A win would change everything

The Rams aren’t finished yet and the 49ers are hardly the end of the road

Usually when a team loses as badly as the L.A. Rams did against the Arizona Cardinals, it is impossible for people to see back any further than the last game. But if you did look back, you’d remember that in Week 1 the Rams went to Detroit and pushed the Lions to the brink of a loss at home, and were essentially thwarted by bad luck on the coin toss.

If the Rams had received the ball in overtime, maybe they’d be 1-1 right now. If they had converted a third down or made one more stop on defense, maybe the Rams would be 1-1 right now.

Not just 1-1, but the Lions are supposed to be good. The Lions are supposed to be great.

That’s just one reason that as bad as things look and feel for the L.A. Rams as of Tuesday, just wait until we find out the results of the 49ers game and the outlook of certain injuries after Sunday before judging how “finished” the team is this season. Because if the Rams beat the 49ers, which is an entirely possible outcome despite doubts after a 41-10 loss that left several more key starters injured, or even if they don’t, L.A. has a few reasons to believe they can recover. Again.

It’s not all about the record

The Rams are 0-2 and yet it’s not the record that hurts. It’s the injuries, obviously. If not for the injuries, L.A.’s 0-2 would feel a lot better than say, the Broncos at 0-2 because they don’t have a quarterback who can throw past the offensive line. The Giants are 0-2 because, well, they’ve decided to be bad in both odd years and even years. If we were just talking about the first two games, the Rams 0-2 shouldn’t feel as disheartening as it might appear, because the Cardinals have actually been a respectable team since Kyler Murray returned in the middle of last season.

Arizona came close to beating the Bills in Buffalo in Week 1, they were excited to debut Marvin Harrison, Jr. at home in Week 2, we should not be surprised if the Cardinals reel off three wins in a row with the Lions and Commanders going to Glendale over the next two weeks.

The thing about the first two weeks that would give anyone pause to believe that Sean McVay is going to pull another quick turnaround out of his hat is the injuries.

The Injuries

Of their 11 projected starters on offense, the Rams will have seven on Sunday against the 49ers: QB Matthew Stafford, RB Kyren Williams, TE Colby Parkinson, WR Demarcus Robinson, RT Rob Havenstein, LT A.J. Jackson, RG Kevin Dotson

The major losses are WR Puka Nacua, WR Cooper Kupp, and LG Jonah Jackson, although Jackson didn’t have a great start to the season, and Beaux Limmer might be as adequate at center as Steve Avila might have been if L.A. stuck to their original plan.

It’s hard to quantify how significant the loss of Puka was in Week 1 because the Rams actually didn’t do anything to prepare for losing Nacua. They committed to Robinson as a WR3 instead of going on the market for another starting-level talent and drafted Jordan Whittington in the sixth round; there probably won’t ever be another Rams rookie receiver like Puka Nacua again, so expectations for Whittington must be kept as low as any other typical sixth round pick.

Once the Rams lost Nacua, they started to put everything on Kupp again, and he has almost immediately gone on injured reserve following that shift.

However, as long as the Rams have Sean McVay and Matthew Stafford, they have a chance to score. It’s not necessarily going to look like the Rams offense you expected at the start of the season, but McVay has proven efficient even when his top receiver is Tyler Higbee.

The Next Game

As bad as 0-2 feels, 1-2 would be amazing. Especially because it would mean that the Rams beat the 49ers and did it at SoFi Stadium.

Say what you must about McVay’s record against Kyle Shanahan (it’s not good) or how a less-than-healthy 49ers roster is still more talented than a very-unhealthy Rams roster, matchups in the NFC West are often much closer than anyone predicted them to be.

I don’t count last season’s finale as a real game, but in Week 2 last season, the Rams traded shot for shot with the 49ers and that was without Cooper Kupp.

Even if you called it lucky, even if you called it a fluke, if the Rams beat the 49ers in Week 3, you will breathe a sigh of relief. And you will start calculating the future schedule, even unfairly, and realize that the upcoming slate is totally survivable until Kupp, Nacua, Jackson, Avila, and Darious Williams might all return from IR, and maybe also Higbee from PUP:

The very-awful-looking Bears in Week 4. The Malik Willis Packers in Week 5. A bye week, a chance to get healthy, in Week 6. The Gardnew Minshew Raiders in Week 7. The Sam Darnold Vikings in Week 8.

Even if the Rams do lose to the 49ers and drop to 0-3, you could still probably rationalize a scenario in which L.A. goes 4-0 over the next month and then takes a 4-3 record into an NFC West game against the Seahawks—when the Rams are 75% healthier than they are now—that could completely change everyone’s opinion of how the 2024 season is going if McVay beats Seattle again.

He does it a lot.

So as hopeless as the Rams could look at their most hopeless moment, just remember that even in the worst case scenario of losing to the 49ers on Sunday, if that even happens, the season won’t end at 0-3. If the Rams win, beat the 49ers, and jump over them in the NFC West in a single stroke? Well, then you won’t be looking back anymore. You’ll be looking ahead. Again.