Thoughts on The Game

First off, I want to congratulate all of my fellow Rams fans on this board for our team's success this year, making it to the big dance. It's been a hell of a ride to date and I couldn't be more proud of our Rams. Win or lose come Sunday, it's been a great season but of course a win would make it even sweeter.

Regarding the game, I think it's going to be a tight, close game. It would be great if the Rams blew them out but I don't think that's going to happen.

We know Bellicheat is famous for taking away (or trying to) your best weapon and exploiting your weaknesses.

Best weapon: Fortunately we have several weapons and they can't double them all. I think they're going to try to take Gurley out of the game by (as others have already mentioned) giving him the same treatment they gave Faulk in 2002. They'll probably spy him all game long. McVay is going to have to have a plan for that. I think they will double Cooks with a safety over the top and put Gilmore on Woods. This should leave some opportunities for Reynolds, Higbee and Everett (man I wish we had Kupp). These guys are going to have to step up even more than they have been. I think they can.

Like everybody else they will double AD. Suh and Brockers really need to take advantage of this. Ebukam needs to have a game like he did against KC.

Weaknesses: Our OL is very good, but our weakest link is Sullivan. So, I think Bellicheat is going to attack the A gaps all day. I expect a lot of blitzes up the middle. McVay needs to have some good blitz-busters at the ready. I think they'll attack NRC and Joyner, our two biggest (IMO) liabilities in the secondary. NRC needs to be on Edelman like ugly on a bear.

Our run D has been excellent in the playoffs so that has to continue. I think the Cheaters will run at the edges mostly because that is where we're weakest. So we need to have excellent discipline in our assignments and not let them get the edge.

I think their strategy/plan will be to try to get up on us fast and get a two score lead before we get on the board. We can't let that happen.

For us, I think Gurley needs to be heavily involved in the passing game. Send him out on wheel routes. Get him out on the flats. He is a great weapon we need to exploit. I think we'll have trouble connecting on long balls due to their pressure up the middle so we need to have a plan to hit short to mid passes in the flats and over the middle. And we HAVE to establish the run to make it all work.

On defense, they will try to negate AD so we have to stay true to our assignments. I'm sure you all noticed that after Kamara was torching us out of the backfield in the Aints game we started chipping him before he could get a clean release. That was very effective. We need to do the same with their backs...every time. More importantly, we need to get in Brady's face, which is a no brainer.

I think Edelman is going to do some damage and I think Gronk will have a few moments as well. If we can minimize those moments we'll be fine.

I'm not an X's and O's guy so these are just my general thoughts on the game. Logically I think we have the better overall team but that doesn't guarantee a win. I have a feeling we're going to have to beat the refs as well as the Cheaters. So, my feeling is one of guarded optimism. I know we can beat them, but will we?

I haven't said anything on that Aints game yet, but for all I care they can go pound sand. I truly believe that if that game was played in a neutral site we would have smoked them. That crowd noise was ridiculous and in my opinion an unfair advantage. Especially with the whistles and other noise makers. I think the league needs to ban any kind of noise makers in stadiums. Scream, yell and clap all you want but no whistles or coins in cans.

Sean Peyton needs to man up. Yes, that was a blown non-call. How convenient for him and all of the Aints fans to dismiss the 3 facemasks we had against us, the holding on Brockers on THAT play, not to mention the TWO times they let the play clock run out but didn't get flagged for it. They got more than their fair share of ref charity in that game. They have no business crying about that one play when they got away with all of the penalties that weren't called on them. We beat them. In their house of horrors. We outscored them 26-10 after we were down 13-0. They had their chances even after THAT play. They failed. I used to kind of like the Aints...no more.

OK, now that I got all of that off of my chest....

Rams win SB53 in a tight one : 31-27. GO RAMS!!!

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