12%
That's not Drew Bennett's catch percentage since joining the Rams or Marc Bulger's completion percentage from last week. That number, my fellow Rams fans, is the number of St. Louis area households that bothered to tune into the Rams season opener last week, per the Neilsen ratings.
Last season, the ratings low point was 15.8% for a week six stinker in Baltimore.
What about the firs half of the game versus the second half? It's still pretty grim. The rating for the first half was 13.7%, a pretty good indication that interest in the Rams right now is at an all-time low. This poses a pretty difficult problem for a team needing to connect with their fanbase ahead of a looming 2015 deadline on the stadium lease. I'm no media analyst, but those numbers don't bode well for those hoping to keep the team in St. Louis beyond that date.
Again, there's a lot more at stake this weekend than just the Rams record.
This week's game is sold out, lifting the NFL's blackout policy. It will be broadcast on FOX, locally on KTVI, and will feature Fox's A-team of NFL broadcasters, local-boy-done-good Joe Buck and Troy Aikman, something that has more to do with this being a Giants game.