Does anyone remember why we lost the 1st 2 games of the season?

We lost to the Panthers and then the Whiners at home no less! But why?

OP went down, and there were costly fumbles in both games (Holt & Jackson).

I dont know what really happened with the SF game. But Carolina was a strong team when we played them. I thought I would see them in the playoffs until Delhomme (cant spell) went out with an injury.

Carolina-OP went down, and the "gameplan" for the game involved a hyper-conservative ball protection scheme that screamed "play not to lose" as opposed to "play to win".

San Fran-variety of problems and brain farts from multiple parties, including Holt-but Linny didn't help matters by choosing to kick a very long range figgie instead of going for it at 4th and 2.

For the record I am not a member of SLOP, but the 1st two losses land squarely on Linehan and Olsen.


Carolina game: Rams were up 10 to 7 at the half and got another field goal in the beginning of the 3rd quarter. Then the Rams went scoreless while the Panthers torched the Defense for 20 points and the win.

That's the how. The why?... that's easy- Steussie (backup LT) was never replaced b/c LinehOlsen wanted 15 frickin TE's. Then when Pace went down (again), no one was prepared to take his place. Bad team preparation and leadership by the offensive and head coaches if you ask me.


****** game: Now this one I remember well, cuz I was there with my buddy who's a ****** fan. I know I know, I'd call him my best friend, but like I said.... ****** fan, so he remains only a buddy. Anyway, the Rams finally looked like they were playing hard. I noticed a bit more desire and hard playing by the Rams players and they looked their part of a divisional game.
Again, the score in this one was 13 to 7 in the 3rd quarter. Defense looked real good and was holding off the ****** decently, but that's when Holt fumbled into the endzone and out of bounds to end a beautiful Rams drive. ****** scored a TD off that turnover to take a 1 point lead.
In the 4th quarter, Wilkins booted the go ahead 3 pointer. We were going nuts in the stands and making as much noise as possible as ****** tried to get the lead back. Amazingly, the Rams D stepped it up and ended a long ******drive. ****** punted it to Rams who only had to keep possession for a few minutes or so.... BUT Dante Hall fumbled the punt and the ****** recovered in the red zone. Again, defense stepped up and niners had to settle for a FG for the lead.
You may remember that then, Losehan had the Rams scrambling way too much for a 1-point game. Went for it on 4th down and didn't get it. Then Defense stopped 'em again, but Losehan showed his inexperience and after a critical 1st down, instead of using the time they had to get a play off, spiked to stop the clock even though over a minute remained! Then we blew two plays and Losehan left Wilkins with a 56-yard field goal, which I can attest was seriously only a foot and a half short. ***** ran the minute off and Rams lost.

Sorry for the narrative, but as you can see, I was pretty scarred by that debacle against the lowly ******.

SO, there's the how the Rams lost. The reason......??? that's easy- "LinehOlsen" failed to lead the team- which resulted in a terrible 2nd half Rams offense where Holt and Hall's fumbles put the Rams behind, and the coaches couldn't cope with leading a team in that position.

As the post above mentioned, Carolina lit us up in the second half. They were clearly the better team in the second half.

We lead in a few other games at first, then got torched the second half. OUR TEAM NEEDS TO BE HEALTHY. We lost the majority of the games in the second half.

wow, that recap of the whiiners game was exactly right. It hurt to recall it.

That was a terrible loss. We should have won. We knew that because this team could not punch the ball in for TD's, and we instead a would get FG's, we were up only by 6 (13-7) in both games. A very vulnerable lead. Gotta punch in for 7.

Beginning of Season (games 1-2):

Linehan: Not getting this team ready for the regular season
Red zone production: (also a problem in Pre-season)
Steven Jackson: not playing in pre-season, then fumbles game 1 away.
Bulger: rusty, rythm QB who needs mucho playing time in pre-season to get rolling.
Offensive strategy: playing to "not lose". would have never happened under Martz.

Games 3-8: Injuries
Games 8-16: This is about the team we have. went 3-5.

Defensive collapses: A problem, but possibly would not happen if the offensive production did not come to a stand still in the second halfs.

I just remember costly turnovers killing us in those first few games. That killed the momentum on offense, and the defense wound up on the field way too long.

Fakhir Brown being out the first four games did not help either. Pace going down hurt. At the begining of the season Olsen was calling offensive plays he had some blame. Haslett I am sure had some fault while he was trying to sort out what he had. I am sure Linehan had some fault in game planning. I am sure there was alot of in game changes by both coordinators Olsen and Haslett as they figured out what they really had. We also had some new players finding there way Leonard, Carriker, Wade all rooks and McMichael, Bennett, Hall, and Wrotten(some expected to start). Some of those guys never found there way.

I remember watching the San Fran game as the Rams seemed to have the game going their way. Then Holt fumbles the ball out of the end zone and I said to myself "This is one of those moments that changes a game. We're gonna lose now."

It also changed a season. Yes, injuries and bad coaching killed the season. But ugly wins are better than close losses any day. Rattle off one win early on, the confidence may be there to rattle of another. When you don't win until you're 9th game of the season, you confidence is shot.

I'm not blaming the season on Torry Holt at all. Injuries, bad coaching, Frerotte are all legit reasons. But who knows what the butterfly effect of a 1-1 record would be.

We played not to lose in those games. Period. End of story. When you play not to lose, you lose.

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Originally Posted by KoaKoi

For the record I am not a member of SLOP, but the 1st two losses land squarely on Linehan and Olsen.

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The statement above surprises me. I am not only a member but I'm the founder of SLAP. I'm also a realist.

Carolina game- Jacksons back to back fumbles cost us the game.
Whiners game- Holt and Dante' Hall cost us the game. We shouldn't have been scrambling down by 1 at the end of that game.

:r:l

Can't wait for 2008

Quote:

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Originally Posted by PeoriaRam

but Linny didn't help matters by choosing to kick a very long range figgie instead of going for it at 4th and 2.

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I couldn't agree more. When I saw the FG team trotting out on the field, I said, "Wow, Linehan is an idiot." We were moving the ball pretty well up to that point also. Wilkins never seemed to recover from that miss either. It dropped us to 0-2 record-wise, 0-2 at home, and 0-1 in the division. That was the turning point in the season and it was mostly due to a lack of courage and fortitude by our leader. Even if we make the long FG, we're kicking the ball back to the Whiners with over a minute left on the clock and only needing a FG to win.

we lost because there was a 3rd and 4th quarter. stupid 2nd half!!

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Originally Posted by txramsfan

We played not to lose in those games. Period. End of story. When you play not to lose, you lose.

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Eureka I have it maybe we should play not to win and we will win.
:)