By Nick Wagoner
Senior Writer

For one quarter of football, the Rams gave fans a glimpse of the team everybody thought they could be at the beginning of the season when visions of a playoff berth and a NFC West Division championship danced in their heads.

But that opening quarter faded quickly from memory as the Rams offense reverted to the form that had dug the hole the team was already in and the defense that had been beaten routinely in recent years reverted to form.

Cleveland took advantage of a couple of key injuries to the Rams and came up with important stops as it fought back from an early deficit on the way to a 27-20 win against St. Louis on Sunday at the Edward Jones Dome.

The Browns improved to 4-3 with the win and sent the Rams unceremoniously into their bye week with a 0-8 record for the first time in franchise history.

“It is excruciatingly painful,” coach Scott Linehan said. “I think we left a lot of effort on the field. I think our guys battled to overcome some of the adverse situations that have been plaguing us all through the year.”

From the looks of it, the Rams seemed well on their way to getting victory No. 1 against Cleveland. After winning the opening toss and electing to receive, the Rams cut through the Browns defense with relative ease.

The much-maligned offense looked like the high-powered, potent group that many expected when the season began.

There was quarterback Marc Bulger slinging spot on bombs to receivers Torry Holt, Isaac Bruce and Drew Bennett, who had been slicing through the Cleveland secondary with ease. Returning from injury, running back Steven Jackson was steamrollering Cleveland’s defense, picking up the first rushing touchdown of the season and bringing the spark the unit so desperately needed.

Before any of the fans in attendance had time to settle into their seat, it was 14-0 and the Rams were rolling.

In an instant, it all changed.

“You know what else changed?” Bulger said. “Steven Jackson wasn’t in anymore. He brings that much to our team. He’s an electric guy. He got hurt and it changes our team, plain and simple. When he’s in there, you can see we are explosive. We were on the offensive then his back locked up.”

Jackson was returning from a groin injury and his return seemed to energize the offense. He carried eight times for 41 yards with a touchdown before back spasms slowed him down.

His absence changed the complexion of the game for the entire offense. Cleveland had made a habit early of loading up the run box with eight defenders, leaving plenty of room for Holt, Bruce and Bennett to operate down the field.

That was obvious as Bulger was nine-of-11 for 118 yards and a score in the opening quarter. But with Jackson out of the game, Cleveland was able to drop back into a more traditional Cover 2 defense that could roll up coverages into the secondary and take away the deep threats.

“When he goes out, everybody goes back to the conventional cover 2 and says ‘we are going to make you beat us on the ground game and we are not going to let those guys on the outside beat us,’” Holt said.

It also didn’t help matters that right guard Richie Incognito, the most dominant run blocker left on the patchwork offensive line, left the game midway through the first quarter with a right knee sprain.

Although Jackson and Incognito’s absence clearly slowed the offense down in the second quarter (the Rams outscored Cleveland 14-3 in the opening quarter and were outscored by the same margin in the second), the Rams had plenty of chances to come out with a win.

With 3:13 to go in the game and the Rams trailing by seven, Bulger hit Brian Leonard, Jackson’s replacement, for a gain of 9 yards. Although the spot of the ball seemed questionable, the Rams did not challenge because they were armed with two shots to pick up a yard and didn’t want to lose their final timeout on a challenge.

Early in the second quarter, the Rams faced a similar situation at Cleveland’s 33, needing just a yard to pick up the first down. Leonard got two carries to the left side and was stuffed for no gain, giving Cleveland the ball and enabling them to drive for a score that cut the Rams’ deficit to four.

At halftime, the Rams made the decision to alter how they go about attacking the defense on short yardage situations. Linehan said the Rams opted to run behind left guard Milford Brown as opposed to Nick Leckey, who had replaced Incognito at right guard.

On third-and-1, Leonard was stuffed by linebacker Andra Davis. On fourth down, with no lead blocker in front of him, safety Sean Jones stopped Leonard short again, keeping the Rams from tying the score.

While clearly there wasn’t much room to run for Leonard, the rookie quickly fell on the sword for the inability to get the yard the team needed to keep the drive alive and potentially score for the second time in the game.

“It’s fourth-and-1 and you need a first down, it doesn’t matter how bad the blocking is, you have got to get a yard and I didn’t do it,” Leonard said. “They were a little different play calls. I have to find a way to get that first down and I didn’t do it.”

Even after that failed opportunity, the defense found a way to get a stop and get the ball back. But the Rams’ last gasp drive was halted when Bulger tried to fit the ball in a tight spot down the field and cornerback Leigh Bodden intercepted him to seal the game. 

“I knew we had a timeout and 32, 33 seconds,” Bulger said. “Earlier in the previous drive and earlier in that drive I was able to check it down, but with 33 seconds I knew I was going to have to get the ball down the field.”

Of course, it would have helped the Rams’ cause had the defense played as well as it had in recent weeks. After two of their finest performances of the season, the defense was scorched by Cleveland’s high powered passing attack.

As the Rams loaded up against the run, the Browns took advantage on the outside, finding receiver Braylon Edwards in one on one coverage against Fakhir Brown for most of the day.

Edwards won that battle, catching eight passes for 117 yards and two touchdowns. All told, the Rams allowed 368 yards of total offense and gave up 6.6 yards per play.

“It makes it frustrating from a defensive standpoint when the offense is doing really well and all of a sudden we are in this hole saying ‘what’s going on,’” defensive tackle Adam Carriker said. “It we were doing how we had been doing, we would have won the game.”