GLENDALE, Ariz. — The Los Angeles Rams looked so astonishingly incompetent in Sunday’s 41-10 loss to Arizona, and so immediately, that players filed to the locker room from the field afterward in stunned, miserable silence.
“This was one of those days that is really humbling,” head coach Sean McVay said postgame. “Fortunately, we haven’t felt many of these things. But tough times don’t last, tough people do. There’s a lot of things that have gone … not necessarily according to plan through the first couple weeks. Today was not something that I had anticipated. …
“I’ll just be real with you guys, there’s nothing positive about it. The only positive thing is, is that this game is over now and we can move forward.”
This is a football team that has not started a season 0-2 since 2011, six years before McVay was hired as head coach. It’s even the worst loss in general manager Les Snead’s 12 years in L.A., a complete exposition of what injuries, inadequate depth, unpreparedness, lack of technique or fundamentals can do to a football team that entered the 2024 season with positive momentum and sky-high expectations.
In fact, over the past five seasons only two teams — the 2023 Texans and 2022 Bengals — have made the playoffs after 0-2 starts. Since 2015, 74 teams have started 0-2. Of those 74, eight have made the playoffs.
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“I think you go back to work,” said McVay postgame. “There is a lot of football left. There (are) a lot of things that you experience for the first time. How you handle it is what is the important thing. … This is one of those days. That pit in your stomach is a tough pill to be able to swallow. This is what we signed up for, we didn’t sign up for just the positive moments — the team staying healthy. All I know how to do is try to go back to work (and) keep my head high. Figure out some better solutions. There clearly (were) not enough answers for our players to go have success today. …
“I’m not even worried about 0-2. I’m worried about how we play better football. That was not a good product today. That was not something that we are OK with.”
The Rams are missing their starting left tackle (third-string Warren McClendon started Sunday with Alaric Jackson suspended), their starting left guard (Jonah Jackson, who started the season at center, is filling in for injured Steve Avila but it’s clear the screen and stretch game is not the same without Avila), and rookie Beaux Limmer is starting at center. Stout right guard Kevin Dotson is playing through a lateral ankle sprain/foot injury. Right tackle Rob Havenstein only just returned, and still was limited in practice much of the week. Star receivers Cooper Kupp (who left the game limping at halftime and then had a walking boot on his left leg in the locker room) and Puka Nacua (PCL sprain) are out, in Nacua’s case for likely longer than the minimum four games. Starting cornerback Darious Williams is on injured reserve with a hamstring issue. Backup Cobie Durant is battling through a toe injury and couldn’t finish the game. All of this is, of course, hugely impactful to the Rams’ overall level of play.
Still, Arizona was so obviously the better-coached and better-coordinated team Sunday. They were more physical and more multiple on both sides of the ball. They had more dimension; their run game mauled the Rams for 231 yards (5.8 per carry) from a variety of personnel groupings and contact points. L.A.’s defensive line missed tackles, couldn’t consistently win the point of attack, looked genuinely undersized and on the edges couldn’t take quarterback Kyler Murray down on first hit. The pass rush, and then the unfolding layers of the defense behind it, appeared unprepared to defend Murray from out-of-structure — meaning he could create pass plays on the move and exploit the missed takedowns, then target cornerbacks and safeties who had lost track of their receiver downfield.
“We just couldn’t tackle him,” McVay said. “There were opportunities. You look at some of the plays, I mean, we had three guys around him (and) he ended up escaping and hits an off-schedule touchdown. Does the same thing on a third down by our sideline. We just weren’t able to get to him, his athleticism shined. He made a lot of plays. You’ve got to give him credit and we’ve got to be able to learn from it.”
Murray had five passing plays of 20-plus yards against the Rams’ defense, including two of his three touchdowns (on the third, an 18-yard pass to Elijah Higgins, Murray was able to hold the ball for a whopping 8.55 seconds according to Next Gen Stats). Murray also finished the game — pulled early for backup Clayton Tune — with a perfect passer rating of 158.3.
Kyler Murray was most effective on longer developing plays, finishing 10 of 12 for 219 yards and 3 touchdowns on dropbacks over 2.5 seconds.
Murray also completed all four passes he threw on the run (8+ mph) for 119 yards and 2 touchdowns.#LARvsAZ | @AZCardinals
— Next Gen Stats (@NextGenStats) September 15, 2024
Arizona wore its plan on its sleeve all offseason with how it constructed its offense, and even did this week after rookie first-round receiver Marvin Harrison Jr.’s poor debut. It was painfully obvious all week that Cardinals offensive coordinator Drew Petzing would scheme toward Harrison early and often, and did: Harrison had two touchdowns and 130 receiving yards on his first four touches, and the game felt far out of reach after that.
“We just didn’t play good enough,” said starting safety Kam Curl, “we just didn’t make the plays that we needed to make to win the game.”
I asked McVay postgame if he felt the defense was prepared enough for how the Cardinals would attack them; he sighed but did not then directly answer the question. Startlingly, first-year defensive coordinator Chris Shula noted Arizona’s multiplicity in the run game this week, including how they can control the ball and possession clock and play keepaway from the opposing offense, in response to a question I asked him Thursday. Arizona had the ball for 36:54 to the Rams’ 23:06. Everyone knew what was coming. The Cardinals did it anyway.
The Rams converted just two third downs in 11 tries, and the lack of a run game got their offense off the field quickly on average. While holding that as a truth, it’s also fair to wonder whether the defense wasn’t prepared despite knowing how the modern Cardinals play football, or just flat-out couldn’t execute? More NFL teams are playing in heavier personnels and leaning on the run game (including with the quarterback) right now, and this coaching staff has always been a step ahead of the changing cycles of the sport. Why don’t they, or this roster, seem ready now?
On the other side of the dismal affair, Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford was sacked five times — three on third down. The Rams opened 0-for-5 on third down and converted only one of their first seven attempts, plus were 0-for-2 on fourth down. Stafford stayed in the entire game, a questionable decision in consideration of his poor protection, the lopsided score and his health being crucial to salvaging the Rams’ season. McVay said he considered pulling Stafford but instead opted to exclusively run the ball instead because backup Stetson Bennett was unfamiliar with some of the handoffs and exchanges the Rams had to run.
Dennis Gardeck sacks Matthew Stafford for one of the Cardinals’ five Sunday. (USA Today)
McVay did exclusively call runs in the Rams’ last series, the final of the wearily-waved white flags of the day. But not before Stafford re-entered for the offense’s second-to-last series down 31 points, a bleak three plays during which Stafford was strip-sacked on second down and the Arizona defense recovered the ball.
“Today was not good. You can’t get Matthew k— … ,” McVay stopped himself to change his word choice, “You can’t get him hit that quickly. We have to be able to do a good job.”
Lead running back Williams rushed for only 25 yards on 12 carries, with a touchdown (2.1 yards per carry). In contrast, Williams ripped away 301 yards in two games against the Cardinals last season. The offensive line did not generate the push needed to get into a rhythm on the ground and ultimately as pressure increased, the Rams — who stayed in 11 personnel (No. 2 tight end Davis Allen has a back injury and did not play) — sacrificed at least two “eligible” receivers in a running back and tight end frequently in order to chip or assist in blocking.
The Rams will get Jackson back next week, and hope to be at least a little healthier on the right side of the line with the passage of time. But the San Francisco 49ers loom, a team that plays like a kick in the teeth although dealing with its own injuries. The style of football the Rams played Sunday won’t cut it.
“These are the moments where you get tested,” McVay said. “I know when I look back on moments of growth for me, they never occurred in good times. They only occurred in moments like this. You get that pit in your gut. You got a choice: You want to attack it? Or do you want to fold? And I’m betting on a lot of the guys that they’re going to be the kind of guys that are gonna raise their head high, go back to work. These are humbling moments.”
(Top photo of Sean McVay: Christian Petersen / Getty Images)
