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The St. Louis Rams came tumbling back to Earth last week. Faced with a legitimate defense, the offense found little room to operate after two big wins against lesser units. On the other side of the ball, a Rams secondary got caught spending too much time jawing and not enough time prepping for a rejuvenated 49ers offense. And it dropped them in the weekly power rankings.
Fisher's big talkers went from No. 17 to No. 19 in the weekly rankings at SB Nation. Here's the writeup:
The Rams are a scrappy bunch, and they were able to stand in and trade body blows with the 49ers. When it came time to go up top, however, the Rams found themselves overmatched. Kellen Clemens was high, low and wild for much of the day while the Rams' continued struggles in the secondary translated into Colin Kaepernick's second-best passing day of the season. The Rams will play out the string while looking forward to 2014 - and two first round choices in the 2014 draft. One of those picks could be well used on a cornerback, while a deep QB draft could lead to some front-office soul searching on Sam Bradford's future.
The biggest difference for the offense, to me, was the inability to run. That exposed the passing game. Receivers dropped four catchable balls, and Clemens' throws kept going way too high for anyone to get. Interestingly enough, Clemens wasn't that bad under pressure, well, wasn't any worse when pressured is a better way of saying that.
On defense, well, the problems in the secondary just won't go away.
There's plenty to be positive about through 12 games. If the Rams can iron out those issues, make the right offseason moves and get the young players more experience, things should really be looking up in 2014.