2039 season
We get off to a rather sluggish start at 1-2, and lose Dwight Fisk for a few weeks in the third game, a loss to 3-0 Carolina. Kenyon Palm gets the call, and will get another shot at leading the offense – I think I have settled on him as “our guy” and the future at QB, over Artie “the Smarty” McDaniel. They are both on their way to being good – I will hope to get a trade offer for McDaniel soon, but expect to groom Palm as the next starter here.
We run the ball well to help Palm out to two wins – he is now 3-0 as a starter. We get Fisk back, tear off a couple more wins, and end up knotted with Arizona to get to our halfway point. A check on the team stats:
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2039 Summary for St. Louis Rams
Record: 5-2-1
Winning Pct.: .687
St. Louis Rams Team Rank
Rushes 248 1
Rushing Yards 1032 3
Yards Per Carry 4.16 9
Pass Attempts 231 24 (T)
Completions 135 26
Passing Yards 1776 13
Yards Per Attempt 7.68 7
3rd Down Conversions 40.9 21
Points Per Game 21.3 13
Turnovers 6 5
Turnover Margin +6 5 (T)
Opponents Team Rank
Rushes 221 23
Rushing Yards 874 23
Yards Per Carry 3.95 15 (T)
Pass Attempts 288 29
Completions 160 20 (T)
Passing Yards 1822 20
Yards Per Attempt 6.32 6
3rd Down Conversions 47.8 27
Points Per Game 17.2 8
Turnovers 12 8 (T)
Well, this is mostly the stat line we are used to seeing – we run the ball often and pretty well, we are efficient passing, and we are darned tough to pass against. Our run defense could use some shoring up, but on balance – not bad. Good to se our turnover margin in the plus so far, for a change. We have racked up some injuries, but overall are managing okay.
We get past the worry over a half-game season with our tie, by tying San Francisco in the next game, slipping to 5-2-2. That put us one game and a half behind… well, Seattle of course. We go up to Seattle, and are without RB Dave Burns for the first time in his tenure – he is now out for the season. We will use FB Barrett as our primary ball carrier, with Robert Lavelli as the reserve. Might get tough. For backup, we sign veteran Kendrick Anderson, who will probably go into the depth chart at #3, but might overtake Lavelli if he struggles.
With a 21-16 win at Seattle, we get back into the hunt, just a half game back. Roger Barrett rumbled for 131 yards – his best game to date, easily. We grind out 230 yards rushing in the next game, a win over Cleveland, and are actually looking pretty sharp. But we lose on the road to Dallas, and that puts us a full game behind Seattle again.
Now, we lose S Joey Beecroft to an injury – awful to see that. The team is literally falling apart – we have had to place two more running backs onto IR, and have hoboes off the street wearing jerseys in the 20s and 30s. It’s crazy. But we keep playing pretty well, regardless.
We are 8-3-2, and travel to face Arizona, who are 8-4-1, a half game behind us. We need to win to at least keep pace with Seattle – a loss here basically eliminates us, we suspect. We pound them, 30-7, and are gleeful as we see Seattle lose to San Francisco – as of right now, we are on top of the division, with two games to play.
We are home for Cincinnati, and then stay home for Seattle – we are in control. This game I much like last year’s week 16 debacle against Oakland – except we manage to squeak out a 26-23 win at the whistle, literally. So, the tale is set for the season finale – home to Seattle, but it’s anticlimactic – Seattle lost their last two games, and now has fallen to 10-5. We are the division winners already! We’re going to have to play in the wild card round either way – so this game actually is close to meaningless. Disappointing, but good news regardless.
Kenyon Palm leads us to yet another win in the finale, and we lock up a curious but solid 11-3-2 record. That’s good enough for the #4 seed in the conference – so we will get a home playoff game, for a change.
Code:
2039 Summary for St. Louis Rams
Record: 11-3-2
Winning Pct.: .750
St. Louis Rams Team Rank
Rushes 521 1
Rushing Yards 2315 2
Yards Per Carry 4.44 3
Pass Attempts 477 32
Completions 296 30
Passing Yards 3655 15
Yards Per Attempt 7.66 7 (T)
3rd Down Conversions 46.1 5
Points Per Game 24.0 1
Turnovers 16 4 (T)
Turnover Margin +8 7 (T)
Opponents Team Rank
Rushes 423 7
Rushing Yards 1616 5
Yards Per Carry 3.82 8
Pass Attempts 562 27 (T)
Completions 321 13
Passing Yards 3661 15
Yards Per Attempt 6.51 8
3rd Down Conversions 43.8 20
Points Per Game 17.6 9
Turnovers 24 13 (T)
Week Team Versus Oppnt
1 21 SFO 24
2 30 at PIT 10
3 21 CAR 24
4 17 at DET 13
5 16 GBY 10
6 27 CHI 21
7 22 at MIN 19
8 17 ARI 17
10 27 at SFO 27
11 21 at SEA 16
12 34 at CLE 13
13 13 at DAL 20
14 28 BAL 18
15 30 at ARI 7
16 26 CIN 23
17 34 SEA 20
$$WC PHI
Passing Pos Att Comp Yards Y/Att TD Int
9 Fisk QB 392 249 3164 8.07 21 9
8 Palm QB 85 47 491 5.77 5 0
**Team --- 477 296 3655 7.66 26 9
Rushing Pos Att Yards Y/Att TD
44 Barrett FB 183 848 4.63 8
47 Burns RB 167 703 4.20 3
28 Anderson RB 54 253 4.68 2
9 Fisk QB 35 173 4.94 1
34 Lavelli RB 35 142 4.05 1
**Team --- 521 2315 4.44 15
Receiving Pos Targ Catch Yards Y/Ctc YAC TD
44 Barrett FB 85 58 530 9.1 233 6
85 Peterson TE 101 57 678 11.8 179 3
45 Henson WR 63 39 574 14.7 83 4
81 Patter WR 63 36 505 14.0 67 5
84 Groll WR 55 33 561 17.0 92 6
27 Donovan WR 44 26 462 17.7 47 2
47 Burns RB 27 21 183 8.7 46 0
**Team --- 477 296 3655 12.3 834 26
Defense Pos Tack Asst Sack Hurr Ints Defn
91 Keith ILB 107 31 1.0 4 0 4
90 Jeffries ILB 74 41 0.0 1 0 4
55 Maltman OLB 73 18 6.0 7 1 16
39 Shaw CB 69 15 0.0 0 3 28
25 Beecroft S 68 29 2.0 0 3 12
41 Bush CB 43 14 1.0 0 2 12
26 Holmes S 42 21 0.0 0 1 4
99 Wire DT 40 19 4.5 18 0 1
94 Swift ILB 35 13 1.0 2 0 2
37 Kingsblood CB 34 14 0.0 1 3 3
76 Zawilinski DE 33 13 3.0 3 0 0
98 Reader ILB 27 10 0.0 0 0 2
29 Schofer CB 24 11 0.0 0 1 7
71 O'Connell DT 23 21 6.5 12 0 0
57 Guarino OLB 19 7 0.0 0 0 2
**Team --- 832 291 33.0 64 14 100
Well, I’ll start with FB Roger Barrett – who might have just put together one of the best seasons that will go completely under the radar that we’ll see. He probably will earn a pro bowl berth as a FB, but this was an effort worthy of anything we have gotten from any HB, as well – 4.6 yard a carry is great, and over 6 yards per pass thrown his way isn’t bad, either. He’s not a home run threat, but certainly helps the offense stay on the field. He made $2 million this year – more than I am ever inclined to pay a fullback. How much do we pay him next year? Do we slot him as the top ball carrier, and let our halfbacks do crap like return punts and stuff? I’m open to that…
Dwight Fisk had one of his best seasons, with a passer rating of 96. he is not a gaudy number guy in this offense, but steadily completes 63% of his passes, and wins games too. Kenyon Palm still has yet to (1) lose a game he started, or (2) throw an interception in a real game. QB position seems fine, thanks.
Portly Irv Peterson is the most productive guy we have had at TE on this team, I think – he saw 100 passes partially due to the dearth of quality receivers, but still he made a lot out of them. WR Tommy Henson is on the team as a leader and utility guy – I’m surprised he ended up leading the WR corps in catches, but he is a very able fill-in when guys get injured, and he started 6 games this year at split end for Patter – and ended up with 39 catches on the season.
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Blocking Statistics
Player Pos Team GP GS KRB KRO BPct SkA PPly SPct RPly OPct
Singleton, Shaun G STL 16 16 59 123 47.9 3 494 0.6 511 24.0
Woods, Walt T STL 16 16 37 89 41.5 1 493 0.2 509 17.4
Bullock, Drew C STL 16 16 29 61 47.5 1 494 0.2 519 11.7
Fattel, Kurt T STL 16 16 28 84 33.3 6 492 1.2 513 16.3
Collier, Nate T STL 13 12 17 44 38.6 6 375 1.6 372 11.8
Erickson, D.J. C STL 16 4 8 19 42.1 0 119 0.0 151 12.5
Peterson, Portly Irv TE STL 16 15 6 18 33.3 0 391 0.0 437 4.1
Borders, William FB STL 14 3 5 11 45.4 0 162 0.0 173 6.3
Barrett, Roger FB STL 16 14 3 12 25.0 0 339 0.0 391 3.0
Halsey, Nate FB STL 2 2 2 4 50.0 0 37 0.0 42 9.5
Cunningham, Edward TE STL 16 0 2 5 40.0 0 118 0.0 160 3.1
Fecht, Kirk C STL 3 0 1 2 50.0 0 0 0.0 9 22.2
Hopper, Sammy G STL 8 0 1 3 33.3 0 3 0.0 21 14.2
This season ended up being another great performance from G Shaun Singleton, as he set a new high for run blocks. We gave up only 17 sacks – again, among the very best in the league. Nobody was really disappointing – Kurt Fattel (playing out of position at LG and RT) was the weakest link, and his season was certainly solid. Drew Bullock really doesn’t have much left in terms of pure skill – but he continues to put forth very solid numbers playing at either C or G. You can pay a lot of salary for a guy to be your superstar OL, and not ever get a year with 47.5% KRBs and 0.2% sacks allowed.
On defense, Jimmie Keith has established himself as the main inside force for us – Jeffries is now an injury-prone contributor, but not the dominant force he used to be. Dan Maltman is a great do-everything guy for us, and is in for the long haul, I think. I am pleased with our linebacking corps, including young guys Quinn and Swift, both of whom ought to fit in okay as time goes on.
Up front, we had to do a lot of rotating, to handle injuries – we just need more guys up there, period. Gerald Wire can’t stay in place, and neither of the old guys we brought aboard gave us a full season – we were patching all the way. LB Maltman will be starting at DE I the playoffs, since we are way too stretched already – and that’s a waste of his coverage skills, really (another year with double digit passes defensed).
The secondary again held opponents to s low yards per attempt – CB Aaron Shaw took a leap forward with 28 passes defensed, a new team record. Our secondary has been good ever since he arrived – he is no small part of that. Beecroft played well, and will be back for the playoffs, and I like the season we got from Orlando Kingsblood, a versatile guy who can play any DB position, I’m convinced.
We have to be looking at this as a great opportunity – banged up as we are, we still have a home playoff game and a shot to move onward. We’ll pull together, and try to make it happen.