Last year, in the run-up to the regular season, I started a game by game look at our defense and the opposing offense starting in week 1.  Unfortunately, being in the middle of a war in Baghdad sometimes limits your ability to blog.  Such was the case for the k.  I think I got through week 4 or 5 when I had to assume more, lets say, strenuous duties that prevented me from continuing the series.  This year, I plan to go through the whole regular season, but I want your input.  That means everyone, not just VanRam & AmpLee.  Below the fold, I need your help, TST.

  What kind of conversation do you want to have in terms of week-by-week prediction?  Would you want something akin to what I did last year where we look at how the defense stacks up against opposing offense?  Would it be more valuable to have an offensive and defensive breakdown, even though that would make the fanpost incredibly long?  Would we best served by analyzing the 4-5 key matchups of the game and giving them a serious amount of scrutiny?  What other ideas do you guys have?

  I'm trying to take some heat off of Van.  I came across this blog last year and have been hooked since.  I wish we had more people involved in consistent discussion, and maybe this is something that will bring people to TST and keep them around.

  I know last year, I was most interested in our defense, with Carriker an unknown commodity and so many question marks in the secondary.  What areas are of most concern to you?  Who should we be talking about?  Should we just guess what Al "tight ends are my pal" Saunders' gameplan is going to be each week?

  Some breakdowns of possible formats and pros cons:

 - Rams D vs. opponent O

       > pros: Gives us a chance to pore over the D-Line.  Van is obviously interested in looking here since the first two prediction posts have been on Leo-Lit and Chris Long.  Plus we get to look at the offenses we face and crack those open, which is always fun.

       > cons: Ignores the offensive side of the ball, not to mention special teams.  Specific week-by-week posts often become useless once we get to that week in the season because one team has usually lost a key player to injury which completely changes the dynamic of the game and the system.

- Rams O vs. opponent D

       > pros: We can make overly optimistic predictions on S-Jack or Bulger.  (16 combined TDs first three weeks!)  We can jump on the Al Saunders bandwagon (as if we hadn't already) and breakdown some schematics.  Or we can dissect the WR corps and yak about Donnie Avery & Keenan Burton.  And I guess we'd have to talk about our opposing defense at some point.

       > cons: Opposite of cons from the first format.  Plus, a personal suggestion: I don't think our offense is going to decide if we win or not.  Of course we have to keep guys on the field (we can't possibly have as many injuries as last year... can we?), but even if we do, I think our defense will decide where we end up.  Takeaways that get the ball back in the offense's hands, big series stops, & time-consuming sacks.  That is my personal formula for success this season and all three come on the other side of the ball.  Just my 2¢.

- Full team breakdowns

       > pros: Lots to discuss.

       > cons: Lots to discuss.

- Key matchups

       > pros: We can get very detailed about the game-changers and look at who they'll go against and how that plays out.  Whatever format I end up going with, I've gotta put in some key matchup discussion because it's too relevant.

       > cons: Extremely subjective.  Is it possible that Adrian Peterson won't break every record ever?  Will Tom Brady throw for 80 TDs while fathering children from 3 more supermodels?  Why is Tony Romo so awesome?  And no, these will not be asked at any point by me.

Let me know what you guys think.  The only reason I enjoy doing these is to foster conversation with other serious fans.

Word.