St. Louis Rams: A Win Is a Win, But It Does It Really Count?

A preseason game is just that, a game before the season. Think of it as an organized scrimmage, or a practice with another team with fans and referees. Last night, the Rams preseason game saw them beat the Cleveland Browns. But, any way you wrap it, it was a preseason win.

One of the things Rams fans learned last night, and something that was garnered during practice this past week at Rams Park, AJ Feeley will be the starting quarterback for this team when they open the season on September 12th against Arizona.

Another lesson, the Rams are going to be very, very cautious with number one draft pick Sam Bradford. While he did play a bit more last night, he still only saw limited action.

Once again, Bradford had another one of those first date nervous nights. He would bobble another snap, but would go on to complete the play. It is worth noting that he did not have another bad exchange.

Still he would only throw 14 passes. He could complete six of them, for about 24 yards.

Feeley, that is another story. He would lead the first offense on a 10 play, 65 yard drive that ended with him throwing a nine yard TD pass to tight end Daniel Fells.

But, Feeley would get hurt later in the quarter and would have to come out with what appeared to be an injury to his thumb. After the game, Feeley said that the X-Ray was negative and he expects to play against New England.

Steven Jackson, who did not play last week against Minnesota, was in the game and had some good runs on the opening drive. He would finish the contest with four carries for 20 yards.

It is obvious the Rams are going to do their best to protect what may be their number one offensive weapon, and his back.

The good news for the offense is they can score some points. Yet, the red zone continues to be like Superman trying to hold onto a piece of kryptonite. In four trips, the Rams could score only one touchdown. The other points would come off of the foot of Josh Brown.

Brown would trot out four times to put 12 points on the board. Teams do need strong special teams play, but if Brown is the number one offensive weapon the opposition will have to prepare for week in and week out, it could be another one or two win season for this team.

Overall, the offense did play better, but they are still continuing to struggle on third down conversions. three of 19 on third down is downright awful. Granted, the Rams only had 12 first downs in the whole game.

The defense after giving up 28 points and more than 400 total yards of offense last week, did do a better job of controlling the opposition. But this was not Minnesota, it was Cleveland.

The Ram defense surrendered 285 yards of total offense. Most of those yards would come through the air, which continues to question if this team can stop any kind of passing attack.

So two weeks into the preseason for the Rams, and the answers to the myriad of questions around this team are not any clearer than last week.

Against a very good team, the Rams looked bad. Against a so, so team, the Rams looked ok, not great, but ok.

The Rams next preseason game will be on Thursday night in Foxboro against the New England Patriots.

The list of questions is about to get longer.

Stay tuned.