The Morning Aftermath: St. Louis Rams

Before kickoff I decided I was going to root for the Rams. Then at around 4:45 I somewhat changed my mind. Charlie Whitehurst was announced as starter at 5:30 and my interest was slowly raised but no optimistic after that awful showing in Tampa. Then he threw a 61 yard pass to Ruvell Martin and at that point my rationality was gone, I was jumping like a maniac, and my hatred for the St. Louis Rams and desire to make the playoffs overrode my belief this team needs to pile up high draft picks. Now I'm just rooting for them to be competitive against the Saints and to give me reason to be hopeful for 2011. After Seattle's win I realized the best part of this outcome - the return of TMA. I stopped it after a relatively weak edition for the first win against Arizona, didn't do it for the 2nd Cards win or the Panthers win because they had suffered enough, but now that the Rams are respectable again it's time for this bad boy to be revived. Usual format of in-game comments, post-game thoughts, and if I'm lucky some Youtube footage of fans eating crow.

All of the following in-game comments come from Turf Show Times....

In-Game: Whitehurst to Ruvell Martin

WHAT THE FUCK WE CUT HIM LIKE 3 TIMES AND FUCK YOU DOCKERY

WTF ARE YOU DOING DAHL?

you've got to be kidding me.

hes supposd to be on our team

In-Game: Will Herring Gets Interception

and then that happens

holy shit bradford

fuck pete carroll

bradfords like i dont want offensive rookie of the year you can have it

and I had tickets to the playoff game

Comment of the Game: Laurent Robinson Dropping Passes

Such BS. Robinson seriously need to get anally raped by an elephant. -mrgenious

Post-Game: RamView

What the hell was that? Seriously, what the hell was that? The Rams picked the biggest game of the season to turn in their most disappointing performance of the season, a 16-6 fiasco of a loss to an awful Seattle team. Neither of these teams deserved to be in the playoffs, but the Rams, whose preparation for tonight’s game looked about as good as the Hindenburg’s fire escape plan, proved that they deserved it less, bringing a nice season to a lousy ending.

What a rotten night to be Sam Bradford (19-36-144, 52.4 PR). Biggest game of your young life and the coaching staff decides to stick you back in the five-yard offensive fishbowl like it was your first preseason game all over again. I think Bradford threw one pass – one! – in the first half that traveled more than ten yards through the air downfield, and it was incomplete.

Pressure wasn’t bad on Bradford most of the game, but the gameplan sure was. Probably anticipating the Rams’ dinking binge, Seattle paid extra attention to Amendola and kept tightening their coverage until the Rams got the sense to throw over it, which took three quarters. Meanwhile, as a by-product of Seattle’s anti-dinking crusade, Bradford got so many passes knocked down or deflected, at least a half dozen, you started to wonder if he was actually 4’6" instead of 6’4". When the Rams finally let Bradford unleash the fury, very late in the 3rd, nothing went right. Danario Alexander blew catches on a couple of perfect long balls. Fells failed to make a tough catch on yet another tipped ball. Three straight painful three-and-outs allowed Seattle to move ahead 13-6, and they put it away after a terrible interception late in the game, with Bradford desperately throwing a dumb pass into double coverage for a not-remotely-open Gibson. Seattle goes up 16-6, Bradford about gets killed by his offensive line in the last 2:00, end season. And so Sam Bradford ends a terrific season with a game he’d rather not remember, though other than the awful late INT, he shouldn’t draw much blame for this loss. It’s not that the Rams coaching staff didn’t trust him; basically, they took the ball out of Steven Jackson’s hands and had Bradford throw 36 times. It’s just that more than a handful of those passes need to travel farther than five yards downfield. - Mike from Rams Gab on St. Louis' disastrous offensive night.

Post-Game: Sleepy in Seattle

The Rams playing their most important game in six years picked a bad night to play their worst game of the year. I don't believe any Rams team member was without fault tonight. Steve Spagnuolo failed to challenge a couple of calls and again seemed to have the handcuffs on the Rams offense. Pat Shurmur was less than imaginative. I believe every Rams receiver dropped a pass, none bigger than a bomb to Danario Alexander with 10 minutes to play and the Rams trailing 13-6. Alexander let the ball go right threw his hands at the Seattle 20 yard line. Sam Bradford was less than stellar going 19 of 36 for a meager 155 yards and one terrible interception with the Rams down 7 in the 4th quarter. On defense Craig Dahl and Chris Long easily had their worst games of the year. Long was absolutely manhandled for three hours while Dahl missed a ton of open field tackles. The Seahawks who came into the game dead last in rushing yards were able to run for 141 yards against the Rams many of those to the right, through the hole mainly vacated by Chris Long. On offense the Rams had seven 3-and-out drives, ran 54 plays for 184 total yards. Just a sad way to end a very surprising season. - Stlvinnie from St. Louis Ram Fan also grumbling about St. Louis' tentative and inept play.

Post-Game: Eating Crow

The Paulyseed Ram Sized Crow 2011 (via paulyseed)

Okay. I'm done. I don't have any more thoughts to add and I'm sorta tired. If by some miracle we beat the Saints I'm sure the reactions across the country would be legendary.