Week 12 perspective recap
There's a conversation we need to have about Jared Goff. That plus leftovers plus a bit of appreciation for things in general (IT'S CALLED THANKSGIVING FOR A REASON).
FOOTBALL
We’re 68.75% of the way through the fourth season under Los Angeles Rams Head Coach Sean McVay. To this point through 59 regular season games, the Rams are 40-19.
It’s obviously fair to suggest the Rams have been one of the better teams of the last four years. Three winning seasons, two division titles, a Super Bowl appearance and a fourth season on pace for another year above .500 with postseason football to come.
But there’s something stingingly uncomfortable about the wall that Sean McVay cannot enable his team to get over.
Sometimes that wall comes in the form of specific football tactics: a five-man front that disables the wide football that Todd Gurley made special, tight linebackers that negate the run and force McVay to prepare a lightning-fast attack, etc. Sometimes it comes in the form of old adversaries who are clearly comfortable facing McVay like Brian Flores (Miami Dolphins head coach and New England Patriots defensive coordinator) and Robert Saleh (former San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator and…ok, well current Niners DC but give it a couple of weeks).
But every time, that wall manifests in the form of an environment where his offensive system hits adversity. And nearly every time when the system is struggling to create advantageous opportunities, the players on his offense struggle to contribute individual brilliance outside of the system to help. It’s a rerun of a show none of us want to watch where receivers struggle to get open, the line is under constant deconstruction (outside of the brilliance of the late 2018 line) and running backs gasp for space.
And at the center of it is QB Jared Goff.
Since his 0-7 rookie season in what has to have been the absolute worst football internship ever, I’ve generally been higher on Goff than the average Rams fan. Certainly than the average football fan in general. After that rookie year while former Rams great Eric Dickerson was busy suggesting the Rams turn the keys to Sean Mannion, I suggested it was far too early to make any sweeping generalizations about Goff’s capabilities or career summary after just 7 games. After a 2017 turnaround when several authorities covering the Rams suggested Goff was now the best young QB in the game, I suggested it was far too early to make any sweeping generalizations about Goff’s capabilities or career summary after just 23 regular season games and one playoff game. After a brilliant 2018 campaign that saw Goff lead his surging team to a Super Bowl, I suggested he had the best trajectory of any young QB in the league. I still believe that to be true at that time. But 2019 happened. And 2020 is happening.
And there’s a reckoning to be had for Goff.
Part of that reckoning includes the football. The football of so much of the 2019 season, the football against Miami a month back, the football last night. Part of that reckoning includes his chain of supervisors which becomes blunt when you read McVay’s comments yesterday that assigned much of the blame from last night squarely on Goff as his head coach crept right up to the edge of throwing his QB under the bus. And part of that reckoning comes from a fan base that is seeing a large population sour on their franchise QB. What used to be an unassailable majority that backed the former #1 overall pick is turning into a fractured fan primary that pits supporters willing to sweep Goff’s limitations under the rug against Rams fans frustrated to not have a QB who can single-handedly propel his team to success in the face of systemic disavantage against a mushy middle of fans who like Goff and want him to succeed but are painfully willing to accept what is becoming unwaveringly evident.
There are five regular season games remaining in 2020. There’s a reckoning to be had.
Just not yet.
Injuries
Not sure anything got picked up from an injury standpoint. The 49ers had four players interrupt the game due to injury to add to their long, long, long, long list of players currently dealing with something on that front.
Hopefully we don’t get any bad news from McVay on this front and the Rams can see guys like TE Tyler Higbee and EDGE Terrell Lewis on the mend as we head toward Week 13.
Performance Issues
Not going to pile on to Goff here. It’s worth letting fans have time to react to yesterday and things in general.
A couple random observations.
For one, if we were going to map out how Joseph Noteboom would have replaced Andrew Whitworth at left tackle, this would have been about as much as we could’ve asked for in all earnestness.
Secondly, this defense is just very, very good. Yes, the star power of DL Aaron Donald and CB Jalen Ramsey is undeniable. They’re the best two players on the team, and I’m not even sure who’s third but whoever it is isn’t very close to those two. Most teams could just fill in the gaps around Donald and Ramsey and call it a day, but the Rams have more talent than just gap fillers. The secondary is littered with talent. And EDGE Leonard Floyd has found a very good fit for him. The defense needs pass rushing talent in a bad, bad way, but (a) that’s a task for the offseason and (b) looking at a defense with Donald and Ramsey and saying, “Okay, but I need more” is just being a dick.
Lastly, there’s plenty of talk about McVay and the systemic work he puts in and how much that affects, well, everything. There’s plenty of talk about how Goff is a system QB who is both limited by McVay’s constraints but also able to empower its strengths. But there should probably be a bit of an acknowledgement that the Rams are also limited at wide receiver. As good as Robert Woods and Cooper Kupp are (and as good as I think Van Jefferson could be), neither is a physical force. None have the kind of speed to undo the deep lid of defenses. They don’t have the physical traits to allow them to dominate in man coverage, and they don’t have the tactical skill to dominate in tight ball situations like a Julio Jones or DeAndre Hopkins. That’s not to suggest Woods and Kupp aren’t “good.” They’re fantastic. And they’re reliable. But they’re also not the kind of targets that can help bail out Goff on a night when he needs to be bailed out.
Standings
There’s not a ton to really put effort into analyzing here. It’s going to be a war that will take us likely to the last two games to sort out and maybe all the way to Week 17.
The only teams we can entirely take out of playoff contention at this point are the Atlanta Falcons, Carolina Panthers and Detroit Lions. With the New Orleans Saints and Green Bay Packers out so far in front in the NFC South and North, that leaves wild card spots as the only hope for the rest of those divisions and those first three teams are just too far off the mark by now. You’ve got all of the NFC East still battling for their handout. That leaves everyone with five wins and up fighting for the wild card spots.
FOOD
We’re coming out of the best food holiday on the calendar, so I shouldn’t be the one adding much here.
I will say I think I’m starting to believe that Thanksgiving leftovers are perhaps better than Thanksgiving itself, but that’s also because there’s so little flexibility on Thanksgiving. Thanksgivings require plates of giant brown mounds of meat and stuffing or dressing and potatoes and gravy. Once you’re beyond Thursday’s limitations though, you can actually create.
And boy can you create.
Sandwiches, soups, pastas, casseroles. You can’t lose.
I made this casserole last year, and it was fantastic.
It’s got the best parts of turkey tetrazzini with a couple slight buffers to make it a fantastic way to start December.
FUCKERY
Well, first I should apologize. I haven’t written as much as I would’ve liked to either here in the newsletter or on the site. But that apology is due to professional circumstances. New job, new life and all that. It’s amazing how things can change on a dime like a Marshall Faulk cut. All the sudden you’re getting up to be on the 5am call to sync midday with the Polish team so that you can have due outs ready for 9am when the full American team comes online. And you just do it.
On the other hand, it’s now about to be December 2020. The weirdest, worst, most mentally dangerous year any of us have ever lived. There’s almost no way to put this year into perspective. We’ve pushed a football game from Thanksgiving to yesterday and then again to tomorrow because so many players have contracted a virus that is spreading throughout the entire country but also because we’re not willing to not have the game played.
We’re stuck in this weird crevasse between before and after in an existence that is almost entirely defined by this disease. Everything from our economy to our politics to our media to our culture is being primarily shaped by the effects of this pandemic, and we’re still barely defining the way out. Sure, news on the vaccine front is great. But that doesn’t really establish a great timeline for production, distribution, usage and the ultimate timeline of a return to economic, political, media and cultural normalcy. We’re on the verge of an eviction crisis that is sure to occur before that return to normalcy. As a country, we’re going to owe somewhere in the neighborhood of $70b in overdue rent.
There’s just nothing functional we can do as a country to avoid the crushing weight of the situation we’re in. It’s too late to create structural, systemic changes to an economy that underpays so many of us. And it’s too late to improve political institutions to serve a majority of Americans instead of the richest, most institutionally ingrained among us.
We’re already here. Time just caught up with us. And the last page of the calendar can’t be flipped.
Okay, well that was fucking depressing, and I don’t want to end the newsletter that way. Time for BTH Thanksgiving.
It’s been a wacky year. We started BTH to have some fun as a bunch of exiled Rams fans needing somewhere to keep talking. I’m really thankful that everyone is still around to read the newsletter, to listen to the podcast and to hang out with us on Twitter and Instagram and whatnot.
Thanks to the BTH crew too. My dudes.
And thanks to football for existing. For all its faults and for all the NFL’s mismanagement, it’s still glorious.
And I’m thankful we get to enjoy it.
I Ramnchop, have been on the Goff train since he was tortured as a rookie by Jeff Fisher and Kase Keenumb in the last half of the 2016 Season. Goff vastly improved in 2017 and 2018. Then there came the SB LIII collapse against an inferior NE team. Goff has never recovered from that debacle, and may never recover. At least I no longer think he has a bright future with the Rams. As Yogi Berra once said; “90% of the game is half mental.” Right there is where Jared Goff fails. His problem is that he doesn’t have a true NFL QB brain. There’s no Rodgers, Warner, Wilson, etc. mental wizardry upstairs in Goff. While he certainly possesses the physical attributes of height, a strong arm and ability to take a hit, the man can’t think quickly and efficiently when things on the gridiron don’t go exactly as planned. After 5 seasons it’s time to help Goff move on and try for success on another NFL team. Maybe he’ll recover and be a late bloomer like two time SB Champ Jim Plunkett. Doubtful, but the facts are that the Rams need a tough, grizzled and “NFL smart“ QB to succeed. Where do we get this guy and how do we pay him? I have no clue. Whatever, I’ve disembarked from the Goff train. The Rams’ troubles are not all on Jared Goff, but he’s a major part of the problem. Sad.