I had to sleep on this one, otherwise it would have read, " 10 Observations, Fire everyone"
Also, I think this will be a weekly thread after every game. Enjoy!
They're 1-2, but their two losses came against San Francisco and Denver — two teams that are going to make life difficult for just about anyone. The problem isn't that the Rams don't have enough talent. The problem is that they're making too many mistakes in critical situations.
Against Denver, the Rams had a 16-point lead at halftime, led 19-16 early in the fourth quarter, and then retook the lead 26-23 with 3:38 remaining.
They still lost.
That's not a talent problem.
That's a finish-the-fucking-game problem.
Matthew Stafford threw for 390 yards and two touchdowns, Davante Adams went for 137 yards, Kyren Williams produced 158 yards from scrimmage, and the Rams moved the ball well enough to score 26 points against a defense that has been one of the better units in football.
But Denver made the plays when it mattered most.
That's what the Rams need to clean up.
Because defenses are going to have a fucking nightmare trying to figure that out. Adams has been ridiculous over the last two games. Against the Giants, he went 8-195-2. Against Denver, he followed that up with 7-137. That's 15 catches for 332 yards over two games, averaging 22.1 yards per reception. And remember, Denver knew exactly where the ball was going to be going. Adams still produced.
Through three games, Adams has 18 catches for 358 yards, averaging 19.9 yards per catch. He has seven catches of 20-plus yards already, including two receptions of 40-plus.
Now add Puka back into that offense. You can't double Adams without leaving Puka somewhere. You can't consistently double Puka without giving Adams opportunities. And if defenses start playing softer coverage to prevent explosives, Stafford has shown he's perfectly capable of taking the underneath stuff and letting these guys run after the catch.
That is going to be a very difficult offense to defend once everybody is healthy.
But there's a difference between continuing to run something that's working and becoming predictable. I mentioned this in another thread, and Denver was the perfect example: that mentality might work against bad teams or defensive coordinators who aren't adjusting quickly enough. It isn't going to work against Denver. The Broncos have had one of the league's better defenses over the last several seasons, and Asshole Face's defense eventually figured out what the Rams were trying to do.
The pick-six is the perfect example.
The Rams had run that concept successfully earlier in the game. Denver recognized the tendency, baited Stafford into believing the same look was available, and Talanoa Hufanga took it 66 yards the other way. Stafford obviously deserves blame for the throw, but this isn't just about the quarterback.
Defensive play recognition is real.
NFL defensive coordinators watch tendencies. They study formations, motion, route combinations and down-and-distance tendencies. If you keep giving them the same answers, eventually they're going to have the answer key. This is also why I think Raheem Morris gives McVay problems. Morris knows McVay extremely well. He understands what McVay is trying to create and can anticipate some of the concepts before they happen.
McVay needs to break those tendencies. And this is where I want his offensive staff in his ear during games. When they see the defense starting to anticipate something, somebody needs to be saying:
"They're sitting on this. Give them something different."
Great offenses don't just execute. They manipulate defenses.
Then the second half happened.
And there it was:
The soft zone.
Forbes being Forbes. Defenders passing receivers off. Safeties not picking up the next responsibility. And Denver finding holes in the coverage. One play in particular really stood out to me, where Trent McDuffie passed his receiver off to Cam Curl and the coverage broke down, resulting in a huge gain at a critical point in the game.
That's the frustrating part.
These aren't rookies who just walked into the building. Players who have been in this system for multiple seasons should understand these coverage rules by now.
And McDuffie clearly seemed to understand what his responsibility was.
Maybe that's the difference between an All-Pro-level player and a merely good player — when the shit hits the fan, the great players still know exactly what they're supposed to do.
The bigger question is why Shula changed his approach.
Did Jaylen Watson's injury force him to change the coverage structure?
Did he lose confidence in the personnel?
Or did he simply fall back into the tendencies we've seen from him before?
That's something we're going to have to watch. Because with the amount of talent the Rams have on this defense, I don't think there's much excuse for giving up 24 points in two quarters after holding Denver scoreless for the entire first half.
Through the first three weeks, McDuffie has been one of the best corners in football by PFF's grading. After his ridiculous Week 2 performance against the Giants, PFF gave him a 94.0 coverage grade, the best individual coverage performance in the NFL that week.
He was targeted five times and allowed zero receptions, while recording three pass breakups and an interception.
And through the first two games, he had allowed just one reception for 13 yards.
That's fucking nuts.
The Rams traded for McDuffie because they needed somebody who could erase people on the outside.
So far, he's doing exactly that.
And this is why I keep coming back to the defensive philosophy.
Why are you playing elite man-to-man corners like they're afraid of getting beat?
Let these guys fucking play.
If McDuffie continues at anything remotely close to this level, we're talking about a player who could eventually have a legitimate argument as one of the best corners to ever wear a Rams uniform. It's obviously way too early for that conversation.
But the talent is obvious.
The jump cuts.
The route running.
The blocking.
The vision.
The physicality.
Everything was working.
Williams finished with 15 carries for 88 yards and added six catches for 70 yards, giving him 158 total yards. His 30-yard run was the longest rushing play of the game for either team. And that's the part I really liked. He wasn't just running the football. He was impacting the game everywhere.
His pass protection was outstanding, his routes looked crisp and he was making smart decisions with the football.
Yes, I know people are going to point at the fumble in the Giants game, I'm not going to pretend it didn't happen. But context matters.
That fumble was his first since October 2, 2025 against the 49ers — a span of 354 days. In between those two fumbles, he went essentially an entire calendar year without putting the ball on the ground.
And the Giants fumble itself was a great defensive play. Williams had both arms around the football and was being stood up when the defender punched it out. I'd rather focus on the fact that Williams looked like an absolute dog for most of the night. His football IQ is one of the most underrated parts of his game.
The decision to field that punt at the 2-yard line was brutal. Maybe he's pressing. Maybe he thinks he can make a play. Maybe it's simply a bad decision.
Whatever the reason, these are the kinds of mistakes that can't happen repeatedly when you're playing meaningful football. And that's the problem with the Rams' returner situation:
Who do you replace him with?
You have other options, but none of them exactly scream "problem solved."
You could potentially use someone like Connors, who has already contributed on special teams, but then you're asking another young player to take on an important role.
And I don't necessarily want Kyren Williams returning punts.
Do you really want your No. 1 running back taking hits on special teams?
I don't.
The other issue is that McVay clearly sees value in Smith offensively. He's a good blocker for his size and can be used in specific offensive packages.
So I understand why McVay keeps him active. But there's a point where the mistakes on special teams outweigh the offensive utility.
So what is it?
Personnel?
Coaching?
Both?
Right now, the Rams are sitting at or near the bottom of the league in special-teams performance, which is unfortunately becoming a familiar trend. I'm still willing to give Bubba Ventrone some time. He's a respected special-teams coach, and I don't think it's fair to make a final judgment after three games. But I'd give it until around the midpoint of the season.
If we're still watching poor decisions, bad lane integrity, coverage breakdowns and questionable return decisions every week, then we're going to have to start asking whether the problem is deeper than coaching.
Because at some point, if a respected coach consistently has bad special teams, you have to look at the players he's being given.
Maybe Bubba isn't the problem. Maybe he simply doesn't have the horses.
And if that's the case, it's going to show up on Sundays.
I'm trying to be nice here, but why is this guy a special-teams gunner when he clearly doesn't seem comfortable initiating contact?
That's literally part of the job.
And then you have the problem of him running out of bounds on the punt and failing to get himself back in bounds, resulting in a penalty that gave Denver even more field position.
Those are football-IQ mistakes.
They're not talent mistakes.
They're "I need to know the fucking rules" mistakes.
And then there's the coverage issue. The historical PFF split you referenced has Forbes at roughly 62.4 in man coverage versus 49.9 in zone coverage. That's a pretty significant difference, and it makes sense when you watch him. I don't hate him in man or match concepts where he can use his athletic ability and play the receiver directly.
But traditional zone coverage?
That's where things start getting ugly.
So why does Shula keep putting him in situations where his weaknesses are being exposed?
And here's my question:
Is Cam Lampkin really not better than this? Is he incapable of being a gunner? Is there genuinely nobody else on the roster who can provide more physicality and awareness on special teams?
I'm not saying Lampkin is automatically the answer. I'm saying I'd like to see the Rams find out.
Because right now, Forbes is giving me very little reason to believe he's the or an answer.
Because this isn't just Denver.
This has become a pattern.
Over the last three seasons, the Rams have had multiple games where they've held fourth-quarter leads and ultimately lost. A 2024 season review had them at two blown fourth-quarter leads. In 2025, they blew three fourth-quarter leads. And now Denver has added another one in 2026.
But here's the more alarming statistic:
Since the start of the 2025 season, the Rams have now blown three separate leads of at least 16 points.
Rams led by 19 points in the third quarter before losing 33-26. Philadelphia scored 26 unanswered points.
2025 — Seattle:
Rams led 30-14 with under 8:30 remaining in the fourth quarter and somehow lost 38-37 in overtime.
2026 — Denver:
Rams led 16-0 at halftime, were outscored 16-0 in the third quarter, and ultimately lost 30-26.
That's three losses after holding 16+ point leads in roughly a season's worth of football.
And here's the part that really puts it into perspective: according to a recent breakdown, the Rams had only four games from 2000-2024 in which they led by at least 16 points and still lost.
They've now done it three times since the beginning of 2025.
That's not random anymore. Something is happening.
Is it offensive play-calling becoming predictable? Is McVay getting too conservative with a lead? Is the defense reverting to soft zone? Is the special teams unit putting the defense in shitty field position? Are players pressing because they know they're supposed to protect the lead?
Is it some combination of all of it?
I don't know yet.
But I do know this:
The Rams have to figure out how to put teams away. Because you can't expect Stafford to bail you out every single time. You can't expect Kyren to carry the offense every time. You can't expect McDuffie to erase half the field. And you can't expect the defense to survive giving up explosive plays late in games.
The Rams are talented enough to win these games. They're just not consistently finishing them. And until that changes, we're going to keep having this exact same fucking conversation.
The talent is there, the offensive weapons are there. Stafford is still capable of throwing the football all over the field. Adams looks rejuvenated. Kyren looks like one of the most complete backs in football. McDuffie looks like a legitimate shutdown corner.
But the Rams are at the part of the season where "we're talented" stops being enough. Good teams make plays, great teams make adjustments., and championship teams close games.
Right now, the Rams are still trying to figure out which one of those teams they're going to be.
Also, I think this will be a weekly thread after every game. Enjoy!
1. The Rams Are Still Good
Let's start with the obvious: the Rams are still a good football team.They're 1-2, but their two losses came against San Francisco and Denver — two teams that are going to make life difficult for just about anyone. The problem isn't that the Rams don't have enough talent. The problem is that they're making too many mistakes in critical situations.
Against Denver, the Rams had a 16-point lead at halftime, led 19-16 early in the fourth quarter, and then retook the lead 26-23 with 3:38 remaining.
They still lost.
That's not a talent problem.
That's a finish-the-fucking-game problem.
Matthew Stafford threw for 390 yards and two touchdowns, Davante Adams went for 137 yards, Kyren Williams produced 158 yards from scrimmage, and the Rams moved the ball well enough to score 26 points against a defense that has been one of the better units in football.
But Denver made the plays when it mattered most.
That's what the Rams need to clean up.
2. Davante Adams Is a Damn Beast
I'm really looking forward to getting Puka Nacua and Davante Adams on the field together again.Because defenses are going to have a fucking nightmare trying to figure that out. Adams has been ridiculous over the last two games. Against the Giants, he went 8-195-2. Against Denver, he followed that up with 7-137. That's 15 catches for 332 yards over two games, averaging 22.1 yards per reception. And remember, Denver knew exactly where the ball was going to be going. Adams still produced.
Through three games, Adams has 18 catches for 358 yards, averaging 19.9 yards per catch. He has seven catches of 20-plus yards already, including two receptions of 40-plus.
Now add Puka back into that offense. You can't double Adams without leaving Puka somewhere. You can't consistently double Puka without giving Adams opportunities. And if defenses start playing softer coverage to prevent explosives, Stafford has shown he's perfectly capable of taking the underneath stuff and letting these guys run after the catch.
That is going to be a very difficult offense to defend once everybody is healthy.
3. Play-Calling & Adjustments — Offense
I'm all for the "if it isn't broken, don't fix it" mentality.But there's a difference between continuing to run something that's working and becoming predictable. I mentioned this in another thread, and Denver was the perfect example: that mentality might work against bad teams or defensive coordinators who aren't adjusting quickly enough. It isn't going to work against Denver. The Broncos have had one of the league's better defenses over the last several seasons, and Asshole Face's defense eventually figured out what the Rams were trying to do.
The pick-six is the perfect example.
The Rams had run that concept successfully earlier in the game. Denver recognized the tendency, baited Stafford into believing the same look was available, and Talanoa Hufanga took it 66 yards the other way. Stafford obviously deserves blame for the throw, but this isn't just about the quarterback.
Defensive play recognition is real.
NFL defensive coordinators watch tendencies. They study formations, motion, route combinations and down-and-distance tendencies. If you keep giving them the same answers, eventually they're going to have the answer key. This is also why I think Raheem Morris gives McVay problems. Morris knows McVay extremely well. He understands what McVay is trying to create and can anticipate some of the concepts before they happen.
McVay needs to break those tendencies. And this is where I want his offensive staff in his ear during games. When they see the defense starting to anticipate something, somebody needs to be saying:
"They're sitting on this. Give them something different."
Great offenses don't just execute. They manipulate defenses.
4. Play-Calling & Adjustments — Defense
This one is even more concerning. Shula really surprised me against the Giants and through the first half of Denver. The Rams were aggressive, played more man coverage and generally looked like a defense that wanted to dictate instead of react.Then the second half happened.
And there it was:
The soft zone.
Forbes being Forbes. Defenders passing receivers off. Safeties not picking up the next responsibility. And Denver finding holes in the coverage. One play in particular really stood out to me, where Trent McDuffie passed his receiver off to Cam Curl and the coverage broke down, resulting in a huge gain at a critical point in the game.
That's the frustrating part.
These aren't rookies who just walked into the building. Players who have been in this system for multiple seasons should understand these coverage rules by now.
And McDuffie clearly seemed to understand what his responsibility was.
Maybe that's the difference between an All-Pro-level player and a merely good player — when the shit hits the fan, the great players still know exactly what they're supposed to do.
The bigger question is why Shula changed his approach.
Did Jaylen Watson's injury force him to change the coverage structure?
Did he lose confidence in the personnel?
Or did he simply fall back into the tendencies we've seen from him before?
That's something we're going to have to watch. Because with the amount of talent the Rams have on this defense, I don't think there's much excuse for giving up 24 points in two quarters after holding Denver scoreless for the entire first half.
5. Trent McDuffie Is Exactly What the Rams Thought They Were Getting
This dude is as advertised.Through the first three weeks, McDuffie has been one of the best corners in football by PFF's grading. After his ridiculous Week 2 performance against the Giants, PFF gave him a 94.0 coverage grade, the best individual coverage performance in the NFL that week.
He was targeted five times and allowed zero receptions, while recording three pass breakups and an interception.
And through the first two games, he had allowed just one reception for 13 yards.
That's fucking nuts.
The Rams traded for McDuffie because they needed somebody who could erase people on the outside.
So far, he's doing exactly that.
And this is why I keep coming back to the defensive philosophy.
Why are you playing elite man-to-man corners like they're afraid of getting beat?
Let these guys fucking play.
If McDuffie continues at anything remotely close to this level, we're talking about a player who could eventually have a legitimate argument as one of the best corners to ever wear a Rams uniform. It's obviously way too early for that conversation.
But the talent is obvious.
6. Kyren Williams Looked Like a Complete Running Back
I don't know what they put in Kyren Williams' water Sunday night, but I've honestly never seen him look that dynamic.The jump cuts.
The route running.
The blocking.
The vision.
The physicality.
Everything was working.
Williams finished with 15 carries for 88 yards and added six catches for 70 yards, giving him 158 total yards. His 30-yard run was the longest rushing play of the game for either team. And that's the part I really liked. He wasn't just running the football. He was impacting the game everywhere.
His pass protection was outstanding, his routes looked crisp and he was making smart decisions with the football.
Yes, I know people are going to point at the fumble in the Giants game, I'm not going to pretend it didn't happen. But context matters.
That fumble was his first since October 2, 2025 against the 49ers — a span of 354 days. In between those two fumbles, he went essentially an entire calendar year without putting the ball on the ground.
And the Giants fumble itself was a great defensive play. Williams had both arms around the football and was being stood up when the defender punched it out. I'd rather focus on the fact that Williams looked like an absolute dog for most of the night. His football IQ is one of the most underrated parts of his game.
7. We Need to Talk About Xavier Smith
At this point, I'm pretty close to saying Xavier Smith should be riding the bench as the primary returner.The decision to field that punt at the 2-yard line was brutal. Maybe he's pressing. Maybe he thinks he can make a play. Maybe it's simply a bad decision.
Whatever the reason, these are the kinds of mistakes that can't happen repeatedly when you're playing meaningful football. And that's the problem with the Rams' returner situation:
Who do you replace him with?
You have other options, but none of them exactly scream "problem solved."
You could potentially use someone like Connors, who has already contributed on special teams, but then you're asking another young player to take on an important role.
And I don't necessarily want Kyren Williams returning punts.
Do you really want your No. 1 running back taking hits on special teams?
I don't.
The other issue is that McVay clearly sees value in Smith offensively. He's a good blocker for his size and can be used in specific offensive packages.
So I understand why McVay keeps him active. But there's a point where the mistakes on special teams outweigh the offensive utility.
8. Special Teams Coaching Is Becoming a Bigger Question
Let's face it, since Bones left, the Rams haven't exactly been a model of special-teams consistency. They've gone through multiple special teams coordinators, and we're still having the same conversation.So what is it?
Personnel?
Coaching?
Both?
Right now, the Rams are sitting at or near the bottom of the league in special-teams performance, which is unfortunately becoming a familiar trend. I'm still willing to give Bubba Ventrone some time. He's a respected special-teams coach, and I don't think it's fair to make a final judgment after three games. But I'd give it until around the midpoint of the season.
If we're still watching poor decisions, bad lane integrity, coverage breakdowns and questionable return decisions every week, then we're going to have to start asking whether the problem is deeper than coaching.
Because at some point, if a respected coach consistently has bad special teams, you have to look at the players he's being given.
Maybe Bubba isn't the problem. Maybe he simply doesn't have the horses.
And if that's the case, it's going to show up on Sundays.
9. Emmanuel Forbes — Can We Just Stop?
Can we just fucking cut Emmanuel Forbes?I'm trying to be nice here, but why is this guy a special-teams gunner when he clearly doesn't seem comfortable initiating contact?
That's literally part of the job.
And then you have the problem of him running out of bounds on the punt and failing to get himself back in bounds, resulting in a penalty that gave Denver even more field position.
Those are football-IQ mistakes.
They're not talent mistakes.
They're "I need to know the fucking rules" mistakes.
And then there's the coverage issue. The historical PFF split you referenced has Forbes at roughly 62.4 in man coverage versus 49.9 in zone coverage. That's a pretty significant difference, and it makes sense when you watch him. I don't hate him in man or match concepts where he can use his athletic ability and play the receiver directly.
But traditional zone coverage?
That's where things start getting ugly.
So why does Shula keep putting him in situations where his weaknesses are being exposed?
And here's my question:
Is Cam Lampkin really not better than this? Is he incapable of being a gunner? Is there genuinely nobody else on the roster who can provide more physicality and awareness on special teams?
I'm not saying Lampkin is automatically the answer. I'm saying I'd like to see the Rams find out.
Because right now, Forbes is giving me very little reason to believe he's the or an answer.
10. The Rams Have a "Putting Teams Away" Problem
This is the one that concerns me the most.Because this isn't just Denver.
This has become a pattern.
Over the last three seasons, the Rams have had multiple games where they've held fourth-quarter leads and ultimately lost. A 2024 season review had them at two blown fourth-quarter leads. In 2025, they blew three fourth-quarter leads. And now Denver has added another one in 2026.
But here's the more alarming statistic:
Since the start of the 2025 season, the Rams have now blown three separate leads of at least 16 points.
The collapses:
2025 — Philadelphia:Rams led by 19 points in the third quarter before losing 33-26. Philadelphia scored 26 unanswered points.
2025 — Seattle:
Rams led 30-14 with under 8:30 remaining in the fourth quarter and somehow lost 38-37 in overtime.
2026 — Denver:
Rams led 16-0 at halftime, were outscored 16-0 in the third quarter, and ultimately lost 30-26.
That's three losses after holding 16+ point leads in roughly a season's worth of football.
And here's the part that really puts it into perspective: according to a recent breakdown, the Rams had only four games from 2000-2024 in which they led by at least 16 points and still lost.
They've now done it three times since the beginning of 2025.
That's not random anymore. Something is happening.
Is it offensive play-calling becoming predictable? Is McVay getting too conservative with a lead? Is the defense reverting to soft zone? Is the special teams unit putting the defense in shitty field position? Are players pressing because they know they're supposed to protect the lead?
Is it some combination of all of it?
I don't know yet.
But I do know this:
The Rams have to figure out how to put teams away. Because you can't expect Stafford to bail you out every single time. You can't expect Kyren to carry the offense every time. You can't expect McDuffie to erase half the field. And you can't expect the defense to survive giving up explosive plays late in games.
The Rams are talented enough to win these games. They're just not consistently finishing them. And until that changes, we're going to keep having this exact same fucking conversation.
Final Thought
I'm not panicking over a 1-2 start.The talent is there, the offensive weapons are there. Stafford is still capable of throwing the football all over the field. Adams looks rejuvenated. Kyren looks like one of the most complete backs in football. McDuffie looks like a legitimate shutdown corner.
But the Rams are at the part of the season where "we're talented" stops being enough. Good teams make plays, great teams make adjustments., and championship teams close games.
Right now, the Rams are still trying to figure out which one of those teams they're going to be.
Last edited:
