Rams Win? Rams Win!

It's early in the NFL season, but the league is proving to be as unpredictable as ever. The Vikings started 0-2 after going to the NFC title game last season and returning all of their starters from last season. The Super Bowl sleeper pick of the 49ers have stumbled to an 0-3 start. My Steelers, after I was hoping for just two wins in the four games without Ben Roethlisberger have already won three without him going into next Sunday's home game against he Ravens. And perhaps the most surprising development of all, is that the Kansas City Cheifs have started 3-0. Sure, they've played the Browns, 49ers, and Chargers, with the Browns being their only road game, but most pundits probably had them pegged for 1-2 at best by this point. I doubt many people if any would've said the Steelers and Chiefs would be the last of the AFC undefeateds.

Another bright spot for me personally is the Rams getting out to a good start. Even though they've only won one of their first three games, they very easily could have won all three and certainly should have won their first with all of the mistakes that the Cardinals made. Sam Bradford had to throw the ball over 50 times and he looked great. He threw three interceptions, but with those numbers, the box score is misleading. Two of th three picks were thrown in situations where he had to force the ball, including a fourth down on a last minute drive. If he simply threw it away, the game would end with a loss, so why not throw it for the end zone? He even did his job, by getting it to the end zone, it just wasn't caught by a Rams player.

Today's games for my teams are both huge. The Steelers have gotten off to this great start without Big Ben and have a great chance to put some space between themselves and Baltimore. It's important for them to win, as it is their home game against the Ravens. If they lose, they would have to win at Baltimore in Week 13 in order to avoid a season sweep, which could be a division tie breaker at the end of the year. This is a very winnable game for the Steelers. Charlie Batch will get the start and he's the classic "just don't screw this up, and the defense will win it" quarterback. He's shown this by posting a 4-1 record as a starter with the Steelers. With the way the defense has been playing, including leading the league in takeaways, a few well-timed passes from Batch, a decent running game, and a strong defensive effort against a Ravens team that can't score should be enough to win. Baltimore only score 10 points in each of their first two games, in which they went 1-1. Last week, they managed to score 24 points on the road, which would be impressive, but it came against the Browns. The Ravens also trailed for much of the game in Cleveland. You can be willing to bet if they get behind in Pittsburgh today, a miraculous comeback will be far less likely.
My pick for this game: Steelers 17-Ravens 9

The Rams game is huge for many of the same reasons that the as Steelers' game. They need to win in St. Louis to escape the possibility of needing a win later in the season in Seattle, a very difficult place to play (just ask the Chargers), to avoid a season sweep at the hands of the Seahawks. A win would tie them at 2-2 atop the NFC West, by far the weakest division in the NFL this year, and a division game like this could also end up being a tiebreaker. With the starts that the 49ers and Cardinals have gotten off to, it's not completely far fetched that an 8-8 or 9-7 record could be enough to win this division. And with something like that being possible, a team wants to have all possible tie-breakers on their side. The Rams are already 0-1 in the division after the season opening loss to Arizona. They don't want to fall to 0-2. The Rams also need to show the Seahawks that they can beat them again. The Rams haven't beaten Seattle since the 2004 playoffs, a streak that has lasted for 10 games now. Many of those games were close, with the Seahawks wining on last second field goals, but a win is a win, a loss is a loss, and ten consecutive losses to the same team is way too many. For the Rams to win this game, they're going to need Bradford's best effort yet. Steven Jackson is active today, but as banged up as he is, he is unlikely to be much help against one of the league's best running defenses. On defense, St. Louis needs to stop the run. Their secondary has been pretty good and the team has been great at coming up with big plays (they're second to my Steelers in takeaways) to stop drives even while allowing a plethora of yards to be gained. But they must get better at the run, because those takeaways don't always happen. And when they don't, a lot of yards can become a large amount of points. The Rams also have to get pumped up on special teams, which was the difference in Seattle's last game. They got two touchdowns on kickoff returns from Leon Washington against San Diego and ended up winning by seven. If the Rams can shutdown the Seahawks' special teams and come up with a few big plays, they certainly have a chance to win this game. Seattle doesn't have players like Clinton Portis, Donovan McNabb, and Larry Fitzgerald that put them a head above the Rams. St. Louis just has to play solid football, which they've shown they can do in their first three games, and they'll be there in the fourth quarter. The Rams' third straight sell out crowd should help as well if they can bring the crowd noise while the Seahawks have the ball.