The Return of "The Greatest Show on Turf"

The St. Louis Rams piled up 41 points on the Detroit Lions yesterday. Shades of the glory days of OC Mike Martz sending out Warner, Faulk, Holt and Bruce to obliterate NFL defenses once a week? Possibly. A return to glory? Hardly. A Cold Pizza contributor remarked this morning that the win is a positive sign that the St. Louis O is on the right track after Sunday's performance against the Lions.

Well, 41 is just about the status-quo against the Lions these days. Seattle laid an egg in their opener against Detroit and won 9-6. Seattle is 3-1, but they only beat Arizona 21-10, had a good half against the Giants and held on for a 42-30 win, and got blasted by the Bears 37-6 last night. In Detroit's 2nd and 3rd games, they allowed 34 points to Chicago (in a blowout) and 31 points to Brett Favre and the Pack in a closer game. St. Louis has three point totals between 13-18 this season and one game where they score 41.

If your son was taking calcu! lus and got 42, 58, and 47% on his three exams, then phoned home with a 95% on a basketweaving final the day before his calculus final, would you then expect him to score close to 100% on his calculus final? No. Just because the last result is the most recent does not mean it is the most meaningful. The Patriots had looked awful all season, losing to Denver at home and barely beating Buffalo and the Jets. So, you'd expect them to lose in Cincy? Right? NE was averaging 16.7 ppg. The Bengals were 3-0. But, the Patriots drubbed the Bengals 38-13. The Patriots will probably whip the Dolphins next week, but does one good game against the Bengals fix the problems the Patriots are having due to their lack of explosiveness on the outside after they off-loaded Deion Branch? Nope.

What I'm saying is that anything can happen once. Let's wait for something more substantial than one game against the Lions before we praise the St. Louis offense ... even after the ou! tburst they are averaging a respectable, but far from extraordinary, 2 2 ppg.