Looking for shootouts on the Rams 2014 schedule

The NFL world seems to have a lot of questions about the St. Louis Rams offense. Understandably so. Starting quarterback Sam Bradford is out for the season, the offensive lineman who was the second overall pick is on the bench and the receivers have yet to really establish themselves in the regular season.

It's understandable that the national perspective, which usually overlooks the Rams, would take that approach. However, anyone watching the team closely knows that this is an offense capable of producing with a strong running game, improvement from the receivers and a little help from the defense and the league's best special teams unit.

So let's take a look at the schedule and see where the Rams offense could have its day to carry the team. To keep it simple, I used the projected defensive DVOA for this season's opponents from Football Outsiders, trying to identify what could be the softest defenses on the schedule this year.

Week 1 - vs. Vikings (projected DVOA defensive rank: 24th)

Week 3 - vs. Cowboys (32nd)

Week 12 - at Chargers (30th)

Week 13 - vs. Raiders (22nd)

Those are the teams projected to be in the bottom third of the league in terms of defensive performance. Personally, I'd add the Giants (Week 16) and Washington (Week 14) to that list, because I'm not a big believer in either one of those defenses.

For the biggest shootout game of the year, I'm going to pick the Cowboys game. We know that Romo and Co. (assuming Romo's healthy) can put up points, even against tough defenses. But injuries have left huge gaps in Dallas' defense. The absence of Sean Lee bodes well for the Rams' running game, and they're also facing the Cowboys while their best corner, Orlando Scandrick, is serving a four-game suspension.

What's your pick for the Rams' biggest shootout of the season? What kind of score are you predicting for that game?