Rams Ex Chris Long Debates If Former Team Can Be Competitive
The Los Angeles Rams have been given nothing but low expectations by the NFL community throughout the offseason. However, they quickly silenced millions last Sunday, when they defeated the Seattle Seahawks 30-13.
The Rams shined on both sides of the ball, as quarterback Matthew Stafford threw for 334 yards while the defense allowed just one first down the entire second half.
Now that Los Angeles has shown that they could compete with a playoff contending team, former Rams defensive end Chris Long wonders what the rest of their season will look like.
"I don't know what they want to do this year," Long said on Monday's edition of The Rich Eisen Show. "We overestimate how much teams are like 'I'm going to be good or I'm not going to be good and we're going to punt on this season.' I've said for a long time that the Rams should be hitting the reset button, but if they can be competitive with (the Seahawks), who knows?"
Long was "overconfident" that the Seahawks would take down the Rams, but said that McVay's "great" coaching helped pull off the upset. Additionally, there were a couple of players that Long was surprised by.
"Those two young receivers, Tutu (Atwell) and (especially Puka) Nacua from BYU in the fifth round—I mean this guy is a legit player," Long said. "These two guys had a great game and they didn't even run the ball."
Perhaps the most viral moment of the game was when Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith was pressured by Rams defensive lineman Aaron Donald, and yelled 'oh my god!'
Long described the play as if "Aaron popped out of a closet" and stated that the future Hall-of-Famer "still looks great" in the relatively unknown defense.
"(Donald's) playing with a bunch of guys that you hadn't heard of, as (Seahawks receiver) DK Metcalf said he hadn't heard of them (before the game) either," Long said. "But they're playing good ball, they have better second-level guys than you would probably think and they're well coached."
The question regarding the Rams' level of competitiveness definitely helped them in Week 1, but they'll be facing the San Francisco 49ers, who are widely considered to be among the best teams in the NFL, in Week 2.
