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The Los Angeles Rams defense of their Super Bowl championship from the 2021 season has gone poorly to say the least. The Rams are just 3-5 on the season, and have looked nothing like the team that was crowned as the best team in the league less than a year ago. There is still time for them to turn things around, but the Rams struggles in the early going are very concerning.
The Rams haven't looked like themselves on either side of the ball this season. Moving the ball on offense has been a chore for Matthew Stafford and company, and the defense hasn't looked capable of picking up the offense when needed to. Unless things change, and soon, Los Angeles figures to be in some serious trouble throughout the rest of the season.
Many pieces of the Rams horrid start to the season have been surprising, but it's clear one area of the struggles have been much more surprising than the rest of the bunch. Let's take a look at what that big surprise is and see why it has hurt Los Angeles so much through the first half of the 2022 season.
Rams biggest surprise: Matthew Stafford's struggles
The Rams made a shocking trade during the 2021 offseason in which they sent Jared Goff, a pair of first round picks in 2022 and 2023, and a 2021 third-round pick to the Detroit Lions in return for Stafford. The deal seemed like a complete overpay by the Rams, as Stafford had been a decent quarterback throughout his career with the Lions, but never was able to lead his teams to postseason success.
And of course, Stafford ended up leading the Rams to a Super Bowl victory in his first season with the team. Stafford got help thanks to a historic season from Cooper Kupp at wide receiver and a deadly defense, and the end result was the first championship of his career. With not much on their roster changing from one season to the next, the Rams were widely expected to be a title contender once again this year.
As we have already established, though, they are sitting with a sub .500 record as we enter the second half of the season. And a big reason why that's the case is because Stafford has struggled so badly under center for the Rams this season. Just one season after winning a title, Stafford has been unrecognizable this season.
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Stafford's numbers through eight games are extremely concerning. He has taken a huge step back across the board this season (195/285, 1928 YDS, 8 TD, 8 INT) and has been one of the least effective quarterbacks in the league. When you take away Kupp's production at wide receiver (72 REC, 813 YDS, 6 TD) Stafford is practically unplayable.
It's not as if Stafford is alone in his struggles, as no one aside from Kupp has stepped up to help out on offense, the running game has been one of the worst in the league, and Stafford's offensive line isn't doing a good job of protecting him. But Stafford often managed to keep worse Lions teams competitive; it's not as if this Rams team is that much different than the one that just won a championship.
The biggest issue with Stafford is that he constantly locks onto Kupp the second he gets the ball. This isn't outrageous, as Kupp is his favorite target, and arguably the best wide receiver in the NFL right now. But opposing defenses are giving Kupp tons of attention because they know Stafford is looking his way every play, and because they know no one else can beat them right now.
The Rams tried to replace Odell Beckham Jr., who became a strong secondary target alongside Kupp last season, with Allen Robinson, but he has been a complete flop so far. Van Jefferson is the third wideout, but he's only played two games this season, and has failed to make a single catch yet. Tyler Higbee and Ben Skowronek have been OK secondary options this year, but they aren't going to win games for the Rams.
Stafford's relationship with Kupp is really the only thing keeping this offense afloat, and every team knows this. It's difficult to slow down Kupp, but when opposing defenses don't have to worry about anyone else, it's becoming an easier task than it once was. Conversely, that slows down Stafford because of how much he relies on Kupp.
Stafford got by last season relying on Kupp, but he simply hasn't been the same passer this season. Not all of it is his fault, but Stafford has to shoulder a large piece of L.A.'s first half struggles. Unless they can bring in another target like Beckham, who is still a free agent, this will likely end up going down as a lost season for the Rams.
