St. Louis Sports Online

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Mike Huss "The Fuss According to Huss" St. Louis Sports Online lead columnist and host of "Sportstalk" on WGNU AM-920 note new time: (7:00-8:00 pm Tuesdays and Thursdays) E-mail Mike at: hussonwgnu@aol.com

Back in 1995, the Baseball Cardinals were finishing out the season with Mike Jorgensen as an interim Manager, Vincente Palacios, Allen Watson and Danny Jackson as starting pitchers, and with Busch Stadium having an artificial playing surface. In 1995, the St. Louis Blues were preparing for year two of the Mike Keenan era, and year one without Brendan Shanahan and Curtis Joseph. In 1995, Bill Laurie was another unknown Billionaire in Columbia, Missouri. In 1995, Dick Vermeil was touring college campuses on weekends with Brent Musberger.

One more thing, in 1995, the St. Louis Rams started the regular season with a 2-0 record.

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After three weeks of the National Football League season, our Male Sheep are sitting atop the NFC West with that 2-0 record. They earned that distinction by winning decisively 35-7 at the Dome over the defending NFC Champion Atlanta Falcons.

Don't be confused, this is not the same Atlanta team that lost to Denver in the Big Game with Roman Numerals last January. This edition of the Falcons did not have their star running back Jamal Anderson. This edition of the Falcons did have their starting quarterback with an injured hamstring.

Six days earlier Atlanta lost Anderson and a nationally televised game in Dallas. No doubt, timing was smiling on the Rams in this game.

Although timing was on their side, St. Louis had to win this game. Unlike such big games in the recent past, the Rams responded.

For those who are in the investing/gambling business, this was truly a rough week. First the stock market tumbled badly, and now the Rams are 2-0.

More importantly, this win gives the Rams some degree of legitimacy with their fans. The Gateway City Football Fans (including this writer) needed to be convinced that the 1999 Rams were not a mirage. Too many times we have been fooled by this franchise.

The opening drive set the tone. Last year's #3, this year's #1 Quarterback Kurt Warner engineered a seventeen play, eighty yard, ten minute thirteen second, penalty-free, opening drive that was capped by a Robert Holcombe two-yard touchdown run.

Then, after Atlanta went out, in three plays and a punt in their first series, the Rams again maintained a ball control offense. In this series, a St. Louis seventy-eight yard drive took eight plays and three minutes- eight seconds before Warner hit Torry Holt for a twenty-eight yard touchdown pass.

The game plan was simple: play a game of keep away with the Boys from Dixie. For the second straight game, Mike Martz' plan worked. Time of Possession after the first period: St. Louis: 13:12 Atlanta: 1:48. Number of offensive plays in the first quarter: St. Louis: 24, Atlanta: 4.

Subsequently, the Rams would score touchdowns each of the first four series they had the football. More impressively, the Rams committed a total of only three penalties all afternoon. For the second straight game, Warner's performance was solid: completing seventeen of twenty-five passes for 275 yards and three touchdowns.

At the end of the game, the 63,253 PSL owning faithful roared in delight as their blue and gold heroes left the field undefeated for the month of September.

In his post game debriefing session, Head Coach Dick Vermeil correctly reminded us that the win in week two was simply the second round of a sixteen round fight. With the smiling owner, Georgia Frontierre present, Vermeil indicated to the assembled media that "(the Rams) had all the advantages coming into this football game; a bye, coming off a victory early, playing a Super Bowl team that lost two in a row which is a little banged up, coming off a Monday night game. I'm sure (the Rams) are not that much better than the Atlanta Falcons, but today, on our day, we were a good football team".

Yet, as chronicled in this space two weeks ago, it still goes down as a "W" in the standings. Now the Rams have half as many "W's" than their entire 1998 season.

Next week our Male Sheep make their first road trip of the regular season to Cincinnati. Seven days after that, the evil empire known as the San Francisco 49ers make their annual visit to our town.

The Bengals were being clobbered by Carolina while the Rams were defeating Atlanta. St. Louis may inadvertently look past the boys from the Queen City as they set their sights on the team by the Bay. This would not be a good thing.

Memo to the St. Louis entry to the National Football League: Congratulations on your good start. You are half way there to your 1998 victory total. But a friendly word of advice: Listen to your coach. Sunday October 3 will only be round three of this sixteen round fight. An ugly loss to Cincinnati will slow the momentum and progress.

As a saying goes: Two steps forward: One step back. More bluntly, the franchise with the worst record during the decade of the 1990's should ONLY consider what is immediately in front of them, one game at a time.

So Gateway City football fans will get to enjoy another happy Monday around the water cooler. Hopefully, everyone will not overreact to the Rams quick start. Perhaps we should all review those 1995 chronicles for a refresher course.

It has been so long to remember just how to act when your hometown National Football League Franchise is undefeated after the first month of the season.