Kurt Warner and the St. Louis Rams passed a huge test.

	Isaac Bruce and the Rams blew away the Saints after a slow start Sunday.

Warner had a horrible first half Sunday, bounced up and played in the second half like nothing had happened. The result was another blowout, putting the Rams on the brink of clinching their first playoff berth since 1989, their first in St. Louis and the first by any St. Louis football franchise since 1982.

Some positive stats:

The Rams have scored 366 points and allowed 147, an average margin of 33-13. At home, where they're likely to spend the playoffs, it's 216-62, or 36-10.

Some negative stats:

None of the teams they've beaten currently have winning records, although San Francisco was 3-1 the first time it played the Rams. The 49ers haven't won since.

Their only losses were to two winning teams on the road -- at Tennessee and Detroit.

But both those games proved the Rams' mettle,

They fell behind 21-0 in Nashville, then outplayed the Titans the final three quarters. Only a missed field goal kept the Rams from sending the game to overtime. In Detroit, it took a frantic last-minute drive by the Lions to beat St. Louis.

Warner proved his mettle Sunday.

He was 5-for-15 for 60 yards in the first half, looking more like the Iowa Barnstormer he used to be than the quarterback leading the NFL in passing. The Rams led the awful Saints just 15-12 and were outgained 202-78.

So Warner went out and went 5-for-5 for 75 yards on the first drive of the second half, and the Rams ended up blowing the game open. Warner had a mediocre ratting of 68.8 before intermission -- 146.5 after it.

"I kind of told myself at halftime I didn't want to go through a whole game playing that way," Warner said. "It's not the way I play football, so I took what the defense gave me and tried to go out and play the way I know how."

But the Rams are more than Warner, and they have young stars emerging every week.

On Sunday, it was Torry Holt, the sixth overall pick in last April's draft and a player with the potential to be an impact player for a decade. He had five catches for 87 yards and two touchdowns.

"I think it was a breakout game," Holt said. "A couple of my teammates have been saying I need one."

It has been a breakout season for a lot of the Rams' young stars, who like Holt were high draft picks but quickly found the obscurity that comes to players on a team that until this season was 22-42 since moving from Los Angeles to St. Louis in 1965.

One of those players is Kevin Carter, who leads the NFL in sacks with 11½. Grant Wistrom, the sixth overall pick in 1998, is at the other end.

The tackles are journeyman Ray Agnew and veteran D'Marco Farr, one of the league's best inside pass rushers.

Another big-time player: offensive tackle Orlando Pace (remember him?), the first overall pick in 1997.

Add in the likes of middle linebacker London Fletcher, an undrafted free agent who's a 5-foot-10, 250-pound version of Zach Thomas or Sam Mills; free agents like linebacker Mike Jones and guard Adam Timmerman, and you have a team that will be home for the playoffs.

In the NFC, you might even say on track for the Super Bowl.

Particularly if Warner holds up.

The way he bounced back on Sunday indicates he will.