After being outscored 79-16 and outgained 963-367 in losses to the Eagles and Giants, it's fair to wonder when this team will win a game with Seattle, Buffalo, Washington, Dallas and New England in the next six weeks.

"The bottom line is that we can't expect to win games playing the way we are playing," coach Scott Linehan said after Sunday's 41-13 loss to the Giants." Last week was different than this week. I think you guys would agree that for three and a half quarters we were right there. There is no question in my mind that we didn't finish and they did. You can't win games in the National Football League playing three quarters here and two quarters there."

Still, the Rams were fortunate the score was only 20-6 after three quarters. The Rams had totaled an astonishing 101 yards (58 at halftime), while the Giants had 333. The Rams opened the game missing on their first four third-down plays to make it 15 straight to start the season, and they broke that streak only because running back Steven Jackson gained 22 yards on a checkdown by quarterback Marc Bulger on 3rd-and-17. A missed tackle by the Giants enabled Jackson to get the first down. For the season, they are now a woeful 3-for-24. Sunday, they had eight third downs with at least 10 yards to go (10, 12, 16 (twice), 17 (twice), 19 and 28. Their 14 third-down plays (one resulted in a first down by penalty) averaged 11.6 yards to go.

Big plays are also a rarity for the Rams, and once again there have been too many by the opposition. In two games, the Rams have allowed 655 passing yards and the passer rating against them is 129.2. A week after allowing four pass plays to total 220 yards, the defense once again was victimized by big plays. There were four plays of 30 yards or more for a total of 126 yards, while 308 of the Giants' 441 yards came on 16 of their 62 plays.

Yet, after wide receiver Torry Holt wrestled the ball away from Giants safety Kenny Phillips in the end zone, the score was 20-13 with 10:46 remaining in the game. On the kickoff, linebacker Chris Draft leveled returner Ahmad Bradshaw at the 18-yard line. Suddenly, the Edward Jones Dome was alive, but the defense caved in again.

The Giants marched 82 yards in seven snaps, making the score, 27-13.

"That defined the game," Draft said.

In the second half, prior to three final kneel-downs, the Giants totaled 249 yards on just 24 plays and scored touchdowns on three of four possessions. The only time they were stopped came when a holding call on guard Rich Seubert helped stop a drive.

When Linehan was asked what happened to his team after the Holt touchdown, he stated the obvious by saying, "They drove down and scored. You guys were at the same game I was at. That is how you lose. That is not how you win. That's what happened. We let them score."

Said cornerback Ron Bartell, "Somehow, some way, we have to fix what's going wrong."