Remember when it seemed like the Rams might threaten to go 0-16? Now, St. Louis is officially the second-best team in the NFC West (not a big accomplishment, but still) after blasting the Tony Romo-less Cowboys 34-14. While trading Romo for Brad Johnson isn’t the best trade, it still doesn’t excuse losing by four touchdowns to one of the most inept teams in the league (the Cowboys were favored by 10 1/2 without Romo). Johnson did his best to ensure defeat, though, throwing three interceptions. But the Rams have some talent at the skill positions, and they did their jobs today. Steven Jackson ran for 160 yards and three TDs, while Marc Bulger had a solid, if unspectacular, game under center.

Elsewhere in the early games:

• Buffalo 23, San Diego 14. It was lights out for the Chargers in Buffalo, but Shawne Merriman was nowhere to be seen. The power failed twice during this game, sending those of us on the West Coast to the Pittsburgh-Cincinnati game on several occasions. And that game was so bad, that they decided to just let James Brown just narrate the raw footage the Bills-Chargers so that we weren’t subjected to Bengal football for any longer than necessary. Phillip Rivers turned it over three times, including twice in the fourth quarter, while Trent Edwards went 25-30 for 261 and a TD. LT only ran for 41 yards.

The rest of the games after the jump

• Chicago 48, Minnesota 41. How did a team featuring Kyle Orton score 48 points with only 53 rushing yards? The Vikings f’d up a punt return, had a punt blocked, and had Gus Frerotte throw four picks.  Meanwhile, Orton was picking apart the Viking defense for three TDs.

• Carolina 30, New Orleans 7. The Saints outgained the Panthers, but had bad field position all day and were denied twice on fourth down, including once from the Carolina two-yard-line. Jake Delhomme threw for two touchdowns and Jonathan Stewart ran for another for the Panthers.

• Tennessee 34, Kansas City 10.  The Titans moved to 6-0 by crushing the hopeless Chiefs. LenDale White ran for 149 yards and three TDs and didn’t even lead his team in rushing yardage. That honor goes to Chris Johnson, who racked up 168 yards on 18 carries. The Chiefs had three quarterbacks throw at least 10 passes. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen that before. With no Larry Johnson, Tyler Thigpen led the Chiefs in rushing with 21 yards.

• NY Giants 29, San Francisco 17.  The Giants held Frank Gore to 11 yards on 11 carries, and J.T. O’Sullivan made some late mistakes to help the Giants hold on for the win. Brandon Jacobs had two TD runs for New York.

• Pittsburgh 38, Cincinnati 10. How tough is it to be a Bengals fan? Mewelde Moore just owned you for three TDs, and Byron Leftwich added a final TD pass with 1:54 left (to Hines Ward, what was he still doing out there?).

• Baltimore 27, Miami 13.  Let’s just all pretend this game never happened.