Rams Review: Week 5- Can You Spell D-O-N-E?

That’s it. No, seriously. I’m not even close to joking around anymore. The season is over. The St. Louis Rams are officially done in 2007. Hey, it was a nice season. I mean yeah, there were some things here and there that didn’t exactly go our way, but overall it was a pretty productive season. I think it officially ended yesterday. Yep, it was definitely yesterday. You know when we were up 20 to 17 with under seven minutes left in the game and intercepted the ball? You know when we had the ball with under seven minutes remaining up by three points and couldn’t win? Yeah, you know.

The St. Louis Rams are 0-5 after what was by far their worst loss of the season, a 34-31 neck and necker against the Arizona Cardinals. The first thing that kills me is how good our offense did in this game. I was rejoicing when Gus Frerotte threw for that touchdown to put us up by three in the early stages of the third quarter. I couldn’t believe it when Brian Leonard ran for 31 yards in the first quarter that would prove to play a key role in that drive, which ended in a Drew Bennett touchdown catch. I just was beside myself. It’s amazing how good we did in this game offensively. Amazingly enough, though, it was the offense that also took us out of this game.

Frerotte threw two interceptions in this game, one of them proved to cap the game for the Cardinals. Rodrick Hood returned an interception from deep in Cardinal territory for a touchdown to put Arizona up 27-20. The defense was nothing really short of stellar, in my eyes. Fakhir Brown, who returned from his four game suspension had two interceptions for the Rams. He did great but it wasn’t enough for a team that coming into the game hadn’t scored a touchdown in 30 straight offensive series.

Another bad sign of play early on in the season for this team had been the penalties. Not in the this game, though. There weren’t much of them for us. The only big one came with zero seconds left in the second quarter when Ron Bartell kicked the ball and was called for delay of game. The Cardinals just so happened to be on the goal line but time ran out before they could make a play to try and score. Turns out, Bartell’s penalty gave them another chance. And that was all they needed as Kurt Warner jumped over everyone and into the end zone for a touchdown that put the Cards up 17-13 at the half. So had the penalty never been enforced, the Rams would have had the lead at halftime.

The other play that went against us was a fumble…by the other team. Edgerrin James fumbled the ball while running in for a score at the goal line earlier in the half. Will Witherspoon recovered the ball for the Rams in the end zone but fumbled as well. Guard Reggie Wells recovered for the Cardinals for a touchdown. That tied the score at ten. So, had the Rams held on to the ball, they would have gotten it back and the Cardinals never would have scored there. So if those two scores never happened, the Rams ideally could have had a 13-3 lead at the half.