Well, just like everybody predicted, the St. Louis Rams forced two Peyton Manning turnovers and nullified the high-flying Denver Broncos offence en route to a convincing 22-7 win that has become synonymous with the Rams’ season thus far.
Not surprisingly, veteran QB Shaun Hill showed poise and patience, throwing for 220 yards and a long touchdown to #1 WR Kenny Britt. Not surprisingly, kicker Greg Zuerlein showed off his trademark accuracy and poise, hitting five field goals and outscoring the entire Broncos offence, 15 to 7.
And, perhaps most unsurprisingly of all, the Rams benefited from solid efforts from the offence, defence and special teams, all in the same game.
Uh, what?! Snark aside, the Rams seem to exist this season solely to prove pundits and “insiders” wrong. They seem to only show up when the games matter and when a big name alone is enough bulletin board material to go out and dominate.
And make no mistake about it: the Rams dominated.
Besides solid efforts from Hill, Zuerlein and Britt, safety T.J. McDonald remained Mr. Consistent in the backfield, making his area of the field mostly a dead ball zone throughout the game – culminating, of course, in a pair of deadly hits on Broncos WRs Emmanuel Sanders and Andre Caldwell.
(On a more downtrodden tone, hope the concussion Sanders suffered isn’t too serious. Hate seeing a player get hung out to dry like that.)
LB Alec Ogletree was also firing on all cylinders, collecting 10 tackles to go with two pass deflections and a pick. And of course, it wouldn’t be a Rams game without DT Aaron Donald doing something noteworthy. An absolutely clutch sack on 4th down continued to put Donald square in the Defensive Player of the Year race.
Moving forward, a slate of games against San Diego, Oakland, Washington, Arizona, New York Giants and Seattle suddenly looks a lot less daunting. Is it unreasonable to hope for a 9-7 season at this point?
Schotten-freude moment of the week
The penalty to McDonald on the aforementioned Sanders hit was a complete farce. No contact was made to the head, and the hit was 100 per cent legal and by the book. I wouldn’t expect any player to do differently in his shoes, and as I noted on Twitter at the time, I wish the call were reviewable. We’ve seen the Rams instantly deflate following a bad penalty in past games, but kudos to the team for remaining disciplined, bending without breaking, and forcing Denver to get rid of the ball.
Big, big, big win. Enjoy the high, Rams fans, and let’s hope we can carry the momentum into Qualcomm Stadium next week for a matchup with our ungulate brothers from San Diego.
Battering Rams 