Boy this is becoming a depressing season.  Each week there’s a new way to lose.  Against the 49ers we had an inept offense and miscues at the worst times.  Against a better team, we put up 400 yards of offense…and 10 points.  Oh, it’s getting hard to root for the Blue and Gold when we’re looking like the Silver and Black (sorry Oakland folks) – just bad.  But on the flipside, we’re getting better.  But 38-10 doesn’t show better at all.

And before I do the GB&A, I do want to put out some comments on Rush Limbaugh.  He would have joined the ugly part of the column if he was on the field related.  I like having the Rams in St. Louis and I don’t want them to go.  Having Limbaugh’s money would have helped, but the media backlash would have been even more than what it was already becoming due to his political position and his comments about Donovan McNabb in 2003.  I don’t like Limbaugh much at all, I think he says plenty of insensitive things, that he uses his political position as a veil to make racist statements at times and that he’s generally just whipping up the masses into some sort of frenzy that he himself doesn’t have to touch because of his social position.  To put it bluntly, he would have been the owner the NFL likes.  As long as the candor didn’t get too offensive, his combustible image would have gained plenty of publicity for one of the world’s most recognizable symbols – the NFL shield.  Players did step out and speak against him, but this is a business and political allegiances aside, these guys like making money.  And the Rams have money.  They might not like having a guy who has made disparaging remarks about them as the owner of the franchise they play for, but they’re professionals.  They play because they get paid.  But in my opinion, it wouldn’t have helped an already struggling franchise to bring on such a combustible guy in any fashion – Limbaugh just brings too much extra for a team that’s just trying to win a game.  And with that, it’s onto the UGLY because talking about Limbaugh puts me in an ugly state of mind.

The Ugly – The turnovers.  Sweet Jesus, the turnovers.  And this week, it wasn’t even about the turnovers themselves – but where they occurred and what happened because of them.  Down 7-0, Kyle Boller basically drops the ball on accident, Jared Allen rumbles it in for a TD.  How about this stat: 4 drives inside the redzone, 3 of them inside the 10 and we got one field goal, 2 fumbles and an interception.  A bad exchange from Boller to Steven Jackson results in a fumble and another Jared Allen recovery.  Daniel Fells gets a good catch and (in a memory of Donnie Avery vs. the Redskins) fumbles the ball and E.J. Henderson recovered.  And finally, a blown route by Danny Amendola which kept his defender in the area ends up making what could have been a TD an interception.  21 points taken off of the boards, and by the way, the playcalling on the drive that ended in a Field Goal sucked.  Just terrible.  A QB draw?  Nothing aggressive, and considering it was the best offensive output we’ve had, I would have liked to see more aggression.  But those turnovers really killed momentum, killed drives, and they were ALL SELF-CAUSED!  None of these, except maybe the Fells fumble, should have happened.  That’s why it’s UGLY.

The Bad – Alex Barron, you are not a LT.  The past few weeks myself, the announcers, the referees, and at one point Boller, see that you do not have the get-off necessary to handle the speed rushing defensive ends.  You have lined up off of the line of scrimmage just for that reason.  And plenty of times all year, you’ve still been beaten and manhandled.  It’s getting bad on that leftside, Barron.  This is your contract year; we expected you to come out big and make a stand as to why you should be re-signed.  No, Jason Smith will be at LT next year, mark my words, and you will be a backup on a decent team or starting on a bad one.  Bank on it.

(On the flipside, besides Richie Incognito’s insane amount of penalties, the offensive line did a terrific job against a very talented Minnesota front 4.  That kind of play week in and week out will be the difference between a productive offense, like we saw Sunday, and an atrocious offense like we saw against the 49ers.)

The Optimistic – I needed to throw this in because there was more to be optimistic about than actual good, per se.  Boller went out with a head injury, and he was replaced by Bulger.  Bulger went 7-7 and got a TD pass to Donnie Avery.  It may have been garbage time, but Bulger being able to get his accuracy going and to get his rhythm with Donnie up a little bit can make us hopeful that against the Jaguars this Sunday he’ll be able to keep that going.

Also optimistic – the 4 redzone drives were easily a season high.  The outcomes may have been bad, but that we got there against a very good defense speaks to what the Rams are actually capable of.

The Good – Steven Jackson CONTINUES to run hard on a 0-5 team.  He’s the heart and soul of the offense, and he’s putting it all on the line.  The WRs put up their best game to date (though that couldn’t have been too difficult), with Keenan Burton really starting to put it together.  While it does suck to say this, we are a young team at WR.  These guys are developing, and considering right now the actual strength of the team lies on defense more so than offense means it might take it a little longer to get it going.  But the development is coming, slowly but surely.  James Laurinaitis continues to impress in the middle, getting an interception of a Hall of Famer (though Brett Favre does hold the record for most career interceptions).  And the good news is the last time the Rams played the Jags was my freshman year of college, I was shocked because it came on TV in Atlanta, and the Rams won the game.  Hopefully history can repeat itself, as this is a winnable game, all things considered.

And something I’ve noticed from watching the Rams closely is there is no intimidating force or presence.  Especially on defense.  There’s no crazy guy who just makes the other team on edge.  The Rams have gone beyond a finesse team.  That element is missing – the just do-whatever-it-takes guy.  Incognito may be a hot head, but he hasn’t been making his blocks very consistently.  Barron can’t seem to recognize that he has to be on the line of scrimmage.  Bulger has been playing with more fire than we’ve ever seen from him, but that’s not his personality.  O.J. Atogwe (who got a sack) is a quiet type.  There’s no braggadocious, over-confident type to give this team some confidence.  Steven Jackson has tempered it down compared to his rookie year, but there just isn’t anybody who, when they get on the field, you look and go “Damn, here comes this guy – he might make me look bad!”  Just something I’ve seen that I think needs to change.

Anyway, that was the GB&A for Week 5.  Week 6’s What 2 Watch 4 will be posted in the next day or two.