After doing a whole lot of nothing for the first half of their Week 9 game against the Seattle Seahawks, the Los Angeles Rams caught fire in a major way, scoring 23 points over the first two quarters plus overtime against their division rivals on the way to their first non-losing record since before opening kickoff of Week 1.
Matthew Stafford looked good, as did Chris Shula’s defense, and in a game where Puka Nacua was ejected for questionable means – at least in the eyes of Rams fans – and when his team needed him most, Demarcus Robinson came through late with a walk-off touchdown, just like Sean McVay drew it up.
Was this just fool’s gold, a flukey win by a team that has been up and down all season? Or are the Rams legit, with a real chance to finish out the season with the top spot in the NFC West? Well, in this writer’s opinion, the Rams are absolutely legit, and unless something really bad happens, they should finish out the year with an NFC West pennant on their wall for the first time since 2021.
Their roster is coming back into focus
Over the first two weeks of the 2024 NFL season, the Rams roster was decimated, sending more than a dozen players to IR and/or the injury report and forcing McVay to field unique combinations seemingly on a weekly basis.
Before the bye, the Rams had ten different offensive linemen play snaps, six different wide receivers who had at least 15 targets, and an offense that just didn’t seem to work, both in the rushing and the passing game. Stafford seemingly had to take on the biggest role of his run with the Rams so far, and even the running game didn’t work in pursuit or practice, with Kyren Williams failing to go for 100 yards until Week 5.
Fortunately, the Rams’ roster is slowly but surely coming back into focus in 2024, with Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp returning from injury and Steve Avila, Jonah Jackson, and Joseph Noteboom following close behind. Factor in the emergence of undrafted players like Jaylen McCollough and Omar Speights to go with big-named rookies like Braden Fiske and Jared Verse, and it’s clear the Rams’ Week 10 roster looks a whole lot better than their roster in Week 3, and as a result, their ceiling has to be considered higher.
The Rams are getting hot at the right time
After losing four of their first five games of the 2024 NFL season heading into the bye, the Rams have been one of the hottest teams in the NFL, winning three straight since Week 6, including a big-time overtime W over the Seahawks.
First, they took care of business against the Las Vegas Raiders, which wasn’t particularly hard, considering the Raiders aren’t very good, but it was nice all the same. Then, the Vikings welcomed the Minnesota Vikings to town for Thursday Night Football and secured a strong win, scoring 30 on a very good Vikings defense while only surrendering 20 points to Sam Darnold and company.
And then in Week 9? Well, the Rams put things together late, got some huge defensive stops, and then punched their ticket to a 4-4 record with a walk-off 39-yard touchdown to Robinson for the win.
Now sitting pretty with a 4-4 record and the Miami Dolphins and New England Patriots up next on the schedule, the Rams have the potential to be 6-4 when the Eagles come to town in Week 12, which, at worst, could be tied for first place with the Cardinals if they beat the Jets before their bye.
Heading into the season, most fans expected the 49ers to be the best team in the NFC West, but considering they have been dealing with some pretty brutal struggles of their own, from Christian McCaffrey’s absence to injuries to George Kittle, Deebo Samuel, and Brandon Aiyuk, who knows, this might just be the year the Rams finish out the NFC West race on top.
Do you remember what happened the last time the Rams won the NFC West? Oh yeah, they won the Super Bowl.
Trading Tre’Davious White for nothing was good Karma
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And last but not least, the Rams should be favorites to win the NFC West because they traded Tre’Davious White to the Baltimore Ravens for basically nothing in order to allow him to play meaningful snaps instead of being stuck on the bench.
… what? How could trading White to the Ravens help anyone but Baltimore in the short term? Well, because they really didn’t have to. The Rams could have kept White on the bench just in case Darious Williams and/or Colbie Durant suffered a major injury, all the while allowing a player like Akillo Witherspoon to serve as a deep-bench reserve who is willing to play on special teams weekly.
Discussing his decision to make the move, GM Les Snead revealed why he decided to make the move, noting that he knows as well as anyone that the Rams could suffer two injuries next week and suddenly be out of action. Still, Snead pulled the trigger anyway, as he liked the idea of both parties ending their relationship amicably.
“I don’t think we’ve really sat down and said, ‘Would you have done anything different?’ I think as it evolved and ‘Tre’ was inactive, a lot of it had to do with… we had players get healthy, and then you get into special teams or not. I think really what it came down to is ‘Tre’ is such a great human and a great professional. He wanted to play football, and we just traded him [to give him that opportunity],” Snead told reporters.
“All of you on this call know that next week, we could have two corners go down and maybe who we elevate doesn’t provide what ‘Tre’ does, but I do think from the human side of this business, we wanted to try to come up with a win-win for us and for ‘Tre’ as it sits right now. Obviously, we could have kept him in case of an emergency, in terms of an insurance policy but I do think because of our relationship with him, we wanted to try to come up with a win-win. In this case, Baltimore needs a veteran to come in, help them, and get on the grass.”
While teams don’t win kindness points in the NFL, that doesn’t mean football karma isn’t a real thing. If White, Williams, Durant, and company can all stay healthy, it will lead to good results for all parties involved.