[Hacksaw]

Good stuff A-1 !

So my Jr high PE teacher in Laguna Beach was pals with Dave Chapel. I remember one day after school seeing a small crowd of students gathered out on our field, so I checked out what was going on. I noticed our PE coach (and local lifeguard brass) John Cunningham was out on the field with his pal Dave as they were taking turns punting footballs. The 2 were trying to out kick each other. I just had to run out on the field with a couple other guys to shag balls.
I will never forget how ridiculously high and long the ball hung in the air. They both spiraled the ball consistently. A few traveled so far they cleared the 20 ft fence of the adjacent tennis courts way back at the end of the field.
This event really gave me lifelong respect for punt returners. And it was so cool to meet my favorite teams punter in person. I remember he was a super cool dude.

[Elvis]

[TomSlick]

1972 - the first time the rams and bengals ever met, rams won 15-12.

Great music and name dropping in this vid. Good stuff, A1.

[TomSlick]

for those not familiar with the story, the circa 1964-1972 navy blue / white clad rams very rarely sported their navy (home) jerseys at home, intentionally, and it was the brainchild of owner dan reeves... reeves felt it would be a much better fan experience to see the various jersey colors of visiting teams as opposed to always seeing the rams in navy (home) jerseys and visiting teams in white (away) jerseys, and from all reports the novel idea was a huge success.

the rams never wore their navy jerseys at home until the final year they wore their navy/white unis, i.e. from 1964-1971 they never wore navy jerseys at home, it wasn't until 1972 that they finally wore navy jerseys at home, 5 times, including vs the bengals... all told, in the 128 games they played from 1964-1972, they only wore their navy jerseys 19 times, 5 times at home (1972) and 14 times on the road... from 1968-1970 they didn't wear their navy jerseys at all, on the road or at home.

I feel smarter already. That is some quality historical info.

How about that Reeves, he was a sharp cookie. Never really thought about it, but, yeah, letting the fans see team colors of other teams was very cool, especially, lack of TV coverage and color TVs back then.

[aeneas1]

[Hacksaw]

I feel smarter already. That is some quality historical info.

How about that Reeves, he was a sharp cookie. Never really thought about it, but, yeah, letting the fans see team colors of other teams was very cool, especially, lack of TV coverage and color TVs back then.

And a side benefit was the visitor would be in their darks playing under the hot SoCal sunshine.

[FMulder]

Before getting into this game a few things stood out in the SF game that was encouraging.

To me the tackling was much better overall. More gang tackling, more runners stopped in their tracks or pushed backwards instead of falling forward another yard. And the tackling had a lot of attitude to it IMO. Maybe between being told they were soft and SF physical, combined with the importance of the game, the D had enough and really imposed their will. Along with that, the ability to really shut down SFs running game kept SF from running big chunks of clock, get some of that momentum that good running teams start to get once they get going with the run game, and put JimmyG in the position where HE needed to make plays. And much like his career MO, he did just enough to tease the SF fans between doing something silly.

They also were able to get good pass rush pressure even if it didn’t result in sacks

Some random things about the game vs Cinn

Burrow has several very good offensive weapons. Between the need to get pressure on him as well as limiting Mixon will be big. Mixon is a very good RB who also catches the ball well out of the backfield. My hope is that some of the Houdini escapes Burrow was able to make vs KC instead result in sacks and maybe a few hero-ball throws that go for INTs. I also hope Burrow lacks the patience and experience to take the check down or throw it away and gets burned by forcing stuff.

The concerns with Reeder and D Williams continue. Reeder might be a bright guy and a max effort player but he is far far below a starting NFL LBer in ability-and it shows itself over and over. I hope Jones gets many more snaps in this game as he hopefully fully recovers from his injury-especially in passing situations. I also hope we see Howard more

Williams just continues to look lost out there. He seems at least a step slow and just does not make enough plays on the ball. Again, I am hoping this is the game he finds last year’s form. With the weapons Cinncy has there’s not time for another sub par performance

Defensively this is the time for AD, Miller, Ramsey, and Floyd to play to their abilities. Ramsey needs to play a really good game without some of the blips he’s been prone to show lately (the Evans TD vs TB, the Deebo play in Week 18 vs SF, and the dropped INT(s) vs SF last week

I think offensively the Rams should be able to move the ball. My under the radar player is Akers. I really think he has the chance to go off both running the ball and receiving the ball out of the backfield I’d also like to see Van Jefferson step up a bit more than I’ve seen lately. Kupp is going to be Kupp and OBJ is fully engaged and knows the offense fully. When he’s engaged like this he shows why he is a top tier WR

I really hope Stafford uses his experience to his advantage. Recently he seems to be willing to check down or even throw the ball away if it isn’t there. And yet, once again we dodge a major bullet with the dropped INT vs SF. He just cannot throw jump balls up in this game.

I said before last game that these types of bigger games bring out unknown players either as hero’s or goats. Ben S had the chance to make a hero play but did not come up with it. And yet, enter Blanton who provided some key key plays and looked like a vet all pro out there. This game will offer the same opportunities. I hope someone steps up.

I also liked the balance between the run and pass McVay kept and hope he does some variation of that in this game.

The vets who were with the Rams in 18, or players like V Miller really need to convey what is necessary to win this game to some of the others. I loved AD gathering the D and firing them up.

During the Super Bowl against NE, McVay was completely out coached and failed to adjust to what NE was doing throughout the game. I am hoping the experience and lessons since then will allow him to craft a game plan that features some wrinkles new to the Cinncy Defense as well as having the ability to make in-game adjustments as needed. This is the chance for McVay to show he is an elite offensive strategist on the biggest stage of the year.

[Elvis]

[AvengerRam]

More on the health front:


And, as a funny aside, here's why you should not rely on Rotoworld for information. They apparently misread Jourdan's tweet and reported as follows:

Cam Akers (shoulder) remained sidelined for Friday's practice.
As expected. Akers is fully expected to play in Super Bowl LVI after coach Sean McVay reiterated that the only game status he was worried about was Tyler Higbee's (knee). Sony Michel and Thomas Brown will continue working at running back until Akers returns to practice.

Thomas Brown is the RB Coach!

[aeneas1]

of the 15 offensive and 15 defensive guys who saw the most snaps for the 2018 super bowl rams, 30 in all, only 6 are still with the 2021 super bowl bound rams - whitworth, havenstein, woods, kupp, and higbee on offense, and only mr. donald on defense.