2015 St. Louis Rams: Looking At The Schedule After Week 5 Of The NFL Season

What does a person say about the Rams and their Week 5 effort? They managed to do something no one has ever done to Aaron Rodgers at Lambeau Field, force him into three turnovers. In spite of a solid defensive effort (minus a few hiccups), the Rams missed a golden opportunity to upset an undefeated team on the road for the second straight week.

The Rams dropped to 2-3 heading into their bye week, a familiar position for a team which has struggled to come strong out of the gates under Jeff Fisher. They have also recently been hit by the injury bug with injuries to Alec Ogletree, Chris Long, and Rodger Saffold over the past two weeks. The team dodged a bullet as Chris Long's injury turned out to be more minor than originally feared, but the severity of Saffold's injury is still unknown.

The injury bug and missed opportunities are not the only stories to come from Week 5 for the Rams. Todd Gurley followed up his "breakout" performance against the Arizona Cardinals with a very impressive 159 yards on 30 carries against the Green Bay Packers. Tavon Austin also continued his strong early season with another "receiving" touchdown, tallying five total touchdowns through the first five weeks.

Let's take a look at the Rams remaining 2015 schedule.

The Rams managed to escape the toughest stretch of their season with a 2-3 record, a few lucky bounces and/or better decisions and this could have been a 4-1 start (I wont even pretend the Rams showed up at Washington). The Rams came away from the first five games with the record I expected prior to the start of the season, lets take a closer look at what lies ahead over the next two weeks.

In Week 6 the Rams have their bye, an opportunity for them to rest up and perform a little "self scouting". Of course if you follow the Rams closely enough you know they are improving and, after all, that is the most important thing. During the bye week the injuries to Chris Long and Rodger Saffold should be monitored closely. There is fear Saffold's injury will require surgery, but Chris Long may be back for the Rams Week 7 tilt against the Cleveland Browns.

In Week 7 the Rams will host the Browns in the Edward Jones Dome. The Browns are fresh off their victory over the Baltimore Ravens, on the shoulders of Josh McCown's stellar performance. McCown is unlikely to duplicate his 457 yard 2 touchdown effort against the Rams, and the Browns 3.7 yards per attempt (26th in the NFL) rushing attack probably wont be able to carry them to a road win. Week 7 presents the Rams with the first of several very winnable games following the bye.

The Rams managed to let some opportunities slip away in the first five games of their schedule. Even with the entirely too predictable inconsistency from the Rams, they find themselves in a good position to make a push towards their first winning record and possible playoff berth in over a decade. As winnable as many of their remaining games appear, this team has to find more offensive consistency from someone other than Todd Gurley. The receivers and tight ends need to step up and start producing if the Rams offense is going to even approach average.

Thank you for reading and as always, Go Rams!!