Sun Sept 15, 4:00 pm (FOX) - Giants at Rams
The Rams? Big deal. Just another 0-1 team.
They are 0-1, and we have that. I mean, the Giants also have an 0-1 record. In losing their game last week, Rams quarterback Kurt Warner threw for 315 yards. Hey, we have that too. In fact, Kerry Collins threw for even more yards than Warner, 342 yards.
The Rams as a team picked up only 30 yards rushing. Hey, the Giants had about one third more rushing yards than the Rams. We got 43 yards. Their leading receiver for the game Marshall Faulk, had 14 catches for 91 yards. Big deal, Amani Toomer had 9 catches for 134 yards.
The Giants have the edge.
They do, but it's not for any of that stuff mentioned above. What's this edge you ask? That's easy. The Giants know how to lose. Sure it sounds strange, but losing is a new phenomenon to the Rams. It's just not supposed to happen to them. Last week, they broke a streak of winning 9 games in a row on the road. The Rams lost the Super Bowl and all the preseason
games, and now the first game of the season. This is a whole new area for these modern Rams. It's called "losing football games", and the Rams have to learn how to handle it, or guess what? It leads to losing even more.
Sure, the Giants lost too, and while they're not going to shrug it off, they are in familiar territory. They'll accept the fact that they played well in losing to a tough San Francisco team, and move on to the next game. The Giants are after all, not the Rams, not the football gods who have just fallen from Mt Olympus. The Rams started off the
last three seasons with a 6-0 record, and now they sit at 0-1 following an 0-4 preseason and a Super Bowl loss.
Another edge.
After a flurry of activity that included 5 preseason games, the Giants had ten days off. That's enough time to get over their loss to San Francisco, time to get healthy, time to kiss the wives and kids, and they even had time to sit and watch the Rams play and lose to Denver live if they chose to do so. Throw in the
weekly game films and practice, and there was plenty of time to focus and do all your homework on your upcoming opponent.
The List.
The list of teams the Rams beat last season is long; Philadelphia Eagles (OT), San Francisco 49ers, Miami Dolphins, New York Giants, NY Jets, Carolina Panthers, New England Patriots (yes - the Super Bowl champs during the regular season), Atlanta Falcons, San Francisco 49ers again,
New Orleans Saints, Carolina Panthers again, Indianapolis Colts, and the Atlanta Falcons again. That's a total of 14 wins. They lost only 2 game, one by 3 points to the Saints which they avenged later on in the season, and one by 7 points to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. A few more than 10 points separated them from a perfect season.
Through it all, win or lose, only the Giants were able to keep the Rams output down to 15 points, in their own home. That was the Rams lowest scoring of the season, in their closest game of the season, a 1 point win over the Giants.
The facts.
Still, facts are facts. The last time the Rams lost to the Giants, the team was still in Los Angeles. It was in 1993 and the score was 20-10. Last year, the Rams at 14-2, won twice as many games as the 7-9 Giants. Things like that make you a two touchdown favorite. It seems the Rams have nothing to worry about.
Right, Michael Strahan ( four Kurt Warner sacks last time)? Right, Marshall Faulk (8 carries for 25 yards last time against the Giants, and 10 carries for only 19 yards last week)? Right, high scoring Rams (only 15 points last Giants game, only 17 in the Super Bowl, and only 16 last week)? Don't worry, nobody has the Rams number now, or do they?
The worries.
Very few teams that start the season at 0-2 get as far as the playoffs, and as Shaun Williams says, "This is crucial for both teams. The team that fights through the adversity and gets the win is going to get a monkey off its back. And the team that doesn't is going to be in a bigger and deeper hole."
The losing team would do well to remember that the New England Patriots actually did start at 0-2, won the divisional playoff game in overtime, and went on to win the Super Bowl, and they did it all just last year.
Next Game
Sep 22, Seattle at Giants 4:00 PM.
Last Week's review, game 1 - 49ers 16 - Giants 13
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