Predictions: 2017 L.A. Rams Season, Part I

It’s fun making predictions.  And for the most part, relatively harmless unless you’re a meteorologist and miss a BIG storm that damages much and causes great discombobulation (that's a John Madden term!  :-)  )  to the local masses.   

Other than that, predictions gone wrong are mocked for a brief time and then forgotten.  Sent down the proverbial pipe into the bit-bucket,  never to be mentioned again...  

Unless, of course, they’re saved because some goofy dude, feeling highly confident at the time of writing, posted them to the world-wide-interwebs for all to see!

So that’s exactly what I’m going to do for the 2017 L.A. Rams schedule.  Hopefully, I won’t come off as a simple “homer”.  I will provide a bit of thought as to why I predicted as I did and we’ll move closer to my public shaming as we wait for all three people to read it…

Lets get this thing moving. 

Week 1: Indianapolis Colts at L.A. Rams

I picked the Rams to win this one for a few reasons.  The biggest being that I’m typing this up late on Sunday night, July 2^nd and to date, Andrew Luck, the Colts QB, has still NOT thrown a ball since his shoulder surgery in January 2017.  That’s a big deal since he plays behind a truly offensive offensive line.  In that aspect, his career sort of resembles that of David Carr who took a crazy beating behind a porous Texas O-line and set a record for number of sacks endured.

2^nd reason is that the Colts defense in 2016 wasn’t anything to be proud of either!  My thinking is that the Rams improved O-line will press the D-line of the Colts and allow for good running lanes for Gurley, taking the pressure off of Goff.  

The Rams defensive front seven will have a field day against the Colts O-line.  I'm thinking it may even be a smart thing by the Colts to start Scott Tolzien in place of Luck for week 1.

Week 2:  Washington Redskins at L.A. Rams

The Redskins play a home game against the Eagles in week 1, so no big advantage is to be had there, other than they travel across the country in week 2 to play in L.A.  

I also think the Rams hold an advantage over the Redskins since McVay was the O-coordinator there for the last 3 years and as a result of that, knows a good bit about what the Reds’ do on defense.

The Redskins additions of two receivers in particular, are notable;  Terrelle Pryor and Bryan Quick.  Pryor will pay dividends for QB Kirk Cousins and has the ability to absolutely TORCH the Rams secondary.  But then there's Quick. As Rams fans know, he will shave off many benefits that any other receiver adds to the team by dropping balls and running incomplete routes.

Advantage to the at-home Rams.

Week 3: L.A. Rams at San Francisco 49’ers

In the 2016 season, the Niners won two games…  both of those games were against the Rams!  So, if there was any sort of confidence, I have to only remember that and I will quite quickly, come falling back to Earth.

This is one of many non-sense laden Thursday night games.  In week 2, the Niners play up North in Seattle so no big travel advantage for either team here.

I really don't know what to think, but as a SWAG, I will go with a win for the Rams even though I think the Niners had a great off-season with some amazing talent acquisitions.  

However, I don’t think it will all be “put together” by week 3, but the same could be said for the Rams... 

I don't know!!  I'm going Rams.  

Deal with it.

Week 4: L.A. Rams at Dallas Cowboys

Yikes!  This is going to be a bloodbath in my opinion.   

The newly minted Rams will be feeling all salty and confident coming off of three straight wins, only to run into the charging rhinoceros of my previously predicted Superbowl Champion Dallas Cowboys!   

The Cowboys play Arizona, in Arizona, on Monday Night Football in week 3 so there's that.  However, that's not a big travel burden and should have zero impact on this game.

Even though the Cowboys will be showcasing the 2^nd year starters Prescott and Elliot, the experience those two gained in year one will be WAY too much for the Rams, and this will be embarrassing.

So, thru week four,  my best guess is that the mighty Rams will be sitting at 3-1.  That sounds like a glorious and wondrous thing, right? 

Well, not so fast, they had exactly that same record last year, and then went 11-1 the remainder of the year… 


In my next post, we'll observe the next 4 games in the Rams schedule and determine just how miserable I'll need to be during weeks 4 - 8.