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EARTH CITY, Mo. -- The St. Louis Rams returned to practice Tuesday after a long weekend to reflect on last week's disappointing performance against San Francisco.

The good news for the Rams is that they didn't appear to add but one name to the expected group of players not practicing. Right guard Harvey Dahl did not practice Tuesday for undisclosed reasons. He did watch the practice from the sidelines.

The rest of the injured players were all mentioned by coach Jeff Fisher in his news conference on Friday. Tackle Rodger Saffold (knee), defensive end William Hayes (knee), cornerback Cortland Finnegan (hamstring) and linebacker Will Witherspoon (hamstring) did not participate in the practice.

The Rams aren't required to release an injury report until Wednesday.

A weekly examination of the Rams' ESPN.com Power Ranking:

Preseason: 15 | Last Week: 20 | ESPN.com Power Ranking since 2002

Another week, another blowout loss and the Rams receive their biggest drop in the rankings yet, falling six spots to No. 26 this week. The 35-11 loss to the San Francisco 49ers on the heels of a 31-7 defeat at the hands of the Dallas Cowboys gives the Rams consecutive 24-point losses and an understandable tumble in the poll.

The six-member voting panel had the Rams in quite a variety of places, with Mike Sando and Kevin Seifert dropping them all the way down to No. 28 but Dan Graziano offering a more optimistic approach in placing them at No. 19. Ashley Fox, Jamison Hensley and John Clayton each put the Rams within one spot of their actual ranking with Fox and Hensley voting them No. 25 and Clayton slotting them at No. 27.

Last week, I was a bit surprised when St. Louis dropped only three spots after a no-show in Dallas. Looking closer at it, I figured it was because so many teams behind them had the same or worse records and longer samples of poor performance. This week feels just about right in dropping the Rams to 26th though I probably would side with Sando and Seifert and put them closer to 28.

If there's any good news for the Rams, it's that they could get out of this reversal in ranking next week. Their next opponent is Jacksonville, which was again a unanimous choice for the 32nd and final spot.

EARTH CITY, Mo. -- Since the St. Louis Rams released linebacker Jo-Lonn Dunbar on Sept. 3, it's been suspected that he'd make his way back into the fold after his four-game suspension for violation of the league's policy on performance enhancing substances was up.

Monday night, a league source confirmed to ESPN that Dunbar would re-sign with the Rams on Tuesday for what essentially amounts to what remained on his deal minus the first four games of the season.

According to league rules, Dunbar cannot be reinstated until the final game of week 4 is completed. Earlier Monday night, Dunbar tweeted a photo of his plane ticket taking him from his home in Florida back to St. Louis.

I made my flight. Yeah, I think we can leave now pic.twitter.com/055u3OEfjC

— Jolonn Dunbar (@JolonnDunbar) October 1, 2013

Not long after that tweet, Rams coach Jeff Fisher said on his weekly radio show that the Rams would be speaking to Dunbar soon after the Monday night game between Miami and New Orleans was over.

"We will be talking to Dunbar after the last play is made tonight. That is when we are allowed to talk to him."

A reunion with Dunbar comes at a good time for a Rams team that has been gashed in the run game the past two weeks. Dunbar's trademark intensity and emotion would also be a welcome addition to the locker room. Will Witherspoon, the man who replaced Dunbar, is dealing with a hamstring injury this week.

At the time of Dunbar's suspension, Rams coach Jeff Fisher expressed his disappointment in the player who finished second on the team in tackles in 2012. In no small part because of the need for salary cap space, the Rams parted ways with Dunbar while he served his suspension. Soon after, Fisher made it clear that bringing Dunbar back when the suspension was over was a strong possibility.

Getting Dunbar back won't be some sort of magic potion for the defense, after all he's likely to be more of a two-down linebacker (and possibly less depending on the opponent). Still, adding Dunbar's toughness and leadership should help the defense regain whatever swagger might have vanished in the first four weeks.

I.C.Y.M.I.

In case you missed any of our Rams' stories from yesterday, here they are in a nice little package. ... After the Ram-blings, we provided our weekly look at the Washington Redskins, how they fared and how it could help the Rams' draft position with their first-round pick in 2014. ... From there, we took a first glance at Jacksonville and how, despite the large line Vegas has put out shouldn't be a sign that the Rams can take anyone for granted at this point. ... We finished the day with a look at the All-22 film from the Dallas and San Francisco games with a glance at the offense and one more at the defense.

Elsewhere:

It's a topic I plan to address this week when it comes to rookie receiver Tavon Austin but SI.com's Chris Burke broke down the film to illustrate the team's struggles at getting Austin going.

Burke also recently posted a (very) early guess at a 2014 mock draft. He has the Rams drafting sixth and 15th and taking Texas A&M offensive tackle Jake Matthews with Washington's pick at six and Florida defensive tackle Dominique Easley at 15. If either of the Rams' picks are high enough to take Matthews, I expect that will be a popular pre-draft mock pick given Fisher's history with the Matthews family and the skill of the young Matthews.

The guys at Turf Show Times lay out the ways in which quarterback Sam Bradford's career is on a similar trajectory to the signal caller he replaced, Marc Bulger.

EARTH CITY, Mo. -- After a two-game in five days sprint last week, we fell a bit behind on our study sessions, but we’re back despite some troubles with the All-22 film on the San Francisco game.

Considering we’re dealing with two Rams’ games -- at Dallas and home against San Francisco -- this week’s version of study session will be condensed, with a bit more overarching thoughts buoyed by examples from those games.

On to the defense:

• The first thing that stands out from the Dallas to the San Francisco game is the increased aggressive approach by the defense against the Niners. The Rams played more man coverage, and early in the game it seemed to be working. Eventually, the Niners were able to hammer away with the run game and it opened some things up for San Francisco.
[+] Enlarge
AP Photo/G. Newman LowranceJanoris Jenkins is off to a strong start in coverage despite some recent penalties.
• Cornerback Janoris Jenkins is playing better than the penalties that have been going against him might indicate. He’s been victimized by some borderline calls, the type of calls that second-year players don’t normally get against veterans like Anquan Boldin. But Jenkins was sticky in coverage and seems to be timing his attempts at pass breakups better. It was actually a bit surprising the Rams didn’t shadow Boldin with Jenkins given the Niners’ lack of other pass-catching threats.
• The other player who showed up against San Francisco was middle linebacker James Laurinaitis. He had probably his best game of the season with 12 tackles, and broke up a pair of deep passes down the field.
• Unfortunately for the Rams, there wasn’t much more to write home about, especially in trying to stop running back Frank Gore.
• The Rams greatly missed William Hayes (knee injury) in this game. Ends Chris Long and Robert Quinn struggled to set the edge, and tackles Michael Brockers and Kendall Langford didn’t get much push up the middle.
• On a pair of Gore’s long runs, including his 34-yard touchdown, Brockers and Langford get wiped out and it allows a blocker to get to the second level to remove the linebackers. Niners guard Mike Iupati pulls right on Gore’s touchdown, and is able to bury Alec Ogletree and open the path to the end zone, in no small part because the defensive tackles are taken out of the play.
• In last season’s two meetings with the Niners, the Rams had great success against Colin Kaepernick by turning up the heat with the blitz. This season, not so much. The Rams blitzed 10 times, less than the 60 percent rate they did in 2012, and Kaepernick had success against it. Although the Rams got home for a sack once, Kaepernick completed seven-of-eight for 71 yards and two touchdowns.
• The Rams don’t seem to be getting home much on the blitz at all this season, and many of the blitzes seem to be telegraphed. Slow-developing blitzes such as the one that came on Kaepernick’s first touchdown pass to Boldin seem to keep popping up. On that play, the Rams rushed just three down linemen, but then linebackers Ogletree and Laurinaitis circled around to the right side. Neither got anywhere near Kaepernick, who got the ball out quick as Boldin beat the struggling Cortland Finnegan for a touchdown.
• We’ll add special teams in this space again with a nod to punter Johnny Hekker, who is quietly having a Pro Bowl caliber season.

EARTH CITY, Mo. -- After a two-game-in-five-days sprint last week, we fell a bit behind on our study sessions, but we’re back despite some troubles with the all-22 film on the San Francisco game.

Considering we’re dealing with two Rams games -- at Dallas and home against San Francisco -- this week’s version of study session will be condensed with a bit more overarching thoughts buoyed by examples from those games.

Let’s start with the offense.

• The offensive line has struggled mightily in the past two games, especially on the interior. Running lanes have been few and far between and quarterback Sam Bradford has had few opportunities to step up in the pocket when pressure comes from the edge.
• What’s most damaging is the amount of pressure the Cowboys and Niners got without blitzing. Bradford was blitzed just 17 times in those games and actually did quite well against the added pressure, completing 13 of those passes for 128 yards while being sacked just once. That means on 83 other drop-backs, Bradford faced normal pressure and was sacked 10 times. In San Francisco’s case, all five sacks came from rushing four or fewer. None of the Rams' running backs have showed much in pass protection, either.
• [+] Enlarge

  Dilip Vishwanat/Getty ImagesDaryl Richardson has had little room to run.
  The Niners also brought out another on-going issue the Rams have in the passing game: batted passes. I had them down for three more against Bradford and that number continues to grow. Those amount to lost plays, too.
• Obviously things aren’t much better in the run game. The rushing totals speak for themselves and there’s really not any one person to point the finger at. Center Scott Wells and the two guards, Chris Williams and Harvey Dahl really struggled to create openings.
• Maybe more disappointing are the struggles of the Rams' tight ends blocking. Nobody expected Jared Cook to contribute much in that area and he’s lived up to that reputation so far (including a number of whiffs against the Niners) but even Lance Kendricks has had some struggles. Niners linebacker Ahmad Brooks manhandled Kendricks on an early Daryl Richardson run that went for no gain.
• To be sure, the blame doesn’t fall totally on the line for the Rams’ offensive struggles. None of the Rams' running backs had any success finding ways to get yards after contact on the rare occasions they weren’t swallowed up immediately. Any yards Richardson gained after contact were simply a function of falling forward when tackled.
• As for Bradford, the protection wasn’t good but he also looked as uncomfortable against San Francisco as he has in a long time. In the early part of the game, Bradford stood in the pocket despite pressure and delivered some strikes, but when the pressure piled up, that confidence seemed to vanish.
• The two most glaring missed chances were, of course, the misfire intended for Austin Pettis that Bradford had too much heat on under pressure. A little air under it and it’s a touchdown. Should have been a layup regardless of circumstance. Also, it’s perhaps a bit overlooked but Bradford’s interception to San Francisco safety Donte Whitner was another bad miss. Whitner made a heck of a play on it but there was an open window in which to drop the pass to Brian Quick that would have resulted in a big play or even a touchdown. On the play, Bradford underthrew the pass, it got deflected by Niners corner Tramaine Brock and Whitner intercepted it. You’d like Quick to be more physical to at least get it knocked away but this one was on Bradford. There was space over Quick’s outside shoulder to put that ball and he wasn’t able to do it in that spot. The result was a third-and-1 interception and the Rams got no points out of it.
• Bradford was also lucky that the Niners missed a few opportunities for easy interceptions.

ST. LOUIS -- After taking back-to-back 24-point losses in a span of five days last week, even the most optimistic St. Louis Rams fan would probably say it's foolish to look at any game remaining on the schedule and chalk it up as an easy victory.

Even the Rams players and coaches would be the first to say that they are in no position to look past anyone after laying eggs against Dallas and San Francisco.

This week, the Rams welcome the Jacksonville Jaguars to the Edward Jones Dome as they look to get out of their funk and find a way to get their second victory. From all accounts, Jacksonville has consistently been one of the worst teams in the league this year. The Jaguars were dead last in last week's ESPN.com Power Rankings and a 37-3 loss to the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday surely won't do anything to change that.

On top of that, Jacksonville ranks last in the NFL in a number of important statistical categories. All of those signs would seem to point to a chance for the Rams to get some traction.

Oddsmakers in Las Vegas seem to believe the Rams can get on track this week, installing them as 13-point favorites against Jacksonville. That's a bit surprising given the Rams are having more than their share of struggles right now as well. Neither team has covered a spread this season.

Yes, Jacksonville has been on the receiving end of double digit losses in each of its four games this year and has an average loss of 24.5 points. The Rams aren't far behind in the past two weeks with those aforementioned back to back 24-point losses.

At this point, either team would be more than happy to walk out of this week's game with a victory, regardless of the margin.

ST. LOUIS -- The Washington Redskins finally got a little bit of traction Sunday, bouncing back from a 14-0 deficit to overcome the Oakland Raiders and pick up their first win of the season.

For a little while, it appeared Oakland might pull off the win and the Redskins would fall to 0-4. For Rams fans watching the game, the outcome was surely disappointing but it's not like Washington put on some dominant performance to put its fans at ease, either.

As we do once every week, we'll take a quick look at how the Redskins are faring in the big picture and how it could set up well for the Rams, who own Washington's first-round pick in 2014.

Last week, resident draft guru Todd McShay offered possible draft solutions for the teams that were 0-3, including Washington. He suggested, in this Insider piece , the Redskins need to find some difference makers on defense and a right tackle on offense.

Since that piece came out, the Redskins improved to 1-3, the same record the Rams now hold after another letdown performance against San Francisco.

A quarter of the way through the season, the current trajectory for both teams could leave the Rams with two premium picks in the next draft. Obviously, both teams hope to pull out of current ruts and change that in the next 12 games.

The Rams' current struggles have exposed some glaring weaknesses that could use help heading into the next draft. It's too early to narrow it down to a player or two but if the draft were today, one would think the Rams would focus plenty of attention on the offensive line, running back and the secondary.

For what it's worth, in his latest top 32 , McShay has four offensive linemen, all tackles (Texas A&M's Jake Matthews, Alabama's Cyrus Kouandjio, Tennessee's Antonio Richardson, Michigan's Taylor Lewan) in his top 15. His highest-rated defensive back right now is Alabama safety Ha-Ha Clinton-Dix at No. 18.

Mel Kiper Jr.'s latest big board of the top 25 players has four offensive tackles (Matthews, Lewan, Kouandjio, Florida State's Cameron Erving) in his top 10. Florida cornerback Loucheiz Purifoy is Kiper's highest-rated defensive back at No. 13.

EARTH CITY, MO. -- Well, that didn't take long.

The speculation that the University of Southern California would fire football coach Lane Kiffin has been rampant seemingly since the time he arrived on campus. It heated up at the beginning of this season when his team lost to Washington State and it came to a head in the late hours of Saturday night/early Sunday morning when Kiffin was officially relieved of his duties.

So, now might as good a time as any to try to stop the rumor mill from churning again about the connection between Rams coach Jeff Fisher and his alma mater. For those that might have forgot, here's the news story and post from Sept. 11 in which Fisher made jokes and scoffed at the rumors about his departing to coach the Trojans.

Fisher's quote then: "That's just absurd. They're rumors."

That seemed to throw some water on the fire at the time but now that Kiffin's firing is official, the short-attention span theater that often occurs has seen Fisher's name bandied about yet again. Of course, the Rams' early-season struggles probably aren't helping in that regard.

Still, all of the reasons that it would be silly to assume Fisher might head back to his university remain in place. He's still never been anything but an NFL lifer. Once more, with feeling, I'm sure USC would love to have Fisher. Trojans athletic director Pat Haden may even pick up the phone and make a few phone calls. But nothing has changed to make this seem like anything but a one-way street.

The Trojans will have no shortage of good candidates and another NFL coach, Denver defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio, would seem to be a good fit in terms of finding an experienced coach with ties to the school. Unless something drastic that we don't know about has changed, it won't be Fisher.

I.C.Y.M.I.

A quick roundup of the weekend's Rams stories in this space. ... A look at the Rams' ailing run game and whether solutions can be found in house or at all. ... We opened Sunday with a look at the unusual free kick that happened against the Niners and how it almost turned into a replay of the Music City Miracle. ... Finally, we broke down the injury issues the Rams are dealing with and the domino effect it could have on the back seven of the defense.

Elsewhere:

St. Louis Post-Dispatch beat writer Jim Thomas offered a look at the Rams "other" rookie wideout, Stedman Bailey. Bailey is biding his time right now, working almost exclusively on special teams as he awaits his chance to contribute to the offense.

Yahoo sports provided a look at a few things learned from the Rams' loss to the Niners.

Jonathan Webb at stlouisrams.com writes that the extra time off from Thursday's game against San Francisco comes at a good time.

ST. LOUIS -- Perhaps lost in the shuffle of the fallout of the St. Louis Rams' Thursday night loss to the San Francisco 49ers was a pair of hamstring injuries to veteran cornerback Cortland Finnegan and linebacker Will Witherspoon.

Finnegan and Witherspoon departed the game early with apparent leg issues and coach Jeff Fisher said Friday that both players would be day to day with those ailments. There are a few extra days for both starters to get healthy and return in time for next week's game against Jacksonville, but with safety T.J. McDonald out at least eight weeks because of a broken leg, the Rams already have some shuffling to do on defense.

When Finnegan departed the Niners game, the Rams' top two corners became Janoris Jenkins and Trumaine Johnson. Johnson filled in well for the most part and has enough experience to step in for the struggling Finnegan if need be. The trickle-down effect is perhaps more concerning. Starting safety Rodney McLeod is the team's backup nickel corner and he stepped into that role after Finnegan departed with Matt Giordano stepping into his safety spot.

The secondary was even more jumbled when McDonald left, leaving McLeod and Giordano in the base defense but backups Giordano and Darian Stewart as the safeties in nickel packages with McLeod moving to corner.

If Finnegan can't make it back this week, the Rams will again have to employ a look that starts Johnson and Jenkins at corner and McLeod and Giordano at safety. In the nickel, it would likely again be McLeod moving to corner with Stewart replacing him at safety. The odd man out in this scenario is rookie corner Brandon McGee, who has been limited to strictly a special-teams role.

At linebacker, the loss of Witherspoon against the Niners left rookie Ray-Ray Armstrong to fill in on the occasions when the Rams had three linebackers on the field. It was a small (17 snaps) sample size but Armstrong acquitted himself pretty well in his first defensive action. Still, if Witherspoon is unable to rebound in time to play against the Jaguars, St. Louis would have a pair of rookies on the outside against a team that probably won't hesitate to run the ball repeatedly after watching the Cowboys and Niners do it at will in the past two games.

That leads us to the most interesting question heading into next week: Do the Rams have the inclination (or cap space) to bring back linebacker Jo-Lonn Dunbar? Fisher left that door open after the team released Dunbar and he has now served his four-game suspension, making him eligible to return. Dunbar was pretty solid against the run in 2012 and could bring some much-needed intensity and stability to a defense that could use both.

ST. LOUIS -- It doesn’t mean much now and it might not have done much to change the outcome of Thursday night’s 35-11 loss to the San Francisco 49ers, but the St. Louis Rams very nearly pulled off their own version of the Music City Miracle to close out the first half of that game.

For those who remember the 2000 playoff game between Tennessee and Buffalo, the Titans pulled off a miracle win when tight end Frank Wycheck handled a kickoff and threw a lateral across the field to receiver Kevin Dyson, who took it 75 yards for the game-winning score.

What nearly happened Thursday night would have been far less dramatic but it almost happened again, this time on one of the most unique plays in football.

This time, it was 49ers kicker Phil Dawson lining up a 71-yard free kick with 4 seconds remaining in the first half. My initial reaction to the play was "why not?" as in San Francisco had nothing to lose by giving it a shot. If Dawson missed, it would likely be a harmless play. And even if Rams receiver Austin Pettis caught it deep in the end zone, odds weren’t good he could return it for a touchdown.

In live action, I didn’t account for the fact that Rams coach Jeff Fisher may have an answer for it; the Music City Miracle didn’t pop into my head.

Fisher discussed the play in his Friday news conference and revealed there were more layers to the play than the naked eye could see in live action. The rules of a free kick state that the play starts when the ball is kicked, unlike a normal kickoff when it doesn’t begin until the return team touches the ball.

If the kick doesn’t go through the uprights and lands harmlessly, the ball comes back to the spot where it was kicked. In normal circumstances, if the Rams had let the ball drop with more time on the clock, they could have had a legitimate field goal opportunity for kicker Greg Zuerlein.

Since there were 4 seconds left, the Rams opted for something different.

“That’s why we sent ‘AP’ back there,” Fisher said. “We had a plan. It’s evident on tape that our plan was to buy time and then have a throw back to -- it was originally designed to go back to ‘Cort’ [Finnegan], but when ‘Cort’ went down [safety Matt Giordano] took the spot. We were about a second or a man away from a big play because ‘Gio’ was wide open on the back side and we had a wall. We had an answer to it, but it didn’t work out for us.”

Indeed, a review of the all-22 film shows that if Pettis had just another step or two of free space, he would have had a chance to throw it back to Giordano who was in the clear on the back side with the Niners converging on the sideline near Pettis.

The Niners brought Pettis down before he could get a throw off. A lot still would have had to go right for him to score but a touchdown in that situation would have sent the Rams into the locker room down four and possibly given them some much-needed momentum.

“We saw it coming,” Fisher said. “We prepared against it. We were just fortunate that he missed it.”

A big play there doesn’t help the Rams get the running game going or stop Frank Gore in the second half but if nothing else, it would have allowed some hope to linger and created a highlight on a night when those were few and far between.

EARTH CITY, Mo. -- After two of the ugliest offensive performances any team in the league has put up in the past couple of weeks, St. Louis Rams coach Jeff Fisher wants to make some changes.

“We’re going to have to, as we’ve already started, kind of adjust our offensive philosophy to, I think, what’s probably better suited for us right now,” Fisher said. “And that’s to hand it off, and everything else spins off of that.”

After an offseason of adding speed on the perimeter with the likes of Jared Cook and Tavon Austin with the intent to build an offense around the right arm of quarterback Sam Bradford, a philosophical shift is coming, but not the one anyone expected.

Despite the offense’s success in up-tempo, no-huddle looks, the Rams want to get back to what Fisher has had the majority of his coaching success doing: run the ball.

One pretty big problem with that: The Rams have showed absolutely no ability to do that effectively in 2013. The offensive line hasn’t opened many holes, and there isn’t a running back on the roster who has proved capable of making anyone miss or picking up yards after contact on a consistent basis.

The Rams have just 189 rushing yards this season, which ranks 29th in the league. Mind you, the Rams rank that low despite having played one more game than every team in the league except San Francisco. They’re averaging 2.59 yards per carry, which is second to last in the NFL, and are getting 1.15 yards after contact per rush.

That anemic run game has been even worse in the past two weeks, gaining 1.71 yards per attempt on 31 tries with a long of 11 yards. The Rams also sit 31st in the league in third-down conversions at 25.9 percent in no small part because of an inability to gain yards on the ground to get into more manageable third downs and move the chains on the few occasions they get into third-and-short.

“Frustrating,” Fisher said. “It is. We’ve got work to do. It’s been -- again, 75 carries against any defense for that matter is difficult over that period of time in a short week and we talk about teams that can run it.”

Clearly, the Rams need to get the running game going in some capacity, and I have to believe that when Fisher speaks of running the ball more, he simply means he wants to find ways to be successful as his teams in the past have been rather than some sort of major shift in which the Rams suddenly line up in power I-formations and hammer away with a fullback.

Either way, it’s going to be difficult for the Rams to get the run game going until one of their backs shows the ability to take over the job.

They hoped it would be Daryl Richardson, who won the starting job early in camp. Richardson has been slowed by a foot injury but has struggled rushing anyway. A one-cut-and-go runner in his rookie season, Richardson isn’t particularly adept at making tacklers miss or shaking loose when a defender gets his hands on him.

Isaiah Pead was also supposed to factor, but after he missed the first game because of a substance abuse suspension, he wasn’t even active against San Francisco.

“He’s had a couple moments, yeah, over the last couple of weeks,” Fisher said. “But I didn’t put him down because of that.”

Fisher said the Rams intended to use Austin in the backfield against the 49ers in a role similar to what Pead had played, but those plans were scrapped early.

Rookie Benny Cunningham has had some opportunities but hasn’t had much success either, and fifth-round pick Zac Stacy was active last week but played just one snap.

Clearly, the Rams’ drastic inability to run the ball isn’t solely the product of the backs. They aren’t getting much help from the offensive line. And that doesn’t even touch on the struggles of the backs to help in pass protection.

“We’ll evaluate the running back situation based on the types of things we come up from the run game need,” Fisher said. “We’re going to look at it this week, and we’ll definitely have a plan in place when we come back.”

The Rams don’t appear to have any obvious solutions for the position in house, and it would make a lot of sense to, as Fisher says, look at possible outside options to at least give them some semblance of a run game and some reliability picking up the blitz.

EARTH CITY, Mo. -- For a little change of pace in this weekend edition of the Ram-blings, we're going to start here with some random thoughts on football that might interest you since the Rams have already played their game for the week.

Coach Jeff Fisher allowed his team some time off this weekend, and they won't return to practice until Tuesday. For you, the fans, maybe it's not a bad idea to not think much about the team this weekend, either. So you want to get away from thinking about the past two Rams games but you still want to watch football? Here are a few things to keep an eye on this weekend (or you can, you know, do whatever you want, who am I to tell you what to do?!?).

Saturday means college football and there's a pretty tasty slate of games to watch.

The biggest game of the day takes place, where else, in the SEC. Georgia vs. LSU should be a barn burner, and there figures to be plenty of NFL talent on the field for you draftniks. The Rams haven't shied away from mining the country's best conference in recent years. These two schools alone have provided a first-rounder for St. Louis in each of the past two years.

Ole Miss takes on Alabama in what could be an intriguing game, and Texas A&M plays Arkansas. For those seeking potential options for the Rams' offensive line in next year's draft, the Tide has left tackle Cyrus Kouandjio and the Aggies feature Jake Matthews. Both could be top 10 picks. Plus, there's always Mr. Jonathan F. Football to provide additional entertainment.

Outside of the SEC, a couple of traditional powers in Notre Dame and Oklahoma meet up. Neither is all that exciting, but the Fighting Irish have some interesting prospects, particularly on their defensive line, and seeing two teams with as much history as those two play each other has some appeal.

Wisconsin and Ohio State is the ABC game tomorrow night and could go a long way toward determining which Big Ten school represents the conference in the Rose Bowl (or, in the Buckeyes' case, the BCS title game).

Finally, Oregon hosts Cal in the night game. I don't think you should need a reason to watch the Ducks. No team in the country makes blowouts more entertaining than Oregon.

As for Sunday, this looks like a great day to not have a Rams game. There are some great matchups.

At the top of the list for me is Seattle at Houston. The Seahawks have pretty much rolled the past two weeks after an opening-week scare. There have been red flags, but this will be a great test for them to go on the road against a good Texans team. Both of these teams are coming up soon on the Rams' schedule.

Chicago and Detroit should also be a great battle. The Bears are rolling, and the Lions have also been playing well. For Rams fans who want to check in on the kin of one of their players, Bears guard Kyle Long (brother of Chris) has played well and gets a chance to take on Detroit's Ndamukong Suh.

Philadelphia at Denver could break records for plays from scrimmage. This one should be fun to watch for the same reason the Oregon game is. The Eagles want to push the pace, but will they wilt in the altitude?

Washington visits Oakland. Yeah, it's a game nobody really wants to watch, but the Rams have the Redskins' first-round pick next year. For Rams fans, any team playing Washington should have their rooting interest.

"Breaking Bad." I don't think this needs explanation.

I.C.Y.M.I

Quick roundup of yesterday's Rams' stories here on ESPN.com. ... We started with the usual rookie roundup with snap counts and production for the rookie class against San Francisco. ... From there, it was Upon Further Review with four hot issues coming out of that game. ... Next, we looked at the reports of the Rams' openness to a contract extension for quarterback Sam Bradford. ... Finally, the news that safety T.J. McDonald has a broken leg and is on injured reserve with the designation to return, as well as a look at how the injury alters things in the Rams secondary.

Elsewhere:

The fine folks at Over the Cap took a deeper look at the Rams' salary-cap situation now and moving forward.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnists Bernie Miklasz and Joe Strauss discussed the Rams' disappointing showing against the Niners, and Miklasz offers some thoughts on Bradford's recent struggles.

EARTH CITY, Mo. -- The good news for St. Louis Rams safety T.J. McDonald is that the leg injury he suffered Thursday night against San Francisco isn't season-ending.

The bad news for McDonald is he'll miss out on valuable playing time over the next eight weeks as he goes on injured reserve/designated to return.

From a Rams perspective, losing McDonald hurts not only in the sense that it's likely to slow his development, but it also thins an already light position.

The Rams entered training camp with rookie McDonald and Darian Stewart as the projected starters at safety. The duo changed when Stewart suffered a thigh injury in the second preseason game and Rodney McLeod took over. McLeod has handled the job opposite McDonald since but now the Rams will undergo another shakeup at a shaky position.

After McDonald left Thursday's game, Matt Giordano filled in, but the mix is made even more complicated by a hamstring injury to cornerback Cortland Finnegan. When Finnegan departed the loss to the Niners, the Rams had to put in their alternate looks in sub-packages. That meant McLeod shifted to the nickel corner role with Giordano coming in alongside McDonald.

With McDonald out, it means putting Stewart in alongside Giordano with McLeod in the nickel corner role if Finnegan is unable to play. That's just one permutation of the many moving parts the Rams will have to work out over the next 10 days for personnel groupings beyond the base defense.

Frankly, the safety position has not been a strength of the defense in the first four weeks, and losing one of the more promising prospects on the back end at this point can't be viewed as anything but a blow. That's not to say McDonald has been playing at an elite, Pro Bowl level, but he figures prominently into the team's long term plans, and every rep is valuable at this early stage in his career.

Fisher said Finnegan and linebacker Will Witherspoon have hamstring injuries and are day to day.