St. Louis Rams offense continues to struggle

One week after the St. Louis Rams upset the 49ers on the road, they traveled to Arizona to try to pull off another upset against the NFC West leading Cardinals. This time, however, the Rams came up short; giving up 21 points in the 4th quarter which resulted in a 31-14 loss. 14 of those points came off of Austin Davis turnovers, though.

It was another week of very stout defensive play, but mediocre play from the offense, especially quarterback Austin Davis. Davis is a young, raw talent on the Rams roster, but in recent weeks he has looked far from being the future for the Rams at the quarterback position. The offense struggles under Davis, receivers are having trouble getting open–which has nothing to do with Davis– but when the checkdown is needed, the ball doesn’t reach the receiver.

Its the little things in games that eventually lead to wins and losses in the NFL and the Rams offense tallies up a lot of those ‘little things’ throughout the game. Sunday against Arizona, the Rams offense failed to put points on the board after an Alec Ogletree interception put the Rams at midfield. On the same drive, tight end Lance Kendricks was called for a questionable block against a defenseless defender, which would have set the Rams up first and goal from inside the Arizona 5 yard line, instead they were pushed back 15-yards and after an Austin Davis sack, was forced to punt. After that play, the Rams were outscored 21-0.

It seems that week in and week out it is the same old story for the Rams. Their defense keeps them in games, but when the offense needs to make key plays to extend drives, they just can’t find the answer. The Rams defense has put up 11 sacks in the past two games, stopped one of the NFL’s leading rushers in Andre Ellington to under 25 total yards rushing and had a key interception when the Cardinals were in the red zone, so the defense is certainly not the problem.

The Rams front office needs to do something this offseason to revamp this pedestrian offense, and it needs to start at the quarterback position. With Sam Bradford proving that he can’t stay on the field, and Austin Davis continuing to prove that he is a long way away from being able to lead the Rams to a productive offense, it may be time to use one of those high draft picks on a potential replacement for both Bradford and Davis. One thing is for certain, as the playoff picture starts to shape up in mid November, it seems that it will be yet another year without the Rams in the hunt.