CINCINNATI (AP) -- Ten years. A hundred losses.

It's disheartening. It's downright depressing. It's a mark that neither the St. Louis Rams nor the Cincinnati Bengals wants to be the first to reach.

One of them will reluctantly get there Sunday, taking the lead in the stumble toward the title of NFL's most forlorn franchise of the 1990s. Both bring 99 losses into their head-to-head tiebreaker.

"Obviously we don't want to be that team," said cornerback Todd Lyght, who has been with the Rams for nine years and 88 of their 99 losses. "But I don't think Cincinnati wants to be that team, either.

"It's reality. I've lived through it and it's a tough situation. But you can't worry about the past."

All they can look to is the future, and that seems to be much brighter for St. Louis.

By winning their first two games, the Rams have improved their 1990s record to 47-99 and put themselves in position to let the winless Bengals (48-99) overtake them.

It's only the third time in the 1990s the Rams have started 2-0. A 35-7 victory Sunday over the Atlanta Falcons gave the Rams reason to think things are finally turning around at the end of a dreary decade.

"I believe we're close to it, but we've only played two games, so it's hard to prove it," coach Dick Vermeil said. "I think we have a pretty good football team here and we need 14 more games to prove it."

Vermeil agreed to return to coaching two years ago as long as he was in charge. He has overhauled the roster and tried to change a losing franchise's outlook in a short time.

"I now feel it's my football team," Vermeil said. "Most of the people that experienced year after year after year of losing are gone. They (current players) are not responsible for all the losing seasons and they don't want to be held responsible."

It looked like more Rams bad karma when quarterback Trent Green suffered a season-ending knee injury in preseason. Instead, their luck seems to have turned.

Kurt Warner, who played in the Arena Football League and NFL Europe, has led the Rams to wins over Baltimore and Atlanta. Warner joined Dan Marino as the only players in the last 50 years to throw three touchdown passes in each of their first two starts.

"I think we had a lot of talent over the past couple of years," Warner said. "The biggest difference this year is when there is a play there to be made, we're making it. We're taking advantage of those little things that the other team gives us."

While the Rams nurture their newfound optimism, the Bengals (0-3) are caught up in yet another season of misery.

They lost four preseason games, leaving them 0-for-7 for 1999. They've been blown out by San Diego and Carolina in the last two games. Quarterback Jeff Blake has sprained his passing shoulder.

There's more. Coach Bruce Coslet and general manager Mike Brown have become increasingly at odds as the front office releases one veteran after another. Coslet must try to save his job with the least-experienced roster in the league.

The players are down and the losses are mounting fast.

"There's a lot of negative stuff going on around here right now. It's not good," said running back Ki-Jana Carter, who's out for the season with a dislocated kneecap.

The title of most forlorn franchise seems to fit the Bengals. They haven't had a winning record since 1990, the last year that Paul Brown ran the show.

"Every time we have a chance for something to go good, something bad happens for us," cornerback Artrell Hawkins said. "We're kind of lost. Something's got to go right sooner or later, because it can't stay like this forever."

Forever? No. For a decade? No question.

ST. LOUIS Season schedule and results

CINCINNATI Season schedule and results

September 12 Baltimore W 27-10 September 26 Atlanta W 35-7 October 3 @Cincinnati 1:00pm ET October 10 San Francisco 1:00pm ET October 17 @Atlanta 1:00pm ET October 24 Cleveland 1:00pm ET October 31 @Tennessee 1:00pm ET November 7 @Detroit 1:00pm ET November 14 Carolina 1:00pm ET November 21 @San Francisco 4:15pm ET November 28 New Orleans 1:00pm ET December 5 @Carolina 1:00pm ET December 12 @New Orleans 1:00pm ET December 19 NY Giants 1:00pm ET December 26 Chicago 1:00pm ET January 2 @Philadelphia 1:00pm ET

September 12 @Tennessee L 35-36 September 19 San Diego L 7-34 September 26 @Carolina L 3-27 October 3 St. Louis 1:00pm ET October 10 @Cleveland 1:00pm ET October 17 Pittsburgh 1:00pm ET October 24 @Indianapolis 1:00pm ET October 31 Jacksonville 1:00pm ET November 7 @Seattle 4:15pm ET November 14 Tennessee 1:00pm ET November 21 Baltimore 4:05pm ET November 28 @Pittsburgh 1:00pm ET December 5 San Francisco 1:00pm ET December 12 Cleveland 1:00pm ET December 26 @Baltimore 1:00pm ET January 2 @Jacksonville 1:00pm ET

Records source: STATS, Inc.

Copyright 1999 STATS, Inc. Commercial distribution without the express written consent of STATS is prohibited.