How will the "New" Rams handle L.A.?

[kearly]

The Rams got to benefit from some 10am games against West coast division opponents every year, and that won't be the case any more. And while LA has very good weather, there is definitely a difference between playing in a dome and playing outdoors on grass.

But in terms of the city impacting the team, I wouldn't expect that. I'm sure the first game (against Seattle) will be a rockin' sellout since it is the first meaningful NFL game in LA in two decades, but once the initial buzz settles down I think L.A. will prove once again to be a surprisingly quiet sports market. Maybe it's because there's already so much to do in L.A. but for whatever reason the city has always cultivated a fairly passive fanbase for all their sports franchises.

 

[Ramfan128]

The Rams got to benefit from some 10am games against West coast division opponents every year, and that won't be the case any more. And while LA has very good weather, there is definitely a difference between playing in a dome and playing outdoors on grass.

But in terms of the city impacting the team, I wouldn't expect that. I'm sure the first game (against Seattle) will be a rockin' sellout since it is the first meaningful NFL game in LA in two decades, but once the initial buzz settles down I think L.A. will prove once again to be a surprisingly quiet sports market. Maybe it's because there's already so much to do in L.A. but for whatever reason the city has always cultivated a fairly passive fanbase for all their sports franchises.

I disagree...the Rams played division opponents tough at home and on the road, and I think the 10am is way overblown. These guys are world class athletes that have worked out early in the morning their entire lives. The travel is what impacts teams more than anything IMO. I haven't heard a single west coast team complain about the start time of games - seems like something fans like to use as an excuse more than anything.

And regarding LA and football - lots of people seem to think that it will be like last time, but fail to acknowledge how much the NFL has grown in popularity over the past 22 years. Fantasy football alone has taken the NFL to a whole new level, and there are more opposing fans than ever going to NFL games just because it's the thing to do. On top of that, there are a ton of Rams fans left over from before....and now with the new ones that will be made, the fan base in LA will easily be more plentiful than last time.

 

[Sterling Archer]

Multiple west coast teams have brought up the 10AM thing in the past - including at owner's meetings. Not that anything has been or likely ever will be done to correct the issue, but it's a known problem.

You don't know about it because your team has never had to deal with it, but there have been studies to show that west coast teams lose more often when traveling at 10AM than normally. The same holds true for east coast teams coming to the west coast late at night (like the first game of the season for the Vikings last year). Body clock matters and your system is set up to operate at peak efficiency during particular times, 10AM not being one of them.

Personally I'm happy the Rams moved to LA for this reason.

 

[Largent80]

So hey Ramfan. Are you a holdover from the old days or a new fan?

 

[Ramfan128]

So hey Ramfan. Are you a holdover from the old days or a new fan?

I am 30 years old - born in 1986, so by the time I was consciously aware that I loved football, the Rams were in St. Louis.

But I live in Ohio and have all my life. My dad became a Rams fan in the 60s when he was a kid, and he passed that passion onto me and my brother. It's interesting for sure - even though I didn't really start loving the Rams until the late 90s, I feel like I identify more with the LA days than the St. Louis days - for example it irritates me when people want to put Kurt Warner on a Rams "mount rushmore" as one of the 4 greatest Rams ever - IMO he's not even close...but those St. Louis fans...

It was also supremely annoying being accused of being a bandwagon fan in the late 90s/early 2000s.

What I've noticed is that the Rams fans around the country seemed to be most plentiful outside of Missouri. So even some fans that didn't become fans until the GSOT days but live in other states, are choosing to stay fans.

I always wanted us back in LA, because it's where we belong. On top of that, I'm hoping that we get treated like a normal NFL team from the officials...instead of an afterthought in a small market. From a competitive standpoint, you'd think that it could only help. Every fan base feels like it gets shafted by the officials, but I really think we've gotten the short end of the stick over the past few years....also doesn't help that we've been a bad team in general.

The thing that sucks about all that is I cannot go to a game every year....I've gone to St. Louis once a year for a while now and just being at the games made you realize that the Rams needed to get out of there. St. Louis fans get offended but the diehards are great - there's just not nearly enough of them. Living in Ohio is good though...we'll play a team within driving distance every year, so I can go to opposing teams stadiums to see us live.

 

[Largent80]

I have an autographed Merlin Olson rookie card. I was a huge Rams fan when I lived in Cali. and even though I moved to Seattle in 1977 I was still a fan, although my allegiance shifted. Now I'm a full blown Hawks fan and to me the Rams are dead except for my memories.

Damn Cowboys and Vikings always knocked us out of the playoffs back then.

 

[chris98251]

I have an autographed Merlin Olson rookie card. I was a huge Rams fan when I lived in Cali. and even though I moved to Seattle in 1977 I was still a fan, although my allegiance shifted. Now I'm a full blown Hawks fan and to me the Rams are dead except for my memories.

Damn Cowboys and Vikings always knocked us out of the playoffs back then.

Yes, ironically they both had Mobile QB's in Staubach and Tarkenton, somehow they remind me of someone.

 

[HawkAroundTheClock]

On top of that, I'm hoping that we get treated like a normal NFL team from the officials...instead of an afterthought in a small market. From a competitive standpoint, you'd think that it could only help. Every fan base feels like it gets shafted by the officials, but I really think we've gotten the short end of the stick over the past few years....also doesn't help that we've been a bad team in general.

Like you said, all fan bases think that way, but the Rams' penalty differential has been decreasing over the past four years. When the Seahawks became really good, our's bounced dramatically the other way.
(Total penalties called includes offsetting and declined, from The Football Database.)

Penalty Differential

Seahawks
2012: -2 (130-128)
2013: -28 (145-117)
2014: -57 (142-85)
2015: -30 (138-108)

Rams
2012: -38 (150-112)
2013: -20 (142-122)
2014: -14 (145-131)
2015: -10 (143-133)


SEA: 117 more penalties, 29.25 more per year, 1.828 more per game than opponents.
STL: 82 more penalties, 20.5 more per year, 1.281 more per game than opponents.

After we won the Super Bowl, the lack of calls against our opponents was ridiculous in '14. The 85 called on our opponents – 5.3 per game – was the fewest in the league. The next fewest was 109, or 6.8 per game, called on Jets' opponents. Rams' opponents were flagged 131 times, or 8.19 per game. That was the 13th most in the league.

This trend was especially evident in games between the Rams and Seahawks the past 2 seasons. Compare Rams' average penalties per game against others, and against Seahawks.

In 2014:
The Rams ppg: 8.2; against the Seahawks: 2* and 6, or 4 ppg. *the Rams took a delay of game on purpose, so really they were flagged 7 times over 2 games for a 3.5 average.

In 2015:
The Rams ppg: 8.07; against the Seahawks: 4, and 5, or 4.5 ppg.

For more perspective on the 2014 season, here's how Seattle compared to the next 3 highest negative differentials:

SEA: -57
NE: -32 (142-110)
DET: -25 (140-115)
CLE: -20 (144-124)

And for the opposite extreme, the highest positive differentials:
ARI: +37 (116-153)
SD: +32 (130-162)
JAC: +27 (109-136)
KC: +24 (105-129)
NO: +20 (101-121)
MIA: +20 (108-128)

That can be interesting, worthless, or indifferent info, but those are some recent penalty facts. They aren't the whole story, of course, so make of them what you will.


Some of this info came from poster Willyeye in this thread from October 2015.

 

[HawkGA]

Interesting, with the exception of the Cards*, it would seem crappy teams do better with penalties. Could be a goal for parity thing.

* Yes, KC isn't crappy, but let's be honest, they are.

 

[Ramfan128]

On top of that, I'm hoping that we get treated like a normal NFL team from the officials...instead of an afterthought in a small market. From a competitive standpoint, you'd think that it could only help. Every fan base feels like it gets shafted by the officials, but I really think we've gotten the short end of the stick over the past few years....also doesn't help that we've been a bad team in general.

Like you said, all fan bases think that way, but the Rams' penalty differential has been decreasing over the past four years. When the Seahawks became really good, our's bounced dramatically the other way.
(Total penalties called includes offsetting and declined, from The Football Database.)

Penalty Differential

Seahawks
2012: -2 (130-128)
2013: -28 (145-117)
2014: -57 (142-85)
2015: -30 (138-108)

Rams
2012: -38 (150-112)
2013: -20 (142-122)
2014: -14 (145-131)
2015: -10 (143-133)


SEA: 117 more penalties, 29.25 more per year, 1.828 more per game than opponents.
STL: 82 more penalties, 20.5 more per year, 1.281 more per game than opponents.

After we won the Super Bowl, the lack of calls against our opponents was ridiculous in '14. The 85 called on our opponents – 5.3 per game – was the fewest in the league. The next fewest was 109, or 6.8 per game, called on Jets' opponents. Rams' opponents were flagged 131 times, or 8.19 per game. That was the 13th most in the league.

This trend was especially evident in games between the Rams and Seahawks the past 2 seasons. Compare Rams' average penalties per game against others, and against Seahawks.

In 2014:
The Rams ppg: 8.2; against the Seahawks: 2* and 6, or 4 ppg. *the Rams took a delay of game on purpose, so really they were flagged 7 times over 2 games for a 3.5 average.

In 2015:
The Rams ppg: 8.07; against the Seahawks: 4, and 5, or 4.5 ppg.

For more perspective on the 2014 season, here's how Seattle compared to the next 3 highest negative differentials:

SEA: -57
NE: -32 (142-110)
DET: -25 (140-115)
CLE: -20 (144-124)

And for the opposite extreme, the highest positive differentials:
ARI: +37 (116-153)
SD: +32 (130-162)
JAC: +27 (109-136)
KC: +24 (105-129)
NO: +20 (101-121)
MIA: +20 (108-128)

That can be interesting, worthless, or indifferent info, but those are some recent penalty facts. They aren't the whole story, of course, so make of them what you will.


Some of this info came from poster Willyeye in this thread from October 2015.

First I'd say that my feeling was stretching all the way back to 2005, basically the length of time that we've been in this black hole of suck. Not just a few years.

Second, naturally Rams fans have argued about Fisher amongst ourselves. The biggest criticism has been "get the penalties down" - in arguing this point it caused several fans to look at the most penalized teams - they happened to be the best teams in the NFL (for the most part). I think there's a correlation between the two in that better teams are more physical and push the envelope more often.

But I wasn't really talking about penalties...it was more the timing of penalties and major pass interference calls. If they are iffy, they always seemed to go against the Rams. For a stretch we were called for a penalty every single punt return while I watched the Patriots or Cowboys not get called for a blatant block in the back.

It just always seemed to go against us...now, that's by and large gotten better over the last few years...but I'm hoping being in LA helps more.

Remember the weird fumble recovery play that went in favor of the Rams against the Seahawks? That was probably the first such play that could have gone either way that the Rams got called in their favor that I can remember.

 

[HawkAroundTheClock]

On top of that, I'm hoping that we get treated like a normal NFL team from the officials...instead of an afterthought in a small market. From a competitive standpoint, you'd think that it could only help. Every fan base feels like it gets shafted by the officials, but I really think we've gotten the short end of the stick over the past few years....also doesn't help that we've been a bad team in general.

bunch o' stats

First I'd say that my feeling was stretching all the way back to 2005, basically the length of time that we've been in this black hole of suck. Not just a few years.

Second, naturally Rams fans have argued about Fisher amongst ourselves. The biggest criticism has been "get the penalties down" - in arguing this point it caused several fans to look at the most penalized teams - they happened to be the best teams in the NFL (for the most part). I think there's a correlation between the two in that better teams are more physical and push the envelope more often.

But I wasn't really talking about penalties...it was more the timing of penalties and major pass interference calls. If they are iffy, they always seemed to go against the Rams. For a stretch we were called for a penalty every single punt return while I watched the Patriots or Cowboys not get called for a blatant block in the back.

It just always seemed to go against us...now, that's by and large gotten better over the last few years...but I'm hoping being in LA helps more.

Remember the weird fumble recovery play that went in favor of the Rams against the Seahawks? That was probably the first such play that could have gone either way that the Rams got called in their favor that I can remember.

Good point. The total penalties completely miss the story of timely or untimely flags. And that's where penalties make the biggest difference and/or refs can influence outcomes.

 

[Russ Willstrong]

The Rams got to benefit from some 10am games against West coast division opponents every year, and that won't be the case any more. And while LA has very good weather, there is definitely a difference between playing in a dome and playing outdoors on grass.

But in terms of the city impacting the team, I wouldn't expect that. I'm sure the first game (against Seattle) will be a rockin' sellout since it is the first meaningful NFL game in LA in two decades, but once the initial buzz settles down I think L.A. will prove once again to be a surprisingly quiet sports market. Maybe it's because there's already so much to do in L.A. but for whatever reason the city has always cultivated a fairly passive fanbase for all their sports franchises.

I disagree...the Rams played division opponents tough at home and on the road, and I think the 10am is way overblown. These guys are world class athletes that have worked out early in the morning their entire lives. The travel is what impacts teams more than anything IMO. I haven't heard a single west coast team complain about the start time of games - seems like something fans like to use as an excuse more than anything.

And regarding LA and football - lots of people seem to think that it will be like last time, but fail to acknowledge how much the NFL has grown in popularity over the past 22 years. Fantasy football alone has taken the NFL to a whole new level, and there are more opposing fans than ever going to NFL games just because it's the thing to do. On top of that, there are a ton of Rams fans left over from before....and now with the new ones that will be made, the fan base in LA will easily be more plentiful than last time.

Honestly, the LA Rams move just seems right for the organization, the NFL and older fans. It will draw much more interest and income.. Unfortunately I doubt the team will have any huge success in the next few years despite their elite D line talents. There is too much distraction with the relocation of players, families and staff. They drafted a talented qb but as of now there really is NO proven franchise qb or team leader. A larger market and fanbase will bring on more pressure to perform and your coach will be on the hotseat yet again.