By Bryan Burwell
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Friday, Apr. 07 2006
Everything feels new in the spring. Hopeful. Possible. Promising. Limitless. If
you can't dream big at the first hint of nature slowly awakening from a long
winter slumber, maybe it's time to take your pulse and make sure you're still
breathing.
Everybody dreams big in the spring. Fueled by spring's boundless possibilities,
this is the season where the best sports fantasies are born. Less than a week
into the regular season, we can check the baseball standings this morning and
all is right in Cardinal Nation because the Redbirds are 3-0. All over the
baseball world, fans are imagining how wonderful life would be if only time
could remain frozen so perfectly as it is now when everyone - even hopelessly
doomed Cubs fans - can swear with blind conviction that they're No. 1.
And now, in the middle of baseball's perfect dream, pro football romantics can
feel that same springtime hopefulness with an annual April rite of their own.
The NFL released its new schedule Thursday, and all over Rams Nation, everyone
has the chance to ignore last year's 6-10 mess and believe that prosperity is
just around the corner.
Thursday afternoon, new Rams boss Scott Linehan resisted the urge to publicly
show us how many W's or L's he had scribbled on his freshly printed schedule.
"I'm not a prognosticator, I'm not a predictor," Linehan said.
But you know he's no different from the rest of us. He has done it at least
once or twice. Just like the rest of us, Linehan knows that the Rams' strength
of schedule for 2006 is ideally positioned right in the middle of the pack, the
16th hardest in the NFL but also the 17th easiest. He has to know that deep in
his competitive gut he's wondering if he has the mojo to turn the Rams into a
miraculous Super Bowl contender.
But there are some pessimists out there too, who are a bit more jaded. They
look at the schedule and see seven 2005 playoff teams on the docket. Maybe what
they see are two dates with the Cardinals, who you fear have dramatically
improved with their offseason shopping spree that includes Pro Bowl tailback
Edgerrin James. Maybe what they see is another 6-10 Groundhog Day nightmare on
the horizon.
Here's what I see:
A chance.
I see the Rams going 8-8. But I also see a chance for so much more, if this
team is a quick study and smart and talented enough to seize on the opportunity
the NFL schedule makers have provided for them. Right now, the NFL must think
the same thing. The Rams have a modest chance to do something that rises above
break even. That's why they gave them one nationally televised game on this new
flexible schedule. Call the Rams' Dec. 11 home game against Chicago on "Monday
Night Football" a look-see.
I think the folks in New York are at least curious about what Linehan and his
new coaching crew can do. If the Rams can win their first three games in the
Edward Jones Dome against Denver, Detroit (Martz Madness, the sequel) and NFC
champion Seattle, then steal one road game from the very beatable *****,
Cardinals and Packers (with or without Brett Favre), that puts the Rams at 4-2
at the break.
These are all humongous "ifs" for a team that hasn't even had its first
mini-camp under the new coach. We don't know if any of the free agents are
worth it. We have no idea who else will be added in draft. We don't know how
quickly they will pick up Linehan's offense or
Jim Haslett's defense.
But like we said, it's time to dream.
And the dream here is to get to the bye week in good shape, because the
schedule is set up perfectly for the Rams' high-octane offense. Look at those
10 games closely. Six games in a dome (five at home), the other four in
mild-weather winter locales San Diego, Seattle, Carolina and Oakland. That puts
this racehorse offense on fast tracks from the end of October through the new
year.
By the time December rolls around, we'll certainly know what sort of television
commodity the new Rams will be: exciting primetime players or just more bad
late-season repeats.
Linear Mode
