The Los Angeles Rams are currently looking for answers after a devastating loss to the Baltimore Ravens on Monday Night Football in Week 12 that perhaps ended any hopes they had at making the playoffs.
While for some teams, a 6-5 record would be encouraging and signaling progression, that is clearly not the case for the defending NFC Champs. An inconsistent season has led to a middle of the road record and a long shot to make it into the playoffs and going into next season, the Rams will not have a first-round draft pick or much cap space at their disposal.
Although something will need to change if the Rams hope to succeed, Jared Goff understands that there is more than one problem limiting their success, via Sam Farmer of the L.A. Times:
“A million things,” he said. “I think there’s no one thing. It’s just be better consistently. I know that’s easy to say, but it’s the truth. We need to be better down-in and down-out and not kill ourselves with little mistakes, penalties. I can distribute the ball better, we can do different things in the run game. There’s a million things. There’s not one thing, and I think you just have to focus every single day on getting better, trusting the people around you and just do your best.”
It would be easy to spend all day picking apart what the Rams could do differently, but as Goff said, they are facing a myriad of issues. Although they have been trying to use Todd Gurley more lately, it seems that his body is just not able to keep up with the demand.
With Gurley being seldom utilized this year, most of the Rams offensive production has been placed on Goff’s shoulders. Unfortunately, he has not been able to perform at the rate he did last year. He is throwing at a lower completion rate and for fewer yards per attempt.
Of course, the Rams offensive line has gotten considerably younger with the departures of former center John Sullivan and left guard Rodger Saffold. In their place, a number of young players have been forced to step up, with no true starters emerging after a number of injuries.
In short, the Rams have not been able to play a consistent brand of football. Although they opened up 2019 with a three game winning streak, they soon followed it with a three game losing streak. Breaking even will not cut it for a team that was hoping to return to the Super Bowl. With a tough five game schedule for the remainder of the season, it will be interesting to see how they respond.
