Fanview: January 11, 2022

By Joe Torosian —

“When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.”—1 Corinthians 13:11

Kick it!

Well, not really.

When I was a kid, the Rams, Dodgers, Lakers, USC football, USC basketball, and the Los Angeles Kings were everything. 

When these teams lost, it hurt. It was downright painful to the soul. 

Thinking back to Chuck Knox’s initial run with the Rams and the first season with Ray Malavasi (1973-78), any loss was reacted to as if somebody had died—weekends were ruined. You didn’t watch Monday Night Football’s halftime highlights. You tried to open the sports section without looking at the front page. You avoided Bud Furillo and Tommy Hawkins on 790 KABC. The most pain you could stand was Jim Healy at 5:30 (570 KLAC & 710 KMPC)…and that was because Healy was too rich of a listen.

The Rams returned to earth with seven losses during the 1979 season, and some maturity came into our lives…But I still feel deep emotion about Super Bowl 14.

During my first full season watching the Lakers—Elmore Smith at center—I learned that you weren’t going to always win. The Kings always struggled with broken sticks at critical times. And after the Dodgers lost the 1974 World Series, the Big Red Machine took over, and then it was the Yankees.

As time went on, I moved on. USC football went on probation. Stan Morrison would recruit talent to USC basketball and then drive them all away (See Purvis Miller, Ken Johnson, Gerry Wright).

I matured through the 80s and 90s, gradually easing back on my fan throttle as I entered adulthood. I still rooted for these teams, but their failures didn’t crush me. I moved on.

Except I’ve never been able to do that with the Rams. Even when they went to St. Louis, I couldn’t shake them. They still own me. I was watching Sunday’s game in the RamCave, and I was pacing, yelling, and nervously binge eating things I shouldn’t be eating (don’t tell my wife).

Available on Amazon
“A man who strays from the path of understanding comes to rest in the company of the dead.” –Proverbs 21:16

The Lakers are a joke, I’ve dumped the Dodgers for the Mets, I don’t have time for the Kings, I can’t see enough USC basketball, and USC football hasn’t been the same since Pete Carroll left. (And Trojan football is like a foot without a big toe, and Pete Carroll was that big toe.)

But the Rams are tattooed to my soul.

At this stage of my life. Hair gone gray, married for 30 years, grown children, a mortgage—why still care about any team so deeply?

Anyone got an answer for that?

I’ve waxed on this before, and all I could come up with is fatherhood. The street I grew up on had zero dads. We had a few drunks, a drug addict, a rapist, a gang-banger…but we didn’t have any male role models—I mean zero.

As unhealthy as it is to say, John Hadl, Harold Jackson, Lawrence McCutcheon, Isaiah Robertson, the Youngbloods, Jack Snow, Larry Brooks, and Merlin Olsen became our male role models.

Emotionally we bonded. The chemicals in the brain were released to create a connection demonstrating to be unbreakable.

If somebody wants to help me with this condition, I’d be very grateful. I don’t enjoy Rams games…I stress over them.

I wish I could enjoy a Rams game the way I enjoyed the Chargers-Raiders Sunday night. Timeout, no timeout, tie, or don’t play for the tie…Justin Herbert was phenomenal. Maybe it’s happened before, but I’ve never seen so many aces consecutively delivered on fourth down.

Happy the Raiders made the playoffs. Now, if someone can make sure that when Josh Jacobs gets his playoff cut, the dough gets sent to the eight different women raising his eight children, that would be fantastic. Maybe put some cash away for the expected ninth child.

I didn’t care about the college football game last night. I was rooting for the Crimson Tide because I didn’t have a Georgia tee shirt.  

Next Add Rams: Of course, I will be rooting for them against Arizona next Monday Night. They can win that game (but I think they can lose it too) and then go to Green Bay—where I don’t like their chances.

The Rams’ biggest deficiency—outside of Raheem Morris’ defense—is that they lack a motor. They’re going to war each week with a four-cylinder 1974 Pinto…and when they have to go uphill against a quality team…they just can’t.

As Quint would say, “They’ve got soft-hands. They’ve been counting money all their life.”

Going into Sunday’s game, I hoped that the play of A’Shawn Robinson and Greg Gaines would make a difference this time around—but it didn’t.

I got to thinking about defensive tackle Michael Brockers. Now, Brockers is finished. He didn’t have a great year in Detroit. But in 2020, we didn’t get run on as bad we did this year. I don’t know, but I think Brockers was a little more important than given credit for.

Jared Goff was not important. Matthew Stafford, who threw two picks Sunday, is. Yes, the second pick ended the game. The first pick was an arm-punt that produced no points. But it was Stafford who made all the other critical throws when he wasn’t being sacked five times and hit on 13 different occasions.

As Stafford is being referenced as the problem by the “Horns Up” fanbase, we should look at a stat line. You know, just for fun. 

(YPA=yards per attempt. BTT=big time throws. ADOT=average depth of target. DRP%=Drop percentage—according to Pro Football Focus.)

Remove the arm-punts (long shots downfield that are the equivalent of a punt) and the gift Tyler Higbee handed the 49ers in Week 10, and you get equivalence in interceptions. Stafford suffered more drops, more sacks but averaged more per attempt and average depth of target.

Do you think you were going to get those numbers out of Goff?

Through Week 8, Stafford was sacked seven times. Starting with the Tennessee game (Week 9), he’s been sacked 23 times. One more time than Brady has all season. He had only four picks before the Tennessee contest, but 13 since.

The Rams season average overall in pass blocking was 81. Against the 49ers on Sunday, it was 47.5. In run blocking, the Rams went into Sunday’s game 12th overall in the league. By the end of it, they were dead last.

Stafford’s fault?

Tangent Dreams: A High School Football Novel (Available thru Amazon–click on pic)

Defensively? Overall, they were ranked number one going in. Now we all know they’re good on defense, but the best? (Talk to the Chargers about analytics) They started the game with an 82.5 average according to Pro Football Focus (the Holy Grail of stats) but performed at a 45.4 level. They were listed as 12th in the NFL at the start of the game in tackling at 61%. When it was over, their tackling was listed at 29.5%.

Finally, outside of Aaron Donald and Jalen Ramsey being rated number one at their positions and Von Miller being ranked eighth, not one other defender is ranked higher than 20th at their designated workplace.

Jordan Fuller: 20 out of 94
Taylor Rapp: 43 out of 94
Darious Williams: 54 out of 120
Dont’e Deayon: 36 out of 120
Troy Reeder: 65 out of 88

Last Add Rapp: Taylor Rapp is listed as the 12th best safety in the league at stopping the run. In pass coverage, he’s rated 63rd out of a 100. What makes it worse is that he’s played the sixth most snaps, 1,113, at his position. (Terrell Burgess, anyone?)

But it’s okay because it’s all Stafford’s fault. 

Last Add Defense: Folks are correctly speculating that recently fired Broncos HC Vic Fangio could be the Rams’ next DC. That’s great. Fangio is 63 and not likely to get another opportunity to HC in the NFL.

But the Dolphins also let go of Brian Flores yesterday. Flores is young, respected, and foolishly fired. I’d like to see the Rams go for him. Because if Flores is on staff for one season, the Rams will collect compensatory draft picks when he gets his next gig. And Flores will get another gig.

I don’t want to see Morris fired. I want him to get another HC gig or an upper-level front-office position. Why? Again, compensatory picks. The Rams have proven you don’t need first-round picks to remain relevant, but you do need to hit on the choices from the third round on down.

San Francisco Fans Taking Over SoFi?
This answer is academic. The Rams left for 20 years. I became a Rams fan when I was eight. Someone who was eight when the Rams went to St. Louis was 28 when they came back. They became emotionally connected to other teams. The chemical was released, their sports souls were surrendered.

The Rams will need another ten years and a lot of success to make SoFi a dominant home-field advantage. And even that is iffy because Rams fans, historically, have been some of the worst in the NFL. I consider at least 50% of their current fanbase riff-raff with an allegiance to the show and the flash, but not the team. They are the sports bar types who believe there’s a reasonable confluence of fiesta and game. Gross.

But that’s LA.

The Dude abides…
1,205
2 Corinthians 10:5

Joe T. is the author of “Tangent Dreams: A High School Football Novel” … “Temple City & The Company of The Ages” … “The Dead Bug Tales” … “The Dark Norm” & “FaithViews for Storm Riders”…and, the recently released, “Sin Virus.” All six available through Amazon.com.

www.JoeTorosian.com
jtbank1964@yahoo.com (Join his newsletter)
Follow Joe on Twitter @joet13b
Instagram: @joet13b