By Nick Wagoner
Staff Writer

With a big event in the NFL Draft a little more than a week away, the league released the schedule for next season on Wednesday.

The Rams’ slate includes the usual home and home matchups with opponents from the NFC West Division (San Francisco, Arizona and Seattle) as well as battles with the AFC South and NFC East.

In continuing a trend that has been going since St. Louis’ Super Bowl victory following the 1999 season, the Rams will again be featured in prime time. In 2005, the Rams will play in a pair of primetime games, following the 2004 campaign in which St. Louis played in three Monday Night Football games as well as a Sunday night game on ESPN.

Highlighting the schedule is a Monday Night Football game against the Colts at the RCA Dome on Oct. 17. The other primetime appearance is also a road game, with the Rams traveling to Dallas on the final weekend of the season for a battle with the Cowboys. That game will kickoff at 7:30 p.m. on Jan. 1 as ESPN’s Sunday Night matchup.

To start the season, St. Louis will take on a pair of divisional games, both on the road. The opener is Sept. 11 at 3:15 at San Francisco. The following week, the Rams travel to Arizona to take on Kurt Warner and the Cardinals at 3:05.
In the long, storied history of the Rams – 49ers rivalry, it is only the second time the two long-time rivals have opened the season against each other. The first time – 1955, a game won by the Rams 23-14 in San Francisco. It is the first time since 1990 the Rams have had back-to-back road games to start the season. (In 2001, the Rams played back-to-back road games after a week 2 home game was rescheduled after the terrorist attacks). 

The home opener is Sept. 25 at noon against the revamped Tennessee Titans in the Titans’ first regular season game in St. Louis. The stay in St. Louis will be short as the Rams get back on the road the next week with a trip to New York to face the Giants in another noon game.

On Oct. 9, St. Louis gets to renew its newest rivalry with the Seahawks. Seattle comes to town that day for a noon kickoff in hopes of getting some revenge for the three losses it received from the Rams last season. St. Louis travels to Seattle for the other matchup on Nov. 13. 

Another old rivalry will be renewed on Oct. 23, when New Orleans comes to town. The Saints edged the Rams last season in overtime in a barn burning 28-25 battle. 

St. Louis completes its first pair of back-to-back home games on Oct. 30, when Jacksonville comes to town for just the second meeting ever and first since 1996. The Rams have their bye week the following week on Nov. 6. The bye is about a week later than last season, but happens to fall after eight games, the exact midpoint of the season.

After the trip to Seattle the following week, the Rams come back home for one of the most highly anticipated games of the season against Arizona. The Cardinals come to town on Nov. 20 in a game that could have serious divisional implications as well as Warner’s first appearance in St. Louis wearing a different uniform.

On Nov. 27, the Rams begin their tour of Texas with a noon game in the first ever meeting with the Houston Texans, the Rams first game in Houston since 1993. That is followed by a Dec. 4 matchup at the Edward Jones Dome against Washington. 

A Dec. 11 matchup at Minnesota should provide plenty of fireworks for fans that enjoy offense and will almost certainly be one of the more entertaining and high scoring games of the season. A series with many memorable playoff meetings, it will be the Rams first game in Minnesota since 1991.

The Rams do get to spend the holidays at home with a pair of games at the Edward Jones Dome. St. Louis hosts Philadelphia on Dec. 18, a rematch of the teams’ Monday night game that was played a week later last season. Then, the 49ers come to town for a Saturday Christmas Eve game to complete the Rams’ games with divisional foes.

St. Louis wraps up the regular season with the aforementioned trip to Dallas for a Sunday night game on New Year’s Day. It is the Rams first regular season game in big D since 1992, when the Rams beat the eventual league champions 27-23.

The Rams’ schedule shapes up as the easiest in the league based on their opponents’ win/loss records from 2004. St. Louis opponents were 114-142 last year for a winning percentage of .445. Of course, that is slightly watered down by the struggles of the teams in the NFC West last year as evidenced by the fact that Arizona’s schedule ranks as the second easiest (115-141, .449). Seattle plays the fourth easiest slate (117-139, .457) and San Francisco will play the sixth easiest schedule (113-127, .471). 

Those numbers don’t mean much, though, as they have nothing to do with what happened in the offseason. For instance, Minnesota has improved its defense rapidly and Arizona has made itself better through free agency. As always in the NFL, the only thing that you can count on is that nothing is for sure.