Raiders bring their own 'Greatest Show' to Dome

ST. LOUIS -- First in total offense, check. First in first downs per game, check. First in points scored, check.

Yes, after a long absence, the "Greatest Show on Earth" will be back at the Edward Jones Dome today. And along with the Oakland Raiders, the only undefeated team in the NFL, the Rams will be there, too.

"I don't know if you can call them the 'Greatest Show on Earth' just yet. That still has to be proven," cautioned Rams linebacker Don Davis. "But they are playing good football right now, and that's the facts."

Facts enough to lay claim to the nickname earned by the Rams in the past three years as they scored more than 500 points each season, won a Super Bowl and appeared in a second?

It's still early in the season, but consider:

The Raiders have scored 162 points to open 4-0, which puts Oakland on pace to score 648 points this year and obliterate the Rams' high of 540 points set in 2000.

Through four games, Rich Gannon leads the NFL with a passer rating of 104. Only once has Kurt Warner finished a regular season with a higher rating, 109.2 in 1999, when he guided the Rams to a Super Bowl victory.

* Although questionable for Sunday's game, Raiders running back Charlie Garner is averaging a league-best 8.4 yards per carry. Marshall Faulk has never finished a season averaging more than 5.5 yards.

All impressive. All meaningless, according to Gannon.

"Of the four teams we've defeated, there's a possibility that none of them make the playoffs," Gannon said. "So, where does that put us as a football team? How good of a team are we? I think that's to be determined."

After an ugly 37-13 loss at San Francisco last weekend, it might be pointless to try and determine if the Rams are as bad as their 0-5 record would indicate. But for the record, no team has come back from an 0-5 start to reach the postseason.

"We're upset at ourselves and how we have played," defensive tackle Tyoka Jackson said. "We know we're not playing up to our potential. But we know when we play well, we have a great chance of winning."

That's made the Rams a team hardly content to play spoiler. Talk of making a run and becoming the first 0-5 team that ends up in the playoffs isn't unheard of in the locker room.

"No one is really down in terms of this whole thing, seasonwise," Jackson said. "We're just a little upset with how things have gone in the last five games and know that we need to turn it around right now."

If what the Rams need is a break -- and after losing Warner the team probably deserves one -- they might get it against Oakland. Garner hurt a hamstring scoring on a 69-yard touchdown reception in Oakland's win 49-31 win over Buffalo, a game in which seven players were hurt. The Raiders listed nine players on Wednesday's injury report, including Garner as questionable.

St. Louis, meanwhile, expects to get back both linebacker Tommy Polley and cornerback Dexter McCleon, and cornerback Aeneas Williams returned to practice during the week with a new orthopedic shoe aimed at comforting his turf toe injury.

The Rams will also be back on artificial turf, a surface Gannon said almost turns St. Louis into a different team. Oakland coach Bill Callahan expects nothing less than a shootout with the Rams back on "the rug."

"I have considerable respect for coach (Mike) Martz and the Rams and what they have done," Callahan said. "In the recent history of the league, its undeniable. I expect it to be a fully wide-open game."

After scoring 101 points in their last two games, the Raiders can be expected to make good on Callahan's prediction. Though the Rams haven't scored 101 points all season (they've managed 74), Gannon see no reason St. Louis can't match the Raiders with a sudden return to their days as the NFL's original "Greatest Show on Earth."

"I would hope that we're mature enough as a team going in to know that this is the Rams," Gannon said. "This isn't some run-of-the-mill club. This is the Rams, they're champions, and they play like it."