Rams to put not-so-super season out of its misery

St. Louis ends season on national television against 49ers.

By R.B. Fallstrom ~ The Associated Press

ST. LOUIS -- It's the end of the line for the defending NFC champions, a month earlier than they had expected.

The St. Louis Rams have a chance to go out on a positive note in tonight's regular-season finale against playoff-bound San Francisco 49ers. No matter what happens, they'll have a bitterly disappointing sub-.500 record to think about all offseason, coming on the heels of 14-2 dominance in 2001.

"It's rough, but you have to realize that we are professionals," wide receiver Isaac Bruce said. "We get paid to play 16 games and this is our 16th game."

The result is a meaningless windup to the regular season instead of a showdown.

The 49ers (10-5) have what the Rams (6-9) owned for three dominant years -- the NFC West title. They will open the playoffs at home next week.

"We certainly anticipated this game maybe coming down to the division championship, and I think that's what ABC felt," San Francisco coach Steve Mariucci said. "But injuries can change everything."

The Rams lost their first five games before the Rams woke up and won five in a row, but then injuries to Kurt Warner, Marshall Faulk, Aeneas Williams and Orlando Pace finished them off.

Warner is on injured reserve with his second broken hand of the season, Faulk is crawling toward 1,000 yards on a sprained ankle that's bothered him for almost two months, Williams is on IR with ankle and leg injuries and Pace has missed almost half the season with calf and hamstring woes, although he'll play in the finale.

"The team that's going to win the Super Bowl this year is the healthiest team," wide receiver Troy Edwards said. "If you don't have healthy players you just can't compete, and we had a lot of injuries -- the most injuries I've seen all my life.

"But life is all about adversity and you've got to deal with it."

Mariucci has sympathy for the Rams' plight as his team prepares for the playoffs. Wide receiver Terrell Owens will miss his second straight week with groin and foot injuries that have bothered him the past month, but that's about the extent of the 49ers' injuries.

"Every team is just a handful of injuries away from being a completely different team," Mariucci said. "Nobody really has enough depth right now because the talent is spread so relatively evenly.

"The injury bug can hit you fast and they've gone through that."

This is still a rivalry.

The 49ers won 17 in a row from 1990-98, then the Rams won six straight before San Francisco won 37-13 earlier this season.

"When I got here, they whipped up on us and had whipped up on us for a long time," said tight end Ernie Conwell, who's in his sixth season with the Rams. "We need to start a new winning streak against these guys, and no better time than Monday night."

Rams coach Mike Martz is serious enough about this game that he's not about to shut Faulk and Pace down for the season. He wanted to start experienced backup quarterback Jamie Martin, too, ahead of unknown Scott Covington, even if Martin has had zero success running what used to be the NFL's No. 1 offense.

But Martin hasn't practiced all week due to a bruised left knee and Covington, released by the Bengals after the preseason and a member of the Rams only since October, will get his first career start.

Backup Tim Rattay likely will get a lot of playing time for the 49ers, although Jeff Garcia will start.

The 49ers are 5-0 against the NFC West, and have a chance to sweep the division for the fifth time since 1970 when the AFL-NFL merger was completed. The Rams were the last team to go unbeaten in the West, finishing 8-0 in 1999.

"Even though to some people it's a meaningless game, it's still a Monday night game that's a division game," 49ers defensive tackle Dana Stubblefield said. "Right now we're undefeated in our division, and we would like to stay that way."