It’s done. The 2023 NFL season for the Los Angeles Rams is officially over. But the Rams didn’t go down without a fight. It’s kind of symbolic of the way the Rams have played all season long. You could never count this team out. Not with their head coach operating as the chief motivator speaker.
The Rams made the playoffs for the second time in the last three years with quarterback Matthew Stafford. In Year 1, Stafford and the Rams hoisted the Lombardi Trophy as winners of Super Bowl LVI. In Year 2, Stafford and the Rams failed to make the postseason.
This season, the Rams weren’t supposed to sniff the playoffs given the roster purging the team underwent in the offseason. Stafford and the Rams fooled a whole lot of folks by going on a winning roll after their Week 10 bye.
The Rams rolled to seven wins in their last eight games during the regular season and found themselves locked in the No. 6 position in the NFC playoffs. With a lot of water-cooler talk about the Rams should mail in the season after a 3-6 start to their season, Stafford and the Rams decided that was not going to be their swan song for 2023.
The defense got better. The ball on the offensive end improved much after the team’s first nine games. Lined up with rookies and plenty of second-year players on the team’s roster after drafting 14 players in the 2023 NFL Draft, Rams head coach Sean McVay operated the franchise like a Coach of the Year candidate.
Starting with a 17-16 win against the Seattle Seahawks, McVay and his ballclub showed they were not going to throw in the towel to the season. Instead, the Rams got off the mat and fought all the way down to their 24-23 defeat to the Detroit Lions in a Wild Card playoff game played on the road for Los Angeles.
In what many pundits were billing as a revenge game for Detroit quarterback Jared Goff, who was traded to the Lions by the Rams in exchange for Stafford, McVay’s team played well enough to put themselves in position to win.
But settling for three field goals instead of touching paydirt in the endzone was what eventually cost the Rams the win. The season may have come to an end for McVay and his team, but the effort that Stafford and the Rams put forth should prove that there is no quit in this ballclub.
Top Photo: DETROIT, MI – JANUARY 14: Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Tutu Atwell (5) makes a long catch for a touchdown during the NFC Wild Card game between the Detroit Lions and the Los Angeles Rams game on Sunday, January 14, 2023, at Ford Field in Detroit, MI. (Photo by Steven King/Icon Sportswire)
Dennis has covered and written about politics, crime, race, sports, and entertainment. Dennis currently covers the NFL, MLB, NBA, NCAA, and Olympic sports. Dennis is the editor of News4usonline.com and serves as the publisher of the Compton Bulletin newspaper. He earned a journalism degree from Howard University. Email Dennis at dfreeman@news4usonline.com