Thursday Night Football Afterword: Rams vs Cardinals

The Rams hosted the Cardinals in the 4th installment of
NFLNetwork's Thursday Night Football

Last night wasn’t a particular exciting game, but we still learned a lot from it.

I have little doubt now that the NFC West is the best defensive division in football this year. The 49ers have done well on defense, we all saw what Seattle’s defense did against the Packers, and Arizona’s defense has been terrific, allowing their offense to outscore New England and lead this team to a 4-0 start.

The Rams joined that group last night as Steve Spagnuolo’s group finally had a huge game on defense. It is tough to read too much into it because it was the second straight week Arizona’s offensive line gave up eight sacks. But St. Louis allowed Arizona to enter the red zone three times. In those three trips, the Cardinals came away with nothing. Nothing! Three trips and not a thing to show for it; I give credit for that to the Rams’ defense.

That said, St. Louis didn’t play lights-out either. At one point, Sam Bradford has thrown 12 or 13 consecutive incompletions, the longest streak of his career. Granted, he did have a 51-yard touchdown pass, which was also a career long.

I always enjoyed close games with a lot of defense, but seeing quarterbacks struggle the way Sam Bradford did, and offensive lines not be able to protect their quarterback, like Kevin Kolb’s failed to, doesn’t keep my interest as easily. Kolb was sacked eight times, but he was knocked down and hit around 20 or 25 additional times.

The Cardinals are not doomed, but their flaws that were hidden during their 4-0 run to start the season are now in the open. The Rams are above .500 for the first time in years, but I’m not convinced they are for real either, especially with Danny Amendola out for possibly the rest of the season. The team should learn today whether he has a broken collarbone or if it is something less severe, which would be a huge relief and a major bullet dodged.

I am playing with a few ideas for a blog post tomorrow. I am going to work on them and see if it will work. Check back tomorrow for a possible post. If nothing comes tomorrow, my next post will be, as in the past, on Monday when I publish my Sunday Football Afterwords. Thanks for reading everyone, and enjoy the weekend!