I'm a sucker for rankings. I've said it before, and power rankings for sports teams are always fun to take a look at, an arbitrary assessment of the league's power arrangement meant to ignite a rousing round of ale fueled debate...or something like that.
Truth be told, power rankings are probably just an easy way for writer's to make a quick buck with 500 words online and editors get much needed filler content for saps like us who will read anything to keep our minds off the miserable cube we're stuck in for 8 hours everyday.
Uh, anyway, here's the first installment of TST's weekly Power Rankings Rundown feature, coming to you every Wednesday pending this editor's memory.
CBS Sportsline
Pete Prisco puts Rams in the lucky 13 spot, noting a win over the Seahawks (ranked 7) would "make a real statement."
Football Outsiders (via Fox Sports)
Using their DVOA measure, the numbers guys at FO put the Rams in 18th. Noted here are the fluky wins, and a another statement about a win against Seattle making this team legit.
Pro Football Weekly
PFW has the Rammies in the 16th slot in the order, saying only this about Bulger, "lowest interception rate among starting quarterbacks." We did know that, we just wanted to see if you did.
ESPN
The network that unleased the plauge known as Stuart Scott on the world says the Rams rate 14th overall. In patented ESPN-speak they hail the Rams as "getting it done." They, too believe a win against Seattle would punctuate the words 'serious contender' next to the Rams name.
Between those four rankings, the Rams have a composite rank of 15th overall, not bad for a team that wasn't expected to compete for anything but second place in the NFC West. However, it's a soft 15, and a loss to the Seahawks will drop them down anywhere from 3 to 8 spots, depending on the circumstances of the loss.