If the NFL playoffs were today, guess who would be at home watching?
The Los Angeles Rams. The offseason champs. The team bookies installed as the betting favorite to play Super Bowl 61 in their own stadium – before L.A. was thrashed by the 49ers in their season opener in Australia, before all sorts of other stuff since then hit the fan.
So far, this season of destiny for the Rams – who climbed above .500 (5-4) for the first time this season on Sunday – has become an exercise in Murphy’s Law.
Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong.
And more bad news came on Monday when the team confirmed that star wideout Puka Nacua is headed to injured reserve after suffering sprained ligaments in his right knee and a turf toe. He will miss at least a month.
It figures
that Nacua was injured running a jet sweep on, of all times, the final offensive play of the 20-13 victory at Washington.
“I’m bummed,” Rams coach Sean McVay told reporters at the team’s headquarters on Monday. “When these things happen, the first thing is you feel for the players. They put so much work in and it’s so unfortunate.
“Then you question, ‘What could you have done to maybe avoid it?’ ”
The Rams just can’t win for losing one way or another. After all, Nacua’s star receiving mate, Davante Adams, is already on IR, mending a ruptured hamstring. Cornerback Trent McDuffie, one of the prized offseason additions, has missed the past three games due to a back issue layered on top of a groin injury. Jaylen Watson, the other prized cornerback from the offseason haul, is done for the year because of shoulder surgery. The O-line just lost left guard Steve Avila to a hamstring injury with no definitive timeline for a return. And Myles Garrett, the reigning Defensive Player of the Year obtained from the Browns in a blockbuster trade, just came back on Sunday after missing two months following knee surgery.
The midseason checkup on McVay’s team is brutal. They have become the Bad News Rams, complete with inexplicable losses. They blew a 16-0 halftime lead at Denver in Week 3, punctuated by Matthew Stafford’s record-setting pick-six. They lost against Buffalo in Week 5 after since-released kicker Harrison Mevis’ 48-yard try for a game-winning field in overtime was blocked. Six days later, the defense didn’t give up a touchdown. But the Rams lost to Arizona, anyway, when Chad Ryland kicked his sixth field goal of the game as time expired.
They could’ve, would’ve and should’ve won all three of those games. All losses.
You can’t blame Aaron Donald, the Hall of Fame-credentialed D-tackle who came out of retirement after a two-year layoff, if he wondered: I came back for this?
Yeah, bro, it’s been rough.
For all the adversity, though, it would be foolish to write off the Rams just yet.
This is the NFL. Strange things happen.
Over the past three seasons, eight teams have made the playoffs after being .500 or worse through their first eight games. The Rams were two of those teams, rallying from a 3-5 start in 2023 and a 4-4 mark in 2024. And L.A., during the 2021 season, was also the last team to earn a Super Bowl berth without being one of the top three seeds in its conference.
Then again, limping into the playoffs is no formula for a Super Bowl ticket.
One thing for certain: the fiery McVay (whose late grandfather, John, was the personnel whiz attached to Bill Walsh as they launched the 49ers dynasty during the 1980s) will have his competitive creativity gene stretched to the hilt while trying to build on a three-game winning streak.
Nacua caught 14 passes on 19 targets for 150 yards on Sunday to raise his season totals to 70 receptions for 715 yards. And now, without Adams, the Rams must replace that production?
“We won’t have some tendencies, that’s for sure,” McVay said. “We’ll figure out what that looks like to be able to get the best different groupings and best people involved. Guys will be asked to step up.”
That’s the NFL way. It’s a war of attrition. Although the Rams’ issues are undoubtedly pronounced, every team has some level of injury-related challenges. At one extreme, the Ravens are collapsing without star quarterback Lamar Jackson. The Giants, meanwhile, are hanging tough after absorbing the “shock sandwich,” as John Harbaugh described it, of losing quarterback Jaxson Dart and linebacker Brian Burns, the team’s best defensive player. At the other end of the spectrum, the 49ers have a share of the NFL’s best record (7-1) while battling through setbacks that include the extended absence of defensive end Nick Bosa and the decimation of a receiving corps that includes Mike Evans and Deebo Samuel.
So, no, the Rams get no pity from their bitter NFC West rival.
They also have much company in the misery department when it comes to teams pegged as contenders when this season began. The defending Super Bowl champion Seahawks (5-4) wouldn’t be in the playoffs right now, either, challenged to find a way on offense to complement the greatness of Jaxon Smith-Njigba. The defending AFC champion Patriots (5-4) are three games in the loss column behind the Bills in the AFC East race. The Cowboys? It’s apparent the Super Bowl drought will continue, going on 31 years. And the NFC East drought rolls on, too.
And no, there were no quick fixes from the trade market (not for the Rams, unlike the Bears and Jaguars), even with GM Les Snead’s typically deft maneuvering with personnel moves. Shoot, even if there were, the premium draft capital to exchange has already been used.
Adjustments and growth from within will determine L.A.’s fate. Perhaps the battle-tested team, stocked with savvy vets, can get key players back from injury and jell at the right time to make a run down the stretch.
It won’t be easy. After a bye in Week 11, the Rams face the Packers, Chiefs and 49ers in a three-game test. Two of their final three games are against the Seahawks. Yes, there’s a lot of football left to close the gap and make a legit run for the postseason.
Never mind that so much was expected of this team before the season started.
“I think it’s about just improving every single day,” McVay said. “Every single game it’s let’s reset, reload, six seconds at a time.”
In the meantime, the Super Bowl vision that so many had for the Rams will be measured on a different type of clock during the second half of the season to avoid a 10-count.
Follow Bell on X: @JarrettBell
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Rams' dream season has been a survival test. Now Puka Nacua is out | Opinion
