Woe Is Me

This cry can be heard from every corner of Saint Louis. This jewel of the midwest is beating its collective breast in agony because the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team is missing out on some big name free agents. Oh, what's that you say? The St. Louis Rams still have three more games? The vast majority of Rams "fans" checked out weeks ago. Doing so certainly would have saved on much heartbreak in the midst of this seven game losing streak. But some of us are here for the long haul, no matter how long it takes to regain legitimacy. As has been the case all season long, the Rams absolutely killed themselves with turnovers which is also a direct cause of the other glaring issue with this team, no point production. The Rams did score a touchdown in this game, but coughed up two fumbles and threw an interception. Including this past Sunday's game the Rams have amassed 169 points this season through 13 games for an average of exactly 13 per game; a touchdown, extra point, and two field goals. Although, those numbers are skewed by the victory in week seven against the Cowboys when the Rams scored four touchdowns. Since the afforementioned marquee win the Rams have not won a game, and while the offense seemed poised to assert itself over the rest of league, it just fizzled. Steven Jackson was injured and is probably still feeling the effects of an injury that he claims is much more serious than the team officials reported. Once Randy McMichael and Drew Bennett went down the only real options in the passing game were Torry Holt, who is certainly on the downswing of his career, and Donnie Avery, a rookie, who is undersized and not a prototypical number one receiver in the NFL. All of these factors combined with a fragile, pentalty prone, and fragmented offensive line and the Rams offense has really been handed a raw deal for this season. But with all that said, these players that are left standing in week 15 of a 2-11 season are still professionals in this league and should be able to do better than zero victories in their last seven games over which they averaged a little more than ten points per game. As a former wide receiver I am especially critical of the offensive unit, but clearly a team loses on this scale when all three phases fail. However, the Rams defense actually did a pretty decent job of containing the explosive Arizona Cardinals attack. The D held Kurt Warner and company to just 20 points since 14 of the Cardinals points on Sunday came off Rams turnovers. The aspect of the Rams that performed best on Sunday, was again, the special teams. Kicker Josh Brown, the offensive savior of this franchise, booted a 51 yarder and punter Donnie Jones was used sparingly because the Rams ended their own drives with turnovers and failed fourth down conversions; but he did average 55.5 yards per punt! The St. Louis Rams are once again heading into a toilet bowl scenario this week against another injury riddled NFC West cellar dwellar in the Seattle Seahawks also sitting pretty at 2-11. The winner will have pole position for "not-last-place-in the division." The Rams are also playing to match their win total from last season's miserable 3-13 campaign! Should be a rousing contest.