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I remember January 15, 2004.
I remember watching the St. Louis Rams lose to the Atlanta Falcons. And I remember at no time thinking that would be the last time the Rams would be in the playoffs for more than a decade.
The Rams wandered through eras led by Mike Martz and Scott Linehan and Steve Spagnuolo. None finished with sufficient talent on the roster to produce results.
Jeff Fisher’s tenure was different. The Rams built up the roster on the back of a monster trade in the 2012 NFL Draft. They sat on the precipice of climbing on the other side of history, of finally getting back to winning football. It never happened. It was never going to happen.
New Head Coach Sean McVay was too young, too inexperienced.
Jared Goff was a bust.
The defense was too inconsistent.
There were plenty of reasons for observers to discount the 2017 Rams’ chances in August. And at the time, they were legitimate. They were based on a rational observation of where the team was at the team and what they were coming out of.
But the 2017 Los Angeles Rams have been irrational from the start.
McVay helped turn the worst scoring offense in the NFL into it’s best in a single season’s time, the first time in the modern era that’s happened.
Goff has settled into his coach’s system with a plethora of new, talented targets to work with throwing seven interceptions, as he did in 2016. He’s also thrown another 23 touchdowns to go with them.
And that defense? Defensive Coordinator Wade Phillips has turned them into one of the better units in the league while finishing fourth in sacks on the strength of the group as a whole.
I remember January 15, 2004.
I’ll remember January 6, 2018.
The Rams have made it back to the playoffs and have finally been reborn as a franchise.
It’s time.
Location
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles, CA
Date/Time
Saturday, January 6, 8:15pm ET / 5:15pm PT
TV
NBC
Play-By-Play: Al Michaels; Color Analyst: Cris Collinsworth; Sideline Reporter: Michelle Tafoya
Online Streaming
Radio
National (English): Westwood One - Sports USA
Play-By-Play: Kevin Harlan; Color Analyst: Kurt Warner; Sideline Reporter: Scott Kaplan
Local (English): ESPN 710 AM, 100.3 The Sound FM
Play-By-Play: J.B. Long; Color Analyst: Maurice Jones Drew; Sideline Reporter: D’Marco Farr
Local (Spanish): ESPN Deportes 1330 AM
Play-By-Play: Troy Santiago; Color Analyst: Ricardo Lopez