St. Louis Rams Real Talk: The wagons were circled but the Rams escaped

Pump. The. Brakes.

The Sam Bradford fan club is in a full lather over the St. Louis Rams' comeback win in Buffalo. It's like a frothy mix of toldyaso and hesthegreatestever.

I get it. I like it. I want more of it. But there have been a plethora of Tweets like this:

Damn straight, that last drive to win the game was impressive. Love, love, LOVE gritting out a road win in December.
But if Austin Pettis doesn't make the catch of his career (yes, career), then we're all sitting around the campfire talking about seven points scored in a loss.

Point being, Sam Bradford deserves credit for leading a game-winning drive, but Brandon Gibson, Pettis and Steven Jackson also made plays that kept the drive alive above and beyond their normal job description.

I endorse the results, but the referendum on Bradford's ability to lead a championship offense will remain open for at least this season and into the next. 15 points won the game for the Rams on Sunday. 15 points wins very few NFL games overall.

Still, the Rams are right there in the thick of the playoffs, right?

EASY, big dog.

Getting to .500 (plus a tie) is a big damn deal for December and the Rams. But it's also going to take a running of the table and some help, since both Seattle and Chicago have 8 wins and the Bears have a tie-breaker against the Rams. Not to mention Washington, Dallas lurking.

Could it happen? Absolutely. Anything in today's NFL is in play. Will it happen? It's doubtful. Don't believe me, then check out Football Outsiders' DVOA playoff odds (through Week 13 at .9% for the Rams.)

I want to see the Rams in the playoffs. Bad.

But again, I think we're all wise to get another win at home against the Vikings in Week 15 and see how the action shakes out before we even start running these playoff scenarios through in our heads.

The D, though. How about those guys?

The first half the Rams were treating possessions like a Herpes outbreak... get out of the public view in as little time as possible and hope no one noticed.

But the Rams were only down six points at the half. One play from taking a lead.

Even better for the Rams is that they're still not all clicking on D at the same time. Big Mike Brockers had his most disruptive game as a Ram, while Robert Quinn was hard to find. Jenoris Jenkins got more physical with his play, but Cortland Finnegan seemed to be a step slow.

Imagine if all these guys start hitting on all cylinders at the same time? I don't know, they might end up being pretty good.

And they're going to need to eat their Wheaties before Sunday.

Adrian Peterson might not be human. We're still not a year removed from him shredding his knee, but he seems to rip off a 50 yard run every effing FOX game break.

Let's go to Curt Menefee in the FOX Studios... (Cut to Rams fans weeping silently in their chairs.)

The Vikings will end the Rams 7 game slate in St. Louis for 2012 and maybe one of the Rams will encourage us to get "liquor drunk" before the game. It seemed to work well for them.

The win against the Bills didn't hurt the Rams' playoff chances. But since Dallas and Washington both pulled out last minute slash overtime wins respectively, it puts that much more heft into Sunday's match up.

Finally. Some meaningful December football in St. Louis.

Twitter Reacts...

Real talk? This week's 'Twitter Reacts' is the toughest one yet. basically, it's a million people bagging on the Rams for 2 hours and 55 minutes, then a bunch of HOLY SHIIIIITTTTT Tweets after the Rams comeback to win.

That being said, this particular habit is something the Rams are falling prey to more and more often. WRs got to get to the sticks, and they're making for a real preponderance of 4th &1s.

This is fantastic. Just watch. And then know it's even better because they ended up losing.

We' re all too close to the situation to realize it... but the rest of the NFL HATES losing to the St. Louis Rams.

The Rams have been so bad for so long that unlike losing a close one to the Pats or Steelers, fans of the teams the Rams beat take these losses HARD. It's kind of funny, until you realize that they're truly enraged that the Rams beat their team.

Then it kind of makes me question what I'm doing. A little.

Case in point: the Rams are celebrating a three-game winning streak because it hasn't happened in 6 years. Think about that. It's been 6 years since the Rams had a three-game winning streak.

How are we still fans, again?

You're right, Spicy Firework. How do I even question my fandom? Thanks for the pick-me-up. Please work on standardizing your capitalization. It'll make me putting this up much more credible.

Record: 6-6-1

Real Meter: (Where we predict the Rams win total for the year): 8