INGLEWOOD (News4usonline) – Without starting quarterback Matthew Stafford in the lineup against the Arizona Cardinals, the offense of the Los Angeles Rams struggled. This showed glaringly in the first half. For the first two quarters of their ballgame against the Cardinals, the Rams offense went nowhere.
The Rams totaled 37 yards rushing and just 49 yards through the air for the first half. A lot of that may have had to do with Stafford not playing because he is still in concussion protocol. As a team, the Rams racked up only 77 yards of offense and five first downs.
The result of the Rams’ slow start was a 27-17 loss to the Cardinals at SoFi Stadium. Rams head coach Sean McVay said the Cardinals did what they had to do to earn the win.
“They made enough plays to be able to win,” McVay said. “(There’s) not a lot of positives that you can take away from this. It’s tough, it stings. There’s just a lot of different reasons that we’re in this position. What I think it really boils down to is, when you do get a little bit of momentum, when you’re really just trying to scratch and crawl to create any bit of it, we’ve got to be able to play more complimentary football.
“Whether that’s we cut it to a one possession game, we end up being able to get a stop and then transition to be able to get some points after that, or we end up having a three and out. Do we get another stop? There’s just so many different things. Not a lot of good to be able to take away from this but we’re going to continue to try to figure it out.”
What the Rams went through in the first half is almost indicative of the swoon the team has been experiencing this season. The team is in the middle of a three-game losing streak. They’ve lost five of their last six games. Last year during the month of November, the Rams went winless. But they were able to get things on the right track when it mattered and went on to win the Super Bowl.
What the Rams are going through this season feels a little bit different. For sure, it has been an adverse situation for McVay and his team.
“I’m doing good. It’s humbling,” McVay said. “These are lessons where I’ve talked about it and my mindset remains the same. For whatever reason you’re being tested, you’re being stretched in ways that you haven’t been stretched before. But it’s easy to be able to sit up there and talk about the mental toughness, the resilience, when things are going well.
“But this is where you’re truly being tested. How do you look inward? But I am interested in trying to help figure out some of these solutions so that we can play better football. This is all of us together, but there are some execution elements, there’s certainly some things schematically that we’re trying to be able to figure out. None of which is anything but an excuse.”
Part of the struggles the Rams are having this season is inconsistent play on both sides of the ball. The Rams play on offense against Arizona was sporadic. After being held to three points in the first half, the Rams offense found a little of life to score 14 points over the last two quarters. Defensively, the Rams blinked a couple of times, but played pretty solid most of the afternoon.
Rams head coach Sean McVay is keeping things positive after the Arizona Cardinals defeated his team 27-17 at SoFi Stadium. #Rams pic.twitter.com/IZFzISbPI0
— Dennis J. Freeman (@DennisJFreeman) November 14, 2022
Whatever the case may be, the Rams have to figure out how to turn their season around, which McVay isn’t too sure how that is going to happen.
“Well, I don’t know exactly what those answers are,” McVay remarked. “But it’s in a lot of instances, some of the things that we’ve talked about, being able to capitalize on momentum, being able to make some of the plays when they’re there to be had. Continuity has been a challenge for us, but every team deals with it.”
“It’s not a good movie and I’m a part of it right now,” McVay added. “We got to be able to figure out how to make it better, how to improve. How do we play better, more complimentary football? Whatever that means in terms of the results, we just got to be able to have a better product out there, start to see some improvement.”
Both the Rams and Arizona played this game without their respective starting quarterbacks. Arizona quarterback Kyler Murray watched the game on the sidelines in street clothes. Stafford was put in concussion protocol following the Rams’ 16-13 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. This game became a battle of backup quarterbacks.
John Wolford got most of the snaps for the Rams, but Bryce Perkins saw limited action as well. It was an up and down afternoon for Wolford, who completed 24 out of 36 pass attempts for 212 yards with a touchdown and one interception. Going in and out of the lineup with Perkins didn’t really have too much of an impact on his rhythm, Wolford said.
“I think it was so sporadic. It wasn’t like it was a drive where I was completely out. It was just a play here or there so no, not really,” Wolford said.
Dennis is the editor and publisher of News4usonline. He covers the NFL, NBA, MLB, racial and social justice, civil rights, and HBCUs. Dennis earned a journalism degree from “The Mecca” aka Howard University. “I write on what I am passionate about.”