Turf Show Times
The Los Angeles Rams won an ugly game on Sunday against the Houston Texans, winning 14-9. It wasn’t pretty, but it was enough. The defense stood out while the offense did what was needed. Sean McVay improves to 7-2 in season openers and the Rams start off on the right foot in what some believe can be a Super Bowl campaign. Let’s jump in to our 10 takeaways.
All offseason, the narrative was how bad the Rams defense was. There was the quote from The Athletic’s Derrick Klassen, “This defense still sucks. Like it’s not good.” It was hyperbolic at the time and it remains so 3.5 months later. The Rams defense was outstanding on Sunday. They were the primary reason that the game remained manageable in the first half while the offense was nowhere to be found. It wasn’t until less than two minutes to go in the first half that the Rams scored their first points. The Kyren Williams touchdown put the Rams in the lead.
The Rams were the sixth-best defense in the NFL in Week 1, finishing with an EPA per play of -0.145. Their 36.5 percent success rate allowed ranked third-best in the league. And then there’s this stat. From 2017-2023, the Rams were 0-19 in the regular season when scoring 14 points or less. Since losing to the Arizona Cardinals 41-10 last year, the Rams are 3-0. The Rams have held five of their last seven opponents under 10 points, and that includes the Seattle game with backups last year. This defense deserves way more credit than it’s getting.
There was some speculation this year that the Rams were going to rotate their running backs more than past years. To start the game, Cody Schrader got the nod over Jarquez Hunter who was inactive. The reasoning here was very clearly that Schrader provides more value on special teams. At the same time, Hunter was drafted for his explosive ability. By not having Hunter available, that part of the run game is taken away completely.
This isn’t to say that Hunter needs to be a featured piece of the offense. The more bothersome personnel decision is Colby Parkinson getting more playing time than Terrance Ferguson. Still, it would be nice to see Hunter at least available on game days.
At times during the Matthew Stafford era with the Rams, the offense has become overly reliant on one player. When that one player is gone, the offense can go dark. That was the case on Sunday against the Texans and wide receiver Puka Nacua. Nacua left the game early to get stitches and checked for a concussion after he took a big hit. When Nacua left, the Rams offense felt disjointed. It didn’t help that two big plays by Jordan Whittington got called back. At the same time, the offense couldn’t...
