St. Louis Rams coach Scott Linehan has spent the last few days reflecting on the team's 3-13 season, and getting ready for a meeting with team management late next week.

Rams President John Shaw already has committed to bringing Linehan back next season.

A look back at the preseason hype surrounding players projected high in fantasy football drafts this year. Some panned out, and some, well, not so much. Tell ya what, it would have been more realistic if Bulger was throwing passes while Volkswagons were being hurled at his face at the same time.

Thank God it's finally over. Hit the lights and shut the fat lady up already.

The St Louis Rams punctuated their putrid season with an equally putrid performance against the Arizona Cardinals yesterday. The loss drops the Rams to 3-13 on the year, and gives them the worst record for the team in its existence in St. Louis and the worst since their days in Los Angeles (1991).

There are many parallels between these two NFC West foes. Both the Rams and the Cardinals have had problems with injuries, particularly along the offensive line and at quarterback. Both teams have potentially potent offenses that have tended to score quickly but struggled to keep their head of steam as games have worn on. And, despite the fact neither team made the playoffs, you can expect them to play with pride.

It's getting to the end of the year and it's time to consider nominations for this season's Rammie Awards. When your evaluating a 3-12 team, it's pretty hard to find any bright spots, but, there's a few. Some of these nomination are serious, most are not. The nominations are officially open:

MVP:

Tie: O.J. Atogwe and Steven Jackson. Both these guys are the only reason the Rams have three wins.....

Going into the final game of the 2007 season, the Rams are guaranteed of picking no higher than second and no lower than seventh in the 2008 NFL Draft.

The Rams could use a pass-rushing defensive end, a guard or center to add to the mix on the interior of the offensive line, another linebacker or two to help them make the switch to a 3-4 defense if coordinator Jim Haslett so chooses, a wide receiver who can stretch the field, a run-thumping strong safety, a third offensive tackle and a quarterback to groom for the future.

With the reason behind the Rams' poor season becoming increasingly evident, we now set our sights on Sun Tzu's 3rd of 7 considerations used to determine the outcome of a battle.

The first consideration, leadership, showed how important it is to have a coach (or leader) who commands respect from his players and can get his men to played and act like a disciplined team. The second consideration showed how important it is to have a talented and strong quarterback (or general) leading the troops into battle. Resilliency in that regard is also a must.

In our first segment of "The Art of War", we began to determine the conditions of both "armies" prior to battle in order to determine which was more prepared and better suited for battle. There are seven conditions or considerations used by Sun Tzu to forecast either victory or defeat for either side. To recap, we're using the Steelers and Rams as examples and running through the seven considerations to see if the result of their last meeting could have been accurately predicted.

"That was the worst game we've played all year by far," Haslett said. "I thought we made great strides up to that game. We didn't play very well. We didn't cover well when we had chances.

"The run game was disappointing because there were two drives where they didn't even have a third down. They just picked up chunks of yardage."

Sun Tzu's "The Art of War" is the oldest military treatise in the world and has had enormous influence on Eastern and Western military thinking, business tactics, sports figures, and anyone else looking to gain an advantage or a superior state of preparedness over their "opponent" â€" whoever that may be....

Torry Holt will be going to Hawaii this February as the Rams' sole selection to the 2008 Pro Bowl. With 83 receptions for 1,055 yards and 7 touchdowns - and on a bad team, at that - Holt certainly earned his reserve spot on the NFC roster.

Far more puzzling than Holt's selection, though, was Will Witherspoon's absence from the squad.

I realize that I've been MIA for the last week or so, but I have a semi-valid excuse: five comprehensive finals. It was a rough stretch, but now that that's all over with, I can get to the real tough times: watching the Rams play the Packers.

What better way to make up for absence than a running diary? I'll be posting here as each quarter completes so keep checking back for updates.

In surprising fashion, the St Louis Rams compiled 364 total yards of offense, Steven Jackson ran for 143 yards (including a 46 yard touchdown run), Bulger spread the ball around to 7 different receivers and hit Torry Holt for a 4 yard score. O.J. Atogwe snatched his 6th AND 7th interceptions of the season, and the Rams held the NFL's leading rusher over the last 7 weeks (Ryan Grant) to 55 yards on the ground.

In not so surprising fashion, the Rams lost today.

Before the season began, many saw the Rams as a much improved team. They had just ended the previous season with three straight wins and picked up some good talent in free agency to complement their already potent offense. I'm not entirely sure ANYBODY thought the Packers would be one of the NFC's powerhouses and battling for home-field advantage in the playoffs, but here they sit at 11-2 and poised to make it 12-2 as they host the Rams this Sunday.

This has nothing to do with Rams football, but then again, even Rams football has nothing to do with Rams football. As a fan of the NFL in general, I'd like to take the opportunity of owning a soap box to champion a cause that's long overdue.

Fred Taylor has to be the league's most underappreciated runningback....