Eight games for the Rams have passed and let’s just say, we’re halfway through hell. The injury plagued, undisciplined, thick-minded Rams somehow have scraped up three wins, all in “Ram fashion.”
The mayor of sack city has arrived
It took Rob Quinn until week seven to record his first sack of the 2014 NFL season, but I think it’s now safe to say that the Mayor of Sack City has arrived. Quinn led the NFC in sacks a season ago with 19 while in route to breaking the Rams’ single season franchise sack record. Originally I was going to criticize the Rams for their poor pass rush this season after wrapping up 53 total sacks a season ago, but they finally decided to show up in week nine. The Rams entire defense had just six sacks entering last week’s game at San Francisco. They tallied eight sacks on Sunday, two by Quinn, to more than double their season total. The sack outbreak led the Rams to a 13-10 win vs the 49ers after slipping up at home against San Francisco earlier in the season on Monday Night Football.
In Austin Davis we trust
As we knew coming into the regular season, quarterback Sam Bradford had torn his ACL once again, and it would be all up to veteran backup quarterback Shaun Hill to be the Rams savior in 2014. Just as Ram fans were posting “In Shaun Hill we trust” on social media, he was quickly hampered by a calf injury in the first half of the opening game against Minnesota. Enter Austin Davis.
The undrafted third-year, triple back-up quarterback who had been cut by the Rams and then brought back on to the squad a year ago when Bradford went down with his first ACL tear. The Southern Miss alum, who broke every single one of Brett Favre’s records as a Golden Eagle, has had his ups and downs this year. He earned his first career win in his first career start in week two at Tampa Bay and showed glimpses of hope early on in the season. Davis threw for over 325 yards and three touchdowns in two straight losses against the Cowboys and Eagles, but has not eclipsed 160 passing yards in the past three games despite having a 2-1 record in those games.
Defenses are starting to figure Davis out as he was held to just 105 yards in the win last week at San Francisco in one of the sloppiest games of the season for St. Louis. Is he the quarterback of the future? God, I sure hope not.
All aboard the injury train
It started with Sam, and unfortunately it didn’t end with him either. The Rams have racked up a number of injuries so far this season and most of them have been to key players. Defensive End Chris Long went down in week one with an ankle injury and will most likely not return until week 11. St. Louis has also been devastated at cornerback as Trumaine Johnson went down in week two with a knee injury but returned to action last week against San Francisco and the other starting cornerback Janoris Jenkins sat out last week with a knee injury as well that he hurt against Kansas City.
The cornerback injuries have forced two rookies, EJ Gaines and Marcus Roberson, into temporary starting roles but both Johnson and Jenkins should be back starting this week at Arizona.
Other big injuries for the Rams both occurred against Kansas City when the Rams number one wide receiver Brian Quick went down with a torn rotator cuff and will be out for the season. This opens up a new alley way to Kenny Britt who was signed from Tennessee in the offseason but has not done much yet in St. Louis.
Another key injury that happened in the Kansas City game was losing left tackle Jake Long for the year to an ACL tear. With this being Long’s second ACL tear in three years it will open up a spot for the number two overall pick in the draft this past season, Greg Robinson. Robinson had been starting at left guard for the past couple of weeks and earned his first career start against San Francisco at left tackle.
Hello LA?
With open land sitting in LA under St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke’s name and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell wanting to place a team in LA the future of the St. Louis Rams doesn’t look very bright. Hopefully the Rams can gut it out and stay in St. Louis but it’s hard to make a case for the Rams to stay when you look around the dome on Sunday to find it only 70 percent full. Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon has just launched a plan to try to keep the Rams in St. Louis, which included a plan to build a new stadium to try and keep the Rams in St. Louis for a long time. Regardless, if the Rams don’t win football games then it will be extremely tough to keep them in town.
