The 10 Best St. Louis Rams Games

10. 1/27/2002, Rams 29, Eagles 24. Marshall Faulk's most important game as a Ram, as he carried the offense with 159 rushing yards and two TDs. The Rams held the ball for twelve minutes of the 3rd quarter behind Faulk's running. He had at least three runs of over 20 yards, including a 30-yarder where he completely reversed field three yards behind the line. Aeneas Williams added an INT return TD as the Rams won their second NFC Championship in three years.

9. 12/17/2001, Rams 34, Saints 21. Perhaps the most satisfying win of the Rams' 14-2 2001 season. The Saints had won earlier in the season in St. Louis, rallying behind Saint coach Jim Haslett's halftime tirade about the Rams' success with "bullcrap" plays. And leading into this game, bigmouthed Saint WR Joe Horn declared Saints-Rams was not really a rivalry because the Saints had won three of the last four. Idiot. Plus the national media declared that Haslett had Kurt Warner's number. Here were the numbers Kurt had on this Monday night: 23-32-338, 4 TD, three to Isaac Bruce. Horn had only three catches in a game that so frustrated the Saints that Haslett was pictured f-bombing referee Larry Nemmers and Saint fans showered one end zone with beer bottles. The game took nearly four hours to play but was worth every minute.

8. 11/10/2002, Rams 28, Chargers 24. Just a fill-in for injured Kurt Warner at this point, in just his fourth career start, Marc Bulger has an epic game: 36-48-453, 4 TD. With under 5:00 left, the Rams were down 24-14 and appeared dead, especially Isaac Bruce, who had had two costly fumbles. But he amazingly tipped a Bulger pass to himself for a 34-yard TD with about 3:00 left. Dre Bly leaped to recover an excellent onsides kick by Jeff Wilkins, and Bulger went right back to work, hitting Lamar Gordon (!) four straight times, then Torry Holt, and then Bruce twice, the second one a 7-yard TD with 1:14 left for the win. What looked like a terrible day for Isaac ended up a 10-163, 3-TD success.

7. 1/8/2005, Rams 27, Seahawks 20. The Rams top off a three-game season sweep of the Seahawks with a win in the first round of the playoffs, becoming the first 8-8 team to win a playoff game. Great deep passing by Marc Bulger (18-32-313) helped stake the Rams to a 14-3 lead. They'd fall behind 20-17, but tied it and then took the lead on Bulger's 17-yard TD pass to Cam Cleeland on a 3rd-and-3. Seattle charged back downfield late in an effort to tie, but rare big plays from Jimmy Kennedy and Damione Lewis set them back, with a pressured Matt Hasselbeck missing connections with Bobby Engram in the end zone on 4th down to end the game.

6. 1/20/2002, Rams 45, Packers 17. If this wasn't the Rams' best defensive game so far in St. Louis, it's a finalist, as Lovie Smith's D forced eight turnovers (and were close to having 11), which led to 35 St. Louis points. Aeneas Williams returned two INTs for touchdowns. Rookie Tommy Polley also intercepted Brett Favre twice, returning one for a TD. The defense clearly won the game, as they and Lovie appeared to know what Favre was going to do before he did.

5. 10/10/2004, Rams 33, Seahawks 27(OT). The Rams are dead. It's the third quarter, they're behind 27-10, Marc Bulger is extremely shaky, and the defense isn't stopping a thing. But nobody quit. Bulger hit Brandon Manumaleuna in heavy traffic in the end zone (best catch of his career) to make it 27-17. Not much later, Bulger shocks Seattle with a perfect 41-yard bomb to Kevin Curtis. 27-24. With the clock running in the last minute, Bulger hits Dane Looker at the sideline to set up Jeff Wilkins' tying FG. The Rams win the overtime coin toss. Bulger beats a 3rd-down blitz by hitting Torry Holt for 13. His next pass beats another blitz and wins the game, as he finds Shaun McDonald single-covered by a safety for a 52-yard TD to complete a jaw-dropping comeback.

4. 10/10/1999, Rams 42, Whiners 20. After nine long years, the Rams get a King Kong-sized monkey off their backs by finally vanquishing the hated Whiners. Isaac Bruce got long-awaited revenge on the Whiner D with 4 TD catches. Tony Horne put the dagger in with a return TD, and Warner stuck in another one with a 5th TD pass to converted DE Jeff Robinson, a play on which I swear I saw Ken Norton Jr. slump to the ground in the end zone crying. Punch this, loser.

3. 1/23/2000, Rams 11, Bucs 6. Not an artistic success, but certainly the most important game played to date in the Dome in St. Louis. Warner's first pass was intercepted by a defensive lineman, an offense that had averaged over 30 points a game barely cracked 10, and the Rams got major help late from an unusual (yet correct) call on a pass to Bert Emmanuel that was ruled incomplete. But the lasting memory of this game is rightly this: with the Rams trailing 6-5, 4:44 left, 3rd-and-4 at the Tampa 30, they correctly anticipate a blitz, and Warner arcs a throw to single-covered Rickey Proehl, who cradles it at the goal line, keeps his feet in bounds, and becomes a legend.

2. 1/16/2000, Rams 49, Vikings 37. Even though they finished the season 13-3 and scored over 500 points, there was plenty of doubt in the national media over how the Rams would perform in the postseason. That doubt seemed erased on the Rams' first play of the first NFL playoff game ever in St. Louis, as Warner hit a wide, wide-open Isaac Bruce for a 77-yard TD. The doubt resurfaced with the Rams trailing 17-14 at halftime, but Tony Horne put them up for good by returning the second-half kickoff 95 yards for a TD. Warner hit 10 different receivers and threw 5 TDs en route to a 27-33-391 game. Jeff George threw for 423 for Minnesota but was left cringing or hearing footsteps all game long from a relentless Ram defensive attack.