In Week 9, the Los Angeles Rams came out of the bye to lose at home to the Carolina Panthers, 10-13.
Throughout the second half, the home crowd chanted for rookie QB Jared Goff to supplant season-long starting QB Case Keenum and even threw in the ultimate troll chant with “Tebow” to make their displeasure with the state of the Rams’ offense heard.
Well, perhaps not heard by everyone.
Rams Head Coach Jeff Fisher said the following after the game:
The fans expect production and execution and points. I totally get that. I’ve been through that before. I totally understand their position on that. I honestly didn’t hear them root for [QB Jared Goff].
That may be true. It may be true that throughout that second half, Fisher was so focused enough on his in-game managerial responsibilities that he tuned out the crowd. It’s impossible though, and I mean this beyond just that post-game question, that he was able to ignore in the days after just like anyone watching that game on TV couldn’t ignore them.
It’s fair to wonder how deeply throughout the Coliseum and into the halls of the franchise offices the echoes rang that day. The Rams hit the road for Week 10 so Sunday will be the first time the team comes back to the Coliseum, the first time they’ll have to face another hostile home crowd.
Had Case Keenum led the offense out on to the field and put up anything close to what we saw against the Jets, it wouldn’t have taken two punts to rile up the crowd.
I’m not saying Jeff Fisher made the call to start Goff over Keenum solely because of this. I’m not saying he was told to.
I’m saying nobody, NOBODY, would have wanted to make a Rams fans base exhausted by the league’s worst scoring offense and 31st-ranked offense in yards, exhausted by 13 years of avoiding a winning season even more upset with more Keenum-led Fisherball.
Goff at least gives them an escape. A reprieve.
Now it’s up to him and the team he’ll lead on Sunday to see how long that reprieve will last.