theathleticuk
For the second consecutive week, the Los Angeles Rams found themselves on the wrong end of a nail-biter, this time falling 18-16 to the Arizona Cardinals at SoFi Stadium. A controversial 15-yard roughing penalty on Josh Wallace set up Chad Ryland's game-winning 43-yard field goal, spoiling a late comeback led by Matthew Stafford. The defeat marked another helter-skelter offensive performance and another painful loss, leaving the Rams searching for answers.
Head coach Sean McVay didn't mince words after the game. 'We won't win a game until we figure out how to not beat ourselves,' he said, pointing to a litany of unforced errors and misalignments, particularly on offense. 'So many different guys are taking their turn. I continue to talk about it. We continue to harp on it. We've got to be able to figure it out. I don't have those answers or else it would have gotten fixed.'
The sense of urgency is palpable. Externally, speculation swirls around potential trades for stars like Myles Garrett and Trent McDuffie, while the returns of Stafford and Aaron Donald have fueled Super Bowl expectations. Internally, the Rams are desperate to reach the Super Bowl at SoFi Stadium, and each week they fall short of their own standard makes it harder to prove that standard exists. The inspiration lies in how fixable some issues are—penalties, play calling, ball security, execution on money downs—but the agony is in their consistency. 'That's what our narrative has been for this year, and we can't keep saying that we haven't done that before,' McVay admitted. 'This year, we are doing it.'
Key Analysis
The Rams have been here before, having rebounded from 1-4 in 2024 and 3-6 in 2023 to reach the playoffs. But this season was supposed to be different. On one hand, they could easily be 4-2; the NFL reportedly admitted an error on a pass interference call against Wallace in Week 3 that could have sealed a win over the Denver Broncos. Another questionable call against Wallace on Sunday—a unnecessary roughness penalty after a 21-yard catch by Jalen Brooks—proved costly. 'I let him go to the ground,' Wallace said. 'As we always say, I've got to learn from it, but it's kind of tough when I don't make any head contact.' On the other hand, a team of the Rams' caliber shouldn't have four straight games come down to a single play.
Inherent flaws persist, from linebacker play that allows large rushing totals to nightmarish special teams. The latter now needs a third kicker this season after Blake Grupe seriously injured his knee while making a tackle on yet another explosive return. If last year was the baseline that Garrett, Donald, McDuffie, and Jaylen Watson arrived to supercharge, then the Rams need to play to their floor. Similar flaws didn't stop them from starting 4-2 last year, finishing 12-5, and going toe-to-toe with the Seattle Seahawks in the NFC Championship Game. But unlike last year, this isn't the No. 1 scoring offense in the NFL—or anything close.
Sunday was the harshest reality yet. The Rams turned it up on the final drive, covering 91 yards on eight plays for a touchdown with 47 seconds left. But they managed only 16 points at home against a Cardinals scoring defense that ranked last, allowing 32.4 points per game. The Rams averaged 30 points last season and returned everyone who mattered. Now, they're averaging 22.5. Regression was always possible, if not likely. Units that finish No. 1 rarely do so the next season. A first-time MVP season from Stafford was unlikely to be repeated at age 38. The Rams knew this, which is why they flipped the league's least-expensive defense into a unit featuring two Defensive Players of the Year in Garrett and Donald and the highest-paid cornerback in history in McDuffie. They needed a team that Stafford, Puka Nacua, and a 33-year-old Davante Adams would not have to carry.
These Rams mostly have that defense. They entered Sunday ranked in the top six in yards allowed and DVOA before surrendering 18 points and zero touchdowns to the Cardinals. They have a strong foundation that Garrett and McDuffie can elevate when they're back. They expected better on special teams, but many of the same problems that existed under Chase Blackburn remain under Bubba Ventrone, from the kicking game to shaky returns to explosive returns allowed. But to overcome them like they did on the way to 14 wins last season, the Rams need an offensive identity that isn't riddled with mistakes.
They need a franchise left tackle who lives like one, but Alaric Jackson was suspended for this game after punching Bradley Chubb on Monday Night Football—the latest in a string of issues for Jackson that include a two-game suspension in 2024, a sexual harassment lawsuit in 2025, and an arrest on suspicion of felony domestic violence this spring. (Charges were not formally filed.) The Rams felt his absence Sunday with 36-year-old David Quessenberry at left tackle, as downfield routes failed to develop before Arizona's blitzes reached Stafford, who took seven hits and fumbled twice. 'We understand that as athletes and as players that there's not a place for that in our league,' Stafford said of Jackson's actions last week.
They need balance like last year, when Stafford led the league with 4,707 passing yards and the Rams also saw nearly 2,000 combined yards from Kyren Williams and Blake Corum. Sunday was the Rams' first game in a month in which Stafford attempted fewer than 50 passes (just 33), but Williams and Corum still saw only 19 combined carries despite both averaging at least 4.7 yards per attempt. 'I don't ever point blame,' Williams said of the offense's self-inflicted mistakes. 'I don't ever talk about stuff I don't really know. But obviously, we have to get that stuff out. We can't be doing that stuff. We're hurting ourselves when it really matters.'
They need to eliminate pre-snap penalties that continue to plague an experienced offensive line at the worst possible times. 'I know the possibilities that we have on this team,' right guard Kevin Dotson said. 'It's not something you want to hang your hat on because you know that's not who you are.' They need to reestablish the three-tight end game that skyrocketed last year's offense, which means using them according to their natural traits, like they did on the final drive, when Stafford ran play-action and hit a leaking Colby Parkinson for a 6-yard touchdown. The opposite of that is asking Parkinson to block Josh Sweat 1-on-1 on a 2-point conversion play that got Stafford crushed or asking Davis Allen to carry the ball for the first time in his career on 4th-and-1, only to be stuffed by two unblocked defenders.
They need to involve Nacua and Adams more downfield and more regularly, rather than going through the first quarter without targeting either player. Nacua has come alive in the second half of all three games he's played since returning from a hip injury. He is the kind of All-Pro and NFL receptions leader who should be able to make an impact from the jump. 'The physicality is something that we pride ourselves in,' Nacua said, 'and we know that's just the way our offense operates when we can get downhill with our backs, with our tight ends and especially when we involve ourselves in the wide receiver room.'
The Rams can get Garrett and McDuffie back and turn a solid defense into a game-wrecking one. They can return Terrance Ferguson from injured reserve and unlock the three-tight end sets that have Stafford and Corum at their best. They can get rolling against the Las Vegas Raiders, Los Angeles Chargers, Cardinals, and Washington Commanders, teams that are a combined 6-16-1. What they can't do is wait any longer for their offensive identity, consistency, and focus to show up. Not if they want to return to the final four as they did last year, and certainly not if they want to go further in what could be the final season for Stafford, Adams, and Donald.
Perhaps they are two bad calls from 4-2. But they're more than that from the team they aspire to be. 'What are you going to do when your back's against the wall?' Corum said. 'Are you going to fold and crumble and cry about it, or are you going to work?' Time is still on their side. But it's getting late early in Los Angeles.
Originally reported by theathleticuk.