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Let's put this one to bed after a strange week for the Rams and for me personally.
It started Sunday with a loss that pushed me to disconnect with football for a minute. It was depressing. It was embarrassing. It was one week. I rationalized the anomality of it and put it to bed just at the same time I had to begin prepping the family for a damn storm...in DC...
So be it. All this week, Sandy's dominated the national conscience, supplanting football (professional and collegiate levels) as the only acceptable topic of discussion at every dinner table across the United States.
Damn you, Sandy (BTW, thanks to everyone who inquired about me & my family's status prior to and after Hurricane Sandy. Appreciate it.).
Now it's on to the bye week to heal up, get Danny Amendola back on the field and prep for a tough late afternoon challenge in San Francisco in a week plus.
(NOTE: If you'd like me to add any other source, let me know in the comments.)
| Average ranking (# of rankings) | 23.64 (11) |
| Average change from last week | -2.64 |
| Highest ranking (source) | 20th (Pro Football Talk) |
| Lowest ranking (source) | 28th (SB Nation) |
| Biggest positive change (source) | -1 (multiple sources) |
| Biggest negative change (source) | -5 (Pro Football Talk) |
SB Nation: 28th (27th last week)
A soft Patriots pass defense was supposed to be a coming out party for Sam Bradford and the Rams offense. They scored seven points on a first quarter touchdown and took the rest of the day off, along with a thoroughly confused defense.
The Rams have allowed 75 points in two games after allowing 56 in their previous four.
NFL.com (Power Poll): 25th (22nd)
NFL.com (Harrison): 21st (17th)
Hey, the St. Louis Rams were ballin' ... with 12:25 left in the first quarter. So Rams fans have that to hang their hat on. Danny Amendola comes back soon, so that's good. What else? Uhh ... alrighty then.
CBS Sports: 21st (19th)
Tom Brady does what he did to them to a lot of young teams. They have come back to reality in the past couple of weeks against Aaron Rodgers and Brady.
Yahoo! Sports: 23rd (19th)
On Oct. 4, the Rams beat the Cardinals 17-3 on to move over .500 for the first time since the 2006 season. Since then, the Rams have lost three straight, including a 45-7 pasting at the hands of the Patriots, and get to head to San Francisco to face the 49ers on Nov. 11. The Rams are clearly heading in the right direction under general manager Les Snead and head coach Jeff Fisher, but any hopes the Rams may have had for the postseason can probably be tabled until 2013.
Pro Football Talk: 20th (15th) - PFT picked their mid-season MVPs for each team in place of Twitter-friendly wisdom this week
Cortland Finnegan, because he’s one of the most underrated cornerbacks in the league.
Pro Football Weekly: 25th (22nd)
Givens gave them a gift to open the game, but Pats were way too strong.
Fox Sports: 27th (25th)
The Rams scored first on Sunday against New England, but were hanging on for dear life for the rest of the game. The Rams have outplayed their talent for the majority of the first eight games and that just won’t sustain itself for the duration of an entire season.
National Football Post: 25th (23rd)
The Rams need production from their defense to hang in games and they didn’t get that vs. New England.
Sports Illustrated: 22nd (21st)
That was a trans-Atlantic butt-kicking the Rams endured at the hands of the Patriots on Sunday in London, and I'm sure it made for a long flight home and a tough way to start the bye week. But three wins in the season's first half already represents progress in St. Louis, and the Rams just don't have the talent yet to match up with the league's upper tier teams.