Rams-Cowboys: Open Thread

Well, here we go.

The St. Louis Rams are up against the Dallas Cowboys today in the Edward Jones Dome in the final game before an early bye week on the schedule. In two weeks, the Rams begin the trek through the Octet of Pain, a brutal eight-game stretch.

So this is kind of a big game.

On one hand, the Rams fell apart in the last quarter and a half against the Minnesota Vikings in the season opener. A week later, they clipped off a very close, and offensively challenged, win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers who were destroyed by the Atlanta Falcons on Thursday.

On the other, this team hasn't played their best football yet. It is, as we mention often, the youngest team in the NFL. There's still tons of room for growth. We haven't seen the best of the 2014 Rams yet.

So it's tough to say what happens today. The Cowboys are much more of a known quantity and I wonder if they'll dictate the game early on and force the Rams to come up with a response.

In the end, the Rams will either have a winning record from their three pre-bye games, or they'll head into the Octet of Pain 1-2 with a host of concerns. Sixty minutes will tell the tale.