The St. Louis Rams (0-6) are the only winless team left in the NFC. They've scored a lowly 56 total points to 171 scored against them so far after getting spanked in Week 7 by a score of 34-7 in a blowout win for the Dallas Cowboys. The closest game this team's been in this year was a week 4 loss to the Redskins decided by just 7 points. It was also the only game so far in which the Rams had the top passer (Sam Bradford, 164 yards), rusher (Ryan Torain, 135 yards), and receiver (Jabar Gaffney, 62 yards). Their highest point total in any game came in a 16-28 loss to the New York Giants. Next week they face an always-daunting New Orleans Saints squad, the same one that kept their kindred-spirit Colts winless through week 7. There is no light at the end of the tunnel for this Rams team, and while it's hard to imagine they could get any worse, it's clear they've shown no signs of significant improvement. Their best shot to crack the win column will come in their two upcoming faceoffs with the 1-5 Arizona Cardinals on November 6th and 27th.
The Indianapolis Colts (0-7) have been a complete disaster this year in accumulating 7 straight losses to start the season. The New Orleans Saints (5-2) demolished the Peyton-Manningless Colts in the week 7 Sunday night contest by a mind-boggling score of 62-7. Not only was the defeat depressing for Indy fans, but it likely led to a huge drop in ratings for NBC. Countless viewers likely switched over to the World Series Game 4 on Fox between the Texas Rangers and St. Louis Cardinals rather than watching the slaughter continue. Colts QB Curtis Painter couldn't put a good drive together for the bulk of the night, and he finally threw a pick 6 to add insult to the injury to his psyche. The shock of this incredible defeat might inspire this team to step it up and play with a little more desperation in the weeks to come. Many would give them the worst of the worst award for the season based on this sole performance. It's easy to forget that they had very close calls against the Pittsburgh Steelers (23-20) and the Kansas City Chiefs (28-24) earlier this year. This Colts team is struggling at the worst possible time, though. Their next two opponents are the Tennessee Titans (3-3) and Atlanta Falcons (4-3). The November 13 game against the 1-5 Jacksonville Jaguars represents their best hope to pull off their first win of the season.
The Miami Dolphins (0-6) actually came closer than they ever have this season to putting a one in the win column on Sunday against the Denver Broncos (2-4). This Dolphin team's sad story is their inability to convert red zone appearances into touchdowns. They also lost their starting QB Chad Henne early in the season and haven't recovered despite having some real talent on the team. They actuall had Denver beat this week and let them get back into the game late in the fourth quarter with two back-to-back scores. Even those touchdowns would have been too little too late if it hadn't been for Coach Tony Sparano deciding to try for two on the only Dolphin touchdown of the game, Tim Tebow and the Broncos would have had to go 2-2 on two-point conversions to tie the game and send it into overtime. Instead, Miami lost 18-15 in overtime. They had an even closer loss against the Cleveland Browns in week 3. They lost that hard-fought game 17-16. Perhaps that was the very game in Sparano's mind when he opted for the failed two point conversion this week. It's been one of those seasons where every point matters, and the Dolphins offense has been disappointing. The acquisition of Running Back Reggie Bush and the reliability of Wide Receiver Brandon Marshall make Miami's offense more potent, but breaking their losing streak is also going to take some major improvements on defense. Their best chance to earn their first win comes November 6 against Kansas City (3-3), but the recent Kansas City resurgence makes that possibility questionable at best.
Some teams have all the luck, and others have all the talent. Miami, Indianapolis, and St. Louis have none of the above this season. They are the NFL's only winless teams, and there's nowhere to go but up at this point, though at least one of these squads could certainly end the season without scoring a single victory. As for which team wins first, it's a real toss up. The only sure thing is whatever team loses to one of these squads first will have to deal with a deluge of criticism once the final whistle blows.
