With six consecutive wins including two against their division rivals the San Francisco 49ers and Seattle Seahawks, the Los Angeles Rams had seemingly emerged as arguably the most complete team in the NFL. With an offense led by Matthew Stafford and arguably the best wide receiver duo in Puka Nacua and Davante Adams, and a defense powered by Byron Young and Jared Verse, the Rams didn’t have any glaring weaknesses and went into their Week 13 matchup with the Carolina Panthers with a ton of momentum.
Unfortunately, that all came to a screeching halt as the Rams fell to the Panthers 31-28. The offense turned the ball over three times while the defense allowed 358 total yards with 164 of those coming on the ground in the Rams’ most disappointing loss of the season. Young led the Rams with eight tackles and a sack, but it wasn’t enough to lift them to victory.
The loss surely made for a long plane ride home and while the Rams obviously didn’t plan on losing, Young is looking at this game as a necessary evil. The pass rusher believes this game will serve as a wake-up call for the Rams and that they will use it as motivation going forward, via Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk:
“I just feel like this is a wake-up call,” Young said. “You know, something that you just got to learn from. I definitely think it’s something that we needed. I don’t look at as a bad thing. I just look at it that it is motivation. It is something I’m glad that it happened. We need this.”
When a team is rolling like the Rams were prior to this loss, it can be easy to start believing your own hype and start to breathe easy. The Panthers have been solid all season, but by all accounts this is a game the Rams should have been able to win. Instead they now find themselves in a tie for the top seed in the NFC with the Seahawks and Chicago Bears.
As Young said, this was something the Rams needed and they now realize that they aren’t unbeatable and still have plenty of things to work on if they want to make a run to the Super Bowl. Now it will be on them to take this loss in stride and turn things around with an emphatic win over the Arizona Cardinals next Sunday.
Sean McVay excited to see how Rams respond to Panthers loss
Someone else who is looking on the positive side is head coach Sean McVay, who spoke after the game about being excited to see how this Rams team responds to their disappointing loss to the Panthers.
