The St. Louis Rams Aren't "A QB Away"

"The St. Louis Rams just need a QB to become a successful team."

It's one of those phrases that's bounced around the media and fans all season. CBS Sports' Pat Kirwan said it yesterday in his power ranking blurb.

It's also not true.

Consider that Kirwan said it yesterday. After Week 16. In which the Rams beat the Seattle Seahawks... That the Rams beat the Seahawks for the second time this season exposes the idea the Rams "need a QB' as a fallacy.

They're winning games without one.

Part of the fallacy is based on how the Rams are built.

As the Seahawks game showed, the Rams win on the back of their defense with a dose of the running game. The passing game isn't anywhere near as important to the Rams as it is to most teams. The Rams are last in total yards per game, but just slightly. They're last in passing yards per game by a wider margin. The team in 31st in passing yards per game? The Minnesota Vikings...who are going to the playoffs.

The other part of the fallacy is based on the overgeneralization of what a "good" QB is.

Somehow, everyone decided that Nick Foles was a "bad" QB. But only in 2015. In 2013 when he threw 27 TDs and 2 interceptions, everyone knew for a fact that he was good. Of course that kind of terminology obscures the context of what makes them "good" or "bad" and absolves any other contributors to that status. That Nick Foles' being "good" in 2013 or "bad" in 2015 might have something to do with his surrounding cast, both in terms of the players or coaching staff, isn't translated in that kind of verbiage. Besides, if it's the case that his, or say Case Keenum's, success or failure relies partly, if not largely, on that surrounding cast, that's the whole point of the fallacy.

Washington's going to the playoffs for the second time since the Rams gave them the #2 overall pick in the 2012 NFL Draft thanks to a weak division in 2015 and the second QB they took in that class.

The New Orleans Saints are yet again shut out of the postseason because, despite their Hall of Fame caliber QB playing like a Hall of Fame caliber QB, they can't play any defense.

Joe Flacco was the Super Bowl MVP one season and leader of one of the NFL's worst offenses the next. Last year, they were in the playoffs. This year they've got five wins, one of which was over the Rams in a grotesque abnormality of a game.

Eli Manning is real.

The Rams aren't a QB away from being able to make the playoffs. That's just an of excuse that absolves Jeff Fisher from bearing the responsibility of having four years to build a successful team and yet again failing to get past .500 by season's end.