The Rams knew they had one clear shot at avoiding an 0-16 finish and, even more importantly, a record-tying 26-game losing streak.
And that shot came yesterday, at Ford Field against a Lions team that was missing its best player, receiver Calvin Johnson.
So the Rams seized the moment, and they emerged with the win. Sure, they needed a fake on a 54-yard field goal try to set the stage for Steven Jackson’s fourth-quarter game-winner, but when a team is desperate, a fake field goal shouldn’t be a surprise.
And when that desperate team has a running back who might not have any tread left on the tires by the time the franchise finds ever its way back toward consistently solid performances, it should be assumed that the running back in question will be used until his wheels come off.
On Sunday, Jackson was good for 22 carries and 149 yards.
“Man, that run felt really good,” said Jackson of his 25-yard touchdown that delivered the first victory for the Rams since October 2008. “We knew that . . . whoever had the
ball last was going to have a pretty good chance of driving the ball
and putting the game away. We really felt like it was our time to take
over.”
In hindsight, it was a good thing that the Rams didn’t trade Jackson. Otherwise, they likely would have fallen to 0-8, and they would have been on their way to 0-16 — and 0-26.
For the Lions, 1-15 isn’t out of the question. Just because the team has hired a new coach doesn’t mean the franchise automatically will become better.
The Lions didn’t clean house after last year’s disastrous season, promoting Martin Mayhew and Tom Lewand on the same day that former coach Rod Marinelli was fired. Mayhew and Lewand claimed that they were the right persons to fix the franchise because they had front-row seats for the Matt Millen regime. In reality, Mayhew and Lewand were complicit in the years of crappy football, and all they’ve proven this year is that their knowledge of how to do it wrong hasn’t translated into a road map for doing it right.
