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Well football fans, week 1 of the 2015 NFL season is officially in the books. Let's take a moment to take a look back at the week that was for St. Louis Rams football, and look how the Rams remaining opponents fared.
There was plenty of excitement in week 1 aside from the latest installment of wildly entertaining Rams-Seahawks games in the Edward Jones Dome. Instead of taking a run through the entire remaining 2015 schedule, we will just take a look at some of the major happenings and storylines for the next two upcoming opponents.
So who is up next on the docket for the undefeated Rams?
NFL Week |
Rams Opponent |
Opponent Record |
1 |
Seattle Seahawks |
Winless |
2 |
0-1 |
|
3 |
0-1 |
|
4 |
1-0 |
|
5 |
1-0 |
|
6 |
Bye |
Winless |
7 |
0-1 |
|
8 |
1-0 |
|
9 |
0-1 |
|
10 |
0-1 |
|
11 |
0-1 |
|
12 |
1-0 |
|
13 |
Arizona Cardinals |
1-0 |
14 |
0-1 |
|
15 |
0-1 |
|
16 |
@ Seattle Seahawks |
Winless |
17 |
@ San Francisco 49ers |
1-0 |
The Rams will play their first road game of the season against their old friends in Washington. I am sure the mainstream media will bring up Jeff Fisher's not-so-subtle trolling of the Washington organization from last year's game with his selection of the players the Rams received via trade as their game captains, and considering the Rams 24-0 shutout last year there are some intersting storylines to discuss.
We wont worry about the RGIII trade or any extra motivation the Redskins may have to avenge the beatdown they received last season. Washington had a disappointing opening week, squandering an opportunity to upset the Miami Dolphins after leading most of the game. Perhaps more significant were the losses to injury. They'll be without three starters heading into Week 2: WR Desean Jackson, S Duke Ihenacho, and CB Chris Culliver (suspension, not injury). All in all, this is not the way Washington wanted to start the season, and with the Rams coming to town next week its not likely to get much better.
In Week 3, the Rams will return home to the Edward Jones Dome to take on the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Steelers will be without WR Martavis Bryant who will still be serving a four-game suspension as well as C Maurkice Pouncey who was placed on IR designated to return this preseason. The Steelers should see the return of RB Le'Veon Bell, whose suspension was reduced to two games. The Steelers offense still fared pretty well without Bryant and Bell in week 1, hitting several big plays against the New England Patriots. They did bog down on occassion, but it was their defense which really cost them the game against the Patriots. The Steelers will present the Rams with a second opportunity to pickup a home win against a quality opponent.
Overall the results of Week 1 are too small a sample size to project across the remainder of the Rams schedule, but starting the season off with a win against the two-time defending NFC Champions sure beats starting out 0-1. I know the Rams have beaten the Seahawks at home three out of the last four years, and the previous two times it didn't necessarily translate to any additional success.
There was something different about this game though.
The Rams didn't rely on trick plays or lucky bounces to steal the win. No, in this game they went head to head with a heavyweight and matched them blow for blow.
In fact the Seahawks were fortunate to be in the position they were in. It's not every day you will see a fumbled shotgun snap, a strip sack scoop score from an unblocked blitzer, AND a punt return TD in the same game. If you would have told me the Rams would lose the turnover battle 3-1 and still beat the Seahawks, I would have laughed myself silly. Instead, they found a way to overcome those hiccups going up against one of the NFL's best and walking away triumphant.
Only time will tell if Week 1 was indeed just another blip on the radar, or the beginning of a new era for Jeff Fisher's young Rams.
Thank you for reading and as always, Go Rams!!