NFL Predictions: 5 Reasons Why St. Louis Rams Will Be Last Team To Win a Game

I would suggest Missourians start praying for a St. Louis Cardinals NLDS comeback, because it'll be awhile before the St. Louis Rams give them reason to cheer.

Of the four remaining winless NFL teams—the Rams, Miami Dolphins, Minnesota Vikings and Indianapolis Colts—St. Louis will go the longest without victory in 2011.

The Rams aren't just losing games right now, they're getting overwhelmed. Their negative-67 point differential ranks second-to-last in the NFL and implicates every facet of their roster.

Presumptive star quarterback Sam Bradford is sophomore slumping and a once-promising defense looks positively toothless. Combine that with a tough upcoming schedule and St. Louis won't win until the season's second half.

So raise your glasses to the Cardinals and high draft picks, St. Louis. You'll need both.

Sam Bradford

Something isn't right here.

Sam Bradford, first overall draft pick and reigning NFL Rookie of the Year, is one of the five worst starting quarterbacks in football right now.

At least that's what the statistics suggest.

Bradford ranks in the bottom five league-wide in passer rating, completion percentage, yards per attempt and sacks taken. Even if that last stat explains some of Bradford's woes, it can't explain everything.

So far Bradford is completing less than 50 percent of his passes, well down from the 60 percent completion rating he posted last year and completely at odds with the reputation he gained at the University of Oklahoma for his accuracy. No number of sacks should change that.

You have to return to 2002, when Chicago Bears running back Mike Anderson bombed his follow-up act, to find a reigning Offensive Rookie of the Year who regressed this badly in his second season.

As the quarterback goes so goes his team. That's the nature of today's pass-happy NFL.

Few are going worse than Sam Bradford right now.

I'm Not Open

The causal relationship between quarterback play and receiving talent is always murky, but it's clear there are no Torry Holts or Isaac Bruces among this year's Rams receiving corps.

Losing Danny Amendola in Week 1 to a dislocated elbow further weakened a group that doesn't have a single representative among the league's top 40 in catches, yards, touchdowns or yards after catch.

Free agent signee Mike Sims-Walker, pegged as Sam Bradford's target of the future, stands out as an uber disappointment in a season of Rams letdowns. The Jacksonville transfer has just 139 yards and averages less than three receptions per game over his brief Rams career.

While other young quarterbacks like Mark Sanchez, Joe Flacco, Matthew Stafford and Cam Newton have a star pass catcher to aid their development, Bradford must make due with an island of misfit (and stone-handed) toys.

Defenseless

When New York Giants defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo joined the St. Louis Rams in 2009 as their head coach, improvement for that unit seemed only a matter of time.

Two years later, let's face facts, the Rams are no closer to becoming a top defense now then they were when Spagnuolo entered the frame. Right now the Rams rank 26th in yards allowed, 30th in scoring defense and dead last against the run.

It's clear the trajectory of the defense has changed. Last year the Rams fell 19th, 12th and 17th in those respective categories. This after the Rams added pro bowl safety Quintin Mikell to their secondary and drafted North Carolina defensive end Robert Quinn in the first round.

Quinn didn't even dress for the Rams' opener against the Philadelphia Eagles and has just two more tackles to his credit (three) than offensive tackle Rodger Saffold (one).

The regression of Spagnuolo's defense reflects poorly on his progress as a head coach, even more so than the offense's struggles considering his coaching background.

The unit's poor play gives the Rams little hope against upcoming opponents like the Packers, Cowboys, Saints and Cardinals, while also putting its head coach squarely on the hot seat.

The Schedule

To set the record straight, I do not think the St. Louis Rams are the worse winless team left.

That dubious distinction belongs to the Indianapolis Colts, who without Peyton Manning rank somewhere between SEC team and scout team on the talent scale.

I do think, however, the Colts will win a game before the Rams taste victory.

After a Week 5 bye week—no wins to be had there—the Rams travel to Green Bay and Dallas before returning home to face the high-powered New Orleans Saints. Those are three likely losses.

The next winable game looks like a Week 9 showdown at Arizona. Even then the Rams will be underdogs, and may have to wait until next week's contest at Cleveland for their first real shot at a W.

The Colts, however, get a few solid cracks at victory before the Rams' Week 10 visit to Cleveland. They face 1-3 Kansas City, disappointing Atlanta and hapless Jacksonville at home in the coming weeks with an additional contest against unproven Cincinnati in the fold.

Even with backup quarterback Curtis Painter at the helm, Indy has enough games against enough middling teams to scratch out a win.

The Minnesota Vikings and Miami Dolphins Aren't That Bad

Being the last team standing—or is it sitting?—in the race to winlessness relies as much on the competition as it does on the featured team. Since we've already mapped a road to victory for the punchless Colts, it's time to turn attention to fellow oh-for-four-ers Minnesota and Miami.

Although both will find themselves couch surfing come playoff team, neither is as bad as their record suggests. The Vikings held large halftime leads in each of their first three games and haven't lost by more than seven points so far this year.

Running back Adrian Peterson still runs as hard as ever and the league's 16th best scoring defense ensures a victory in time. There's simply too much talent in Minnesota to go empty-handed much longer.

Miami, with a recent injury to quarterback Chad Henne, presents a more difficult scenario. The prospect of a future win depends heavily on backup Matt Moore's ability to step in and make the kind of good decisions he showcased during his second-half surge as the Carolina Panthers quarterback in 2008

If he can, the Miami offense—ranked 16th in total yards—has enough talent to poach this team an inaugural win.