Looking ahead: next week will tell us who this team really is.

This week's game alone will not tell us "who this team really is." December is a better barometer for such things. It's a long season.

Tripp already revealed to us the litmus test last week against the Cards. We blowout a crap team, we're well on our way. We "barely" win, and we will have to claw tooth and nail to even make it to the playoffs. We already failed against the Cards. This team is thus just still a work in progress. Now, we've made good progress, but we need more of it.

Tripp already revealed to us the litmus test last week against the Cards. We blowout a crap team, we're well on our way. We "barely" win, and we will have to claw tooth and nail to even make it to the playoffs. We already failed against the Cards. This team is thus just still a work in progress. Now, we've made good progress, but we need more of it.

The Rams in week 4 are a lot more of a crap team than the Cards were in week 2. And nobody knows who they are after 1 game.

Maybe "tell us who this team is" is a bad turn of phrase because it implies a snapshot. Let me rephrase that to say it'll tell us if we've made progress or regressed.

Agreed SCP.

I think these guys can improve, they seem to be able to listen to coaching and get things going.

The Rams in week 4 are a lot more of a crap team than the Cards were in week 2. And nobody knows who they are after 1 game.

Maybe "tell us who this team is" is a bad turn of phrase because it implies a snapshot. Let me rephrase that to say it'll tell us if we've made progress or regressed.

Sorry, we could have laid 35 ****ing points on the "better" Cardinals and failed.

We're rated 15th in DVOA this week (http://www.footballoutsiders.com/dvoa-ratings/2011/week-3-dvoa-ratings), which sounds about right. That Giants game is looking like one of the bigger upsets of the season to date on the grounds of the fact that we blew them out in the second half, and they're one of the better teams in football still (definitely the best in a "down" NFC East).

This is the first time I can remember this team rating above average in both offensive and defensive DVOA since 2005. We're not a complete team yet, but the components of a complete team are there for the first time in six years. Ever since the offensive line declined in 2007, we've been fighting ourselves for years.

We may still be fighting an offensive talent deficiency and a defensive discipline issue, but both sides of the ball have potential.

This week against the Rams is going to give us a good picture as to what direction we are headed this year. Are we what most of us thought at the beginning of the year, an emerging team with some questions, i.e. the qb position, and still a season or two away. Or are we a team that is ahead of the curve and ready to compete for a playoff run this season. How you bounce back says a lot so we shall see. St Louis has had our number the last couple of outings so it is our turn.

Let me suggest that next week will not "tell us who this team is". I suspect we will not know that until sometime around Christmas. There will be games where the Skins will hit on all cylinders and look as if they could be NFC Championship Game material; there will also be games where they just won't seem to be able to get out of their own way.

By Christmas, we will have seen pretty much the entire spectrum of their performances and around then we will have a much better grasp on "who this team is" and what they are going to be in the future.

The Rams are one of the easiest opponents we will play all season. A schedule that was considered weak a month ago is a potential killer with the rise of Buffalo and the improvement of the AFC East as a whole. Only games where we have a potential for a solid victory is against the NFC West teams, and even then they won't be that easy.

We've actually played St. Louis quite a bit over the past decade, dating back to when Jeff George faced off against Trent Green on MNF in the battle of the back ups. We won that one btw.

Still only random team I can think of us playing more over the past decade has been Tampa. Tampa and St. Louis are our two random rivals.