Wow, what a heartbreaking way to lose.  23-20 in overtime.  I must say though, there’s definitely a lot of fight in this Rams team, and compared to the past couple of years where the teams had more talent but less drive, it’s definitely appreciated to see the Blue & Gold leave it all on the field.

Some news of the week – Will Witherspoon got traded to the Eagles for a rookie WR who hasn’t caught a pass yet and a 5th round pick.  All signs point to a true rebuilding year and some faith in the development of young WRs.  I was unaware that teams could trade after all of the week 6 games had been played, but I guess teams have until the end of the week to pull moves off.  Don’t quote me on that – it’s just my guess as to how it worked out.  According to Billy Devaney, Brandon Gibson (the WR who was traded for) will be expected to contribute quickly.  And there’s only a few reasons why the Rams would pull the trigger on this move:

- Witherspoon was going to be released at the end of the season and now they can get something in return for him,

- He hadn’t been very productive after a terrific training camp and seeing as he got banged up Sunday they figured to cut their losses and see what young talent they have to work with,

- The Rams were just waiting on the right offer the whole time and didn’t reveal it to anyone.

I think it was more of options 1 and 2, but this move is still questionable as the LB depth had been weak before, but I believe David Vobora will be coming back from his suspension soon and they promoted a practice squad LB to the active roster.  I hope Gibson pans out well early, but this move just screams to me that Devaney and Coach Spags are doing a complete roster overhaul and essentially giving up on this season.  And after the painful loss they had Sunday, with the Colts looming for Week 7, I can’t say I blame them.  Tough times at Rams Park, but there’s still analysis of the game to go.  We’ll start with the Good because there was plenty to go around.

The Good – We had a 10-6 lead going into halftime.  We had a 17-13 lead going into the last chunk of the game.  We came back and drove successfully with little time left for the game tying field goal.  The team wanted to win the ball game and really put out a tremendous effort.  When they needed key plays for most of the game, they got them – forcing a fumble when the Jags were deep in Rams territory, getting an interception in the redzone and Leonard Little’s amazing interception returned for a touchdown in the 4th quarter showed the grit this team has earned.

A quick note on Leonard’s big TD – the guy had strep throat.  Not only did he go play in a professional football game when guys who work 9-5’s would have called in sick, but he made the play of the day for the Rams.  Plays like this show that the team hasn’t given up and are buying into Coach Spags’ system.  Leonard made one hell of a play, period, let alone for him being sick.  Kudos to you, Leonard.

Back to the Good – Marc Bulger killed on the opening drive, finishing with a TD pass to Donnie Avery.  Avery is what we thought he would be, a good receiver in the making.  But he did get hurt again and he’s the sole outside weapon the Rams have.  He’s got to stay healthy and in the game.  The offensive line protected Bulger very well, and this is their second straight game where the pass blocking has been good, so perhaps the whole thing about the line gelling is working (at least for pass protection).  Steven Jackson continues to be a horse, but what is it going to take for him to reach the endzone???!?!  It just makes little sense at this point.  James Laurinaitis got another interception, and the defensive line was pressuring David Garrard all day and harassing him.  Josh Brown drilled field goals of 52 and 27 yards, the second one being the game tying one, and both being huge for his confidence as he’s had a shaky season thus far.  The biggest thing to take away here is the effort – this team is putting it out there, and at some point they will get over the hump.

The Bad – The run blocking was subpar.  Jackson had to grind out his 50 yards on the ground, and while the o-line is doing well at pass blocking, they just don’t seem to fire off and open lanes – more like get in people’s way.  That’s what the WRs do – not the offensive line.  The injury list just seemed to go on forever, with Avery, Witherspoon, Ron Bartell, James Hall and Justin King all going out at some point due to injury.  It’s tough when there’s not a lot of talent and the talented guys are getting hurt.  Bulger wasn’t fantastic but he wasn’t poor either in his first start after his shoulder injury.  But with no Avery to throw to, it gets difficult to work an offense that still has developing receivers.

An aside – I know the West Coast offense doesn’t need amazing receivers to work, but does anybody think that there might be a difference between the Eagles and the Rams in terms of WR talent or maybe coaching?  Both squads had no name receivers and good QBs and a franchise RB, but the Eagles (from like 2001-2006) always were in ball games and Donovan McNabb seemed to kill defenses.  Maybe you CAN’T just plug in any old receiver into this system and make it work.

Back to the Bad – Maurice Jones-Drew ate up the defense for over 100 yards rushing and 3 TDs.  Mike Sims-Walker (what’s with all the hyphenated names?!) had 9 grabs for over 100 yards receiving.  Torry Holt, in his first game against the team that he made his Hall of Fame career with, torched the Rams for over 100 yards receiving for the first time in a couple of years.  David Garrard threw for over 300 yards.  The Rams were able to force those turnovers, certainly, but they let the Jags get up and down the field on them.  Add in a couple of dropped picks and it’s a bad day in many ways for the defense.  And super reliable Donnie Jones had a bad day punting.  Weird.

The Questionable – This category is obviously for the call Spags made to go for a FG with 7 seconds left instead of taking one more shot at the endzone from the Jags’ 9.  I respect the call he made.  This isn’t Madden, where unless you have like 3 seconds left you take a shot.  In real life, anything could have happened.  But a part of me wishes he would have taken the shot.  The team hasn’t won a game, a quick slant pattern on one side and an out route on the other so Bulger can throw the ball away cleanly might have been a good idea, but the team hasn’t won a game.  Part of me does wonder how fired up the offense would have been to know Spags asked them to win the game.  Or at least not lose it.  But I do understand and respect the call, because one botched snap, one tipped pass, one fumbled ball (and we’ve seen enough of those in the redzone) and the game ends 20-17.  At least with OT, the offense gets a chance to win the game without having to think about not losing it (though they never got the chance).  The call was conservative, just like his coaching style.  So it was to be expected, even with a timeout to spare.

The Ugly – It wasn’t that we lost.  It was how we lost.  This was a very winnable game.  I pegged this game, the Redskins game, and the Lions game as possible wins for the first half of the season.  9-7 loss to the Redskins, 23-20 loss to the Jags, I can’t whiff on all 3, right?  But what was ugly was the last drive for the Jags that won the game.  They ate up the Rams, converting when needed and showing they knew what it took to get the win and the Rams just might not have had anything left in the tank.  It’d been 5 grueling weeks of loss after loss, and after all of that effort they still couldn’t win.  In this case, they didn’t find a way to lose – the Jaguars beat them.  And that’s just a horrible and ugly way to lose a football game.

Looking ahead to the Indianapolis Colts, who are well-rested following their Week 6 bye, the Rams will probably lose unless Peyton Manning gets knocked out of the game early.  Seriously.  All the big football people have been saying Manning is at his best right now, and he’s going against a porous Rams pass defense that’s banged up.  Defensive Coordinator Ken Flajole has his work cut out for him.