October 4, 2012; St. Louis, MO, USA; Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kevin Kolb (4) is sacked by St. Louis Rams cornerback Cortland Finnegan (31) during the second half at the Edward Jones Dome. The Rams defeated the Cardinals 17-3. Mandatory Credit: Photo by Scott Rovak-US PRESSWIRE

Like it or not, the St. Louis Rams have shot themselves back into relevance, sporting their first .500 record since 2006. Since beating the previously undefeated Arizona Cardinals on Thursday Night Football, they have had a couple of extra days to bask in the feeling, hopefully enough to boost their performance so they can stay afloat through a tough mid-season schedule. Up next, the Rams take on the Miami Dolphins, fresh off an upset win over the Cincinnati Bengals, following their loss to the Arizona Cardinals in Week 4. In preparation for the week, Ramblin’ Fan will take a look at the statistical leaders on the Rams through the first five games of the regular season…

James Laurinaitis

James Laurinaitis has had a relatively up and down season so far in the year. Most fans can remember some notable missed tackles in the opening couple of games, especially the rolling by Bell against Detroit that allowed the Lions their first points of the game.  However, Laurinaitis has been solid in recent games, anchoring the middle of the field in running and passing situations, which can be extremely difficult for a middle linebacker on a team that relies so heavily on the nickel package. Laurinaitis has been in the upper tier of tacklers since he entered the league , with 142 tackles in 2011 (8th), 114 in 2010 (21st), 120 in 2009 (14th). How is he doing thus far in the season…

Tackles – Laurinaitis seems to be in on every tackle in recent games, which may be fairly accurate, being as he is averaging 9.8 tackles per game. He is currently tied for 5th in the NFL, alongside the San Francisco 49ers NaVorro Bowamn, with 49 tackles. Laurinaitis is one of only eight players in the Top 20 in tackles that has recorded a sack and leads the NFL in solo tackles, with 39 so far in the season. He is also one of only four players in the Top 10 this year that owned a spot in the rankings at the end of last season, the others being Curtis Lofton, Chad Greenway, and NaVorro Bowman.

Robert Quinn

Chris Long joked at the beginning of the season that opposing teams should be more worried about his bookend counterpart than himself this year. Long has undoubtedly received the bulk of double teams from offensive linemen, and has played significantly more snaps than Quinn at end so far this season. Quinn is also often rotated with Hayes on obvious rushing down, with Hayes being a much better run defender, but slower player, on the end of the line. After anchoring the bottom tier of the NFL in team sacks, the Rams are now tied for 6th in the league after their monster performance against the Arizona Cardinals, and Quinn was the catalyst behind it all…

Sacks – Robert Quinn is leading the St. Louis Rams with 6 sacks in the young season, which is tied for 3rd in the NFL, trailing only J.J. Watt and Clay Matthews. Quinn is the leader in the NFL among those who play the defensive end position in a traditional, 4-3 base defense, with two outside linebackers (Clay Matthews and Justin Houston), a defensive tackle (Geno Atkins), and a 3-4 defensive end (J.J. Watt) manning the rest of the Top 5 sackers. Among those in the Top 10, he is one of only five player to have forced at least one fumble, with his happening to come as game clinching turnover against the Arizona Cardinals.

Cortland Finnegan

Typically, in the world of a cornerback, the less your name is mentioned throughout a game on defense, the better. True shutdown corners don’t get looks from opposing quarterbacks, and when they do get a mistimed throw, they take advantage of it. Janoris Jenkins has played amazing in recent week, making clutch takes on ball carrier short of the first down and diving to break up passes to receivers. Finnegan has dominated in a similar way, but more quietly.

Interceptions - Cortland Finnegan is still tied for 3rd in the NFL with 3 interceptions, each coming in one of the three opening games. Last week against Arizona was the first game that the St. Louis Rams did not have an interceptions, primarily because they simply were not allowing Kevin Kolb to throw the ball before being wrestled to the ground. After five regular season games, only seven players have 3 or more picks. Among the Top 40 players with an interception, Cortland Finnegan leads all players in solo tackles, with 29 take downs, and trails only London Fletcher in total tackles (36 and 43, respectively). Finnegan is one of only nineteen players in the NFL with a pick-6 this season and is a one of only two players in the Top 10 with a sack, which came against Kevin Kolb in the waning minutes of the game last week.  Finnegan is also likely the only player to cap off a win with both a sack and a forced unsportsmanlike conduct penalty (no evidence to support that, just a guess).

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.