To open last season our Rams had to travel out to San Francisco to play the Whiners. (The Rams went into that game having won 10 of the previous 12 meetings between these bitter rivals). Needless to say Rams players and fans went into this game with a ton of confidence.
The Rams lost the game 28-25 because of very poor special teams play and a very untimely interception. Our team won the coin toss and elected to receive. Rams deep man was recently acquired Chris Johnson. Whiners Joe Nedney booted the ball deep into Rams territory and it looked like the ball was heading out of bounds. Chris Johnson went to pick up the ball not realizing he had one foot inbounds and one foot out of bounds which resulted in a Rams 1st & 10 at their own 1 yard line. Bulger was able to move the offense up the field out of danger but the Rams eventually had to punt. That special teams error was the beginning of things to come. At 6:48 of the second quarter Otis Amey (who never had a return in an NFL game) returned a punt 75 yards for a touchdown. The Whiners pulled out all the stops to eventually win this game. Wide receiver Arnez battle was 2/2 passing for 27 yards on gadget plays. Whiners successfully pulled off an onside kick. With 11:32 left in the 3rd quarter the Whiners had built a 28-9 lead. Our Rams came roaring back but fell short when
Marc Bulger was intercepted at the Whiners 24 on a short pass attempt to Ike with :59 left in the game. Our Rams had clearly out played the Whiners 405 - 217 total net yards, 39:23 to 20:37 time of possession, 2 to 1 turnovers. Two areas of concern were that the Rams were 1 of 5 in the red zone and Bulger was sacked 7 times. Bottom line for this game was the poor play by special teams, missed tackles and ineffective red zone play allowed the Whiners to come away with the victory.
I hate to continue digging at old wounds. Here's a look at our home game last season at the dome. The game was played on X-MAS Eve no less. The Whiners came into the game a lousy (2-12). Some of the names have changed (Smith for Rattay; Martin for Bulger; Vitt for Martz) but the rivalry was still the same. Whiners won the game 24-20. Again, missed tackles and 2 key interceptions by the Winers put our Rams down again.
On the first play from scrimmage some guy named Maurice Hicks ran 73 yards untouched for a touchdown. Also, late in the 4th quarter (after the Rams had been stopped on a 4th and 1) the Whiners put together a 9 play 77 yard drive of which 61 of the yards were running the ball. The drive was capped off when rookie Frank Gore rambled 30 yards through missed and whiffed tackle opportunities for a touchdown. During the 4th quarter Jamie Martin was intercepted in the end zone and again at the Whiners 19 to end the game.
Although the stat sheet was closer than the first meeting of the season the Rams had outplayed the Whiners again to no avail. 389 to 321 total net yards, 32:23 to 27:37 time of possession, red zone 1-3, allowed only 1 sack but lost the turnover battle 2-0. The glaring stat from the game was the inability of the Rams D stopping the run. Whiners had 217 yards rushing to the Rams 44.
So here we go, Rams are going into the game Sunday at San Francisco having won 10 of the last 14 contests but losing the last 2.
As we all know our Rams pulled off a great win last week against a top rated Denver Broncos team. In a game controlled by both defenses and won by "MONEY". In my opinion there were a few factors going into this game that allowed the Rams a slight advantage. First and foremost they were playing at home. Second,the Broncos had no idea on what to expect from the revamped Rams D. The D created 5 turnovers with the new
Jim Haslett aggressive play calling. The Broncos were able to pull off 2 long runs, 1 by T. Bell for 39 yards the other by M. Bell for 36 yards. Neither run helped the Broncos on the scoreboard as both drives ended with a punt and an interception respectively. All in all the Broncos had 161 net yards rushing and 98 net yards passing. As we all know the glaring issue for our Rams was the ineffectiveness in the red zone (0-5). Seems kind of odd to be focusing on the great play of the Rams D.
The Whiners lost their opening game of the season at Arizona. This was a huge game for the Tards and their fans. Playing in front of a sellout crowd of 63,407 in their new $455 million dollar, air conditioned stadium. Kurt Warner (my Hero) said the atmosphere brought him back to his time with the Rams in St. Louis.
I really thought the Whiners were going to get blown out in this game with all the preseason hype on how good the Tards were going to be this season. (according to the so called experts) The Grand Opening of the new stadium, the addition of Edge etc..Well the Whiners managed to weather the storm and only lose by 7. Although the Tards controlled the clock (t.o.p. 35:02 to 24:58) the Whiners won the total net yards battle 393 to 367. 2nd year players Frank Gore and Alex Smith actually had nice games. Gore rushed for 87 yards on 16 attempts but did have a costly fumble. He also caught 6 balls for 83 yards. QB Alex Smith was 23 of 40 for 288 yards passing with 1 Touchdown pass. Edgerrin James was quoted as saying " The game was closer than it should have been. We should have knocked those dudes out of the stadium".
Finally " The Game" at Whiners
Key Injuries:
Rams- Andy McCollum (starting Center) out for the season. Replacement will either be Turner (who played well vs the Broncos for 2 1/2 quarters) or more likely Incognito.
Whiners- Larry Allen (starting LT) out for this game. Jonas Jennings (starting LG) listed as doubtful. Replacements will be a combination of Snyder,Bass and/or Wragge.
Going into this game with the confidence and momentum from the victory over the Broncos I feel very confident that our Rams will win this game handily. First of all in the Whiners vs Tards game neither defense could stop the opposing offenses. Also in my opinion the Whiners lost to an "overrated" Tards team. The Tards only sacked Alex Smith once. The most effective offensive plays in that game for the Whiners were of the misdirection variety.
(Geez I wonder if
Jim Haslett has figured that out). The Whiners will be playing without the starting left side of the O line. Haslett has stated that he's going to be moving
Leonard Little around on our D line. Haslett & LL must be licking their chops. Jake Plummer (Broncos) has always been one of the most accurate QB's in the NFL on the run or rollout, How'd that work out for him last Sunday? Alex Smith (he's no Jake Plummer) will be under an unbelievable amount of pressure with Haslett pulling out some more blitzs from his bag of tricks. I expect to see Smith rattled all day. On the Offensive side of the ball I am expecting Linehan to open it up a bit. Still concentrating on protecting the ball and field position but my goodness Kevin Curtis didn't even make the stat sheet. 0-5 in the red zone vs. a very good Broncos defense, That will change this Sunday, Bulger has 1 game of the new offense under his belt and Linehan knows his play calling in the red zone was poor. The Rams D has improved tremendously and the special teams are alot better as well, both punting and coverage team units.
PREDICTION:
This is the home opener for the Whiners so they'll be sky high to start the game. Our Rams will weather the early storm and silence the crowd with our new defensive schemes. Get used to hearing Alex Smith scrambles but is SACKED !
Rams 34 Whiners 6
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