The second game in a double-header (and a complete shutout), the Rams’ 28-0 loss to the San Francisco 49ers averaged a 7.1 rating among households in Nielsen’s metered markets.
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As insane as it sounds, Rams punter Johnny Hekker almost had as many punts (10) as Keenum had completions (17). They’ve had little time to dwell on anything during their cross-country relocation and their nomadic new beginning in Southern California.
“There’s a natural sense of disappointment and frustration, but you’ve got to push that out”, Fisher said Tuesday. “We have some work to do obviously”.
The Rams return to the LA Coliseum next week for their home opener against the Seattle Seahawks.
“You’ve heard of the 24-hour rule, right?”
Fisher was explicitly asked if Keenum will remain the starter, just to clear things up so there were no questions left to be asked.
“My message was, ‘Well, we’ve got Sammie Coates and Eli (Rogers) and all the tight ends and DeAngelo Williams.’ We’ve got guys that can make plays and they showed it tonight”. The now angry Rams were more like bulls and were playing poorly consistently. Kaepernick, protesting or not, is going to be sitting down for a long time.
Fisher saw several reasons for the Rams’ offensive struggles, largely centering on their inability to establish a running game.
Case Keenum threw for just 130 yards with two interceptions, star running back Todd Gurley was held to 47 yards on 17 carries and the Rams barely even threatened the Niners as they made only 10 first downs all game.
Washington got it as close as 24-16 on Chris Thompson’s fourth-quarter touchdown, but Roethlisberger responded again, taking the Steelers 77 yards to set up Williams’ 15-yard touchdown run.
Case Keenum wasn’t able to get anything going in the passing game with constant pressure in his face all game.
Since the rosters were trimmed to 53 players, the hype train started to derail as Jared Goff was listed as the third string quarterback on the depth chart.
The 49ers say their strengths defensively are depth and versatility.
“We have to stretch the field”, he said. “These are two captains that had significant penalties in this game”. It wasn’t obviously all on them, but we also can’t just generously give out a grade higher than this.
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Yes, with the Rams back in the nation’s No. 2 media market, the audience for a game that swapped out Minnesota for L.A. from one year to the next saw a 2.4-point drop in ratings.
