Yesterday I talked about receivers, and even since then, things have changed. The Rams have added Jerious Norwood and now Cadillac Williams, and the offense is starting to show a glimmer of hope for this next season. Instead of this key being directed at the players, this one relates directly to new OC Josh McDaniels and HC Steve Spagnuolo
Hit the jump to continue.
It's 4th and 1, and the Rams are down by 3 in the middle of the fourth quarter. Last year, that was a perfect punt scenario. The defense would stop the other team more often than not, and then the Rams offense would come out for one last gasp. And fall completely on their face by going 3 and out.
At the beginning of the season, most of us blamed Pat Shurmur, but as it wore on, it appeared that some of the blame shifted to Spagnuolo. Was he too much of a control freak? He always stated he wanted a power run game, but as us fans now, it was painful to watch the Rams offense stay on a sinking ship by handing the ball of to Steven Jackson again and again, only to be stopped.
But hopefully that has all changed by picking up Josh McDaniels. Shurmur was a Spagnuolo guy, someone who was elevated by him and was part of his staff from the beginning. McDaniels on the other hand, is the exact opposite, and somewhat of a control freak (judging by the insane personnel decisions he made in Denver). While he shouldn't be given free reign, but hopefully it will light a fire under Spagnuolo. Too often the Rams choked on chances to take the lead, or put up that final cushion TD to seal the win.
That is the second to last key: the Rams, while showing much higher morale than in recent years, still lack that killer instinct, whether it be because of players, or coaches (both groups are mostly inexperienced, which may be a factor).
Hopefully, Josh McDaniels will change that. From everything we've seen on video (which I think isn't as much as he's seen, if you catch my drift) it might just change.