MVN - Most Valuable Network

Rams-Falcons: Does Anyone Care?

Not particularly, no.

Sunday’s St. Louis-Atlanta game will feature two of the worst teams in the NFL, each battling to climb back up to “mediocre” status. Normally, this game would get some attention from the media as it would provide a potent source for jokes and wry comparisons to the much more anticipated Green Bay-Dallas game earlier in the week. But the Rams (2-9) and Falcons (3-8) can’t even enjoy this type of negative publicity, because the title of worst matchup of the week (some would say season) belongs to the Jets-Dolphins game.

Consequently, this game could go down as one of the least-watched, least-discussed games of the season. The Ed, mercifully, did not sell out for Sunday, so FOX will be able to show us more interesting NFC matchups instead of the Rams game (and let’s be honest, any matchup is more interesting than this one).

But for the sake of those few Rams fans who will be paying attention, let me take a moment to highlight the reasons St. Louis could very well lose on Sunday to one of the worst teams in the league:

1. Gus Frerotte is starting. Atlanta will suddenly turn into an interception machine if he plays the way he did last week after Marc Bulger left with a concussion. X of stlouisramsx.com wrote a convincing article calling for Brock Berlin’s promotion, and I myself called for Frerotte to be fired. We partially got our wish as Berlin was moved up to the active roster for Sunday’s game. Here’s hoping he gets a chance to play in this meaningless game so that he will have some experience for the future.

2. The O-Line is looking for medical help again. Brett Romberg is still injured and is listed as questionable. Andy McCollum is probable but he, too, has an injury which will bring down his level of play. There really isn’t anything else to be said about this. Just know that Frerotte will take many hits on Sunday.

3. The Falcons have had a week and a half to prepare for the only real offensive threat the Rams have anymore: Steven Jackson. Everybody knows that if Linehan and Olson really care about winning at this point, they will feed Jackson the ball all day. Number 39 is more than capable of carrying a game by himself, but he still needs some kind of blocking in front of him in order to succeed. Blocking will be lacking on Sunday (see 2 above). Jackson should have a big game, but not big enough.

Both teams involved are so bad that this game is really up in the air. It’s essentially a matter of which team plays less badly. Optimism is still high among the Rams faithful, but with half the offense sitting out, it becomes increasingly difficult to bet on the Rams. 2-10, here we come…

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 1st, 2007 at 11:28 am and is filed under Edward Jones Dome, stlouisramx.com, Brock Berlin, Gus Frerotte, 2007 NFL Season, Marc Bulger, National Football League, St. Louis Rams, Andy McCollum, Steven Jackson, Professional Sports, NFL. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.