Los Angeles Rams: Brandon Allen proves to be surprise winner of preseason Week 1

As bad as the Los Angeles Rams looked overall in their preseason loss to the Baltimore Ravens, at least Brandon Allen put together a solid performance on his own.

To say the Los Angeles Rams looked horrendous during Thursday’s 33-7 loss to the Baltimore Ravens would be a major understatement, even if the team deserves some benefit of the doubt for resting just about all of their starters.

The fact that it took the Rams until late in the fourth quarter to put up their first points of the game shows how this was a rough outing to forget, but also can be used as a learning lesson. While most fans don’t view the preseason as a big deal, Thursday’s game was somewhat concerning for Los Angeles since some of their backup players may not be as reliable as originally expected.

Take Sean Mannion for instance, as the Rams seemed quite confident that he was the right man for the job of backing up Jared Goff. But after completing just 3-of-13 passes for 16 yards with an interception against Baltimore, these next few weeks just became extremely important for Mannion to prove himself worthy of the backup job.

Not to mention, it looks like Mannion could be facing some surprise competition for the No. 2 spot at quarterback after Brandon Allen ended up emerging as the surprise hero on offense for the Rams against the Ravens.

Even if the game was well over by halftime, seeing Allen step up by completing 10-of-15 passes for 73 yards with a touchdown (the only score of the game for the Rams) makes Los Angeles feel slightly better about their backup situation.

Experience wise, Allen has yet to play in a single game during the regular season after he was waived by the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2017 before the Rams decided to scoop him up off waivers, although he was inactive for every game last year.

Still, sometimes in the NFL, all some players need is that opportunity to show off their skill set when given the opportunity, and that was exactly what Allen did against Baltimore.

Sure, the argument can be made that Allen’s numbers came as a result of of facing most of the Ravens’ defense that won’t see action during the regular season, but it still counts.

All of a sudden, Sean McVay and company will use these next few weeks to evaluate Allen’s abilities to see if he would be the better option of the backup quarterback instead of Mannion. The first weekend of preseason was filled with plenty of surprise winners, and when it comes to the Rams, Allen was the one that stood out the most, which nobody saw coming.