LOS ANGELES — Perhaps it’s fitting that the Rams find themselves facing the Green Bay Packers this week.
Last season, the Packers game represented the Rams’ rock bottom. The 20-3 road loss in which the offense failed to score a touchdown or surpass 200 total yards was the second straight “humbling” performance in head coach Sean McVay’s estimation, and dropped the Rams to 3-6. They spent the bye week in reflection, and were able to turn their season around, winning seven of their next eight to make the playoffs.
Now, as the Rams prepare to host the Packers (2-2), they hope they’ve reached their nadir. They are 1-3, coming off a different kind of disappointing offensive performance in which they turned only one of four red-zone trips into touchdowns. And they are hoping to create some kind of momentum heading into next week’s bye instead of again falling three games below .500.
But as to how much the Rams can lean on that experience, McVay isn’t so sure. NFL teams are different from year to year. But that doesn’t mean their aren’t lessons to glean as the Rams try to turn their season around.
“That team did a great job of being able to stay in the fight, play their best ball after the bye. That led to some continuity. I thought we were able to build as that season went on and I thought we played quality football even if we weren’t always getting the results,” McVay said. “That’s the thing that I want to see. … The guys that were a part of it, I think can draw some confidence from it and then bring the other guys that maybe weren’t a part of it with them to see if we give ourselves a chance to reflect the things that we’re hunting up.”
The red-zone shortcomings were an emphasis this week in practice. So was clean play in the secondary after three penalties in the second quarter allowed the Bears to take the lead last weekend heading into halftime.
“We’re past five [yards], we’re making contact, we’re grabbing outside of our frame as opposed to staying connected to a player, especially when they get in and out of phase in some of their route transitions,” McVay said. “It’s really playing with the techniques and the fundamentals that are in alignment with being able to play competitive football.”
But there’s also a sense of trying to catch up for some lost time. A year ago, McVay noted, the Rams were relatively healthy. That allowed them to grow together from the start of training camp into the heart of the season, and develop a short-hand that helped coaches effectively communicate with players, and players with each other.
That good health has obviously not carried over to 2024, with receivers, offensive line and defensive backs devastated by injuries. This has hampered some of that development, and most of the reinforcements the Rams need won’t come back until after the bye, or a few weeks later than that.
But, the NFL doesn’t wait for teams to get healthy. And the Rams can’t wait much longer to turn their season around, either.
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“I think it’s just a little bit more of a sense of urgency,” running back Kyren Williams said. “We’re fine where we’re at; we’re 1-3, we got a whole lot of season left. The things that we do moving forward are dictated on us and how we approach every day with a sense of urgency. It’s not a do-or-die, but we gotta get on that road and go make this happen. We can’t keep, ‘Oh, we’ll be better next week.’ No, we gotta go take advantage of the opportunities that we have in front of us and go on out there every single week like it’s our last week.”
GREEN BAY PACKERS (2-2) at RAMS (1-3)
When: 1:25 p.m. Sunday
Where: SoFi Stadium
TV/radio: CBS (Ch. 2)/710 AM; 93.1 FM; 1330 AM (Spanish); Sirius 229, 381