The defending champions might lose their crown before the playoffs even begin if they continue to play like this. The Los Angeles Rams have lost another blowout game as the Dallas Cowboys went up to LA and turned it into a Dallas tailgate, winning 22-10.
First off, let me just say that LA is NOT a football city. In the three Los Angeles Rams home games I’ve watched this season, the Rams fans were outnumbered at least 3-1 in each of those games. It must be extremely frustrating for this Rams team to have to go into every home game with a silent count gameplan ready as they know their oppositions fans will seal out the stadium.
Even in the Super Bowl IN LOS ANGELES, the Rams fans were still outnumbered by the Bengals fans.
Sure, the Lakers and Dodgers get big, boisterous crowds on a nightly basis, but that’s it. I hate to say it to you, LA natives, but a lot of the people living there that ‘support’ the Rams either are lying or are really shallow. How can Sofi Stadium constantly get filled up with opposing fanbases if that’s not the case?
At this point, the Rams should have just stayed in St. Louis. They had a much more dedicated fanbase there.
Anyway, back to the game, this one was a blowout from the opening drive. On Matthew Stafford’s (28/42, 308 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT) third or fourth drop back of the game, his shacky O-Line once again gave up another sack as DE Dorance Armstrong Jr. shed his blockers and strip sacked Stafford, with DE Demarcus Lawrence picking up the loose ball and running into the endzone to give the Cowboys a 6-0 lead (the ensuing PAT was botched).
Then, on the very next possession, Armstrong Jr. again came up huge for the Cowboys as he shed his punt blockers this time and blocked the Rams punt, thus setting the Cowboys up with a shortened field that led to a field goal to extend the lead at 9-0.
What a dreadful start to the game by the defending Super Bowl champions.
Well, a good way to overcome a bad start is to feed the ball to Cooper Kupp. After a field goal to make it 9-3, Mattthew Stafford connected with Kupp across the middle of Dallas defense and outran the defensive backs to score a touchdown for LA.
The 35% of Sofi Stadium fans that actually supported the Rams went into an uproar as their Rams hit on one of the longest TD plays this Dallas defense has given up all season long. How would they ever recover from such a defensive blunder?
Oh, by obliterating Matthew Stafford and the Rams offensive line? Got it.
Led by Michah Parsons (5 tackles, 2 sacks), the Cowboys defense unleashed a furry upon the Rams offense as they ended up with 5 sacks, 6 TFL, 11 QB hits, 2 forced fumbles, a defensive TD, an INT, and a second half shutout. Simply dominating.
What’s even more impressive is that Micah Parsons, who’s easily the best defensive player in the NFL today, was INJURED this entire game and still had two sacks and a FF (forced fumble) on Stafford. This Dallas defense should end up as the best overall defense in the league this season, which is mainly down to the brilliance of their sophomore phenomenon.
Speaking of brilliance, Tony Pollard and Eziekiel Elliott wanted to showcase their own skills as they combined for 164 rushing yards and a touchdown to clinch the win for America’s Team. Tony Pollard’s 57-yard TD run not only won the game for the Cowboys and showed that the Rams defensive backfield has zero open-field tackling skills, but also that the Cowboys’ run game has ‘breakout’ speed again.
At this stage of Ezekiel Elliott’s career, he’s a grounding and pounding, short yardage back that is difficult to stop, but is not expected to break for 30–50-yard runs. However, Pollard is completely the opposite as he can break for huge gains, though finds it more challenging to rack up hard-earned yards. To Elliott and Pollard’s credit, these two have created one of the most dangerous backfields in football.
Nonetheless, the Cowboys tacked on two more field goals to make it a 22-10 game, while Matthew Stafford flustered with the pass rush in his face and threw a late INT and cough up a fumble to end this game.
I’ve got to give credit where credit is due, the Dallas Cowboys have overcome the loss of Dak Prescott with an enormous amount of poise. This win now puts them at 4-1, with Cooper Rush (10/16, 102 yards, 0 TD, 0 INT) undefeated as the Cowboys starter, and tied with the Giants for second place in the NFC East. With how this year is going, we really could see THREE teams from the NFC East make the playoffs this season.
I can’t believe I just said that.
As for the Rams, they’re becoming in real danger of missing out on the playoffs this season as they are now two games behind the Cowboys, Giants, and Packers for the three Wild Card spots. This roster has a lot of superstars, such as Donald, Ramsey, Wagner, Stafford, Kupp, Floyd, Robinson II, but the price of such luxury is that their depth is awful.
And with all of the injuries and offseason losses to starters the Rams have suffered, they are paying the price as they are now 2-3.
It would be a travesty for this organization to miss the playoffs a year after winning the Super Bowl, especially when the futures of team greats like Aaron Donald and Sean McVay are up in the air.
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