Site updates: best/worst games

Well, it's that overdue time of year where I finally try to get the website cleaned up for the upcoming season. Here's the thoughts behind my very-halting efforts so far.

* Best/worst games pages. Obviously, 2009's 1-15 Rams season wasn't exactly going to create a lot of candidates for the best game in St. Louis Rams history, so the best games page remains intact for (another) year, even as I yearn to update it again someday.

The mild surprise is that the worst games list also remains intact, even though the Rams just completed their worst season and are mired in one of the worst runs in NFL history. There were definitely candidates for worst game. The Colts barely worked up even a scrimmage-worthy sweat in handing the Rams a 42-6 home loss. The Whiners ripped the Rams in Frisco 35-0. The Seahawks opened the Steve Spagnuolo era with a 28-0 drubbing, and extended their winning streak over the Rams even though they themselves haven't been any good for two years. And Tennessee put a 47-7 pounding on the Rams in Music City, a game in which Keith Null threw 5 INTs and was still the Rams' best offensive player.

So how did NONE of these games make the cut? Hey, this is subjective. There's no science to it; I may even go back and change my mind someday. Lowered expectations going into last year were certainly a mitigating factor. Nobody expected the Rams to beat the Colts for a minute, so though big, that loss wasn't as embarrassing as other big losses. The team almost never showed signs of quitting on Spagnuolo, either, unlike some of the brutal Linehan losses that do make the list. Losing 35-0 to the Whiners sucks as much as anything, but the team played hard as always, and the defense, belying the score, had a very good game. The reset of the whole franchise going into the season also left an air of hope instead of the lingering air of failure created when Linehan was kept aboard for the 2008 season. Getting pounded Opening Day in Seattle with a team we expected to be bad didn't feel as bad as getting pounded Opening Day in Philadelphia with a team we expected results out of. As for the loss at Tennessee: it probably is one of the ten worst games in St. Louis Rams history, but Jeff Fisher is an asshole and was trying to run up the score that day. I wouldn't give him the satisfaction of putting his game on this list.

My precautionary message to Coach Spagnuolo, though: one season in, and you've already had a scad of candidates for worst game in St. Louis Rams history. You got a lot of goodwill in 2009. A LOT, from the press and the fans. And we know we're breaking in a rookie QB in 2010, so again this year, you're lucking out a little and we're not expecting a lot.

We're expecting better than last year, though. Show us some tangible progress in 2010.