Kap is Back

[purguy12]

The Rams are not a "very bad" team. That defense shut down the Seahawks for 3 quarters and barely lost, and in the prior two weeks they had beaten the colts 38-8 and the Bears 42-21. Beating them like we did was no easy task. We should have won, but acting like that was an easy game to win is underestimating the Rams. They are just a young team, but they have a lot of talent.

 

[Crimsoncrew]

At the time he was good. He ran for 100 yards last year. I agree this year he looks bad but at the time of the trade his value was still high. They didn't move him because they wanted a 2nd rd pick. I agree it has gone up. Its more like a 1st rd pick. I would still do it. No one we draft late in Rd 1 will be as good as Gordon.

A few thoughts.

1) Richardson wasn't good. He averaged 3.6 YPC as a rookie on his way to 950 yards on the ground. He did have 12 TDs, but his numbers weren't very good. When he was traded, he was averaging 3.4 YPC with no TDs. Any RB in the NFL will produce something with enough opportunities. Seems like the Browns knew what they had and were wise to get rid of him and get a pretty high pick in return.

2) We don't know what the Browns were looking for in exchange for Gordon, we just know they didn't get it. Maybe they wanted a first, and now they want two firsts. But even if you're right and they'd take a pick in the 20s for Gordon, you think they'd then give up Haden for a 2014 first? Keep dreaming.

 

[Kinzu]

The Rams are not a "very bad" team. That defense shut down the Seahawks for 3 quarters and barely lost, and in the prior two weeks they had beaten the colts 38-8 and the Bears 42-21. Beating them like we did was no easy task. We should have won, but acting like that was an easy game to win is underestimating the Rams. They are just a young team, but they have a lot of talent.

The Seahawks offense is pretty bad. Wilson really bails them out and gives them the ability to win close games. If they can't get the running game going and there defense does not force turnovers they are easily beatable. I would say there offense is even worst than ours has been, but Wilson is a better QB at making plays when they are needed.

 

[Robotech]

Sure. Though the Seahawks' OL was terrible in that game and they still won, and the big plays on offense and STs played a significant role in the victories over the Colts and Bears. The Rams aren't a bad team at all, and I was concerned about them coming into this one. The Niners played a very good game, all things considered. But the question is whether Kap is "back." And the past two games probably aren't stellar benchmarks.

Personally, I think he's basically returned to his form from last season over the past two weeks. The bigger question is whether he can continue to improve. There's still lots of room for that IMO.

But if he is back to his form from last year, then he is back in a sense. Maybe that's what the OP meant. I agree there is much room for improvement. It would be silly to think there isn't. The guy is far from his peak. It's great that he's kicked butt the last couple of games. It makes me excited about next week against Seattle instead of anxious about next week.

 

[Crimsoncrew]

But if he is back to his form from last year, then he is back in a sense. Maybe that's what the OP meant. I agree there is much room for improvement. It would be silly to think there isn't. The guy is far from his peak. It's great that he's kicked butt the last couple of games. It makes me excited about next week against Seattle instead of anxious about next week.

Yeah, as I was typing it I was thinking that maybe he is "back." I just want more. What can I say? I'm greedy.

 

[Robotech]

Yeah, as I was typing it I was thinking that maybe he is "back." I just want more. What can I say? I'm greedy.

The beautiful thing about it all is that the guy still seems very raw. There's a Grand Canyon-sized room for improvement, yet he is actually playing reasonably well. He's far from elite, but I think his overall performance so far this year is at least slightly above average.

 

[deep9er]

Yeah, as I was typing it I was thinking that maybe he is "back." I just want more. What can I say? I'm greedy.

IMO he isn't back to last season, but not complaining. main thing is improvement last two games and not stagnation. prior to this season, didn't expect he'd be the same as last, but said i'd be happy with 90%.

 

[BloodType49]

The Rams are not a "very bad" team. That defense shut down the Seahawks for 3 quarters and barely lost, and in the prior two weeks they had beaten the colts 38-8 and the Bears 42-21. Beating them like we did was no easy task. We should have won, but acting like that was an easy game to win is underestimating the Rams. They are just a young team, but they have a lot of talent.

The "very bad" defense not team I was mentioning was the Redskins. The Rams are the slightly above average D, thought that was kind of obvious.

 

[Crimsoncrew]

The beautiful thing about it all is that the guy still seems very raw. There's a Grand Canyon-sized room for improvement, yet he is actually playing reasonably well. He's far from elite, but I think his overall performance so far this year is at least slightly above average.

I wouldn't agree that his passing performance has been slightly above average. I think he's still a bit below average on the year. His rating is 14th in the league, but there have been a lot of peaks and valleys in there. When he's been bad, he's been appallingly bad. In three of our four losses, his rating was below 50, corresponding with QBRs (for what it's worth) under 15. His completion percentage is below 58%, his TD:INT ratio is basically 2:1, and he's struggled in the 4th quarter (50.7 rating) and in the red zone (86.5 rating inside the 20, 42.4 inside the 10). I think the numbers look worse when you consider that we haven't typically asked him to do much. He has seven games this year with fewer than 200 yards passing, and five - including the four losses - with 150 or fewer.

His saving grace is that he's actually been pretty good on third down (100 rating and 6.8 YPC when he runs), but our offense has been far too ineffective in terms of sustaining drives for me to give that figure too much credence.

 

[Smalls]

Colorado WR Paul Richardson announced today he plans to enter the draft.

 

[TobyTyler]

The Rams are not a "very bad" team. That defense shut down the Seahawks for 3 quarters and barely lost, and in the prior two weeks they had beaten the colts 38-8 and the Bears 42-21. Beating them like we did was no easy task. We should have won, but acting like that was an easy game to win is underestimating the Rams. They are just a young team, but they have a lot of talent.

I think his "very bad team" statement was in reference to the Redskins.