St. Louis Rams’ debacle: A look at the franchise’s performance in the NFL regular season (Part IV)
Continued fromhttp://www.senore.com/St-Louis-Rams-debacle-A-look-at-the-franchises-performance-in-the-NFL-regular-season-Part-III-a125727...
At Seattle
After being humiliated by San Francisco 49ers, Rams played a road game against Seattle Seahawks.
As expected, they found it difficult to recover from the slump.
Bradford was now becoming annoying. In this game, he managed 12 of 29 passes for 193 yards and threw one interception, receiving a quarterback rating of 49.9.
Rams scored two field goals and only one touchdown, thanks to their leading rusher, Steven Jackson, who was the only reason to smile for Rams’ fans.
On the other hand, Seahawks managed three touchdowns and three field goals to win the game by a 17-goal margin.
Against Cincinnati Bengals
Rams had a new quarterback, Kellen Clemens, when they hosted Cincinnati Bengals.
So what? Did the defence improve? Was the team chemistry there?
The answer is ‘no’.
Despite, a relatively good game-play from Clemens, Rams were still unable to win the games, and it had become apparent that they would not reach the playoffs.
The reputation, however, was left to save, but not for long!
The Bengals and Rams, both, relied on field goals in the first half of the game, but Rams allowed two touchdowns in the second half as Bengals edged past them, 20-13.
Clemens completed 25 of 36 passes for 229 yards and threw one touchdown, getting a quarterback rating of 95.7.
At Pittsburgh
Clemens was impressive for only one game. He could not prevent Rams’ recent losing streak from stretching to six when the team played its second last game of the season.
Pittsburgh Steelers was not an ideal host and crushed Rams badly.
Steelers scored two field goals and three touchdowns in the game, whereas Rams were restricted from scoring for the second time in the season.
First it was San Francisco and now Pittsburgh. Both the destinations did not bring good memories for Rams’ fans.
Clemens, like Bradford had done earlier, struggled as he only completed nine passes of 24 attempts for 91 yards. He did not send any touchdown pass, but still managed to avoid interception and received a quarterback rating of 49.1.
Against San Francisco 49ers
The 49ers had qualified for the playoffs after topping the NFC West division when they visited St. Louis to play their last game of the regular season.
Rams had lost 13 games and were on a six-game losing streak, as they went on to face the LA-based franchise.
It came to no one’s surprise that 49ers won that game, but Rams did display something that would help them in future.
Against the sturdy 49ers’ defence, Rams scored 27 points, which included two touchdowns and a field goal in the final quarter.
49ers were also restricted from scoring touchdowns a few times, but they ensured their smooth sailing by consistently scoring field goals.
49ers managed four touchdowns and two field goals, ending the game at 34-27 in their favour.
What now?
The first step that Rams’ management took to restore the fans’ trust was to dismiss the head coach and the general manager.
The management has brought new faces in the offices now, and it will be proved next season whether the dismissal of the personnel was justified.
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