Thursday, October 28 Gauging the Rams is tough By Tom Oates Special to ESPN.com

By way of introduction, we'd like you to meet Chris Palmer of the expansion Browns. He is the latest in a string of NFL coaches left trying to explain a blowout loss at the hands of the formerly hapless St. Louis Rams.

	Az-Zahir Hakim and the Rams face two of their toughest games the next two weeks.

"We're No. 6," Palmer proclaimed after the streaking Rams made his Browns their sixth victim in six games this season. "They've done the same thing to everybody they've played, whether it be the 49ers or the Falcons or whoever they played."

Ah, but that's the problem.

The Rams haven't played anyone yet.

I know, I know: The 49ers and Falcons aren't nobodies. At least they weren't nobodies until the last two months.

When they played the Rams, however, the NFC West's two resident powers were missing so many key players at so many key positions that they looked conspicuously like the Ravens, Bengals and Browns -- the other no-talent, quarterback-challenged patsies the Rams have demolished so far this year.

There is no denying that the Rams are 6-0 for first time since 1985, when they started 7-0. It is also a fact that they are winning with ridiculous ease every week.

However, the Rams' ultrasoft schedule has caused critics to wonder -- legitimately so -- how good they really are. The Rams have reacted to such skepticism the same way their high-powered offense reacts to an opposing defense. They've attacked it.

"Every time these guys have lined up and played, they've played well," Rams coach Dick Vermeil said. "You can't ask them to do any more than they are doing. They deserve to be 6-0. We're going to win some more football games. I don't know how many more, but we are going to win some more football games."

With that schedule, they'd better.

In fact, the schedule they've played makes it impossible to take the Rams seriously at this point. Their early-season slate looks like it was drawn up by Tom Osborne. Every team the Rams have beaten currently has a losing record. The combined record of their victims is 8-32. In the NFL, it doesn't get much easier than that.

In the absence of a great team anywhere in the league, the Rams might eventually turn out to be a Super Bowl team. They have clearly used trades (halfback Marshall Faulk, free agency (guard Adam Timmerman), the draft (wide receiver Torry Holt) and pure luck (quarterback Kurt Warner) to make a dramatic improvement from last year's 4-12 train wreck. Problem is, no one will know conclusively until the playoffs how good the Rams are.

At least we'll get some hints the next two weekends, when the Rams hit the road to play two division leaders, the Titans (5-1) and Lions (4-2). This isn't just the toughest part of the Rams' schedule -- it is the only tough part of the schedule.

Other than a rematch against the fading 49ers at 3Com Park, the rest of the schedule is littered with the Panthers (twice), Saints (twice), Giants, Bears and Eagles.

Among the Rams' final eight opponents, only the Giants have a winning record. And they don't have an offense.

The Rams' dominant start has been equal parts improved play by the fortified roster and fortuitous scheduling. In addition to patting Vermeil on the back and saying, "Well done," they should be thanking Pete Rozelle, the late commissioner who invented parity scheduling.

In the NFL's weighted scheduling format, a weak schedule is the reward a team gets for finishing last the previous year. Coupled with the increased volatility of the league under free agency and the salary cap, an easy schedule means a worst-to-first trip is no longer a rarity.

The season hasn't yet reached the halfway point and already the Rams have a four-game lead in the NFC West -- a division so weak it has turned into the Pac-10 of the NFL. Barring an outbreak of complacency or a key injury, home-field advantage in the NFC playoffs is almost assured. Only then will the Rams be able to quiet the skepticism over their soft schedule.

"I don't care about that," Vermeil said. "I just say take the scores of our games against our opponents and compare them to the other teams that have played them, regardless of who they are. (The Browns) played the New Englands and the Jacksonvilles, and those teams did not play them as well as we did."

Just because the Rams haven't proven themselves doesn't mean they're not on the right track. Their flimsy competition has obscured the fact that what they're doing is very sound.

Vermeil has followed a blueprint he copied from the NFL's most successful teams of the last five years: Acquire lots of weapons on offense and plenty of speed on defense, jump out to quick leads and then turn the defense loose on opponents that have to play catch-up. Easy wins are sure to follow.

Despite entering the season with the NFL's worst record in the 1990s, the Rams have routed their first six opponents by an average score of 36-11. They are playing with an explosiveness reminiscent of the 1996 Packers and the 1998 Vikings. They are looking more and more like the 1998 Falcons, a perennial loser that suddenly finds the right formula, gets on a roll and somehow ends up in the Super Bowl.

If you just look at the numbers, the Rams look like on of the most powerful teams of all-time. Their average margin of victory -- 25.7 points -- is the most by an NFL team after six games since the 1941 Bears beat their first six opponents by 25.8 points per game.

They are leading the NFL in scoring with 36.2 points per game, which is ahead of the Vikings' record pace from last year, and they are the first team to score at least 34 points in five consecutive games since the Giants of 1967 and '68.

	Marshall Faulk Running Back St. Louis Rams Profile
	1999 SEASON STATISTICS ATT YDS YDS/A TD LNG FUM 88 502 5.7 3 58 5

Their offense is ranked second in the league in yards gained, the quick, active defense is seventh. Only the Jaguars have allowed fewer points.

Warner, exposed but luckily unclaimed in the expansion draft, replaced injured starter Trent Green and has a passer rating of 131.5. That's 25 points higher than the next best NFL starter, the Redskins' Brad Johnson.

Faulk, the best runner/receiver in the NFL, leads the league in yards from scrimmage with 795. The last two weeks he's rushed for 314 yards, which is one more yard than the Rams' leading rusher, June Henley, had all last season.

Wide receiver Isaac Bruce, healthy again after limping through the last two seasons on a balky hamstring, is tied with the Colts' Marvin Harrison for the most touchdown receptions in the NFL with eight.

All of that is positive stuff. However, all of it must be tempered by the quality of the opposition. And the 6-0 start won't mean a thing if the Rams don't beat the Titans on the road Sunday. A loss in Nashville and the critics will have all the ammunition they need.

"It will be labeled our first big test," Vermeil said. "Each week has been some kind of a test, and this week, it is a test in terms of a winning football team. I think our players are really looking forward to it."

They should be looking forward to a test. It'll be their first of the season.

Life's hard in Big Easy
What happens when an NFL coach places all of his eggs in one basket and then the basket falls off a ledge?

Look no farther than the Saints for your answer. The coach melts down and the team follows suit.

Coach Mike Ditka, who bet the 1999 season on Ricky Williams when he traded his entire draft for the Heisman Trophy-winning halfback, has been acting more strangely by the week as his Saints slip deeper and deeper into last place.

First, there was his crotch-grabbing, middle-finger-waving performance during a loss to the Titans. Then there was the 1-minute, 20-second press conference after the Saints were routed 31-3 by the Giants last week. In both games there were glaring examples of poor clock management that cost the Saints points just before halftime.

Meanwhile, Ditka is literally asking to be fired, and the Saints are 1-5, exposing the flawed thinking that went into the drafting of Williams in the first place.

The Saints were more than one player away from contention. With a full complement of draft picks, they could have brought in a quarterback around whom they could rebuild. They could have addressed immediate needs at critical positions like wide receiver, cornerback and defensive end.

Instead, they got a runner who has been injured and averages an inconsequential 67 yards per game. What looked like a potentially competitive team in the weak NFC West lost four games by blowing leads in the fourth quarter and then was blown out last week.

"This is my lowest point," said Ditka, who is 4-15 in his last 19 games.

The Saints players, meanwhile, are looking at the future -- no draft picks, no hope for improvement -- and looking for a way out.

"I can't take it much longer," said five-time Pro Bowl offensive tackle Willie Roaf. "Is this my lowest time as a Saint? I can't think of one lower."

Roaf even took a shot at Ditka.

"I love New Orleans," Roaf said, "but I don't plan to play football too much longer anyway. A few more years. It's too much ego and politics. We have to deal with trying to play football, and then you have to deal with the egos involved."

The Saints are a perfect example of what happens when egos override common sense on draft day.

Phillips getting blocked out
Want to know why Lawrence Phillips has made little or no impact with the 49ers?

He can't pick up the blitz.

In Sunday's loss to the Vikings, Phillips missed a block that resulted in quarterback Jeff Garcia getting hammered in the third quarter. Last month against the Cardinals, his blown assignment ended with the hit that gave quarterback Steve Young a concussion and might have ended his career.

"There's been some (missed blocks) that he's been responsible for," coach Steve Mariucci said. "I wouldn't say a lot of them (because) he's only playing a small percentage of the game anyway."

Enough to get the 49ers' most valuable commodities -- Young and Garcia -- hurt. As Charlie Garner's backup, Phillips has done nothing noteworthy running or receiving, but NFL coaches don't like it much when their quarterback/meal ticket gets pounded.

Phillips, who chose the 49ers over the Packers because he saw a chance to start, is disappointed over his lack of playing time. However, he has only himself to blame.

"In his mind, he was looking for a team where he would at least have an opportunity to be the main guy, the feature back," Mariucci said. "I think he was hoping for that. It didn't turn out that way. I think he's a little bit disappointed in his role and his inability to contibute as much as he really wanted to when he first signed with us. It's not anybody's fault. It's just how it is."

Home sweet home
In recent years, the most reliable indicator of postseason success in the NFL is a team's record at home.

The last three Super Bowl champions -- the Packers in 1996 and the Broncos in 1997 and '98 -- went undefeated at home during the regular season. In each of the last two seasons, the final four playoff teams had a combined 31-1 record at home.

In a league as balanced and unpredictable as the NFL is right now, winning every game at home might be the small boost the puts a team over the top.

So, which NFC teams are undefeated at home so far? The Rams, Cowboys and Packers all have the inside track on the playoffs at this point. The Rams are 4-0 at home, the Cowboys and Packers 3-0.

Firing line
At the rate the Vikings are going, they won't have enough bodies to field a defense by the end of the season.

During training camp, first-round draft pick Dimitrius Underwood, a defensive end, practiced for one day and then left under mysterious circumstances. When he finally returned a week or so later, coach Dennis Green released him, a move that is almost unprecedented for a rookie first-round draft pick.

A couple of weeks ago, Green benched cornerback Ramos McDonald, a third-round draft pick in 1998, after he was burned repeatedly. McDonald didn't take his demotion well, then failed to show up for last Sunday's game against the 49ers after learning he had been deactivated. Green released him the next day.

Green cut McDonald because he didn't want to spoil the team's locker room chemistry. At the rate he's going, however, Green won't have much of a locker room left. Or a defense.

Tom Oates of the Wisconsin State Journal writes a weekly NFC column that appears every Thursday during the regular season.