Massacre in Philly

Well, it turns out I was FAR too optimistic about the 2008 St. Louis Rams. They showed up (barely) today and turned in a listless performance, being dominated 38-3. After being dragged up and down the field by the Eagles' offense, the Rams were amazingly still in the game with just over a minute to go in the 1st half, trailing 14-0 and getting the ball back to start the 2nd half. The Eagles faced 3rd and long from their own 10 yard line. All the Rams had to do was make this one stop; heck, they could have even given up the first down and still held Philly in check for the final minute of the 1st half. But this is the Rams we are talking about. So what happens? The defense inexplicably allows an Eagles' receiver to get behind the DBs and 90 yards later it's 21-0 right before the half. That was all she wrote.

It's not as if the Rams' offense was going to do much anyway. The offensive line was, well, offensive. Numerous false start penalties helped derail several drives, but it's not as if the O-line was doing a bang-up job when they managed to get the snap count right. QB Marc Bulger is just a shell of his old self. The abuse he has taken over the years has left him skittish and has completely messed up his mechanics. I have never seen a pro QB throw of of his back foot so much. Then again, there's not much to say about an offensive game plan that gets the only reliable receiver, Torry Holt, the ball 1 time for a whole 9 yards.

There will now be a Scott Linehan Watch, as people await his certain firing. If this seems absurdly early for such a thing, it's not; this is his 3rd year as head coach and no one can argue that the Rams have gotten progressively worse. There is no doubt that the players have not bought into what he says and coaches. As bad as he is, defensive coordinator Jim Haslett should be held accountable as well. His defense was horrible today, underachieving as usual, but with more mental mistakes than you can shake a stick at. The Rams' owners are not ones to react emotionally however, so Linehan will get a bit of time to try to get things turned around. I would say he has until the bye week to show some real progress. But with what can only be described as a brutal early schedule (the Super Bowl champion Giants come to town next week), the bye week may end up being the time that Scott Linehan is mercifully let go.