Now we have a decent idea why the Rams sat rookie QB Jared Goff for so long

If the Los Angeles Rams drafted quarterback Jared Goff to bring some star power to their relocated team, that’s not working out as they planned. Not yet, at least.

Goff might end up being L.A. football’s version of Kobe Bryant someday, but the Goff era isn’t off to a great start. Goff sat (and sat, and sat) while the Rams floundered with Case Keenum at quarterback. It was odd, considering the Rams mortgaged the franchise to move up to No. 1 overall and draft Goff. Now it makes more sense.

Goff wasn’t great in his first three starts, although he made a few plays against the New Orleans Saints in his second start, but he was bad on Sunday in a 42-14 loss to the Atlanta Falcons. Goff was 24 of 41 for 235 yards and two interceptions, and that line was misleading because he did very little when the game was remotely competitive. Goff once again rarely threw anything more than 10 yards downfield. He turned the ball over at bad times. He made nothing happen against a Falcons defense that is average at best. Sitting for nine games behind Keenum didn’t seem to help much.

The Rams’ offensive line is awful. The coaching is uninspiring – on Sunday Jeff Fisher tied an NFL record for most losses in a career. There’s not a ton at receiver. Even Todd Gurley has been spinning his wheels all season. So there are many good excuses for Goff’s struggles, on top of him learning the NFL game as a rookie. But he hasn’t shown much either.

He looked really bad on some plays Sunday. Vic Beasley basically sacked him with one arm after he got pressure to Goff’s right side. Goff had a chance for an easy touchdown to Kenny Britt on a simple whip route, but under no pressure he fired it way too fast and wide to a wide-open Britt and it was incomplete. On a fumble return for a touchdown by Beasley, Goff showed very little awareness of the rush and was sacked and stripped of the ball. There were many other examples in the blowout loss. Most of Goff’s minimal production came in garbage time, which made his stats look a little better.

It was a mess for the Rams, who found themselves down 42-0 at one point in front of their somewhat sparse home crowd.

Goff was supposed to give some hope to a Rams offense that has been terrible year after year for way too long. Not many quarterbacks dominate their rookie season, but it was at least realistic for Goff to how some signs that the Rams made the right move trading up in the draft and had a quarterback for the future. Even if the Rams were terrible, Goff could at least make them watchable … the Rams have indeed been terrible, but the latter part hasn’t happened.

Goff might be that franchise, Pro Bowl quarterback that Los Angeles will love for the next decade. But he hasn’t shown much through four games.

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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
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