He could go to sleep for ten years and wake up and I would say like, yeah, I think you can play Sunday. What it is, what to do? This is Rambling, your weekly RAMS podcast that brings you inside into the team and news around the NFL. I'm You're posted team reporter, coming at you. Los Angeles, California. The Rams are nine and four after a beautiful win under the life on Thursday Night Football. They beat the Patriots twenty four to three. They kept the Pats just three points, just throwing it out there on a short week. Now they have a few Lkshire days to rest before prepping for the Jets. Joining me today a reporter from the NFL Network. He also is a host for Serious sixtem knows a thing or two about the league. Cover it, covered it, I'm on coffee. This is a morning podcast right after Thursday Nightfall Football. Covered it since two thousand and three. I do believe just looking at your hair, use the same hair jealous Sean mcfay or is it moose perfectly quaffed? Tom Pellisterero, Welcome to the podcast. Let me start by saying, nobody can top mcvay's hair like he's got you know, the headphones come on and off, whether he's wearing a you know, the mask. But like the I don't have the verticality that he does. You know, I've known Shot for a number of years. Like it's never out of place. You've never seen him in any environment, no matter what he's wearing, about what he's doing, and the hair is not perfectly there. Now I would suspect as a somebody who has a great affection for different hair products that he's using a heavier like a clay or something that's able to hold it in place. For me, I'll tell you a secret. Coconut oil. That's what gives the sheen on TV. So even five hours after I've gotten myself ready, I still have that fresh out of the shower look. Unrefined, organic, doesn't matter, great question. Whatever Amazon delivers once a month, that's what goes in there, and a lot of it goes in there. Coconut oil. Man, Do you feel great all of it? Yeah? No, it's fantastic. I can't go back now. You know, I've been gelling up my hair for twenty years, Like I don't have anything left to put that, you know, that BedHead crap or the death or anything like that, like this has to be all natural, just it feels great. I would love to think that Sean McBay is using coconut oil. I'm more convinced it's like magnetic. It's just always facing north, Like it's just all his hair is just in one direction because he's got to be a clay or a Pomme guy. There's just there's no way that it can be perfectly like that with a looser hole. I mean, right the first thing he wakes up right now and ask him, Yeah, I know he's in this press conference the d after the game right now, and I'm just like, I think your hair is still BIRTHECT. It's just makes so s well, you've got great hair. It's uh do we call it quaft? Is it? You know? I don't know what the up to. Yeah, I don't know. I mean it's just kind of I got a haircut like two days ago, coming a little shorter than I normally do, so I'm like still getting used to it. But I don't know. It's just kind of a I don't do much with it. We sunk when we're ready to go. I love this insight. Well, I guess later I think we covered it. You can go now we'll be figured out which Sean does through his hair. Um. I mean listeners are like, can you talk about football already? Although they've all just ordered coconut oil as well. Um, Tom, you watched the game last night. You called me out because I got really excited in the fourth quarter way too early against the Patriots, and you were like, do not Jinks. This game gemed me with like eleven minutes to go, and it was like, I think at that point it was a two touchdown game. So I just merely wrote back, Jinks. I mean, you get you got to pump the brakes a little bit here, but to your credit that that was not a factory the outcome of the game. What's not, thankfully, what stood out to you in last night's game all cam Acres the way that he ran the football. I mean, we've we've heard so much about him for so long and for him to get the opportunity not just to make make a few big plays but also have the volume. I think he had twenty five carries in that game in over one hundred and seventy yards. That's kind of the performance we were waiting for. And if you think back to when this Rams offense has been I don't want to make it sound like it's ah in history, but you know, a couple of years ago, it wasn't just you know, Jared Goff making plays, or Robert Woods or Cooper Cup. It was at Todd Gurley. He was on the field almost every snap. He was a high volume player. You know, they got the ball in his hands a lot. And when you're running this type of a you know, an outside zone scheme like they do, everything comes off of the run. Everything comes off of play action and being able to make pass plays look like run plays. That's kind of the foundation of the offense. So you know, we'll see if now Acres can continue doing this going forward, along with Darryl Henderson or whoever else is in the mix to carry the football. But having that run threat is a big deal just because that's what makes this entire scheme go. Sure, and he gave credit to the old line, and Jared Goss gave credit to the O line. No whitworth in that group. However, even Michael Brockers was like, there are no fans in the stand, but I am a fan of this O line. That to me is the defense is playing lights out, and he's like, let's let's credit the old line over here. They seem to be doing well. No, it's true. I mean, you know now they also do a really good job. One thing that that other teams always watched with the Rams is how much they get their receivers in blocking, how much their tight ends do. I mean, they need guys who are versatile. It's not just being a good route runner, it's also being willing to get in there and do the dirty work. And those guys do a really good job of it. I mean, it's it's everybody blocking when you're talking about a run play. But certainly credit to the Rams for despite losing one of the stalwarts in the entire league, and Andrew Whitworth, one of those guys that you always can count on, they've been able to keep that thing running, you know, and Golf didn't have to you know, didn't have to do a ton last night, but making some big throws. You know that in breaking her out to cup late that was big. When they're backed up to their own goal line, you know, take some guts to call consecutive play action pass plays with a lead, you know, backing up in your own end zone there, but they obviously had the looks that they want. And the other thing that you have to remember when you're facing the Patriots, and the Patriots are very game playing specific, but really for them, everything starts with setting the edge in the run game. You know, that's kind of the foundation of their entire defense. So when you're able to get the run game going against them, that can put them on skates a little bit. And even though it wasn't, you know, a massive offensive performance by the Rams last night, they certainly were efficient, they were able to move the football, and obviously they were able to get it into the end zone. It seems like this is I've said this a couple of times in this podcast, with the two point zero of Sean mcbay's offense from twenty eight team when they went to the Super Bowl. It's like like, we don't need to have an eleven personnel all the time and disguise these different plays on offense. We just got different playmakers that can do different things, and we're all just sort of we built the fortress, if you will. Well, I remember being out there, it was probably about two years ago at this time of year, was in December before they played No Blanking. I shouldn't started telling the story, but so they were, they had a game I had going on. I think they were playing the Vikings maybe, and I went out there. I just wanted an excuse to go to LA for two days in the middle of December. But I remember sitting with Sean in his office and I asked him about that because they were at such a high number of high percentage of eleven personnel. I mean, it was ninety plus percent at that point, and I've been talking to other teams who were saying, like, we think they only have like two or three protections that they even use, Like it's just kind of, you know, they just are built upon the speed of the game and running a lot of different plays out of this same looks. And Sean had a couple of interesting things to say. One was, you know, it was a function of because they're trying to be able to line up quickly so they can continue to make checks through the helmet to the quarterback, but also to adjust to whatever defense they're getting. When you're not changing personnel, you're able to do that, you know, a lot more efficiently, more effectively. And the other really arresting thing he said was because they were under centers so much with eleven personnel, where you see a lot of teams who will spread out, but they'll go in shotgun, And what Sean said was in shotgun you're kind of locked into half your options because thinking about it, if you're in shotgun, you're running backs lined up to your right or to your left. If you're a pistol, you have a little bit more flexibility, but points when you're under center, you have the entire feel you know, it can go either way. That keeps people on their toes a little bit more. It's just one more way that they can kind of disguise the things that they were doing. And as time has gone on here, you know, it's about, yeah, reacting to the way that people are playing you. They are going more multiple I don't know the splits, but they're certainly not at ninety nine eleven personnel this season. It's just, you know, that's why Sean's one of the best coaches in the NFL, which is he's always going to be thinking ahead to what the answers are going to be. And when people react and take things away, you know, how are we going to be able to have an answer for it. Yeah, Shan's a savant on the offensive side of the ball. Brandon Staley, our defensive coordinator, seems to be a savant on the defensive side of the ball. It is actually insane to think that they just keep getting better. And I've said this a lot, but Aaron Donald said it, so it makes it way more valid. He's like, it's not just these big name playmakers, right, Like Darius Williams is four interceptions in, Jordan Fuller, a rookie out of Ohio State getting an interception on Tom Brady not once, two times, and then last night Kenny Young had his first career interception, took it to the house for six. Just further proof that Brandon's Daley is a magician. Right, you said you had a lot of Kenny Young puns last night. I wasn't sure. I was having so much fun. It was only a good Die Young, Okay, Now now I get it. Uh with with Brandon Saley, you know he was on my list of rising head coaching candidates back in October. The list it is best known as the Next McVey list, even though we all know there's no Next mcveay because there's not a lot of thirty year old guys who have been coordinators for five years. You know, Sean's background so unique. But with Brandon in terms of his personality, it is similar to Sean in terms of that passion, that drive, that energy. He's still only in his first year in front of the room. You know. Yeah, he addressed the defense um in Denver, you know, when he was the linebackers coach, but it's different when you're the coordinator. So he is still young. I think he's thirty seven years old, and he's somebody who remember when you're talking about the all the different guys making plays. That's kind of a hallmark of Vic Fangio's scheme is the way that it can um press you from a matic standpoint and give different guys opportunities because the way that it forces you to adjust. And I don't know how well people know, but you know, Brandon Staley was studying the Fangio scheme way before he worked with Vic Fangio. He taught it to himself because he thought it was so unique. You know, in Staley's background being at John Carroll, which is a football coach factory, and then going to you know, some smaller colleges before he got his first opportunity to join up with with Fangio. You know, he's he's really smart. He is all football all the time. He's still young. I don't want to stare Rams fans that you know, Staley's walking out the door of the head coaching job, but do not be surprised. I'm just telling you, do not be surprised if he has head coaching interviews this year, and he's one of those guys who, based upon the type of person that he is, if he gets in a room with a you know, owner and a team president or a zoom room as it's going to be for some of these early interviews for the guys who are you know in the playoffs, people are going to be thinking a lot about him because he's you know, he's memorable and he's able to present a vision in terms you can understand. Sure he gets respect from guys like Jail and Ramsey and Aaron Donald. And it's not a surprise in general that Sean mcvay's coaching staff continues to get scooped up because they're all very good qualified candidates. So I get it quickly. What makes me happy got to give a shout out to Andrew Whitworth. He was nominated for the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award. He's been nominated before. Andrew Whitworth obviously not in the field due to his knee, but it was very cool. I don't know if you noticed. There was a massive seventy seven in the south side of SOFI Stadium made out of cardboard cutouts from all of the different organizations and people that Andrew Whitworth has impacted over his time. So just cool. I don't know if you have, Andrew Witworth's been around for like centuries now, any funny nuggets you'd have to share about Andrew Witworth because he's just one of those man you can't you just keep getting better, like, ain't nothing wrong with you? Well, I mean I'm not nuggets necessarily, but I think that if you go back and you look at the photos of Andrew Whitworth when he was you know, in high school or college or when he first got into the league, and like the you know, chiseled granite figure that he has become, Like that's a guy who who works on his body and has made you know, such massive strides, you know, if the Bengals, you know, and I think if they could go back in time, they would find a way to bring back Whitworth. But he also wanted to, you know, a fresh opportunity and a fresh start to go someplace else, do something else, bring his family out. He's been through a lot this year, between the COVID situation and now the injury. Things that you know, for one of the durable guys in the league, he really hasn't experienced a lot in his career. But I was struck by the same thing. I mean, there's not a lot of an NFL players aren't that different from fans, and that I think if you're not focused on your team, you know the guys who are relevant and fantasy football, and you might know a handful of like the big time players on defense, or the guys who have car commercials and you know, pitch Ballman's or whatever it might be. There's how many offensive linemen from different teams that are household names, and that goes for within the league as well. Yeah, when Andrew Whitworth gets hurt, you saw all the tweets and you saw all the people saying things. Guys you never played with Whitworth, but they know him. They you know he Whitworth had reached out to him about something somewhere along the line. That's the type of guy, you know. Frankly, there's not a lot of guys who can play till their thirty eight, thirty nine years old, forty years old, fifty whatever. Whitworth goes to. So guys respect that. Guys respect the work that it puts in. And another credit to McVeigh and his staff, you know they don't they'll practice Whitworth a lot. They make sure that they are taking care of his body and you know, Wednesday's off or whatever it might be, making sure that they're giving him every opportunity to put his best self on the field on Sundays. For sure, we love what we want him a m speedy recovery. Amazing that he actually could potentially even come back based on his videos, looks like he could play right now. So it's really I mean, he could go to sleep for ten years and wake up and I would say like, yeah, I think you can play Sunday. The listum is probable. I think um knews were around the NFL. This is it Cannon? Will the Jets win a game this season, They've got the Seahawks, the Rams. It's a rough final stretch. I mean that game last week was about as good as an opportunity as you're going to have. And I'm sure that there's credit them with this. They're still competing. I mean, they've competing every week. It's not a team that's quit. You don't have to worry about effort. You know, they've got some young leaders on that team, guys like Marcus May who kind of set the tone. They do have some you know, playmakers. They just for the first ten games or so of the season, they never had their whole offensive line, they never had all their receivers. Darnold was in out of the lineup. He had a bunch of Joe Flacco. You never developed any kind of rhythm. And you know, there have been multiple occasions where the defense has been the ones that they let them down. I mean, you go back to mid October where when Greg Williams made a statement publicly that basically blamed the offense for the defense's struggles, and Adam Gas didn't want to fire Greg Williams. He didn't plan to fire Greg Williams. But you call zero blitz with twelve seconds left or whatever it was to put Lamar Jackson the other Lamar Jackson one on one on the outside with one of the fastest guys in the NFL, Henry Ruggs. And then you got guys like May coming out afterward and saying, we've got to be in a better call. You got to help us out. Those are the types of things where you have to make a change. So they move on from Greg Williams, Frank Bush will call the defense from here. I mean, I fully expect they're going to show up. I don't know that you want to be playing a Seahawks team that's going to be all ticked off because they just lost to the Giants at home. That would probably not be ideal. I'd rather that they be sitting pretty and you maybe catch them in a bit of a lull. But they're they're gonna come out and compete. It's just it's gonna be tough because of how hard these games are, you know, and of course with each week. I was at the Vikings Jaguars game last week where the Jaguars nearly pulled off a win game went to overtime to score a late touchdown. Who point diversion and all the while you're sitting there going this is going to have a big impact on what we're talking about in April right now with the draft. In fact, I even talked with Mike Glennon, who's been the Jaguars starting quarterback the past couple of weeks, and I asked him about, you know, what's it like, because you know, when you're you're sitting there, you're wanted. They've lost ten games in a row, and part of it was like, well, Glennon goes, well, I will have been on two other teams that ended up with the number one pick, because he was on the twenty fourteen Bucks and the twenty eighteen Cardinals, who both had the warst record in the league. Now he's competing for it again. I started laughing. I'm like, I'm sorry, man, I know this isn't funny, but this is clearly not ideal for you. He's like, yeah, I know, but he's like, and I know that there's got a lot of people who are rooting against us, meaning Jaguars fans, because they all want the pick. So it's it's just this weird situation right now with some of these teams where even the Patriots at this point, you know, is there a segment of their fans that are going, statistically, we got like a three percent chance of making the playoffs, we should just lose out and maybe draft the next quarterback. These are some of the tricky spots he ended at the end of the year. But I also know this about the NFL. Nobody is tanking. Nobody is trying to lose. You can't do it when you put the work in and when you have the physical grind to sixty minutes of NFL football. Even the stuff last week where people were saying, you know, Greg Williams in on the tank, It's like, let's just hypothetically say they were trying to tank. There are a lot easier ways to tank and say, okay, guys, here's what we're gonna do. For fifty nine minutes. We're gonna outplay the Raiders. Then we're gonna stop about the fifty yard line. We're gonna be thirteen seconds left. Then we're gonna need Derek Carter avoid the seven man blitz, step up in the pocket, knocket sacked, and throw a dime to Henry Rods. Yeah, that's the plan. Like, are we stupid? What are we talking about here. That's how you would take if you were the tank. That's just a having spent two years with Greg Williams, that's just the overaggression showing. And it was fun when the Rams offense couldn't do a single thing and all they really had to rely on was that defense to be able to close out games. But uh yeah, that costs him there. And but it's nice to hear that Frank Bush will be calm plays. He's a great dude too. I'm pretty sure he's send out like a weekly Friday motivation story thing and I think one of our other producers is still like subscribe to it and gets the weak emails. So yeah, great, anyone needs inspiration. It's the O and twelve Jets and it is one hundred. I'm just there's a part of me that's like they're going to beat the Patriots in their last game of the season. It will be like just that's the one game that they get the way teams, Yeah, two teams that a win would not help at that stage. Maybe it's possible. I mean it's hard to beat Bill Belichick in general, but the Jets somehow always play well against their rival. With the Patriots, and I'm just like, that's how twenty twenty ends for them. This is what it cost. One thing I think is cool and also advantageous in the COVID nineteen environment is the fact that there are not many teams right now that are out of it. If you look at the standings, I mean off the top of my head, and now remember you have two extra playoff spots going to fourteen, and that's even assuming that we get all the games in. It doesn't expand a sixteen. But with fourteen playoff spots, there's only maybe a half dozen teams that are still mathematically out of it, and then maybe you know a handful more that are realistically out of it. There's a lot of teams there's still something to play for, which again I think is also good when you're you know, one of the big concerns with the league throughout the year has been when teams fall out of the playoff race, will they get lack of days to go with the protocols? Will they say, well, who cares if our game gets canceled whatever, even though remember it's your paycheck that's on the lines. You hope that's enough motivation, But as always, teams have things to play for that might help guys make sure they're making the right decisions, not just players, but coaches and other people around the team. You know, get through the end of the season where a week fourteen, they've only been true two true outbreaks in the entire league through the whole year. That's wild. I mean, if you had said back in August, you know where some of the you know, the worst times coming into camp, when there were a lot of positive tests, which they expected. End of September when the Titans had their outbreak, when the Patriots had several positive cases, and you're going, gosh, are they going to get there? And then just a couple of weeks ago when the Ravens had their situation and a couple dozen people ended up COVID nineteen positive, and going, oh, they're gonna have to bubble? Is it gonna know? Like they've they've got a pretty good plan. It's been in you know, put together in consultation with leading epidemiologists on both the Union and the league side. It's you know, we keep having people say like they gotta go to a bubble, they got to go to a bubble. Well no, not necessarily they might, you know, kind of in the playoffs, you might do the thing where you move people into a hotel, do local bubbles, just to try to remove some of the exposures. But you're still gonna to make the right decisions. You're still gonna have to wear masks, You're still gonna have to socially distance. You know. When we've seen that there have been issues within the league, usually you've been able to trace it back to people not taking the protocol seriously. Right, I'm with you. Yeah, it is actually a good note think that we've almost gotten through. But I won't jinx it because I'm not Jakes any there. I'm just saying two outbreaks, not that every case is not serious, but two outbreaks league wide. Let's talking about six seven thousand people, players, coaches, staff, everybody, and two outbreaks is I mean, I think that that is just close to every game has been played. Every game has been played, They've not moved anyth into Week eighteen. Every game has been played. That's you know, it's not I mean, the best case scenario would be no one gets COVID, but that was never going to be realistic. So this is the best case of a worst case scenario in terms of trying to play football in a global pandemic. Yeah, and I like Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday football. I'm all, I don't mind to move some different schedule of Christmas Tree TV ratings. There might be some people getting ideas too. I bet all right, Matt, it's that time. Okay, Okay, here we go. This is Serena's socially distant social segment. And every year around this time, we see the elf on a shelf thing explode on social media. And you've heard elf on a shelf? But what about memes that have been going around Twitter? So I'm gonna throw a couple of ram steamed ones. They're not great, but like I'm this is what we're dealing with today. They're great, They're not great, but I mean, what are you gonna do? It's you can only rhyme so many things with certain names. But I'm gonna I'm gonna throw a couple of your way. You tell me if it makes your list of holiday decor around the pillow, Sarah home. Okay, first one, we're starting outside. We got Sean on a lawn. Sean on a lawn can do that throwing it up there. I'm guessing some Rams fans already have that, right, Sean around the lawn, just a small lawn. You're in California and you're in La. All right. I don't know where you're putting this one, but get get creative. We got Hecker on a checker, Hecker on a checker small all right. Uh, we'll go hanging free for this one. Cam on a RAM, Cam on a Ram. Take that. That's a good I would I would retweet that if the Rams put that one out there. We got another. This one's probably in the garage somewhere. Darryl and a barrel. I like that. Yeah cool, And then maybe we go back outside. We got Coop on a stoop. That's awesome. Coop on a stoop. If we could get him like actually like yeah, like posted up like nineties hip hop album cover. Yes, Cooper Cup is one of the most swagged out. Doesn't even realize he is guys in the league. He just got like a fancy new I think it's like this bright blue car um. He wears his little Jordans and like the fitted hats and comes in and I'm like he has one of those like long T shirts when we were allowed to all be around each other sometime last season, and I looked at him and I was like, Coop, you're a swearing guy. And he goes my wife dresses me. He Coop on a stoop. That's my pick? All right? Well, I just read the rest of him and I was like, nah, I'm not even gonna go through with these. We're just gonna leave it right there. Sometimes you know, you're writing things and you're like, oh, that could work, and then you're like, you know what, I'm killing that idea. So I was writing on a seal from the Torture Coop on a stoop wins Um. We'll end with this, say what Cam Akers, who was listed early on in the injury report for having something going on with his shoulder, clearly didn't affect him in the game last night? I will play his Someone asked the question like, hey, so how's your shoulder doing? And here's what he had to say, Now, manage your shoulder tonight? An issue? Really shoulder? Um, obviously I'm laughing, but what shoulder? What happened? I guess, no, shoulder, no problem, Like, can't see it, it's not there, right. He was incredible last night. Always fair to overlist than underlist on the injury report, like did he have a paper cut on his shoulder? Like what happened? One hundred and ninety four total yards from scrimmage? No big deal, Cam Akers, the rookie maker moves. I will say this um Early on in training camp, Jalen Ramsey had tweeted out after the game, like how proud he is. Both went to Florida State, both at the same agent. Jalen sort of looked out for Cam Akers. I don't know if you were at training camp, but there was early on. Cam just ran right into Jaalen like just practice ate it, like down on the ground, and Jalen kind of stood over him, like yeah, bro, welcome to the league. And it's just great because maybe that was the reason, like we got it out of the way. This kid is humbled. He's all about, you know, team effort, Like whatever I could do, humble beast, tattoo your arm. Maybe that's when he was just you got the same thing, right, Matt. Yeah, it's just one humble and then beast over here. So depending on my mood, I can have you. I mean, I guess he's okay. I love it. I'm really glad that can't. Maker's shoulder doesn't even exist. He doesn't even have shoulders, it seems me or do I, But I can't help that. That's genetic. At least you have good hair, Tom. I'm all about coconut oil for the wind. That is it? Well, and learn something here today. That's what it was all about, right, That's all I needed. Another episode of Ramblin in the books. Um. Hey, guys, well you may not be able to join at Soapy State Him this season. We want you to come to the Rams House in twenty twenty one. Fingers cross all things go well, there's still time to be the first amongst the new SOFI season ticket members, So make sure you check out the Rams dot com slash twenty twenty one, get some tickets, be the first guys to get in there. It's beautiful stadium, Tom, I don't know if you've seen it. I want to come there. I've seen it. The pictures doesn't do it justice. I wanted to stand under the oculus and stare up at that for three hours. I would dot com last twenty twenty one and hopefully be a part of that shameless plug. But that's what we're doing today. Make sure you stay up to date on all things Rams. You can also download the app. You know so follow Tom fellas Ero on Twitter at John fellows Ero. Thank you, John, appreciate your time and your hair. Thanks for having me, sir Na

He could go to sleep for ten years and wake up and I would say like, yeah, I think you can play Sunday. What it is, what to do? This is Rambling, your weekly RAMS podcast that brings you inside into the team and news around the NFL. I'm You're posted team reporter, coming at you. Los Angeles, California. The Rams are nine and four after a beautiful win under the life on Thursday Night Football. They beat the Patriots twenty four to three. They kept the Pats just three points, just throwing it out there on a short week. Now they have a few Lkshire days to rest before prepping for the Jets. Joining me today a reporter from the NFL Network. He also is a host for Serious sixtem knows a thing or two about the league. Cover it, covered it, I'm on coffee. This is a morning podcast right after Thursday Nightfall Football. Covered it since two thousand and three. I do believe just looking at your hair, use the same hair jealous Sean mcfay or is it moose perfectly quaffed? Tom Pellisterero, Welcome to the podcast. Let me start by saying, nobody can top mcvay's hair like he's got you know, the headphones come on and off, whether he's wearing a you know, the mask. But like the I don't have the verticality that he does. You know, I've known Shot for a number of years. Like it's never out of place. You've never seen him in any environment, no matter what he's wearing, about what he's doing, and the hair is not perfectly there. Now I would suspect as a somebody who has a great affection for different hair products that he's using a heavier like a clay or something that's able to hold it in place. For me, I'll tell you a secret. Coconut oil. That's what gives the sheen on TV. So even five hours after I've gotten myself ready, I still have that fresh out of the shower look. Unrefined, organic, doesn't matter, great question. Whatever Amazon delivers once a month, that's what goes in there, and a lot of it goes in there. Coconut oil. Man, Do you feel great all of it? Yeah? No, it's fantastic. I can't go back now. You know, I've been gelling up my hair for twenty years, Like I don't have anything left to put that, you know, that BedHead crap or the death or anything like that, like this has to be all natural, just it feels great. I would love to think that Sean McBay is using coconut oil. I'm more convinced it's like magnetic. It's just always facing north, Like it's just all his hair is just in one direction because he's got to be a clay or a Pomme guy. There's just there's no way that it can be perfectly like that with a looser hole. I mean, right the first thing he wakes up right now and ask him, Yeah, I know he's in this press conference the d after the game right now, and I'm just like, I think your hair is still BIRTHECT. It's just makes so s well, you've got great hair. It's uh do we call it quaft? Is it? You know? I don't know what the up to. Yeah, I don't know. I mean it's just kind of I got a haircut like two days ago, coming a little shorter than I normally do, so I'm like still getting used to it. But I don't know. It's just kind of a I don't do much with it. We sunk when we're ready to go. I love this insight. Well, I guess later I think we covered it. You can go now we'll be figured out which Sean does through his hair. Um. I mean listeners are like, can you talk about football already? Although they've all just ordered coconut oil as well. Um, Tom, you watched the game last night. You called me out because I got really excited in the fourth quarter way too early against the Patriots, and you were like, do not Jinks. This game gemed me with like eleven minutes to go, and it was like, I think at that point it was a two touchdown game. So I just merely wrote back, Jinks. I mean, you get you got to pump the brakes a little bit here, but to your credit that that was not a factory the outcome of the game. What's not, thankfully, what stood out to you in last night's game all cam Acres the way that he ran the football. I mean, we've we've heard so much about him for so long and for him to get the opportunity not just to make make a few big plays but also have the volume. I think he had twenty five carries in that game in over one hundred and seventy yards. That's kind of the performance we were waiting for. And if you think back to when this Rams offense has been I don't want to make it sound like it's ah in history, but you know, a couple of years ago, it wasn't just you know, Jared Goff making plays, or Robert Woods or Cooper Cup. It was at Todd Gurley. He was on the field almost every snap. He was a high volume player. You know, they got the ball in his hands a lot. And when you're running this type of a you know, an outside zone scheme like they do, everything comes off of the run. Everything comes off of play action and being able to make pass plays look like run plays. That's kind of the foundation of the offense. So you know, we'll see if now Acres can continue doing this going forward, along with Darryl Henderson or whoever else is in the mix to carry the football. But having that run threat is a big deal just because that's what makes this entire scheme go. Sure, and he gave credit to the old line, and Jared Goss gave credit to the O line. No whitworth in that group. However, even Michael Brockers was like, there are no fans in the stand, but I am a fan of this O line. That to me is the defense is playing lights out, and he's like, let's let's credit the old line over here. They seem to be doing well. No, it's true. I mean, you know now they also do a really good job. One thing that that other teams always watched with the Rams is how much they get their receivers in blocking, how much their tight ends do. I mean, they need guys who are versatile. It's not just being a good route runner, it's also being willing to get in there and do the dirty work. And those guys do a really good job of it. I mean, it's it's everybody blocking when you're talking about a run play. But certainly credit to the Rams for despite losing one of the stalwarts in the entire league, and Andrew Whitworth, one of those guys that you always can count on, they've been able to keep that thing running, you know, and Golf didn't have to you know, didn't have to do a ton last night, but making some big throws. You know that in breaking her out to cup late that was big. When they're backed up to their own goal line, you know, take some guts to call consecutive play action pass plays with a lead, you know, backing up in your own end zone there, but they obviously had the looks that they want. And the other thing that you have to remember when you're facing the Patriots, and the Patriots are very game playing specific, but really for them, everything starts with setting the edge in the run game. You know, that's kind of the foundation of their entire defense. So when you're able to get the run game going against them, that can put them on skates a little bit. And even though it wasn't, you know, a massive offensive performance by the Rams last night, they certainly were efficient, they were able to move the football, and obviously they were able to get it into the end zone. It seems like this is I've said this a couple of times in this podcast, with the two point zero of Sean mcbay's offense from twenty eight team when they went to the Super Bowl. It's like like, we don't need to have an eleven personnel all the time and disguise these different plays on offense. We just got different playmakers that can do different things, and we're all just sort of we built the fortress, if you will. Well, I remember being out there, it was probably about two years ago at this time of year, was in December before they played No Blanking. I shouldn't started telling the story, but so they were, they had a game I had going on. I think they were playing the Vikings maybe, and I went out there. I just wanted an excuse to go to LA for two days in the middle of December. But I remember sitting with Sean in his office and I asked him about that because they were at such a high number of high percentage of eleven personnel. I mean, it was ninety plus percent at that point, and I've been talking to other teams who were saying, like, we think they only have like two or three protections that they even use, Like it's just kind of, you know, they just are built upon the speed of the game and running a lot of different plays out of this same looks. And Sean had a couple of interesting things to say. One was, you know, it was a function of because they're trying to be able to line up quickly so they can continue to make checks through the helmet to the quarterback, but also to adjust to whatever defense they're getting. When you're not changing personnel, you're able to do that, you know, a lot more efficiently, more effectively. And the other really arresting thing he said was because they were under centers so much with eleven personnel, where you see a lot of teams who will spread out, but they'll go in shotgun, And what Sean said was in shotgun you're kind of locked into half your options because thinking about it, if you're in shotgun, you're running backs lined up to your right or to your left. If you're a pistol, you have a little bit more flexibility, but points when you're under center, you have the entire feel you know, it can go either way. That keeps people on their toes a little bit more. It's just one more way that they can kind of disguise the things that they were doing. And as time has gone on here, you know, it's about, yeah, reacting to the way that people are playing you. They are going more multiple I don't know the splits, but they're certainly not at ninety nine eleven personnel this season. It's just, you know, that's why Sean's one of the best coaches in the NFL, which is he's always going to be thinking ahead to what the answers are going to be. And when people react and take things away, you know, how are we going to be able to have an answer for it. Yeah, Shan's a savant on the offensive side of the ball. Brandon Staley, our defensive coordinator, seems to be a savant on the defensive side of the ball. It is actually insane to think that they just keep getting better. And I've said this a lot, but Aaron Donald said it, so it makes it way more valid. He's like, it's not just these big name playmakers, right, Like Darius Williams is four interceptions in, Jordan Fuller, a rookie out of Ohio State getting an interception on Tom Brady not once, two times, and then last night Kenny Young had his first career interception, took it to the house for six. Just further proof that Brandon's Daley is a magician. Right, you said you had a lot of Kenny Young puns last night. I wasn't sure. I was having so much fun. It was only a good Die Young, Okay, Now now I get it. Uh with with Brandon Saley, you know he was on my list of rising head coaching candidates back in October. The list it is best known as the Next McVey list, even though we all know there's no Next mcveay because there's not a lot of thirty year old guys who have been coordinators for five years. You know, Sean's background so unique. But with Brandon in terms of his personality, it is similar to Sean in terms of that passion, that drive, that energy. He's still only in his first year in front of the room. You know. Yeah, he addressed the defense um in Denver, you know, when he was the linebackers coach, but it's different when you're the coordinator. So he is still young. I think he's thirty seven years old, and he's somebody who remember when you're talking about the all the different guys making plays. That's kind of a hallmark of Vic Fangio's scheme is the way that it can um press you from a matic standpoint and give different guys opportunities because the way that it forces you to adjust. And I don't know how well people know, but you know, Brandon Staley was studying the Fangio scheme way before he worked with Vic Fangio. He taught it to himself because he thought it was so unique. You know, in Staley's background being at John Carroll, which is a football coach factory, and then going to you know, some smaller colleges before he got his first opportunity to join up with with Fangio. You know, he's he's really smart. He is all football all the time. He's still young. I don't want to stare Rams fans that you know, Staley's walking out the door of the head coaching job, but do not be surprised. I'm just telling you, do not be surprised if he has head coaching interviews this year, and he's one of those guys who, based upon the type of person that he is, if he gets in a room with a you know, owner and a team president or a zoom room as it's going to be for some of these early interviews for the guys who are you know in the playoffs, people are going to be thinking a lot about him because he's you know, he's memorable and he's able to present a vision in terms you can understand. Sure he gets respect from guys like Jail and Ramsey and Aaron Donald. And it's not a surprise in general that Sean mcvay's coaching staff continues to get scooped up because they're all very good qualified candidates. So I get it quickly. What makes me happy got to give a shout out to Andrew Whitworth. He was nominated for the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award. He's been nominated before. Andrew Whitworth obviously not in the field due to his knee, but it was very cool. I don't know if you noticed. There was a massive seventy seven in the south side of SOFI Stadium made out of cardboard cutouts from all of the different organizations and people that Andrew Whitworth has impacted over his time. So just cool. I don't know if you have, Andrew Witworth's been around for like centuries now, any funny nuggets you'd have to share about Andrew Witworth because he's just one of those man you can't you just keep getting better, like, ain't nothing wrong with you? Well, I mean I'm not nuggets necessarily, but I think that if you go back and you look at the photos of Andrew Whitworth when he was you know, in high school or college or when he first got into the league, and like the you know, chiseled granite figure that he has become, Like that's a guy who who works on his body and has made you know, such massive strides, you know, if the Bengals, you know, and I think if they could go back in time, they would find a way to bring back Whitworth. But he also wanted to, you know, a fresh opportunity and a fresh start to go someplace else, do something else, bring his family out. He's been through a lot this year, between the COVID situation and now the injury. Things that you know, for one of the durable guys in the league, he really hasn't experienced a lot in his career. But I was struck by the same thing. I mean, there's not a lot of an NFL players aren't that different from fans, and that I think if you're not focused on your team, you know the guys who are relevant and fantasy football, and you might know a handful of like the big time players on defense, or the guys who have car commercials and you know, pitch Ballman's or whatever it might be. There's how many offensive linemen from different teams that are household names, and that goes for within the league as well. Yeah, when Andrew Whitworth gets hurt, you saw all the tweets and you saw all the people saying things. Guys you never played with Whitworth, but they know him. They you know he Whitworth had reached out to him about something somewhere along the line. That's the type of guy, you know. Frankly, there's not a lot of guys who can play till their thirty eight, thirty nine years old, forty years old, fifty whatever. Whitworth goes to. So guys respect that. Guys respect the work that it puts in. And another credit to McVeigh and his staff, you know they don't they'll practice Whitworth a lot. They make sure that they are taking care of his body and you know, Wednesday's off or whatever it might be, making sure that they're giving him every opportunity to put his best self on the field on Sundays. For sure, we love what we want him a m speedy recovery. Amazing that he actually could potentially even come back based on his videos, looks like he could play right now. So it's really I mean, he could go to sleep for ten years and wake up and I would say like, yeah, I think you can play Sunday. The listum is probable. I think um knews were around the NFL. This is it Cannon? Will the Jets win a game this season, They've got the Seahawks, the Rams. It's a rough final stretch. I mean that game last week was about as good as an opportunity as you're going to have. And I'm sure that there's credit them with this. They're still competing. I mean, they've competing every week. It's not a team that's quit. You don't have to worry about effort. You know, they've got some young leaders on that team, guys like Marcus May who kind of set the tone. They do have some you know, playmakers. They just for the first ten games or so of the season, they never had their whole offensive line, they never had all their receivers. Darnold was in out of the lineup. He had a bunch of Joe Flacco. You never developed any kind of rhythm. And you know, there have been multiple occasions where the defense has been the ones that they let them down. I mean, you go back to mid October where when Greg Williams made a statement publicly that basically blamed the offense for the defense's struggles, and Adam Gas didn't want to fire Greg Williams. He didn't plan to fire Greg Williams. But you call zero blitz with twelve seconds left or whatever it was to put Lamar Jackson the other Lamar Jackson one on one on the outside with one of the fastest guys in the NFL, Henry Ruggs. And then you got guys like May coming out afterward and saying, we've got to be in a better call. You got to help us out. Those are the types of things where you have to make a change. So they move on from Greg Williams, Frank Bush will call the defense from here. I mean, I fully expect they're going to show up. I don't know that you want to be playing a Seahawks team that's going to be all ticked off because they just lost to the Giants at home. That would probably not be ideal. I'd rather that they be sitting pretty and you maybe catch them in a bit of a lull. But they're they're gonna come out and compete. It's just it's gonna be tough because of how hard these games are, you know, and of course with each week. I was at the Vikings Jaguars game last week where the Jaguars nearly pulled off a win game went to overtime to score a late touchdown. Who point diversion and all the while you're sitting there going this is going to have a big impact on what we're talking about in April right now with the draft. In fact, I even talked with Mike Glennon, who's been the Jaguars starting quarterback the past couple of weeks, and I asked him about, you know, what's it like, because you know, when you're you're sitting there, you're wanted. They've lost ten games in a row, and part of it was like, well, Glennon goes, well, I will have been on two other teams that ended up with the number one pick, because he was on the twenty fourteen Bucks and the twenty eighteen Cardinals, who both had the warst record in the league. Now he's competing for it again. I started laughing. I'm like, I'm sorry, man, I know this isn't funny, but this is clearly not ideal for you. He's like, yeah, I know, but he's like, and I know that there's got a lot of people who are rooting against us, meaning Jaguars fans, because they all want the pick. So it's it's just this weird situation right now with some of these teams where even the Patriots at this point, you know, is there a segment of their fans that are going, statistically, we got like a three percent chance of making the playoffs, we should just lose out and maybe draft the next quarterback. These are some of the tricky spots he ended at the end of the year. But I also know this about the NFL. Nobody is tanking. Nobody is trying to lose. You can't do it when you put the work in and when you have the physical grind to sixty minutes of NFL football. Even the stuff last week where people were saying, you know, Greg Williams in on the tank, It's like, let's just hypothetically say they were trying to tank. There are a lot easier ways to tank and say, okay, guys, here's what we're gonna do. For fifty nine minutes. We're gonna outplay the Raiders. Then we're gonna stop about the fifty yard line. We're gonna be thirteen seconds left. Then we're gonna need Derek Carter avoid the seven man blitz, step up in the pocket, knocket sacked, and throw a dime to Henry Rods. Yeah, that's the plan. Like, are we stupid? What are we talking about here. That's how you would take if you were the tank. That's just a having spent two years with Greg Williams, that's just the overaggression showing. And it was fun when the Rams offense couldn't do a single thing and all they really had to rely on was that defense to be able to close out games. But uh yeah, that costs him there. And but it's nice to hear that Frank Bush will be calm plays. He's a great dude too. I'm pretty sure he's send out like a weekly Friday motivation story thing and I think one of our other producers is still like subscribe to it and gets the weak emails. So yeah, great, anyone needs inspiration. It's the O and twelve Jets and it is one hundred. I'm just there's a part of me that's like they're going to beat the Patriots in their last game of the season. It will be like just that's the one game that they get the way teams, Yeah, two teams that a win would not help at that stage. Maybe it's possible. I mean it's hard to beat Bill Belichick in general, but the Jets somehow always play well against their rival. With the Patriots, and I'm just like, that's how twenty twenty ends for them. This is what it cost. One thing I think is cool and also advantageous in the COVID nineteen environment is the fact that there are not many teams right now that are out of it. If you look at the standings, I mean off the top of my head, and now remember you have two extra playoff spots going to fourteen, and that's even assuming that we get all the games in. It doesn't expand a sixteen. But with fourteen playoff spots, there's only maybe a half dozen teams that are still mathematically out of it, and then maybe you know a handful more that are realistically out of it. There's a lot of teams there's still something to play for, which again I think is also good when you're you know, one of the big concerns with the league throughout the year has been when teams fall out of the playoff race, will they get lack of days to go with the protocols? Will they say, well, who cares if our game gets canceled whatever, even though remember it's your paycheck that's on the lines. You hope that's enough motivation, But as always, teams have things to play for that might help guys make sure they're making the right decisions, not just players, but coaches and other people around the team. You know, get through the end of the season where a week fourteen, they've only been true two true outbreaks in the entire league through the whole year. That's wild. I mean, if you had said back in August, you know where some of the you know, the worst times coming into camp, when there were a lot of positive tests, which they expected. End of September when the Titans had their outbreak, when the Patriots had several positive cases, and you're going, gosh, are they going to get there? And then just a couple of weeks ago when the Ravens had their situation and a couple dozen people ended up COVID nineteen positive, and going, oh, they're gonna have to bubble? Is it gonna know? Like they've they've got a pretty good plan. It's been in you know, put together in consultation with leading epidemiologists on both the Union and the league side. It's you know, we keep having people say like they gotta go to a bubble, they got to go to a bubble. Well no, not necessarily they might, you know, kind of in the playoffs, you might do the thing where you move people into a hotel, do local bubbles, just to try to remove some of the exposures. But you're still gonna to make the right decisions. You're still gonna have to wear masks, You're still gonna have to socially distance. You know. When we've seen that there have been issues within the league, usually you've been able to trace it back to people not taking the protocol seriously. Right, I'm with you. Yeah, it is actually a good note think that we've almost gotten through. But I won't jinx it because I'm not Jakes any there. I'm just saying two outbreaks, not that every case is not serious, but two outbreaks league wide. Let's talking about six seven thousand people, players, coaches, staff, everybody, and two outbreaks is I mean, I think that that is just close to every game has been played. Every game has been played, They've not moved anyth into Week eighteen. Every game has been played. That's you know, it's not I mean, the best case scenario would be no one gets COVID, but that was never going to be realistic. So this is the best case of a worst case scenario in terms of trying to play football in a global pandemic. Yeah, and I like Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday football. I'm all, I don't mind to move some different schedule of Christmas Tree TV ratings. There might be some people getting ideas too. I bet all right, Matt, it's that time. Okay, Okay, here we go. This is Serena's socially distant social segment. And every year around this time, we see the elf on a shelf thing explode on social media. And you've heard elf on a shelf? But what about memes that have been going around Twitter? So I'm gonna throw a couple of ram steamed ones. They're not great, but like I'm this is what we're dealing with today. They're great, They're not great, but I mean, what are you gonna do? It's you can only rhyme so many things with certain names. But I'm gonna I'm gonna throw a couple of your way. You tell me if it makes your list of holiday decor around the pillow, Sarah home. Okay, first one, we're starting outside. We got Sean on a lawn. Sean on a lawn can do that throwing it up there. I'm guessing some Rams fans already have that, right, Sean around the lawn, just a small lawn. You're in California and you're in La. All right. I don't know where you're putting this one, but get get creative. We got Hecker on a checker, Hecker on a checker small all right. Uh, we'll go hanging free for this one. Cam on a RAM, Cam on a Ram. Take that. That's a good I would I would retweet that if the Rams put that one out there. We got another. This one's probably in the garage somewhere. Darryl and a barrel. I like that. Yeah cool, And then maybe we go back outside. We got Coop on a stoop. That's awesome. Coop on a stoop. If we could get him like actually like yeah, like posted up like nineties hip hop album cover. Yes, Cooper Cup is one of the most swagged out. Doesn't even realize he is guys in the league. He just got like a fancy new I think it's like this bright blue car um. He wears his little Jordans and like the fitted hats and comes in and I'm like he has one of those like long T shirts when we were allowed to all be around each other sometime last season, and I looked at him and I was like, Coop, you're a swearing guy. And he goes my wife dresses me. He Coop on a stoop. That's my pick? All right? Well, I just read the rest of him and I was like, nah, I'm not even gonna go through with these. We're just gonna leave it right there. Sometimes you know, you're writing things and you're like, oh, that could work, and then you're like, you know what, I'm killing that idea. So I was writing on a seal from the Torture Coop on a stoop wins Um. We'll end with this, say what Cam Akers, who was listed early on in the injury report for having something going on with his shoulder, clearly didn't affect him in the game last night? I will play his Someone asked the question like, hey, so how's your shoulder doing? And here's what he had to say, Now, manage your shoulder tonight? An issue? Really shoulder? Um, obviously I'm laughing, but what shoulder? What happened? I guess, no, shoulder, no problem, Like, can't see it, it's not there, right. He was incredible last night. Always fair to overlist than underlist on the injury report, like did he have a paper cut on his shoulder? Like what happened? One hundred and ninety four total yards from scrimmage? No big deal, Cam Akers, the rookie maker moves. I will say this um Early on in training camp, Jalen Ramsey had tweeted out after the game, like how proud he is. Both went to Florida State, both at the same agent. Jalen sort of looked out for Cam Akers. I don't know if you were at training camp, but there was early on. Cam just ran right into Jaalen like just practice ate it, like down on the ground, and Jalen kind of stood over him, like yeah, bro, welcome to the league. And it's just great because maybe that was the reason, like we got it out of the way. This kid is humbled. He's all about, you know, team effort, Like whatever I could do, humble beast, tattoo your arm. Maybe that's when he was just you got the same thing, right, Matt. Yeah, it's just one humble and then beast over here. So depending on my mood, I can have you. I mean, I guess he's okay. I love it. I'm really glad that can't. Maker's shoulder doesn't even exist. He doesn't even have shoulders, it seems me or do I, But I can't help that. That's genetic. At least you have good hair, Tom. I'm all about coconut oil for the wind. That is it? Well, and learn something here today. That's what it was all about, right, That's all I needed. Another episode of Ramblin in the books. Um. Hey, guys, well you may not be able to join at Soapy State Him this season. We want you to come to the Rams House in twenty twenty one. Fingers cross all things go well, there's still time to be the first amongst the new SOFI season ticket members, So make sure you check out the Rams dot com slash twenty twenty one, get some tickets, be the first guys to get in there. It's beautiful stadium, Tom, I don't know if you've seen it. I want to come there. I've seen it. The pictures doesn't do it justice. I wanted to stand under the oculus and stare up at that for three hours. I would dot com last twenty twenty one and hopefully be a part of that shameless plug. But that's what we're doing today. Make sure you stay up to date on all things Rams. You can also download the app. You know so follow Tom fellas Ero on Twitter at John fellows Ero. Thank you, John, appreciate your time and your hair. Thanks for having me, sir Na