 What a treat for NFL fans in St. Louis on Sunday. Prior to the 3:00 start of the Rams-Seahawks game, CBS chose to air the Kansas City Chiefs taking on the Falcons in Altanta. It was our opportunity to gauge where the Rams stood in the battle to be the worst team in football.
Through two weeks, the Chiefs had an equally impressive resume in pursuit of the consensus 32nd spot in the league power rankings. In Week 2, they single-handedly saved Lane Kiffin's job for one more week, when they got smoked by the Oakland Raiders at Arrowhead.
Meanwhile 250 miles to the east, the Rams were winless and the architects of both the league's last ranked offense and defense. The total package.
The race to be the worst was on.
The Chiefs came out and dazzled early, notching zero first downs in the first quarter, daring the Rams to suck worse than them.
The Falcons took advantage and opened up a 24-0 lead. But just as the blowout seemed imminent, Herm Edwards' bunch closed out the first half with a Tyler Thigpen touchdown pass to Dwayne Bowe and then opened the second half with a lengthy drive culminating in a Larry Johnson TD run.
Two touchdowns in two consecutive drives threatened to undermine their claim as #32, but before they were accused of actually being competitive, the Chiefs offense went back into hibernation and ultimately fell 38-14 to improve to 0-3.
No doubt sensing the challenge, the Rams came out fired up to establish their rightful place as the worst of the worst. They went down 3-0 on the opening drive and then on their first offensive possession Marc Bulger was flattened, coughing up the ball in the process of being planted in the turf by Julian Peterson. Minutes later someone named Michael Bumpus caught a touchdown pass and just like that it was 10-0, Seahawks.
They were off to a rousing start.
Meanwhile, the Rams defense was summed up perfectly by a Julius Jones 30-yard run in which several Rams players literally had no idea where the running back was on the field (hint: he's that guy sprinting towards the endzone with a football in his hands):
The offense put the first quarter to bed with another three and out, tallying an impressive 14 total yards in the first 15 minutes. With 4 minutes left in the first half, on their 26th drive of the season, they finally made an appearance inside the 20-yard line of their opponent.
They could muster only a field goal.
Like the Chiefs, the Rams had a brief spurt in the beginning of the second half in which they looked somewhat competitive. A Dane Looker touchdown reception cut the lead to 27-13, but it was more symbolic than anything - symbolic of the fact that this is still a team which gives significant playing time to Dane Looker.
The Seahawks pulled away in the fourth with 10 more points for a 37-13 win. The Rams defense allowed a staggering 245 yards to a team featuring Julius Jones and TJ Duckett in the backfield.
Total scoring tally for the Rams season: 29-116
In the end, the Rams and the Chiefs both went on the road this week against mediocre teams, got drilled by 24 points and remain true threats to go 0-16. So who is worse?
Only one thing is for sure - the crappiest team in the NFL no doubt resides in Missouri.
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