Stumbling Rams Not Looking Like Super Bowl Favorites

It happens every season. The massive cluster of TV talking heads and Las Vegas sports wizards conspire against the football-viewing public by proudly proclaiming which teams will win and which ones will stumble through another wasted season en route to quickly focusing on draft-day hopes.

The Los Angeles Rams were supposed to streak past the rest of the league and ease through a 17–0 regular season and into the Super Bowl. And, we were told they would ride the backs of Myles Garrett and the unretired Aaron Donald to a dominant defense, and the arm of quarterback Matthew Stafford, the league’s reigning MVP, and All-Pro wide receiver Puka Nacua to a high-octane offense along the way.

But because injuries aren’t something the talking heads and Vegas oddsmakers can predict, the result has the Super Bowl-favorite Rams sitting at 1–2 after three games. Garrett played in the season opener but didn’t have much impact, coming away with zero tackles or anything else. He subsequently went to the IR with a bad knee that needed arthroscopic surgery and his return is uncertain.

Nacua has been battling nagging week-to-week issues, but the team and coach Sean McVay said before the Denver matchup that the wideout should be back for Week 3.

Jaylen Watson, a cornerback signed by Los Angeles as a free agent in the offseason, left Sunday night’s game with an injury and second-year tight end Terrance Ferguson was gimpy in the first half and didn’t return against the Broncos.

Those are just some of the injuries for the Rams, but Sunday turned into a 30–26 loss to Denver and a sign that this season isn’t going to be as easy as some experts predicted.

In fact, the current list of surprise teams with a better record than the odds-on Super Bowl favorite includes both the undefeated Minnesota Vikings and Las Vegas Raiders, neither of whom was as certain as the Rams about their starting quarterbacks during much of training camp, the lowly Cleveland Browns (2–1) and their QB circus, the New York Giants (2–1)—whom the Rams beat for their lone victory, in part because Los Angeles knocked New York starter Jaxon Dart out of the game in the early moments—and the Cincinnati Bengals, a typically slow-starting club in recent years.

The talk about the new Rams’ defensive line having the potential to be the best in history is on long-term hold. Donald is back to the field, but not back to performance after two years out and not enough on-field work in pads so far.

Los Angeles opened the season by putting on a lethargic performance against the San Francisco 49ers in Australia that most have pinned on travel plans. But the loss in Denver saw the Rams blow a 16–0 lead—blowing a few of trips deep inside the Broncos territory but coming away with field goals.

They suffered a number of other in-game injuries, but the team continued to pass with success without Ferguson, who was going to be counted on to help fill the hole in the passing game with Nacua missing.

When asked what the players can do collectively about the loss, Los Angeles star wide receiver Davante Adams said, “Stay at it. I mean, it’s nothing to freak out about, man. It’s a lot of football left and it’s not like we’re not playing good ball—obviously, excluding that first game.

“Based on our situation, unfortunately, this league is about wins and losses. So, it’s a lot that we can take from a game like this and feel good about, but there’s no moral victory. So, we’re definitely disappointed to not finish it out, but just got to get back to what we do, and that’s going back to practice, get back to the drawing board, and just find a way to finish off some of these games,” Adams said during his postgame media availability.

Los Angeles defensive back Quentin Lake said it’s nothing; the Rams didn’t expect to ease through the grueling regular season and are ready for the challenge.

“You know, we’re a team that fights back. We’re a team that can overcome adversity,” he told the media. “We’re a team that, you know, it’s never over till it’s over.

“We understand that we’re going to get everybody’s best. I said that earlier in the season. I said that before the season—everybody’s circling us on their calendar. So, our games are going to be hard-fought, and this was one of them.

“Unfortunately, it didn’t go the way we wanted it to, but we’re going to look at the film, do what we need to do to fix the corrections, look at the positive things that we did and then move on.”