2007 Schedule...no Monday night!!

[RamWraith]

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

By Nick Wagoner
Senior Writer

After finishing the 2006 season on a three-game winning streak, the Rams will get the opportunity to continue their momentum with a pair of home games to open the season, the NFL announced Wednesday.

For the second year in a row, the Rams will open the regular season at home. Last year, it was with a victory against Denver. This year, the Carolina Panthers will travel to the Edward Jones Dome on Sept. 9 for a noon tilt.

The following week, division rival San Francisco will be in town for another noon battle. St. Louis split with the ***** in 2006.

While the Rams will make no appearances on Monday Night Football this year and no scheduled games for Sunday Night Football (though that can change because of flexible scheduling), they do have one primetime regular season appearance on the slate. On Thursday evening, Dec. 20, the Pittsburgh Steelers will come to the Edward Jones Dome for an appearance on NFL Network.

Following the pair of home games to open the season, St. Louis hits the road for a pair of away games. The first comes on Sept. 23 with a game against the Buccaneers in Tampa Bay followed by a Sept. 30 battle against the Cowboys in Dallas.
On Oct. 7, the Rams return home for another NFC West battle with a chance to redeem themselves against the Cardinals at the Edward Jones Dome. The Rams dropped a pair of games to Arizona last season.

Perhaps the toughest stretch of games of the 2007 season comes with another pair of road games follows that tilt against the Cardinals with trips to face the vaunted Baltimore defense on Oct. 14 and to Seattle to face the division rival Seahawks on Oct. 21 at 3:15.

The Rams will hit the halfway point of the season the next week with a home game against the Cleveland Browns at noon on Oct. 28. The following week will be the team’s bye week, with the bye placed precisely in the middle of the season.

Coming off the bye, the Rams get back on the road for a pair of NFC games. On Nov. 11, the Rams travel to New Orleans to face last year’s feel good story of the league. The Saints went to the NFC Championship with quarterback Drew Brees in charge.

St. Louis follows that by wrapping up the season series with the ***** on Nov. 18 at Monster Park. With a majority of the road trips out of the way, the Rams will get the benefit of finishing the season with four of their final six games at home. Those home games could be crucial for a possible playoff run after the team played two of the final three on the road last year.

That stint starts with two home games, including the always important finale against the Seahawks on Nov. 25. After that, the Rams will renew acquaintances with former NFC West rival Atlanta and Michael Vick on Dec. 2.

The following week, the Rams hit the road again to take on quarterback Carson Palmer and the Bengals on Dec. 9. The Dec. 16 game will see the Rams meet the Green Bay Packers for the second year in a row, except this one will be at the Edward Jones Dome in what could be on of quarterback Brett Favre’s final games.

After a short turnaround and a game against AFC power Pittsburgh, the Rams will spend Christmas in St. Louis before closing the season in another important divisional game against Arizona on Dec. 30.

All told, the Rams’ opponents were 121-135 in 2006 for a winning percentage of .473. That number has the Rams’ strength of schedule in a tie for the fourth easiest in the NFL.

In addition to the regular season slate, the NFL finalized the Rams’ preseason schedule Wednesday as well. The first game action will come on Aug. 10 against Minnesota at 7 p.m.

On Aug. 18, the Rams will make their only national television appearance against the Chargers at the Edward Jones Dome. The road game against Oakland is set for Aug. 24 or 25 and hasn’t been finalized yet. St. Louis will round out the preseason with the annual Governor’s Cup game against Kansas City on Aug. 30 at 7 p.m.

[RamWraith]

Sun. Sept. 9 Panthers
Sun. Sept. 16 ***** Noon
Sun. Sept. 23 @ Buccaneers
Sun. Sept. 30 @ Cowboys
Sun. Oct. 7 Cardinals
Sun. Oct. 14 @ Ravens
Sun. Oct. 21 @ Seahawks
Sun. Oct. 28 Browns

Bye
Sun. Nov. 11 @ Saints
Sun. Nov. 18 @ *****
Sun. Nov. 25 Seahawks
Sun. Dec. 2 Falcons
Sun. Dec. 9 @ Bengals
Sun. Dec. 16 Packers
Thurs. Dec. 20 Steelers NFL NETWORK
Sun. Dec. 30 @ Cardinals 3

[RealRam]

Silly schedulers. They don't know what they're missing; this could be the Rams GSOT II.

[laram0]

Awesome...thanks RamWraith.

So we'll be 8-0 going into the bye week.

[keith m. klink]

if that is true, based on toughness of schedule , 4th easiest in the nfl. the rams better win 12-13 games if they are to be considered one of the better teams in the NFC , and for a realistic chance to make it through the playoffs. i don't think with that schedule that a 10-6 finish will help them out, maybe, just get their foot in the playoff door.

[RamsFan16]

This is complete utter junk, how don't we get at least one Monday night game? I mean San Fransisco got 4 of them!

[laram0]

I don't care how or why or what the experts think....We must make the play-offs!!! :r

[laram0]

This is complete utter junk, how don't we get at least one Monday night game? I mean San Fransisco got 4 of them!

Might have something to do with the Monday Night Game at the Dome last season being filled with BEARS fans!:x :x

[DieHard23]

We dropped a pair of games to Arizona last year??? remember the fumbling fininsh?

[thoey]

Hmmm... What sort of respect should we take from this comment:

On Oct. 7, the Rams return home for another NFC West battle with a chance to redeem themselves against the Cardinals at the Edward Jones Dome. The Rams dropped a pair of games to Arizona last season.

[1st & Goal]

Arn't they able to make a change in the Monday Night Game, if they see how the season is going and there is a better matchup available?

[thoey]

Arn't they able to make a change in the Monday Night Game, if they see how the season is going and there is a better matchup available?

Well, they have the Sunday night flex schedule the second half of the season. We will just have to be dominant enough to get them to want to show us.

[general counsel]

A few general thoughts on the schedule.

1) No monday night or sunday night games and only one game nationally televised all year. Obviously the networks dont think much of the new and improved verison of the gsot (or maybe they just think that our defense needs Dr. Kevorkian)
2) Only one cold weather outdoor game, at cincy on dec 9, which is a likley loss anyway
3) Its CRITICAL that we get off to a strong start. If we struggle early, given the makeup of the schedule, we are going to play our way our of realistic contention
4) At the end of the day, we could go anywhere from 12-4 to 6-10. This is NOT an easy schedule. If we stay relatively healthy, our offensive line play is solid and our offense scores tds in the red zone, our defense will need only some basic improvement and a pulse and we are going to be going deep into the playoffs.
5) The divisional games are even more crucial than usual. I think that the road games at sf and arizona are must wins if we want to win the division.
6) As always, the seattle road game has the most upside on the sked and the seattle home game is a game we must win if we want to win the division (same of course with the home games vs sf and arizona).
7) The sked doesnt permit us any "bad" losses at home
8) i like that the bye comes right in the middle and i like that we have cleveland right before the bye. Thats our easiest game of the year and hopefully even if we are tied and a little beat up, we can make it through that game at home with a win and have momentum going into the tough road games coming out of the bye.

At this point, i see us at a minimum 10-6. I appreciate that i am seeing the glass half full and seeing defensive improvement, but what i am really seeing is a dominant offense that is going to make things a lot easier on the defense


7-1 at home (i think the thursday night game vs pitt is a tough one coming off 4 days rest. Winnable for sure, but a tough one). 3-5 on the road, i think we beat arizona, sf and tampa on the road. Hopefully we can also steal a win against one of the tougher teams (cincy, new orleans, dallas, seattle, baltimore)

ramming speed to all

general counsel

[RedArcher7]

Remember, the flex. schedule. If we do good enough early in the season maybe we'll get a shot to see more Rams games, I live in PA, outside Phili, I get the Eagles 24/7 I could go for a change of pace.

[laram0]

2 things:

#1- Cold weather game on the road at Cincy (likely a loss anyway?) What do they have that we don't have? Bite your tongue...

#2. Sunday night games in weeks 11-17 are subject to change. fyi


:l