[CanuckRightWinger]

Tough crowd here!
So I reread my 4 sentence OP. No defeatism there sportsfans.
Just expressing a worrisome concern about how our OL will fare against ELITE 2021 Playoff Ds is all....
of which, BTW, Minnesota is NOT.

Minnesota D 2021 stats per ESPN
Total YPG Allowed....379.0...29TH (& MN played O dwarfs CHI, DET, CAR, PITTS (5 BigBen Sacks)
Pts/Game Allowed...24.8 PPG...23RD....Rams scored 23 Offensive points + our brilliant PR TD
Rushing Yds/Carry.....4.7 YPC...27th(Tie)...only 2 NFL Teams worse at 4.8 YPC
FYI, Los Ramos rang-up 356 yards of Total Offense vs Vikes D on Sunday. (197 Pass/159 Rush)

On paper, our O didn't look like giant-killers against a bottom-tier Vikes D, but consider:
-Rams were Covid-stricken with very few practices, so kudos to Carberry for uber-juggling;
-Vikings were playing at home for their Playoff lives;
-Stafford put us in difficult spots with his 3 picks.

So, yeah....
I am very pleased with the W, ugly or not.
NFL W's are hard to come by, so great job by all Ram organization to overtake Zona under tough conditions.

My OP raised concerns about our OL performance about elite D's coming up in the Playoffs.
Getting by a bottom-tier Viking D was commendable given our Covid/Injury handicaps....
but it does not automatically mean we'll sweep Playoff D's like Dallas aside, as someone else brought up. We'll see how it all shakes out next month, but now that Morris is playing more aggressively on D, & w/the Sony Michel emergence, the ONLY thing I fear stopping us from a SB trip to SoFi in February, is our OL performance against the Big Boy D's.
FWIW, I think veteran Matthew Stafford will be fine for us in PostSeason.

BTW, tough crowd or not, I don't mind being that 1944 Operation MarketGarden British Intel Officer who warned High Command that Arnhem was "a bridge too far." I am sure he took no pleasure seeing the Allied paratroops dropped on Arnhem all killed or captured. He merely reported what he saw & what he was fretting about. He was ignored & chided by the groupthink crowd around him.
The rest, as they say....is history!

I hope Alaric Jackson continues his transformation from 2021 Ram PreSeason RollerSkateGuy into a Bob Brown clone (Ram HOFer).....and I hope we never ever see Bobby AdamGoldbergPylonAwardWinner Evans on the field in a critical playoff situation.

Aaron Kromer's replacement Carberry seems to be developing his OL charges much better than the guy McVay fired huh!?
Who knew eh???

Oh, I see the former "It's the Offense, stupids!" crowd has changed its mantra to:
"Don't worry, just be happy!"
ME: Que sera sera.

[AltiTude Ram]

So the Vikings who are at the top of the NFL in sacks didn’t get 1 yesterday against our patchwork Oline.

I think that should help with some who worry about playing against the big boy D’S.

[CanuckRightWinger]

Of the 44 Viking sacks so far, 16 came against the 3 Lilliputian Offenses (all 3 at 20PPG scored or less) of DET, CAR & PITT in 4 games.

Viking pass rushers of 2021 weren't gonna make folks think of Alan Page, Carl Eller, Gary Larsen et al.......especially against the better 2021 Offenses.

Also, I read somewhere where QB Pressures are maybe even more significant than Sacks....
wasn't that play that nearly sank us yesterrday.....where the Vikes intercepted inside our 5 yardline....

didn't that result from a collapsed Ram pocket that led to the deflection & Viking pick??

[AltiTude Ram]

It’s starting to sound like you might be Obdurate on this issue.

[Joe Pendleton]

Of the 44 Viking sacks so far, 16 came against the 3 Lilliputian Offenses (all 3 at 20PPG scored or less) of DET, CAR & PITT in 4 games.

Viking pass rushers of 2021 weren't gonna make folks think of Alan Page, Carl Eller, Gary Larsen et al.......especially against the better 2021 Offenses.

Also, I read somewhere where QB Pressures are maybe even more significant than Sacks....
wasn't that play that nearly sank us yesterrday.....where the Vikes intercepted inside our 5 yardline....

didn't that result from a collapsed Ram pocket that led to the deflection & Viking pick??

ya gotta include John Randle w that bunch.. miss watching him terrorize QB's in the cold north.. with that face paint on, woofing at the QB.. was all time!

[CanuckRightWinger]

Yeah, my bad....
who can forget John Randle's "REGULATORS, MOUNT UP!!!"

[PARAM]

Oh, I see the former "It's the Offense, stupids!" crowd has changed its mantra to:
"Don't worry, just be happy!"

Sorta like now that the defense looks a lot better, the "it's the defense, not the pick 6's, turnovers or 3 to 4 play drives that has sabotaged the Rams time of possession battle - crowd" has now changed it to "this offensive line is gonna be the reason we don't succeed in the postseason, if we don't succeed in the postseason"?

It's almost like trying to cover a bet by taking the field.
Hell, chances are something might go wrong. After all, 32 teams, 1 Superbowl winner. The more I site, the better chance I hit on one. Let's see. Defense. No they're playing pretty damn good now. Offensive line. Hell! As soon as I posted that, they won a game missing their starting LT and #1 backup, losing their starting C 18 plays into the game, had to play musical chairs with an UDFA #3 LT and #2 C, still won the game despite 3 picks from #9. What's next? The special teams? No, can't go there. Got a punt return TD from them!!!

It's that "great at the podium, not so good at X's and O's DC" who's the problem. Suddenly the defense isn't playing a different style but just having more success and "it's because of a kick in the nuts by McVay!!" It's possible. Sounds good anyway.

What's that popular saying? You can't make this shit up folks....but apparently you can try.

Now? It's the interior OL, centered by that guy I've been complaining about since 2019. Hell, we can't possibly succeed with a guy I've been railing on for 3 years. On one hand, I've already claimed the new OL coach is better than that dumb fook Kromer but just to cover my bets.....

It's the O line causing Stafford to make those "arm punts"!!!!!!

Really, this is taking the field, throwing shit against the wall to see what sticks.

That damned Higbee!!!

I tell you what I think. We don't have the best defense in the NFL but we've got some good players on that side of the ball and the DC knows what he's doing. We don't have the best O line in the NFL but we've got some good players and some pretty good backups. We don't have the best QB in the NFL but he's damn close.....if only he can refrain from throwing the ball to the guys in the other jersey's. If we're going to go anywhere in the postseason, it's all going to depend on Stafford. Because after 15 games, the only time we lose is when #9 has a bad game. The defense is good enough to win. The OL is good enough to win. When #9 plays well. And much like that famous video of Steve Young on the sidelines saying, "is he off my back, take that monkey off my back!!", Stafford has to win at least 1 postseason game. Hopefully he wins more.

JMHO.

It's not a "don't worry, be happy" approach. It's a "what do you want, a fucking guarantee?" approach. We have what we have and it's got us to 11-4, first place in the West. The big guy, McVay, has put it all together. I like what I see. So let's see how we do. But let's not start shooting arrows before any bad shit happens! Unless of course you want to be the conductor on the complaint train.

[ramsman34]

I'd be a lot more worried about the latest injuries to Gaines and Jones, if Cam can make a difference, and potential Covid issues than almost anything. Then it would be Stafford's record in the post season and his maddening streakiness. OL? nope. D? Aforementioned issues aside, nope. Stafford when he is ON, almost unstoppable.

So, not really a whole lot to be worried about.

Oh, one more: playing the NFCC game in Green Bay.

[CanuckRightWinger]

During our winless November, I was lamenting Raheem' soft shell D plan, giving up long drives & TOP, etc...
whilst PA was skewering McVay & Stafford....and knocking me for not criticizing McVay. He was also talking about some "bandwagon" EastCoast hooey I never really got.

Now, after 4 December wins, I see that McVay is now aces in PA's book.
Question: Does "pivoting" like that make a guy one of those "bandwagon" types?

ME: I posted that from Raheem Morris, I am now seeing (finally! ):
-more aggressive Los Ramos pressure unleashed on oppositions' passing downs;
-more tighter man coverage packages versus that soft-shell pitch&catch Raheem shit from before;
-and the increased employment of Jalen Ramsey on the opposition's best WR.
I postulated that these tighter, more aggressive Ram D plans came about because IMO McVay gave Raheem a kick in the pills regarding the above D changes,
or, since its Yuletide, you can say McVay called Raheem in to "A Come To Jesus Meeting" if you prefer.

In the end of his long-ish & rambling (Higbee??!! ) editorial, PA seems to be fretting over the Stafford Pick-6 and "arm punt" ratio.
Whoa, talk about going out on the limb! IE. "I oppose giving turnovers to the other side!"
Such brio! Compelling insight right there sportsfans.

Me? I will continue to fret about our OL versus 2021 Playoff Elite Defenses....which I think, most here would agree, that Ram OL proficiency has been a pretty consistent theme of mine (some may even use the "horse-flogging" adjective ), goin' back to ever since I wanted Aaron Kromer fired as Ram OL Coach at the end of the 2019 season.

So, I think I've been pretty consistent.....
the other camp seem to move the goalposts a tad. Oh yeah & don't diss Goff because to them, it's a sin!

As always, JMO.

[PARAM]

Dude, you lament whenever we lose. It's never, "hey, they played a good game and beat us". It's always, that fookin O line or that fookin defense or this guy or that guy. It's gotta be somebody's fault because "our team just isn't supposed to get beat. Because I'm a fan. Have been since the days of......."....you know the routine. Hell we all know it. Everybody calls it venting which is an excuse word for whining and complaining. Apparently it makes some folks who can't handle adversity, feel better.

Well I don't know what you're seeing but the defense still goes into that soft shell you despise. They put Ramsey on guys before you "lamented about November" and they don't always do it now. They didn't blitz much and still don't. Is it possible with DWill's return and Jones' emergence (before that injury yesterday), the defense became better at doing what Morris wants them to do? Or, here's a novel idea....they were finally playing with a lead again! No. Because you already complained about Morris so it's got to be something else. Canuck can't be wrong. He honed his knowledge with Street & Smiths! No, they're pressuring more. They're not laying back forcing teams to go underneath and preventing the big gains. Right. McVay kicked Morris in the pills. Ah, such bravado!! Good, it is football.

You obviously have a reading problem and what I'm beginning to fear might be some form of Alzheimers. Because I have said, numerous times.....and you can check it......McVay is terrific. He just has his moments when he seems to be outsmarting himself and that's when I get a little pissed. Hell, you even said yourself, "there are 4 head coaches I will never criticize....(because they brought us to the SB)". Even when they fuck up, so sure for a guy who's always complaining about something causing a loss, some coach or some player......to totally ignore the head coach's shortcomings, I criticize. I know some guys who don't get that treatment from their mothers.

Who's in 'don't worry be happy mode' there chief?

What would be in line with your whining and complaining is, "it's great to get to a Superbowl but it's better if you win it". Apparently that only applies to players and assistant coaches. You'll piss and moan about assistants and players. Who hired them? Who's coaching them? Who drafted them?

Oh there are some pretty consistent themes of yours, for sure.

My take? We're 11-4, in first place, in the postseason (which you once told me is the true measure of a successful season; no playoffs = crappy season, even if it was a winning season). We've overtaken those uncatchable Cardinals (according to some) and their Pro Bowl / MVP QB. I guess I should prepare myself because we got there with smoke and mirrors, a shitty defense.....until that kick in the pills , a shitty O line and bad special teams all of which are dragging down a superb plan by an infallible head coach (to some).

As always, you're right Canuck! It's almost January 2022, we're in the playoffs, we just won a game with an UDFA at LT, a #2 center, so absolutely now is the time to complain about how we missed drafting Creed Humphrey. How asinine is that? As the great Tom Jackson used to say, "Come on Man!!!!"