Rams’ Good, Bad, and Ugly: How is this the cheapest defense?

Magical defensive effort gets washed away with offensive disappearing act

The Los Angeles Rams currently have $190.7 million invested in their offense this year which is the second-highest paid offense in the league, but that unit only put up 15 points on Monday Night Football in a deflating loss against the Miami Dolphins. Meanwhile the league’s cheapest defense did everything they could possible do to keep LA in the game. Defense = Good, Offense = Bad, Losing = Ugly.

The Good

Rams officially have a top-10 defense

Sean McVay’s offense once again wasted a magical performance by Chris Shula’s defense on Monday Night Football. The Rams had a total of 10 tackles-for-loss, three sacks, and two turnovers. Jared Verse was an absolute game wrecker once again and was credited with a forced fumble and a recovery while Christian Rozeboom (you read that right) had not one, not two, but three passes defended and an interception that could have easily been two. Omar Speights, the undrafted rookie from LSU, was the lead tackler with eight combined tackles and helped hold De’Von Achane to just 37 yards on 12 attempts. Even the secondary, who many believe to be LA’s weakest unit, didn’t allow a single 100-yard receiver and held Tyreek Hill to just 16 yards and Jaylen Waddle to 34. On paper, Monday’s game shouldn’t have even been close with the defensive efforts put on by one the league’s youngest defenses. If the Rams have a chance to make the playoffs it will be because Shula’s defense is far outperforming all expectations.

Joshua Karty is the answer at kicker

It is hard not to talk about the kicker in a game where he was the only one scoring for the team… so here we are giving our respect to our rookie special teamer. Karty made five of his six field goal attempts with his only miss coming on a 57-yard attempt that he punched in easily from 52 before a Beaux Limmer false start negated the try. He was good from 34, 55, 53, 22, and 31-yards out.

The Bad

Matthew Stafford was off

We will get to the offensive line in a second, but regardless Matthew Stafford looked lost on primetime. He finished the game with a decent stat line (293 yards on 46 attempts) but finished with a QBR of just 77.5 and missed on a number of opportunities in the redzone that could have put his team back into the game. It seems like anytime LA gets in the 10-20 yard range this season Stafford has a knack for throwing the ball into the back of the endzone where no one has a chance to make a play on it. His biggest miss on the night came in the fourth quarter at Miami’s 4-yard line where Kyren Williams came untouched and unguarded out of the backfield and should have been an easy dink-and-dunk touchdown but ended in an incomplete pass to Demarcus Robinson.

Kyren Williams fumbles again

Is it an overreaction to fear that Kyren Williams in Cam Akers 2.0? Akers was becoming a star for LA before tearing his Achilles in the preseason of LA’s Super Bowl season but found a way to miraculously make it back on to the field by the playoffs. He very nearly single-handedly cost the Rams the Divisional round against Tom Brady’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers with two unforgettable fumbles. In just nine games Williams has already fumbled three times which matches the amount of fumbles he had in the entirety of 2023. Blake Corum may get some more opportunities if McVay cannot trust Williams to secure the ball which just feels like Deja-vu all over again.

The Ugly

Apart from Rob Havenstein, the Rams offense had all of their weapons back from injury on the offensive line—what did that look like? Stafford was sacked four times, hit six times, the ball batted at the line twice, two horrific snaps, and seven tackles-for-loss. Meanwhile Limmer and Justin Dedich watched their quarterback get harassed after the duo allowed only one sack in three games as starters. Maybe it was rust, maybe it was cohesion, but whatever it was we will learn quickly about how McVay felt about it when the starting lineup is released ahead of their matchup against the New England Patriots on Sunday.