NFL Schedule Preview: St Louis Rams
By Chris Smith
It’s 32 days until the new NFL season begins but for a football mad guy like me that’s just too long so I’ve taken it upon myself to go over each NFL schedule and try and predict for all of you what may happen once the season rolls around.
Our Saturday NFC West double header takes us to the St Louis Rams who went 2-14 in 2011. Here’s how I think their season will go:
- Week 1 at Detroit Lions – Loss
- Week 2 vs Washington Redskins – Loss
- Week 3 at Chicago Bears – Loss
- Week 4 vs Seattle Seahawks – Loss
- Week 5 vs Arizona Cardinals – Win
- Week 6 at Miami Dolphins – Loss
- Week 7 vs Green Bay Packers – Loss
- Week 8 vs New England Patriots – Loss
- Week 9 BYE
- Week 10 at San Francisco 49ers – Loss
- Week 11 vs New York Jets – Loss
- Week 12 at Arizona Cardinals – Loss
- Week 13 vs San Francisco 49ers – Loss
- Week 14 at Buffalo Bills – Loss
- Week 15 vs Minnesota Vikings – Win
- Week 16 at Tampa Bay Buccaneers – Win
- Week 17 vs Seattle Seahawks – Loss
Overall Record for the St Louis Rams in 2012: 3-13
Anyone who follows the St Louis Rams will tell you this team is still rebuilding but making good progress and for the most part that’s correct. It doesn’t help when they get a rough schedule like this one. Starting out with the Lions, Redskins and Bears is tough going for a team with an undefined and half-built offense but getting the Packers and Patriots just before the bye when you are desperately trying to build momentum is what will kill your season. Follow that up with tough assignments against the Jets and 49ers just after the bye and once again this team is likely to find itself out of contention early.
There is some hope for Rams fans however. Tough schedules can help teams focus on chemistry and you’ll get a prime opportunity to show off that newfound chemistry as the season closes with a reasonably friendly stretch against the Vikings, Buccaneers and Seahawks to finish things off – with the added bonus of not having to travel to Seattle to face a crowd capable of generating small earthquakes. The tough times are going to be really tough but the games I’ll be most interested to watch from this St Louis team are the last three as we may just get a glimpse into what may be a challenger for either the NFC West division or at the very least the last wildcard spot in 2013.
The NFC West is almost done but we have just one more pit-stop to make – tomorrow we preview the schedule of the Arizona Cardinals.