0 comments by Will Horton on 9/26/2013
In the fourth quarter of every St Louis Rams home game, Al Pacino tells us that football is a game of inches. His famous speech from Any Given Sunday is played on the video board, and we are exhorted to "fight for that inch." Against the San Fransisco 49ers, that couldn't be more apropos. The […]
0 comments by Will Horton on 9/24/2013
We are the 71%. We are the team that turns every opposing quarterback into a Hall of Fame thrower. We are the team that you can bank on for somebody's career day each and every week, whether it's Carson Palmer, Julio Jones, or DeMarco Murray. We. Are. Soft. This is not the identity that St […]
0 comments by Will Horton on 9/22/2013
The last time Demarco Murray faced St Louis, he was a relative unknown. But then he turnstyled the entire Rams defense while shoving Emmitt Smith aside in the Dallas Cowboys record books. You're forgiven if you thought this Rams team would be different. You're forgiven if you believed the hype. I did too. But now, […]
0 comments by Will Horton
This weekend's game against the Dallas Cowboys presents another big road test for the up and coming St Louis Rams. The Cowboys look like an improved team compared to previous Jason Garrett teams, but are still a fragile unit that is vulnerable at home. No team in the Garrett era has finished better than 5-3 […]
0 comments by Will Horton on 9/16/2013
Call this team the road crew. They dig a hole, try to fill it up, and move on to the next stretch of road. Last week the hole was 11 points deep in the fourth quarter; this week they dug themselves a 21-0 hole on the road, and found themselves in over their heads. Like […]
0 comments by Will Horton on 9/14/2013
No quarterback faced more pressure in week 1 than the Falcons' Matt Ryan. Meanwhile, the Rams' Robert Quinn racked up three sacks and NFL Defensive Player of the Week honors in week 1. I like where this story is going already. Photo by Rick Stewart / Getty Images The Rams will face a formidable test […]
0 comments by Will Horton on 9/13/2013
Jared Cook is a five-year veteran, 26 years old, and, before his two (but should’ve been three) touchdown, 6237-yard explosion in Week 1 against the Arizona Cardinals, an overlooked run-of-the-mill tight end. For the first four years of his career, Cook persevered in Tennessee, week to week through the treacherous Vince Young/Kerry Collins/Matt Hasselbeck/Jake Locker […]
0 comments by Will Horton on 9/12/2013
"Battered quarterback syndrome (BQS)." Symptoms include jumpy feet, erratic throws and frustrated WRs unable to complete their routes before the whistle blows dead. Once the diagnosis is made, few have recovered. Sam Bradford is one of those few. In his first home preseason game in 2010, the Minnesota Vikings sacked Bradford 8 times in one […]
0 comments by Will Horton on 9/9/2013
The most memorable play of the game wasn't the one that won the game, but it was an emblem of so many things. The St Louis Rams' dangerous new weapon, Jared Cook, came open in the seam with acres of green in front of him. And as he will do as often as he can, […]
0 comments by Will Horton on 9/7/2013
Suddenly, there are stakes. It has been a long time since there have been legitimate, justifiable expectations for winning Rams football, and you can tell St Louis doesn’t really know how to act. The local history of relevant professional football boils down to two blips: the too-brief Air Coryell days of the late 70s, and […]
0 comments by Will Horton on 8/30/2013
First off, a confession: I didn't watch the Rams' fourth preseason game. I'm not one of those people that pooh-poohs the value of the preseason, but that last week is often a gruesome spectacle with few starters and little resemblance to actual football. That said, we can perform a little archaeological dig through the remains […]
0 comments by Will Horton on 8/29/2013
Found a fun little infographic polling tool last night called Poptip, and decided to use it to chart some fan opinions heading into the 2013 season. Turns out you get three free questions before the account people come and get you, so here are the three hottest-burning questions in my mind, and your responses. If […]
0 comments by Will Horton on 8/25/2013
Jeff Fisher has a plan for the Rams, and it revolves around raw young players with unique athletic gifts. If you give these athletes lots of playing time, you hopefully accelerate their ability to reach their potential. Three weeks into the preseason, we're seeing it happen with rookies Tavon Austin, Alec Ogletree, TJ McDonald, and […]
0 comments by Will Horton on 8/18/2013
The St Louis Rams' home opener vs the Green Bay Packers was treated as little more than a padded practice by Jeff Fisher and the coaching staff, but even with low expectations the level of execution – or lack of it – was irksome for the paying fans in attendance. It was a sloppy contest […]
0 comments by Will Horton on 8/15/2013
Just like every other quarterback (and to a greater extent, every professional athlete), Sam Bradford can’t control the professional expectations hovering over his head every second of every day. He can’t control his team’s decision to stick by his side while Robert Griffin III patiently waited behind Door #1. He can’t control that the six-year, […]
