Rams At Bears

[HoldYourHawk]

Rams looked uncomfortable all night. Gotta tip your hat to that Bears Defense. So dominant all night.

 

[Fade]

It feels like the Rams are going to have another early playoff exit again.

 

[KitsapGuy]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/NFL/status/1071982539026313217[/tweet]

 

[BigMeach]

It feels like the Rams are going to have another early playoff exit again.

This is exactly what I want them in the playoffs. They like to choke in big games.

 

[knownone]

I described this type of game happening at some point for the Rams in the Brian Schottenheimer head coaching thread (ironically). Most defenses don't have the talent to play almost exclusively in the nickel and still stop the run against the Rams. The Seahawks in 2017 did in their first game, the Rams managed just 10 points.

I think we saw a perfect illustration of how to stop the Rams offense. By being able to stop the run in the nickel the Bears kept an extra DB in the game which removed the effectiveness of a lot of the pre-snap motion and forced to Goff read coverages and make sound decisions to beat them and he couldn't.

The Bears are unique and likely the only team in NFC playoffs capable of doing that to the Rams. The problem for the Bears is that they'll likely lose should the play a team with great QB who is capable of taking a game over. I think this is good news for us as Seahawks fans. The two best QBs in the NFC are in New Orleans and Seattle.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

Rams are about to go down in the playoffs, can't wait. Bears are clearly a solid team, and the Saints are on track to get that #1 seed. No way the Lambs win at New Orleans.

 

[Ramfan128]

It feels like the Rams are going to have another early playoff exit again.

Not to me. Nobody from the wildcard round is coming to LA and winning after the week off for the Rams IMO.

Bears are a really good team. Goff was awful last week against the Lions and then came to play an even better team. But the entire offense looked terrible - this was the 2nd straight week we had to come East and it looked like it. That coupled with the cold weather...didn't look like anyone on offense wanted to play football Sunday night.

Defense was great though - Goff literally gave Chicago 5 points, so the defense only actually allowed 10.

As bad as Goff was, the real kicker (no pun intended) was the missed FG by GZ. If he makes that (and it was only 40 yards), we're down 15-9 and I'm sure we would have gotten the ball back down by that score as the defense was playing pretty well. We probably still lose, but I think it would have given the offense confidence to have the ball down by one score after all that.

The only concern for me coming off of this game is Goff, and only because it's two weeks in a row. But assuming he gets it going again, no concern losing to a really good team on the road when it's the 2nd week in a row traveling far. It was just one of those games for the offense.

 

[chris98251]

It feels like the Rams are going to have another early playoff exit again.

Not to me. Nobody from the wildcard round is coming to LA and winning after the week off for the Rams IMO.

Bears are a really good team. Goff was awful last week against the Lions and then came to play an even better team. But the entire offense looked terrible - this was the 2nd straight week we had to come East and it looked like it. That coupled with the cold weather...didn't look like anyone on offense wanted to play football Sunday night.

Defense was great though - Goff literally gave Chicago 5 points, so the defense only actually allowed 10.

As bad as Goff was, the real kicker (no pun intended) was the missed FG by GZ. If he makes that (and it was only 40 yards), we're down 15-9 and I'm sure we would have gotten the ball back down by that score as the defense was playing pretty well. We probably still lose, but I think it would have given the offense confidence to have the ball down by one score after all that.

The only concern for me coming off of this game is Goff, and only because it's two weeks in a row. But assuming he gets it going again, no concern losing to a really good team on the road when it's the 2nd week in a row traveling far. It was just one of those games for the offense.

We need to remember this post.

 

[knownone]

It feels like the Rams are going to have another early playoff exit again.

Not to me. Nobody from the wildcard round is coming to LA and winning after the week off for the Rams IMO.

Bears are a really good team. Goff was awful last week against the Lions and then came to play an even better team. But the entire offense looked terrible - this was the 2nd straight week we had to come East and it looked like it. That coupled with the cold weather...didn't look like anyone on offense wanted to play football Sunday night.

Defense was great though - Goff literally gave Chicago 5 points, so the defense only actually allowed 10.

As bad as Goff was, the real kicker (no pun intended) was the missed FG by GZ. If he makes that (and it was only 40 yards), we're down 15-9 and I'm sure we would have gotten the ball back down by that score as the defense was playing pretty well. We probably still lose, but I think it would have given the offense confidence to have the ball down by one score after all that.

The only concern for me coming off of this game is Goff, and only because it's two weeks in a row. But assuming he gets it going again, no concern losing to a really good team on the road when it's the 2nd week in a row traveling far. It was just one of those games for the offense.

We need to remember this post.

It's a decent reference post for explaining the Seahawks first two losses of the season.

We had to travel to Denver and play at high altitude and then for the 2nd week in a row travel all the way to Chicago and play the Bears. If we follow this line of thinking to its logical conclusion the Rams are actually worse than their record would indicate because their schedule was front-loaded with home games.

 

[chris98251]

It feels like the Rams are going to have another early playoff exit again.

Not to me. Nobody from the wildcard round is coming to LA and winning after the week off for the Rams IMO.

Bears are a really good team. Goff was awful last week against the Lions and then came to play an even better team. But the entire offense looked terrible - this was the 2nd straight week we had to come East and it looked like it. That coupled with the cold weather...didn't look like anyone on offense wanted to play football Sunday night.

Defense was great though - Goff literally gave Chicago 5 points, so the defense only actually allowed 10.

As bad as Goff was, the real kicker (no pun intended) was the missed FG by GZ. If he makes that (and it was only 40 yards), we're down 15-9 and I'm sure we would have gotten the ball back down by that score as the defense was playing pretty well. We probably still lose, but I think it would have given the offense confidence to have the ball down by one score after all that.

The only concern for me coming off of this game is Goff, and only because it's two weeks in a row. But assuming he gets it going again, no concern losing to a really good team on the road when it's the 2nd week in a row traveling far. It was just one of those games for the offense.

We need to remember this post.

It's a decent reference post for explaining the Seahawks first two losses of the season.

We had to travel to Denver and play at high altitude and then for the 2nd week in a row travel all the way to Chicago and play the Bears. If we follow this line of thinking to its logical conclusion the Rams are actually worse than their record would indicate because their schedule was front-loaded with home games.

Nobody from the wildcard round is coming to LA and winning after the week off for the Rams IMO.

I am referring to this, the Seahawks would relish the chance and the Rams hope to hell someone can knock us out so that don't face a team that has the defense and an offense they can't cope with well and a chip on thir shoulder.

 

[Ramfan128]

Not to me. Nobody from the wildcard round is coming to LA and winning after the week off for the Rams IMO.

Bears are a really good team. Goff was awful last week against the Lions and then came to play an even better team. But the entire offense looked terrible - this was the 2nd straight week we had to come East and it looked like it. That coupled with the cold weather...didn't look like anyone on offense wanted to play football Sunday night.

Defense was great though - Goff literally gave Chicago 5 points, so the defense only actually allowed 10.

As bad as Goff was, the real kicker (no pun intended) was the missed FG by GZ. If he makes that (and it was only 40 yards), we're down 15-9 and I'm sure we would have gotten the ball back down by that score as the defense was playing pretty well. We probably still lose, but I think it would have given the offense confidence to have the ball down by one score after all that.

The only concern for me coming off of this game is Goff, and only because it's two weeks in a row. But assuming he gets it going again, no concern losing to a really good team on the road when it's the 2nd week in a row traveling far. It was just one of those games for the offense.

We need to remember this post.

It's a decent reference post for explaining the Seahawks first two losses of the season.

We had to travel to Denver and play at high altitude and then for the 2nd week in a row travel all the way to Chicago and play the Bears. If we follow this line of thinking to its logical conclusion the Rams are actually worse than their record would indicate because their schedule was front-loaded with home games.

Nobody from the wildcard round is coming to LA and winning after the week off for the Rams IMO.

I am referring to this, the Seahawks would relish the chance and the Rams hope to hell someone can knock us out so that don't face a team that has the defense and an offense they can't cope with well and a chip on thir shoulder.

I'd probably say the same if I were you.

But the Seahawks really haven't stopped the Rams much in either game. Rams struggled to stop Seattle too, but I guess my overall point is I don't fear Seattle's D at all. Second game wasn't as close as the score, with the Rams extending Seattle's drives with stupid penalties on multiple occasions. Game would obviously not be played in Seattle.

Dallas would probably be my least desirable match up, because IMO their defense is better than Seattle, Chicago and Minnesota; and their offense with Zeke represents the best shot at doing what Atlanta did to us last year IMO.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

Yeah, watch out for that "home field advantage" in LA :177692:

 

[Ramfan128]

Yeah, watch out for that "home field advantage" in LA :177692:

It's not about that.

It's about NOT having to play in Seattle, which is one of the best home field advantages in the NFL.

Neutral field >>>>>>>>>>>>>>> playing in Seattle.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

True true, Seattle's home record in the playoffs is ridiculous. Honest question for you as a Rams fan, what the heck happened in that last game? 4 picks for Goff???? I think we can safely say the Bears are a really good team. But holding the Rams to 6 points?? That's crazy.

 

[Ramfan128]

True true, Seattle's home record in the playoffs is ridiculous. Honest question for you as a Rams fan, what the heck happened in that last game? 4 picks for Goff???? I think we can safely say the Bears are a really good team. But holding the Rams to 6 points?? That's crazy.

First, I'm lower on Goff than many Rams fans. I think he's a good player - possibly the 9th or 10th best QB in the NFL - but not even close to an MVP candidate like some people were ridiculously saying earlier in the year. QBs are hard to judge - you guys here are proof of that. Some fans go to great lengths to defend them, others go to great lengths to bash them and it's hard to figure out who is being truly honest in their assessments. Too many Rams fans have anointed Goff as an elite QB when he's nowhere near that yet. I'm still in the camp of keeping this loaded roster together and replacing Goff once his rookie deal is up, although I know it won't happen.

The 6 points itself isn't too surprising, since Minnesota held us to 7 in our worst game last year. Especially factoring in the weather - it seemed to play a huge part in both offenses, and Chicago was at home and made more plays defensively. We've really only played one full game since we lost Kupp for the year, and it was the game against KC - after that game, we had the bye, and then two really bad offensive games against the Lions and Bears. I think he's one of the best WRs in the NFL, but doesn't get the crazy numbers because of all the weapons we have. We miss him pretty badly IMO.

But specifically this last game, I just don't think the Rams offense even showed up - I don't know why, but there were so many uncharacteristic things on offense. The OL seemed to get beat more often than usual, Gurley looked slower, Reynolds had a few drops. Goff was obviously way off. I think it's just one of those games where you look back and say what the hell was that? In a vacuum, we can just burn the tape - we seem to have three bad teams to close out the season, so hopefully we can take care of business. But I'd be lying if I said Goff's back to back poor performances didn't have me somewhat concerned - I just have to hope that he's the guy who played the first 11 games this year and not the past 2.

I was extremely happy with the defense though. Trubisky isn't a great QB, but that's two games in a row where the defense played really well.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

Yeah, football is a trip. Every team has off games no doubt. Shoot, even the Saints looked bad on offense a couple weeks back and a good portion of the game Sunday. Russ had his worst passing game, yardage wise in his entire career on Monday. It happens.

 

[Fade]

True true, Seattle's home record in the playoffs is ridiculous. Honest question for you as a Rams fan, what the heck happened in that last game? 4 picks for Goff???? I think we can safely say the Bears are a really good team. But holding the Rams to 6 points?? That's crazy.

First, I'm lower on Goff than many Rams fans. I think he's a good player - possibly the 9th or 10th best QB in the NFL - but not even close to an MVP candidate like some people were ridiculously saying earlier in the year. QBs are hard to judge - you guys here are proof of that. Some fans go to great lengths to defend them, others go to great lengths to bash them and it's hard to figure out who is being truly honest in their assessments. Too many Rams fans have anointed Goff as an elite QB when he's nowhere near that yet. I'm still in the camp of keeping this loaded roster together and replacing Goff once his rookie deal is up, although I know it won't happen.

The 6 points itself isn't too surprising, since Minnesota held us to 7 in our worst game last year. Especially factoring in the weather - it seemed to play a huge part in both offenses, and Chicago was at home and made more plays defensively. We've really only played one full game since we lost Kupp for the year, and it was the game against KC - after that game, we had the bye, and then two really bad offensive games against the Lions and Bears. I think he's one of the best WRs in the NFL, but doesn't get the crazy numbers because of all the weapons we have. We miss him pretty badly IMO.

But specifically this last game, I just don't think the Rams offense even showed up - I don't know why, but there were so many uncharacteristic things on offense. The OL seemed to get beat more often than usual, Gurley looked slower, Reynolds had a few drops. Goff was obviously way off. I think it's just one of those games where you look back and say what the hell was that? In a vacuum, we can just burn the tape - we seem to have three bad teams to close out the season, so hopefully we can take care of business. But I'd be lying if I said Goff's back to back poor performances didn't have me somewhat concerned - I just have to hope that he's the guy who played the first 11 games this year and not the past 2.

I was extremely happy with the defense though. Trubisky isn't a great QB, but that's two games in a row where the defense played really well.

Scheme wise the Bears shut down the outside zone run the Rams heavily lean on from Nickel Personnel.

The Bears got to have their cake and eat it too. The Rams rape teams with playaction & the pass if the opponent is in Base. Then when teams go Nickle they cram it down team's throats with Gurley on outside zone runs.

Shutdown the outside zone without having to sellout to do it. You shutdown the Rams. Much easier said than done though.

The Bears could play coverage in Nickel, and still stop the run. Very hard to do, you need top flight personnel on the D-Line & LBer to accomplish this. The Bears & Cowboys are pretty much the only teams at this juncture in the NFC that can do this. Though I would like to see the Seahawks get another crack at it in the playoffs.