For three years now, Rams fans have been told to have patience with Sam Bradford. We have all heard the excuses, new offensive coordinator (each year), no quarterback coach (last year), terrible quarterback coach (first year), wide receivers that can’t get separation (all three years), wide receivers that can’t get deep, and, of course, inconsistent or bad offensive line play. However, I have not seen an article yet get into detail on these excuses so we can determine if they are explanations or excuses. I will attempt to address that now, so you can form your own conclusions.

We all know that a quarterback, whether or running QB or pocket QB, cannot excel without an offensive line which is at least adequate. We can all agree that Sam Bradford had a good to great rookie year. Why? I propose to you that the consistency on the offensive line was the major reason. Certainly, it was not the amazing talent that he had to throw to (addressed later). 

The Offensive Line

In 2010, the same person started at left tackle, center, right guard and left guard all year. The right tackle was Jason Smith, and he only missed one game. No one on that line was an all-star, but Sam Bradford knew their strengths and weaknesses. He knew or should have known when he was going to have protection problems because he knew who was protecting him.

In 2011, the line was in amazing disarray. The only person to start every game was Harvey Dahl, yet Dahl did not start every game at the same position. Rodger Saffold started 9 games. Jason Smith started 6 games.  Jacob Bell started 12 games, and Jason Brown started 14 games. In got interesting thereafter. Adam Goldberg started 8 games at multiple positions. Tony Wragge started 8 games, and Mark LeVoir started three games. The incredibly famous Kevin Hughes and Thomas Welch each played in multiple games. It should surprise no one that Sam Bradford got hurt in 2011 and only played in 10 games.

So far in 2012, Sam Bradford has been inconsistent, but so has his line. Barry Richardson, who was ranked as one of the worst offensive lineman in the league last year by Pro Football Focus, has started all 11 games for the Rams. Harvey Dahl has started 11 games and so has Robert Turner. Otherwise, Rodger Saffold has started 5 games, Chris Wells 2 games, Quinn Ojinnaka 5 games, Shelley Smith 6 games and Wayne Hunter started 4 games.

We now have our regulars back. If my theory is correct, we should see improvement in Bradford’s play over the remaining five games. This is borne out by the chart above, which shows that - aside from Barry RIchardson - the vast majority of QB hits and sacks have come from backups on this year's line. Last week was one of Bradford’s best. While his completion percentage was not up to par, many of his incompletions were throw aways.  His quarterback rating was his second best of the season and fifth best of his career.

I'll be honest, I didn't expect to be writing this article. Not after Rodger Saffold's rookie promise evaporated in an all-around-awful 2011 season. Not after Saffold worked his way back to the starting lineup, only to be laid out flat on a stretcher in the first quarter of his first home game back.

Nope, I was, rather petulantly and rather foolishly, willing to write this guy off as yet another Billy Devaney blunder, a would-be foundation block of what turned out to be a gingerbread house. I was (and still am, truth be told) all for a tackle-heavy Rams draft in 2013.

But quietly, in the middle of a five-game winless streak, while I was engaged in my writing-off and my looking-to-next-year, Saffold crept back into the starting lineup. And quietly, oh-so-quietly, he has done something surprising:

He's dominated.

Or at least, that's what the stats are telling us. In an admittedly small sample of four-plus games, Saffold has dropped back to pass-block 138 times, per Pro Football Focus. Only twice has he allowed his man to so much as breathe the wrong way on Sam Bradford - one sack, and one hit.

That's a pass-blocking efficiency rating of 98.7%, ahead of elite uglies Joe Thomas, Ryan Clady and D'Brickashaw Ferguson.

And it's not as though he's been facing dogmeat, either: in three successive games he has not allowed a sack to the 49ers' Aldon Smith (he got his on slightly illegal inside twists around LG Shelley Smith), the Jets' combo of Bryan Thomas and Muhammad Wilkerson, or the Cardinals' Sam Acho.

Now after missing significant chunks of the last two seasons to unlucky injuries, he still has to prove that he's durable enough to handle a full NFL workload at its second-most-important position. But working under the tutelage of Paul Boudreaux and working next to a rotating cast of characters at left guard (four different line partners in five games), Saffold has at least reminded us all that he can actually play a little football.

He might just be pretty damn good, if his body lets him.

Related reading: Brian Wagoner details Saffold's memorable Thanksgiving weekend, which featured the birth of his first child and a Rams win. (StLouisRams.com)

As I woke up this morning, I entered the Rams’ Twitter contest to win a signed Dick Vermeil mini-helmet, a totem embodying memories of the greatest era in St. Louis Rams history.

The question to qualify for the prize was even based on the Rams’ meteoric rise under Vermeil, asking for the disparity in the team’s record from 1998 to 1999. For the record, it went from 4-12 in 1998 to a Super Bowl victory and 13-3 record in 1999.

I didn’t win, but the contest jogged my memory and put me back into the comfortable and cozy space that so many of us long for when Sam Bradford’s tosses to Brandon Gibson fall short of conjuring up images of Kurt Warner bombing passes down the field to Isaac Bruce on the way to a Lombardi trophy.

However, I’m lobbying that it’s time to quit going back to that place and to accept that this Rams team will never be that Rams team, no matter how often we don our #13 and #28 jerseys and watch highlights of the blue and yellow track meet that defined a trip to the Ed in the late 90’s.

Sam Bradford completed only seven passes against the Arizona Cardinals in their first meeting, only eight in their second. But he'll take winning by two touchdowns apiece any day of the week. For that, he has his defense to thank. 

After playing so soft over the last month that they could have been cast in a Charmin commercial, the Rams finally found their aggressive streak, and finally unleashed talented rookie Janoris Jenkins from the Tampa Two hell he's been living in. Jenkins, who drew primary coverage on Larry Fitzgerald for much of the day, intercepted two Ryan Lindley passes and returned them both for touchdowns. In so doing, he became the first Rams player ever and only the third rookie in NFL history to accomplish this double-down feat. 

Meanwhile, Brian Schottenheimer finally found occasion to dust off his "ground and pound" playbook, one week too late, giving Steven Jackson 20-plus carries for only the third time this season. Jackson and the defense laid the table for a second-half shutdown effort that drained the drama from a close game and sent the Arizona fans heading to the exits early. 

When the Rams last met the Arizona Cardinals, the birds stood atop the NFC West with a surprising 4-0 record. However, when we talked to Seth Cox of TSHQ at the time, he was not yet ready to start opening champagne bottles.

As it turns out, he was right to put the celebrations on hold. Since that Thursday night primetime matchup, the Cardinals have lost six games and two quarterbacks, and now limp back to the desert to host the Rams with a rookie under center and a lot of question marks about what the rest of the season has left.

At the same time, that 17-3 win for the Rams marked a high point on the season, and our team has a five-game winless streak of its own to worry about.

We come back to Seth for his perspective on this matchup, and what to expect from the last quarter of the season.

As the St Louis Rams' record continues to slide following a heartening 3-2 start to the season, Sam Bradford's progression on the "elite quarterback growth curve" is receiving increasing scrutiny. Whether he has a strong game (275-2-0 versus the 49ers) or a weak one (170-2-1 vs the Jets), unless the Rams win the criticism will always be there. It's just a matter of volume. 

It doesn't help that younger quarterbacks like Andy Dalton, Andrew Luck, and Robert Griffin III have stepped ahead of him in the public spotlight, nor does it help that Bradford signed the last of the big-money rookie contracts, a $79-million-dollar shadow that looms over his unimpressive win-loss total like the Sword of Damocles. 

In fairness, none of those things are relevant to Bradford's growth as a quarterback or his ability to lead the Rams to the playoffs. All we can do is look at the hallmarks of his performance that are improving, or that still need to improve. And we can look to football history for comparables.

As it turns out, we don't have to look back too far to find a highly-paid #1 overall pick who struggled to live up to expectations through his first three years, and turned out okay. That is, if winning two Super Bowls and their corresponding MVP awards is okay. 

Last Sunday marked the first time that Sam Bradford had faced a Rex Ryan defense, and the results generally did not go well. Bradford and the OL struggled to recognize where the pressure was going to come from, particularly on third downs (converting only 5 of 16). Bradford also struggled to find big plays that could beat the blitz, completing only 2 of 12 passes ten or more yards down the field. 

This play in the first quarter marks the exception. The offensive line identified and picked up Ryan's rushers, and Bradford found Austin Pettis in the deepest level of the defense for a huge gain. In this week's Anatomy of a Play, we turn on the video projector once again and take you in-depth to show how this play worked.