Sitting at 5-3 going into their bye week, the Los Angeles Rams have been able to build some consistency on the field after suffering their worst stretch of football under head coach Sean McVay.
After three straight losses, Los Angeles earned back-to-back wins against the Atlanta Falcons and Cincinnati Bengals and now find themselves back in the mix for the NFC West title.
It has been apparent that this year’s edition of the Rams is missing the same edge and productivity of last year’s Super Bowl roster and that can attributed to several factors like the massive dip in effectiveness of the offensive, line coupled with injuries to key rotation players like Clay Matthews and John Johnson III.
Even with a winning record, however, wide receiver Cooper Kupp believes there are still things that he and the rest of the Rams can clean up, via Stu Jackson of TheRams.com:
“We feel good about, obviously some momentum going into the bye week, but really just being able to get back into the win column is huge,” Kupp said. “You go all the way back to the games that we weren’t able to pull out that W, it’s little things that show up that can change the course of a game. We’ve played some good teams and they take advantage of those small things, it can change the course of the game.”
Aside from the loss against the San Francisco 49ers where they were thoroughly outplayed, Los Angeles had opportunities to pull out wins against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Seattle Seahawks.
Against the Buccaneers, the Rams were able to rally late in the fourth quarter but Jared Goff lost a fumble that was eventually returned for a touchdown that ultimately sealed the game. The following week, Greg Zuerlein had an opportunity to win the game on a 44-yard field goal but missed it just to the right.
It is these kinds of late-game blunders that the Rams can no longer afford as they head into the second half of their schedule with the NFC playoff race only getting tighter from here. The NFC West looks like it will ultimately come down to either the 49ers or Seahawks, which would leave the Rams to fight for one of the two Wild Card spots.
Even so, Los Angeles has enough talent on both sides of the field to make a run and should be able to stay competitive in all their remaining games. Hopefully, they build upon some of that momentum they have built when they come back in Week 10 to take on the Pittsburgh Steelers.
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