Wounded Rams roar back to life, while beaten Titans clash.(Chicago Tribune)

CHICAGO _ If the St. Louis Rams repeat their Super Bowl victory, they will point to Week 11 as pivotal. It was the week they were supposed to fade while last year's runners-up, the Tennessee Titans, were supposed to stamp themselves as the new team to beat.

Instead, the Rams re-established themselves as the true defending champions, overcoming the absence of both Marshall Faulk and Kurt Warner to beat a good New York Giants team on the road.

The Titans, meanwhile, not only lost for the first time at Adelphia Coliseum, they were physically beaten up by the Baltimore Ravens, something that shouldn't happen in anyone's back yard.

The Rams now return home with renewed confidence for three games in four weeks against playoff-caliber teams Washington, New Orleans and Minnesota. Last week the Rams lost to Carolina in St. Louis when Faulk joined Warner on the sidelines with an injury. Faulk expects to be back sooner than Warner. Both could be back at full strength by the December stretch run.

Said Warner after the 38-24 win over the Giants: "This is more the team we saw last year_a great football team."

In Tennessee, the Titans barely tried to run sore-toed Eddie George against the Ravens' No. …