September 27th, 2005

Remember the Titans? Back in the magical season of 99-00 the Rams created the Greatest Show on Turf, and raced to their first world championship. That year and following preseason the Rams faced off with the Titans. The Titans treated the exhibition games like a rematch of the SuperBowl game. Last Sunday the Rams met the Titans for real for the first time since the big game.

It was a rainy dreary day as we all headed toward the Edward Jones Dome. This would be my family’s first taste of a regular season game. Previously I had attended only one regular season game in 1998, ironically evacuating from a hurricane that was headed towards New Orleans. In 1998, the Rams were not a good football team and the crowd was not very into the game. Fast forward to this preseason and I was on the fence on how loud the dome could be. Folks made noise when the Rams scored, and a few rally’s for the defense to make a stand but it was preseason so I reserved judgment until later.

From Archuleta’s interception the Edward Jones Dome was electric. Rams’ fans impressed me with their ability to maintain that level of enthusiasm and noise for so long. It is always nice to be in the crowd making enough noise to help create a false start penalty or make the team take a timeout because they are having trouble communicating.

Some observations from the game:

I’m not sure this team has become somewhat predictable at the beginning of games focusing on trying to establish the run. If there is another reason it is beyond me why they start out so slowly. That aside let’s give the credit to Rams’ coaches for making adjustments and staying in the game.

Bulger may be one of the toughest QB’s I have seen in a long time. The camera usually is focused on Holt, Bruce etc but Bulger usually takes a shot after half of his pass attempts.

Alex Barron needs to mature and play well immediately. The revolving door that is the RT position will force Jamie Martin into starting soon if Barron can’t play up to snuff.

Dejuan Groce is our best cornerback. With Butler injured, Groce has been playing very well. Fisher seems always giving WR’s too much of a cushion and easily gets turned around. Better throws by Steve McNair would have resulted in the go ahead TD late in the game.

Chris Johnson who the Rams traded underachieving Robert Thomas for can actually make plays. A 7th rounder who has been hurt for the better part of two years began his career with a bad special teams decision against the 49ers but has slowly been making plays as the nickel back.

Overall I left impressed by the Rams play and the crowd. That being said I am quite a tough sell with leaving places impressed by crowd noise. I grew up going to LSU games where 91,000 people in 1988 made such a noise after LSU upset Auburn that it registered on the schools seismograph and a minor earthquake.

~Eliasdad~