Hi, did you stay up to watch the late Monday Night Football game?
I truly hope you did not:
At least the 49ers put up four scores on either side of that sequence. The Rams put up a big old dogturd zero. There is no way to put this kindly, but: they suck.
Now, it’s perfectly fine to suck when it’s because your players just aren’t as talented as their opponents. That’s going to happen sometimes, and it’s fixable in the long term, but what is less acceptable is when you lengthen your already-long odds before the snap.
Via Pro Football Talk, NFL Network’s Steve Wyche said one 49ers player told him the Rams were were perfectly telegraphing each pass.
When it came to the passing game for the Rams, they could tell by alignment and backfield motion...exactly what the Rams’ route tree was.”
Right now you’re probably racing to look up who the Rams’ offensive coordinator even is. I’ll spoil it, it’s Rob Boras, and his resumé isn’t a hearty or heartening one: three seasons at UNLV and then 11 years as a tight ends coach.
The thing is, it’s hard to accurately evaluate this offense as long as Case Keenum is the starter. Case Keenum is a sub-replacement-level QB, and that’s true even when you include the non-QBs in the league in the average, and maybe even dead and elderly former players too. Keenum is not the quarterback of a team that matters.
Jeff Fisher said Keenum is still his starting QB. Next Sunday’s home opener against the Seahawks is going to be ugly.
That Keenum is playing says ominous things about Sean Mannion and especially Jared Goff, who didn’t even dress for Monday’s midden of a game. I honestly don’t know what the thing to do with Goff is now—they might ruin him for life if they stick him into this offense. But then, I think back to the MNF game, and I think of Todd Gurley running into a wall for a two-yard gain, then the cameras cutting to the sideline and the announcers saying something like Jeff Fisher just wants Goff to soak it all in and learn from the experience, and then they go back to the field where Tavon Austin runs a jet sweep for a one-yard-loss. Motherfucker, what’s he supposed to be learning here?!
The Rams’ defense should still be good enough to avoid total embarrassment, but there’s no reason to things will get less ugly any time soon. I wouldn’t wish being in the Rams’ broadcast territory upon my worst enemy, but it is good to figure out early which offense to stream your fantasy defenses against.