The Los Angeles Rams, preseason Super Bowl favorites for so many, unthinkably reside at the bottom of the NFC West after six weeks of the season.
Their fall to the divisional cellar was ensured by Sunday's 18-16 home loss to the Arizona Cardinals, a shocker that saw the Rams enter as 12.5-point favorites and leave defeated after offensive stagnation, costly errors and injuries proved too much to overcome.
"We won't win a game unless we figure out how not to beat ourselves," Rams head coach Sean McVay said to open his postgame news conference. "Just so many unforced errors, so many things that are not in alignment with what we want to do, specifically on the offensive side of the ball. ... We didn't do enough. I thought our defense did enough to keep us in the game, but anytime that we'd string a little bit of momentum, we'd turn it over, we'd take a negative. We jump offsides on a fourth-and-3 to put it to a fourth-and-8. We have a lot to look at ourselves on, and we have to be able to go back to the drawing board and figure out how we improve, to be able to not beat ourselves before we figure out how to even come away with some of the results."
It's not as if the Rams on Sunday simply let a previously one-win Cardinals team hang around too long -- they were in a true battle throughout. Los Angeles never held a lead of more than three points, and in the second half was only ahead for 49 seconds despite the Cardinals failing to score a touchdown for the game's entirety.
As Arizona managed field-goal drive after field-goal drive, forced to settle by L.A.'s defense but still adding points, the Rams proved confoundingly unable to find offensive consistency against a defense that entered Week 6 ranked last in points allowed and 26th in yards given up.
Kyren Williams and Blake Corum combined for 92 yards on 19 carries, and Matthew Stafford threw for 222 yards and two touchdowns on 25-of-33 passing, so the box score doesn't look too shabby, but countless drives were derailed before the Rams could score.
"It's not even good enough," McVay said. "I've got to do a much better job. There's nothing positive that I can say about today."
The Rams were unable to capitalize on a first-quarter Quentin Lake interception that set them up at Arizona's 32-yard line. They went just 6 yards before new addition Blake Grupe put them on the scoreboard with a 44-yard field goal. On the ensuing kickoff, Devin Duvernay broke free for 40 yards against a Rams special teams that has constantly cost L.A. Grupe, who was brought on to replace Harrison Mevis after Mevis started the year 5 of 9 on field-goal attempts, then hurt his knee while attempting to tackle Duvernay.
That resulted in the Rams going for a two-point conversion and failing after their first touchdown, and likely contributed to McVay going for it on fourth-and-1 from the Cardinals' 27-yard line later in the game -- resulting in a turnover on downs that ended the team's only third-quarter possession.
The Rams had something going again on their first drive of the fourth quarter, but Tyler Higbee fumbled away possession after a second-down catch. That gaffe came directly after Stafford fumbled on first down while stumbling to avoid a rush, though the ball found its way back to him. On the Rams' next possession, a false start by offensive lineman Warren McClendon backed them up another 5 yards on fourth-and-3, after which Stafford's fourth-and-8 dump-off to Williams fell incomplete.
Then, when the Rams finally pulled ahead on a clutch eight-play, 91-yard touchdown drive -- capped off with a go-ahead extra-point by their punter, Ethan Evans, they could not hold the Cardinals out of field-goal range with 47 seconds remaining. They instead allowed a 21-yard dart from Jacoby Brissett to Jalen Brooks on Arizona's first play, compounded by cornerback Josh Wallace's unnecessary roughness penalty tacking on another 15 yards down to the Rams' 29-yard line.
From there, the Cardinals ran a few plays and ran the clock down before kicker Chad Ryland delivered the dagger, a 43-yard game-winner.
"I'm not really sure. A lot of different guys are taking their turn, I've continued to talk about it," McVay said when asked about the team's self-inflicted issues. "We try to be able to harp on it. We've got to be able to figure it out. I don't have those answers now, otherwise it would be fixed."
Thus far, the Rams have fixed little, and Sunday's loss notably marked a departure from the Rams' previous defeats. The San Francisco 49ers, Denver Broncos and Buffalo Bills each previously vanquished L.A., but those three teams are considered formidable contenders.
The Cardinals were thought by many to represent an opportunity for the Rams to get back on track.
Instead, the Rams came derailed again, continuing a transformation from early favorite to huge question mark as the season marches toward its midpoint.
"You know, I'm not really sure," McVay said when asked if the outside noise throughout the offseason has potentially affected the Rams. "I don't worry about that, I just know we're not playing good enough football in general. Today wasn't good enough."
If the coming Sundays aren't good enough either, L.A.'s season could quickly devolve into one of the more eye-opening examples of a superteam falling short of great expectations.
