Miami Dolphins at Los Angeles Rams

Jared Goff may not be the quick fix that immediately rights the Rams and puts Los Angeles on a path to this postseason.

“That’s why you play sixty minutes”, said Dolphins head coach Adam Gase.

LOS ANGELES The Rams made a change at quarterback this week. The Rams traded the house for the chance to select Goff.

The genuine excitement from his bench after he dives for the new set of downs is noticeable.

On Sunday, in a 14-10 loss that was the toughest in a season already full of them, the Rams managed one touchdown.

Left tackle Greg Robinson drew Fisher’s specific ire for his latest bad penalty in a career full of them: An illegal block far behind the play to negate an 11-yard scramble by Goff into Dolphins territory for a first down in the fourth quarter.

Los Angeles got the ball back after the kickoff on their own 41-yard line with 29 seconds left in the game, but a hail mary into the end zone as the clock expired was batted down by Landry who was a safety net on the play. Ryan Tannehill continued to play fairly well, completing 24 of 34 passes, but he finished with just 5.1 yards per attempt. “In pressure situations, you want to be on the field to try to close out the game”.

Goff’s performance was of the same game-manager variety that Keenum specialized in, only devoid of the occasional deep ball Keenum found this season.

Parker was also on the field when it ended, as a defensive backstop for Jared Goff’s heave-and-hope into the end zone. He didn’t win the game or lose it. “When you feel comfortable with the quarterback you are coming in with, that’s a good starting point”.

“Those last six minutes are going to haunt us for a little bit, because we played so well for most of the game”, defensive end Robert Quinn said.

And that’s sort of the problem. That was the tone of most of the game for Goff and the Rams’ passing offense.

With a win on Sunday, only eight teams in the National Football League have a better record than Miami.

That’s not on Goff. Now that the young route runner is getting into a rhythm, he and Ryan Tannehill are finally developing some chemistry. So, yeah, we’re going to do more things.

After getting no playing time in the first nine games of the season, the Rams have finally made a decision to start their number one overall pick, Jared Goff.

How did it work out? We have to overcome the individual mistakes – you can’t jump offsides on the first play of the game, you can’t have a false start when you have second-and-five and you have got good field position. It appeared the Rams were most comfortable having Goff throw short passes to his running backs. Goff’s longest completion was a 21-yard pass to Tavon Austin, which involved Austin making the gains after the catch.

“It took me a couple drives to settle in”, Goff said. “As a team, I think we need to get better at that”.

The Rams (4-6) entered the game as the NFL’s lowest scoring team with just 15.4 points per game. Parker had eight catches for 79 yards, and Jay Ajayi rushed for 77 yards. “We could finish better than that”.

It’s true, but also absurd in a way. It looks exactly like more “7-9 bull (bleep)” to quote from coach Jeff Fisher on the “Hard Knocks” training camp series on HBO. It’s nearly as if the conservatism that doomed the L.A. offense in this game started to rub off on the defense, too, as Miami held the ball for just 4:13 combined on its two scoring drives in the fourth quarter.

“Before I even took the job; that’s why I took the job”, Gase said. He’s three losses behind Dan Reeves, and given the way the rest of the schedule looks, that record could be in danger. The Dolphins had an outside chance at a playoff spot when they got back to 4-4.