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- Positives: Defense dominated as the Rams sacked Josh Freeman five times and picked him off four times, including Janoris Jenkins' third pick-six of the season. Great pass protection - Sam Bradford was not sacked for the first time in 30 games. Steven Jackson scored a TD and pulled within 10 yards of 1,000 for the eighth year in a row. Big-play... Lance Kendricks? Even punter Johnny Hekker had a super game.
- Negatives: Craig Dahl trying to tackle anyone, ever. 196 yards passing isn't very good against Tampa Bay. And there's only one game left in the season.
The Rams are off to Seattle to finish the season. The Seahawks are 10.5-point favorites. The last time the Rams were that big an underdog, it was +11.5 at the 49ers, and they tied.
* (Non)transactions: the Rams are apparently still a man short on the practice squad. I have seen no report of a transaction to fill the spot opened when they promoted Quinton Pointer. (He took Harvey Dahl's main roster spot when Harvey went on IR.)
* Pro Football Weekly is as surprised as everyone else that Rams' OC Brian Schottenheimer is supposed to be a candidate to be a head coach somewhere else next season. Not that Schotty has been bad here at OC. But there's still work to be done. Like I said in last week's recap, the Rams should make a playoff game or two, or Sam Bradford should make a Pro Bowl or two, before the Rams' offensive staff becomes the cradle of NFL head coaches. (Not that it stopped the Browns.)
* Pro Bowl rosters will be announced tonight. I wouldn't expect any Rams to get invited to Hawaii without someone else opting not to go. Steven Jackson should be closest, but I'd figure him behind Adrian Peterson, Marshawn Lynch, and probably Doug Martin, though Martin's tailed off like Lance Kendricks trying to run 80 yards. I wouldn't put anyone else ahead of Jackson, certainly not Frank Gore after he f*cked my fantasy championship this weekend. Alfred Morris should be in the picture, too, but that would be kind of mean, since I consider him to basically be young Steven Jackson. If you're going to invite someone, invite the original!
The other Ram I'd say has a shot at the Pro Bowl is Greg Zuerlein, not because he deserves it, but because he got a lot of his best hype around the time Pro Bowl balloting started. He wouldn't even be the right rookie kicker to send to the game; Blair Walsh deserves the honor. I guess I shouldn't count out Janoris Jenkins or Cortland Finnegan, but the Bears and Seahawks should pick up a lot of support back there, probably Patrick Peterson as well.
* The NFL released salary cap and franchise-player numbers for 2013 today. NFL.com article
The total cap will be $121 million. Danny Amendola would cost the Rams $8.7 million if they use the transition tag on him, $10.357 million if they franchise him. One of several puzzles Les Snead will have to figure out this coming offseason.
* Ex-Rams update:
- The Browns promoted Thaddeus Lewis to the main roster.
- The 49ers cut Alex Hoffman-Ellis.
- The Jets cut Mardy Gilyard.
- Brit Miller tried out with the Browns but was not signed.
- Daniel Muir tried out with the Lions but was not signed. They recently IR'ed Nick Fairley.
* Ex-Ram of the week: as you might guess if you've observed this blog for any amount of time, I'm more than a little lazy, so I'll be lazy this week and just hand the award to Josh Brown without checking all the boxscores very carefully. Josh hit the game-winning FG for the Bengals in their big 13-10 win at Pittsburgh, which means he'll be kicking for them in the playoffs. Best of luck.
-$-
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