The elephant in the room

[*SHRacerX*]

(02-06-2022, 04:07 PM)fredtoast Wrote: Our offense has not been running smoothly in the playoffs.  Here are our regular season ranks followed by how our postseason numbers would have ranked in the regular season.

Yards........13th.....19th
Points....... 7th.....16th
Yds/play.... 7th.....20th

And it is not like we have faced a lot of good defenses

...........yds......pts
LV........14th....26th
TN.......12th.... 6th
KC.......27th.... 8th

Biggest concern is that we have only scored 5 tds in 32 possessions.

I think we are really missing Reif at RT.

I kind of give them a pass against the Raiders and Titans.  I felt like if their defense was up to the task, the offense could just play mistake-free football and they could win.  Not unlike the game against the Broncos.

The Chiefs game, I figured it would be time to air it out and need to score 35 or more to win.  It wasn't like they were inept, with 27 points and over 350 yards of offense, but all those first down runs just seemed to put Joe behind the sticks.  I was getting so frustrated watching it.

My question was:  "Is this to protect Joe or part of a plan to wear down the Chiefs".  Maybe it was both.  Joe only got sacked once, and the running game did start to move them in the fourth quarter. 

Now, for the Super Bowl, I have heard a number of folks say the way you neutralize Donald is to run right at him.  Not sure how truthful that is, but I get it.  I am just hoping the offense comes out firing and takes some shots early so the Rams have to respect it.  That is the one thing that has been missing in the three playoff games:  Deep shots.

Maybe send Tee AND Chase deep on opposite sides.  The safety will likely shade to Chase, and then hit Higgins over the top.  Both are amazing at tracking the deep ball.  

The defense isn't getting the respect it deserves, as they are largely the reason for this streak.  However, the offense will need to be a bit more aggressive and still avoid turnovers in order to take this one.