2015 St. Louis Rams: Looking At The Schedule After Week 6 Of The NFL Season

Well the St. Louis Rams had an early bye week this season, taking Week 6 off for a little R&R as well as "self scouting". The Rams find themselves with a 2-3 record and in second place within the NFC West. I would be willing to bet most Rams fans would have been happy with that prior to the start of the regular season. It likely would have been assumed the Rams beat the Washington football team as well as an upset, perhaps the Pittsburgh Steelers at home. The way it unfolded in reality makes the 2-3 record, and second place in the West, much less satisfying.

The Rams managed to upset the two time defending NFC Champion Seattle Seahawks in the opening week followed by an absolute no show at Washington in Week 2. In Week 3 the Rams had a golden opportunity to get another upset against the Steelers, only to watch the offense fail to muster enough points to compliment the absolute gem from the defense. Week 4 was a trip to the desert where the Rams pulled off the upset of the previously unbeaten Arizona Cardinals. Week 5 was another road game against an unbeaten team as the Rams defense did enough to win against the Green Bay Packers, while the offense yet again failed to put enough points on the board.

Injuries mounted for the Rams over Week 4 and 5, with starters Alec Ogletree and Rodger Saffold both suffering serious injury. Something else happened over that two week stretch, Todd Gurley happened. After a very modest NFL debut against the Steelers, Gurley exploded over the next two games to the tune of 49 carries and 305 yards for a 6.22 ypc average. Frank Cignetti seems to actually have a plan in place for using Tavon Austin and Todd Gurley to compliment each other, so there is at least a little reason for hope when it comes to the offense.

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

At 2-3 the Rams have arguably already been through the toughest stretch of their schedule. Of course with the Rams recent history, there is no real reason to believe a "softer" remaining schedule will yield improved results. The Jeff Fisher era Rams have a knack for big upsets and even bigger letdowns. Is 2015 the year the Rams finally cut out the second part of the equation? Let's take a closer look at what lies ahead over the next two weeks.

The Rams will be hosting the Cleveland Browns in Week 7. It would be easy to look at the Browns 2-4 record and assume this will be the beginning of the soft schedule for the Rams. The Browns may only be 2-4 but save for the opening week beatdown by the New York Jets the Browns have been very competitive. In the three losses since Week 1 the combined margin of defeat is a mere 13 points, with their most recent loss to the Denver Broncos coming in overtime. Josh McCown has been slinging the ball all over the field with 1,416 yards and averaging over 30 attempts per game. The Browns have given up a whopping 22 sacks already, with McCown fumbling four times, something to keep an eye on as a potential Rams advantage.

Week 8 the Rams will host the NFC West rival San Francisco 49ers. The 49ers have been outscored by a ridiculous 60 points over their first six games. The 49ers are currently last in points per game average and 25th in points against per game average. I am sure I don't have to tell you, that is a bad combination. The defense certainly isn't the force it once was during the height of the Jim Harbaugh era, but the defense hasn't been the only problem. In spite of a productive rushing game the 49ers offense has struggled mightily. A large part is the struggles of QB Colin Kaepernick, who has scored 7 total touchdowns (6 passing 1 rushing) but thrown 5 interceptions as well as fumbled the ball 5 times. The 49ers offense has surrendered a total of 19 sacks through their first six games.

The time is now for the Rams, time for them to start developing some consistency and make a push for the postseason. Time for the team to finally start turning some of those "should win" games into "will win" games. There is not a single game on the Rams remaining 2015 schedule that they cannot win. They certainly are not going to win them all, but developing a little bit of consistency could put them in a good position to end their playoff drought. Who knows the way the rest of the division has been perhaps even win the NFC West.

Thanks for reading and as always, Go Rams!!!!