INGLEWOOD — Little has gone the Rams’ way through the first five weeks of the season. Not the bounces of the football, nor the calls from the doctor. Not even the flip of a coin before overtime in Week 1.
But perhaps this 1-4 football team will finally catch a break, in the form of a break.
The bye week is here for the Rams, earlier than in most years. And perhaps that random act of scheduling is coming at the right time for a team limping both literally and figuratively.
The literal limps have hung over the entire season. So perhaps it was no surprise that health was top of mind for head coach Sean McVay when asked if the early bye is a good thing for his team.
The Rams hope to get receiver Cooper Kupp back from his ankle sprain in time for their Week 7 game against the Las Vegas Raiders. The standout receiver has missed the last three games, and the Rams kept him off injured reserve in the hopes that he could play against Vegas.
McVay said Monday that Week 7 is “an ideal target” for Kupp. But he had not spoken with the training staff about Kupp’s rehab progress this week, and was unsure if the receiver was on track to practice in a week. And while receiver Puka Nacua (PCL sprain) and interior offensive lineman Steve Avila (MCL sprain) are eligible to return from IR in Week 7, both appear to have longer recovery timelines than that.
But if injury luck doesn’t completely turn around in the next two weeks, there are still ways that the bye could be a net positive.
“What I think it does serve as a good time is, after five games where we’re obviously not where we want to be, how can we look at ourselves critically?” McVay said. “How can we identify some of the things that we need to do with the 12 games remaining to be able to play more quality football that’s in alignment with what we’re capable of and what we’ve seen when we’re operating at our best here?”
The mistakes that have sunk the Rams aren’t hard to identify. Missed assignments in pass coverage. Leaving their lanes in run coverage. Allowing quarterback Matthew Stafford to get hit 33 times in five games, according to Pro Football Focus. Failing to convert in the red zone.
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Finding the fixes to those mistakes is a harder task, as McVay acknowledged. The Rams appeared to make progress in the red zone, turning two of three trips into touchdowns in Sunday’s 24-19 loss to the Green Bay Packers. Other solutions are still to be determined. Especially after another rough outing left Stafford with back soreness, though McVay said that shouldn’t impact his availability against the Raiders.
McVay wants to spend the bye reflecting on how he and his coaching staff can better communicate with this team. But perhaps something as simple as time away can benefit a team dwelling on miscues.
“I feel like it’s a good spot to kind of take a break,” outside linebacker Jared Verse said. “Everybody take a little minute to reset and everything like that and then come back harder. We’re 1-4 now, we could easily be 4-1. A play here, a play there, this pass caught, this pass deflected. I think we just need a minute to kind of flip it around.”
So it’s early, but is the bye coming at the right time for these Rams?
“I don’t know,” Stafford said before adding with a wry smile, “We’ll see.”