number of close games to teach them the tenacity they would need in the toughest game all year.

They didn't let 13-0 get in their heads. They just kept fighting. They just kept making big plays. And they all contributed. Goff shrugged off an awful first quarter and came up clutch over and over. Cooks. Reynolds. Higbee. Everett. Whitworth. Saffold. Hecker. Shields. Suh. Talib. Peters. Robey-Coleman. Fowler. Johnson. Zuerlein. There couldn't have been a game that defines "We, not me" more than this one.

Or could there? Because there's one more game left. One more chance, against the NFL's very best, to show that this may just be the toughest Rams team of all time. One more chance to show the world that when you play as a team with this level of trust and confidence, no amount of adversity is too big.

1999 was magical, but it was almost too easy. 2018, at this point, after Week 20, is better. It may just end as the best of all time.

Go Rams.


(Edit: How did I forget Zuerlein in that list of names at first? Had to add him in.)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/22/2019 03:25AM by EternalHorns.