The regular season is finally here as the Rams host the Arizona Cardinals to kick off the Sam Bradford era with a game against the old St. Louis Football Cardinals.

TV

The game will be shown live on TV in St. Louis now that the Edward Jones Dome has passed the threshold for a sellout.  Here’s the map showing where the game will be shown. Rams coverage is in green.  Basically if you are close to St. Louis, around Oklahoma City (Sam Bradford effect) or in Arizona, you will get the game on TV.  The game will be shown on your local FOX affiliate.

What to Watch For

• Sam Bradford – Sam Bradford will be making his NFL starting regular season debut.  The Arizona Cardinals play a fairly complex 3-4 with a lot of strength in the front 7.  If Bradford and the offensive line can control the Cardinals front with runs, play action and quick passing, that would take a lot of sting out of the Cardinals defense.  The strength of the defense is right up the middle with Darnell Dockett at nose tackle, so Sam Bradford will get a good look at him.

• Derek Anderson – The Cardinals are in a bit of a crisis mode with their quarterback.  Matt Leinart did not ascend like they hoped against hope he would.  So, they are forced to go with their scatter-armed backup QB as their starting QB in 2010.  Derek Anderson had a 44% completion rate in 2009 and has a career completion rate of 53%.  His career QB rating is 69.7.  The Cardinals also will be limited without their star #2 wide receiver Anquan Boldin, who was traded to Baltimore.  Their offense should take a big step back with these two major players replaced.

• Play Calling – The playbook was opened in preseason week 3 and prayers were answered.  The Rams continued to open the playbook up for Sam Bradford in the 4th preseason game.  One would hope that Pat Shurmur continues to  have faith in Sam Bradford and his wide receivers to give him the option to throw downfield.  If Bradford checks down, that is fine, but Shurmur should give him some deep options as well.

• Mark Clayton – The Rams acquired Mark Clayton midweek and he is already taking a lot of snaps during practice at Donnie Avery’s old wide receiver spot.  How much will we see Clayton and how much will Bradford look for him?  The two worked together in the offseason at Oklahoma as Bradford prepared for the draft.  Both seem to have a solid connection already.  He should get more looks than expected in his first game.

It is not far off to say that the Cardinals are ripe for the taking.  They are without Kurt Warner and Anquan Boldin along with several pieces on defense.  The Rams are at home with a “sold out” home crowd that should be pretty wound up, especially if Sam Bradford starts playing well.  The Rams home crowd, even half full in the preseason finale, have had a buzz of excitement that has not been seen in recent years.  The Rams have lost 7 straight to the Cardinals and are eager to end the losing streak.  It would not be a huge surprise to us following the Rams to see them pull the upset on Sunday.  It probably would be a surprise to the rest of the NFL world, however, and that would be pretty sweet.

Go Rams!

* Upon further review: A couple of large misses by the Peter Morelli crew in a game that looked pretty cleanly officiated otherwise. A very early Baltimore pass pretty clearly bounced off the ground, but the refs called it complete, and the Ravens rushed the next play to avoid a challenge. And there should have been a 15-yard taunting penalty after Baltimore’s pick-six. The player stopped short of the goal line and dangled the ball over the goal line, a stunt that has been used as the very example of plays that are supposed to be flagged for taunting. Morelli was also facing the wrong direction, then turned around very quickly, during one of his penalty announcements, which was very humorous.

* Cheers: Very light crowd at the Dome, 20,000 at best, yet one of the louder crowds of recent years. The vocality seems to be a sign the fans are buying in. Now, it would be nice to see the fans buying tickets. Biggest reaction of the night was to boo the jerk Ravens LB who showboated with the ball two yards into, and at the end of, his pick-six return. Kudos to head coach John Harbaugh for chewing that guy’s butt out. Entertainment was wall-to-wall pee-wee football, both before the game and at halftime. The ten-day waiting period is apparently over for Rampage the Foam Rubber Ram: the t-shirt cannon has been cleared for indoor use.

* Special teams: If there is such a thing, Josh Brown may have just finished the greatest preseason in the history of NFL kickers. He was 9-for-9 on field goals this August, finishing with a 54-yard flourish in the 3^rd. And most of his kickoffs were so deep into the end zone they weren’t returnable. Josh hasn’t done that here before. Has the kickoff strategy changed, or does somebody from the league office need to test Josh’s pee? Forget I said that, Goodell. Donnie Jones hit a bunch of 60-yard moon shots until mysteriously blowing it on his last punt; naturally, that one set up the Ravens in great field position for their final drive. Kick coverage had hits and misses. They nearly recovered a muffed punt in the end zone but also gave up a couple of kickoff returns to midfield. Hopefully that’s just a fourth-game-of-midseason thing.

* Strategery: You’re not going to get much strategery in the final preseason game, and we didn’t. The Rams blitzed sparingly. They ran some zone blitzes early, but as usual, that only seemed to get them into trouble. Pat Shurmur certainly deserves praise for the way he’s brought Bradford along. He’s gradually loosened the coaching leash, and the Rams are hitting the regular season now with the most confidence on offense they’ve had in three or four years. Shurmur did seem too determined to run up the middle on the Ravens. I would have liked to see more diversity as far as outside runs, though Shurmur’s adjustments to go to more counter/cutback runs and to use fake end-arounds had some effectiveness. Steve Spagnuolo’s got the Rams looking readier for the regular season than they’ve looked in five years. The challenge now, of course, is to channel that into results. The Rams may only be taking baby steps, but they’re always steps in the right direction.

The Rams signed running back Allen Patrick today to round out their practice squad.  Patrick is an Oklahoma product who has bounced around the league for the last two years.

I asked for input from Allen Kenney from Blatant Homerism, an Oklahoma Sooners blog about Patrick and here’s what he had to say:

It may sound like a cliche, but Allen Patrick is a prototypical “football player.” he started as a defensive back at Oklahoma and moved to running back around his sophomore year. He also proved to be a great special teams player his entire career at OU. Patrick is physical with decent straight-line speed and loves collisions. He’s a great guy to have around your team, even if it’s just as a practice dummy.

Thanks Allen!

Here is Allen Patrick’s highlight video on Rivals.com from when he entered the draft in 2008.

The Rams cut Keenan Burton today to make room for Mark Clayton.  Burton was a good solid possession wide receiver, but he could not consistently shake the injuries.  The Rams gave him an extended look in the preseason, but he was unable to distinguish himself.

Rookie free agent Dom Curry stays on the team over Burton.  Curry has been a stellar special teams player so far in the preseason.  It seems that this move was made mostly for special teams and potential.

By all accounts Keenan Burton is a good guy and a hard worker.  We wish him the best of luck in his NFL future.

Startting QB Sam Bradford:

GM Billy Devaney:

Owner Stan Kroenke:

Offensive Coordinator Pat Shurmur:

Head Coach Steve Spagnuolo:

Starting running back Steven Jackson:

* Secondary: This was another kind-of-disappointing area for the team tonight. The DBs had more and more trouble with the Raven WRs as the night went on. If Bradley Fletcher’s supposed to be a starter, I don’t need to see the likes of Troy Smith and Demetrius Williams (6’2”) picking on him like he’s Danny Gorrer or something. The Rams also made somebody named Justin Harper (6’3”) look like a force, another big receiver they struggled with, and we DO NOT need to see that with Larry Fitzgerald coming in next week. Fletcher did have a pass breakup at the goal line, and Baltimore failed to score on the drive, but Williams beat him for 20 and 18 yards to get down there. Discouraging night for Fletcher after he coated Randy Moss last week. The biggest reason the Rams won this game is because Troy Smith is awful. I cannot believe Ron Jaworski actually suggested three weeks ago that Smith would beat out Marc Bulger in Baltimore. Troy was clearly the 4^th-best QB on the field tonight, repeatedly missing very-open receivers. I know Justin King got beat deep once but lucked out, and he wasn’t alone. Darian Stewart, though, was a bright spot. He is a very solid tackler and looks assignment-sound. He’s always where he’s supposed to be.

The rest of the secondary looked more questionable tonight than they had all preseason, not the kind of momentum you want heading into September, though thumbs up to Quincy Butler for knocking the final Hail Mary pass out the back of the end zone.

The Rams made a move to strengthen their wide receiver corps today trading with Baltimore for WR Mark Clayton.  Clayton has been a disappointment with Baltimore and the Rams acquired him for a “late round selection”.  The Ravens had just signed TJ Houshmandzadeh and Clayton was expendable.

Mark Clayton brings something to the Rams they have lacked since losing Donnie Avery, speed. Clayton experienced a mild concussion after getting hit by Antrelle Rolle this preseason but was expected to be ready by the opener.

One of the Rams receivers, probably Dominique Curry will be moved to the open slot on the practice squad to make room for Clayton.

* Defensive line/LB: Bobby Carpenter had a very effective night. He had a sack, broke up several passes, and created two interceptions with pass deflections. One came at the goal line and ricocheted to Chris Chamberlain for a long return (but no points) as the first half ran out. His sack came late in the game, as he tracked down dangerous scrambler Troy Smith and took him down for a 15-yard loss at midfield. Yet it’s not certain that Carpenter has made the team. Chamberlain had his best game at LB of the preseason tonight, too, and probably had the team made on special teams anyway. And Carpenter got yelled at a ton on the sideline by LBs coach Paul Ferraro, especially after Troy Smith’s 18-yard 3^rd-and-1 dash up the middle from the Rams 22, where Carpenter had vacated the middle of the field to trail a receiver. Plus he’s still very hit or miss on STs. Good night for the middle of the defensive line. Fred Robbins had a couple of big tackles-for-loss, as the starters continue to get excellent push. Jermelle Cudjo came on like gangbusters at the end of the game and got one of the late sacks to push Baltimore back. Eugene Sims made a wonderful play in the 3^rd, tracking a deflected pass (Carpenter again) well downfield to come up with an interception. Victor Adeyanju got a sack and forced a fumble on a defensive jailbreak in the 2^nd, the kind of big play he needs to make to stick on the roster. D’Marco Farr also called his name out a lot on radio for containing Smith in the pocket. George Selvie can work himself a clean path to the QB on just about every play. The starting DEs did not impress, though. Chris Long can’t eat the Ravens’ 2^nd-string RT for lunch? And C.J. Ah You didn’t get much done until re-entering late in the game, when he put a ton of heat on during Baltimore’s final drive. Zone blitzing did take the starters out of some early plays. The whole D came out pretty flat after halftime and let Baltimore walk down the field with little resistance. Pass rush has seemed very hit-or-miss this preseason; we may not know anything about it for sure until the regular season’s here.