THE LATEST LINE: RAMS LOOK STRONG FOR THE PLAYOFFS

All season long, I've been waiting for the Rams to finally wake up and become the same old Rams that we Missourians have gotten used to over the last few years.

No way, I kept telling myself, could the Rams really be this good. Any Sunday now, one of the patsies they've been slapping around will wake up and belt St. Louis but good.

Well, it never really happened, save for a meaningless loss to the Eagles last Sunday, a contest in which the Rams were more worried about not getting any key players hurt than they were about the final score.

The Rams lost just three games all season, all on the road, with the first two the ones that really counted extremely close and against teams that made the playoffs (Tennessee and Detroit). Both times, St. Louis could have very easily won.

The Rams' 13 victories have all been relatively routine and lopsided, particularly the eight home games that have seen St. Louis win by an average of 24 points.

So now, this observer who has been skeptical virtually the entire season has come to one conclusion.

I don't think the Rams will be stopped, at least not until the Super Bowl.

And I'm not alone in my thinking. Many television commentators across the country are definitely on the Rams' bandwagon these days and even the oddsmakers have made St. Louis the favorite to advance to the Super Bowl.

If the Rams had to go on the road for a postseason game, I might question their chances. But never having to leave the comfort and extremely fast surface of the TWA Dome during the NFC playoffs gives St. Louis a big-time advantage.

Unless that dazzling array of offensive talent led by MVP Kurt Warner, Marshall Faulk, Isaac Bruce and many others is just totally off its game, or unless that extremely speedy defense all of a sudden becomes a sieve, who can you see beating the Rams in St. Louis?

* What a game at the Show Me Center and what a win for the SEMO men's basketball team, which slipped past Austin Peay 62-60.

The Indians will now be able to carry plenty of momentum into their three road games this week.

* Perryville High graduate Bruce Weinkein, a 6-foot-11 junior center for the University of Akron basketball team, was named the Mid-American Conference Defensive Player of the Week this past week.

Weinkein tied a school record with six blocked shots during a win over Western Michigan.

For the season, Weinkein is averaging six points and four rebounds per game as a part-time starter. He is shooting 65 percent from the field and ranks fourth on the Zips' all-time blocks list with 69.

Akron is off to a 10-3 start, including a 4-0 Mid-American Conference mark.

* Craig Morgan, whose parents are from Cape Girardeau and whose grandparents all still live here, made the West Virginia all-state first team for football in the state's largest classification.

A 6-foot-3, 270-pound senior offensive lineman at Huntington High School, Morgan is the son of Dr. Craig and Pam Morgan. Dr. Craig Morgan starred in football at Cape Central High and also played at SEMO.

~Marty Mishow is a sports writer for the Southeast Missourian