What the Hell Is Wrong With the Los Angeles Rams?

Photo: Jim Dedmon / Imagn Images

The Los Angeles Rams entered the season as Super Bowl favorites but have stumbled to a disappointing 2–4 start. They’ve had tough matchups against the San Francisco 49ers and Buffalo Bills, but with the roster this team has, losses to the Denver Broncos and—good God—the Arizona Cardinals are unacceptable. There’s a lot to unpack here.

McVay Has Been Inconsistent as a Play Caller

First things first here. If you have a team designed around Matthew Stafford, Puka Nacua, Davante Adams and Kyren Williams, having a losing record should be nearly impossible. Yet here we are. One thing that has driven me nuts this season is Sean McVay’s decision-making and play-calling.

The Buffalo loss featured a particularly questionable decision when the offense had a chance to finish the game. Stafford had thrown for 383 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions. He had just led three consecutive touchdown drives to close regulation. In overtime, the Rams faced third-and-five at Buffalo’s 30. McVay handed it to Kyren Williams for no gain. Makes absolutely no sense.

That left a 48-yard field goal for Harrison Mevis, who had already missed from 50 earlier in the game. Gregory Rousseau blocked it, Buffalo stayed alive, and the Rams lost 37–34. The blocked kick is one thing, but McVay helped put the game in the kicking unit’s hands. He played it like he didn’t trust Stafford to finish the job. Wild.

McVay had a rough day at the office in this past Sunday’s loss against the Cardinals. One of the worst calls of his tenure came with the Rams down six late in the fourth. A false start turned fourth-and-three into fourth-and-eight, and he went with a screen that blew up immediately. FOURTH-AND-EIGHT AND HE CALLS A SCREEN. You have Puka out there, for Christ’s sake. Give him a chance to make a play.

McVay’s fourth-down call

Those possessions make it look like McVay doesn’t trust his protection or his MVP quarterback enough to attack when the game is on the line. Whatever the reason, the conservative approach is difficult to stomach with this much talent on the field.

Look, McVay is one of the best coaches in football, and I still believe he can turn this around. But that doesn’t make him immune to criticism. His situational play-calling has been questionable to start the season.

What Is Going On With Special Teams?

I mean, the kicking situation has been ridiculous for the Rams. Harrison Mevis had a lot to do with the loss against the Bills, missing a 50-yarder and having the potential game-winning 48-yarder blocked in overtime. Alright, you’re cut, buddy.

We’re gonna sign your polar opposite in 5-foot-7, 156-pound Blake Grupe. In his first game, the poor guy made a field goal, tried to tackle the returner on the ensuing kickoff and got smoked. See ya. Torn ACL. That left the Rams without their placekicker against Arizona. They failed a two-point conversion after their first touchdown and eventually had punter Ethan Evans kicking the extra point to take the lead late in the fourth. Laughable at this point.

And it isn’t just the kickers. The Rams allowed a 70-yard return on the opening kickoff against Buffalo. Mevis didn’t cover that kick by himself, and he wasn’t the only guy responsible for getting the overtime attempt off cleanly.

Coaching accountability belongs here, too. Bubba Ventrone is the new special teams coordinator, hired this offseason, and six games in, I’m already wondering what he’s fixing. The coverage breakdowns and repeated kicking-unit failures deserve a much harder look at the coaching.

The Offense Is Too Talented to Be This Bad

This offense has everything it needs to be elite. Stafford has his boys producing yards, but the passing game has become less efficient. His completion percentage has actually improved from 65.0% to 65.9%, while his yards per attempt have fallen from 7.9 to 7.2. His touchdown rate has dropped from 7.7% to 4.4%, and his interception rate has jumped from 1.3% to 2.4%. Completing more passes is cool. Throwing fewer touchdowns and nearly doubling how often you throw it to the other team is considerably less cool.

His mistakes have been damaging. Against Denver, Talanoa Hufanga intercepted a pass intended for Kyren and took it 66 yards to the house, putting the Broncos ahead 23–19. Stafford threw another interception on the final play, although that was a desperation attempt. The pick-six is the one that made me want to throw my TV through the wall.

Hufanga’s pick-six

The loss to Arizona is concerning for a different reason. The Rams managed just 286 yards and 16 points, with Stafford throwing for only 96 yards through three quarters. They scored a touchdown in the second quarter but then went scoreless in the third and didn’t find the end zone again until the final minute. Sixteen points. With this fucking roster.

Puka had hardly any opportunities early in the game. He had only three targets through three quarters, then received three on the final drive alone. When Stafford finally got him involved, the offense was flowing like water. In the third quarter, Puka was wide open down the right sideline, and Stafford missed him. That possession eventually ended with the failed fourth-and-one at Arizona’s 27.

But Stafford wasn’t the only one wasting opportunities. Higbee lost a fumble after the Rams had reached Arizona’s 19, killing a chance to take the lead.

Arizona also put together two second-half scoring drives that each lasted more than eight minutes. The Rams had only one possession in the entire third quarter. That puts more pressure on the offense to make its opportunities count. Instead, they kept finding ways to throw it away.

There is too much talent for this offense not to produce game in and game out.

The NFL Hates the Rams??

The Rams’ problems aren’t just coming from within. The NFL might genuinely hate the Rams. The officiating has been costly, and a team that historically avoids flags is suddenly getting them like the refs’ base salary just isn’t cutting it.

Last season, the Rams’ 75 accepted penalties were the fewest in the NFL. Through six games, the Rams have… drumroll, please… 46 penalties. They’ve gone from 4.41 penalties per game to 7.67, a 73.8% increase. Their penalty yards per game have nearly doubled, from 33.7 to 66.5. Yes, a lot of that is their own sloppy football, but some of it deserves an explanation.

Start with Denver. We all know the play. Josh Wallace made an incredible interception that likely would have sealed the game, only for defensive pass interference to wipe it out. Pat Bryant sold the contact like he’d already written his Oscar acceptance speech. Denver kept possession and scored the winning touchdown. McVay subsequently said the NFL told him the flag should not have been thrown. Awesome.

Watch the disputed Denver penalty

Not only that, but the Rams were flagged five times in the final two minutes against Denver, tying the most by any team in that span since 2000, according to ESPN Research. That includes their final offensive possession, not just Denver’s winning drive. Los Angeles finished with 13 penalties for 91 yards, compared with Denver’s five for 38. The Rams couldn’t get it done in this one, but man, something is fishy here.

The Arizona game seemed like the ref show as well. Now, the Rams should never have allowed the Cardinals to be in this game and deserve the loss, but the late call still deserves scrutiny. With 47 seconds remaining, Arizona completed a 21-yard pass to Jalen Brooks. A questionable unnecessary-roughness penalty added 15 yards, moving the ball to the Rams’ 29. Arizona eventually won on a 43-yard field goal.

Two disputed calls. Both on the opponent’s winning possession. That doesn’t automatically make the Rams 4–2, and it doesn’t excuse the turnovers, kicking failures or questionable decisions. It does mean we can criticize this team and still ask what the hell the officials were watching.

The Future for the Rams

Yes, the Rams can still turn this around. McVay has done it before. In 2024, they started 1–4 and won nine of their next 11 to clinch the NFC West. There are 11 games left this season. Going 8–3 gets them to 10–7, which could put them in the playoff conversation. Nobody needs to start researching the draft just yet.

But the injury report from Sunday makes believing in this team considerably more exhausting. Davante Adams ruptured a hamstring muscle and is expected to miss six to 10 weeks. Poona Ford ruptured his triceps and is done for the season. Kobie Turner has a groin strain and is expected to miss several weeks. Blake Grupe tore his ACL. They lost to the damn Cardinals and lost half the depth chart.

Without Adams, Stafford and McVay have even less room to waste what Puka gives them. The running backs are producing, the tight ends are catching passes, and there are still enough players here to field a good offense. But expecting the same results while losing a receiver like Adams for potentially most of the remaining regular season is a big ask. I wouldn’t be surprised if they go out and get a receiver here soon.

The Rams have already signed Brandon McManus to replace Grupe. Wonderful. Hopefully, he’ll make it through his first game without blowing it or blowing out his knee.

The next four games will tell us a lot: at Las Vegas, home against the Chargers, at Washington and at Arizona. Win three, and they reach the bye at 5–5. Win all four, and suddenly they’re 6–4 and we’re getting dangerously optimistic again. Split them, and they’re 4–6 with Green Bay, Kansas City and a trip to San Francisco waiting after the break. That schedule is not going to let them spend December working out what they should have fixed in September.

I still believe this team can make the playoffs. Stafford has shown he can still play at an MVP level this year, and McVay has earned some trust when it comes to recovering from a bad start. But the injuries mean they need to improve while getting thinner. Waiting for everybody to get healthy isn’t a plan.

The Rams don’t need another explanation for why they should have won. They need to beat the Raiders on Sunday. Let’s start there.