Breakfast with Bernie: Rams will make the playoffs

[GreeneCounty]

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/colu...tml_5816cb9e-0ec2-5138-a5ba-5384a5c51214.html

 

[Sum1]

It's about time someone in the media steps up and says the Rams will be a playoff team. It sure seems like there are a bunch of media folks that in their mind think the Rams will be a playoff team but are too scared to say it and cling to the cliche of "the are a good team but play in too tough a division".

Screw all that. Yes, the 49ers and the Seahawks are about as good as it gets. But lets not forget that these 2 teams still look about as good as they have the past 2 seasons...and the Rams have gotten better...and the Rams have beat both of these teams in the past 2 years.

The 49ers and Seahawks have to beat the Rams just as much as the Rams have to beat them.

 

[Mojo Ram]

Ok...which one of you quiet posters is actually Bernie?

 

[Thordaddy]

Okay, "please shut up about it", professional or inflammatory ?

Anyone here wanna be told to shut up even if the word please attempts to make it softer ?

FWIW the complaint that Spags and Devaney have any remaining culpability or credit IMO centers around a known demographic for most playoff caliber teams . Most teams that get deep into the playoffs have a solid 8-10 players in their 4,5,6 years ,.we have about half that so NEXT year IMO the previous regimes track record no longer is fair game .
As far as coming up with a specific number before the season ,I doubt Kroenke has a number he won't adjust based upon events as they unfold so why should anyone else have to state a number.

I don't for an instant think Fisher doesn't get 4 years unless we completely collapse.

 

[Mojo Ram]

Okay, "please shut up about it", professional or inflammatory ?

Anyone here wanna be told to shut up even if the word please attempts to make it softer ?

FWIW the complaint that Spags and Devaney have any remaining culpability or credit IMO centers around a known demographic for most playoff caliber teams . Most teams that get deep into the playoffs have a solid 8-10 players in their 4,5,6 years ,.we have about half that so NEXT year IMO the previous regimes track record no longer is fair game .
As far as coming up with a specific number before the season ,I doubt Kroenke has a number he won't adjust based upon events as they unfold so why should anyone else have to state a number.

I don't for an instant think Fisher doesn't get 4 years unless we completely collapse.

He'll get 5 years

 

[Thordaddy]

He'll get 5 years

Oh I think more and if he doesn't the talent he's assembled will make his successor look like a damned genious.

 

[GreeneCounty]

Fisher had a mess that dig out of that was a joke from last 2 coaching eras.

 

[MrMotes]

I guess Bernie took his banning to heart.

If Fisher puts up a 2 in his 3rd year like Linehan/Haslett and Spags did he might be in trouble. But i have a hard time seeing that happening...

 

[GreeneCounty]

Fisher is a solid coach and he has gather a group of young men that will not quit.

 

[SteveBrown]

Bernie supporting the Rams? It must be 2001....

 

[mr.stlouis]

Looks like I'm breaking through a bit.

 

[Thordaddy]

Looks like I'm breaking through a bit.

Oh yeah take the credit

 

[mr.stlouis]

Oh yeah take the credit

Only partial

 

[Angry Ram]

Bernie supporting the Rams? It must be 2001....

Just wait until next week. :jerkoff:

 

[LesBaker]

I guess Bernie took his banning to heart.

If Fisher puts up a 2 in his 3rd year like Linehan/Haslett and Spags did he might be in trouble. But i have a hard time seeing that happening...

Same here, he just went 7-9 with a backup QB in the harshest division I can ever remember.

 

[Mojo Ram]

I guess Bernie took his banning to heart.

If Fisher puts up a 2 in his 3rd year like Linehan/Haslett and Spags did he might be in trouble. But i have a hard time seeing that happening...

Yeah there's enough talent here now to win 5 games just by showing up IMO...unlike the teams of the last several years that were lucky to score any points at all. much less get a win.
Didn't one of those putrid teams avg less than 7 pts/gm? We were basically kicking two FG's in every game for an entire season.

Brutal.

 

[RamFan503]

Look at Bernie all tanned up and spunky. Looked like he really enjoyed making that piece. Aside from the "shaddup" comment, that was a fun spot.

 

[Rmfnlt]

Just wait until next week. :jerkoff:

You think so?

 

[junkman]

Reading Bernie at the end of 2013 was like reading a non-stop whine-fest. Maybe this last Cards loss has put him in a better mood to put his considerable heft behind the Rams. Nice to see Bernie has re-grown his testicles and made a non-hedged bold and optimistic prediction about the Rams. (which begs the question, would I be so up on Bernie if he made a pessimistic prediction about the Rams... hmm...).

His point about there being a "convergence" is the key thing here.

You start with a team that was 7-9 in 2013 in the toughest division in football despite losing their starting QB and not having an offensive identity for the first 4 games and having a defensive coordinator who was just lost...

• You lose nobody of consequence in the off-season (which is to say, nobody who was not effectively a liability)
• You continue to get "plus" play from vets - CLong, Laurinaitis, WHayes ("repaired" this off-season), Langford (2nd half last year was "plus"), JLong (presuming healthy), Saffold, Cook (perhaps?)
• You add a year of maturation onto all that young ascending talent: Tavon, Quick, Bailey, Stacy, Ogletree, Brockers, Quinn (yes, he'll get better!), JJenkins, TruJo, TJ McD. This is imho the biggest improvement we'll see from 2013.
• You get solid play from others: Kendricks, Barksdale, Dunbar, Givens, Pettis...
• You add four rookie likely day 1 major contributors in Donald, Robinson, Joyner, Mason.
• You add Britt, Davin Joseph, Shaun Hill (upgrade from Clemons), Carrington (upgrade from Conrath)
• You add surprise playmaking from a player or two: Ray Ray, Rodney McLeod, Cory Harkey, Benny Cunningham
• You get Bradford back, where the really seemed like it was coming on before his injury
• You get Gregg Williams who seems like he's ready to turn this defense loose...

The needle on this team is just pointing up, and doing so strongly in so many places, it's hard to not be a bit giddy.

The only past-his-prime and descending player I see on the roster is Wells. Sorry Scott, don't mean to be a h8er, just calling it like I see it! Hopefully he has enough in the tank to groom Robinson at LG and his eventual replacement in BJones or TBarnes.

The only thing we have left to "blame" on the previous regimes is that the talent on this team is "young and ascending" rather than "established". This is the first year that all this talent seems to be "converging", and just like Bernie, I believe it will go well.

 

[SteveBrown]

Reading Bernie at the end of 2013 was like reading a non-stop whine-fest. Maybe this last Cards loss has put him in a better mood to put his considerable heft behind the Rams. Nice to see Bernie has re-grown his testicles and made a non-hedged bold and optimistic prediction about the Rams. (which begs the question, would I be so up on Bernie if he made a pessimistic prediction about the Rams... hmm...).

His point about there being a "convergence" is the key thing here.

You start with a team that was 7-9 in 2013 in the toughest division in football despite losing their starting QB and not having an offensive identity for the first 4 games and having a defensive coordinator who was just lost...

• You lose nobody of consequence in the off-season (which is to say, nobody who was not effectively a liability)
• You continue to get "plus" play from vets - CLong, Laurinaitis, WHayes ("repaired" this off-season), Langford (2nd half last year was "plus"), JLong (presuming healthy), Saffold, Cook (perhaps?)
• You add a year of maturation onto all that young ascending talent: Tavon, Quick, Bailey, Stacy, Ogletree, Brockers, Quinn (yes, he'll get better!), JJenkins, TruJo, TJ McD. This is imho the biggest improvement we'll see from 2013.
• You get solid play from others: Kendricks, Barksdale, Dunbar, Givens, Pettis...
• You add four rookie likely day 1 major contributors in Donald, Robinson, Joyner, Mason.
• You add Britt, Davin Joseph, Shaun Hill (upgrade from Clemons), Carrington (upgrade from Conrath)
• You add surprise playmaking from a player or two: Ray Ray, Rodney McLeod, Cory Harkey, Benny Cunningham
• You get Bradford back, where the really seemed like it was coming on before his injury
• You get Gregg Williams who seems like he's ready to turn this defense loose...

The needle on this team is just pointing up, and doing so strongly in so many places, it's hard to not be a bit giddy.

The only past-his-prime and descending player I see on the roster is Wells. Sorry Scott, don't mean to be a h8er, just calling it like I see it! Hopefully he has enough in the tank to groom Robinson at LG and his eventual replacement in BJones or TBarnes.

The only thing we have left to "blame" on the previous regimes is that the talent on this team is "young and ascending" rather than "established". This is the first year that all this talent seems to be "converging", and just like Bernie, I believe it will go well.

THis is the type of 'ideas' I look for on this board.....your bullets are near perfect, or even near-perfect (1980 grammar)