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I have a particular issue with explaining away mediocre records as not being a true indication of the quality of a team. A team that repeatedly misses the playoffs is not a good team, no matter how you doctor it up.

My point here is that the proof is in the pudding. Make the playoffs in 2020, that’s the pudding. And I’m not explaining this year, I’m looking towards 2020.

Yeah proof is always in the pudding.

But remember what my main point was--a team can be 9-7 for a number of different reasons, or you can say different 9-7 teams can be 9-7 for different reasons.

One can be a top team that stumbled (injuries usually). Another can be a mediocre team that overachieved a bit (for different reasons) or a good team that underachieved a bit (for different reasons). It can be a young team on the way up or an aging team on the way down.

If informed fans put their heads together they can usually spot it.

So I don't take 9-7 as a final verdict--it (like I said) is a question to be answered.

One good sign for me with the Rams. With an injury replacement OL on the road they took it to a top rival defense on the road. That's just not a bad team though there are things to fix.

In terms of having talent, I am not worried about that. Here's an example. Who knew who Higbee was? When they needed to rely on him though he came through. Making him one of the best Rams 4th round picks for years (rivaling Charlie Cowan, Rod Perry, and Vince...and that's going back to 1960).

We will all have different ideas about what needs fixing and who or what will rebound, but I think only a few see them as below average for consecutive future years).

So in the season competition, you either did it or you didn't.

But between seasons you can look and say "okay WHY was their record what it was."

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