The Super Bowl-Favorite Rams Just Lost to One of the League’s Worst Teams

But I want to start with the Rams off the top.

The Rams lost to the Arizona Cardinals.

I can't believe I'm saying this, and they're 2 and 4, and I like to sometimes, you know, there's a barometer of fan reaction, but it's interesting because you go to like Turf Show Times, for example, which is like kind of the big Rams fan blog, and this is going back to Saint Louis, and I saw a headline from them which I think you're gonna reference here, which was, is it time to bench Matthew Stafford and start Ty Simpson, but then over in the, on the right.

is in the stack is Sean McVeigh's a starter, not a finisher.

Can we trade him to the Jets for 2 1s?

People, like, People, come on, where are we going here?

I, I don't know.

I don't know what to say.

I don't know what to say.

Every fan base is crazy because if they're sick and tired of their head coach, they're like, Oh no, will you take him.

He's terrible.

The Packers were doing this for years with Matt LaFleur, and now that the team is fixed and they're putting on a laser show every Sunday, they're like, Oh, like, you know, we, we like Matt LaFleur.

We should probably extend him another year.

If the Rams got rid of Sean McVeigh.

That place would become a non like, it, it would become a non-destination.

It would be a, I, I don't even know what to say about that one, but I mean, it's become so much about Sean, you know, and like the whole program and all, like, I, you're right, I don't know what they would be without Sean McVeigh.

They would lose so much of their identity and their soul, it's not even worth discussing.

So, um, you know, I , I had a conversation with, um, on the air with my buddy, uh, Mark the Beatle Bertrand up here in Boston last week and, um, I said to him, I'm like, we need to stop assessing like every game, every NFL game, like it's a referendum on everyone, you know, like every single week, and that's the way we cover it now.

And then he reminded me that's why we're all employed, which like, is probably a good point too, you know.

We need to stop doing this.

Also, subscribe to the channel, uh, where we do this.

Here's what I, here's what I wanna assess though with them, with the Rams.

How much of this do you think is crappy luck, tough schedule?

This one, like, it's tough and hard to call this as a product of scheduling, but You know, they, they have an emotional overtime Monday night game, and they come back off of that, and they come out a little flat.

Like, how much of it is that?

And how much of it is like real football reasons, because I'm telling you.

Like, this game is over before, like, you want to talk about Stafford.

He made two of the best throws I've seen anyone make all year through 6 weeks.

On the final possession, on their final possession.

That game is over before, before, before it wound up being over if he doesn't make those throws.

And that to me was the, that to me was like the, the, Encapsulation of what it feels like is going, like so many things look hard for them right now, you know, and I don't really understand it.

Now, I got a couple of things in my head that I've, that I've thought about with this, right?

So number one, and this is something a couple of people brought up to me on uh like in the offseason, which I think is an interesting point to consider.

They don't have great team speed.

And I think that's part of why they brought Tutu Atwell back, and you wonder, like, does it allow you to play their offense a certain way?

Now yesterday, right, until the Pukaakua 43 yard catch and run, which wasn't a downfield shot by any measure, they didn't have a single play of over 16 yards.

OK, so I think that's one thing to consider.

Do they have enough team speed on offense?

Defensively, I I mean, no Miles Garrett, no Trent McDuffie.

Now, do we excuse that away?

Because those are two new additions , right?

Do we, do we excuse away another not great performance from the defense?

Based on those absences, which we haven't really seen the Rams full-on with Miles Garrett yet, right ?

Or Do we say like, no, there's a systemic problem here.

And I don't know what the answer is.

I, I think that, you know, it's one of those things where I think that the NFL is shallow enough in terms of a talent pool, and I say that in air quotes, that, I mean, How reflexively are we now calling the Texans a playoff team?

The Texans beat the Titans a week ago to move to 1 and 4, and I think that they had a 35% chance of making the playoffs, and they go out and they beat the Jaguars the next week.

I think that shit talking the Rams right now is dangerous, bad idea.

It's a bad idea.

Well, I mean, like, let's just put this, let's, let's look at this though, right?

OK.

At Raiders, Chargers, Commanders, at Cardinals.

All due respect to the Cardinals, what they just did to the Rams.

Does that not look like 6 and 4?

Yeah, and, uh, so then they go on their buy, they can reset.

Here's the other thing I was thinking about this when I was getting my coffee this morning, Connor.

Cause I knew we were gonna talk about the Rams .

I, we talked about the, the schedule, right, like that's all you need, right?

I, when the schedule came out, I remember like one of my immediate thoughts was how the Rams got screwed and how the, the Rams are already a little worn out.

They look a little beat up already, right?

Don't forget they don't have a bye week.

They don't have a real bye week.

Because they play on that Wednesday, they play on Thanksgiving Eve.

Oh, that's right.

They don't have a real bye week.

So, it's just interesting cause you look at that four-game stretch ahead, then they've got the bye, but that's not really a buy, right?

That's going into the Wednesday game.

So, it's just like a funky.

Uh, it's just a funky scenario overall, and their, their schedule coming out of that is relatively brutal.

I mean, Packers, Chiefs, Niners, Cowboys, Seahawks, Bucks, Seahawks again.

So I don't think that I like, I'm not, I'm not saying their seasons like the, the, I don't, I, I, I think their season is at a critical point and then I think they have to win the next 4.

I think it's fair for us to be able to criticize Sean McVeigh a little bit, right?

I, I think that he had a bad game against the Seahawks in the playoffs, and I think he's had a couple of bad moments throughout the season where I, I, it's almost like Drake May, right, Albert, where like, he's brilliant, he's gonna play through it, but in terms of the play caller and the flow of the play calling, I feel like he's just calling it a little tight.

And, you know, Matt Stafford, you also can't project him as a 50 touchdown thrower of the football every year.

When a quarterback is in his mid to late 30s, every iteration of that is gonna be a little bit different.

And I'll say one more thing, um , About the Cardinals, great win for the Cardinals.

Um, they certainly needed, um, they certainly needed that one off their back.

Um, LaFleur is obviously familiar with the operation in LA which can help to a certain degree, but I think the other part of it is, Jacoby Brissett's one of the last pure, like, you know, Brady-like, and I'm not saying that he's good, as good, you know, anywhere near Tom Brady, but like, there aren't a lot of quarterbacks like Jacoby in the NFL anymore, where it's like 2 or 3 steps and the ball's out, you know, and that's hard for a pass rush that You watch what Chris Shula does.

It takes a minute to come together, and it's awfully destructive for a quarterback that holds the ball for 27, 28, 29, you know, 3 seconds, but he's got the ball out.

But Jacoby Brissett gets the ball out, and sometimes.

You know, whatever you said, like a lack of team speed.

If you get the ball to your playmaker, there was a couple of bad attempts at tackles on Trey McBride in this game, for example, like it was just a bad tackling game.

These can happen .

And I know what everybody in the comments is gonna say.

Trust me, I, I, I have this crystal ball vision of what you're saying.

Oh, the media is just making excuses.

For Sean McVeigh and the Rams.

OK, then, put your house against it right now.

Put your mortgage against the Rams at 2 and 4 because I'm not doing it.

This team is gonna be good.

They're gonna be in the playoffs.

They're still one of the best teams in the NFL.

Miles Garrett's coming, uh, but a nice win for the Cardinals.

The NFL is weird shit, and that was weird.

The weird thing is, and, and like I, I just.

It didn't feel flukey, which is a credit to the Cardinals, right, but it didn't feel flukey.

If you look at the yardage, you look at the time of possession, you look at the, I mean, part of it was the Rams weren't on the field a lot, right?

So you look at it like the Rams only ran the ball 20 times.

That seems really low, right?

Like, and I think it is.

And to me, like my first thought is like when you've got the run game with Kyron Williams and Blake Korum and you're in this fistfight, you should be leveraging that, and they only ran the ball 20 times.

But then you see they only had, I think it was like 53 or 54 plays, and that's a credit to the Cardinals for extending drives and controlling the clock, and so like this did not feel flukey.

It felt like the Cardinals flat out beat them, and that's pretty stunning.

Um, I'd also mention like.

I mean, this isn't the same thing, but The 2021 Rams did hit a rut, and like, they were at 1.

7-4 and oh, what's wrong with them?

And they lost three in a row, and they didn't win a game in November of that month, right?

And they figured it out.

So, this ain't Sean McVeigh's first rodeo.

I think, you know, in the long run, it would be a, a bad bet to bet against them being a factor in January.

Totally agree.

Um, I mean, We can examine what, what went wrong.

I, I think that they're kind of analogous to the Texans a little bit in that, you know, we all struggle to not see this as a as a year to year thing.

We always think, well, if the team is this good this year, then they're gonna be that good this year.

If the team was this good , and then they add these players, they're gonna be that good.

No, I mean, you have to refigure out.

Every team, every season, and I think that McVeigh's in the process of that.

There's been plenty of crappy Patriots starts over the years that they ended up winning the division, and I think more so now than ever because I think more so there's teams that are using the early portions of the season, yes, as like an extended preseason, and I've heard a lot of like, well, why don't these guys play more in the preseason because it ain't mad and because these guys all have an odometer on their body.

And like the idea of going out there and creating like 3 more real games is asinine, when you gotta get them to January and for 2 teams into February.

So, like that's, that's the whole thing.

It's like, how do you get them there and how do you get a team there that's and, and that's where I think like teams like the, the Rams and the Chiefs and the Ravens and the Bills, like that's where I think those teams have a little bit of an advantage in that, like, you know, you're gonna be there at the end, so you can manage the front end of the schedule a little differently.