TMQ can suck it

Gregg Easterbrook mentions the Rams for probably the first time in three years (one year, his whole preseason preview of the Rams was two lines long) in his famous on-line column at ESPN.com, and it's to criticize the fans...

"Worst Crowd Reaction: St. Louis spectators have gotten out of practice watching football played properly. Les Mouflons leading San Diego 17-10 with 4:44 remaining, facing third-and-13 on the Bolts' 29, St. Louis coaches called a draw that gained 2 yards. Home spectators booed loudly. But a rush ensured the clock kept moving, and grinding the clock is essential to endgame strategy. The Rams launched a field goal on the next snap for a 20-10 lead; San Diego scored a quick touchdown, then kicked deep rather than onside; St. Louis was able to drain the rest of the clock for the win."

Dear Gregg: The clock had stopped the play BEFORE, because Pat Shurmur had called a pass from the Chargers 20 and Jason Brown committed a holding penalty. Why not analyze the unwiseness of that call instead of taking a cheap shot at St. Louis fans? Having now made the potentially-clinching FG attempt far more difficult, Shurmur followed that call with the same conservative middle run he'd been calling THE ENTIRE SECOND HALF while the Rams' 17-point lead melted down to a one-score difference. And it failed like it had all half.

Boo! Rams fans were certainly entitled to (though I didn't, choosing instead to try to send positive vibes to our kicker). The crowd saw the game in jeopardy because of a half of bad play-calling and spoke its mind. We couldn't trust Josh Brown with a 36-yard FG in Oakland, now Shurmur was leaving it to him to hit from 48. And we know four minutes and three timeouts is plenty left for a comeback by the high-powered San Diego offense. Hell, it took them all of one minute to reduce the lead to three! By not running the previous play, Shurmur failed to take an additional 45 seconds off the clock, failed to burn up one of San Diego's timeouts and left Brown a much more difficult task to put the game out of reach. We're supposed to be happy about that because the clock is still running? What's so superior in your mind about the clock management the way those plays were called?

You go back to complaining about governors taking their security details with them on overseas trips and leave criticisms like this to people who actually watched the game, mm-kay?