[AvengerRam]

The first two games of the Rams' current title defense might not be exactly what we expected.

Still, its not as crazy as the start of the previous title defense in 2000.

That year, the Rams started 6-0 and, during that span, they scored an average of 43.7 points per game.

Not, that wasn't a typo. 43.7 points per game! And, on top of that, the offense averaged 509.3 yards per game (again, not a typo!).

A couple of problems, though. First, the defense gave up 29.0 points per game during that span, on its way to being the 31st ranked scoring defense that year. Second, Kurt Warner was injured and, though Trent Green filled in admirably, the offense's dominance had a lot more lapses as the season wore on.

During that 6-0 start, another issue started to emerge: turnovers. They had 9 in those 6 games. That's not ideal, but it got worse. In the remaining 10 games, the Rams turned the ball over 26 times. 35 turnovers in 16 games is not good, and this foreshadowed the Rams' playoff loss to New Orleans, in which they turned it over another 5 times, including the Az Hakim fumble that haunts us to this day.

The Rams would retool the next year, bringing in everything needed to repeat except a better anti-spying security system, but a trip to the big game in two consecutive seasons was not to be.

I don't know how this year will turn out. Will it be a better attempt to repeat than 2000? Who knows? I'm pretty sure it won't be weirder, though.

At least, I hope not.

[Mr. Sparkle]

I’m looking forward to when the play the 4th quarter! So far I don’t think they have.

[Dieter The Brock]

Yep, they had to outscore everyone

[Elvis]

Before Warner got hurt that 2000 offense was just unbelievable...

[Elvis]

Yep, they had to outscore everyone

Welcome aboard.

Head's up, our software expects your avatar to be a square. If it's not, it will squish it into one which is what i think is happening with yours, cool as it is...

[Hacksaw]

Dieter is looking a little thick these days.
Regardless welcome to RFU!

[rams1974]

Two distinct things about that season, one at the beginning, one at the end:
After Week 4, the Rams had outscored the Bengals 160-7.
Rams 41, 37, 41, 41
Bengals 0, 7, bye week, 0
.. or something like that

At the end of the season the Rams and Colts were both the bottom seed (#6) and many felt that would end up being the Super Bowl Matchup.
Your weak-a@# NFC was thus:
1 Giants (the Rams crushed them in NY with Trent Green and Justin Watson)
2 Vikings
3 Saints
4 Eagles
5 Bucs (whee, we beat the Rams, no need to try anymore)
6 Rams

[max]

The only similarity I see in the 2 teams is their names ended in Rams.

In 2000, we had a new HC, we had a very young team with all its stars just hitting their peak.

We also had HOFers on one side of the ball in Warner, Faulk, Pace, Bruce, and Holt (hes getting in). The D was atrocious in 2000, mostly because of the coaching, but we didn't have anyone like Donald, Ramsey, or even Wagner.

Looking back that 2000 Rams offense in the first 6 games before Warner got hurt was probably the greatest offense ever. This 2022 offense is top half of the league this year, but thats about it.

I guess if youre a Rams fan, you like to make comparisons with Rams teams of old. Thats how you get nicknames with a 2 after it. Like Doomsday 2, and GSOT 2.0. Lazy media stuff like that to connect new teams from the same organization to old ones.

Anyway, I guess it nice to look at the past and reminisce. But thats about it. Hey, I'm a sentimentalist too. Maybe we can compare it to the 1952 Rams. Anyone remember them? I wasn't born yet.

[AvengerRam]

The only similarity I see in the 2 teams is their names ended in Rams.

In 2000, we had a new HC, we had a very young team with all its stars just hitting their peak.

We also had HOFers on one side of the ball in Warner, Faulk, Pace, Bruce, and Holt (hes getting in). The D was atrocious in 2000, mostly because of the coaching, but we didn't have anyone like Donald, Ramsey, or even Wagner.

Looking back that 2000 Rams offense in the first 6 games before Warner got hurt was probably the greatest offense ever. This 2022 offense is top half of the league this year, but thats about it.

I guess if youre a Rams fan, you like to make comparisons with Rams teams of old. Thats how you get nicknames with a 2 after it. Like Doomsday 2, and GSOT 2.0. Lazy media stuff like that to connect new teams from the same organization to old ones.

Anyway, I guess it nice to look at the past and reminisce. But thats about it. Hey, I'm a sentimentalist too. Maybe we can compare it to the 1952 Rams. Anyone remember them? I wasn't born yet.

Through your tone of mild derision, you have responded in a manner that seems to have missed the mark. I was not suggesting that the 2022 Rams are similar or comparable to the 2000 Rams, other than to the extent that they are the only two Rams teams who have attempted to defend a Super Bowl title.

Rather, this was a sentimental look back at a team that most of us remember though, perhaps after over 20 years, not in full detail. Before I looked up the stats, I remembered that the offense had a hot start before Warner went down. I didn't fully recall just how absurdly productive the offense was, nor did I fully remember just how bad the defense was from day 1 that year.

This year's team is a question mark, of course, after two games. Will the OL come together and solidify into a consistent unit? Will the receiving corps (hopefully with a healthy Van Jefferson and the return of OBJ) be a dominant force by the end of the year? Will the pass rush be sufficiently productive? All questions yet to be answered.

In the end, the 2000 Rams were a disappointment. I'm hoping for better in this title defense.

[rams1974]

AR describing the season as "weird" is apt. It really did feel like a weird season.

I don't think people really began to believe the Rams were for real until the MNF opener vs the Broncos. I remember watching that game and thinking, ABC must be loving this, there hasn't been a bonkers high scoring game like this on MNF in years.

There was a real air around the Rams of "let's see if this wacky philosophy of [clutches pearls] throwing on 55-60% of plays will work." A lot of old school types didn't like the direction they felt the Rams were taking the league. That combined with wearing a huge bullseye and the nature of many of their games .. yeah .. weird season.

I'll also add, those unis they wore during 2000 - where the uni was rebranded but they still have the blocky looking numerals - meanwhile, the jersey you could purchase had the updated numerals .. I always wondered if some communication between Puma(?) or the Rams got botched, and the Rams had to wait until 2001 to fully update.