Ray_T

I gotta agree with this. benching him this early in his career would be admitting you blew a first round pick. Management generally doesnt like doing that sort of thing unless their hand is forced a bit. Usually this happens when the rookie contract is over and hes asking for real money or when the team starts losing and hes seen as part of the problem. until that happens, he will play as often as they can afford to play him.

that doesnt mean the bye caused the disadvantage. that means the disadvantage was because they played at home. cold weather affected the pass game. and to a large degree you are correct. if you know you are playing 8 games at home (or 9 now sometimes) and you have up to 3 playoff games at home, you would think you would put together a team designed to win when it counts at home. but that isnt the way it worked out. you put together your winning team with the best talent you have Plus whatever you draft. there has been a movement to involve the run more in the last couple years and to make the defense formidible. and honestly, its a better D than we have seen in a while. the offense is more balanced than we have seen too. I think they are headed in the right direction there. They just got a bit unlucky in the way it turned out.

a return to the 40 would knock nearly 10 seconds off the clock. the smarter move for a returner is to get it out of bounds ASAP or to run straight ahead and go down when they hit you. only exception is if you think you can break one. thats why you do the squib kick. once that baby starts bouncing on the ground people normally wont wanna touch it for fear of creating a live ball situation if you cant hang onto it but in this situation would be inclined to jump on it and that may create opportunity anyhow. either way, its a done deal now. I think that was what cost em in the end. that and losing the coin toss in OT.

meant to reply to this sooner. but I fully think you are right. I dont know why they wouldnt do a squib kick that would bounce around and kill a few seconds. a forced return would have made it difficult for Mahomes to do anything. I know there is the risk of a big kick return, but I'd rather take my chances there than in the hands of Mahomes.

I didnt think Burrow was that impressive in their last game. he needs to be better if this team is gonna go anywhere. hes capable, but the question is will he get it done. at this age its normally a learning experience for a young QB. he honestly deserved to lose his last game. the team won, but not because of him. so I think he still has some learning to do at this level.

honestly so long as sub .500 teams are not regularly making the playoffs I'm ok with it. when it gets to that point, then the product (and interest in the regular season and the first round of the playoff) will decline in a significant way.

yeah, this was one crazy end of game. I'm glad I watched it. honestly its a shame someone had to lose this one.

This was never about making a better product. Lets be clear about this now. This was about extra money. extra playoff games means more TV revenue and more gate revenue. your pro contracts cover regular season play. the stipends for playoff games is substantially less so a team making the playoffs stands to make a lot more cash than one that does not. to that end, we are never going back to the old way. I guarantee it. Owners will realize how much more they stand to make and wont wanna let that money go.

better than a 30 point blowout. those games at the end are like watching paint dry.

enough of the coulda woulda shoulda argument. thats not what happened. not picking on you Axe. its just this is the most recent post. all that matters is what actually happened. in the end, deserved or not, the Rams won. at least it turned out to be entertaining. I figured lots of people tuned out when it became a 4 score game in the third quarter.

honestly, that defensive play call was a mistake. but in a game you hope the mistakes from both sides offset each other and the Rams made plenty to lead up to this point.

yeah, feels like an epic meltdown. maybe the rams D will hold. they need to now.

if both teams are healthy, (as mentioned earlier on another thread) I would have rated the teams even. but Tampa still has injuries. Thats where the unknown lies. how much those injuries affect the end result remains to be seen. but here at halftime, it is very much looking like the Rams game to lose.

well, I think it comes down to coaching. if the coach keeps the team focused and has good practices, in theory, the bye should never hurt you. in reality we know that is sometimes not the case. when I see a team coming off a bye and they dont seem sharp at the beginning of the game, that could be the effect of the bye. if I see a team shoot themselves in the foot late in the game (like what happened at least once this year) I do not blame the bye. thats either a mental mistake or a physical mistake or a coaching mistake. at the end of the day late in a game if you are in a position to win and dont do it blaming the bye is just silly. if you do a bunch of poor play at the start of the game? maybe the bye had something to do with THAT.

well, with people missing in the offense, I figured TB would be less productive. What I am surprised about is just how easily the rams moved the ball against the TB defense. I thought that the defense would be better. not taking anything away from Stafford, hes playing really well, but I did expect more from the Tampa D.