Meanwhile, late night with the pointless Rams drew a solid rating in St. Louis that was impressive for a jilted city. Despite the late hour — the contest ended after midnight in the Midwest — Nielsen reports that 8 percent of homes in the St. Louis market tuned in to ESPN’s telecast. That tied for 13th nationally and was only slightly below the 8.8 rating Fox Sports Midwest had for its Cardinals-Cubs baseball telecast that ended about the time the Rams’ game began.

And it was well above the 6.9 rating that St. Louis averaged for the second game of the doubleheader the 10 previous times there has been a twinbill to kick off the Monday night schedule.

And despite being in the late slot, the Rams game did much better locally than the Pittsburgh-Washington contest that opened the doubleheader. That telecast drew just a 5.8 rating in St. Louis, tying with Oklahoma City for last nationally among the 56 markets in which viewership is measured electronically.

There certainly were jilted St. Louisans watching Monday night who were rooting against the team, finding glee in the Rams’ ineptitude on offense and perhaps watching until the end in hopes of seeing the team be shut out.