The St. Louis Rams are currently sitting in last place of the NFC West. With Arizona (8-1) in first, Seattle (6-3) in second, and San Francisco (5-4) in third, the Rams are in a position of making it though the season instead of what Rams fan hoped would be a playoff run.
Austin Davis had a great first half against the Arizona Cardinals in week 10. Even his second half wasn’t awful. That was until the Cardinals went ahead on the scoreboard. Austin Davis hadn’t turned the ball over all game and out of no where he couldn’t keep him composure and turned the ball over three times in the second half of the fourth quarter.
Not only were the Rams ahead on the scoreboard for a solid percentage of the game, but when the Cardinals went up, the game was far from over. Austin Davis looked like he was in some sort of panic and lost all of his composure. That’s all fine and everything, but the Rams were looking to stay with the rest of the tough NFC West opponents. All of which won in week 10 except for the Rams.
The St. Louis Rams now have a very outside shot at a playoff berth and it is now unlikely that the Rams will be able to make a push. That being said, Jeff Fisher has decided that the St. Louis Rams and their struggling offense will continue this season with Austin Davis at quarterback. One has to believe that if Jeff Fisher thought the Rams had a legitimate shot at a playoff spot that Shaun Hill would get his second start of the year against the Denver Broncos in week 11. Austin Davis has dropped on PFFs top QBs list to the number 63. With only 32 NFL teams, you can imagine that there are now multiple back up quarterbacks in the league who now rank ahead of Davis; including The Rams backup Shaun Hill who is ranked number 34.
With Davis being the starter for the foreseeable future in St. Louis, the Rams are going to need a lot of help from the rest of their offense. The Rams were talked about before the season as a running team. Well that’s not really going the way anyone expected and Tre Mason is getting the bulk of the carries. Zac Stacy hasn’t touched the football in a game situation for over a month now. What that really means is the Rams still haven’t figured out who their guy is since Steven Jackson has left. This will be the third season in a row that the majority of the carries go to a rookie runner. Daryl Richardson, Zac Stacy, and Tre Mason all had solid rookie seasons. Sure we don’t know what the future hold for Mason, but Richardson and Stacy each saw their production levels fall off considerably in their second seasons.
The Rams still play a pretty tough schedule from here on out. The next two games are against AFC teams who made the playoffs just a year ago in the Denver Broncos and San Diego Chargers. The Rams do have a few easy games on the schedule in the New York Giants and Oakland Raiders, but with the playoffs looking to be out of reach already, the effort level we will see moving forward could be a little different than a few weeks ago. It would appear that the Rams are headed for another season with a below .500 record. With just seven games left on the schedule, the Rams would need to win four of those to reach .500. All we can do now is just watch.
Notes:
Chris Long has officially made his way back to the practice field on a limited basis. This is the most field action he has seen since being injured in week one against the Minnesota Vikings. It has not been said whether Chris Long will play this week against the Denver Broncos, but it is looking like chances are good he will see the field and get at least a few shots to take down Manning.
Jeff Fisher announced Austin Davis would continue to be the starter in a Monday press conference.
Stan Kroenke, Kevin Demoff, and Les Snead were spotted on the sideline in week 10 during the Arizona Cardinals game. We aren’t sure exactly what this means but speculation has taken over the internet. From “They’re on their way to LA so the Rams can make progress with a move.” to “Jeff Fisher is on the hot seat and can be fired at any second.” Fisher is still the head coach at least for the moment. And nothing is being announced as far as the Rams next stadium goes. So the speculation will only get worse. Since Kroenke was in the building, he was sure to see the majority of Rams fans wearing the blue and yellow of the LA Rams days and many signs telling him to move the Rams back. As quiet as Stan is, he surely had to see this and most likely has an opinion about it. Too bad we may never know what that opinion is.
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