Really Crazy Thoughts....

My end-of-season thoughts

by RamsFanSam

Today is the last day of 2006, the last time we will be able to watch our Rams play until next August. Seven months of drudgery, occasionally broken up by things like the Pro Bowl, Draft, free agency, and speculation.

To explain it in a different way, imagine this, if you will:

You LOVE chocolate shakes from McDonald's. (I know, it's a stretch, but bear with me, please.) Since the manager at Mickey D's knows you love chocolate shakes, and since you have been such a good, loyal customer, he gives you a card that entitles you to unlimited free chocolate shakes any time you want one. You could go get one 10 times a day if you wished.

For a while, you go every day. Soon, just a couple of times a week. Then, you only go to get that free shake once a week. They are free, so it's not as big of a deal as it once was, but you still enjoy it.

One day, you walk in, and the manager tells you that McDonald's has taken chocolate shakes off the menu, and it will be seven months before there will be any more served.

When you hear those words, you begin to panic. You can't live without those chocolate shakes. How will you survive? You'll try to find substitutes. You'll go to Burger King, or Wendy's, or Baskin-Robbins, but it's not the same.

Then, the day comes, and the shakes are back. It's still a Mickey D's chocolate shake, but the ingredients are a bit different. Soon, you find you are as hooked on them as you were the year before.

I want my chocolate shake! (Rams Football!)

This year, to change Charles Dicken's words, it was the best of teams, it was the worst of teams.

Why am I posting my not-quite-awake-yet thoughts? One reason - we did not have a team that was playoff caliber this year. We do have a team that is as good as the NFC West champions. We, if we win today, will have a firm hold on second place. We will have, once again, established ourselves above the whiners and Cards.

And, we have only one team in our way.

This year is over. Next season belongs to the Rams. Bank on it.
- Channel: RAMS NATION TALK
-12-31-2006, 08:30 AM
20 Random Pre-Opening Day Thoughts

by AvengerRam_old

1. The Rams have a favorable early schedule, with an opportunity to get some road wins against some very beatable opponents. If the Rams can win 5 of their first 6, they will be in a position to go 11-5 merely by winning out at home from there.

2. I'm looking forward to seeing the full "Steven Jackson" effect. We've seen how he can impact the game in small doses in preseason. I want to see how he looks running against a tired defense in the last 10 minutes of a game.

3. The Rams need to continue blitzing early and often. If the Rams can force turnovers like they did in 2003, they'll be tough to beat.

4. Chris Claiborne will be in the Pro Bowl this year. You heard it here first.

5. At some point this season, Mike Martz will be accused by the national media of running up a score.

6. Did you notice that of all the big name players that held out, the only ones who seem to have failed to get new contracts are Drew Rosenhaus' clients (T.O., Javon Walker).

7. Non-football Note: My father, who is a 65 year old semi-retired physician (he's now a Med School Prof.) is in the Gulf region assisting a medical team. This is the second year in a row he's aided Hurricane victims. I'll never be the hero he is.

8. There will be times that Marshall Faulk will be a major part of the Rams' success.

9. There will be times he sits on the sideline for most of a game, and he won't look happy about it.

10. The Special Teams should take the Hypocratic Oath - "First, do no harm."

11. On the radio, I heard a commentator claiming that Jerry Rice was the best football player ever. I disagree. The best players I've ever seen: Walter Payton and Lawrence Taylor.

12. A while ago, I gave a plug for University of Miami's newest TE, Greg Olsen. Though the Canes lost tonight, he started his campaign with a 8 reception, 137 yard night.

13. I think Mike Martz is smart to pull back advanced rookies like Claude Terrell and Jerome Carter and not put them in the opening day starting lineup. Don't be shocked, though, if either or both is starting by the end of the year.

14. I still have great hope for Alex Barron.

15. I kind of wish Alex Smith were starting this year.

16. Only two cuts really surprised me: Michael Stone and Joey Goodspeed.

17. How can you not like Mike Furrey? The guy fought his way onto the team, and now has remade himself into a safety to make the team.

18. The Red Zone offense will be vastly improved this year.

19. For all those new members - Welcome to the Clan!

20. For all the diehards who have stuck around all offseason - FINALLY!!! SOME REAL FOOTBALL!!!
- Channel: RAMS NATION TALK
-09-05-2005, 11:07 PM
Martz has fans waiting to see if Rams respond

by RamWraith

By Bryan Burwell
Of the Post-Dispatch
Sunday, Nov. 14 2004

It sure has been some wild and wacky week right here in the River City, hasn't
it? First our favorite gray-haired football eccentric goes all Norman Vincent
Peale on us - not once, but TWICE this week - in a very public
effort to make friends and influence football players.

"We don't hold hands and get in a seance and sing Kumbaya. I'm not into
that. ... You're on the train or you're not. Get out, period. I know where I'm
going, you're either with me or you're not."

-Mike Martz

So now that Mike Martz has thrown down another verbal gauntlet to a world full
of doubters - and in the process minimizing the importance of really good, old
fashioned campfire songs - here we are again in a very familiar place. The Rams
are in another do-or-die situation as the Seattle Seahawks come to the Edward
Jones Dome with supremacy of the NFC West at stake. And once again Martz has us
all on the edge of our seats, intrigued with how his football team will respond
to his urgent words.

Will they take to heart his warnings that this 4-4 season is at a crossroads
and treat this game as though it is a desperate playoff game? Will they be
inspired by his angry words and use them as emotional fuel to turn what has
been a half-season of mediocrity into a strong second-half run to the
postseason?

"This is a game of attitude, pure and simple. This is not about ability,
it never has been, never will be. Everybody in this league has got ability to
play. Everybody's talented. Everybody's fast, everybody's big, everybody's
strong. If you think that's the difference, you're sorely mistaken. This is
purely a game of attitude."

Martz was a man on fire this week, from his Monday afternoon rant when he said
he was tired of "taking bullets" for underachieving players, to his
inspirational, but exceedingly short Wednesday press briefing when he continued
to challenge the players, then made them go through a full-contact scrimmage.
He was so fired up as he stormed out of the news conference that by the time he
marched onto the practice field, he was stalking around the field from one
group of players to another. Martz looked like an emotional volcano. He looked
like a man itching for a fight. He looked like a guy who was almost begging to
find just one half-stepping player.

"I am not happy with how we are playing period, regardless of a division
race or anything else. I think the way we have played in the last two games is
embarrassing. Not so much, whether you win or lose the game, just the way we
play the game,...
- Channel: RAMS NATION TALK
-11-13-2004, 08:04 PM
Attitude Adjustment

by Yodude

Rams Set Sights on Attitude Adjustment
Wednesday, November 10, 2004

By Nick Wagoner
Staff Writer

With perhaps the most important game of the season at hand, the Rams are making changes in many areas. There might be some changes to the personnel, maybe a few tweaks to the gameplan, but the one area where a change is almost certain is clear: attitude.

St. Louis has lost its past two games, losing a shot to open a comfortable lead in the NFC West Division. Rams coach Mike Martz said he has not been pleased with the team�s performance recently and things need to change, not just in scheme and personnel, but on the mental side also.

�This is a game of attitude, pure and simple,� Martz said. �This is not about ability, it never has been, never will be. Everybody in this league has got ability to play. Everybody�s talented. Everybody�s fast, everybody�s big, everybody�s strong. If you think that�s the difference, you�re sorely mistaken. This is purely a game of attitude.�

Essentially, the Rams need to toughen up to get a win Sunday. That is easier said than done against a Seattle team that doesn�t need a long memory to get fired up for this game. Rewind to the Oct. 10 meeting between the teams and you will find one of the best comebacks in NFL history, as St. Louis bounced back from a 17-point deficit to claim a stunning 33-27 overtime win. Actually, don�t rewind anything; Martz said he doesn�t need to watch any film to get excited for a game.

�I don�t need to look at a tape to get energized,� Martz said. �Not me, I don�t have to look at a tape to go to a happy place to get energized. That�s not who I am, sorry.�

With so much at stake this week, the thoughts of that game should be the furthest thing from the Rams� collective mind. This game could be the defining game of the division this season. The Seahawks are 5-3, but have two losses in the division. The Rams are 4-4, but undefeated in the division.

A win puts St. Louis firmly in control of the division and gives it an inside track to the playoffs. A loss could severely damage a team that is reeling and needs a win, not just to keep pace in the playoff hunt, but also to build some much-needed confidence.

Nobody is giving up hope on the season, yet. There is plenty of season left, but the sense of urgency is certainly at its peak. Martz said the time has come for some of the younger players to make an impact.

�I would expect us to come out and compete better,� Martz said. �I think that�s what I would expect, as a football team. We have core guys we can hang our hat on. You can get them up in the middle of the night, go out and practice and you�ll get all they got. What we are trying to do is get the rest of the guys up to that level. We were there for awhile and we fell off a little bit in a couple of key areas.�

There could...
- Channel: RAMS NATION TALK
-11-10-2004, 06:05 PM
The Fire Within

by Guest

THE FIRE WITHIN

Congruence: The relationship between your words and your actions.
Or
Walk your talk.

Talent is necessary however motivation is the fire that begins from a smoldering ember. Without fanning the ember into a flame, that ember will continue to smolder. The Rams have shown a smoldering ember that is capable of roaring into a bonfire. This was apparent in the final minutes of the Seattle game, in San Diego two years ago and against San Francisco in the final Monday Night football game of that same season.

So what fanned those flames into bonfires within each of the players on those days? My guess is embarrassment. Embarrassed due to being apart of a grossly underachieving team.

What fanned the flames of the New England Patriots when they upset the heavily favored Rams in the Superbowl? My guess is urgency.

I also theorize that someone on that team (Probably Belichick) saw the urgency and implored that urgency throughout the entire squad.

It seems that Mike Martz has recently discovered that talent alone is not enough. It took the Rams to drop to the parity level as far as talent before he emphasized the importance of getting his team up for games.

Only after the loss in Miami did he come out and talk about intensity with intensity. I don�t know if anyone else has realized this but the recent articles from the Post Dispatch along with �Martz on the Mike�have shown a noticeable escalation in Martz talking about being up and ready for games.

It looks as if he has discovered a new tool in coaching and is now going through the adolescent stages of applying it.

What I am refering to when I say "adolescent stages" is hitting on Wednesday before the Seahawk game which to Mike Martz is what fanned the ember into a flame.

I think Martz believed that it was the hitting that motivated the team. I believe it was more then that. I think the team was responding to Martz�s intensity more then the hitting itself and that intensity is what carried over into the game against Seattle.

My feeling is that Martz may have put to much emphasis on the hitting and never realized that it was his own intensity and urgency that fanned the ember into a roaring fire.

In sum Mike Martz may have had the illusion that all he had to do to get his team up was hit on Wednesday; not realizing the intensity he himself brought on the prior Week.

I know there are a lot of fans here on the board that measure everything by wins and losses. This was oh so very apparent during the Warner Bulger debates. At that time, I was not compelled to look at the W/L column to base my feelings on. I saw a very good QB that looked to be getting a bum rap and I saw another QB that had great potential who probably felt as bad for Warner as anyone did.

What...
- Channel: RAMS NATION TALK
-11-23-2004, 06:24 AM

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