It has been 11 long years in the city of St. Louis as far as football is concerned. The Rams have not been to the playoffs since losing to the Atlanta Falcons in the divisional round back in 2004. In the span since a playoff berth, the Rams have a combined record of 49-110-1. Four of those years had the Rams winning three or less games. A coaching carousel is an understatement as well for the last decade plus Rams. From the likes of Mike Martz, Scott Linehan, and Jim Haslett, to Steve Spagnuolo, Joe Vitt, and current Head Coach Jeff Fisher. In the grand scheme of things, all of those coaches have failed.

Things are turning around for the Rams though. The last three years they have been flirting with the .500 mark. A lot of that has to do with the success of the defense. Let’s get something straight off the bat, St. Louis isn’t a top five defense as far as yards go in this league. To take it a little father, they aren’t a top 10 defense either. The thing about St. Louis is they get the job done when needed. In the last three years, “Missouri’s finest” have had 18 games where the defense has only given up 17 points or less. In those games, St. Louis went 15-3. With guys like Chris Long, Robert Quinn, Janoris Jenkins, and the addition of Nick Fairley this offseason, the nucleus for this defense is set and will be good for years to come.

The down side about the Rams is their offense. Lethargic and atrocious are a few adjectives that quickly come to mind with this group. Since 2012, the Rams have scored 20 points or less in 25 games. Over that span, they are a horrible 6-19 when doing so. They rank 22nd in points per game offensively over the past 3 years with 20.3 points scored a game. That will not win football games in today’s NFL.

There is hope for this struggling corps. The QB situation seems to have come to a solution. In the offseason, St. Louis acquired Nick Foles from the Philadelphia Eagles in exchange for often injured Sam Bradford. Since being drafted number one overall in the 2010 NFL Draft, Bradford has only played in 49 out of a possible 80 games for St. Louis. With out the Oklahoma alum, the Rams were forced to resort to guys like Kellen Clemens and Shaun Hill.

The running back position has been exposed since Steven Jackson darted to Atlanta a few years ago. The good thing is Tre Mason, a rookie last year, showed signs of productivity toward the last quarter of the season.

To help out this position even more, St. Louis used their first round draft pick this year on RB Todd Gurley out of Georgia. For the Bulldogs, Gurley rushed for over 3,200 yards and 37 TDs in only 30 games. It comes with a bit of a gamble though as Gurley tore his ACL last year for Georgia. If he bounces back 100% for St. Louis this year, this offense could much better than in previous years.

The days of the Rams being an easy game on the schedule are over. They have shown they can battle tough teams like Denver and Seattle and win. With the 49ers losing a lot of key players in the offseason due to retirement among other things, and the Arizona Cardinals being so up and down, the Rams can easily rise from the basement into second place in the competitive NFC West.

To take it a step further, St. Louis can be in contention and possibly make the playoffs this year. Obviously it would be as a Wildcard, but this team has the pieces it needs. Defense wins championships, Offense sells tickets. By my observations, it looks like this year it will be plenty people in the Edward Jones Dome, as this team builds on moral victories from last year, to propel them to playoff contention this year.