There are a ton of interesting sporting events this weekend to look forward to. The most important of them locally being the Rams-Buccaneers game on Sunday. The best part of the NFL is that every game is so important but this week is even more so for the Rams. If they lose this one they will be facing 0-3 and that means disaster.

I am really concerned about Marc Bulger's health in this game. I know if I were Tampa and I saw what the Rams offensive line looked like I would be blitzing him on every down and trying to knock him out of the game. My prediction Tampa Bay 20 Rams 7.

The other event to keep an eye on for me is the Missouri-Illinois State football game on Satruday. This game will not be as easy as many Mizzou fans would like to believe. Illinois State is a consistently good I-AA team and will not back down to Mizzou. The thing I would like to see from the Tigers is improved defense this week. They will have more talent than ISU but they need to really assert themselves this weekend. The Tigers should be 4-0 heading into the Nebraska game in a couple of weeks but if they don't improve defensively you are probably looking at no better than a mid-level bowl game which is not the improvement most people would like to see.

One final thing is the Cardinals are finishing their home schedule this weekend against the Astros. It is hard to believe that just one year ago the Cardinals were World Champs. It sure seems like that happened a long, long time ago. A lot has certainly happened since then.

Tim Klutsarits

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