If you're an upper tier team- which the Rams are- you expect to win your division, play at home in the divisional round and get to the conference title game. But the reality in the NFL, and really in about every sport, is once you get to that stage it's a total crap shoot. They're all excellent teams at that point and anything can and does happen. How close was Sunday's Super Bowl to being KC vs. NO? Very...
Momentum, health, luck- all those things come into play. The 1999 Rams won the NFC title by the thinnest of margins. Could have been Tampa vs Tennessee.
The Rams should be in the mix for years to come. This was not built to be a one and done team. In fact one thought I had after Sunday was "maybe the Rams' defense has finally arrived." They gave up 19.3 ppg in the playoffs. Talib's presence cannot be overstated. Franklin-Myers got around the corner for a strip sack on Brady. Littleton with an INT (on a good deflection from Robey-Coleman).
Maybe for the Rams to return next year we should look at not the offense but their defense. If they find decent replacements for Suh, Joyner and Barron (and I hate to say it but that shouldn't be all that hard), young guys like Littleton and Franklin-Myers get better, and Okronkwo can contribute as an edge rusher, then maybe it's their defense that can get them back.
