The Rams made me a happy man this Sunday by gorrilla smacking the Houston Texans 38-13. This came as a huge surprise to many people who fully expected the Rams to continue their streak of futility. Luckily, the Rams managed to adapt their gameplans, and Brian Schottenheimer is once again off of the hot seat (for now). The Rams need to build on this win as our schedule only gets harder as time goes on.

One of the main take-aways from this victory is that we now have an effective running game. Zac Stacy is proving to be the solid every down back we have needed for our offense to function. Before Sunday, the Rams couldn’t run the ball and lost the ability to fool defenses by throwing the ball on almost every single play. This game was defined by running, as Sam Bradford only threw the ball 16 times, not one time in the fourth quarter. It’s beautiful how a real run threat can transform a struggling quarterback into an effective guy. Another thing we learned is that Daryl Richardson, although not starting caliber, is actually an effective change of pace back.

Something interesting also seems to be going on with our receivers. Our hyped-up first round pick, Tavon Austin, was only on the field for four snaps the entire game. Granted, we were focusing on running the ball more, but something tells me that Austin is already losing Fisher’s trust. Lance Kendricks has also outshined Jared Cook now for the second week in a row. While it’s excellent that Kendricks is beginning to break out in the receiving corps, it worries me how fast Cook is becoming irrelevant on this team.

The defensive side of the ball was hard to label this week. While only giving up 13 points, (seven of which came in garbage time) our defense let Arian Foster burn us for almost 200 yards. Our defense seems to be turning into a place where fading running backs get their careers back on track. An impressive factor though was that once the Texans drove to the red zone, we consistently made a stand. The four turnovers also showed that the Rams are once again fighting for the ball. Alec Ogletree even returned a ball 98 yards for a touchdown, throwing him in rookie of the week contention. Janoris Jenkins also had an excellent pick in the endzone.

We need to continue this winning streak next week against the Panthers because after that, our schedule gets tough. We need all the wins we can get at this point. While we are indeed playing better football than earlier, I just don’t see a way that we go into December over .500. If we are going to have any wildcard chance, beating the Panthers might just be our most important game of the year.