The San Francisco 49ers are among
the best teams in the National Football League.
They were one win away from making it to the Super Bowl just last
season, and they were more than one expert’s choice to make a similar run this
season. The 49ers have a defense that dominates
and the type of power running game that should have been able to churn out yards
against the 2nd worst team in the league last season against the run. After tying the Rams earlier in the season,
the 49ers were coming into St. Louis motivated for revenge and ready to play. They had just promoted their dynamic new
quarterback, Colin Kaepernick who had already beaten the Chicago Bears and New
Orleans Saints. There was no reason to
believe that these Rams, the same team that lost to both the Miami Dolphins and
New York Jets this season, should have any chance at beating the vaunted 49ers
right?
Recent Rams teams would have not
only lost this game, they would have been lucky to make it close. But something is different about these
Rams. Yes, you could say this is a new
team because they won the game, but it goes deeper than that. The Rams won a close game down the stretch by
making clutch plays against a team that is much better seasoned to win games
like these. The Rams defense was able to
put points on the board when the offense could not, and instead of shooting
themselves in the foot with bad penalties and consistent lapses in concentration,
St. Louis actually had fewer penalties than the 49ers.
This is not the first time Rams fans
have been teased by this team, however.
We have seen them finish at 7-9 in 2010, which was sadly enough for
optimism, only to watch the Rams earn the second pick in the 2012 NFL
draft. I guess there is no way to know
this for sure, but could this be a sign of actual change for this team? I think it could be, and the reason behind
this is Jeff Fisher. With all due
respect to Steve Spagnuolo and the rest of the coaches the Rams have had over
the past few years, it feels good to have a legitimate NFL head coach for a
change.
Just look at how Jeff Fisher has
taken control of this team. Perhaps the
best examples of this is the two players that he benched for the first game the
Rams played the 49ers. The troubled
Janoris Jenkins was sat down for a game and since he has scored 3 touch downs
in the last two games. That’s pretty
impressive considering he plays on the defensive side of the football. Then there is the Rams wide receiver, Chris
Givens who has had 20 receptions in three games since being sat down by
Fisher. These may be chalked up to pure
coincidence, or it could be signs of two young and extremely talented players
buying into a coach’s system that has been proven to work in the past.
There have been a few grumblings
about even making a run at a .500 or better record this season and even the
possibility of a wild card berth. I
don’t think the playoffs are in the cards for this season’s Rams team, but to
be honest, they don’t have to be. As a Rams
fan, I am simply looking for signs pointing to improvement which there have been
multiple so far this season not the least of which came with the 49ers games.
The past few seasons, I have found myself rooting for the
Rams to lose so that the team could fall into a better draft pick. There was hope that the Rams could continue
to get more talented players in hopes that this would solve all of the team’s
problems, but there are only so many top draft picks a team can get before they
need to produce. After a while the team
becomes little more than a collection of talent that has no idea of how to play
together and win games. In a game like
football, talent only gets you so far as we have seen for a the past few years
(although some of the draft decisions have left us wondering just how great the
talent truly is). This season has meant
something else for these Rams. This is
the season that they start to build a winning culture, not just put another
talented name on a roster. In this case,
change is so sweet.
No comments:
Post a Comment